The Bits impressed w/Blu titles (1 Viewer)

[BrettB]

'It's all about the movies' for Bill Hunt post-CES.

 

[Bill Hunt]

I think we're steering this thread a little off topic. I'm curious as to what others think of the disparity of title announcements between formats at CES...

 

[Brent M]

There's no comparison between what was announced for Blu-Ray and basically what WASN'T announced on HD-DVD. I counted at least 14 Blu-Ray titles that I would purchase(if I had a player) while HD-DVD didn't give us one thing other than a blank promise that "there's some cool stuff coming sometime this year". I'm an HD-DVD supporter, but Blu-Ray killed them in the content department at CES and I'm just hoping this isn't a sign of things to come. Universal's reluctance to announce anything at the show was especially disappointing. :frowning:

 

[Jason Harbaugh]

It pretty much sealed it that I made the right choice in which format to support. I gotta admit that I was getting a bit worried as 2006 progressed and BD seemed to drop the ball. They picked it right back up this week though and are ready for some Dodgeball. (blu-ray exclusive title I might add )

I wish I could be a fly on the wall in the Universal offices to see exactly what they are up to.

 

[Cees Alons]

CES is just a moment's recording. I will be impressed when I see those releases. Announcements and promises appear to be very uncertain when it comes to these HR formats, as proven during the last two quarters and before.

I'm very disappointed by the lack of announcements at CES by any of the "exclusive" studios, to abandon that dreaded policy. We will still not be able as consumers to let the market and our own judgement decide wich format is the best for us.

As far as those announced titles on BD goes: looks very promising. I will be glad if those announced titles will see the daylight indeed, of course. Some of these are big favourites of mine. And I hope the quality and price will be right.

But as said: I'll cheer when it happens, not before. At the moment the "announcements" on BD are too vague for my taste and greatly comparable with the one about HD DVD:

We'll see.


Cees

 

[Robert Crawford]

You're right so I split off the discussion about Fox's high prices to its own thread because I think that topic needs a discussion thread of it's own.




Crawdaddy

 

[Jason Harbaugh]

Too vague? Most BD studios actually gave dates through June as well as a good start of what to expect for the rest of the year. I personally wouldn't call that vague.

This is the consolidated list so far on that 'other site'. Not all were announced at CES of course.

1/16 - Employee of the Month
1/16 - Gridiron Gang
1/16 - Resident Evil: Apocalypse
1/16 - Scooby-Doo
1/16 - Goodfellas
1/23 - Black Rain
1/23 - Chicago
1/23 - Courage Under Fire
1/23 - Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
1/23 - Manchurian Candidate, The
1/23 - Men Of Honor
1/23 - Saw II
1/23 - Saw III
1/23 - We Were Soldiers
1/23 - Alien vs. Predator
1/27 - Casanova
1/30 - Beerfest: Unrated
1/30 - Flyboys
1/30 - Hart's War
1/30 - Open Season
1/30 - Wicker Man, The: Unrated

2/06 - American Psycho
2/06 - Failure to Launch
2/06 - Glory (NEW!)
2/06 - Rambo: First Blood
2/06 - Reservoir Dogs
2/06 - Running With Scissors
2/06 - Tailor Of Panama, The
2/06 - Young Guns
2/13 - Departed, The
2/13 - Ladder 49
2/13 - Reign of Fire
2/13 - Planet of the Apes
2/13 - The Usual Suspects
2/13 - Broken Arrow
2/13 - Chain Reaction
2/13 - Chronos
2/13 - Entrapment
2/13 - Marie Antoinette
2/13 - Marine, The
2/13 - Phone Booth
2/13 - Sentinel, The
2/20 - Babel
2/20 - Blood Diamond
2/20 - Destiny's Child "Live In Atlanta"
2/20 - The Prestige
2/20 - Vertical Limit
2/27 - Alexander Revisited: The Unrated Final Cut
2/27 - Stranger Than Fiction

3/13 - Commando
3/13 - Dances With Wolves
3/13 - Dodgeball
3/13 - From Hell
3/13 - Hoosiers
3/13 - Ice Age
3/13 - Layer Cake
3/13 - Mr. & Mrs. Smith
3/13 - The Thomas Crown Affair
3/13 - Casino Royale
3/20 - Big Fish
3/20 - Chicken Little
3/20 - Finding Neverland
3/20 - Incubus - "Alive at Red Rocks"
3/27 - Happy Feet

