October 2006

EIV not supporting HD DVD

Back in September, I reported, based on the pre-order catalogue at Play.com, that British DVD distributor Entertainment In Video was planning to release a number of HD DVD titles, among them films owned by studios that are currently Bu-ray supporters, including Saw, Basic Instinct 2 and Gangs of New York. Thoroughly disappointed by the standard definition release of the latter, I pre-ordered the HD DVD, with the expectation that it would be my first European high definition purchase.

Unfortunately, I must now report that I have it on good authority that Entertainment In Video are, for the present time at least, a Blu-ray exclusive studio. This comes direct from EIV themselves, which means that, for the time being, these titles are not going to be available in HD DVD. Of course, that doesn’t mean they won’t be released at a later date, if and when EIV’s Blu-ray sales are disappointing or they see the sense in supporting both formats, but it’s incredibly disappointing news nonetheless. I’d recommend contacting EIV and letting them know what you think, but unfortunately they are extremely difficult to get a hold of. They don’t even have a web site, for crying out loud!

Play’s Blu-ray bias

I received a copy of the latest Play.com catalogue this morning. A brief flick through it reveals that this UK supplier, at least, is actively advertising the high definition video formats that are due to debut in this country very soon. Oh, wait a minute, that’s not quite right. They’re advertising high definition video alright, but it turns out that they’re only advertising one of the two formats. Care to guess which one?

Apparently,

[t]he Samsung BD-P1000 is the next generation in disc players. Designed to accomodate our High-Def lifestyle, it will let you watch all discs containing your HD favourites […] These give the best-quality picture for HD recordings and each one will hold up to 25GB on a single side (or, in the case of a dual-sided* disc, 50GB!).

So, Play, what’s your game? Have you never heard of HD DVD? I’m guessing you have, given that you have the Toshiba HD-E1 up for pre-order at less than half the price of the BD-P1000, but I’m guessing you’ve got a good enough reason for not bothering to advertise it. (So come on, how much is Sony paying you?) One thing’s for sure, Play, you’re going to have quite a few angry customers at your door when they discover that, in actual fact, the Blu-ray machine doesn’t “let you watch all discs”.

* I think they mean dual-layer, not dual-sided.

Wolf Creek HD in December

Source: High-Def Digest

The Weinstein Company have confirmed a release date of December 5th for the already announced Wolf Creek. While I don’t think the film is any sort of masterpiece, I did consider it to be a reasonably effective horror movie, and the fact that it was itself shot in 1920x1080 high definition (the same resolution as HD DVD) should make it an interesting title, because, barring lossy compression, it should essentially be a 1:1 copy of the original source material. Another one for the list, then.

Search function added

Back in the previous version of my site, I added a Google search bar to my main page. I don’t know how much use it got, but I certainly found it to be a most helpful addition on a number of occasions. Now, I’ve added something similar to the new design, with the added benefit that it searches only pages generated by Movable Type. In other words, type something into the box at the top right hand side of the main news page, and it’ll display a list of results found in the News, Movies and DVDs sections of the site.

Give it a try - it’s quite powerful, and the fact that it isn’t searching through every single ancient archive on the site means that the results tend to be a bit more relevant. Of course, if you actually are looking for something from back in 2001 or whatever, then it won’t be much use to you, but I’ll see if I can come up with a solution to this.

Update, October 5, 2006 11:03 PM: The search function will now only display results for News posts, ignoring material from the Movies and DVDs sections.

New Aimee Mann in October

I recently posted that one of my favourite musicians, Sarah McLachlan, was to release a Christmas-themed album this month. Now, one of my other favourite musicians, Aimee Mann (who, coincidentally, I was watching in the Buffy episode Sleeper last night), is jumping aboard the bandwagon (pun not intended) with a similar release. One More Drifter in the Snow, due out on October 24th, is “a collection of holiday classics and two original beautiful and bittersweet songs”.

Of course, I’ll have to get myself a copy, although I’m still not sure how I feel about the whole “Christmas cover albums” thing.

Update, October 27, 2006 10:41 AM: It seems that the UK release has been delayed until November 27th.

Update #2, December 19, 2006 05:53 PM: Fixed dead link.

Upcoming Zach Braff projects

Parma Violets’s post first drew this to my attention: Frametracker has written a very amusing article on (fake) future Zach Braff vehicles. The last one especially made me laugh:

Choosers Can’t Be Beggars

Willie (Zach Braff), a thriving Hollwood actor and future legend, is killed in a tragic car accident while being fellated simultaneously by his two bi-curious mistresses (Cameron Diaz and Kirsten Dunst). When he arrives in heaven, God (Woody Allen) tells him that, as a reward for his virtuous life and excellent, cutting-edge acting work, he can return to earth and take any woman he chooses as his wife. But who can choose, Willie? Who can choose?

