Blu-Ray Best Of The Best - for discussing releases only

[RLench]

“Creating Web-enabled content for our Blu-ray releases is a top priority at Universal,” Kornblau said. “We are aggressively pursuing some very exciting opportunities for our tentpole titles that are nothing short of groundbreaking. Our BD Live features will create a wholly immersive, interactive environment that will connect movie fans in innovative ways.”

Why bother? Web-enabled content is almost always, without fail, abysmal.

...nevermind. Here's the answer why they want to use it:

The HD DVD format Universal exclusively supported for so long offered Web connectivity from the start, and the studio aggressively exploited this ability through such features as a virtual store that allowed viewers to buy items they saw in the movie with a couple of clicks of the remote.

Scumbags

[Lyris]

I'm curious as to why they care about "web enabled content", obviously an online store will bring in a bit of cash, but that's only on a minority of releases. Who honestly cares about this boring feature?

I hope BD Live is more reliable than the HD DVD web content. Last week I had to disconnect the LAN cable from my Xbox 360 just to get "Bourne Ultimatum" to start, it wouldn't get past that stupid "LOADING..." screen.

[Angry the Clown]

The web stuff is just something we’ll have to put up with for a couple of years until the realise nobody really cares about any of it. They think it's nonsense like that which will really get people to move on from DVD to HD media - more so than the upgrade in quality to the movies themselves. So far I am not aware of any BD Live titles interfering with playback and access to the general disc features so hopefully that will not change (in fact I am most pleased that the PS3 lets us decide whether to allow a disc web access or not in the first place).

Generally I am pleased with the speed at which Universal is getting themselves together. Although there’s no titles named that are of particular interest to me, they clearly mean business which is good for the format and film fans. Poor Paramount has so much egg on their face at the moment one has to wonder if they can even see where they are going. I do personally think there might be a chance that, although Uni has beaten them to announcements, Paramount may well return and end up getting titles onto the shelves first however. They’ve suffered more than Universal has in missing out on getting some major recent titles out day and date with the DVDs.

So to recap, of the 40 expected Universal titles for US releases known so far:

01) 40 Year Old Virgin
02) American Gangster
03) Doomsday
04) End of Days
05) Forgetting Sarah Marshall*
06) Hellboy II
07) Heroes: Season 1
08) Heroes: Season 2
09) The Incredible Hulk
10) Knocked Up
11) Land of the Dead
12) Mamma Mia
13) Miami Vice
14) The Mummy
15) The Mummy Returns
16) The Mummy: Tomb of the…
17) The Scorpion King
18) U-571
19) Wanted

* = They didn’t actually name this one (Forgetting Sarah Marshal) for some strange reason, but it is surely destined to be a day and date title around August which is when I expect they will debut Knocked Up and 40 Year Old Virgin as all three are “team Apatow” movies.

So that leaves twenty-one unnamed titles. If they're smart they'll be in contact with Fox about when Firefly will debut (its coming, apparently) and get Serenity out the same week, and if Casino and The Thing are planned for Europe this year they might be on the cards for the US as well. Good chance Ang Lee's Hulk could join its semi-sequel too I suppose. I’d certainly take Casino and The Thing.

Looking over titles they have named I get the distinct impression they will be re-using their VC1 encodes given that the majority of the above are generally considered to be amongst their better efforts (40yr Old Virgin perhaps being the most questionable). It would certainly give them incentive to put these sorts of titles out first and might support rumours that they are indeed going back and re-doing the masters of their worst offenders. What say you, Lyris?

With a bit of luck someone is steering them in the right direction and they’ll make up for additional oversights like missing extras on Knocked Up and American Gangster (and missing extended cut in the case of the latter too), as well as their inconsistent support of lossless audio on HD DVD. I think, given their strong support of DTS since the laserdisc days it would be rather appropriate if Universal did a Fox/New Line and put DTS HD Master Audio on all their discs.

[Lyris]

The web stuff is just something we’ll have to put up with for a couple of years until the realise nobody really cares about any of it. They think it's nonsense like that which will really get people to move on from DVD to HD media - more so than the upgrade in quality to the movies themselves. So far I am not aware of any BD Live titles interfering with playback and access to the general disc features so hopefully that will not change (in fact I am most pleased that the PS3 lets us decide whether to allow a disc web access or not in the first place).

Yes, from an authoring perspective, I imagine the web components on the disc will need to be specifically activated to ensure compatibility with Profile 1.0 and 1.1 players. So we won't have to sit through that guff unless we ask for it. Ironic that one of the biggest annoyances of the BD format might work out to be more convenient for us in the long run.

It would certainly give them incentive to put these sorts of titles out first and might support rumours that they are indeed going back and re-doing the masters of their worst offenders. What say you, Lyris?

Good observation, and I think you could be right. Out of the Universal stuff I've seen, I'd say these are better (but still perhaps below par compareed to other studios). None of them stick out as being absolute stinkers though. Although I was disappointed at American Gangster's degraining.

[JP]

Has there been any word about Fox bringing Night and Day Watch out on BR, they are 2 movies i really want in HD.

Speaking of Fox, the studio has just announced Blu-ray Disc versions of director Timur Bekmambetov's sci-fi epics Night Watch and Day Watch for release in Japan (on 7/4 - see Amazon.jp link). They'll be available individually, and also in a 2-disc set. The good news is, sources at Fox tell us they're planning to release the BDs here in the States sometime in October.

thedigitalbits.com

[ne0star]

Providing it never affects the playback of the film itself I think i'm glad my player only supports profile 1.0

[SuperBeatBoy]

Oh dear they made a sequel to that Night Watch trash?
Thought it was really bad. :/

[Ajay1986]

thedigitalbits.com

Ooooooooh good news thanks for the heads up.

Oh dear they made a sequel to that Night Watch trash?
Thought it was really bad. :/

I guess it was a bit of a Marmite film but Day Watch is even better imo.

[SuperBeatBoy]

Ooooooooh good news thanks for the heads up.



I guess it was a bit of a Marmite film but Day Watch is even better imo.

I couldn't make sense of the original film, i thought it was all over the place. I gave up on it 3 quarters of the way through. I heard alot of people liked it though and it did well...

[CMcK]

Night Watch is all about potential. Day watch is the better of the two films. Quite different from the books which are some of the best things I have read in years.

[Matt]

I couldn't handle Night Watch. Gave me a headache.

[SuperBeatBoy]

Has anyone had any problems with Spider-Man 2 in the blu-ray trilogy boxset?
I got halfway through the film and it just stops. It also takes ages to detect on the PS3 frontend. Theres no scratches on the disc at all either. Just a dodgy disc i take it?
If so thats going to be a bugger as i have lost my reciept. How are HMV for refunds on faulty goods?

[JP]

Not had any problems with mine so far. I've not tried it since the latest update though so it could be a new thing.

What time does it happen at so I can test mine to see if it does it also for you?

[SuperBeatBoy]

The PS3 gives me an error message now, saying that this video can't be played.

[Strider]

Just watching Twister. It's not gotten any better as a film over the last 12 years, but **** me is it impressive to look at. The sound is predictibly incredible as well. In fact the bass is so intense it just knocked two of my Blu-Ray shelves down!!!!