HD DVD and Blu-ray releases on November 14, 2006

With all the hubub and hooplah over the American elections last week, we didn't say much about the release of Nacho Libre and Reds for both formats, and Little Man on Blu-ray. To make up for that, we have an absolute ton of releases for this week for both formats. The holiday buying season is just around the corner, and the studios are finally nailing down the last encodings and shrink-wrapping on their titles for release to consumers. HD DVD gains the Digital Video Essentials test and reference disc, which is a huge deal for properly testing and tweaking your system. With the PS3 coming out this week for Blu-ray players (and good luck getting one!), and the Xbox 360 HD DVD add-on out as well (for both PC and Xbox, heh!), the chances are high that you'll have something great to watch with your turkey and stuffing this week.. or another suitably exciting meal for those of you not in the US of A. By our count, this week's releases bring the totals up for both camps to roughly depending if you count the lesser known studios.

HD DVD 114 vs Blu-ray 97.

Blu-ray

• ATL (Warner)
• Behind Enemy Lines (Fox)
• Black Hawk Down (Sony)
• Fantastic Four (Fox)
• Kingdom of Heaven: The Director's Cut (Fox)
• Kiss of the Dragon (Fox)
• The Last Samurai (Warner)
• Layer Cake (Sony)
• The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (Fox)
• Million Dollar Baby (Warner)
• The Omen (Fox)
• Speed (Fox)
• The Transporter (Fox)
• X-Men: The Last Stand (Fox)

HD DVD

• Accepted (Universal)
• Casablanca (Warner)
• Chicago and Earth, Wind & Fire: Live at the Greek Theatre (Image)
• Cream: Royal Albert Hall - London May 2-3-5-6 2005 (Rhino)
• The Eagles: Farwell Tour 1 - Live in Melbourne (Rhino)
• Forbidden Planet (Warner)
• Forbidden Planet: Ultimate Collector's Set (Warner)
• Heart: Alive in Seattle (Image)
• James Taylor: A MusiCares Person of the Year Tribute (Rhino)
• King Kong (2005) (Universal)
• Mutiny on the Bounty (Warner)
• Waterworld (Universal)

As usual, our Google calendar has future release schedules for both formats.
HD DVD release schedule


Blu-ray release schedule

[(Unverified) Posted Nov 13th 2006 11:28PM]

You missed Ricky Bobby which is included with the first 500k PS3s.

[(Unverified) Posted Nov 14th 2006 9:04AM]

"Digital Video Essentials" has been delayed until December 5:

http://www.highdefdigest.com/news/show/Disc_Announcements/DVD_International/Digital_Video_Essentials_HD_DVD_Debut_Gets_Bumped/349

[(Unverified) Posted Nov 14th 2006 9:12AM]

Also, Weinstein/Genius has announced titles previously thought to be coming on December 5 ("Lucky # Slevin", "Clerks II", "Pulse") for sometime in January:

http://www.highdefdigest.com/news/show/Disc_Announcements/Weinstein_Co./Clerks_II,_Slevin_and_Pulse_on_Deck_at_Weinstein_for_Early_2007/352

[(Unverified) Posted Nov 14th 2006 2:19PM]

Just curious why your "available title" stat for HD-DVD and BD is so far off from Amazon's at thedvdwars.com AND from what I've seen at my local Best Buys in C-bus Ohio?

Released titles:
HD-DVD 110
BD 77

Available for pre-sale:
HD-DVD 152
BD 96

I think these numbers are a little more accurate as Best Buy here in Columbus seems to have every available title and they are almost dead on with the 110/77 numbers from Amazon. Just FYI, that's all.

[(Unverified) Posted Nov 14th 2006 11:21PM]

whats with the HDDvd tag of 'the look & sound of perfect' did they fair grade school grammar? that isn't right and it is a pretty aful slogan anyhoo. Me thinks they just translated and this is what it came out as.

topmooin'

[(Unverified) Posted Nov 15th 2006 9:11AM]

Neither Amazon nor Best Buy sells or preorders every title. For instance, a lot of the titles Fox announced for the next 2 months hadn't shown up on Amazon last time I checked. Plus, Amazon has listings for a ton of titles on both sides that haven't even been announced yet (such as "Kill Bill" or the "Matrix Collection").

Going by HighDefDigest's lists (which I think are the same as EngadgetHD's) of announced, *definite* titles, the US numbers are:

Released titles:
HD DVD: 113
BD: 98

Total titles:
HD DVD: 153
BD: 162

Yes, counting both released and announced US titles, Blu-ray will take the lead. If the announcements go at the pace they've been going for a while, that tipping point should come in February.