Disney announces more titles for Blu-Ray.

[I am the Doctor]

tarheelblue23 wrote

Our local newspaper had an article about the format war last Friday. Basicaly is sounds like the sales of the next gen dvd's are not going well at all. Retailers have said they are selling very few HD DVD players and even less Blue Ray players. They said most consumers wanted to wait and see which format wins before they invest in a new player. Even though Sony is trying to make everyone think they more exclusive contracts, this is not the case. Most movie companies are keeping their options open, including Disney. As far as the PS3, Sony could be in for some trouble. The rumor is that the blue ray player in the game console has not been performing well and the movie quality on the PS3 is no better than a regular DVD.

Two things are affecting sales of HD-DVD and Blu Ray.

1. Two competing formats, both with exclusive studios. Of the six major studios (Warner, Paramount, Fox, Disney, Sony-Columbia and Universal), three are exclusive to BluRay (Fox, Disney and Sony), one is exclusive to HD-DVD (Universal) and two are supporting both (Warner and Paramount). The smartest move is to wait and see which format "wins out", but the problem there is if everyone does that neither one will win, much like the DVD-Audio/SuperAudioCD war.

2. To use the DVD-Audio/SACD example again, the quality was better but so many people had a great deal of money invested in their CD collections that there was bound to resistance to upgrading and re-buying. HD-DVD and BluRay face the same problem. With many people having major investments in their DVD collections, are they going to be willing to re-buy movies in the better quality format or will they be satisfied with their current DVDs?

As far as BluRay goes, Sony bit off a bit more than they could chew, in some ways. Starting BluRay while actively competing with HD-DVD plus launching the latest version of the Playstation. With all this going on, it's no wonder the BluRay launch and the PS3 rollout have had trouble.

Side note: when I last visited Circuit City, if you bought the Samsung Blu-Ray player you would get two free BluRay DVDs.

[kbehm29]

FYI: I purchased the Dinosaur Blu-Ray disc today at Walmart. It cost $24.96 (regular price - not on sale), which was less than I expected.

I am purchasing an HDTV and Blu-Ray player for my family for Christmas this year. Anyone who can give me advice on buying these things I would greatly appreciate. I was going to go for an LCD screen, but so many people have told me the picture sucks - that I should try to find a widescreen HDTV built-in 1080i resolution 32-in. tube TV. Does that sound right? I think I could buy one of those for about $1000, maybe even less. Of course, unless the blu-ray players go on sale before Christmas, I'm going to be paying just as much for the darn DVD player.

[dvdjunkie]

I already own a Samsung Blu-Ray DVD player, and also have a JVC 56-inch HDTV Monitor in our living room along with an In-Focus Projector in our Home Theater. Both are 1080i Hi-Def sets, and I can tell you that I can't tell the difference between them except for screen size. The Hi-Def on my front projection Home Theater is without question the best picture I have seen in Hi-Def, and we have Cox Digital Cable as our provider with almost 30 Hi-Def Channels available.

At Best Buy, you can get the Samsung Blu-Ray player and they give you three DVD's of your choice from their Blu-Ray collection, which is the most complete I have seen. Send in your registration card for your new player within 30 days of purchase and Samsung sends you a gift certificate to get One Blu-Ray DVD for 50% off with the purchase of any other Blu-Ray title.

I am totally sold on the Blu-Ray system because it upconverts all of my regular DVD titles to 'near Hi-Def' as you can get. I don't plan on replacing any of my regular DVD titles with Blu-Ray because of this feature.

I hope that you enjoy your Home Theater as much as I do mine.

[goofystitch]

That is awesome khelm29! We got a widescreen HDTV with built in 1080i. I don't know what size our tube is, but the TV you've had reccomended to you sounds a lot like ours. We currently have a DVD player with up conversion. Our cable broadcasts in HD. I can notice that it is alot more crisp and sharp when compared to normal TV broadcasts, but I can't see a huge difference between watching a movie in HD from cable and watching a movie on an upconverted DVD. For the time being, my family has no plans to buy either a blue ray or HDDVD player. We are doing what most people are doing: waiting to see which one wins out. My tech geek of an older brother, however, read that a dual player that plays both (in seperate slots like a VCR/DVD combo) is being made and he seems very interested in buying that, so maybe next year we will buy one. I really want "Dinosaur" on blue ray. I've been wondering what the inside of the package looks like (disc art and inserts and such). If it would be possible, I'd appreciate it if you could post pictures of them. I'll buy "Dinosaur" either when I get a Blue Ray player or when it goes out of print. I missed the boat on the DVD Limited Issues and regreted paying $75 later for some of them.

[kbehm29]

I scanned the inside of the case, the insert that came with it, and the back of the case for you.



