HD DVD and Blu-ray releases on February 13th, 2007
By Ben Drawbaugh 
posted Feb 12th 2007 3:38PM
posted Feb 12th 2007 3:38PM
With HD DVD still on hiatus after the big holiday rush, Blu-ray rolls on with twelve new titles this week, mostly just cataloge titles from Fox and Buena Vista like Planet of the Apes, Ladder 49 and The Usual Suspects. New to the Blu-ray game this week is Koch, with the documentarary Chronos, a time-lapse tour of natural and man-made wonders. The big title for both HD DVD and Blu-ray this week is The Departed, which should be enjoyable on both formats. Contrary to what Sony tells us the format war isn't over, but it might be if HD DVD doesn't start to release more movies.HD DVD 159 vs Blu-ray 171.
Blu-ray
- Broken Arrow (Fox)
- Chain Reaction (Fox)
- Chronos (Koch)
- The Departed (Warner)
- Entrapment (Fox)
- Ladder 49 (Buena Vista)
- The Marine (Fox)
- Phone Booth (Fox)
- Planet of the Apes (Fox)
- Reign of Fire (Buena Vista)
- The Sentinel (Fox)
- The Usual Suspects (Fox)
- The Departed (Warner)
Yeah!
Who is first to hit 200 eh?
LOL
Dave your Sony whoring is getting tiresome, nice to see you finally have something useful to say. Oops guess not.
Be interesting to see how The Departed does on sales among the two consoles..
erm someone is goin to die soon
C'mon HD DVD, you can do better than that. I guess one good movie is better than seven crappy ones, but would two or three good ones be that hard?
@little birdie
One good movie ...which one is that? Oh ...you mean The Departed ...the release that is ALSO on Blu-ray? I guess you also not a big fan of The Usual Suspect?
Sy - Incase you didn't notice, there are 12 titles being released on BDA. IMO, 7 of them are crap. Comprende?
I am a 360 HD DVD owner. I must admit. This is pathetic. Again I reiterate. Instead of this pathetic format war. Can we not just adapt the Total HD Disc. Making the playing field better for both early adapters. I'm tired of arguing about which one is better. HD DVD just edging out BR with the iHD for me. Other than that. They both look great.
@sonicDeath
TotalHD Disc is not the answer ...its a clumsy solution to a problem. The easiest and quickest solution is for Universal to support Blu-ray. I am sorry for all the early HD DVD adopters out there. You know what you were getting yourself into when you committed. If you want to end this format war quick, then stop supporting HD DVD and Universal will switch. All other alternatives will only prolong the war.
It looks like The Departed HD-DVD is barely outselling the Blu-Ray version at Amazon.. BUT the HD-DVD version also has a DVD side, so many people may be purchasing it as a DVD now and "future-proofing" themselves.
I was a person who was THIS close to buying a HD-DVD player last fall thinking it was going to be a long war and it was cheaper. Also, I hear the DVD upconversion is really good. The lack of upconversion is the only reason I haven't bought a PS3. I am disappointed with my current DVD upconverter, can any one recommend another? Is it smart at this point to buy a HD-A2 as a DVD upconverter w/ HD-DVD being an added benefit?
@Sy
Well I guess you bought one if those worthless playstations. I'm pushing for you guys to win some war. Cause on the game side its a totally zzzzzzzzz. Best PS title God of War on the PS2. Unless you have actually seen or watched something on Total HD. Please don't talk to me about stability of the format. yes it's new. I'm sure its to be expected. At least someone like Warner is trying to think of a solution. Why not pull in money from both camps that have invested already.
Has anyone else noticed that the Universal Symbol is on the BDA website? I haven't gone there for a while, just wondering if anyone know's what's up with that?
http://www.blu-raydisc.com/default.htm
It says Universal Music Group under the Universal symbol on the BDA site.
Don't know exactly what that means for Universal, but it certainly doesn't discredit their 100% support of HD-DVD on the film studio side of things.
"Has anyone else noticed that the Universal Symbol is on the BDA website? I haven't gone there for a while, just wondering if anyone know's what's up with that?"
That logo says universal music group. They are different companies. When GE bought Universal from Vivendi, GE did not want to buy the music division, they wanted the studios. I believe Vivendi still owns Universal Music Group.
So it is not the Universal that makes movies and tv shows.
Here is the press release for when umg joined blu-ray; in case you want to read it.
http://www.blu-ray.com/news/?id=51
And here is the press release for GE taking Universal.
http://www.ge.com/en/company/news/press/nbc10032003.htm
IS there any update on PS3 upconverting? Is it slated for a firmware update (upconverting dvd's and PS and PS2 games)? Any good news on this or just rumors?
"Is it smart at this point to buy a HD-A2 as a DVD upconverter w/ HD-DVD being an added benefit?"
Yeah, it wouldn't be a bad move since you can get the player for between $350-$400. The upconverting is top-notch on it, albeit a little slower than a regular DVD player. The upshot, especially if you rent movies, is that you can get a lot of them on HD-DVD as well.
