HD DVD

HD happenings

This morning, I received a copy of the Korean Blu-ray release of Casino Royale from YesAsia. The Korean release, as you may be aware, is, unlike the US version, supposed to be uncensored. Warning lights should have gone off immediately when the disc booted in English and with exactly the same audio and subtitle configurations as the US disc I already own, and a brief glance at the black and white bathroom beating which opens the film confirmed my worst fears: whatever the state of the theatrical and standard definition DVD releases of the film in Korea, the Blu-ray version is the same butchered PG-13 rated cut released in America. Actually, it’s the exact same disc, right down to the “Made in the USA” text on the label. Naturally, I’ll be selling one of them as soon as possible.

Needless to say, I would still like to get my hands on an uncut copy of the film, but I won’t be doing so until I’ve had explicit confirmation that a version exists on Blu-ray that hasn’t fallen foul of the scissors of either the MPAA, the BBFC or the FSK (the body in charge of film and video ratings in Germany, who also saw fit to interfere with Casino Royale). Of course, the real culprit in all this mess is Sony for insisting on low age ratings, but, having seen the film in both its cut and uncut states, I have to say that I find the censors’ editorial decisions to be rather silly. I mean, how can a shot of a bad guy grabbing Eva Green’s leg elevate the film from PG-13 to R territory?

Je suis pissé, as the French would say.

There’s better news all round for the HD DVD camp, however. After a slow few months, sales figures are continuing to rise. Cue the Blu-ray camp once again claiming that the Amazon.com sales figures are meaningless - funny how the boot was on the other foot a couple of weeks ago when the Blu crew had a clear lead. Meanwhile, I received a review copy of the HD DVD/DVD combo release of Children of Men, and I’m pleased to report that it features an excellent transfer and a top notch audio mix (only Dolby Digital-Plus 5.1, no TrueHD, but I doubt many people will complain when they hear it). In fact, I’d go so far as to place them both in the lower 10/10 band, or at the very least upper 9/10. The film is brilliant too. I wanted to see this when it was on at the cinema, but, as is usually the case, I never got around to going. Watching it in high definition with an excellent transfer on Lyris’s brand new 5.1 setup is, I suppose, the next best thing. I highly recommend checking it out if you get the opportunity, although a glance at the DVD side of this combo release reveals that the standard definition transfer is, erm, not very good.

70 new HD DVDs between now and July

Source: AV Science Forum

LOS ANGELES, March 28 /PRNewswire/ — The top studios backing HD DVD, including Universal Studios Home Entertainment, Warner Home Video, Paramount Home Entertainment, The Weinstein Company, Genius Products, and Eagle Rock Entertainment today announced more than 70 specific titles and release windows through July 2007. With movie titles like Smokin’ Aces, The Complete Matrix Trilogy, and DreamGirls, HD DVD continues to deliver on promises made to fans of high definition. Additional titles for the remainder of 2007 will be announced this summer.

With attach rates that still far exceed other high definition formats, HD DVD movies continue to sell briskly at retail to a growing consumer base. The 2007 title line-up from the core HD DVD studios, combined with a strong HD DVD title and hardware presence in North America, Europe and Asia, showcases the format’s global appeal and unmatched technology features. Effective April 1st, Toshiba is implementing strategic retail price reductions on its full line of HD DVD players for the U.S. market. The entry level HD-A2 will have a suggested retail price of $399.99; and the new HD-A20, with 1080p output, will be introduced at $499 (available in stores in April). The top of the line HD- XA2 was already repositioned to $799.99 on March 1st.

“The spring is ramping up well for HD DVD, with an incredible list of movies and the best priced hardware on the market,” said Ken Graffeo, executive vice president, HD Strategic Marketing, Universal Studios Home Entertainment. “Our consumer base continues to buy movies at rates that outpace DVD in its early years, which shows the willingness of consumers to make the transition to high definition.”