4/03 - Hanibal
4/03 - King Arthur: Director's Cut
4/03 - G.I. Jane
4/03 - Dude, Where's My Car?
4/03 - Me, Myself & Irene
4/03 - Silence of the Lambs
4/03 - The Fly
4/03 - Tristan & Isolde
4/10 - Payback
4/17 - Turistas


May - A Bridge Too Far
May - Battle of Britain
May - Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
May - Edward Scissorhands
May - Master & Commander
May - Man on Fire
May - Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl
May - Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest
May - Platoon
May - Predator
May - The Graduate
May - The Seige


6/08 - Con Air
6/08 - Crimson Tide
6/08 - The Rock
June - A Fistful of Dollars
June - Bull Durham
June - Cast Away
June - Independence Day
June - I, Robot
June - Out of Time
June - Ronin
June - To Live & Die in L.A.
June - Walking Tall

Spring - 24 (TV)
Spring - Prison Break (TV)

Summer - Cars
Summer - The Recruit
Summer - Open Range

Fall - Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer
Fall - Rocky Balboa
Fall - Jerry Maguire
Fall - A Few Good Men
Fall - The Holiday
Fall - The Persuit of Happiness
Fall - The Curse of the Golden Flower
Fall - Ghost Rider


TBA - Flags of Our Fathers
TBA - Payback
TBA - Face/Off
TBA - Dirty Dancing
TBA - The Dead Zone (TV)
TBA - Dune
TBA - Hero (The Jet Li Version)
TBA - House of 1000 Corpses
TBA - Monster's Ball
TBA - National Lampoon's Van Wilder
TBA - Pi
TBA - Requiem for a Dream
TBA - Ultimate Avengers
TBA - Ultimate Avengers 2
TBA - Weeds (TV)
TBA - Bullitt
TBA - The Dirty Dozen
TBA - Enter the Dragon
TBA - The Getaway (1972)
TBA - We Are Marshall
TBA - Harry Potter Franchise
TBA - The Matrix Franchise
TBA - Oceans 11
TBA - Oceans 12

 

[Carlo_M]

Between what was announced for Blu-Ray and THD, I am very impressed with the lineup for BD this coming year, and made me feel good about my recent PS3 purchase.

Only damper was that adult companies will apparently go with HD-DVD. Not that, ahem, I've ever, uh...purchased them. But historically adult content has helped to drive new technology formats.

The one reason why history may not repeat itself is that with the widespread availability of such content free over the web, it may not be such a big factor as it was in the VHS and DVD infancy periods.

 

[Cees Alons]

Jason,

(You don't need any "other site" to find relevant lists of HR titles. Robert Crawford keeps an excellent list of both formats on our own forum. )


Of the approx. 110-120 BD titles mentioned but yet to be released, several were announced earlier, and many are coming to HD DVD too or were actually released on HD DVD already (Warner, Paramount).

That said, of those less than 120 named titles, 60 are either TBA or only tagged with a season indication. I call that "vague" in this context, just as I did for the "300 this year" HD DVD titles as announced at CES, of which we know about 110 by name.

Let's just hope all those promises come true: then the future of HR discs is sunny anyway!


Cees

 

[Dave H]

I was on the fence with the HD formats until CES.

I had no bias toward one format or the other (still don't really), but I bought a PS3 this week because of the exclusive Blu-ray announcements and the fact that Warner will fully support Blu-ray titles.

I agree that content is #1. It is becoming very, very clear FOR ME the studio advantage for Blu-ray. It is also very clear that none of the exclusive Blu-ray studios are going to support HD DVD anytime soon. The fact that not even Lionsgate (which was heavily rumored by so-called insiders to support HD DVD) did not even break for HD DVD is telling. Also, while Universal will be releasing more titles for HD DVD - the fact they didn't at CES I don't believe is a good sign for HD DVD. Just my opinion. Still, Universal today has A LOT of titles I like and I'm still thinking about getting the HD-A2 (and using it as my primary SD DVD player), but part of me thinks I should maybe wait. I don't know.