How come it won't post my picture? What am I doing wrong?

[goofystitch]

I've never been able to post pictures either, but I was able to follow the link. It's kind of cool how everything on the inside is blue, but kind of strange at the same time. I would deffinatley get sick of every Disney chapter index to be blue. It looks like there are clips to hold inserts, though, so I'm sure they will add some if the format takes off. I remember the first Disney DVD's before even the Limited Issues were so bare bones. Also, they all had that annoying "Widescreen" banner on the cover and spine, so perhaps the silver that covers up most of the cover allowing room for only 35% actual cover art will dissapear in a year or two. Thank you so much for posting the picture.

[I am the Doctor]

dvdjunkie wrote

am totally sold on the Blu-Ray system because it upconverts all of my regular DVD titles to 'near Hi-Def' as you can get. I don't plan on replacing any of my regular DVD titles with Blu-Ray because of this feature.

My HD-DVD player upconverts as well, and does a pretty good job of it. I'm not planning on replacing too many of my DVDs either, but I will break down on a few like Batman Begins which comes out in October.

dvdjunkie-
I was curious how the Blu-Ray player handles older HDTVs. My Samsung HDTV is a couple of years old and displays in 720p. I've heard rumors over the internet that Blu-Ray's downcoversions to 720p are not very good. Just curious, should I decide to pick up a Blu-Ray player as to whether I would have to pick up a newer television as well.

[dvdjunkie]

I am the Doctor wrote:

I was curious how the Blu-Ray player handles older HDTVs. My Samsung HDTV is a couple of years old and displays in 720p. I've heard rumors over the internet that Blu-Ray's downcoversions to 720p are not very good. Just curious, should I decide to pick up a Blu-Ray player as to whether I would have to pick up a newer television as well.

I can't tell you much about 720p except that it isn't true Hi-Definition. Hi-Def is 1080i and that is what I have for both my bigscreen television (JVC HDTV Monitor) and my front projection system (In-Focus). I just know that the upconversion of my regular DVD's leave me not wanting much more out of those, and that is why I probably won't be double-dipping many titles in Blu-Ray.

[Escapay]

I scanned the inside of the case, the insert that came with it, and the back of the case for you.



How come it won't post my picture? What am I doing wrong?

There is no jpg or jpeg extension, which is why it translated as a link.

I uploaded it to photobucket, so here it is:



I have to say, I like the clear case with the chapter listings on the back (wish all DVD cases were clear like this so we could have double-sided inserts, plus it saves paper).

How is the transfer for Dinosaur? Think you can whip us up some caps for comparison?

Escapay

[kbehm29]

Thank you for explaining how to correctly post a picture! That really helps.

Here is the insert that came with it:


And here is the back of the case:


I can't post screen shots because I don't have my blu-ray player yet! That's a major Christmas gift for my family this year.

[kbehm29]

I already own a Samsung Blu-Ray DVD player, and also have a JVC 56-inch HDTV Monitor in our living room along with an In-Focus Projector in our Home Theater. Both are 1080i Hi-Def sets, and I can tell you that I can't tell the difference between them except for screen size. The Hi-Def on my front projection Home Theater is without question the best picture I have seen in Hi-Def, and we have Cox Digital Cable as our provider with almost 30 Hi-Def Channels available.

I hope that you enjoy your Home Theater as much as I do mine.

Thanks - I hope so too. My boyfriend is going to have a fit, because he hates it when I spend money. He would live with our 6-yr. old 32in. Sony for the rest of our lives if he could. I wish someone from this board could come with me when I buy this stuff - I don't feel I'm knowledgeable enough about electronics to make such a big purchase. What is your JVC 56 in. - an LCD? Is LCD similar to what my thin, flat, computer monitor is? I just would hate to buy such a big tube tv again because the one I want is almost 200 pounds! The last time we moved my big Sony was damaged because it is so heavy to carry.

[Escapay]

Thank you for explaining how to correctly post a picture! That really helps.

I can't post screen shots because I don't have my blu-ray player yet! That's a major Christmas gift for my family this year.

D'oh! I forgot about that, and remembered that you mentioned it earlier!

One thing I didn't like about that insert though was that they used a P&S example for a DVD image.

Escapay

[KubrickFan]

I'm just gonna wait which format will win the fight. I think it is gonna be HD-DVD. Granted, it has less space on the discs, but the people don't care for more space, they're just gonna go with the cheapest one, and that is HD-DVD. The hd players are also cheaper than the blue-ray. And the term HD is also more commonly known than Blue-Ray, at least here in the Netherlands is.
Does anybody else agree that (for at least the first releases) they just will cram 2 disc special editions onto one blue-ray or hd-dvd? Instead of improving the image or sound?