“HD DVD continues to perform exceptionally well for Warner Home Video, and we see this continuing as more titles from the HD DVD studios roll out and more hardware hits the market,” said Steve Nickerson, senior vice president of market management for Warner Home Video. “Fans of high definition have a lot more to choose from with the release of long-awaited blockbusters like The Complete Matrix Trilogy on HD DVD.” “As hardware prices continue to fall, this is a great time to experience HD DVD,” said Chris Saito, vice president, marketing, Paramount Home Entertainment. “Our HD DVD line-up for Spring and Summer 2007 has something for every audience, with hits ranging from Dreamgirls to Flags of Our Fathers.”

I was a little sceptical at first, but I’ve had a look and the numbers do add up. Unfortunately, I can’t say that a huge number of them are titles I’m absolutely dying to get my hands on, in high definition or otherwise. Still, there are some big titles in that list that should help shift both discs and players.

Victory in Europe

On Friday morning, all over Europe, people woke up to news of the Playstation 3’s stillborn launch and crushing defeat. But you may not have realised until now just quite how disastrous a launch it was. Thankfully, UK Resistance have collated a mighty catalogue of evidence featuring photographs of various botched events throughout the continent (and Australia). Marvel especially at Virgin Megastore in Newcastle’s spectacular sale of four whole consoles in 24 hours, Myers’ in Sydney’s astounding ability to shift 60 (out of 600) in a single night, and the 5% sell-through of stock at Sony’s official Paris launch event.

In other news, look which high definition video format is slowly clawing its way back to the top.

Perfume: The Story of Rampant Filtering

About a week ago, I ordered a copy of the recent German HD DVD release of Perfume: The Story of a Murderer from Amazon.de. It’s the latest film from Tom Tykwer, and it tells the story of a young man who, driven to create the perfect perfume, starts knocking off young ladies. As you can probably guess, it’s somewhat different from Run Lola Run, the film for which Tykwer is best known. For one, it’s a period drama set in 1700s France, and as such doesn’t have any insane video game/music video editing and visual styling (although it does have some pretty whacked out moments). Anyway, it arrived today, and it’s basically a watchable enough film, although heavily flawed. It’s both over-long and tonally very inconsistent, and suffers from a rather underwhelming performance by the lead, Ben Whishaw. I wouldn’t call it a must-have by any means, but I found it rather intriguing, and it certainly makes a change from the Men & Guns type of films that tend to be released on both high definition formats.

Unfortunately, despite some positive advance word, I have to report that the transfer is rather disappointing. While I was watching it, I thought it looked rather soft and underwhelming, but fairly watchable. Some distracting noise reduction artefacts are apparent, but no problems with the compression. Then, I switched to the extras menu and selected the theatrical trailer, which is presented in full 1080p high definition (a feature that more HD DVD titles need to have). One word: wow. The trailer looks so much better - so much crisper and better defined - that it blows away the transfer of the film itself. I’m really getting sick of this. It happened all the time with standard definition DVDs (The Lord of the Rings films being particularly egregious examples), but I really would have expected better from studios producing high definition content. There’s no excuse for it apart from plain old stupidity. Seriously, if the transfer of the film had looked like that of the trailer, it would have been a 10/10 easily, perhaps even knocking Casino Royale and Corpse Bride off their respective thrones. As it is, though, this is a very low 6/10 and a very high disappointment.

You take the blue pill…

Oh, wait. Sorry - the blue pill isn’t ready yet. It’s been delayed due to continued BD-Java problems. The red pill will, however, be ready for you to swallow on May 22nd, at which point you’ll be able to see just how deep the rabbit-hole goes.