If you want an upconverting player for a bit cheaper, and don't care about the HD side of things, the Panasonic S77S is very good, as are the Oppo players (I don't remember the model -- do a search and it should be easy to find). I had the S77S until I bought the A1, and despite the lack of releases recently, I haven't regretted the purchase yet - I still have a ton of back movies to watch and more is on the way (ie: I doubt highly that it's going to end anytime soon).
HD DVD camp is killing itself. They had plenty of advantages and they wasted them. Trying to find a copy of Hollywoodland on HD DVD this weekend was like finding gold. Sure you could buy it online, but it was out of several stores I went to.
Since that was the only new title what else was there? Meanwhile, Bluray just keeps pumping out movies while the players get cheaper. This won't last much longer.
Agathos: If you're really desperate for good DVD upconversion from your PS3, try installing linux, the open source DVD players have a lot of different quality options (plus they don't care about regions, typically). That being said, not being able to afford a PS3, I can't vouch for the current state of linux software on it. But you might look into it.
its funny how everytime you read something on the internet by bloggers and commenters, its all pro blu-ray, yet in the real world, hd-dvd is outselling blu-ray 10 to 1. I worked in an electonics store, I know first hand, not what some random company releases in the form of numbers on the net.
Its simple. PRICE. People buy hd-dvd more because it costs less. For this reason alone, sonys format will fail.
"its funny how everytime you read something on the internet by bloggers and commenters, its all pro blu-ray, yet in the real world, hd-dvd is outselling blu-ray 10 to 1."
Actually, Blu-ray is outselling HD DVD by at least 2 to 1 in retail and online. I have facts and articles. What non-ass-pulled evidence do you have?
activating comments password, ignore this post
007craft, hd-dvds costs $1 less on average. you might want to take a look at this website: http://www.eproductwars.com/dvd/
Good deal... some quality movies for the BD... glad I held off on buying Usual Suspects on DVD and VHS...
I agree...what the hell is Universal doing? Release some damn movies already. To be honest, are we really all that bored to wheer we all have to sit online & fight over a dvd format? I mean come on already.Is it really THAT serious? I don't think any of us developed the formats so if either format wins yay for Toshiba or Sony. Both formats look great, there is not allot of difference between the two...not enough to get all hyped up.
I really think it's crap that both companies put both BD & HD buyers in a position to loose their asses.I feel bad for either format buyers when one drops out.
PS3 upconversion is really a non-issue for people that connect to their TV using HDMI and if the TV has a quality scaler built-in. Since the signal stays in digital domain, the TV can do the upconversion. The PS3 does have a top notch deinterlacer that does the 3:2 pulldown and outputs a 480p signal through HDMI. I have watched several SD-DVDs on PS3 and its quality rivals the upconvert players. I have a 61" JVC Pro HD-ILA. I would rather trust a scaler in a $4000 TV rather than a $500 Player.
"When GE bought Universal from Vivendi, GE did not want to buy the music division, they wanted the studios. I believe Vivendi still owns Universal Music Group."
Now we are getting somewhere. The only reason that there are no blu-ray Universal titles yet is because they are owned by one of the largest multi-national co. on the planet. People want to say that Sony is such a bad company, why don't you look into the "explosive" past that GE has had.
Basically what your statement says is that if GE didn't own Universal they would already be supporting BD, since the prior owners are already supporting it.
To me that should be enough to boycott Univesal untill they produce BD, but I'm sure some of you will have a reason why Sony is worse than GE. Mainly because you bought a HD-DVD player. That is fine. However, let's try and keep things in perspective when talking about these giant companies, you want to tell people how bad Sony is, fine, but make sure you know who your standing up for......"bombs away"
With the Blu-Ray and HD-DVD keys being exposed, someone will find a way to convert Blu-Ray movies to HD-DVD and vice versa. Once this happens it will not matter what format studios support because someone will release their movie on the other format.
Just to clarify.... I'm not implying that GE owns HD-DVD.... As we all know that's Toshiba's baby. However, without Universal(GE) HD-DVD is all but dead.
I don't want the format war to end soon. I want it to end with Blu-ray winning and HD-DVD owners getting burned with their investment. lol
HD-DVD FTL!!
The PS3 is certainly the driving force for Blu-Ray...but it is selling poorly thus far. It would certainly be interesting if the PS3 fails as a gaming machine but succeeds in making Blu-Ray the victor. I personally own a 360 HD-DVD add on and will not even think about going Blu-Ray till at least Christmas 2007.
Looks like HD DVD has a slight edge with regard to The Departed. I'll also be looking at Babel next week before I declare a stalemate.
http://eproductwars.com/dvd/index.cfm
I don't have a side but buy looking for info about the war, that's what I found: http://www.gizmocafe.com/blogs/gizmo_cafe_blog/archive/2007/02/08/106130.aspx and I think it's right.