Seriously, I quite liked Garden State, despite its pseudo-intellectual pretentious “I’m really deep but actually have nothing worthwhile to say” emo overtones, but bitch-slap articles like these are so dead-on it’s scary. I have nothing against Braff, you know, and enjoy his work on the brainless but amiable Scrubs when I’ve got nothing better to do with my time, but his profound(-but-actually-not-really) everyman schtick is beginning to wear a little thin.

How it feels to be wanted

I got my first rejection letter yesterday. I never mentioned it, because, in the heat of the moment… well, I forgot, but I couple of weeks back I sent out a bunch of job applications. Two were to libraries, one was for a desk job at Strathclyde University’s modern languages department, and the other was to an online firm, Prospect Solution, where I will (hopefully) be writing essays, doing proofreading, and so on. (Hell, supply and demand - if people are willing to pay for it, I’m willing to do it!) I recently got a preliminary acceptance email for the Prospect Solution gig, but am holding off until the results for my MLitt come in before I send them my full details. In any event, it may turn out that it’s something that brings in little work and money, so I need to keep my options open.

Anyway, yesterday morning I got a rejection letter from the Glasgow School of Art’s library. “Dear Mr. Mackenzie, thanks for your application, but we regret to inform you that bla bla bla…” It’s fair enough, I suppose, and I’m all too aware that rejections are a necessary part of the process, but I wish that, in these circumstances, they would give some indicator of why you were turned down. Something like “Dear Mr. Mackenzie, there are other people better qualified than you,” or “Dear Mr. Mackenzie, we saw the picture that you included on your CV and would never employ someone has grotesque as yourself.” Then again, experience has taught me that employers have a habit of trying to let you down gently when they decide they don’t want you. I do, after all, speak with the experience of someone who is one of the few people ever to have been turned away by McDonalds. Much to my relief, I might add, but the spotty-faced deputy manager who interviewed me was typically cagey as to his reasons for rejecting me. He said something along the lines of “I don’t think you’d be right for McDonalds,” which I suspect is polite talk for “You wouldn’t last a minute in front of a deep fat fryer,” or “I actually wanted someone to work from midnight to 8 AM, but you weren’t having it.” Either way, it was a narrow escape.

Sorry, I seem to have gone a little off topic. Anyway, onwards and upwards. I’ll no doubt be firing off a fresh batch of applications before too long. And until someone offers me a job, I’m actually quite enjoying the unexpected leisure time. It’s allowing me to catch up on some of the things I like to do, namely writing reviews, watching movies and trawling my way through Season 7 of Buffy. Although, in the case of the latter, “like to do” is perhaps a bit of a stretch.

Garth Marenghi’s Darkplace: The Complete Series

Darkplace will, I suspect, be something of an acquired taste. An appreciation of its attention to detail and a proper understanding of its comedy requires some familiarity with the material being lampooned, while many are likely to be put off by the fact that it is essentially the same joke repeated over and over again. However, those who grew up on 1980s horror and sci-fi, much of it bad, should get a real kick out of Darkplace. It is in my opinion one of the funniest comedies of the last decade, and the fact that part of me knows that, had it really aired in the 80s, I would almost certainly have tuned in religiously, is proof that it operates on some level beyond simply making fun of its source material.

Finally getting the DVD release that fans have been clamouring for since it originally aired in 2004, I’ve reviewed Garth Marenghi’s Darkplace: The Complete Series, presenting all six episodes of the horror/sci-fi spoof on a single disc with numerous extras. Darkplace is released on October 16th 2006.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Season 7, Episode 8: Sleeper

Written by David Fury & Jane Espenson; Directed by Alan J. Levi

Spike has started walking around without his shirt on again. One can only assume that Marti Noxon has returned from maternity leave, presumably to take control of the show. Thing is, I liked it better when no-one was in charge, earlier on in the season. (And I truly believe that no-one was in charge. Joss Whedon was busy with Firefly, Noxon was squeezing out a brat, David Fury was - by his own admission - spending more time on Angel, and neither Douglas Petrie or Jane Espenson strike me as having being significantly invested in the show to have taken over showrunning duties. Rather, they strike me as having been writers for hire who were, by this stage, just intent on getting the job done.) It was directionless, sure, but at least it was largely fun and occasionally meaningful. Now, with Captain Marti steering the ship, it remains directionless, but becomes completely boring.

Anyway, nothing much happens in this episode, except Buffy tries to find out whether or not Spike is killing humans again. Yawn. The highlight of the episode is that they managed to get one of my favourite musicians, Aimee Mann, to guest star at the Bronze, where she mimes two songs from (at the time) her most recent album, Lost in Space… although her line as she exits, “Man, I hate playing vampire towns,” is one of those odd “breaking the fourth wall” moments that really doesn’t sit well with me.

