First HD-DVD Product Listings on Amazon

[AwallaceUNC]

Here's an interesting article that should interest many here... it's from TVShowsonDVD.com and it primarily concerns TV shows coming to the format, but it lists several other big movies that are listed for HD-DVD at Amazon now and gives a link to others.

A great many of you probably know that a couple of new home video formats are coming. For those of you who don't, a quick recap: DVD is a great improvement over VHS tapes, but doesn't have the room to store enough data for the high-definition pictures of HDTV. So the various hardware manufacturers set out to create a new disc format which would store the needed amount of data to put out home videos of movies or TV shows on disc in hi-def. Toshiba (mainly) came up with the "Advanced Optical Disc" and submitted it to the DVD Forum so that it was renamed as the HD-DVD format. Independently, Sony came up with the Blu-ray format, which is the kind of drive they intend to use in their upcoming PlayStation 3 units. Both are able to play the current DVD discs you already own, but Blu-ray won't play HD-DVD and neither will HD-DVD play Blu-ray (and a DVD player like you already own will play neither of the new formats...you'll need a new player). Up until a few months ago, the Hollywood studios had split their support 50-50, each studio supporting either one or the other new formats. Now most HD-DVD studios (with the exception of Universal, I think is the one) has said they will support Blu-ray as well. So Blu-ray has the advantage as both plan to launch their formats in 2006. HD-DVD is trying to take back the advantage by getting to market first.

Along those lines, I noticed this morning that big online retailer Amazon.com had added their first HD-DVD product listings! Most of these are marked "Availability: We will e-mail you when this title becomes available" (meaning they have no release date yet). Those that do show release dates are at the middle of the year (June). For those of you who want to see the complete list of titles, which includes <i>The Lord of the Rings Trilogy, Braveheart, U2: Rattle & Hum, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire</i> and <i>The Matrix Trilogy</i>, you can <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/exter ... z&keyword=[HD+DVD]&mode=dvd" target="zon">click here</a> for Amazon search results of "[HD+DVD]". At the time of this writing it results in 47 items, but you won't see the actual HD-DVD titles until you get to #26 on the list (the rest are incidental search hits).

From a TV Shows On HD-DVD perspective, there are two entries that will catch your eye! <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/redir ... B000E1MTWM" target="zon">HBO's <i>Band of Brothers</i></a> (no date or price shown) is unquestioningly the most obvious item in there that our readers will be interested in. The other one is <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/redir ... B000E1MTYA" target="zon">"<i>Friends</i>" from Warner Brothers</a>...and we can't think of any other Warner property which could have that particular title than the show with Chandler, Monica, Ross, Rachel, Joey, and Phoebe. Again, no date or price is shown, nor is there any way to know from this listing (assuming this IS the NBC series) if this is a season, or all the seasons, or what.

Many industry analysts speculate that the first HD-DVD and Blu-ray releases will not have too many items that are actually in full hi-def video format, but that instead they will make the initial releases be in standard definition (what you have now on DVD) but use the extra space on the discs to store A LOT of features. An example of this might be Paramount's <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/redir ... B000E1MTVS" target="zon"><i>Ultimate Star Trek Movie Collection</i></a>, which sounds like it will have all 10 films on it. Will that be on one disc or more? Will that be on 10 discs with all of them in hi-def? Maybe, but I doubt it: it seems like Paramount would sell those new Hi-Def versions of the films separately, at least at first. That's my opinion of what their strategy would be, anyway.

This is all very new to us, raising more questions than answers. Since the info is out there on Amazon for anyone to see, we decided to talk about the questions here, now, and get the basics to you while we seek out the answers. We'll be talking to the studios about these Amazon listings and the questions they bring. Stay tuned for the answers. In the meantime, read our blog entry for a discussion on where things are going, and please post your own comments so we can hear your thoughts!

My question is are these listings referring to Blu-Ray as HD-DVD? I thought Warner had gotten on board with Blu-Ray... or does that not mean that they still won't release on HD-DVD too?

