Studios Paramount and Sony have announced plans to bring a host of catalogue titles to Blu-ray in the US and UK. Paramount will bring Deep Impact, K19: The Widowmaker, The Score, The Firm and Varsity Blues to the high definition format in North America, while Sony has confirmed Westerns The Quick and the Dead and Silverado, as well as Paul Thomas Anderson’s Punch Drunk Love for BD in the UK. The studio has also announced Steven Soderbergh’s debut feature Sex, Lies and Videotape for Blu-ray in the US, where it will become available in late August.

Now this is what BD-Live should be all about: Paramount has announced new content for owners of the Transformers Blu-ray disc that will take them inside the imminent sequel, as well as new content releated to the original film. Launching tomorrow, the reportedly exclusive online material will include Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen clips, on set footage, and skits. The original film is set to be bolstered by new deleted scenes, featurettes on filming at the Pentagon, SFX, stunts, weapons voice-overs and more.

Microsoft has announced an updated HD version of it’s Zune portable media player. Set to feature at next week’s E3 Expo, the Zune HD will support 720p video that can be output to an HDTV via a separate docking station with built-in HDMI port. The device also features a widescreen 16:9 OLED touchscreen with a resolution of 480×272, and will enable users to browse the internet over WiFi, stream songs from the Zune store. Microsoft are also promising to demonstrate how Zune will integrate with Xbox LIVE which could take the form of video or game downloads - will Apple be able to offer more when their expected iPhone revision comes out? Stay tuned. Or should that be zuned?

Check out the trailer for the boy wizard’s sixth big screen outing in HD courtesy of traileraddict.com!

The BBC’s head of digital media technology, Anthony Rose, has confirmed the iPlayer’s jump to HD. The updated online service will detect a users internet connection speed, before automatically switching to the highest quality image. “Introducing HD streams [enables] users to enjoy BBC programmes in HD without a set-top box,” said Rose, adding: “The new adaptive bitrate technology and speed diagnostics page help optimise the viewing experience, while the resizable window gives users flexibility to switch between different quality streams, hopefully leading to a more satisfying experience overall.” Shows to get the HD treatment include Doctor Who, Kerwhizz, and Dragons’ Den, but no date has yet been set for planned updates to PS3 and Virgin Media versions of the service.