Overall rating: 5/10.

Next time: Never Leave Me.

Blu-ray to begin region coding; HD DVD remains region free

Source: AV Science Forum

From Variety (subscription required, so I’m quoting it in full):

To keep a lid on piracy, the Blu-ray Disc Assn. has decided to use regional codes for film discs released in the format. The coded discs will debut this fall.

New code system differs from the one in place for standard DVDs in that Japan, the Americas and East Asian countries other than China all share Region 1. Europe and Africa are grouped in Region 2, while China, Russia and any remaining territories are lumped into Region 3.

New system will be used for pics and games including Sony PlayStation 3.

To thwart the use of all-region players, Blu-ray regional codes will be burned into the optical discs.

The rival HD DVD camp, led by Toshiba, will not use regional codes.

Decision to using a coding system emerged from talks between Advanced Access Content System members who belong to the Blu-ray Disc Assn. Warner Bros. reportedly opposed the system, citing the ineffectiveness of the current coding setup for conventional DVDs, but was outvoted.

So they’re pulling out the “piracy” argument again to justify their anti free trade restrictions? Yawn! What has regional coding got to do with combating piracy? Importing a disc from a different country is not piracy in any shape or form… and, if they’re worried about people buying cheap bootleg copies from China and Russia (which they specifically grouped into the “pirate” region of Region 3, as it happens!), then I have to ask what self-respecting pirate would even consider applying regional codes to his wares?

In other news, with only a month to go before they’re due on shelves, Playstation 3 units at the recent Tokyo Game Show were apparently overheating. Yep, the future’s looking pretty blu…

Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Season 7, Episode 7: Conversations with Dead People

Written by Jane Espenson, Drew Goddard, Marti Noxon (uncredited) & Joss Whedon (uncredited); Directed by Nick Marck

This is the closest Season 7 gets to an episode that is a genuine masterpiece, and the reason for that is that it is one of the few that attempts to do anything approaching an intelligent look at the issues raised in Season 6 and the themes of Season 7. Chiefly, we get to hear Buffy admitting what we’ve all known for a long time: that she has a superiority complex and thinks she’s better than her friends. The episode also manages to be genuinely unsettling in its depiction of the poltergeist that invades the Summers house and attacks Dawn, while the central concept of the episode - none of the main characters come into contact with each other (in fact, Xander and Anya aren’t even in it, making this the one episode out of the entire run of 144 that Nicholas Brendon missed) - is pretty nifty.

Still, there are some major problems. As good as the aforementioned poltergeist material is, it makes no sense in the grand scheme of things. Originally, I thought it was either the First preventing Joyce’s spirit from contacting Dawn, or indeed that the vision of Joyce was the first. Either way, her line to Dawn, “When it’s bad, Buffy won’t choose you. She’ll be against you,” is never followed up on. If it’s Joyce genuinely trying to warn Dawn, then it’s nonsensical enough, but if it’s actually the First, then the attacks make even less sense, since it is established that the First is incorporeal and can’t affect anything physically, which means that it would be impossible for it to smash up the house and give Dawn a thrashing.

The other big problem is the Willow material. I’ve seen the original script, and the plan was for Willow to be visited by what first appears to be the ghost of Tara, but eventually reveals itself to be the First, after failing to convince Willow to slash her own wrists. In the episode as it airs, Willow is visited by the First in the guise of Cassie (the girl from Help). Unfortunately, this makes little sense, as Willow never even met Cassie. And, if the First can appear in the guise of (and I quote) “any dead person it wants”, including Buffy (who has, after all, been dead twice), Spike and Drusilla (who are, after all, technically dead), the Mayor, Glory and so on, who not Tara?

There is of course a completely straightforward answer: Amber Benson flatly refused to have anything to do with an episode that would cause even more heartache to a community of fans already extremely uset by her character’s death. And this, more than anything, is perhaps the biggest scandal of Season 7. When the season ended, Joss Whedon, confronted in an interview with IGN about various problems with the season, came up with a grand story about how his original plan was that Tara was eventually going to be resurrected and return to Willow and everyone would be all smiles and he cried every time he pitched the story because it was so heartwarming… but then that horrible Amber Benson refused to do it. As it happens, though, Amber tells a completely different story, saying that Whedon never once mentioned a happy ending to her, and that she was under the impression that he wanted to appear as the First and only as the First, something that she wasn’t prepared to do to her fans. (And I can’t say I’m surprised. She of all the cast and crew members seemed to be the one who most “got” the social significance of the role she played - although, given that at least one lesbian viewer told her that she didn’t commit suicide “because of Willow and Tara”, it would take a very dim person not to get it.)

