Blu-ray Festival: Blu-ray Lounge

Sony Pictures capped off the first days events by hosting the "Blu-ray Lounge" - a cocktail party where journalists and top Sony executives could mingle and discuss Blu-ray in a casual environment. The room was filled with LCD displays showing off some recent Sony Blu-ray releases and also some titles which are scheduled to arrive soon.

Of most interest to all those who attended, was a display showing the final production version of Steven Spielberg's classic film ‘Close Encounters of the Third Kind'. As has now been reported by industry reviewers, the picture was amazing and caught many people by surprise. We weren't the only ones whose eyes were glued to the screen that night; many attendees stood in front of the screen, with mouths agape, in absolute wonder about how the film could look that good.

Also of interest was a display showing the upcoming Sony BMG release of ‘Shakira: Oral Fixation Tour', though, it was for a completely different reason. The title looked stunning, to say the least, and was as sharp as one would expect from a digital source. We were unable to sample the audio quality, however, due to the lack of a 5.1 system and the ambiance Sony was trying to maintain for the event.

A view of the Blu-ray Lounge; Director Eli Roth reacts to his film 'Hostel: Part 2' on the display; many special guests were in attendance to discuss Blu-ray.

Director Eli Roth was in attendance to talk about the recent Blu-ray releases of his films ‘Hostel' and ‘Hostel: Part II'. We asked him if he thought his fan base, which is very dedicated to his work, would appreciate a high definition version of his films. He responded with an enthusiastic “Absolutely!” before jumping to the display to point out fine details in the background which were lost on the DVD release.

As he continued to discuss the details now visible in high definition, it was very apparent that a lot of thought and preparation went into set design during filming. He compared the effects of a high definition presentation to getting a car detailed. To paraphrase, the process doesn't change what you started with, it only changes the way it is seen. It was very refreshing to see a director so enthusiastic about his films and Blu-ray.

We spent the rest of the night talking with execs about various topics; all Blu-ray related, of course. Representatives from Sony Electronics were on-hand, and commented on how well reception of their HES-V1000 200-disc Blu-ray changer has been. We also spoke with representatives from Sun Microsystems and HP about the format war and how they were adapting to it.

After a long day of Blu-ray goodness, we retired to our hotel rooms to gain back our strength. The next day's events included an interview with Brad Bird and a trip to Panasonic Hollywood Labs, so we have a lot more reporting to do. Stay tuned.