High Def format war

[Icemage]

Re: High Def format war

Universal Studios recently announced the HD-DVD lineup for 2007 in rough terms, listing something like 59 titles (I haven't counted, but it's approximate).

http://www.thedigitalbits.com/rumormill.html#030107

Of course, this doesn't preclude them secretly working on a Blu-ray transfer of the same, naturally, but I think it's still far too early to be looking at things from that perspective.

In other high def news, it looks like the Blu-ray version of Casino Royale, with 6 days to go until release, has hit #16 on Amazon.com.

The current Amazon 50% off MSRP sale has also catapulted over a dozen other Blu-ray titles into the top 100 selling DVDs, while HD-DVD struggles with its best selling title The Departed (HD-DVD) at #146 compared to its Blu-ray counterpart which is sitting pretty at #53.

It's a brilliant marketing ploy by Blu-ray, since it strikes at a time when HD-DVD literally has no releases to counter with, while capitalizing on the huge buying power of the PS3 demographic.


Icemage

[fastcart]

Hi-def Matrix trilogy goes to HD DVD this spring, Blu-ray later

I was gonna make a new thread, but here seems fine.

Hi-def Matrix trilogy goes to HD DVD this spring, Blu-ray later

Hi-def Matrix trilogy goes to HD DVD this spring, Blu-ray later
By Mark Raby
Published Thursday 22nd March 2007 14:41 GMT

The Matrix is aiming to be one of the most elite HD DVD box sets yet, with an eight disc, format-pushing presentation for more than $110. A Blu-ray version will also come out in the months following.

The Complete Matrix Trilogy on HD DVD will hit stores on May 22 for $100. A premium version of the set, The Ultimate Matrix Collection, will be released the same day and will carry a retail price of $120.

The three movies will be presented on three discs, with an additional four or five discs loaded with bonus features, depending on the set. Over 35 hours of supplemental content will be in the additional discs, and HD DVD's "In Movie Experience" will be available during the actual film, allowing picture-in-picture video commentary and real-time behind-the-scenes footage. At least some of the features will be presented in HD.

The trilogy is also headed for a Blu-ray release, but Warner Home Entertainment did not announce a date. The studio is likely waiting for a new Blu-ray rendering technology based on Java, which it is expected to incorporate into The Matrix.

Man, once the Star Wars hexalogy (I know it's not a word, sue me) gets released on High Def, I'm definitely gonna be jonesing for a BD player.

[Pai Pai Master]

Re: High Def format war

Casino Royale's currently the #2 top-selling BD of all time, and is currently outselling the #3 title, The Departed, on a 9-1 basis.

As for The Matrix, I want it. However, seeing as how Warner Bros. is still giving BD the cold shoulder and playing favourites, it's unlikely that we'll get the discs for some time, and even then, they'll probably be either using inferior codecs or use the same specs as the HD-DVD transfers. The Departed seems to be some sort of anomaly (I couldn't help myself, I'm talking about The Matrix here...) with Warner Bros. BD quality. The rest are all inferior to their HD-DVD counterparts in terms of either picture or audio quality, for some ridiculous reason. I plan on staying away from Warner Bros. releases for the time being. Chances are they plan on double-dipping and will release "special edition" BD releases of the movies they've put out so far (Superman Returns, I'm looking at you, you piece of crap) with the proper codecs.

Here's the upcoming months' release list for BD. Bolded are exclusives.