Here the vindictiveness of Whedon really comes out, as he did his absolute best to make her out to be the bad guy, pulling his usual “tortured artist” schtick, when, as has been pointed out numerous times, if he hadn’t made the decision to kill off Tara in the first place, the whole sorry situation could have been avoided. He behaved in a similar way with Charisma Carpenter on Angel, deciding not to renew her contract after she got pregnant and therefore required his precious artistic vision for the fourth season to be altered (although, given that they seemed to be making that season up as they went along, I suspect that he was once again looking for someone other than himself to blame for its shortcomings). Then again, it’s always someone else’s fault with this guy: apparently Alien: Resurrection’s problems are Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s fault, the Buffy movie sucked because of Donald Sutherland, and so on and so forth.

Am I rambling? Sorry.

Oh yeah, and one other thing I forgot: Andrew kills Jonathan in this episode. That’s right, murders him in cold blood. And yet somehow, despite knowing this, Buffy and co are more than happy to let him hang about in their house for the rest of the season.

Overall rating: 8/10.

Next time: Sleeper.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Season 7, Episode 6: Him

Written by Drew Z. Greenberg; Directed by Michael Gershman

What’s the biggest problem with Season 7? (Apart from it generally being boring and lifeless, that is.) Continuity. This episode is fun in a ridiculously cheesy throwaway manner, but it seems to exist in its own reality because, outside of a brief moment near the start that acknowledges what’s been going on in Anya’s life, the characters act as if the events of previous episodes never took place. Anya, who was utterly depressed at the end of Selfless, is back to her cheery Season 4-5 self; Willow, who, less than six months ago, was standing with the love of her life’s blood splattered all over her, is busy falling head over heels for a generic high school jock and contemplating casting a spell to rid herself of the slight inconvenience of him having a penis (I don’t care that he’s wearing an enchanted jacket that makes all women crazy about him - Willow would never do this!); and Spike - Spike - is busy moving in with Xander. You know, the same Spike who Xander wanted to kill after he boned Anya and tried to rape Buffy? Well, apparently not, because in this episode the two behave pretty much like old pals who’ve had a minor tiff in the past. Perhaps, though, this is Drew Greenberg’s niche: stupid, throwaway episodes that have nothing to do with the main story arc and can be syndicated out of their original production order. To be honest, I suspect that this is the sort of material we would have seen with the aborted Buffy animated series. Who knows? Perhaps the episode was even written for it. That said, as mediocre as it is, it’s certainly considerably better than anything else he ever wrote for the show, although I’m still not ready to forgive him for Older and Far Away or The Killer in Me (review for that particular travesty forthcoming).

This is, by the way, the last filler episode before the main Seasonal Arc of Morbidity kicks into gear, so you might at well savour it. It’s more or less all doom and gloom from here.

Overall rating: 6/10.

Next time: Conversations with Dead People.

Fear and Loathing of the State

The extended edition of Enemy of the State (R1 USA) and the recently-released HD DVD version of Terry Gilliam’s Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (R0 USA) both arrived today from DVD Pacific. I’ve given Enemy of the State the once-over, and my report will, for now, be brief. Basically, it contains the same extras as the R2 UK release I already own - nothing more, nothing less. The transfer, meanwhile, features considerably less obtrusive edge enhancement than its British counterpart, but on the downside looks abnormally soft. Additionally, it strikes me as having much weaker colours than the R2, although I’ll have to do a side by side comparison to make sure. Either way, I’m curious to see the extended cut, but the new transfer doesn’t exactly set the world on fire.

On to Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, where I’m happy to report that things are better all round.

We all know how weak Criterion’s transfer of the film was, right? Actually, we probably don’t, because practically every review I’ve ever read of that release gave it a 10/10 (or equivalent) for image quality.

(On a side note, isn’t it amazing how a company’s own self-publicity can convince the public that said company is providing a better service than it actually is? The number of reviews I’ve read where writers praise Criterion to the heavens is just astounding, when in fact the discs they’re praising are so mediocre that they’re clearly not in a position to distinguish in the first place between a good disc and a great one! I actually bought into it myself for a long time, on the basis of a couple of stellar titles and a couple of not so stellar ones, whereby I believed the hype and assumed that the not so stellar ones were just blips. As it turns out, the reverse is closer to the truth: the stellar transfers are the ones that are the blips. In the end, as it happens, the average Criterion release is no better in terms of image quality than one from any other studio. I still thank them every day for spearheading the movement to present films in their original aspect ratios, and for creating the first LaserDiscs with bonus features, and for brilliant-looking discs like The Rock and Naked Lunch, but nowadays I’m convinced that the praise of their DVDs is a prestige thing rather than something grounded in reality.)

