Fake Blu-ray movie discs have been sold in China for a few months now, but articles about it on the internet have just popped up recently. These fakes are burnt onto regular DVD blanks or DVD Dual Layers and encoded in AVCHD format and only have 720p HD resolution...playable on Blu-ray players including the Sony PS3. Not only does it not have full 1080p resolution, it does not have PCM uncompressed audio tracks as found in all real Blu-ray movies. The pirates in China sells them in normal looking blu-ray cases and even has the blu-ray logo on top. Blu-rays in the US sell for an average $26 each, pirates in China are selling fake ones for $7 each.

Side Note: Blu-ray movies can also be downloaded off the internet through newsgroups and usenets, some even in full 1080p High Definition in the form of .mkv file. Which you convert to .mpg or .vob for playback on PC or the PS3 and watch on your HDTV. But it doesn't have uncompressed high quality audio found in real Blu-ray discs. It's only available in Dolby Digital.

For the hardcore Blu-ray fanatics, buying the real Blu-ray movie is the real deal vs. downloads or fakes.

I received my order of Transformers and TFK BD today from Tower.com. Ordered last Wednesday, under expedited shipping, received 7 days later. Not too bad since it was a Holiday on Monday. Still haven't unwrapped them yet, will watch them and test the audio tonight. Looking forward to the special features/supplements. TFK includes a digital copy of the movie, which can be transferred to a portable player, such as PSP, PMP, iPhone...etc. Transformers BD was released yesterday, TFK isn't released until Tuesday 9/9/08. Feels good to have TFK early.

It doesn't play games. Many are saying this new machine, the Pioneer Elite BDP-09FD Blu-ray player is the PS3 killer. But for $2200, the PS3 wins. Pioneer claims the BDP-09FD is the best Blu-ray player, best DVD player and best CD player. While that maybe true, the price tag will stop most people from buying one.

 Features of the Elite BDP-09FD:

• BD-Live capable
• 4gb of internal memory
• Japanese feets called TAOC (most vibration-free platform available)
• No wires inside; all connections are physically mounted to reduce noise
• Has "best on the market image processor" also found in Meridian's 10-megapixel projector
• Upconverts color to 16-bits (each picture can have 2,800 trillion colors) Most TVs process 10-bit, Blu-ray movie is 8-bit
• 2 HDMI output connectors, sound and video can be separated

The PS3-exclusive Final Fantasy XIII game demo will last more than two hours, which is longer than the CGI movie bundled with it, Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children Complete. The bundle releases March 2009. Both on separate Blu-ray disc. Advent Children will look fantastic in HD. I will definitely pick this up on release day.