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EngadgetHD: We’ll say it right up front — BD-Live hasn’t impressed early, but we’re not going to give up on it altogether. For the most part, it has underwhelmed because of uninspired implementation, not the technology itself.

While we skip right by most BD-Live features, however, consumers are connecting their decks to the cloud some 4-million times each month to grab up freebies, according to Deluxe Digital Studios.

What’s the most popular kind of feature that users are getting their hands on? Trailers, of course — reinforcing our “uninspired” comment. The linked post at Video Business hints at exciting new BD-Live developments like social networking and hooking into mobile devices, and we’d like to see some of these ideas get traction.

But our advice is that if Hollywood doesn’t “… want people to feel like they are being marketed to,” then just don’t market to them. Crazy talk, we know.

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Engadget: Sounds like Google has found the best way to monetize YouTube yet, and it puts itself in a pretty competitive spot versus the likes of Netflix, Amazon VOD, and Apple’s iTunes movie store.

According to Wall Street Journal, the company’s currently in talks with Lions Gate, Sony, and Warner Bros. studios over putting their content on YouTube for a rental fee, likely $3.99 (€2,79) — the same price as Apple’s SD movie rentals.

Even more interesting is talk of getting some titles online day and date with the DVD releases. Some options could still be free with advertising, but as for paid content, Google’s enticing studios over to their way of thinking with a proposed minimum fee of “just under $3 per title viewed.”

A three-month beta testing is apparently scheduled to begin soon among 10,000 Google employees, and after that? Well, here’s hoping the G-Man manages to sign on some more studios and offer us the films in streaming HD.

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Electronista: Young movie store Film Fresh today launched itself as the first US-based movie store to provide downloads from larger studios in DivX form.

Lionsgate, Paramount, Sony and Warner have all agreed to include both recent and classic titles on the store and as a result have created one of the first few truly cross-platform movie services.

Although the videos are still copy-protected, the choice of DivX lets them play on Macs as well as any other device with an official DivX certification, including Blu-ray and DVD players, consoles like the PS3, and even the TVs themselves.

The approach works by requiring that users register the DivX devices allowed to play the files on the web, which prevents casual piracy but still provides room to copy movies in any form possible, including burning DVDs. Not all movies are available to download, but those that aren’t are available through Film Fresh on regular DVDs.

Prices vary widely depending on the profile of the movie as well as its original release; a slightly older movie like School of Rock costs $10 (€7), while Watchmen costs $16 (€11). The store doesn’t pose a particularly large threat to iTunes as neither iPhones nor iPods support DivX videos.

It nonetheless serves as a rare alternative to this store on Macs and is a larger risk to stores that often require Windows or are limited to very specific devices, such as CinemaNow or Vudu. Services like Amazon VOD or Netflix avoid the restriction by using streaming access on the web through Flash or Silverlight.

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Wired: Flat home-cinema screens could eventually be replaced by an “immersive dome”, which “puts viewers at the heart of the action”.

German research institution Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft will unveil its new domed cinema experience, like the specialist screens used at planetariums, at the IBC Show, a trade fair for digital media, which takes place next month in Amsterdam.

The system uses six projectors to generate images on the interior of the dome-shaped screen. Software designed by a company called First are used to create a uniform image of 4,000 by 4,000 pixels from the projections.

Digital cameras will keep an eye on the projected images, constantly adjusting them to make sure they’re lined up correctly and the colours all match. The immersive visual experience is apparently complemented by what the manufacturers call a “spatial pan” sound system.

“Electro-acoustical transformers are attached to the dome, which emit pulses, trigger oscillations and thus shower the interior space with sound,” says Fraunhofer. The team says that the system could be deployed in theme parks, in simulators and in multi-media installations but could also be adapted to the “high-end segment of home cinema market”.

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EngadgetHD: Blu-ray buyers of Disney movies can expect to keep finding DVD copies packed in, at least through 2010.

According to a statement from the company received by Video Business, president Bob Chapek claims customers have shown “tremendous interest” in packages that can also play in their existing DVD players.

Especially for the market of Disney titles, we can see how that would be, since you probably haven’t upgraded the television in the kids room, or in the backseat of the car just yet. Hopefully this deeper commitment to including an additional disc doesn’t lead to the rumored raised prices, but hopefully the threat of Redbox keeps that at bay.

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TGDaily: Search engine giant Google said it will pay an estimated $106.9 million in stock to buy On2 Technologies.

On2 is a company specializing in video compression technology and Google’s YouTube needs technology like this. On2 reported a loss in May and had revenues of $4 million in its last reported quarter.

The Mountain View firm’s technology was described by a Google representative today as an essential element of the Web.

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Guardian: BSkyB is to launch Europe’s first 3D TV channel offering movies, entertainment and sports programming in the UK next year.

The satellite broadcaster, which recently said that 3D TV could be a reality within several years, has stepped up its roll-out programme after a major boost in the numbers subscribers to its Sky+ HD set-top boxes, which are capable of broadcasting 3D services.

BSkyB, which has doubled the number of customers with Sky+ HD boxes in the last year to 1.31m, said that it will launch a channel offering 3D movies, entertainment and sport.

However, to watch 3D programming customers will also require a new “3D ready” TV set, which are expected to be on sale in the UK next year, and special glasses.