Anyway, the Criterion DVD looked abnormally poor, as did Universal’s version. Luckily, though, they’ve now been superceded by an HD DVD release which, while being rather bare-bones in comparison with Criterion’s stacked 2-disc release, and while not featuring a “perfect” HD DVD transfer like Serenity and Unleashed, is so much better than what preceded it that it’s literally like watching a different film.

Taken from a film element (presumably the 35mm interpositive also used for the Criterion and Universal standard definition releases, judging by the identical print damage), the first thing that leaps out is the monumental increase in clarity. The opening drive through the desert looks fresh and new, lacking the hazy, foggy appearance of the DVDs and literally coming alive in terms of film grain. The close-ups are eye-popping - for example, I never noticed Johnny Depp’s character’s clumsy shaving job before. Naturally, the increase in clarity continues to be evident throughout the film, although this is more evident in some scenes than others. The dark, low contrast sequences in the hotel, for example, unsurprisingly look slightly less defined than those taking place in the stark sunlight of the desert. The transfer is also pleasingly free of tampering, although, like Red Dragon, it also exhibits a degree of horizontal edge enhancement.

This is overall a mid to high 8/10. It’s fairly near the bottom of the heap as far as Universal’s HD DVD transfers go, but that’s no small achievement given how uniformally excellent they’ve been so far. For comparison, I’d put it on around the same level as Warner’s Constantine, which also suffered from slight edge enhancement.

UMD outselling Blu-ray at Amazon

Source: AV Science Forum

Actually, Sony’s UMDs are selling at a better clip than BR right now!! Check out the bestseller’s for UMD:

#1 Xmen 3 — #2,148
#2 Pirates 2 — #6,894

Blu-ray:

#1 Click — #4,154
#2 Tears of the Sun — #4,706

Please permit me a moment of immaturity. I just find this very funny.

Films I want on HD DVD

Just for laughs, I thought I’d compile a list of movies that I’d dearly love to see released on HD DVD, either because the current standard definition release is particularly poor, or because the film is particularly visually stunning and could especially benefit from the increased resolution, or just because I love the film in question. I’ve also listed the relative probability of each title seeing the light of day on my high definition format of choice.

