Blu-ray.com Visits Disney's Magical Blu-ray Tour

For the past few months, the Disney Magical Blu-ray Tour has been traveling to different malls across the country in order to educate the buying public about Blu-ray. The display, which is sponsored jointly by Disney and Panasonic, showcases trailers for upcoming Disney Blu-ray releases, provides interactive stations for Disney BD-Java games, and features a presentation explaining the key facts about Blu-ray and how it differs from the DVDs which they currently have in their homes. Additionally, a helpful and friendly staff provided answers for any questions attendees might have.

I visited the local stop at Tysons Corner Center in McLean, VA on Saturday, and I don't know if it was because of the display's proximity to the Starbucks or not, but there was definitely an upbeat energy surrounding the event. Seating quickly filled during the hosted presentations, leaving many interested patrons standing close behind to get a glimpse of Blu-ray. Afterwards, they would walk around to the side displays, were they would watch trailers for ‘Cars' and ‘Ratatouille' while children played “Alien Invasion” from the ‘Chicken Little' Blu-ray release.

The host of the 10-minute presentation told patrons how they needed Blu-ray in order to fully utilize their HDTV displays. After showing a demo clip to the captive audience, he explained how even broadcast HD they were receiving was being heavily compressed, and that Blu-ray was the only way to see their favorite films in Full HD glory. He went on to show how the majority of Hollywood studios and Consumer Electronics Manufacturers support Blu-ray, pointing out that if they owned a PS3, they already had a fully-capable Blu-ray player in their home. As a casual observer, it was easy to tell that most of those sitting in the audience were receiving this information for the first time.

The presentation provided attendees information about Blu-ray products and titles.

Moving over to the Panasonic plasma HD displays adjacent to the presentation, shoppers were able to view upcoming Disney Blu-ray titles running on a variety of standalone players (including a PS3). For the highly-anticipated upcoming November 6th Blu-ray release of the Pixar feature film ‘Ratatouille', a trailer was being shown in Full HD. As one would expect from a Disney release, the image was absolutely a feast for the eyes. Colors were vibrant, clarity was pixel perfect, and contrast gave a nice depth to the image.

The 'Ratatouille' demo featured amazing picture quality on the Panasonic plasmas.

For ‘Cars', also due to hit store shelves on November 6th, a trailer showed the special features included exclusively on the Blu-ray release. In addition to the featurettes, interviews, and real-time, picture-in-picture storyboard comparisons, a demonstration of the “Car Finder” BD-Java game was shown. As advertised, viewers are challenged to find specific cars within the movie using their Blu-ray player's remote. Similar to the ‘Ratatouille' demo, the image was absolutely flawless.

The upcoming Blu-ray release of 'Cars' will feature many exclusive Blu-ray content including a story-board comparison and "Car Finder" game.

A main focus of the display was the Blu-ray interactivity provided by BD-Java. Patrons were invited to pick up a remote and try the games, providing them with hands-on experience on just what Blu-ray was capable of bringing to home media beyond what they had experienced with DVD. Children were especially drawn to these displays, as made evident by numerous parents getting pulled to the Panasonic BD10A players by the excited youngsters.

Attendees were able to watch Blu-ray trailers and try out the latest Blu-ray games as a helpful staff answered all questions.

I would like to thank the staff working the display for allowing me photograph them in action, and taking time to talk with me. They were extremely busy while I was there (and had been all weekend), but were eager to help when at all possible.