Pioneer’s BDP-HD1 Blu-ray player also delayed until December
October 31, 2006
From Engadget: “First Sony had to announce twice that its BDP-S1 was going to be delayed until December 2006 due to software bugs. Now Pioneer has been delayed too, for unspecified failure to meet “quality control requirements,” which may or may not be related to the other assorted blue laser shortages. The BDP-HD1, which was due to come out this month (after having been delayed from its previous May launch), won’t ship now until December as well. The price, however, has dropped since we last eyed it at CES — it’s now down to $1500.”
PS3 Twice as Power-Hungry as XBox 360
October 31, 2006
From Gizmondo: “Sony’s upcoming PlayStation 3, due on US shores on November 17, sucks up 380 watts of power, a far cry from the PS2 which sips a mere 45 watts. That means the PS3 uses more than twice the 160 watts consumed by the Xbox 360. The PS3’s 380 watts will cost you around $40 a year to run if you play it two hours a day.”
DVR Sales Down The Pooper by 49%: TiVo Hit Hard?
October 31, 2006
From Gizmondo: “Yesterday, we wrote about how TiVo is fairing after launching their Series 3 DVR. Since then, we’ve had some astounding numbers come in that show US DVRs sales are down 49% for January through August, as compared to last year. Since TiVo is number one in this space, they might be taking the brunt of this hit. Seems like a sound jump to reason that most of you are renting your DVRs from your cable or satellite providers.”
Universal Bets $42 Million That Sacha Baron Cohen Can Continue To Taunt Middle America With Naive-Foreigner Characters
October 31, 2006
From Defamer: “On Friday, THR brought word of a multistudio bidding war for the worldwide distribution rights to Sacha Baron Cohen’s next movie, Bruno: Delicious Journeys Through America for the Purpose of Making Heterosexual Males Visibly Uncomfortable in the Presence of a Gay Foreigner in a Mesh T-Shirt, an auction obviously timed to maximize the comedian’s take before Borat’s upcoming, scaled-back release could threaten a market correction for his guerrilla filmmaking services.”
Hack Attack: One-click DVD rips
October 31, 2006
From Lifehacker: “My solution to this problem is to rip every DVD I rent to my hard drive as soon as I get it. In my experience, a rip smooths over those un-renderable sections of the DVD without issue, so when I’m ready to watch the ripped DVD, it’s certain to be scratch and skip-free. Since I’ve got no time to sit around clicking through dialogs to rip my DVDs, I’ve put together my very own one-click DVD ripping solution.”
Saturday Night Live: The Best of Saturday TV Funhouse
October 31, 2006
From Digital Bits: “Okay… on top of all of the above, this disc also delivers a few great extras, including audio commentary on the main feature shorts with creator Smigel and his animators, along with a host of guests including Stephen Colbert and Steven Carell (the voices behind Ace and Gary), political wonks James Carville, Al Franken and Paul Begala, TV host Bryant Gumbel and many more. Mickey Mouse even appears (brilliant!) on the track. It’s a very funny and highly entertaining commentary (particularly Colbert and Carell). You also get a brief video and still gallery of storyboard and production art featuring the Ambiguously Gay Duo. There’s even an Easter egg… just the thing if you’re hankering for a juicy bucket of Cluckin’ Chicken! That’s a helluva great batch of extras for a title like this.”
Buy a Toshiba HD DVD player - get three free HD DVDs
October 31, 2006
From EngadgetHD: “If you’re thinking about picking up a first or second generation HD DVD player from Toshiba, consider the pot sweetened. The promotion doesn’t apply until November 1st, so walk, don’t run to your local retailer and keep the receipt. Mail it in with the above form and in a speedy 8 to 10 weeks you will be the proud owner of at least three HD DVDs.”
Mission: Impossible III (Blu-ray)
October 31, 2006
From Hi-Def Digest: “Paramount is making high-def history by releasing ‘Mission: Impossible III’ simultaneously on Blu-ray and HD DVD day-and-date with the standard-def DVD — a first for a top-shelf, A-list new release. ‘M:I III’ is also the only release on either format to get two full discs, one for the movie, one for the majority of the extras. That’s exciting news, because it means the Blu-ray (on a BD-25, 25GB single-layer disc) boasts a very high bitrate. With only an audio commentary and no uncompressed soundtrack options included, there is maximum wattage devoted to the video quality. Note also that the Blu-ray version has been encoded using the MPEG-2 codec (the HD DVD is VC-1). However, the bitrate on the Blu-ray actually maxes out a bit higher than the HD DVD (which, while benefiting from an extra 5GB of disc space has some HD bonus content included, eats up some of those extra gigabytes). So this comparison is most interesting…”
Even enthusiasts can’t pick the winner
October 31, 2006
From EngadgetHD: “Despite all the predictions, polls, and prognostications from this site (and many others) on which next-generation DVD format will win this format war, even the enthusiasts aren’t in agreement. CNET recently completed a survey of early adopters, and the one thread that ties all their responses together is… uncertainty. 81% of responders said they weren’t sure which format would win — despite the very vocal responses we always see in our comments — and more than half are concerned about compatibility between current and future products.”