• Amelie. Owned by Miramax (Disney) in the US. Disney are currently committed to Blu-ray, although they have shown no open hostility to HD DVD, and indeed executives have been quoted as saying that they expect to eventually release titles for both formats. In the UK, the rights are owned by Momentum, a division of Studio Canal, who have committed to HD DVD in Europe. Likely.
• American Beauty. Owned by DreamWorks, whose titles will from now on be distributed by Paramount, who support both HD DVD and Blu-ray. Likely.
• American Psycho. Owned by Lions Gate, who so far have released titles for Blu-ray. This particular title was announced for an October 17th release, but was recently delayed until “early 2007”, apparently because Lions Gate are switching to VC1 as their codec of choice. Nothing has been publicly announced yet, but it is generally acknowledged that Lions Gate are preparing to go dual-format, so are likely to support HD DVD before the end of 2006, and intend to release all their Blu-ray titles on HD DVD as well. In the UK, the film is owned by Entertainment In Video, who, judging by the pre-orders at Play.com, intend to support both formats. Possibility.
• An American Werewolf in London. Owned by Universal, who are HD DVD exclusive. It has been announced as an HD DVD/SD DVD combo, with a street date of November 28th 2006. Definite.
• The Bird with the Crystal Plumage. Owned by Blue Underground, who have yet to announce any HD plans, but, like most independent labels, are likely to go with HD DVD due to the lower cost and lack of monopolisation by Sony. Possibility.
• The Birds. Owned by Universal, who are HD DVD exclusive. Likely.
• Blade. Owned by New Line, who intend to release for both HD DVD and Blu-ray starting in early 2007. Likely.
• A Bug’s Life. Owned by Disney, who are currently committed to Blu-ray, although they have shown no open hostility to HD DVD, and indeed executives have been quoted as saying that they expect to eventually release titles for both formats. Possibility.
• A Clockwork Orange. Owned by Warner, who release for both formats. This title is one that Warner have confirmed that they intend to release, but no date has been given yet. Definite.
• Crash (Cronenberg). Owned by New Line, who intend to release for both HD DVD and Blu-ray starting in early 2007. Likely.
• Deep Red. Owned by Anchor Bay, who have yet to announce any HD plans, but, like most independent labels, are likely to go with HD DVD due to the lower cost and lack of monopolisation by Sony. Possibility.
• The Descent. Owned by Lions Gate, who so far have released titles for Blu-ray. Nothing has been publicly announced yet, but it is generally acknowledged that Lions Gate are preparing to go dual-format, so are likely to support HD DVD before the end of 2006, and intend to release all their Blu-ray titles on HD DVD as well. In the UK, the film is owned by Pathé, who have committed to HD DVD in Europe. Likely.
• Dial M for Murder. Owned by Warner, who release for both formats. Likely.
• Don’t Look Now. Owned by Paramount, who support both HD DVD and Blu-ray. In the UK, the title is owned by Studio Canal, who have committed to HD DVD. Likely.
• Eyes Wide Shut. Owned by Warner, who release for both formats. This title is one that Warner have confirmed that they intend to release, but no date has been given yet. Definite.
• Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. Already available from HD DVD from Universal, and constitutes a massive improvement on the SD releases from both Universal and Criterion. Available now.
• Finding Nemo. Owned by Disney, who are currently committed to Blu-ray, although they have shown no open hostility to HD DVD, and indeed executives have been quoted as saying that they expect to eventually release titles for both formats. Possibility.
• Frenzy. Owned by Universal, who are HD DVD exclusive. Likely.
• Gangs of New York. Owned by Miramax (Disney) in the US. Disney are currently committed to Blu-ray, although they have shown no open hostility to HD DVD, and indeed executives have been quoted as saying that they expect to eventually release titles for both formats. In the UK, the rights are owned by Entertainment In Video, who have sided with Blu-ray and are releasing it in November. Possibility.
• Hannibal. A co-production by MGM and Universal. MGM owns the rights in the US, while Universal owns them in Europe. Fox, who are currently a Blu-ray exclusive studio and unlikely to budge until Blu-ray crashes and burns, now own MGM’s catalogue, so the title is unlikely to see a US release in the near future. In the UK, however, it is a distinct possibility. Likely.
• Home Alone. Owned by the HD DVD-phobic Fox, who are currently a Blu-ray exclusive studio and unlikely to budge until Blu-ray crashes and burns. Unlikely.
• The Incredibles. Owned by Disney, who are currently committed to Blu-ray, although they have shown no open hostility to HD DVD, and indeed executives have been quoted as saying that they expect to eventually release titles for both formats. Possibility.
• The Indiana Jones Trilogy. Distributed by Paramount, who support both HD DVD and Blu-ray. However, given that the rights are held by the Fox-friendly LucasFilm, who took forever to release them in standard definition, it seems unlikely that they will be released soon. Unlikely.
• Inferno. Owned by Anchor Bay, who have yet to announce any HD plans, but, like most independent labels, are likely to go with HD DVD due to the lower cost and lack of monopolisation by Sony. Possibility.
• The Iron Giant. Owned by Warner, who release for both formats. Likely.
• Kill Bill. The rights to the original theatrical versions of Volumes 1 and 2 are owned by Miramax (Disney). Disney are currently committed to Blu-ray, although they have shown no open hostility to HD DVD, and indeed executives have been quoted as saying that they expect to eventually release titles for both formats. The rights to the uncut, single-film “The Whole Bloody Affair” version, however, are owned by The Weinstein Company, who are committed to both formats. Likely.
• Kingdom of Heaven. Owned by the HD DVD-phobic Fox, who are currently a Blu-ray exclusive studio and unlikely to budge until Blu-ray crashes and burns. This director’s cut is currently announced for release on Blu-ray on November 14th 2006. Unlikely.
• Lady and the Tramp. Owned by Disney, who are currently committed to Blu-ray, although they have shown no open hostility to HD DVD, and indeed executives have been quoted as saying that they expect to eventually release titles for both formats. Possibility.
• The Last of the Mohicans. Owned by the HD DVD-phobic Fox, who are currently a Blu-ray exclusive studio and unlikely to budge until Blu-ray crashes and burns. Unlikely.
• Lilo & Stitch. Owned by Disney, who are currently committed to Blu-ray, although they have shown no open hostility to HD DVD, and indeed executives have been quoted as saying that they expect to eventually release titles for both formats. Possibility.
