No doubt the biggest news of this week was the death of the HD-DVD format. The end of HD-DVD was finalized when Toshiba stated in a press conference, held in Japan on Tuesday, that it would no longer support the format. By dropping its support for HD-DVD, the high definition format war between HD-DVD and Blu-Ray was ended.

This now allows for all the movie studios to place their support behind the Blu-Ray format. This is great for consumers because now they can confidently purchase films on Blu-Ray disc knowing that this format will not become obsolete.

And now that the format war is done I believe that the Blu-Ray Disc Association (BDA) needs to do two things if they wish to get mainstream acceptance of their format. …Continue reading … »

After seeing the $2.7 million dollar Super bowl ad for Toshiba’s HD-DVD format I have to ask - what was the point?

The only significant thing in the ad is the mention of HD-DVD players now starting at $149.99. There is no mention of future titles and no mention of new HD-DVD players. This is what needed to be presented in order for the the viewer to see HD-DVD as a viable way to view high definition movies.

But of course this information was not presented. …Continue reading … »

Today Warner Brothers Studios officially announced the release of the film Blade Runner: Final Cut directed by Sir Ridley Scott. This is a new definitive version of the classic science fiction film Blade Runner. This film will be released to DVD in 3 editions: a 2-disc edition, a 4-disc edition and a 5-disc Ultimate Collector’s edition.

The 2-disc set features a restored and remastered version of the Blade Runner film with added and extended scenes, a 5.1 Dolby Digital audio track, new and improved special effects, added lines, commentaries, and a documentary.

The 4-disc set has all the features of the 2-disc set and adds many others with the most significant being that this includes 3 additional versions of the film (the theatrical version, the international version and the 1992 director’s cut).

The 5-disc set, which comes in a special briefcase, has all the features of the 4-disc set and many additional features with the most notable being a rare workprint of the original film. The workprint is considered to be radically different then all other versions of the film.

The 2-disc, 4-disc, and 5-disc sets are priced at $20.97, $34.99, and $78.92 respectively. The sets will be available for purchase on December 18, 2007. Blu-Ray and HD-DVD versions of the 5-disc set will also be released simultaneously, prices for these versions will be announced later.

[source:The Digital Bits]

Today Microsoft announced that in the US they are going to reduce the price of the HD-DVD player for its Xbox 360 gaming system to $179 from its previous price of $199. In addition to the price reduction, consumers who purchase the unit in August or September may receive five free HD-DVD movies. …Continue reading … »

Toshiba has added a HD-DVD-R to their Qosmio G45-AV680 laptop . This make it the world’s first laptop to include a HD-DVD-R drive. This allows the consumer to burn up to 30 gigabytes of data onto a single HD-DVD disc. And when not burning data one can also can use the drive to watch HD-DVD movies. Besides the HD-DVD-R drive the G45-AV680 also has a lot of other nice features as well. The base is unique glossy white …Continue reading … »

I’m not sure who is going to win the high definition DVD format war but Blu-Ray is the superior format. The Blu-Ray disc holds 25GB on a single sided disc and 50GB on a dual layered disc. In comparison the HD-DVD holds 15GB on a single sided disc and 30GB on a dual layered disc. More storage space means more data more software, mp3s, standard definition video, and documents. As well in terms of high definition video theoretically more storage space means better picture quality. …Continue reading … »