Disney is in Minneapolis today for an insiders’ look at its Sleeping Beauty Blu-ray release, due Oct. 7. And on Friday, the folks from the House of Mouse’s home-entertainment division return for a very public promotion of the Blu-ray and DVD releases of Hannah Montana & Miley Cyrus: Best of
Both Worlds 3-D Concert and Camp Rock: Extended Rock Star Edition, both due Aug. 19.

The big news is Sleeping Beauty. Disney has always been an innovator — Snow White was one of the first great special-edition DVDs, for example — and its plans for Sleeping Beauty continue that tradition. The 1959 animated classic’s release on Blu-ray Disc will also mark the debut of the Disney BD-Live Network, which will allow viewers to access cool online-enabled extras. I got a sneak preview this morning, and here’s what’s in store:

Movie Chat (pictured above): Talk with friends anywhere while you’re all watching the film and see their real-time comments on-screen. You can use a split-screen interface to key in text with your remote, or use any text-enabled device, such as a laptop or cell phone. It would be nifty if Disney used this feature to hold scheduled chats, say, with people involved in the making of the film.

Movie Mail (pictured below): You can record a video message (using your own device) and send it to someone to be viewed during the film. A demo showed a father on a business trip sending a “miss you” message to his daughter during the movie’s birthday cake scene.

Movie Challenge: Compete in an online trivia game against other viewers while the movie plays. Games could be updated or added via the network depending on consumer interest.

Disney Movie Rewards Live: Accessing various features on the disc earns points in this existing incentive program, which can now be accessed via BD Live. Points can also be redeemed, say, for avatars used in games and extras such as trailers.

Of course, the Blu-ray release of Sleeping Beauty, which has been fully restored and presented in its original widescreen aspect ratio, will also feature traditional extras, such as picture-in-picture commentary, making-of featurettes and a disc-based game. More importantly, similar BD Live extras will appear on ensuing Disney Blu-ray releases and capitalize on the power of the Disney BD Live Network.

As far as Camp Rock and Hannah Montana, if you have a tween kid, you might want to head to Southtown Center (494 and Penn Ave., Bloomington) on Friday between 12:30 and 5 p.m. That’s when the free ”Rock Like They Do” bus tour will stop in the Twin Cities as part of the promotion for the upcoming Blu-ray and DVD releases of those Disney titles. Young fans can see Miley Cyrus’ 75-foot tour bus, get their hair styled like a rock star and sing along karaoke-style to songs by Cyrus and the Jonas Brothers. None of the Disney stars will actually be there, but fans can bring a camera and get their pictures taken with life-size cutouts of Hannah Montana and the cast of Camp Rock, along with some freebies. What a deal.

Buying DVDs that come out today will help you save on films coming soon to theaters. I wrote about this on Sunday — rereleased DVDs that include “movie cash” good for $7.50 to $8.50 off a ticket to the new flick along with extras devoted to the new movie:

• The X-Files: Revelations, a two-disc set with Chris Carter’s handpicked episodes to familiarize casual fans with the franchise before they see The X Files: I Want to Believe.
• Batman Begins, which includes a sneak peek of the upcoming The Dark Knight. (Only the higher-priced versions, including the new Blu-ray release, have the movie cash.)
• A bevy of DVDs tied in to the upcoming The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor — The Mummy (the Boris Karloff original and the Brendan Fraser remake), The Mummy Returns, The Scorpion King and Van Helsing.  Only the standard DVDs were available when I wrote my column, but since then I’ve received the Blu-ray versions of The Mummy, The Mummy Returns and The Scorpion King and can verify that they also have the movie cash. They also add a few extras to the previous high-def versions on HD DVD, such as picture-in-picture production footage.