• A Lizard in a Woman’s Skin Owned by Media Blasters, who have yet to announce any HD plans, and, given their general lack of regard for quality, are unlikely to do so for some time. Unlikely.
• Lost in Translation. Owned by Universal in the US, who are HD DVD exclusive. In the UK, the rights are owned by Momentum, a division of Studio Canal, who have committed to HD DVD in Europe. Likely.
• Léon. Owned by Columbia Tristar (Sony) in most territories, so you can rule that one out. However, the rights in Germany are owned by Kinowelt, who have yet to make any announcements either way, while the Japanese rights are owned by Paramount, who support both HD DVD and Blu-ray. Possibility.
• May. Owned by Lions Gate, who so far have released titles for Blu-ray. Nothing has been publicly announced yet, but it is generally acknowledged that Lions Gate are preparing to go dual-format, so are likely to support HD DVD before the end of 2006, and intend to release all their Blu-ray titles on HD DVD as well. Possibility.
• Monsters, Inc. Owned by Disney, who are currently committed to Blu-ray, although they have shown no open hostility to HD DVD, and indeed executives have been quoted as saying that they expect to eventually release titles for both formats. Possibility.
• Moulin Rouge! Owned by the HD DVD-phobic Fox, who are currently a Blu-ray exclusive studio and unlikely to budge until Blu-ray crashes and burns. Unlikely.
• Mulholland Dr. Owned by Universal in the US, who are HD DVD exclusive. Un Europe, the rights are owned by Studio Canal, who have confirmed that they will be releasing it in early 2007. Definite.
• Naked Lunch. The rights are split across various companies in different territories. Criterion, who struck a deal with distributor 20th Century Fox, currently releases on DVD in the US, but it is not clear whether this deal would cover high definition distribution as well, and in any event they have made it clear that they intend to sit the format war out. In the UK, the rights are owned by Optimum, a division of Studio Canal, who have committed to HD DVD in Europe. Likely.
• The Nightmare Before Christmas. Owned by Touchstone (Disney), who are currently committed to Blu-ray, although they have shown no open hostility to HD DVD, and indeed executives have been quoted as saying that they expect to eventually release titles for both formats. Possibility.
• North by Northwest. Owned by Warner, who release for both formats. This title is one that Warner have confirmed that they intend to release, but no date has been given yet. Definite.
• The Omen. Owned by the HD DVD-phobic Fox, who are currently a Blu-ray exclusive studio and unlikely to budge until Blu-ray crashes and burns. Unlikely.
• Opera. Owned by Anchor Bay, who have yet to announce any HD plans, but, like most independent labels, are likely to go with HD DVD due to the lower cost and lack of monopolisation by Sony. Possibility.
• Panic Room. Owned by Columbia Tristar (Sony), so you can rule that one out. No chance.
• Phenomena. Owned by Anchor Bay, who have yet to announce any HD plans, but, like most independent labels, are likely to go with HD DVD due to the lower cost and lack of monopolisation by Sony. Possibility.
• Pinocchio. Owned by Disney, who are currently committed to Blu-ray, although they have shown no open hostility to HD DVD, and indeed executives have been quoted as saying that they expect to eventually release titles for both formats. Possibility.
• Rear Window. Owned by Universal, who are HD DVD exclusive. Likely.
• Rosemary’s Baby. Owned by Paramount, who support both HD DVD and Blu-ray. In the UK, the title is owned by Studio Canal, who have committed to HD DVD. Likely.
• Se7en. Owned by New Line, who intend to release for both HD DVD and Blu-ray starting in early 2007. Likely.
• Sex and Lucía. Owned by Palm Pictures in the US and Tartan in the UK, neither of whom have announced their intentions regarding the HD formats. Unlikely.
• The Silence of the Lambs. Owned by Fox, who inherited MGM’s catalogue, and are currently a Blu-ray exclusive studio and unlikely to budge until Blu-ray crashes and burns, so the title is unlikely to see a US release in the near future. Unlikely.
• Sin City. Owned by Dimension (Disney), who are currently committed to Blu-ray, although they have shown no open hostility to HD DVD, and indeed executives have been quoted as saying that they expect to eventually release titles for both formats. Possibility.
• The Stendhal Syndrome. The US rights are a bit of a wasteland. Troma officially holds them, but the master they own is nothing more than a standards converted VHS dupe. In Europe, the rights are split across various companies, none of whom have yet announced any HD plans. Unlikely.
• The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie. Owned by Paramount, who support both HD DVD and Blu-ray. This title is one that Paramount have confirmed that they intend to release, but no date has been given yet. Definite.
• Suspiria. Owned by Anchor Bay, who have yet to announce any HD plans, but, like most independent labels, are likely to go with HD DVD due to the lower cost and lack of monopolisation by Sony. I suspect that, if Anchor Bay do jump aboard the HD DVD train, this will be one of the first titles they announce. Possibility.
• Swimming Pool. Owned by Universal in the US, who are HD DVD exclusive. In France, the film is owned by Pathé, who have committed to HD DVD in Europe. Likely.
• Tenebre. Owned by Anchor Bay, who have yet to announce any HD plans, but, like most independent labels, are likely to go with HD DVD due to the lower cost and lack of monopolisation by Sony. Possibility.
• The Three Colours Trilogy. Owned by Miramax (Disney) in the US. Disney are currently committed to Blu-ray, although they have shown no open hostility to HD DVD, and indeed executives have been quoted as saying that they expect to eventually release titles for both formats. In the UK, the rights are owned by Artificial Eye, who have yet to announce their HD intentions. Possibility.
• Toy Story. Owned by Disney, who are currently committed to Blu-ray, although they have shown no open hostility to HD DVD, and indeed executives have been quoted as saying that they expect to eventually release titles for both formats. Possibility.
• Toy Story 2. Owned by Disney, who are currently committed to Blu-ray, although they have shown no open hostility to HD DVD, and indeed executives have been quoted as saying that they expect to eventually release titles for both formats. Possibility.
• V for Vendetta. Owned by Warner, who release for both formats. It has been announced with a street date of October 31st 2006.Definite.
• What Have You Done to Solange? Owned by Media Blasters, who have yet to announce any HD plans, and, given their general lack of regard for quality, are unlikely to do so for some time. Unlikely.
• Where Eagles Dare. Owned by Warner, who release for both formats. Likely.
• Wolf Creek. Owned by The Weinstein Company, who are committed to both formats. This title is one that The Weinstein Company have confirmed that they intend to release, but no date has been given yet. Definite.