What am I babbling about? Why, the announcement of The Ultimate Matrix Collection for HD DVD, of course. The Matrix was one of the most hotly anticipated high definition titles last year (and rightly so - it certainly helped sell plenty of DVD players, so chances are it will do the same for HD DVD), with many expecting it to arrive at some point in the run-up to Christmas. When it failed to materialise, customers were understandably disappointed, but it seems that Warner are intent on making up for lost time by releasing what looks set to be the single most comprehensive and all-inclusive high definition box set to date. In addition to the first film, the shoddy The Matrix Reloaded and The Matrix Revolutions (which I haven’t actually seen - Reloaded was that bad), each film will include an In-Movie Experience feature and all of the extras from both the original and Ultimate Matrix Collection standard definition releases. (Read the full press release at the AV Science Forum. (A slightly cheaper, less extras-intensive version, The Complete Matrix Trilogy, will also be available.)

Part of me is slightly disappointed that the films are not being released separately, given that I only really want the first one. Then again, this does sound like the HD DVD box set to die for, and part of me really wants to listen to the notorious “critic commentaries”, in which an increasingly disgruntled group of film reviewers lay into the trilogy. Knowing me, I’ll end up splurging on the full package - unless, of course, I can get a review copy.

Oh yeah, and in case it wasn’t clear enough from the little reference to one of the film’s iconic scenes at the start of this post, the Blu-ray release will be arriving “later”, giving the HD DVD version free reign until it deigns to put in an appearance. Many will no doubt say “Oh, it’ll come eventually,” but how many format-neutral customers are going to wait for that? It certainly looks like Warner have delivered a Pirates of the Caribbean beater to wipe the smirks off the Blu-ray fanboys’ faces come May.

Come one, come all

She has a gun for a leg! How can you not love that?

This is going to be pretty old news for most people, but I’ve been reading up on the upcoming Quentin Tarantino/Robert Rodriguez collaboration Grindhouse. Described in the tagline as “the sleaze-filled saga of an exploitation double feature”, this throwback to the 70s features everything you could hope for in a good old-fashioned guilty pleasure: guns, exploding cars, death-defying stunts, saucy ladies, and the perennial favourite: beat-up, scratched-to-hell, grainy film stock (something which, judging by the trailers, works wonders for the aesthetic and overall mood).

There’s a fairly decent making-of available at Rose-McGowan.com, featuring Tarantino, Rodriguez and their compadres spazzing out over how cool the show is going to be. And it’s certainly infectious - I can’t wait to see the finished film when it launches (it’s coming out in the US on April 6th, although a UK release date has yet to be announced), although I’m slightly worried by the news that the distributors are considering splitting the two segments into separate movies outside the US. Apparently, this is because of a fear that non-American movie-goers will not be familiar with the whole double bill concept. This strikes me as more than a little naïve: surely the whole point, with this film, is to bring back a long-dead phenomenon and introduce it to a generation that has never experienced the thrill of the grindhouse? Ah well, whatever form it shows up in, I definitely intend to catch this one at the cinema… and of course, there’s the HD DVD to look forward to.

Update, March 16th, 2007 11:26 AM: Seems you now have to register as a member at the Rose McGowan site to see the videos.

So who’s in on this HD DVD thang?

With no new HD DVD releases in the US until near the end of the month, it’s sometimes a little tempting to think that Toshiba and their buddies have forgotten about us (and this is not help by the jeering of the Blu-ray fanboys, who seem to be in high spirits about the fact that Amazon has a Blu-ray sale on, which is causing titles to fly off the shelves). Therefore, this post is for any HD DVD-only people who are currently feeling a little down in the dumps. This morning, I came across a link to a PowerPoint presentation with Toshiba’s name plastered all over it, presumably intended as a morale booster for current HD DVD partners, as well as an advertisement for any companies considering joining the party. Anyway, it gives some rather insteresting details regarding the state of the format at the moment, and what we can expect in the next year or so.