-Aaron

[DarthPrime]

Its talking about HD-DVD not Blu-Ray. They are trying to get out first as an advantage over Blu-Ray.

I still see a format war coming and its a bad thing. Having 2 HD products on the market will keep people buying DVDs. Also the DRM is going to keep a lot of people away from the HD format even if they have HD sets, etc...

Amazon has several HD-DVD titles listed now including The Matrix Trilogy, LOTR Trilogy, King Kong, Band of Brothers, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, etc... Does anyone know when they are planning some Blu-Ray releases? 2006 should be interesting on the HD front.

[yoda_four]

I think Amazon is always prematurely posting different titles so I wouldn't trust them, especially seeing as they don't even have a release date. What we do know is that, yes as Aaron said, as the major studios but Universal are either exclusively or additionally releasing their films on Blu-Ray. The latest info is set to be released during CES (the International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas) sometime between the 5th and 9th on January. Blu-Ray has been said to show off it's prototype machines, set prices points, release studios Blu-Ray titles list; basically the tell all for the format a few months before launch. So, stay tuned for that, and in the meantime don't care or worry about premature Amazon additions.

[yoda_four]

http://www.videobusiness.com/article/CA6296434.html
http://news.com.com/Studios+announce+ne ... &subj=news

It says almost all the studios will announce their full slate of titles lists tomorrow evening (Wed.), along with Disney's list Thursday. It also says studios expect to launch in around late March or April, when they presume the first of the Blu-Ray players are launched. Universal is apparently set to announce it will also release on Blu-Ray. Furthermore, most of the title releases are going to be day and date with the regular DVD release. Stay tuned for more tomorrow.

Also, I found this pic on Home Theater Forum, via The Inquirer of Blu-Ray's apparent casing.



Titles from the leaked pic include:

- Hitch
- Reservoir Dogs
- Troy
- Ladder 49
- Tomb Raider
- Hero
- XXX
- Into the Blue
- Fantastic 4
- Pirates of the Caribbean
- Sahara
- Starship Troopers
- Total Recall
- Kill Bill Volume 1
(That's all I can name off the top of my head)

[Loomis]

As reported on DVDBits (other sources linked):

<STRONG><U>First HD-DVD and Blu-Ray Titles Announced</U></STRONG>
<br><br><IMG height=178 src="http://www.dvdbits.com/images/news//blurayflying.jpg" width=125 align=left>Sources all over the Internet are buzzing about the announcement of the first waves of next generation of DVD titles. HD-DVD and Blu-Ray titles should be appearing on our shelves in 2006, and several studios are already showing their hands.
<br><br>Sony and their Blu-Ray format will open with <b>Underworld: Evolution</b>, which will be released on Blu-Ray the same day as the DVD. Their catalog titles will also soon follow suit, with <STRONG>XXX</STRONG> and <STRONG>Robocop</STRONG> out first as early as March. Other titles will include <STRONG>The Fifth Element</STRONG>, in multichannel uncompressed audio <STRONG>Bram Stoker's Dracula</STRONG>, <STRONG>Desperado</STRONG>, <STRONG>For a Few Dollars More</STRONG>, <STRONG>The Guns of Navarone</STRONG>, <STRONG>Hitch</STRONG>, <STRONG>House of Flying Daggers</STRONG> (pictured), <STRONG>A Knight's Tale</STRONG>, <STRONG>Kung Fu Hustle</STRONG>, <STRONG>The Last Waltz</STRONG>, Lege<STRONG>nds of the Fall</STRONG>, <STRONG>Resident Evil Apocalypse</STRONG>, <STRONG>Sense and Sensibility</STRONG>, <STRONG>Stealth</STRONG>, <STRONG>Species</STRONG>, and <STRONG>SWAT</STRONG>. <STRONG>Black Hawk Down</STRONG> and <STRONG>The Bridge on the River Kwai</STRONG> will also be available on 50 GB, dual-layer Blu-ray Discs Summer 2006. <b>Stargate: Atlantis</b> will also be the first hi-definition TV series released. For more details, see the <A href="http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stori ... ATE=">Sony Press Release</A>.
<br><br>20th Century Fox's Blu-Ray is said to include <STRONG>Fantastic Four</STRONG> and <STRONG>Ice Age</STRONG>, with 20 more titles by the US summer. "Each title will have at least one feature unique to the new format and will include 10% to 20% of the bonus features from previously released or new DVDs and 80% new bonus elements, such as advanced branching and menus and including added value programming accessed through connections to other devices such as the Internet." (Source: <A href="http://www.dvdexclusive.com/article.asp ... ryID=">DVD Exclusive</A>) Other Blu-Ray titles are said to include Paramount's <STRONG>Mission: Impossible Trilogy</STRONG> and <STRONG>Terminator 2</STRONG> from Lions Gate.<br><br>
For a summary of non-Sony releases, see this helpful list compiled by <a href="http://www.audioholics.com/ces/CEStechn ... oholics</a>.
<br><br>Finally, <A href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/exter ... s&keyword=[HD+DVD]&mode=dvd">Amazon are listing HD-DVD titles</A> from Universal, Paramount and Warner, including the <STRONG>Harry Potter</STRONG> films, <STRONG>Lara Croft: Tomb Raider</STRONG>, <STRONG>The Ultimate Star Trek Movie Collection</STRONG>, <STRONG>The Lord of the Rings Trilogy</STRONG>, <STRONG>The Matrix Trilogy</STRONG> and Peter Jackson's <STRONG>King Kong</STRONG>.