The “Maltese Falcon” flies again on DVD
October 25, 2006
From Yahoo News: “John Huston’s “The Maltese Falcon,” the DVDs’ main event, looks and sounds outstanding, though there are some obvious audio synch problems in the final scenes. The video will play a bit on the flat side for those who prefer jacked contrasts with their film noir, but the images unspool handsomely across an uptown gray scale. Wear doesn’t figure in. When Humphrey Bogart growls, “I won’t play the sap for you,” his voice is thick yet distinct; it’s easy to forget you’re listening to an old movie.”
Film company to add anti-smoking announcements to DVD releases
October 25, 2006
From Boston.com: “A motion picture company has agreed to insert anti-smoking public service announcements in DVDs in which smoking is depicted, New Hampshire Attorney General Kelly Ayotte said Tuesday.
The Weinstein Company, believed to be the first company to insert the ads, was responding to a September letter to Hollywood’s 13 major motion picture companies. The letter was signed by the attorneys general from 41 states, including New Hampshire.
Beginning with the December release of “Clerks II,” the Weinstein Company’s upcoming DVDs, which are distributed by company’s exclusive home entertainment distributor, Genius Products, will include an anti-smoking ad created by the American Legacy Foundation.”
MOD taps “father of the DVD” as vice chair
October 25, 2006
From PI: “Jumping from one Seattle startup to another. Hollywood executive Warren Lieberfarb, who at Warner Home Video helped bring the DVD to market and is often described as the “father of the DVD”, has joined the board of Seattle-based MOD Systems as vice chairman.
Lieberfarb is not a newcomer to Seattle area startups. He previously sat on the board of thePlatform, which was sold to Comcast in June.”
WHV Announces Six New High Definition Titles
October 25, 2006
Warner Home Video will release six new high definition titles on November 14. Making their HD DVD debuts are the incomparable Casablanca, the spectacular 1962 Marlon Brando re-make of Mutiny on the Bounty, and the 50th Anniversary edition of Forbidden Planet which is being released day-and-date with its Standard Definition version. In addition, the Oscar-winning Best Picture Million Dollar Baby, The Last Samurai and ATL also make their Blu-ray Disc debut
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Thundercats: Season Two, Vol. 2 Comes to DVD November 28
October 25, 2006
From Movieweb: “Thundercats: Season Two, Vol. 2 explores Thundra, a world in crisis, in a distant galaxy. The planet has become unstable and will collapse soon. The people of Thundra, known as Thundercats, flee the dying planet in their spaceship. During the flight their ship is damaged when they are attacked by evil mutants. The eldest aboard, Jaga, sacrifices himself to ensure that the ship lands safely to its destination: Third Earth.”
The Great Raid
October 25, 2006
From MCN: “The image is presented in letterboxed format only, with an aspect ratio of about 2.4:1 and an accommodation for enhanced 16:9 playback. The film’s colors are deliberately drained, particularly in the camp sequences, but the transfer is accurate and unblemished. The 5.1-channel Dolby Digital sound is nicely mixed without calling attention to itself, and is worth amplifying. There are optional English and Spanish subtitles, 23 minutes of superfluous but occasionally interesting deleted scenes, and a 20-minute promotional featurette that provides some basic background information.”
Hands Over the City
October 25, 2006
From NYTimes.com: “The Italian filmmaker Francesco Rosi followed his 1962 historical epic, “Salvatore Giuliano,” about a charismatic bandit who took over Sicily in the late 1940’s, with this scathing contemporary story. It is about a far less dashing scoundrel, a real estate speculator and corrupt politician played by Rod Steiger (dubbed in Italian), who takes over the city government of Naples, distributing power and favors, rather than rifle bullets, to get his way.”
Lost Season 1 hitting Blu-ray next summer?
