Fox to launch Blu-ray titles 4th Quarter 2006 (1 Viewer)

[Juan C]

Wow, so many foots in mouths...

 

[Paul_Scott]

though unreleated to the thread topic, it does have bearing on comments I made just three posts above-

seems that 'insiders' are hinting very strongly that the current announced price points for the Bd hardware are going to be slashed quickly (probably just as they are introduced) so that we very well may be seeing ~$500 players for Christmas. The sudden pre-launch price cut on the Toshiba apparently caught them all by surprise and they realize they can't maintain that kind of disparity so we should be seeing much more compatible pricing, much sooner.

For some reason I still could care less as HD DVD releases will already take a good chunk of my income this fall. I'll probably still pass until the catalog is such on that format that I can go into a store and pick up stuff I want at will and not have to wait week in and week out in hopes of seeing somethign interesting announced.

 

[Harminder]

Gotta love the child like intellect of some posts.

Anyways, good for Blu-Ray, hopefully this isn't botched and looks fantastic, but will have to do ALOT to convince me to own anything Blu-Ray. Can't wait to compare VC1 to MPEG4 (AVC) and TrueHD to DTS-HD.

 

[PeterTHX]

You mean the ones where folks won't admit they were wrong and don't apologize?

 

[Ed St. Clair]

"The Abyss",
DROOL!!! [:^@}

 

[Paul_Stachniak]

Not that I wanna pick sides, but I was at Futureshop yesterday picking out an HD-DVD to buy when I finally found the Blu Ray display. I have to say, I was VERY underwhelmed by the demo, which was Stealth. Now, I'm not jumping to any conclusions just yet (as apprently most of the Sony discs are lack luster in look) but having just seen a bit of Serenity earlier made me feel more confident in choosing HD-DVD. You could clearly see grain in the tranfer of Sernity, it LOOKED HD, Stealth look very fuzzy from what I could only imagine was compression.

Fox does give Blu Ray some pros, but I gotta wonder about what kinda of PQ these discs will have.

 

[Edwin-S]

Your Future Shop has HD DVD? Players and discs? Or just discs? I have yet to see anything related to HD DVD at my local FS. Unless they have the stuff hidden in some backroom. The only store I have seen stocking HD DVD is London Drugs......and I only learned about that from MichaelTLV.

 

[Jeff(R)]

Well we can all wonder until they are released. But how's this for a director approved transfer?

Ridley Scott: "I reviewed my Director's Cut of KINGDOM OF HEAVEN, which is 3 hrs and 8 minutes thereabouts, on Blu-ray Disc and I was astounded. It was like looking through a window of clarity. It was the most impressive thing I've ever seen."

 

[Robert Crawford]

The MSRP price of $39.99 will affect sales of BRD. The public has been too spoiled by dvd pricing along with HD DVD prices about $10-11 cheaper. Fox is going to have a hard time selling these catalogue titles at that price point.



Crawdaddy

 

[Sebastien S]

I agree, $39.99 U.S. comes to about $50.00 CAN and once you add taxes, the price will be around $60.00 CAN each... WAY too expensive! Many won't buy at that price!

At this point, I still don't think HD-DVD has anything to worry about.

 

[Paul_Stachniak]

Players, Discs, even a TV set up playing the same demo disc I saw at a Best Buy in Kirland earlier this year. My Futureshop is in Brampton, BTW. And I've seen the same set up at the Mississuga Heartland store as well. All the Wal-marts I've been too carry both Blu Ray and HD-DVD discs.

As for the director approved image quality, that's cool. But do we honestly know if he's seen anything on HD DVD to compare? Somebody had a good comment here, or at AVS, when they said this is great for the Blu Ray PR machine, let's see the final products in action. Suffice it to say November will be interesting.

 

[Terri Chu]

is Fox still BD exclusive (no HD-DVD at all)?

 

[ChrisMatson]

http://www.usatoday.com/tech/product...-blu-ray_x.htm

 

[Shawn.F]

"We have no plans to release on HD-DVD. Consumer-wise Blu-ray is the best proposition," Dunn said.

(sarcasm)At $40 a pop retail for the movies and $1000 or more for the players, OF COURSE Blu-Ray is the best proposition for consumers! (/sarcasm)

If a decent company puts out a Blu-Ray player for under five hundred bucks, I will be more than happy to pick one up to put alongside my HD DVD player. Anything above that is just ridiculous in this day and age.

 

[ChrisMatson]

http://www.us.playstation.com/PS3/about.html

 

[AlexBC]

Jeff,

can you please post the source for this Ridley Scott comment?

 

[Ronald Epstein]

Speaking to the folks at Fox in the past I know their biggest
concern with the new HD formats was security against piracy.

From what I am gathering, Blu-Ray offers that added protection
over HD-DVD and thus, the reason why Fox is probably not even
remotely considering HD-DVD at this time.

 

[DaViD Boulet]

What Ron says is consistent with what I've heard as well.


Of course, Fox might have charged $40 for the HD DVD titles as well had they produced them. That's a studio decision, not a format issue.

Also, by fall there should be a host of new BD players at different price points. I'm sure that the maufacturers will be forced to compete with Toshiba's pricing at some point.

 

[Paul.S]

Schwing!

Alex, the Ridley quote is from the Fox first BD slate press release. And what a press release it is.

Although I would argue it is still a valid criticism to note that just because the B&C article referred to DTS HD being included in the BD format did not mean that any/all Fox releases would include a DTS HD track, the remarkable fact is that this is an instance in which my expectations have been exceeded. I'll be the first to say that it is sublime when that happens. Most critical, avid DVD buyers--and an even greater percentage of SACD and DVD-A buyers--are familiar with the hype of press releases and news articles turning into less than stellar (often delayed, sometimes non-existent) product come street date.

Let's hope this isn't one of those times. Fox made us wait and IMO they then brung it--at least on paper. I'm less impressed with the title selection (I can do without Enemy Lines, the terrible F4 and LXG) than I am the overall throroughness of the press release and the inclusion of DTS HD on every one of their first titles. Here's hoping they don't start moving the goalposts now. The B&C article also referred to ID4, Master and Commander and X-Men. Bring it, Rupert.

CSO, I'm not prepared to kiss, make up and invite you over to watch the Director's Cut of Kingdom Of Heaven yet, but I will be making several anticipatory BD additions to my Netflix Queue, especially Speed which I thought there was no way in hell Fox would release in their first slate (especially after that article referred to Garfield 2 and LXG).

P.S. - I still think Mike Dunn is smug.

 

[Ed St. Clair]

Isn't the MSRP for KoH, the same as HD DVD combo discs?
And, wasn't one of the combo titles, recently the best selling HD disc on Amazon?