[Mr. Toad]

Well I guess I should stop buying DVDs.

[yoda_four]

in addition to Loomis' list: http://comingsoon.net/news/movienews.php?id=12570

It seems as though Sony, Paramount, and Fox have released their press releases featuring their title lists. Fox, while mentioning 20 titiles, only seems to show a couple in it's PR.

Anyways, here's some close ups of the casing:

[Isidour]

I don`t jnow if you but I`ll keep buying the actuals DVDs
Why?well, 3 reasons for me:

1.-Considering my actual economy, I can`t afford a HD TV, it doesn`t matter if it`s plasma or LCD, it cost more than 2500 dlls here and I an`t afford that luxury for the moment

2.-Considering that I don`t have a HD-TV is usless to have the very best of technology, why would I buy a Blue-ray player or a HD-DVD player if I can`t explote the 100% of it?

3.-Considering that my actual DVD collection is a really huge amount of DVDs and it would very expensive to buying them on the very nmew format because not only are a lot but that there`s more than one format and neither of them are compatible with the other I would need another 2 players, what would cost me easily more than 1000 dlls plus the cost of the news DVDs and with all that money(3000 of the TV,1000-1500 of the DVD players and a lot of the new DVd titles) I could easily buy a new car

[MICKEYMOUSE]

Here is my 2 cent on these new formats. I think they will be wonderful, but at the same time wont be a bang!!! I think, just like DVDs, it will take a long time for everyone to buy them. This by all mean wont stop me from buying DVDs. I will buy a player my the end of the year. I iwll actually be two player. I will be buying the PS3 that has the Blu-Ray, and I will buy another one before the PS3. It's the same medium if you think bout it, becuase the movie are still on the same size CD. I like how they are keeping the packaging the same as DVDs so you can pit them with your DVDs. Also the players should play DVds, and Blu-Ray etc....

[magicalwands]

Let's just hope everytime a new movie releases in stores, they at least have a DVD format available.

[castleinthesky]

I still don't see what is wrong with DVD. DVD is great, and why do we already need a new version? I personally hope both HD DVD and Blue Ray will not sell well and will just become counterpart like to the DVD, as being sold alongside for 20 dollars more.

[yoda_four]

Well whatever your opinion of the formats; they are coming.

