Maybe because with mkv support you dont have to do either of these things.

As long as it uses seamless branching so that i can choose to watch the whole film in its original theatre aspect ratio(minus imax parts), Ill be happy. If im forced to have to watch the imax parts i wont be happy. At least give viewers the choice of watching one or the other. I dont have anything against the imax portions of the film, but i didnt like the switching of aspect ratios in Dark Knight. Surely its not that hard to give viewers the option of which version to watch on the disc.

I heard this will not include the extras being included in the release due on the 21st. its essentially a completely different release. I dont think i will bother with it myself. Happy with the directors cut. ALso is that 5 DVD's they are talking about of 5 BD's? Doesnt really allude to being BD related.

Biggest issue with being a Media extender would be extra licensing costs. I agree it would be great. I use my 360 atm as an extender and whilst it does a great job, its quite noisy and gets very hot, not to mention power hungry. Would love a simple all in one box that does BD disc playback, MKV & Divx as well as my recording via Vista media centre. Effectively if this does a good job at playing back retail BD discs and could playback DVR-MS files(with decent skip/fast-foward & rewind) this could take over from my PS3 & 360. TIme will tell i guess.

Personally think and have always thought BD-Live was a waste of time and effort. Bonusview on the other hand is a great feature in my personal opinion. Contrary to what others here have posted there are many out there that enjoy watching special features on a disc, and i for one will not buy a movie unless it has a decent set of features. I dont see the value in just buying a disc for an upgrade in video and audio and will never buy a barebones release. Give me the extras and i will most likely buy.

I think Bonusview can add a lot to the special feautes by linking it in with the movie viewing experience so you get an idea of how and why things happened at that point in time on the film.

And i think you will find that there a lot of people who didnt like what the Series 9 panels produced image and blacks wise. I found the blacks to be do black to the point that detail in dark scene's was near impossible to see. These new panales actually have 3,000,000:1 dynamic contrast ration as compared to the Series 9 1,000,000:1 so the balcks they produce cant be far off the mark compared to the series 9?

Sony...how about giving us MKV support playback? You know you want to do it :)

Im pretty sure they would still be ponying up the same bluray licensing fees everyone else does. It is a bluray release which means they have to pay licensing to the BDA. I dont think they can get away with not paying licensing fees by just changing the packaging. If that was the case im sure other stuidos would have done the same. Im with Trent. Its a silly move to confuse consumers with different packaging. Not all buyers are discerning HT buffs that will know the difference. You give to much credit to some consumers. If the packaging is pretty much the same and the price is the same then i think there is a high chance they wont know the diff. PLus these will look out of place with collectors current BD packaging.

You guys do realise that we have a Soniq Bluray player for sale in AU for about $249 at JB hifi right? Furthermore where on the Kogan website does it say that its Bluray multiregion?

Equipment may not exist today but its another 4 years to london olympics. Technology is progressing so fast wil be a matter of time before we see significant in roads to seeing more 1080p content from Pay tv and FTA broadcasters. Bring it on i say.