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

http://broadcastingcable.com/article/CA6346827.html

Includes mention of Ice Age 2 and titles using DTS-HD!

Yeah I saw this several weeks ago. Hopefully more details will be available soon.

Well, why mention DTS-HD at all if the titles weren't going to have it?

I think they mean that the titles will have DTS-HD, just that there's no receivers with or other gear that can take advantage of it yet, just like Dolby TrueHD.

I'm sure they will EVENTUALLY have it, just like how HD-DVD will also EVENTUALLY have it once the hardware decoding is sorted out.

Since all BD players will extract the "core" legacy DTS 1500 kbps stream out of any DTS-HD audio track it's perfectly fine to put DTS-HD right on the disc from the very start.

David

That is correct!!

Mike

I'd buy a BD player today if they released Edward Scissorhands.

LOL. CSO strikes again. So the very mention of something is dispositive of it actually happening?!?

It was a demo! Apparently using prototype hardware, no production discs and involving the same no audio LXG clip to showcase interactivity we all read about many months ago.

Not too long ago, the posting of such an article by someone from the other side of the aisle would elicit "vaporware" catcalls.

"Meanwhile back in the 'real world,'" Fox is the only BD-supporting studio to not as of yet announce an actual BD release slate. Granted the article is almost a month old, but at this juncture I think Fox needs to be telling us street dates . . . and hopefully for films more HD purchase-worthy than freakin' Garfield 2! Bring on The Abyss, Die Hard, Alien and The Thin Red Line.

Or make a surprise announcement for their support of HD-DVD instead .

I wish..........

I wish that too!

Fox would have my money if they released on HD DVD

Personally I think Fox will be the last studio to release on HD DVD as it seems that they are bitter at HD DVD for not caving on their more restrictive copy protection request that they will now be using under Blu-Ray (BD+).

And unless I missed it they said nothing about weather or not the titles would be MPEG2 or VC-1 encoded. Time will tell but I wish the that information was on the back of the case so that the consumer would know what they are getting.


Time is ticking Sony, TICK TOCK, TICK TOCK. The longer this goes on the more I am ready to just back HD-DVD.

Dave, Is this really an either/or decision? You can easily go bi-format at any point in time. Trust me, I looked into this

Hey Paul,

At first I was only going to go with Blu-ray to be honest. I then gave HD-DVD a chance and checked it out and was impressed. I just still did not like all the problems it had. Just after that firmware was updated and those problems where taken care of. So I decided that I would own both machines especially since there would be some titles that would only be available on one paticular format. My main format of choice was going to be Blu-ray but I was still planing on buying a certain amount of HD-DVD discs. Well Sony decided the first round of discs would only be MPEG2 and I decided to put off buying Blu-ray titles and the Sony and Pioneer players kept getting pushed back. I am getting tired of this going on, and now the first few WB titles will be MPEG2 for Blu-ray even though the same HD-DVD titles are using VC-1. I am now buying the HD-DVD player first and waiting to see what happens with Blu-ray before spending money on a player.

I really do want Blu-ray to succeed and I still feel it brings more to the table overall. But thats not to say that HD-DVD is not offering an very good product. HD-DVD is more than good enough and should blow away HD programing on cable and satalite. I am just getting very tired of this entire format war and lack of Blu-ray players beyond the Samsung that I will not spend $1k on. And I will not go out and spend money on a bunch of inferior MPEG2 discs ether. It bad enough that the new upcoming Dolby Digital Plus, Dolby True HD and DTS-HD processing are not yet available in current recievers or processors. But for anyone that wants to upgrade there HT to include both HD picture and new audio formats, the cost will not be cheap. For example my HT system will require two HD players, upgrading my 8 year old reciever, buying a 1080p receiver and adding two speakers for the rear channel and upgrading a few other speakers and adding a subwoofer that I just never got around to buying yet.

So I only say Tick Tock, Tick Tock because if Sony's player is full of problems and if they keep using MPEG2 encoded discs. Then thats when I say no thanks Sony I will not spend money on your format! At some point I have to say enough is enough and focus on the format that is not offering inferior encoded titles. Why buy a format if the software is inferior? But at the same time I am giving Sony a chance to change that and put out the discs that show off what Blu-ray is really capible of.

I'd rather BD get slow to get titles out but go VC1 and AVC when they do rather than rush out a bunch of crappy MPEG2 25 gig titles just to "have something" out to compete with HD DVD.

Fox and Disney want to do it right with BD, which is why they're waiting a little longer than Sony. They also plan to use 50 gig prodigiously when available... fingers crossed that this gets worked out soon!

that's my plan, Dave- though I already own an A1, I'm not adverse to adding a Bd player at some point, but it won't be any time soon at their current price points- nor at the current level of the software.
I'm prepared to wait and not pay more than $500 for one, and by that time we should be seeing more consistently excellant a/v quality on those titles (woe for the earlier released ones though- hopefully we won't have to live with compromised Bond films and Alien, X-men, and Caribbean Pirate movies for several years until they get re-done right)

however,
for me, adding a Bd player would only be to get access to the 'exclusive' studio titles. If these were released on HD DVD, even if they had to drop an extra or two to fit on a HD DVD 30, that would be preferable to me as I would prefer to just have one unit in the rack.
Now, it will be interesting to see what happens first- will Bd players get under $500, or will one or two big studios (Disney, MGM, Fox) begin bi-platform support? Should the later happen, then I may just end up sitting out Bd altogether and putting that hardware money towards more HD DVD software.
but I don't think either of those scenarios are likely for another year at least.

Unfortunately, there's plenty of standard def Fox and Disney precedent for exactly this happening.

Well, it's official. As is the DTS-MA announcement.

Looks at posts #3 and #9...