Here's the first Toshiba HD-DVD Player (applicable to those who want Warner, Universal, Paramount and HBO films):



For release in March---

HD-AI: 499$
HD-XAI: 799$ with stablizing feet, front USB ports and extra DSP modes

Both players output HD-DVD to 720p and 1080i

Now, onto Blu-Ray (applicable to those who want films from Disney, Fox, Sony/Columbia Tristar/MGM, Warner, Paramount and Lions Gate). First out of the gate is Samsung!




For release in Spring---

BD-P1000: 1000$ with HDMI outputs. It does 720p and 1080i and is backwards compatible with all DVD formats.

Then, it's Pioneer's turn:



For release in the Summer---

BDP- HD1: 1800$. It outputs to native and upconverted 1080p, includes DTS-HD decoder, an HDMI output and can network with Windows Media Center.

This just in from Phillips:



Only a pic of their Blu-Ray player. No details are yet known.

Here's Sony's Blu-Ray player:



For release in the Summer---

No details or pricing have yet been released.

More to come as they are annouced.

[DarthPrime]

Let's just hope everytime a new movie releases in stores, they at least have a DVD format available.

DVDs are not going anywhere for awhile, so don't worry about not getting new releases in DVD format.

In my opinion the new players are pretty ugly and large. I remember DVD players being a lot larger than they are now, so I'm sure as time goes on they will get smaller. The Toshiba HD-DVD looks ok, but the one Samsung Blu-Ray (Silver one) looks really odd.

[yoda_four]

--woops--

[MICKEYMOUSE]

Yeah DVDs are at their peak, and wont go anywhere for another 5-8 years. Come to think of it, I might wait a year or two to pick up a new Blue-Ray player. One because the players are expensive, two becuase they are bluky and ugly. I will wait until they come with slimer and nicer ones (that alwasy happenes). Three becuase there is nothing wrong with DVD format for me. Last but not least I am buying a PS3 that will have Blue-Ray tech.

[DarthPrime]

Crutchfield has the Toshiba HD-DVD player up for preorder now for $499.

plays HD DVD high-definition discs (selectable 720p/1080i output available through HDMI output only — HDMI cable included)

viewing high-definition HD DVD content requires an HDTV or HD-ready TV with HDMI input

Thats from the product listing. So I guess no HD-DVD unless you have a HDTV with HDMI? I know you want get the benefit of HD-DVD unless you have a HDTV, but what if HD-DVD replaces current DVDs? Does that mean everyone without a HD set with HDMI input is left out? Also what about the people who have HD sets with DVI and no HDMI? I'm sure they will have to make some adapters or something to deal with this.

[Isidour]

that`s just perfect, not released yet and we all have problems already

[Big Worms]

Crutchfield has the Toshiba HD-DVD player up for preorder now for $499.

plays HD DVD high-definition discs (selectable 720p/1080i output available through HDMI output only — HDMI cable included)

viewing high-definition HD DVD content requires an HDTV or HD-ready TV with HDMI input

Thats from the product listing. So I guess no HD-DVD unless you have a HDTV with HDMI? I know you want get the benefit of HD-DVD unless you have a HDTV, but what if HD-DVD replaces current DVDs? Does that mean everyone without a HD set with HDMI input is left out? Also what about the people who have HD sets with DVI and no HDMI? I'm sure they will have to make some adapters or something to deal with this.

Yes everything is pointing to that. So everybody that has just component inputs are going to get screwed.

Personally I don't think you are going to see any adapters.

[DarthPrime]

Then how will HD-DVD actually take off and replace DVDs? HDTVs still don't take a lot of the market right now, and want for awhile.

Is Blu-Ray also going to only work on HDMI? This could really hurt the new formats in my opinion.

[MickeyMousePal]

This is crazy I don't have money for a new player (Blu-Ray or HD-DVD)
and I know my parents won't buy one either.

Blu-Ray or HD-DVD it's like choosing your own children to go see a movie with or to play a game with.