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

[mt50]

Problem is Amazon mark the total value of all the BD not the actual buy one get one free value, so you are likely to get hit by customs even if you're order is only say $20+shipping.

thats why you pay the couple of quid more to get amazon to send each blu ray separately that way you dint get customs(costs about ?1.50 extra on 2 blu rays)

[talizker]

thats why you pay the couple of quid more to get amazon to send each blu ray separately that way you dint get customs(costs about ?1.50 extra on 2 blu rays)

ah! That is a fine idea my good man

[RLench]

I can't wait for the Peter M Bracke review. "Does not look like real life. Colour has stylistic intent. Black level is good, which is uncommon on a digital video format which defines black as a solid number. Looks a bit like film. 3 out of 5."

Unfortunately the second half goes downhill pretty quickly The image quality is really poor during some shots. Any close-up shots of faces shows a lot of posterization HD is not supposed to have posterization!! It's not enough to ruin my enjoyment of the film but it's instantly visible...and I certainly wasn't looking for it or trying to focus on every imperfection

[JP]

I'm grasping at straws here and it may well come to nothing but it must be be good news that they have tested one of their titles on blu-ray and are really happy with the results!

The 23-year-old company (Criterion) has yet to jump into high-def, by the way, shunning both Blu-ray Disc and HD DVD for standard DVDs. "We're waiting for the formats to figure themselves out," says Lee. "If we wind up liking Blu-ray but Casablanca is only on HD DVD, we don't want people to have to choose. And we also don't want to confuse them by siding with one format over the other, because it's not our place to decide. Both HD DVD and Blu-ray have merit to us, and both look really good."

Criterion, though, is all for taking the resolution of its releases to the next level. "We're ready to go," says Lee. "We've mastered in high-definition for years now. We just have to take the tapes and compress them in an HD codec. We did a Blu-ray test of one of our titles, and we're really happy with the results."

Meeting Criterion (Sound & Vision)

[Lyris]

Criterion, though, is all for taking the resolution of its releases to the next level. "We're ready to go," says Lee. "We've mastered in high-definition for years now.

Yes you did. And then you filtered it, totally blowing the resolution advantage

Glad to hear they're getting things ready, though. The sooner there's a winner, the better.

[ne0star]

I received my copy of Sunshine yesterday. I have only watched a few minutes to make sure it worked ok, but so far I’m really impressed. The HD resolution really highlights the intricate detail in the sets that wasn't visible on the DVD. It also does justice to the fantastic special effects which are some of the best I have seen recently.

Quite a hard disk to get hold of though. Only a couple of the online retailers had it in stock and they were charging full whack. In the end I managed to get a mint copy off eBay for £14.99 including postage.

[JP]

Setting a record for most consecutive price drops in the space of a week, several retailers have cut their prices on Samsung's BD-P1400 player well below this weekend's already record breaking price drops.

As we first reported Sunday, several retailers snipped as much as $100 off their price tags for the player, offering it a then-record low of $299.

Now at least two national retailers have dropped prices even further. Yesterday we reported that Costco had dropped its price to $279.99, and today Amazon cut its price to just $269.98 -- that's a whopping 46% off the player's original suggested retail price.

Although HD DVD has long held the low-price advantage over Blu-ray, Samsung's BD-P1400 player is now within $70 of Amazon's lowest-priced HD DVD player (Toshiba's 1080i HD-A3 HD DVD player, which the retailer is currently selling at 33% off list at $199.98).

How low will Blu-ray player prices go as we enter the heat of the holiday shopping season? Stay tuned...

Samsung Blu-ray Player Hits New Low of $270 (£131:00)

[Lyris]

Spidey 2 UK BD is the uncut US version

For anyone holding back on the bargain-riffic UK Spidey trilogy box set because of the 2nd film being censored in the UK, don't. MelonFarmers.co.uk have confirmed that the UK disc is just a copy of the US one, complete with MPAA logos. Shh, don't tell the film vandals.

Edward Scissorhands is also uncut on the UK BD for the first time in this country.

[RLench]

Spidey 2 UK BD is the uncut US version

For anyone holding back on the bargain-riffic UK Spidey trilogy box set because of the 2nd film being censored in the UK, don't. MelonFarmers.co.uk have confirmed that the UK disc is just a copy of the US one, complete with MPAA logos. Shh, don't tell the film vandals.

I said that weeks ago!

[JP]

My Die Hard 3 & 4 have just shipped from Australia, not really sure how long they'll take to arrive. About £34 for the pair!

For the people who want the full version, what exactly should I be looking for and in which part of the films is it? I'll let you know as soon as they arrive which version they are although I'm sure other people will have said on the web by then.

[Strider]

I thought it had already been confirmed that Die Hard 4 doesn't exist in its uncut form in any region on Blu-Ray yet?

[JP]

There is no uncut version of the film, there is teh home version and teh cinema version.

The reason that the cinema version wasn't released on blu-ray according to Fox was due to the HD master not being available for release last month.

Australia historically gets the uncut version of films (Casino Royale, Star Wars etc) and was held back over a month. It was originally listed by Fox as the uncut version which they changed due to the people who made it not being happy with the idea that the already released version was being though of as cut.

Nothing has been confirmed either way yet but should be shortly as it's out now.

[Strider]

Confusing as the version I have on Blu-Ray (us) is identical to the theatrical cut I watched.

[Lyris]

I said that weeks ago!

Oops! I should really read back through the threads before making joyous annoncements

[JP]

But it was worth saying twice!