HD DVD supporting hardware manufacturers:
Toshiba
Onkyo
Meridian
Shinco
RCA
Jiankui
Liteon
Alco
Microsoft
Hewlett-Packard
Acer
LG
Fujitsu-Siemens
Samsung
Alpine
NEC
Broadcom

HD DVD encoding partners:
Toshiba
Microsoft
Memory-Tech
DTS
Dolby
Ulead
Sonic
Plasmon
Datarius
Singulus Technologies

HD DVD authoring and disc replicators:
Imagion
CMC
Digital Media Production
DVDPartners
Infinia
Deluxe Digital Studios
Technicolor
Sonopress
Cinram
MPO
QOL
Duplico

HD DVD supporting distributors:
Paramount
Universal
Warner
Eagle Rock
DVD International
Studio Canal
Pathé
France Télévisions Distribution
LCJ
Wild Side Video
2 Entertain
Imagion
EMS
Universum Film
Kinowelt
Nixbu
Opus Arte
SPV
Optimum
Momentum
Twister
ILC
PIAS
Filmax
DeAPlaneta
Sandre Metronome
Cecchi Gori
Contantin Film
Concorde
Inakustik

Projected number of titles by end of 2007:
UK/Ireland: 250
France: 270
Germany/Austria/Switzerland: 250
Spain: 180
Italy: 170
Benelux: 200
Nordic countries: 200

If you have PowerPoint, I strongly urge you to check out the full document. It’s full of lots of interesting information about available and upcoming hardware and titles, including a lot of stuff that, to the best of my knowledge, hasn’t been replicated elsewhere. For instance, did you know that Wild Side Video in France (I think) is planning to release Pan’s Labyrinth on HD DVD in April?

And yes, that’s right, Samsung are getting on board the HD DVD gravy train, at least as far as laptops are concerned. Perhaps this is a direct result of Sony throwing them under the bus last year during the whole Blu-ray image quality debacle?

Asterix in Britain

I received a check disc of Optimum’s recent UK DVD release of Asterix and the Vikings for review this morning (expect a review at DVD Times at noon tomorrow - one of the fastest turnarounds I’ve ever given a review disc, although the fact that the review of the film itself was already written helps).

Unfortunately, Optimum clearly felt the need to ensure that this disc fit in with their DVDs of the first six Asterix films, which means that it’s not a particularly impressive release at all. The transfer is a slight improvement on its French counterpart, which looked overly harsh and with some oddly jagged outlines. The lines in this new release are still slightly too jaggy for my liking, and there are a few visible compression artefacts here and there, not to mention the fact that the whole image has a rather filtered appearance to it, but the rampant edge enhancement has been tamed, resulting in a smoother and overall more eye-pleasing images.

Unfortunately, that’s where the good news ends. The French DVD featured English and French audio tracks (both 2.0 and 5.1) and subtitles, but all Optimum provides is a 2.0 English track - not even any subtitles (take that, disability anti-discrimination enforcers!). Okay, so the film was made in English, but the French dub was, in my opinion, the better of the two, and, in any event, I don’t understand the justification for leaving out the 5.1 mix. It’s not as if the film was made in stereo!

Oh, and there are no extras.

I really don’t understand Optimum. They put out some amazing discs, including what it probably the best all-round version of Howl’s Moving Castle in the world, not to mention what seems to be a fully-loaded special edition of Pan’s Labyrinth (a film I really want to see, by the way, although I’m holding out for an HD DVD release), but they’re also capable of putting out some absolute junk. Okay, so Asterix and the Vikings hardly fits under the category of “junk”, but it’s decidedly underwhelming nonetheless, particularly when a much better version can be had in France… oh, and supposedly an HD DVD is being released in Spain at some point within the next couple of months from DeAPlaneta. Now I sincerely hope they get that right.

HD DVD outselling Blu-ray in Europe by more than 4:1

Source: Lyris Lite

Blu-ray may be catching up and, in some cases, overtaking HD DVD sales in North America, but a look at the situation in Europe paints a very different picture. Over here, HD DVD accounts for 85% of next generation video sales (including both players and discs). Obviously, the Playstation 3 has yet to launch in this part of the world, which, in conjunction with the outrageous pricing of standalone players, is making the average customer less likely to get into high definition video playback, but the HD DVD sales are definitely heartening. Evidence, perhaps, that Europe is not going to be suckered by Sony’s pomp and empty promises.