March 27th:
Happy Feet
March of the Penguins
Incubus: Alive at Red Rocks
Rocky Balboa
Chicken Little
Eragon
The Pursuit of Happyness

April 3rd:
G.I. Jane
Identity
Me, Myself and Irene
Volver
Warriors of Heaven and Earth
King Arthur: Director's Cut

April 10th:
A Scanner Darkly
Dog Day Afternoon
Payback

April 17th:
Enter the Dragon
The Dirty Dozen

April 24th:
Night at the Museum
Deja Vu

Failure to Launch
Planet Earth: The Complete Collection
The Queen
Secret Window
Ultimate Avengers Collection

May 1st:
Dreamgirls
Happily N'Ever After

May 8th:
Battle of the Bulge
Catch and Release
Dirty Dancing
Revenge
The Road Warrior

May 15th:
The Fountain
Stomp the Yard

May 22nd:
Apocolypto
Freedom Writers
Primevil
Mission: Impossible
Mission: Impossible 2
Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest
Flags of Our Fathers

May 29th:
Basic Instinct
Blood and Chocolate
Curse of the Golden Flower
Weeds: Season One

June 5th:
Cars
The Rock
Crimson Tide
Con Air
Coming to America
Trading Places

June 19th:
Bridge to Terabithia

July 3rd:
The Untouchables
The Warriors: Director's Cut


Sigh. I want Metropolis, Batman Begins, V for Vendetta, Kill Bill Vol. 1 and 2 and Spiderman 1 & 2 on that list. D:

[Pai Pai Master]

Re: High Def format war

It's already been a hot topic for the current format war, but most people agree that pornography is insignificant this time around. Porn has become a big enough market on the internet these days to make it a non-issue.

Either way, most support seems to be going both ways. The first HD porn release comes in a month or two to BD, with scattered releases on both formats from there on out.

[Pai Pai Master]

Re: High Def format war

Double Post :3

Bandai just announced more titles for Blu-ray Disc (finally).

Here's their list of BD releases so far. I'll probably pick all of them up.

July 27th:
Katsuhiro Otomo's Akira
Hiroyuki Yamaga's Royal Space Force: The Wings of Honneamise
Mamoru Oshii's Patlabor: The Movie

August 24th:
Mamoru Oshii's Ghost in the Shell
Mamoru Oshii's Patlabor 2: The Movie
Katsuhiro Otomo's Steamboy

September 25th:
Hiroyuki Okiura's Jin Roh: The Wolf Brigade
Mamoru Oshii's Avalon (Live-Action)

I'm really happy about this announcement. I'll definitely be picking up Akira, Wings of Honneamise, Steamboy, Ghost in the Shell and Jin-Roh.


These are all Japanese releases, though. So don't hope too hard for English dialogue, and expect to pay out the nose for them. (I think they're somewhere around 10,000 yen)

Heck, with our luck they won't even include English subtitles. Here's hoping, though. Innocence has been out in Japan for some time and it does include multiple subtitle tracks.

[Feba]

Re: High Def format war

Starving Artist has a very good point- Pornography is suprisingly cutting edge a lot of the time.

If I had to make a bet, i'd say HD-DVD, although if the PS3 drops in price fairly soon and becomes more popular, that could change.

[Icemage]

Re: High Def format war

It's unlikely that any of the Japanese anime will even have English subtitles. The only title thus far that has had them is Ghost in the Shell II.

---

May 22, 2007 should be an interesting day. Pirates of the Caribbean 1 & 2 for Blu-ray going up against The Matrix Ultimate Collection for HD DVD.

---

As for pornography... aren't you a bit too young to know about such things, Feba? At any rate, most porn titles aren't going to benefit all that much from high definition treatment (either they'll have to blur the actors a bit, or be much more clever with makeup to hide the surgical scars and other imperfections).


Icemage

[Pai Pai Master]

Re: High Def format war

Pirates will outsell Matrix at least 5-1. No way most people will like shelling out $99.95 for all three Matrix films, particularly when most people hated the sequels. I know Warner wants to force people to buy them in a package, but honestly it'd be much better for sales at the moment to sell them separately.

[Icemage]

Re: High Def format war

By the way, if anyone's curious, I've been tinkering with an Excel spreadsheet to calculate projected sales for Blu-ray and HD DVD discs in North America.

The following chart shows the combination of data from Nielsen Media/VideoScan, plus numbers provided by Disney.

