Blu-ray: I am legend details

Warner Home Video has revealed the specifications and extra features for the Blu-ray release of 'I Am Legend', which is set to be released March 18th.

The disc will contain two versions of the film - the theatrical cut and an alternate theatrical version with a controversial alternate ending.
Video´s in 2.40:1 1080p VC-1 and features a 5.1 Dolby TrueHD soundtrack.

Extras include the Blu-ray exclusive "Creating I Am Legend Minidocumentary Gallery" and "Cautionary Tale: The Science of I Am Legend", both in high definition, also included will be the four animated comics 'Death As A Gift', 'Isolation', 'Sacrificing the Few for the Many' and 'Shelter', all presented exclusively in high definition on the Blu-ray release.

National geographics is pure blu-ray

Joining ranks with warner, National geographics will now only release it´s movies on the Blu-ray hd medium.

Astonishing to see some people still buying hd-dvd in US of a while here in Europe people even get money when they trade in their useless hd.dvd players and instead pick up a blu-ray player.

First and last hd.dvd from New line cinema

And the answer is Pan´s labyrinth, it was released by the end of 2007 and it will mark history as the first and last hd.dvd release by New line cinema, all their other movies, past and future ones will only see the light of day on Blu-ray and good ol dvd.

I cant wait for lotr to hit blu-ray and later on the two new hobbit movies, great times ahead for hd movie lovers.

Besides, has anyone noticed that sony demoed that you´ll be able to backup your blu-ray movies on your ps3 and further take that backup with you on your psp or a memory card, great news and times indeed for movie lovers, legal and easy to do backups is great.

Blu-ray get´s Digital playground support

If you enjoy sex and nudity then you´ll know what that means, if not, it simply means that Blu-ray has thanks to the ps3? managed to get Digital playground deciding on releasing it´s high def porn movies on the blu-ray format.

According to a dp spokesperson it all comes down to ps3 owners contacting the company asking them when they´ll start releasing their adult films on blu-ray and aparently Pirates (as featured in the image) will be the first porn movie from dp to get some blu-ray loving.

Blu-ray blows hd-dvd out of the water

Hollywood reporter article

It mentions how the paramount sell out didnt manage to even make a dent in the high definition movie war and how Blu-ray outsells hd-dvd in ever single region all over the world, it´s not just outselling, it´s completely tromping the competition, so please warner, end it all and just go blu so we can finaly get all our hd movie loving in one nice format named Blu-ray.

The HD war, one more blu-ray week

let´s forget worldwide for a short while, not because hd-dvd won in a non na region, but because blu-ray´s lead is even bigger worldwide, so let´s forget that and just look at last weeks North america numbers.

Over 3:1 in favour of Blu-ray and 8 out of the top ten was blu-ray movies, not to mention that blu-ray´s top movie outsold hd-dvd´s top movie by a 8-1 margin.

Ah yes, what does it mean in %? Blu-ray has 76% of the hd market in north america in other words and hd-dvd 24%.

nxtbook has the numbers if you click the link

73% of sold hd movies in europe is...

Blu-ray of course and that´s total, not per week or anything, it´s total during 2007, a devastating defeat for hd-dvd of course, according to recent numbers from Media control gfk international, read more about it in this article (Swedish only)

Ign previews gt5 prologue

There's no doubting that this is, by far, the finest looking racing game around

GT5 Prologue was just released in Japan on both blu-ray and as a psn purchase, even tho just being an early build of what´s to come in the full game due out in 2008 it´s getting glowing reviews all over the web.

read more

HD disc awards 2007. Blu-ray sweeps it

Out of 11 categories in the HD disc award, Blu-ray takes a wopping 7 including the three heavyweight, movie of the year and best animated movie and best picture quality.

*High Def Title of the Year: 300, Warner Home Video. Blu-ray.
*Best Live-Action Blu-ray: Casino Royale, Sony Pictures Home Entertainment. Blu-ray.
*Best Animated: Ratatouille, Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment. Blu-ray.
*Best Picture Quality: Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest, Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment. Blu-ray.
*Best Long-Form Music Video: Dave Mathews & Tim Reynolds: Live at Radio City Music Hall, Sony BMG. Blu-ray.
*Best Catalog: Kingdom of Heaven: Director’s Cut, 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment. Blu-ray.
*Best Collection/Multidisc Set: Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Sony Pictures Home Entertainment. Blu-ray.

Not to mention that the third installment in the pirates franchise shuttered all High definition movie sale records so far in it´s first week in North america, one more great week for blu-ray in other words and one more not so great week for hd-dvd.

Hd-vmd in real life test

The player NME ML777S is noisy but delivers a decent picture and sound quality on Mel gibsons the apocalypto, however it has issues with panoramas since it doesnt support 1080p 24 and it lacks the content of blu-ray and worst of all, it´s dvd upscale is horrible, it´s ugly looking and several movies kills the player...

Despite the player freezing, which could be credited to a monday morning example, the picture quality when upscaling dvd´s is plain and simply ugly! and the lack of hd movie support makes this a big no no in our humble opinion.

If you´re looking for a true HD movie format, go with blu-ray or hd-dvd(which we think you should avoid since blu-ray is sweeping the stage globaly, kind of stupid to buy into a format that looks like it´s going to extinction, but we might be wrong) anyway, hd-vmd should be left in the dust when you decide which hd movie format to go with.

Amazon.com blu-ray deals

As usual there´s a ton of discount prices and special deals going on over at amazon and with christmas just around the corner getting some Blu-ray loving for less then usual isnt wrong.

Both new movies like spiderman 3 and older classics like terminator 2 are available for lower then ever prices, couple that with the 6 blu-ray movies free of charge if you´ve just purchased your playstation 3 or standalone blu-ray player and amazon.com is more then worth a visit.