[Luke]

One thing I didn't like about that insert though was that they used a P&S example for a DVD image.

On one of the rare big titles that wasn't released to DVD in P&S, no less!

Interesting pics, kbehm. Thanks for scanning and posting!

[kbehm29]

How is the transfer for Dinosaur? Think you can whip us up some caps for comparison?

Here is what I found on dvdreview.com:

So now "Dinosaur" comes to high definition and the transfer that Buena Vista Home Entertainment is serving up here is absolutely wonderful. Taken from the digital source, the image in this presentation is marvelously rich and sharply detailed. The print is entirely free of defects or blemishes, which is not surprising as it comes directly from the digital source. What is impressive form the first minutes is how vibrant and rich the colors are in this transfer, as we follow the dinosaur egg on its voyage. Add to it the incredible level of detailed put on display here and it is easy to fall in love with the film and the transfer instantaneously. Restoring the movie's original 1.85:1 widescreen aspect ratio, the transfer also has impressive contrast with very deep and solid blacks that give the image good visual depth. Highlights are perfectly balanced allowing the transfer to run the entire gamut of shades and hues. It is an impressive transfer that will convert any viewer to the advantages of high definition with ease as its improvements of the DVD version for example are readily visible and striking.

To go along with this brilliant transfer, Disney has provided stellar soundtracks, the key track being the uncompressed 5.1 channel track that reproduces the soundtrack in its entirely unaffected beauty in full 48kHz/24-bit resolution. In a word – audio doesn't get much better or clearer than that!
The track is complemented by a 5.1 channel DTS track as well as 5.1 Dolby Digital tracks in English, French and Spanish. All of them are very well balanced and clear, offering the best presentation for each format's capabilities. Clearly, however, the uncompressed track reigns supreme as it delineates nuances and subtle textures that are sometimes diminished somewhat in the encoded tracks.
The subwoofer works overtime on this disc reproducing all of the pondering dino-sound effects and in addition, we get clear dialogue and a beautiful reproduction of the score by James Newton Howard.

The extras on the release are different form the previous DVD versions and are presented in a full 1080p high definition as well. First up is a commentary track that features directors Eric Leighton and Ralph Zondag, visual effects supervisor Neil Krepela, and digital effects supervisor Neil Eskuri. This commentary has be culled from the DVD and is full of valuable information while also having a very entertaining flair to it. One thing to note is that the commentary track is actually subtitled, so that even hearing impaired viewers will be able to follow the discussion of the commentators, which I find a very nice and considerate touch to this disc.

And, you're welcome Luke. I can't freaking wait until I get my HDTV and Blu-Ray player with home theater system. And now that I'm moving into my house that I grew up in....the nearest neighbor is an acre away and won't be able to complain about the noise!

[kbehm29]

I found myself thinking to myself today....why in the world aren't they releasing Chronicles of Narnia on blu-ray? But then...'duh'...the big 4-disc extended version coming out soon on regular DVD. They wouldn't want to take sales away from that, but I bet a bunch of money that it gets released on blu-ray at some point next year!

[Escapay]

I bet a bunch of money that it gets released on blu-ray at some point next year!

Since Prince Caspian got moved from 2007 to 2008, I'm guessing we'll see a Narnia Blu-Ray release in Easter or Christmas 2007, kind of a reminder like, "Hey guys, we made this movie, remember? And the second comes out next year!"

Still waiting (im)patiently for a worthy Disney title to get Blu-Ray treatment (read: The Rocketeer)

Escapay

[goofystitch]

Disney opened up an official Dsiney Blu-ray website which has a preview of their content. It contains clips from the films that are out, or are coming out in a week, such as "Dinosaur," "Eight Below," "The Haunted Mansion," and "Glory Road." Then it also includes clips from "The Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Purl," "Sky High," and "Chicken Little." I think we already received word that "Sky High" was to be expected, along with the un-advertised "The Wild." However, it would appear that the 4th wave will certainly be POTC and CL. The commercial goes as far as to even show cover art. After watching that introduction, you can then see specs for the 4 current titles avaialable and watch individual trailers for each. Here is the link:
http://disney.go.com/disneyvideos/bluray/

[lapniappe]

hm. i wonder if a regular dvd player could play a blu-ray dvd. if not; i guess they are going to make 3 versions - UMD, DVD and then Blu-Ray.

that sucks about narnia. I am so excited to see Caspian

[yamiiguy]

hm. i wonder if a regular dvd player could play a blu-ray dvd. if not; i guess they are going to make 3 versions - UMD, DVD and then Blu-Ray.

that sucks about narnia. I am so excited to see Caspian

of course a dvd player can't play a blu-ray dvd, if it could why would they be selling blu-ray players