For those of you who like Super hero statues sawed off at the waist or higher, this deal in Japan may be for you. If you’re in Japan. And a geek. On July 23, Japanese folks will get their chance to own Batman Begins on Blu-ray.

That’s about two weeks after release in the U.S. Our gift set edition comes with story boards, script pages and a $7.50 movie credit towards Dark Knight, but in Japan they will get a 25 cm tall bust. Which begs the question, why are we always getting left out on all the cool stuff? What’s the deal with that? The standard Blu-Ray will be around $47, the gift set edition is about $180.

Sony is launching it’s BDZ series of Blu-ray recorders, with the A70 and high-end T90 that are capable of picking up unprotected HDTV feeds, relying on AVC (H.264) encoding in order to record shows for future viewing on their 320GB and 500GB hard drives. If you like, you can record videos straight to Blu-ray, and it can also convert videos directly to portable formats, which is really handy.

Some other features include both analog and digital TV tuners, Sony’s Room Link, HDMI output, S-Video, and RCA. Both models will ship on April 30th in Japan. The prices start from $1,664 upwards. No info yet on whether we will see these in the US.

With the end of the format wars it’s time for those out there who have been waiting to buy a HD format DVD player to jump in with Blu-ray. The players are still expensive for the most part, but they are expected to begin dropping in cost soon.

Dell announced that its Inspiron 1525 now features a Blu-ray player and HDMI out at well under $1000. Dell says that a Blu-ray equipped 1525 will start at $879. If you have needed a new notebook and have an HDTV this is the way to go. $825 is reasonable for most notebooks and the addition of the Blu-ray and HDMI out will have you watching on your big screen in no time.

It looks like Sony’s next firmware update for the PS3 might include even more than the BD-Live interactive content on Blu-ray discs and the loss of the max file size for some video media. According to PCWorld the 2.20 firmware upgraded for the PS3 will also bring the ability to transfer Blu-ray movies from discs on the PS3 to the Playstation Portable.

This would be a nice feature for Sony to add sounds like it would be not unlike the Digital Copy we saw from FOX movies for iTunes. Instead of taking the time to convert each film into a special version for the PSP, some Blu-ray discs would have a “portable copy” of the movie that can be transferred to the PSP.

Best Buy has made an announcement that it truly does feel bad for all of those that bit the bullet and made a decision in the high-def video format war, before it was over. People wanting high-definition video last year and early this year had a tough time making a decision between Toshiba’s HD DVD and the Blu-ray formats, and some chose the wrong one.

Now that Toshiba has stopped making the HD DVD formats and studios have stopped creating HD DVD formatted movies, the players are almost useless and Best Buy is recognizing this by offering a $50 store credit to all that purchased an HD DVD player from Best Buy before February 23, 2008. Some will automatically receive the checks from Best Buy, but if you don’t get it by May you can call them and request it at 1-888-BEST-BUY.

Mitsubishi just launched two new Blu-ray recorders set for Japan with the DVR-BZ200 and the DVR-BZ100. The two recorders each house an internal HDD with 500GB and 250GB capacities, respectively.

The part that really makes these Blu-ray records most notable is that they can record HD content onto a regular DVD disc with Blu-ray’s AVCREC specs. You can fit around a couple of hours of Full HD MPEG video onto a standard 4.7GB DVD, and set it to record using the super-cool, included touch screen remote control.

Shortly after the fall of the HD DVD format Microsoft officially announced that they were ending production of the HD DVD player for the Xbox 360 and we, along with a number of others, figured they would be jumping on board with Blu-ray in short order.

According to Microsoft exec Aaron Greenberg, group product manager for the Xbox 360, the company appears to have no plans to move in the direction of a Blu-ray player, or any high-def player for that matter, for their game console. “Xbox is not currently in talks with Sony or the Blu-ray Association to integrate Blu-ray into the Xbox experience,” Greenberg said. He followed up that comment with “We’re the only console offering digital distribution of entertainment content,” which leads us to believe that Microsoft may have taken this opportunity to rid the console of physical disc media all together.

Lionsgate said today it is working with Apple to make use of the latter’s Digital Copy for iTunes so select DVDs will also be available for digital viewing. The first Lionsgate film to get the iTunes treatment will be Rambo on May 27th.