HD cross-contamination

A couple of interesting high definition title announcements have been made in the last few days, not because of the films themselves, but because of how they play into this whole format war. As you probably know, the rights to many films are owned by different studios depending on where you live in the world - so, for example, Paramount owns Titanic in the US, but 20th Century Fox has the rights in Europe. This, as you can probably imagine, is pretty significant as far as the HD format war is concerned, because it means that a title that might be Blu-ray or HD DVD exclusive in one region may be available in the other format (or both formats) in another, as is the case with Gangs of New York, which is owned by the Blu-ray exclusive Disney in the US, and the Blu-ray exclusive EIV in the UK, but the format-neutral Manga Films has it in Spain (and is planning to release it this month).

Recently, a Sony Pictures title, The Holiday, was announced for release on April 2nd in Europe on HD DVD by Universal (just under a month after its Blu-ray release in the US). Meanwhile, Basic Instinct, already available on HD DVD from Studio Canal in Europe, has just been announced by Lions Gate in the US for release on Blu-ray on May 29th.

It’s a confusing situation, but an exciting one all the same. It means that, in several cases, it’s wrong to call a title “exclusive”, because just because it is released on one format only in, say, North America, doesn’t mean that it won’t be released on the other elsewhere. This is made doubly fun by the lack of region coding on HD DVD releases. Blu-ray releases are more problematic, given that the format is split into three regions - although, of course, region coding is optional, and the likes of Warner and Paramount have yet to use it at all, while Sony only uses it on catalogue releases. (Fox, as usual, is region coding everything, and overcharging for the privilege of owning these booby-trapped discs.) Of course, where this really becomes interesting is when you factor in variables like image quality and extras. The Studio Canal HD DVD of Total Recall, for example, is widely regarded to feature a better transfer than its Blu-ray counterpart from Lions Gate - although, like a number of Studio Canal titles, it suffers from an audio glitch, whereby the sound is pitched a semitone too high (note that this is not PAL speed-up, which many people are mistaking it for). Additionally, Basic Instinct is presented on HD DVD without any extras: the rights to the various bonus materials from the standard definition release are presumably owned by Lions Gate, so it will be interesting to see whether any of them make it on to the upcoming Blu-ray release. I’ll also be interested to hear how the transfers compare: Basic Instinct on HD DVD looks rather poor, with a lot of DVNR artefacts and some distracting softness (of course, the Blu-ray release could end up looking even worse, if American Psycho is any indication of Lions Gate’s treatment of catalogue titles).

It’s an intriguing situation, to say the least. I intend to pick up HD DVD copies of the “Blu-ray exclusive” Gangs of New York and Underworld: Evolution from Spain, plus any other titles which catch my eye. The moral of the story is that, just because your favourite film is not available on your format of choice in one country, doesn’t mean that you won’t be able to get it elsewhere. (Of course, there are plenty of cases where the same studio owns the rights to a title throughout the world, as is the case with Disney’s animated features, and Sony’s Spider-man, and Universal’s King Kong, so don’t get your hopes up too high.)

HD DVD and Blu-ray: no winner in 2007, says expert

Source: High-Def Digest

Strong sales for both HD DVD and Blu-ray hardware and software have been reported at this year’s DisplaySearch Flat Panel Display Conference, but experts are warning that it is extremely unlikely that a winner will emerge within the year.

“Some studio chiefs have claimed to have won, but quite honestly the war continues,” said conference speaker Vito Mandato, an executive consultant to Paramount Home Entertainment.

Mandato went on to forecast that the number of high-def hardware units in homes by the end of 2007 will be a draw between the two competing formats.

More interesting snippets of informatino include Mandato’s estimate that only 22% of Playstation 3 owners buy movies on a regular basis, which, if true, quashes Sony and Fox’s attempts to count every single PS3 sold as a sale for Blu-ray.

