WHV Press Release: Blood Diamond (Blu-Ray) & (HD DVD) (1 Viewer)

First HD DVD with web extras. Looks like it's not a combo MSRP is $28.99

http://hddvdformat.blogspot.com/2007...nabled-hd.html

The Blu-Ray will be released first but no IME or web based extras.
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showt...&#post10335960

A Bloody Jewel in High Def!


BLOOD DIAMOND
“One of the best movies of the year”
- Richard Roeper, EBERT & ROEPER

The Five Time Academy Award® Nominee
Debuts in High Definition
June 5 on Blu-ray Disc from Warner Home Video

Also Debuting For the First Time Ever July 2 on HD-DVD
The First WHV High Definition Title to Include New
Web-Enabled Features


Burbank, California (April 18, 2007) – June 5 marks Warner Home Video’s high definition debut of the heart-pounding adventure Blood Diamond on Blu-ray Disc, a must-have for Blu-ray Disc collectors. Blood Diamond has been nominated for five Academy Awards® including Best Actor (DiCaprio) and Best Supporting Actor (Hounsou). Also bursting with extras, the HD DVD will debut July 2 and includes commentary by director Edward Zwick, featurettes and production diaries.

The HD DVD of Blood Diamond will be the first HD DVD to include web-enabled extras which allows viewers to use their players to offer opinions in WHV’s online polls and to view other exciting special features such as maps of conflict pertaining to war-torn areas in Africa.

The HD DVD version of Blood Diamond will also contain the In-Movie Experience (IME), an exclusive interactive feature that allows viewers to enjoy new ways of accessing interviews and other material while the movie is running. In addition, for the first time WHV will include the new Focus Points feature that takes the viewer to exciting in-depth featurettes and production diaries. The IME for Blood Diamond allows viewers to embark on an epic journey with director Edward Zwick, charting the emotional and filmmaking challenges of Blood Diamond.

Acclaimed filmmaker Edward Zwick (Last Samurai, Glory) directs this thrilling epic about the human cost of the diamond trade set in war-torn Sierra Leone. The film which was touted as “undeniably gripping” (David Ansen, Newsweek), stars three-time Academy Award® nominee Leonardo DiCaprio (The Departed, The Aviator, Gangs of New York), two-time Academy Award nominee Djimon Hounsou (Constantine, Gladiator, In America) and Academy Award winner Jennifer Connelly (Little Children, A Beautiful Mind). The HD DVD and Blu-ray Discs will be available for $28.99 SRP. Order due date is May 1.

Blood Diamond is a powerful film that takes you on an unforgettable journey through harsh, yet astonishingly beautiful West Africa. Nominated as one of the best films of 2006 by the National Board of Review, Djimon Hounsou won Best Supporting Actor from the National Board of Review, and the Screen Actors Guild honored the film with Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Leading Role (Leonardo DiCaprio) and Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Supporting Role (Djimon Hounsou).

An ex-mercenary turned smuggler (Leonard DiCaprio). A Mende fisherman (Djimon Hounsou). Amid the explosive civil war overtaking 1999 Sierra Leone, these men join for two desperate missions: recovering a rare pink diamond of immense value and rescuing the fisherman’s son, conscripted as a child soldier into the brutal rebel forces ripping a swath of torture and bloodshed across the alternately beautiful and ravaged countryside. Directed by Edward Zwick (Glory, The Last Samurai), this urgent, intensely moving adventure shapes gripping human stories and heart-pounding action into a modern epic of profound impact.

Special Features:
Behind the Story
· Focus Points: Featurettes and Production Diaries
· Commentary by Director Edward Zwick
· Blood on the Stone: Follow a Diamond’s Path from the Ground to the Store
· Becoming Archer: Profiling Leonardo DiCaprio
· Journalism on the Front Line: Jennifer Connelly on Women Journalists at War
· Inside the Siege of Freetown: Edward Zwick on One of the Movie’s Pivotal Sequences
· Nas Shine on ’Em Music Video
· Theatrical Trailer

Interesting, two different release dates with HD DVD having the later date due to some features that will not be present on the BRD. Also, the July 2nd release for HD DVD is a Monday. A typo mistake on the press release?




Crawdaddy

i hope so because i can't wait to get my hands on this film in hd

as a side note: thank you warner for not making it as a bloody combo release

I suppose it is not surprising that the first film released in HD DVD format utilizing features not used before would cause a slight delay in it's release. For this I can wait the month. It will be interesting to see how these features fare.

Because all I do is play the movie and don't do extras at all, I'll pick up the BR release. This was a very impressive movie, good story, great cast, good action.

This is a much more fair alternative to what Warner has decided to do with the Matrix Trilogy release. Well done! Think of this as a standard version release followed by a special edition release to come later. Definitely something we're all accustomed to at this point.

At the same price though.

I am pretty much with you on extra features on releases, but I will wait for this one for curiosity sake only.

I recieved the following from Warner today:
Please be advised that the correct date for the HD DVD release of Warner Home Video’s Blood Diamond is July 3, 2007.

I thought it was a typo.

Sound on the discs are announced as being PCM 5.1 on the Blu-Ray edition and Dolby Digital Plus / Dolby Tru-HD on the HD-DVD.

Cool news. Good film that should look stellar in HD.

If the film is good, I'll buy the Blu-ray version. Could care less about the extras (and web based, at that!... I only hook a home theater item up to the internet to download a firmware update).

Too bad WB doesn't optimize the video encode for Blu-ray. It should be on a BD-50. They could easily have room for 24 bit PCM, but nooooooo.

Dan

That is why I am suspicious of WBs supposed commitment to neutrality. If they were truly neutral then the least they would do is ensure that both formats, at the minimum, have Dolby TrueHD tracks. However, they put a lossless track on the HD DVD and then fail to provide a lossless option on the BD. People call that being neutral!?

Paramount is more neutral than Warner Brothers. At least with Paramount the disc contents really are identical. Paramount doesn't provide lossless on either format.

then tell me why all paramount br releases have mpeg2 while the hd dvd has vc1 encoded feature films? also the trailers for tomb raider (only one i was able to compare) have higher quality encoding on hd dvd compared to the br releases.

this is not complaining but identical is a bit different

You got me there. I was thinking about the audio codecs and forgot to check on the video codecs. So you are right, my use of the word 'identical' is inaccurate.

So you do care about extras then if you could care LESS.

I find it funny you state as fact you'll buy the bluray version even though you have no clue how it will compare to the hd dvd version. If the hd dvd version is reviewed to have better sound would you get it or still show your bias towards bluray? I also find it funny you seem to imply the bluray version could look better if Warner wasn't being cheap yet of all my bluray exclusive releases none blow away the best of hd dvd meaning they look the same in terms of overall quality. I fail to see why people think Bluray can transform HD because of the higher space/bitrate when again, comparing releases on each format proves there is no real difference.

I for one choose versions of releases on each format based on the quality and then price rather than specs on paper that for the most are proven to be trivial in terms of the final product.

So Rob Young which version are you going to get?

Some cover art for you lads...



I'm in.