One new DVD I didn’t mention is today’s release of Batman: Gotham Knight on DVD and Blu-ray, because it doesn’t have the movie cash. But it does have a tie-in to The Dark Knight. A collection of six animated shorts, it is intended to fill in the time frame between the live-action Batman Begins and the new sequel. It has been compared to the similarly pitched The Animatrix, which expanded on the Matrix films. I loved The Animatrix, but I was underwhelmed by Gotham Knight. Perhaps I expected too much, but I found the stories of at least half of the shorts wanting. The anime visuals were much better, except for the highly stylized first segment, which makes Batman look like the Tick. But check it out for yourself. Fan boys online sure seem to like it. Perhaps my views will change with repeated viewings. 

Ninety-three percent of Minnesotans know about the 2009 nationwide switch to digital television, according to a new poll by the National Association of Broadcasters. The remaining 7 percent call me regularly to ask questions about it.

I’m kidding! But I do receive many phone calls from readers about the federally mandated transition from analog to digital-only TV broadcasts, which happens Feb. 17. Even a passing mention in my story on high-def resources has spawned daily calls in the week since it ran. But that helps prove the survey’s point that people are learning about the switch and asking questions.

Minnesota leads the national average of DTV awareness, which is 90 percent, according to the poll. That’s good, because the Twin Cities viewing area, which covers 59 Minnesota counties and nine Wisconsin counties, has more TVs affected by the transition than all U.S. metro areas but Portland, Ore.

According to the NAB: “An estimated 457,140 homes in Minnesota rely exclusively on over-the-air television, meaning they watch free TV broadcasts using rabbit ear or rooftop antennas. These households will need to take steps to receive a digital television signal by February 17, 2009, when all full-power stations must begin broadcasting only in digital.”

Paramount has just announced that the Godfather trilogy will hit Blu-ray on Sept. 23.  Besides a new frame-by-frame restoration conducted by Technobabble friend Robert Harris, Francis Ford Coppola’s seminal films will come with reams of new high-def extras about their making and their journey to high-def. They’ll also include commentary by Coppola and many of the standard-def extras from the 2001 DVDs. The Blu-ray version will come in a four-disc set only, for $120.  A standard DVD version will come in a five-disc set for $73, or just the films for $20 each.  But who wants “standard”?

One Twin Cities TV station got short shrift in my recent write-up about high-def programming choices.

The useful website Where Is HD? listed the HD content of Twin Cities Public Television’s TPT HD channel (Ch. 2.2 on the digital broadcast spectrum) as making up 22 percent of its programming minutes. So I simply lumped it in with the other local network affiliates, which all have about 20 percent HD programming, according to Where Is HD? (except KARE-TV, which is listed at 57 percent).

In reality, high-def programs make up about 66 percent of the TPT HD’s schedule, according to Tom Holter, TPT’s executive director of programming. The rest of the channel’s offerings are up-converted PBS programs.

It’s not clear why Where Is HD? has outdated info for TPT HD, because the site says it gets data directly from programmers, but I’m happy to provide a clarification.

Many Apple fans are eagerly awaiting the July 11 release of the new iPhone, including tech-obsessed geek Benjamin Higginbotham of Eden Prairie. I spent some time with him and his wife, Cariann, on Tuesday for an article about their SpaceVidcast. His iPhone rang during the interview and, just as happened when I called him once, he couldn’t hear the caller.  It seems his iPhone’s casing is cracked and the thing is on the fritz. Ben really wants that new iPhone.

I have to confess that I have no need for an iPhone, but I still got a kick out of Retrevo’s “7 Reasons why the new iPhone 3G sucks.” 

“This is the iPhone that all the late adopters have been waiting for,” the author says. “It promised to address the deficiencies of the first generation iPhone, but does it really?”

He then goes on to list the seven reasons why it doesn’t:

• Too expensive, at $1,000 a year for service and expenses.
• GPS locates but doesn’t offer turn-by-turn directions.
• Can’t be tethered to a laptop
• Still no cut and paste.
• Poor 2MP camera.
• No stereo Bluetooth.
• Many other problems, such as no Flash player for rich media and no replaceable battery.

His conclusion? “So it’s not perfect but it’s still the coolest smartphone out there and I still want one.”

Ben, is that you?