I’m no expert, but I think Mandato’s interpretation of the situation makes a lot of sense. Certain members of the Blu-ray crowd have been using the current lack of HD DVD titles, plus the coinciding increasing Blu-ray sales, as “proof” that HD DVD is doomed, but I find these claims to be a little premature. Indeed, sales figures at DVDEmpire.com show that, for the first week of March, HD DVD software sales have once again begun to outstrip Blu-ray sales, in spite of the comparative lack of new releases. My prediction is that we’ll see the various graphs begin to level out as we draw nearer to summer. Will we see any studios breaking rank, though? To tell you the truth, I’m considerably less optimistic about that than I was a few months ago, but I don’t think we should rule anything out.

DreamWorks goes fishing in the HD pond

Source: DVD Times (1, 2)

Back in February, I reported on a rumour that DreamWorks was preparing to jump into the world of high definition with HD DVD and Blu-ray releases of Dreamgirls and Flags of our Fathers. The rumours, it would seem, were true, as an official announcement was made today about both titles. They will be coming to both formats in May (the 1st for Dreamgirls, the 22nd for Flags of our Fathers). Distributed by DreamWorks’ parent company Paramount, both will be 2-disc special editions, reproducing the extras from their standard definition counterparts in 1080p or 1080i high definition (although, for some reason, Dreamgirls’ image gallery seems to have gone bye-bye). Neither film is one that I’m wild to see, but it’s great to see DreamWorks finally jumping into the fray, and with what appear to be extremely impressive releases to boot. I really hope to see HD releases of American Beauty and Gladiator before too long…

Lost in high definition

Source: HD DVD Format Blog

It seems that we finally have official confirmation from Universal of their second slate of HD DVD titles to be released in May. Coming on the 29th are the remainder of the titles that were recently leaked to The Digital Bits: The Big Lebowski, Dragonheart, The Frighteners: Director’s Cut, Lost in Translation, Midnight Run and The River. Lost in Translation is a shoe-in for me, and I’m also tempted to give The Frighteners a look. The rest don’t particularly appeal, but I’m sure plenty of people will want to pick up The Big Lebowski.

That Trojan horse never looked so wooden

According to the News of the World, Troy is “the greatest sword and sandal epic of all time”. Well, I don’t know about that (although something tells me that this is a little unlikely), but I do know that this is yet another high definition title that received rave reviews despite being, well, fairly average-looking. It’s simply not very detailed at all, and there is some ugly ringing around highly contrasted edges. Odd, then, that the Warner logo at the very start of the film basically looked flawless, and yet, as soon as the first image appeared on the screen, it immediately felt as if I was watching the thing through a dirty window.

Where did I get a hold of Troy from? Well, Lyris received a Toshiba HD-E1 (the European equivalent of the American HD-A1) HD DVD player to review today, and Toshiba were kind enough to bundle the disc with it. These companies really need to start selecting better titles to include as review samples! Panasonic, after all, included the mediocre-looking Fantastic 4 with their DMP-BD10 Blu-ray player as well. Discs like these really don’t make good first impressions - why not throw in something that’s more or less flawless like Corpse Bride, if you want that pristine digital look, or Serenity or The Descent if you want something rich and film-like? At least Microsoft had the right idea and included a copy of the magnificent-looking King Kong with the Xbox 360 HD DVD add-on.

On a related note, Lyris has done a very nice rant about the underwhelming quality of so many Blu-ray releases on his new site. It’s well worth a read, and there’s even a nice picture of the hideous-looking American Psycho for you to marvel at.

HD DVD review: Babel

One of the better modern films to see a high definition release gets an excellent presentation on HD DVD. The lack of extras is disappointing, but, given that this sparsity matches the film’s standard definition counterpart, it’s hard in this particular case to feel too short-changed. It may not be the sort of material to show off the full capabilities of your home theatre setup, but it’s a solid representation of its source material, and as such, Babel gets my unreserved recommendation.

Courtesy of DVD Pacific, I’ve reviewed the HD DVD release of Babel, the third instalment in Alejandro González Iñárritu’s loose trilogy of fractured narratives. The film receives an excellent presentation from Paramount.