When you break it all down, it actually looks like a pretty impressive list.

Update, October 6, 2006 01:52 PM: It turns out that Optimum has been acquired by the HD DVD-friendly Studio Canal, making the release of Naked Lunch a possibility.

Update, October 6, 2006 05:08 PM: Entertainment In Video are not supporting HD DVD after all, so Gangs of New York has been demoted from “almost definite” to “possibility”.

Update, October 19, 2006 02:06 PM: V for Vendetta has been confirmed with a release date of October 31st 2006.

Lovers, Liars and Lunatics delayed

Source: Lovers, Liars and Lunatics official web site

The DVD release of Amber Benson’s new film, Lovers, Liars and Lunatics, originally scheduled to be released at some point in September, has been delayed until October 15th due to “technical difficulties”. Presumably there’s nothing sinister going on, although I wonder if there’s any truth in the rumour that she has yet to receive 500 orders, which was the number of copies in the first batch, all of which were to be personally signed. In any event, I’m certainly looking forward to receiving my copy, signed or otherwise, since it seems like ages ago that I parted with my $33.

Gah! Why are sound cards so naff?

The sound card I currently use in my computer is a Creative Labs Sound Blaster Audigy Player (Audigy Gamer in the US) which I bought in the summer of 2001. By any reckoning, it’s an aged relic. It serves me well enough, though, in that it has an S/PDIF output which allows me to send a 5.1 signal to my audio decoder with a single cable. It also decodes Dolby Digital streams, although since my decoder does this as well (in addition to DTS), this feature never gets used.

Anyway, my motherboard has a built-in C-Media CMI9880 sound card which, in addition to the added benefit of not taking up a PCI slot since it’s part of the board itself, can also convert all audio to a Dolby Digital bitstream in real-time: a very nice feature, since it allows my decoder to do all the audio processing and should, in theory, produce a much more punchy sound.

Anyway, for a variety of reasons I ended up disabling the C-Media chipset in the BIOS after only a few days when I built my new system back in May of last year, and have been using the Audigy since then. Last night, though, I got a hankering to try out the CMI9880 again, so out came the screwdriver and out went the Audigy. I enabled the CMI9880 and, a few minutes later, was enjoying all the fun of games like Warcraft III, Guild Wars and Unreal Tournament 2004 in real-time Dolby Digital 5.1 (as opposed to the less impressive-sounding PCM 5.1 of the Audigy).

All was well until I decided to put on my headphones and listen to music. Yeesh! The analogue audio output turned out to be absolutely awful, with continual interference, crackling and squeaking - which was only accentuated whenever the hard disk was accessed. This is a known problem with computer audio, because sound cards are generally made of extremely cheap hardware, and since they end up being crammed inside a box full of electronic equipment, they’re going to pick up a lot of interference. This is especially true, presumably, of audio chipsets integrated with the motherboard, because they’ll not only be super-cheap but also sharing resources with a whole lot of other devices. I’d never heard anything this bad before, although, with my Audigy, I do know that, unless I disable the line-in, I get a bit of mild noise. Unfortunately, C-Media, in their infinite wisdom, neglected to allow the option to disable the line-in, or the PC speaker, or the TAD-in, or anything like that, so, if I wanted to use my headphones, I’d have to put up with all sorts of electronic garbage on the signal. Of course the digital output, which was connected to my decoder, sounded fine, but the numbskulls at Creative didn’t bother to put a headphone jack on it, meaning that my only choice was to use the analogue out for my headphones.

I’m now back to the Audigy again. It’s a veritable dinosaur, but it’s served me well. One thing’s for sure, if I ever want real-time Dolby Digital and acceptable sound through headphones, I’m either going to need a new sound card (i.e. a PCI card that does real-time Dolby Digital and allows me to disable line-in, etc.) or new speakers (i.e. ones with a headphone jack). It’s very annoying, because I hate having more advanced hardware at my fingertips but not being able to use it due to a silly design flaw.