Let me explain: the menu screen for Never Been Kissed appears momentarily when the disc is loaded, then reverts to the standard Fight Club menu. It’s actually a brilliantly hilarious gag perpetrated by director David Fincher for the release. Not only are the two movies polar opposites of one another, but Never Been Kissed outgrossed Fight Club when both movies were released in 1999. To her credit, Drew has a good sense of humour about the whole thing. As a producer on the film, she gave the go-ahead for the prank. [AV Club via Yahoo Movies]

In 1985, people thought Laserdiscs would be the future of cinema. After all, they had unmatched picture quality, they were virtually indestructible and they had a lot of extras. Just like Blu-ray. See what I did there? See? [Obsolete]

Appropriating channels aside, I actually really like the look of this HL-B54S soundbar from LG. On top of its 4.1 surround sound, it incorporates a slot-loading Blu-ray player, Wi-Fi for BD-Live access and streaming clips from YouTube, and an iPod dock built-in. It plays back all the lossless audio codecs, connects to your TV via HDMI 1.3, supports DLNA for accessing your content on your network, and has USB slots that support playback of DiVX and MKV files.

The unit does look to be quite deep though, which might mean it’ll stick out a bit far under your TV, but if you need the convenience of an all-in-one unit, don’t have a Blu-ray player and can’t wire up your house with proper 5.1 audio, I reckon this could be worth checking out. $1499 is even a pretty good price…

[LG]

That means using another OS (like Windows 7 via Boot Camp) for Blu-ray playback. Back in OS X, reading and writing Blu-ray discs is possible if you’re using software like Adobe’s Premiere Pro CS3 with Encore, or the Blu-ray plugin for Roxio’s Toast.

Another thought: The kit costs $US200 bucks. Add that to the entry-level Mac Mini’s $US600 price tag, and you may as well start thinking about other media PC options. Fail. [AMEX Digital via Engadget]

Here are the specs:

• Disc formats: Blu-Ray Disc media, including BD-R/RE, BD-Live and BonusViewTM, DVD/DVD+R/DVD-RW, CD/CD-RW, MP3 or JPEG files on disc
• Audio formats: LPCM, MP3, Dolby® Digital, Dolby TrueHD, DTS®, DTS-HD Master AudioTM and WMA.
• RJ-45 connection for internet access
• IR-remote in/out jacks for system integration
• HDMI output (V.1.3a with Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HDTM bitstreams and high-resolution video)
• Front-panel USB jack for additional BD-Live memory or MP3 or JPEG file playback
• Optical and coaxial digital audio outputs
• Dimensions (H x W x D): 66mm x 440mm x 352mm
• Weight: 3.7kg

Anything there that makes you want to spend enough cash for two PS3s?

[Convoy]

Both the the Shift: Intel P55 and the Shift: Intel X58 are powered by Intel Core i7 900 processors running Windows 7. ATI Radeo HD and NVIDIA GeForce graphics cards are featured, and I’m sure the discerning gamer expects nothing less.

Storage options include up to six mechanical or 12 SSD drives. The two diverge on memory specs, with the P55 containing up to 8GB DDR3-1600 low latency RAM and the X58 up to 12GB DDR3-2000 or 24GB DDR3-1600. DVD or Blu-Ray drives are options for both rigs while a standard Asetek closed-loop liquid cooling system keeps things chilled.

Pricing begins at an optimistic $US2199 and $US2599, respectively, although with all the options listed above, that can (and probably will) climb much, much higher. Since Shift is the only PC that Maingear is going to focus on selling from now on, I hope it works it out for them.

The demo will be the first time that a game and movie have shipped on the same Blu-ray disc, although my box set copy of the original Star Wars trilogy has a demo of Battlefront for the original Xbox on it.

As a bonus on the disc, this is pretty sweet, so long as you use your PS3 as your Blu-ray player. Of course, it almost certainly won’t be available for Australia, so this post is more of a tease than anything else. And on the upside, you’ll probably be able to download the God of War demo anyway by the time the movie is released.

[Video Business – Thanks Mark!]

Here’s the full statement:

Steve was referring to Blu-ray accessories for the PC. As we have said in the past, we have no plans to introduce a Blu-ray drive for the Xbox 360. In fact, the future of home entertainment starts this fall when Xbox 360 becomes the first and only console to offer instant-on 1080p streaming HD movies. With a library of thousands of TV shows and movies to choose from, Xbox 360 owners can instantly watch the movies they want, when they want, in the highest form of high definition.

This more clearly worded denial probably should have come last night, when we first asked for comment, instead of the more open-ended one provided at the time. Whatever…easy come, easy go. However, the idea that Ballmer was referring to the PC—which already has Blu-ray drives—rather than simply saying something that wasn’t true, that’s a little more questionable.

Steve Ballmer Exclusive Interview Series:
Part 1: Ballmer Talks Natal, Says Blu-ray Add-On for Xbox Coming
Part 2: Ballmer on the Smartphone Race: “It Doesn’t Matter What the Critics Say”
Part 3: Ballmer on Zune: Sometimes You Get It Right The Third Time?
Part 4: Ballmer on Those Crazy Ballmer YouTube Videos

In the first segment of our exclusive Steve Ballmer interview series, the Microsoft CEO and I talk about Natal, the blurring of console generations, and the surprising fact that “you’ll be able to get” Blu-ray add-on drives for Xbox 360.

When I asked Ballmer about adding Blu-ray to the Xbox, he said:

Well I don’t know if we need to put Blu-ray in there — you’ll be able to get Blu-ray drives as accessories.

Though he says it with certitude, the timing of any kind of Blu-ray accessory is unclear. When I asked Xbox spokespeople about Ballmer’s revelation, they responded:

Our solution for HD quality video on an Xbox 360 is coming this fall with Zune Video and 1080p instant-on HD streaming. As far as our future plans are concerned, we’re not ready to comment.

Maybe something cooking for CES?

As you can see in our back-and-forth, Ballmer plays his cards close to the chest, but in my sit-down interview with him, he shared a lot. Prior to the Blu-ray business, Ballmer and I talked about Natal, and the excitement that Matt and Mark experienced when they stepped into the chamber back at E3. When I asked him if Natal was Microsoft’s attempt to do away with concept of game console generations (thereby prolonging the life of a given platform indefinitely), Ballmer smiled knowingly and said, “We’ll see.”

Stay tuned for more exciting Ballmer moments (and facial expressions) over the next day, and then the full uncut interview video on Friday.

Actually, according to this frame captured from the Blu-ray edition, it appears two hours 17 minutes and 52 seconds in the movie, during the merge of Jetfire’s parts to Optimus Prime. [Transformers Live]