October 25, 2006
From Thetailsection.com: “According to sources close to marketing at ABC, the network is very close to announcing the release of LOST Season One in Blu-Ray format. The set will be the flagship of a line of HDTV enhanced boxed sets the network plans to release in the coming summer. The LOST set will feature extras and extended scenes not included on the highly successful DVD release.
The set, which is rumored to be priced at a whopping $199.99, may not be the norm for future ABC releases citing a daunting price as a possible stumbling block for consumers. The network has plans to release other shows in two episode disks for around $20. If you’re doing your math, that would mean collectors would pay an addition $280 to spread out the pain.”
Fox confirms more 50GB, BD-J and MPEG-4 movie releases for December
October 25, 2006
From EngadgetHD: “Fox already announced it is kicking off its support of the Blu-ray format with several enhanced titles timed to hit at the time of the PlayStation 3 launch, now it’s announced more extras for several titles scheduled for the following weeks. From Hell will be a dual-layer BD-50 50GB release, authored in Blu-ray Java and using MPEG-4 (AVC) compression. It also features several commentaries, a lossless soundtrack, a trivia pop up feature and 21 deleted scenes. Flight of the Phoenix, as well as the rest of the releases, is authored using standard HDMV, includes a DTS HD Master Audio lossless soundtrack as well as commentaries and HD trailers.”
Where do Blu-ray and HD DVD discs come from?
October 25, 2006
From EngadgetHD: “Surprisingly enough, blue laser media isn’t the result of a licensing deal with Gargamel and the subsequent disappearance of the Smurf population. Imation and Memorex have produced a short (14 minute, 68MB) video podcast about their facility in Minnesota producing Blu-ray and HD DVD discs. Sure there’s quite a bit of marketing fluff, but by fast forwarding to the last few minutes, there’s some interesting information about manufacturing blue laser discs.”
Apple To Back Blu-ray and HD-DVD?
October 17, 2006
From Think Secret via MacRumors: “ThinkSecret claims to have uncovered documents that indicate that Apple may support both the Blu-ray and HD-DVD next-generation high definition DVD formats. Apple joined Blu-ray’s board of directors on March 10, 2005, and has been expected to include the technology in future Mac Pros, however the ongoing changes in the HD-DVD / Blu-ray market war may be changing Apple’s plans.
Blu-ray has seen stiff competition from HD-DVD, which beat the product to market and has consistently undercut Blu-ray’s price point. Another point of intereest is that Intel has supported HD-DVD since September of 2005. While ThinkSecret points out that neither format has yet to claim any clear market lead, some still view Blu-ray’s trump card as the upcoming Playstation 3.”
Super-Mario Bros. Enter the “NO SPIN ZONE”
October 16, 2006
After the jump….
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SNL Year 1 on DVD
October 16, 2006
From “The Bits:” “Universal has just officially announced the DVD release of Saturday Night Live 1975-1976: The Complete First Season for 12/5! The 8-disc set (SRP $69.98) will include all 24 90-minute episodes complete with their original hosts and all the original musical guests. You also get a 32-page book of liner notes and rare case photos. I’ll tell you, we were wondering if this would EVER happen. How cool will it be to be able to go back and enjoy vintage SNL just as it was originally broadcast? Dan Aykroyd, John Belushi, Chevy Chase, Gilda Radner, Garrett Morris, Jane Curtin, Laraine Newman.”
Did Warner cut its high-def DVD projections enough?
October 16, 2006
From EngadgetHD: “Warner Home Video recently recalculated its expectations for customer spending on Blu-ray and HD DVD combined in 2006, mostly due to delays in bringing new Blu-ray players to market. Even after that, this Motley Fool writer isn’t sure that the new numbers are accurate either. He states that Warner’s projections still put high definition DVD hardware and software on the highest sales pace ever a consumer electronics platform, outpacing the original DVDs. With a format war and so many technical complications, he prefers Disney’s slower wait-and-see approach to Warner spending a lot of money hitting both platforms from the start with high profile titles and interactive features.”
Krypto the Superdog DVD & Screenshots
October 16, 2006
From Comics2Film: “Warner Home Video has provided The Continuum a preview of Krypto the Superdog Volume 2 DVD collection, due in stores on Oct. 24.
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HD-DVD Takes An Early Lead
October 16, 2006
From DVGuru: “The format war of 2006 is underway, and it looks like reports from the front lines indicate HD-DVD is winning. According to Nielsen data, the format sold 3 times as many discs as Blu-ray during the month of August. HD-DVD has the advantage of a three month head start, and currently features almost twice as many titles as it’s competitor.”