TV Shows coming on HD-DVD or Blue-Ray? (1 Viewer)

[DonHearth]

Hi,

With the announced release of Heroes coming on HD-DVD, it causes me to wonder what other television shows are coming in this format. I could swear that I heard something about Stargate Atlantis being released in one of these two formats.

Has anybody heard anything on if the studios are going to jump aboard the new formats in regards to TV series?

Thanks,
Don

 

[John-M]

I think you should post it in the HD forum since this is not a dicussion of HD and Blu-Ray here

 

[TravisR]

Just going off my memory, The Sopranos: Season Six- Part One is already available on Blu-Ray and HD DVD. I'm pretty sure that the 2005-06 season of Smallville is available on both formats. Weeds and Rescue Me are coming out soon on Blu-Ray soon. Heroes is coming to HD DVD soon.

Unfortunately, I haven't seen anything about Stargate: Atlantis but it's something that I may have overlooked.

 

[John-M]

Guess I am wrong then

 

[Steve Meil]

I have to disagree with you John. This section is called TV Shows and TV Movies So this is the perfect place to discuss this

 

[TravisR]

Right or wrong, the guy asked a question so I tried to answer it. Now that it's been answered, the thread will be probably fade off into oblivion.

 

[David Lambert]

I think this is all of them, released or announced, so far:

Smallville - Season 5 (HD-DVD) 11/28/06
Sopranos - Season 6, Part 1 (Blu-ray, HD-DVD) 12/19/06
Discovery Atlas - Australia Revealed (Blu-ray, HD-DVD) 1/30/07
Discovery Atlas - Brazil Revealed (Blu-ray, HD-DVD) 1/30/07
Discovery Atlas - Italy Revealed (Blu-ray, HD-DVD) 1/30/07
Planet Earth - The Complete Collection (Blu-ray, HD-DVD) 4/24/07
Weeds - Season 1 (Blu-ray) 5/29/07
Rescue Me - Season 3 (Blu-ray) 6/5/07
Weeds - Season 2 (Blu-ray) 7/24/07
Heroes - Season 1 (HD-DVD) 8/28/07
Nip/Tuck - Season 4 (Blu-ray, HD-DVD) 9/4/07



Expect Battlestar Galactica - Season 1 to be announced soon for HD-DVD release in September. As has been indicated for some time, Star Trek is also being targeted for high-def release. Rumors in the past included Band of Brothers, Friends, and yeah, Stargate: Atlantis. TVShowsOnDVD passed on info from Video Business trade magazine about that coming to Blu-ray, but it was back when Sony had more control over MGM's releases. When MGM re-asserted their control over the show and moved distribution from Sony to Fox, then plans changed and S:A gave way to Sony's own Rescue Me as the first Sony-distributed TV-on-Blu-ray.

Hope this answers most questions, for now. I also hope I didn't miss anything! The TSoD blog hasn't had an entry in months; I might use this info as the basis of one over the holiday weekend.

 

[MatthewA]

I see potential for TV shows in HD discs, but there are things we must consider first:

—Videotaped shows will have no increase in picture quality but can fit many more episodes on one disc, so I think whole series on a couple of discs might be feasible here.
—Filmed shows will have higher resolution and take up (I assume) the same amount of discs as an SD DVD.
—Shows that were shot on film and posted on videotape will have to have to be re-posted for HD, which will be expensive, tedious and time-consuming, and studios may just throw in the towel here. I hope they don't.
—This still doesn't solve the issue of music licensing, nor does it solve the fact that they just don't know how to market some shows properly.

And there's another big if: Will people re-buy the same shows again just to save space?

 

[Jason Seaver]

It may be technically feasible, but I don't think it'll ever make economic sense. Everybody who can play an HD DVD or BD can also play a standard DVD, so unless the producer or studio is really jazzed about the interactive features, one of the formats supplants DVD, or the cost to manufacture next-gen discs falls to roughly equal that of standard DVDs, why would they bother? It's just splitting about the same amount of money between multiple SKUs.