Universal - HD DVDs suitable for all!

Source: The Digital Bits

Universal, after much silence on the HD DVD front, seems finally to be getting into gear with a reasonable-looking schedule of releases for the next few months. Most of their April and May titles have already been announced elsewhere, but there are a few additional nuggets of information here and there, and the material pertaining to June onwards is all new. I’ve listed the titles below, with the ones I’m personally interested in asterisked.

April - The Good Shepherd, Smokin’ Aces, The Game*, The Jerk, The Hitcher, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind*, The Nutty Professor

May - Alpha Dog, The 40-Year-Old Virgin: Unrated, Smokey and the Bandit, Hurricane, Skeleton Key, The River, Midnight Run, The Frighteners, The Big Lebowski, Dragonheart, Lost in Translation*

June - Breach, Bruce Almighty, Liar Liar, Sneakers, Born on the 4th of July, Scent of a Woman, Daylight, Monty Python’s The Meaning of Life, Meet Joe Black, Mallrats, Being John Malkovich*, Mystery Men, American Me, The Watcher, Bulletproof

July - Billy Madison, The War, The Wedding Date, Dante’s Peak, Cat in the Hat, Dead Silence, The Bourne Identity*, The Nutty Professor 2, In Good Company, Streets of Fire, Hot Fuzz, Sea of Love, Darkman, Shaun of the Dead, Deliver Us from Eva

August - Heroes: Season One

September - The Last Starfighter, Legend, Battlestar Galactica: Season One, For the Love of the Game, Knocked Up, Evening, The Getaway: Unrated, Patch Adams, Cat People*

Okay, so I can’t exactly say I’m thrilled about every single title on that list, and I’m a little confused by how sparse August’s schedule is (presumably they’ll announce more titles at a later point, because I find it hard to imagine them only releasing a single title during the course of that month), but I have to say that, on the whole, things are looking up. By the looks of it, Universal will manage to fulfil their pledge of 100 HD DVD titles in 2007 after all.

DVDs I bought or received in the month of February

• American Psycho (RA USA, Blu-ray)
• Babel (R0 USA, HD DVD)
• Beatrice Cenci (R2 France, SD DVD)
• The Descent (RA USA, Blu-ray)
• Enemy of the State (RA USA, Blu-ray)
• Kingdom of Heaven (RA USA, Blu-ray)
• Masters of Horror: Pelts (R1 USA, SD DVD)
• Perversion Story (R0 USA, SD DVD)
• This Film is Not Yet Rated (R1 USA, SD DVD)

As you can see, a rather blue month for me - put that down to the giddy thrills of a new format to play around with. I suspect that, in future months, as the HD DVD side continues to ramp up production, there will be a more even split between the two formats as far as purchases are concerned.

Mulholland Dr. MIA?

Source: DVD Times

UK DVD distributor Optimum Releasing recently added three HD DVD titles to the catalogue on their web site: The Deer Hunter, Brotherhood of the Wolf and Mulholland Dr., the latter of which was a shoe-in for me and one that I immediately pre-ordered. However, DVD Times recently contacted Optimum for confirmation and was told that, while the first two titles will indeed by coming out, Mulholland Dr. has been “postponed indefinitely”.

This is a kick in the teeth for me, given how much I was looking forward to seeing one of my favourite films in high definition. It’s still scheduled to come out in France from Studio Canal on March 5th, but my fear is that it will have forced French subtitles when English audio is selected. The technical specs for the disc list only French subtitles, which should have warning signs going off already. Indeed, tonight I checked out my copy of Studio Canal’s Basic Instinct HD DVD, and sure enough, if you select French in the country selection screen when you pop in the disc, the only audio options available to you are French or English with French subtitles, despite the fact that the disc is crammed full of an array of audio and subtitle languages. If the French edition of Mulholland Dr. is only intended to be sold in France, then chances are we will be unable to select anything other than these two language options.