The Disney(proj) values are the projected sales of all discs of each type if Disney provided the correct numbers for sales in January 2007 (they're not sales of just Disney discs, obviously, since Disney is Blu-ray exclusive).



YTD = Year to Date
SI = Since Inception
Weekly = self explanatory


Icemage

[Pai Pai Master]

Re: High Def format war

Those March numbers are nuts.

There was a massive number of releases on the Blu-ray side and very few on the HD-DVD side in February so I expected the sales to tip back towards the center after that, but March is pretty scary.

Matrix is HD-DVDs biggest release for a while, it makes me wonder what else they'll pull out of their sleeves before the summer begins. They certainly have enough in their reserve to combat Blu-ray's big releases. (Expect Cars to destroy the sales charts in June)

[Icemage]

Re: High Def format war

It won't take that long. A Night at the Museum launches as a Blu-ray day and date release with the DVD for the #2 movie of 2006 on April 24th. Expect the numbers to bury HD DVD for that week.

A Sony Pictures Entertainment insider also indicated that Spiderman 1 & 2 will also be coming to Blu-ray in 2007 (which should make you very happy Pai Pai).

Warner Brothers Pictures has indicated that they'd like to get caught up on their Blu-ray releases this year as well (but I bet they're waiting for the Profile 1.2 to be implemented, and that might not happen before October). Still gives plenty of time for Batman Begins, The Matrix, and V for Vendetta to arrive on Blu-ray before year's end, though.


Icemage

[Feba]

Re: High Def format war

As for pornography... aren't you a bit too young to know about such things, Feba?

I saw it on a documentary or the news or something. Honest >.>

[Caspian]

Re: High Def format war

I agree, Matrix would do much better if you could just buy the first one. I'm not exactly down for paying 100 bucks for one good movie and two pieces of cinematic crap.
Pirates of the Carribean = Coffin
Badboys = the nails
Spiderman 1 & 2 = dirt and headstone
I know I'm biased, but seriously, Toshiba needs some serious miracles from where the sun doesn't shine. Matrix will help, but I don't see it overcoming anything at all. Especially not with PotC the same week.
As for the porn thing (i'll make this quick about to merit), back when VHS debuted, there was no other way to see it but at some disgusting theater. It was the first way to see it in your home. Now you have DVD and the internet. Plus, like Icemage said, you really don't want to see that in hi-def. Ass pimples for the loss.

[Pai Pai Master]

Re: High Def format war

Universal will be HD-DVD's saving grace this year.

It was leaked from the high-ups at Universal that they are in fact considering supporting BD, but not any time in the very near future. Right now they are the biggest market on HD-DVD and are profiting hugely from that. Shifting to neutrality would literally destroy HD-DVD at the moment, so they plan on pushing their luck with that format as long as possible. If HD-DVD sales do start to fall so much that neutrality would yield more profit (which won't happen for quite some time), then they'll start to support Blu-ray Disc.

That said, it's highly likely that they will be preparing for BD releases by early next year, if they're not doing so already. This format war is far from over and HD-DVD still has just as many chances as BD to win full support, but at this moment it's looking more and more like BD will become reigning champion of HD.

Stupid Universal and exclusivity. I really want Children of Men and Serenity.

And a new update on BD-J: The Blu-ray Association set a mandatory deadline for standardized Blu-ray Java support in all BD players by October 31st, 2007. The PS3 currently is incapable of supporting the BD-J Picture-in-Picture function, but that will likely change with a firmware update by the deadline. It's likely we'll start seeing Warner's films like Batman Begins and V for Vendetta after this date.

[Skoal]

Re: High Def format war

Man, once the Star Wars hexalogy (I know it's not a word, sue me) gets released on High Def, I'm definitely gonna be jonesing for a BD player.

I recorded all of them in HD on my DVR. Of course its only 720p but the newer ones look very nice. The only part that sucks is at the end of Jedi they took out the old Anakin Skywalker and put in the guy who played him in the newer Star Wars.