The Blu-ray Thread v1.0

Septimus_Prime · July 17, 2009, 11:03pm

They need to stop calling the digital copy disc a third disc. That shit won’t even play on your player.

DarkGiygas · July 20, 2009, 5:21pm

Wow my wallet is getting raped the next couple of months. :sad:

Tomorrow - Watchmen
Aug 4 - Big Trouble in Little China, Blade 2
Sept 22 - Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz

angryliberal · July 20, 2009, 5:26pm

I was at Fry’s the other day and saw the Criterion copy of My Dinner with Andre…must have! Also, I need to pick up Let the Right One In…but I have no money…

edit: shoot, I thought this was the regular DVD thread…sorry…

odin · July 20, 2009, 7:03pm

please please please dont let them fuck up BTiLC

Septimus_Prime · July 20, 2009, 9:56pm

Have you considered upgrading to Blu-ray? Criterion sets are still top tier in the Blu domain.

rsigley · July 21, 2009, 2:24am

except for half of their movies with poor transfers

also criterion preserves the movies audio how it was intended so a lot of the movies have only 2 speakers not 5.1 etc.

AkumaTX · July 22, 2009, 11:55pm

The BBC High Definition Natural History Collection (Planet Earth / Wild China / Galapagos / Ganges)
Batman Begins
Ghostbusters

$120 is what i just paid for those 3 at amazon

Celcius · July 24, 2009, 5:05am

I got Afro Samurai Resurrection and something else a few days before the “release-date” at best buy in the past, so I thought they’d also do the same thing with fast and furious. I guess I was wrong because they seem determined to make me wait until the 28th (although one woman let me know they do have 71 BD copies in stock lol). :annoy:

Celcius · July 26, 2009, 7:45pm

Tuesday I plan on picking up Fast and Furious in-store, but I just ordered these from amazon:

300
FF7AC
Iron Man
Incredible Hulk
:woot:

Dios_X · July 27, 2009, 3:22am

watchmen on blu is too sick. time to watch it again

DeathReaper47 · July 27, 2009, 4:13am

any affordable sound system you guys recommend?

Septimus_Prime · July 27, 2009, 4:17am

Define “affordable.” A couple hundred dollars? A couple thousand?

As always, I would just recommend going to blu-ray.com and reading its Audio forums.

DeathReaper47 · July 27, 2009, 4:28am

Definitely more of the former, than the latter.

Septimus_Prime · July 27, 2009, 4:33am

http://forum.blu-ray.com/forumdisplay.php?f=79

rsigley · July 27, 2009, 4:44am

if you’re on a budget i’d buy it in parts

htib are shit unless you live in an apartment

if you live in a house just start by buying the receiver, center, then the sides, then the rears, then a good subwoofer

if you’re ona budget might take a while but it will be worth it

maybe buy a htib first then swap them out with new pieces as you buy them?

MiLky · July 28, 2009, 12:52am

I can’t link it cause I’m on my phone, but on AICN front page they have some news on LOTR BD’s. Apparently the extended editions are coming out a year or so after the regular ones. I hate this, don’t want to double dip on Blu-rays, but that’s a long wait. I will wait impatiently of course, but hate this practice. Don’t blame them for milking what they can from consumers willing to buy the sub-par versions to hold them over till the good ones, but I certainly don’t like it.

AkumaTX · July 28, 2009, 1:13am

Planet Earth was longggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggg

I will admit though, i did enjoy Wild China more.

My Ghostbusters should be showing up today.

GreyFoxx · July 28, 2009, 11:17pm

Picked up watchmen for 20 at BB since they sent me a Reward zone discount for $5 looked too sweet and man door kick in’s are loud as hell!!!

Celcius · July 29, 2009, 5:46am

While I was out buying F&F 4, I also picked up Tokyo Drift. :tup:

Septimus_Prime · July 31, 2009, 9:43pm

http://www.videobusiness.com/article/CA6673911.html?industryid=47212

Paramount puts Blu-ray first in staggered release
PHYSICAL: Standard DVD also available without extras to rental accounts
By Susanne Ault – Video Business, 7/29/2009

JULY 29 | PHYSICAL: Paramount Home Entertainment is hoping to boost two growing segments of the home entertainment business?Blu-ray sales and Blu-ray and DVD rentals?with a new staggered release strategy that holds DVDs back from retail sales for a month or more after a title?s initial release.

The studio?s Dance Flick will street as an unrated Blu-ray edition at sell-through and rental outlets and as a rated standard DVD available only to the rental channel on Sept. 8. The Blu-ray packs in outtakes, deleted scenes and an alternate ending. The rental version holds the movie only.

A standard-def sell-through version of Dance Flick will roll out to retail four to eight weeks later, according to the studio. It?s not clear which extras will be included on that edition.

The studio is aiming to expand Blu-ray consumption by giving the format a head-start. Additionally, Paramount is targeting rental at a time when the channel is enjoying an upswing. For the first half of 2009, U.S. rental revenue of both formats rose 8.3%, according to Rentrak, while DVD sales fell more than 15%, according to DEG: The Digital Entertainment Group. Blu-ray sales almost doubled.

?We have been strategically evaluating new and innovative ways to maximize retail opportunities for each individual title,? said Ken Williams, Paramount executive VP of sales. ?We believe that a DVD rental window will increase revenue in that channel and that releasing a Blu-ray exclusively for sell-through will help drive adoption of the format, so it?s a win-win scenario.?

Paramount has not announced any other titles that will be subject to the new staggered-release policy. A studio spokeswoman indicated that Paramount will evaluate each title and implement the strategy on a case-by-case basis.

The studio?s plans follow Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment pioneering the bow of Blu-ray versions before standard-def editions. Although many retailers failed to comply, Disney intended Blu-ray editions of Bolt and Bedtime Stories to street several days before their standard-definition versions launched on shelves. Disney will next roll out Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs on Blu-ray on Oct. 6, seven weeks before the new standard-def DVD version hits on Nov. 24.

In contrast to Paramount, Disney typically bundles a DVD inside its Blu-ray family releases, making the early release Blu-ray titles accessible to anyone.

Paramount is not offering a DVD packaged with the Blu-ray of Dance Flick.

Sell-through and rental outlets’ reaction to Paramount’s Dance Flick strategy is mixed. Some worry that a staggered release strategy will only serve to confuse consumers.

“If [Paramount] markets the title for Sept. 8, people are going to think they can buy the DVD on that day, and they can’t,” said David Barker, VP of ecommerce marketing at Infinity Resources.

Yet certain rentailers, such as Massachusetts’ Video Zone, are pleased that there will be an exclusive rental window for Dance Flick on DVD and have adjusted their order on the title upward for that reason.

“I applaud the studio for trying this, and we’ll take advantage of it,” Video Zone owner Todd Zaganiacz said.

One potential downside for rentailers is their cost to purchase the Sept. 8 DVD carries about a $4 premium over typical standard DVD orders. In an additional wrinkle, rentailers say that in order to revenue share the Sept. 8 Dance Flick, they must agree to hold off selling the copies as previously viewed for a substantial amount of time?well after the DVD version rolls out for sale.

Overall, retailers believe it is difficult to predict how Paramount’s Dance Flick strategy will play with consumers, considering the title’s modest $26 million U.S. theatrical gross.

“It’s hard to know what direction you should go or how to deal with it,” said Zaganiacz. “Given the profile of the movie, it’s not causing a lot of heartburn.”

I hope this sets a precedence for BD releases before their DVD counterparts. With Watchmen BD sales accounting for 36% of all disc sales last week, I think this year or next will be the one where we can finally say goodbye to DVD dominance.