All is not lost, though. Just today, ChoicesUK updated their listing for the UK release by adding the final cover art, complete with English text and BBFC certificate. This does give me an admittedly slim hope that the UK release has actually not been cancelled after all, and that the Optimum representative DVD Times spoke to simply got their wires crossed. I admit that I’m probably just clutching at straws, though, and, if it does turn out to be cancelled, I’m just going to have to pick up the French release after all, forced subs or not.

Update, March 1st, 2007 11:23 PM: According to DVD Times poster ShawnDuhast, who contacted Optimum, Mulholland Dr. will be coming “sooner rather than later”, but there is no confirmed release date yet.

Warner talks HD

Source: Home Theater Forum

On Monday night, in a live chat with Home Theater Forum, Warner Home Video unveiled some of its plans for the next year, including a considerable amount of material pertaining to HD DVD and Blu-ray. I’ve selected a few of what I consider the most important announcements:

• Warner’s intention, wherever possible, seems to be to keep bonus content the same across the board for DVD, HD DVD and Blu-ray (although, obviously, DVD releases won’t be able to have In-Movie Experience features).
   
• Warner isn’t commenting on New Line’s releases, as they only handle distribution, not content.
   
• North by Northwest will not be released until 2009, its 50th anniversary. A new master will be created, since the one used for the DVD release is 1080i only. (Hopefully they won’t go overboard with the DVNR this time, then.)
   
• Michael Mann’s Heat is due to be released in 2008.
   
• A deluxe Blade Runner box set will be coming out later this year, with comparable extras to the standard definition release (presumably this also means that it will feature an extravaganza of different cuts of the film).
   
• Deliverance, Poltergeist and LA Confidential will all be coming out this year, the former as a 35th anniversary edition and the latter as a 10th anniversary edition.
   
• Many Kubrick titles, originally expected in 2006, will see the light of day this year.
   
• The studio is considering new high definition masters of Hammer films for DVD, HD DVD and Blu-ray.
   
• There will be many further high definition announcements in the next few weeks.

By the very nature of these web chats, it’s all still a little sketchy at this stage. Most glaring is the fact that the ongoing Blu-ray interactivity issues (which apparently are causing Warner to hold back a lot of titles with the In-Movie Experience, on both Blu-ray and HD DVD, in order to avoid accusations of “favouritism”) are not discussed, so we’re still no closer to knowing when the big guns like the Matrix trilogy will be seeing the light of day (although a tentative schedule does exist for France, where the local Warner division presumably couldn’t give two hoots about the people whining about “favouritism”). Still, some good titles have been confirmed, and I for one look forward to seeing what else gets announced in the coming weeks.

HD DVD extravaganza

After a slow start in 2007, the HD DVD ball seems finally to be starting to roll with the announcement of some of highly anticipated titles being added to the schedule. First of all, Warner has finally broken their silence and added A Scanner Darkly and Dog Day Afternoon to their slate, both announced for both HD DVD and Blu-ray with a street date of April 10th. The former is one that I purposefully held off buying in standard definition because I suspected that an HD release couldn’t be too far off. The latter… well, I must confess I’ve never seen it, but Sidney Lumet and Al Pacino sounds like a solid combination, and I’m aware of how highly it’s regarded.

Perhaps even more significant, however, is the appearance on the HD DVD Promotion Group’s site, www.thelookandsoundofperfect.com, of a banner announcing the song and dance razzmatazz extravaganza Dreamgirls as “coming soon to HD DVD”. Why is this big news? Why, because this would be the first DreamWorks title to appear on either high definition format. Because DreamWorks is owned by the format-neutral Paramount, a Blu-ray release is presumably on the cards too, with a March 20th release date being rumoured but not confirmed.

It’s all good news as far as I’m concerned. It’s always great to see a new studio jumping into the HD arena, especially a heavyweight like DreamWorks (sign me up for HD American Beauty and Gladiator).

Update, February 21st, 2007 11:24 PM: Better add Clint Eastwood’s Flags of our Fathers to the DreamWorks list too.