Lionsgate said that by using Digital Copy for iTunes, those who purchase select DVDs or Blu-ray Discs will be able to insert the disc into a computer. The customer then enters a unique code into iTunes, and the movie is automatically copied to their iTunes library.

You no longer have to skulk in dark corners and whisper the secret password in order to trade in your HD-DVD for Blu-Ray. According to the AP, the electronics retailer is officially launching the promotion. Circuit City will be accepting returns of HD DVD players within 90 days of purchase, with a proof of purchase receipt.

Customers can receive store credit or use it toward the price of a Blu-Ray player. Circuit City will definitely be scoring some customer goodwill points with this promotion. Great move. Now, all you HD-DVD buyers have to do is find someone to buy your movies.

According to electronichouse, Circuit City has a secret they’re trying to keep on the down low. It’s a trade-in program where you can trade your HD-DVD player for a Blu-Ray player.

Apparently, Circuity City is not promoting it publicly, but if you ask, they will apply the refund toward a new Blu-ray player, but your original HD-DVD purchase has to be within 3 months. Yes, it’s only the hardware. You’re stuck with the movies. Maybe service really is state of the art. You better get to your local CC before they change their minds.

You can’t have a good format war without some fallout. With the fall of HD-DVD, the question has been raised regarding Netflix’s ability to sustain its subscribers and demands for the Blu-Ray Format. Netflix said today that its subscriber count will be 3% higher than forecast because of price increases from Blockbuster and cheaper online advertising rates. Of course, the raise in price led to a loss of thousands of subscribers for Blockbuster, many of them switching or even returning to Netflix.

Now that the high-def format war has come to an end Sony is rolling out a couple of new Blu-ray players equipped with the latest and greatest features. The BDP-S550 and BDP-S350 look virtually identical but differ only in some of the internal extras.

Both players come with picture-in-picture which Sony is calling “BonusView”, and have BD-Live through an Ethernet port allowing the players to get firmware updates and interactive content through the intertubes. The BDP-S350 is BD-Live “ready” while the BDP-S550 ships with the feature already capable. One of the other few differences between the two is that the BDP-S550 comes with 1GB of internal storage while the other doesn’t, but both have a USB connection for additional external storage.

Paramount was the last of the big Hollywood studios to officially make the move to Blu-ray, announcing on Wednesday that they are pleased with the industry finally picking a single format with the consumer in mind. Paramount did not elaborate much on the announcement but by doing so removed all doubt that HD DVD has met its demise.

The announcement came a day after Toshiba’s Tuesday announcement of the end of HD DVD and the end of manufacturing by the end of March. All six studios working with a single format reduces consumer confusion and will likely bring more sales of media and players than retailers would see by trying to push two different formats.

Recent decisions by the likes BlockBuster earlier last year, Warner Brothers last month and Netflix just this morning are only further cementing the future of the next single high definition video format. Widening the gap today is retail giant Best Buy which has announced that they too will be supporting Blu-ray over HD DVD as the preferred format for the future.

Best Buy says they will continue to carry HD DVD products in their store as well, but will be showcasing the Blu-ray products as the emerging single format for high-definition video going forward. This move could help many consumers who are undecided about the future of video formats to make a decision and possibly make purchases that they’ve been holding out on. We also imagine that this will make life a whole lot easier for Best Buy employees working on the floor answering customer questions about which format to choose.

Here’s another huge blow that the struggling HD-DVD format did not need. Netflix, the online and mail video rental giant will follow its rival Blockbuster’s footsteps and carry Blu-Ray exclusively. With endorsement to The future is Blu campaign, the company will now only buy Blu-Ray discs going forward and will phase out their stock of HD-DVD by the end of the year.

“We’re now at the point where the industry can pursue the migration to a single format, bring clarity to the consumer and accelerate the adoption of high-def.”, said a company spokesman. Netflix stated that they expect all studios to begin to publish movies on the Blu-ray format. With Netflix’s over seven million subscribers, I think it’s fair to say that this is a killing blow in the format war, whether the effects are immediate or forthcoming.