At a recent demonstration BSkyB used a Hyundai TV which retails at £2,500, although the broadcaster hopes that ultimately 3D TV sets will not cost much more than a standard HD plasma screen.

 BSkyB also confirmed today that it will launch a “pull” video-on-demand service using the broadband capability in Sky+ HD boxes.

Until now Sky has only been able to offer what is termed “push” VoD services – such as the Sky Anytime service – and the Sky+ personal video recorder. The new “pull” service aims to broaden consumer choice by allowing programmes to be watched on-demand in the way other services, such as on cable operator Virgin Media’s TV plartform, offer extensive libraries of shows.

“3D is a genuinely ‘seeing is believing’ experience [and] next year we will make our HD boxes work even harder for customers by launching Europe’s first 3D TV channel,” said Brian Sullivan, the managing director of Sky’s customer group.

“[We are also] introducing a comprehensive video-on-demand service to complement Sky+ and the current Sky Anytime service.”

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BBC: This year is seeing a comeback for 3D cinema, with every major film studio releasing a title in the format.

Even the Cannes Film Festival showed its support to the industry by allowing a 3D feature to open the event for the first time.

The film selected was Disney and Pixar’s latest release called Up, which is just one of 15 movies in 3D coming out in 2009. It is the story of a widower who ties a thousand balloons to his house and flies away on an adventure.

Other forthcoming releases cover genres from family friendly animations such as Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs to adult horror in My Bloody Valentine.

But the most anticipated 3D release is due at the end of the year from Titanic director James Cameron. Avatar is expected to be the most expensive movie ever made – Cameron has spent much of the past decade researching and experimenting with the technique.

“You can look at a 2D version of a 3D film and see all the dumb gags that were fun in 3D but look stupid in 2D. Before we spent hundreds of millions of dollars making a movie, we had to say is this movie going to be in any way compromised in its 2D presentation. Because the reality is that in the short-tem DVDs are still going to be in 2D. Hollywood is starting to catch up now that the technology is finally right for a third era of 3D.”

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Electronista: Japan’s Sanyo recently announced it would bring a DVR device to market that relies on slot-in hard drives that comply with the iVR (Information Versatile Disk) standard shared with Hitachi.

The Repoch will include an integrated tuner for receiving digital terrestrial TV broadcasts to enable viewing recordings on analog broadcast-compatible TVs.

This will allow users to keep their outdated analog TVs even though these broadcasts have been discontinued.

Connections on the Repoch include an Ethernet connection, HDMI output, component audio and video inputs as well as two antenna posts. The Repoch, bundled with a 160GB iVR disk, will cost the equivalent of $668 (€477) when it launches in Japan on September 1st. Pricing of additional iVRs, also available in 320GB capacities, is unknown.

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DigiTimes: President Steve Venuti for HDMI Licensing, the agent responsible for licensing the global technology standard High-Definition Multimedia Interface (HDMI), on July 13 presented HDMI 1.4, the latest version of the standard, in Taipei, according to industry sources in Taiwan.

HDMI 1.4, among other advancements, offers networking capabilities with Ethernet connectivity and add Audio Return Channel to enable upstream audio connections via HDMI cable, according to the HDMI Licensing website.

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DigitalSpy: The British Video Association has revealed that 3.1 million Blu-ray discs have been sold in the UK since the start of 2009.

Using data from the Official Charts Company, the BVA calculated that the figure represents a 231% growth in sales figures from the same period last year. However, the growing interesting in Blu-ray has contributed to a 9.5% drop in year-on-year sales of DVDs.

BVA marketing manager Hannah Conduct said: “The continuing success of Blu-ray is testament to the growth of consumer confidence in the high definition format. There are now almost 1,500 Blu-ray releases in the market covering a breadth of titles. Seeing is believing with Blu-ray and the figures show that once consumers have experienced the format, they continue to spend their money on the product.

BVA director general Lavinia Carey said that the home entertainment industry has largely been able to weather the recession so far, despite it struggling on the high street. Around 900 entertainment retail stores have now closed since the start of the year, including the Woolworths and Zavvi chains going into administration. “This changing retail landscape has had a huge impact on our half year result. We hope as the year progresses that new retailers will fill the gap by stocking home entertainment products to give consumers a wider choice,” she explained.

On the subject of online piracy, Carey said that combating the problem is all about persuading consumers to opt for legitimate download services instead. “People must also be increasingly tempted to search out methods of downloading illicit content for free on the Internet,” she added. “With an increasing number of new internet services coming on stream, the industry is aiming to encourage greater consumer up-take of legitimate downloads.”

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EngadgetHD: Always good for an optimistic Blu-ray outlook, analyst Futuresource this week continued to peg 2012 as the year Blu-ray breaks into the mainstream, while reducing its prediction of discs sold this year in the format from 95 to 75 million.

The expectation is that within the next couple of years hardware could drop to as cheap as $50 (€35) for an “entry-level” Blu-ray player, with dedicated set-top box owners snapping up high definition discs at a much quicker rate than the currently PS3-dominated (6% to 3%) audience.

Check Video Business for the full recap, but just in case you hadn’t heard, rumors of Blu-ray’s impending demise are greatly exaggerated.

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