 

[Jason Harbaugh]

I wasn't sure if he added the new CES announcements so I grabbed the quickest one I could find. It was almost 3am at the time.

I still say BD did a much better job of getting titles named and with dates. Especially the first quarter.

 

[DaViD Boulet]

We knew going into the CES event that Blu-ray would start to see a big push by the BD-exlusive studios like Disney, Fox/MGM etc. It was reasonable to assume that dual-support studios like Warner and Paramount would also have some pleasing release announcements, and thankfully their continued support of both formats appears steady.

But what did surprise me was what you noticed as well... Universal decidedly NOT taking an opportuntity to impress us with even one new title. Most other studios have intentionally held-back key announcements for months in order to make a "splash" at CES but Universal seemed curiously silent. While their support of the HD DVD format likely hasn't changed, it still seems odd that they were the only major studio to not both to get on the soapbox and brag about the coming year of HD plans...

Hmmmm.

 

[MarekM]

Cees, do we now how many titles from those 300 could be from UNIVERSAL ?

Marek

 

[dkny75]

I think there is a bit of overreaction from all the CES news (or lack of it).

While I agree that the announcements from all of the BD studios was great news for Blu-ray, this is CES. Consumer Electronics Show. Isn't this a show for CE to show off new products?

Samsung announced their 2nd gen player.
Sharp announced their 1st gen player.
LG announced a dual-format player (kind of).
Toshiba announced another 2nd gen player.
Onkyo announced their 1st gen player.
Meridian announced support for HD DVD (no official announcement of a player)
Lite-on and a bunch of other Chinese CE companies announced they will be making players.
Warner announced Total HD discs

Now while I am disappointed that Universal didn't announce anything, I really didn't expect them to. However in light of all the BD announcements I think they should have been reactive and announced something whether they had planned to or not.

 

[Bill Hunt]

I agree with this. As I said in my column on The Bits, if they HAD made even a few big title announcements, the tone of the conversation would be a lot different right now. As the only major HD-DVD exclusive studio, the burden was on them to step up to the plate... especially because everyone KNEW that the Blu-ray exclusive studios were going to be making announcements. To me, something isn't adding up here.

 

[DaViD Boulet]

Precisely.

 

[Paul_Scott]

Pride & Prejudice, Eternal Sunshine are just two of the titles that have now been 'officially' mentioned via a press release. There were others (Inside Man was one). Not a huge surprise, but then neither was Planet Of The Apes 2001!! Independance Day!!! Chain Reaction!!!! Broken Arrow!!!!! or any of the other 40 or so titles that can be found on sd dvd in the $5 bins.

I was honestly expecting at least a dozen or so titles to be thrown out there with pride, so I was surprised. But then again, I've found fault with the formats marketing early on and that has probably been the most consistent, conspicuous attribute of the format since day one.
But they've delievered for me. I've been let down VERY rarely.

On the other hand, Blu-ray before it launched and after was all about its superior specs with regard to disc capacity. after 7 months, how has that superiority been expressed? What titles out there differentiate themselves in regards to a user experience compared to the other format? What does having 20 extra gb get you with an average Bd disc purchase? Blu-rays best, most consistent attribute has been it's mouth. It always talks a great game, and yet when the rubber meets the road it is proven - at best- to be merely at par. We are still 6 months away before every first gen stand alone player is rendered out of date in regards to important features. What a great value for your $1K or more buy in.

whether it is 2007 or 2010, I expect that Blu-ray will always win a bragging contest. The shameless always will.

Gotta say though, it's a huge surprise to see Mr Hunt come out and say publicly that B-d has a big advantage at this point. Really knocked me for a loop.

 

[Tim Glover]

Children of Men, Eternal Sunshine, American Pie, and one of my favorites of 2005, Pride & Prejudice, are huge releases for HD-DVD....along with the Sci-Fi juggernaut that is Battlestar Gallactica.

 

[Dave Mack]

I own BD but I do have to admit that "Eternal sunshine..." is a pretty damned great title! I do have the Korean R3 release though with DTS and a noticeably better PQ than the R1 so that will tide me over for now. Anything can happen in the future...

d

 

[Cees Alons]

No, it's all too vague.
But IF it those 300 comes true: no more than 20%, I guess.


Cees