“Wild,” “Slevin” top DVD charts
From Reuters: “The lack of strong DVD releases kept both the animal cartoon “The Wild” and the gangster thriller “Lucky Number Slevin” in the top spots on the national DVD sales and rental charts, respectively, for the week ending September 24. The teen-gymnast saga “Stick It” debuted at No. 2 on VideoScan’s First Alert sales chart and No. 6 on trade publication Home Media Retailing’s video rental chart.”
Sony’s Phil Harrison on 1080p, Blu-ray
From DailyTech: “On the ever-present question regarding price, Harrison was asked what effect the Blu-ray drive has on the cost of PlayStation 3. Harrison explains that the decision to include Blu-ray was solely for the sake of game developers, and not for playing movies. So in that regard, the machine’s ability to play Blu-ray movies should be thought of as free. Citing launch title Resistance requiring 20GB of disc space, games several years from now could be utilizing the full 50GB capacity of the medium.”
Gadget review: Samsung’s Blu-ray player
From Digit: “Superb video and audio quality at a steep price…that’s my immediate take on the Samsung BD-P1000 Blu-ray player. Of course, a mix of factors is likely to drive the price down in the not too distant future.”
X-Men III: The Last Stand
DVD Review takes a look at X-MEN III: “20th Century Fox Home Entertainment presents “X-Men III: The Last Stand” in an anamorphic widescreen 2.40:1 aspect ratio. I’m not sure what to make of this transfer. At times, the image quality is perfect, with lush greens, bright blues and deep reds bursting from the screen. But every now and again (mainly during the chaotic action scenes) everything seems to fall apart. There are some extremely noticeable pixelation issues and digital artifacts that turn all the images into mush. I’m quite surprised that a film of this magnitude has been given such a shoddy presentation. One can only hope that the screener copy I have here isn’t representative of the final product.”
The Terminator Trilogy Hits High-Def: Three Studios, Two Disc Formats, One Reviewer
From High-Def Digest: “It could only happen in Hollywood. With the release on September 26 of ‘Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines’ on HD DVD, all three Terminator movies will now be available on high-def — unfortunately, you’ll need both an HD DVD player and a Blu-ray player to see them all.”
New technology could nip DVD format war in the bud
From Computerworld: “The format war around next-generation DVDs may be over before it has begun, thanks to a breakthrough from a British media technology company. London-based New Medium Enterprises (NME) said today that it had solved a technical production problem that makes it possible to produce a cheap multiple-layer DVD containing one film in competing formats.”
How ‘Seven Samurai’ was saved
From CNN: “To begin the process, Criterion located an early negative and an early positive and determined the positive was the closest to the original. So the company made a new negative, using “Wetgate processing,” a chemical system that fills in flaws in the original material.”
Warner Announces The Lake House On All Three DVD Formats
On September 26, Warner Home Video takes the next step in the high definition revolution when it releases The Lake House, a poignant, time-travel romance starring Keanu Reeves (Constantine, A Scanner Darkly) and Sandra Bullock (Crash, Miss Congeniality 2), on all three formats simultaneously day and date: SD DVD, HD DVD and Blu-ray Disc.
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From Sony: An Evening With Kevin Smith 2
Sony Pictures Home Entertainment presents An Evening With Kevin Smith 2: Evening Harder on a 2-disc DVD set November 28th.
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From Sony: Monster House for October 24, 2006
Sony Pictures Home Entertainment will release the visually stunning, critically acclaimed audience favorite Monster House on DVD, Blu-ray Disc® and PSP™ just in time for the Halloween season on October 24, 2006.
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