King Kong on HD-DVD Nov 14th! (1 Viewer)

[Chris S]

DVDActive.com just posted the following:


Finally a big event title hits the high def format!!

 

[Chuck Mayer]

$40?

Kong will sell me a player, but that's a steep price for software.

 

[dpippel]

The high MSRP indicates that Kong will probably be a combo disc, which doesn't bode well if the HD side is only 15GB. Let's hope it's a 30GB.

 

[John Troutman]

The high MSRP might also indicate a two-disc release, MI-3 style, which would make sense given the extreme length of the film. Disc one for the movie, disc two for the buttload of extras.

 

[Tim Glover]

It will probably be on Amazon for around $27 or so. I noticed that on some other combos or titles that listed for $39.98. Still, that's pretty high.

I'm guessing KK will look rather spectacular on HD-DVD. Can you imagine the Kong-VRex fight in 1080p and Dolby Digital Plus...

Neighbors will be calling the police on this one.

 

[Jesse Blacklow]

You'd think for a flagship title like this, they'd throw in at least Dolby TrueHD (since it sounds like DD+ is roughly equal to regular DD). Nor is it the Extended Edition, which doesn't bode well for the LOTR EEs. One or the other would have been nice, but to have neither when there will already be other titles coming out with both extended cuts and lossless audio sounds like they're aiming for a re-release. And it's possible that it's a combo disc? They better hope the name is enough to make it the killer title everybody says it will be.

 

[Robert Crawford]

The studios consider any film released on video within the first 12 months of it's theatrical run a new title, thus, it's priced higher than a catalogue title like Waterworld and The Hulk. It's just another way for them to recoup some production costs still on their books that are associated from making the film.




Crawdaddy

 

[Tim Glover]

If it were up to me....and it's not, if it's indeed a combo disc-I would have the theatrical edition on one side, and the extended version on the other. But that's just me.

And, so far, Universal, while exclusively in the HD-DVD camp, has not released any titles with Dolby TrueHD yet.

 

[Marc Colella]

There's no way it's a combo disc with the HD side being 15GB.

The movie runs too long and there's too much going in for it to fit comfortably on a 15GB side.

 

[Jesper]

It might be the first "30/9" combo disc...

 

[Ed St. Clair]

That's no fun!
What are people going to complain about now?
Oh, yeah!
V, Batman, Harry...

 

[Larry Sutliff]

Really looking forward to this one. Don't care whether it's a combo as long as it looks and sounds good.

 

[Randy Korstick]

After going through the same thing with Laserdisc and DVD I'm already expecting this patern. The Extended version of Kong with Dolby TrueHD will be released later just as I'm sure we will get the theatrical LOTR 1st and then the EE's later.

 

[Chris S]

A re-release from Universal? Never!

 

[dpippel]

You're probably correct, especially considering the $29.98 pre-order price that's now posted on Universal Home Video's site for it:

http://homevideo.universalstudios.co...?childId=36572

Apparently there's some confusion out there regarding MSRP on these titles.

 

[dpippel]

Does this still hold true when the film has already been released on SD DVD? I wonder. I can see them charging a premium for Kong because it's a HD-DVD 2 disc set, but the SD DVD has been out for MONTHS. The consumer isn't gonna buy that "new title" stuff for a film that's been available for twenty bucks down at the corner drugstore since March. I think any studio would have a hard time playing that card to justify higher pricing for a HD release.

 

[Robert Crawford]

The beancounters will squeeze blood out of a turnip and just because it was already released on DVD, wouldn't prevent them from doing so. Also, this will be first of HD/BRD releases for this title. DD City here we come.

 

[Dan Hitchman]

So, Fox supposedly does 24 bit DTS-HD Master Audio for a title like Behind Enemy Lines and King Kong gets a DD+ track that may not sound any better than a 640 kilobits/sec DD track?

According to released specs. even John Carpenter's The Thing, also from Universal, is getting a TrueHD lossless track!

Universal is weird.

Dan

 

[Shawn.F]

I think Universal dropped the TruHD track on "The Thing". According to HD DVD Format Blog.com the following titles had the TruHD audio track listing removed by Universal:

The Fast and the Furious
2 Fast 2 Furious
12 Monkeys
Out of Sight
The Thing

Now, of course, had Toshiba not updated their players with TruHD 5.1 via the latest firmware, each and every title here, including King Kong, would have TruHD.

 

[Dan Hitchman]

Then I still stand by my last statement: Universal is weird!



Dan