Amazon.com, Blu-ray section

Warner leaning towards blu-ray only

As the topic states, warner is leaning towards dropping their hd-dvd support and focus on blu-ray only, currently warner supports both formats but since they sell alot more blu-ray movies and the blu-ray format in general outsells hd-dvd worldwide by a big margin it´s only logical to drop the loosing side.

Great win for ps3 and Sony and blu-ray consumers if that would be to happen, heck in the longrun it would be good for every consumer out there.

Michael bay pt III. Blue-ray vs hd-dvd

I´ll say no more then to qoute michael bay, who is currently locked to hd-dvd only so nope, he´s not a blu-ray only person speaking out trying to protect his format, this is simply how it is qualitywise for Michael bay.

Does anyone here want to challenge what I feel suits my films better in terms of look? I see every frame of my films over a hundred times before it is ever released. I know the lighting conditions I shot it and the result on the DI. I know the range. I know what the final product should look like - Blu-ray suits my films better.

Simple and sweet

Blu-ray 1.1 for ps3 later in december

It´s finaly here, the rumoured blu-ray 1.1 update for the beloved ps3

Meanwhile, a Sony rep cited internal research suggesting that over 80% of all PlayStation 3 owners had watched at least one Blu-ray movie on their systems. It was also revealed that the Blu-ray profile 1.1 firmware update for the PS3 is expected to be made available for download later this month.

That qoute took place during a home media magazines High-Def 2.0 seminar, great news for people looking for the ultimate hd movie experience and great news for current ps3 owners since our precious console just keeps on getting better.

And during the same seminar, Disney confirmed that Finding Nemo and The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe will both feature PiP video.

Michael bay speaks about blu-ray and hd-dvd

Ouch, the outspoken Michael bay has done it again and one has to aplaud a director locked into hd-dvd that speaks up so loud and well about blu-ray, anyway, this is a man that´s not content with seeing his movies on hd-dvd only.

In other words, prepare for Michael bay and his movies to hit blu-ray sooner then later.

What you don't understand is corporate politics. Microsoft wants both formats to fail so they can be heroes and make the world move to digital downloads. That is the dirty secret no one is talking about. That is why Microsoft is handing out $100 million dollar checks to studios just embrace the HD DVD and not the leading, and superior Blu Ray. They want confusion in the market until they perfect the digital downloads. Time will tell and you will see the truth.

As you can see, Michael bay blaims Microsoft for keeping Hd-dvd in the race even tho the hd-dvd format is so totally outgunned and outperformed by Blu-ray

And here´s the link to Michaels own post Guess the hd-dvd camp will try to blaim Michael for being drunk again like they did last time he spoke up :)

Blue-ray - vs Hd-dvd in Australia

Ouch, one more region and one more gory defeat for hd-dvd.

Looking back at 2007 through the entire year, blu-ray has outsold hd-dvd by an almost 6:1 margin and yes, that´s for hd movies being sold in Australia.

And thus, Video chain video ezy is now joining blockbuster as a blu-ray only supporter.

Blu-ray vs Hd-dvd, sales chart

A well, one more week for Blu-ray on the winning streak and one more for Hd-dvd on the loosing streak and one more week with alot of people being fooled into buying a hd-dvd player.

I just read about a poor sod whom bought a hd-dvd player earlier this year to purchase HD movies for his kids, problem is, disny is blu-ray HD only... Makes you wonder when people will catch up to the ugly reality that is hd movies.

Anyway, he´s now buying a ps3 for christmas, first and foremost to use it as a blu-ray movie player and of course also to play games with his kids.

Data for the week shows 72.6% of high-definition discs purchased by consumers were Blu-ray and just 27.4% were HD DVD, which means hd dvd isnt gaining, they are loosing ground in the hd movie war.

Blu-ray (97%) vs hd-dvd, Japan

We continue our travel around the globe to find out how blu-ray and hd-dvd is holding up in the various regions.

We have so far seen blu-ray win in every region we´ve looked up, almost 70% in us of a, and even higher numbers in Sweden, in fact almost as high as in Japan, because even tho blu-ray outsells hd-dvd in north america and outsells it even more in Europe, it doesnt hold a candle to how it is selling in Japan.

Blu-ray players, including ps3 of course since it´s an excellent blu-ray player (best one so far in my humble opinion) outsells hd-dvd and as far as hd recorders, well blu-ray doesnt just outsell hd-dvd, it pummels it into oblivion with a 97% marget penetration and well hd-dvd of course gets the remaining 3%.

Now why is reports like this important? Well from a personal pov they arent, we already have our hd movie player in the shape of the ps3, but for everyone still not using a hd movie player it is. Picking up the loosing side isnt fun, which is something people all over the world can testify to, thing is, the companies making the loosing product dont care about you spending your money on a product that´s loosing out, they want your money even if they´ve already started to make plans to switch in a year or two.

For them well, big deal, you just have to purchase the next thing from them, in this case a blu-ray player in a year or two when hd-dvd is laying in the dust if you´ve been unlucky enough to pick up a hd-dvd player right now, of course, it could be the other way around aswell, but seeing how uneven the fight is, week in week out in sales numbers, hd-dvd winning wont happen. Which is why lifting out sales numbers is important when the difference is as huge as it is between blu-ray and hd-dvd.

Wal-mart, ps3 80gig + 15blu-ray movies,499us$

Wal-Mart will be having a “secret sale” on Saturday: the 80GB PS3 will be $499 with 10 free Blu-ray movies instantly - plus another 5 free movies from mail-in rebates.

Not so sure the movies will be something of interest, but still the value cant be denied and out of 15 movies some will be bound to be worth the time and the price isnt one single $ higher then the usual 80gig ps3 pack.

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