 

[Derek_J]

I hope Lost S3 will be out on BD. I'm not sure about double dipping for past sets, but I am interested in future sets.

 

[Dave Scarpa]

Smallville S6 is coming on DVD in the Fall , Since S5 was Released I'm sure 6 Will Follow as might the Other Seasons. I got S5 for Xmas, but I don't think I'd rebuy the others , for one they are alot more expensive, and the anamorphically enhanced versions look great Upconverted on the A2. Plus you can play the SD disks in other players.

 

[Jason Seaver]

So should Disney and Fox. Although right now, the market is so small that I don't know if it's really all that compelling.

 

[Andreas_K]

tvshowsondvd.com has posted dates on Lost, Desperate Houswives and Grey's anatomy (all on regular DVD) and in the Lost article they stated that we shouldn't hold our breath for any of these shows to be released on Blu Ray soon.
http://www.tvshowsondvd.com/newsitem.cfm?NewsID=7400
I'm really disappointed about that, I was really hoping at least "Lost" would be a banner title for High Definition TV releases.

My question is: Why do the do this other to maybe make us early adopters buy the show twice? If they had released Lost season 3 or maybe even season 1 by then it could have actually grown the install base of the format (and on the format wars front -I'm neutral on that- also countered HD-DVD's big release of "Heroes").

Im totally bummed out by this news.

 

[David Lambert]

From what I hear, Disney is still concentrating their hi-def efforts on the films, and that the TV shows will come to Blu-ray at some point, just not yet.

I couldn't get any kind of timeframe on when that will be, but if Lost S3 is coming in December, and won't be Blu-ray, then logically it looks like it will be 2008.

 

[Andreas_K]

Thanks Dave, that makes sense since Disney ist taking its time with some movie releases I'm waiting for as well. I still wish TV was higher on their priority list though. Since those two awesome looking Pirates Of The Carribbean BD's I'm just aching to see what they would do with a high profile TV release.

 

[Paul_Scott]

as of right now you would have to spend a whopping $299 to get access to those Universal titles (and get 5 free movies at the same time).
in other words, $900 gives you access to every single piece of HD content that is or will be released. Excuse me if I don't shed a tear here, but for new technology only a year in, I think you're getting an absolute bargain.
And I wouldn't pull the trigger on that PS3 until the titles you want are actually on the shelf for purchase. That format already has an established precedent for getting people worked up with announcments and then pulling, indefinitely postponing, or outright cancelling them before release. Unless of course, you have some games you want play...

 

[Jason Seaver]

It's worth remembering that (A) HD sales on either format are tiny - Warner just got all excited about selling 100,000 copies of The Departed between the two, and it's not uncommon for features to sell only a couple thousand copies - and (B) replication and quality control are apparently still a mess. Universal has had issues with several discs this year, and lack of capacity is one speculated reason why a lot of BD releases get pushed back.

As much as I'm looking forward to Heroes on HD DVD, I've got a few worries about whether I can expect all six or seven discs to work.

 

[Scott-S]

Isn't Universal the studio that always had problems trying to get double sided SD dvds to work?

So the same studio that loved to beat a dead horse trying to save 1 penny on using double sided discs is the same studio that is supporting HD-DVD. Sort of makes one wonder.

As far as TV on Blu-Ray (or HD-DVD) goes, there are a few that I would love to see. But it all depends on the costs and the way it is packaged. I don't want to be told I should watch all the episodes as soon as I get the set to make sure everything works so I can send it back if there is a problem. This is what Universals Answer to the double sided issue was to people who complained.

 

[Jason Seaver]

Well, Universal had those issues because they were actually releasing product.

 

[Rhoq]

The issues with Universal's "Combo" format disc have been resolved as of the most recent firmware update. Heroes will not be on "combo" discs and Universal has not had any major issues with a single-sided HD DVD, yet.