HD DVD and Blu-ray releases on October 2nd, 2007
By Ben Drawbaugh 
posted October 1st 2007 9:17AM
posted October 1st 2007 9:17AM
Blu-ray regains a little ground this week with nine titles compared to HD DVD's four -- Warner did also re-issue a number of formerly combo only titles for the plain variety. HD DVD has one of the great catalog titles this week with Top Gun, but we can't help but wonder where Weinstein is with 1408. Speaking of MIA, Fox is back this week with a couple of titles including the day-and-date release of Fantasic Four: The Rise of the Silver Surfer. Looking ahead, Blu-ray is really kicking off the fourth quarter right and has a great October planned, getting geared up for that critical holiday push.HD DVD 304 vs Blu-ray 287 *
Blu-ray
- Bram Stoker's Dracula (Sony)
- Dawn of the Dead (1978) (Starz)
- The Day After Tomorrow (Fox)
- Day of the Dead (1985) (Starz)
- Evil Dead 2: Dead by Dawn (Starz)
- Fantastic Four: The Rise of the Silver Surfer (Fox)
- Galapagos (BBC)
- Halloween (1978) (Starz)
- A Room with a View (BBC)
- Dreaming Nevada (The Picture)
- Galapagos (BBC)
- A Room with a View (BBC)
- Top Gun (Paramount)
*Blu-ray total does not reflects 32 Paramount titles that were previously available.
The Day after Tomorrow is the only one that interests me out of the entire list. Then again, seeing Jessica Alba in HD has to be awesome, even if she is invisible.
The Day after Tomorrow was dreadfully bad - I couldn't stop laughing at the wolves.
Special effects were very cool, and I typically like apocalyptic thrillers, but this was very bad, I thought.
Plus it should be the first Blu-ray title with EXTRA DRM from BD+! Oh boy!
Good God, 4 Halloween movies?!?! And what's Galapagos, anyone seen it?
I'm not surprised by four Halloween type movies at all, it is October after all.
Anyway, all this bickering over the number of titles is just silly. I really don't think there is any other way to put it right now. About 300 movies isn't much to brag about, a spread of 10% might not even be statistically significant, it doesn't even matter if it's 500 to 300 titles, neither number would be significant. That is just too few to say that either format is here to stay vs DVD. I can't find the numbers, but I thought there were many tens of thousands of LD titles, and that still remained an unimportant format.
May get Evil Dead 2 if its $19.99 or less. No Fox BDs till the PS3 can fully decode DTS-HD Master Audio.
-dad
Oh, and I just want to mention one small thing: if you hate HD DVD combo disks, Warner Bros. is re-issuing a lot of their HD DVD catalogue that were combos as non-combos.
Also, I will be getting Top Gun.
Rumor Has It...
Superman Returns
Kiss Kiss Bang Bang
Lady in the Water
The Lake House
Letters from Iwo Jima
The Fountain
The Ant Bully
The Departed
Looks like you're forcing me to continually correct your math. As of this writing, there are 378 BD titles available (250 exclusive), with 114 titles announced with solid street dates between now and 2/12/08, whereas HD DVD has 314 titles available, (178 exclusive), with only 63 titles announced with solid street dates between now and 2/12/08.
No there are not 378 Blu-Ray releases. Sorry.
And you're getting this information from...where?
"Looks like you're forcing me to continually correct your math. As of this writing, there are 378 BD titles available (250 exclusive), with 114 titles announced with solid street dates between now and 2/12/08, whereas HD DVD has 314 titles available, (178 exclusive), with only 63 titles announced with solid street dates between now and 2/12/08."
Sorry thats impossible if so then we would have the number of no exclusives for each:
BD: 378-250=128
HD: 314-178=136
how would these not be equal? Before you start faking numbers at least check them!
Why haven't we heard anything about the Paramounts only HD-DVD releases since they went HD-DVD only.
I guess they're not doing that well. I would think they would post numbers to backup the switch to HD-DVD.
Maybe the "numbers" to back up their decision are evident in reduced losses rather than sales. Obviously, they're going to sell less by selecting one format--but it's quite possible they were losing money on production of Blu-Ray discs.
I'm guessing you will hear a lot when Transformers comes out in 2 weeks.
These are all well and good, especially "Top Gun," the movie that made Cruise a heavy-hitter (after "Risky Business" put him on the map), but where is "Highlander" in HD? A true classic, with the ever-excellent Clancy Brown as The Kurgan and Sean Connery as a Spaniard(!), not even trying to hide his accent, lol.
For those that hated it...just shut up and like it!
I'd love Highlander in HD. The DVD is so horribly bad--and it's one of my favorite movies. Of course, there is only one movie. Don't argue with me. There's ONLY ONE!
Gallapagos is great. It focuses on the unique animals that inhabit the islands. If you liked Planet Earth, you'd like Gallapagos.
Thanks, Tim.
Yes! Evil Dead 2! but i dont know how much that would differ from my DVD version (as far as quality) lol.
Ok, just saw add at Frys. Tomorrow they will have Dracula on sale for $18.99. The Day After Tomorrow will be on sale for $27.99. And Evil Dead 2 will be $19.99. I will have to pass on Evil Dead 2 for a while because I don't see how BD will seriously enhance what the DVD already has done. I mean, come on, its the Evil Dead :) So I changed my mind on that. Fox are a bunch of loonies if they think im paying $30 bux for a catalog title!!! So Dracula is my best bet this week for a purchase. Cannot wait for Transformers :)
-dad
I'd read a review on the Dracula release before buying. Apparently, it's a really poor transfer.
Fantastic Four ROTSS on HD DVD in Germany has already been announced for an early Dec release. Some on the AVS forums are already preordering to get it shipped to the states by Christmas.
Oh, remember the HD DVD is region free. There is a thread at AVS forums with a long list of blue ray exclusives that are on HD DVD in europe or japan etc that will work here in north america.
Last I heard there was over 40 so called Blu-Ray Exclusives that you can actually buy on HD DVD. I don't think getting Fantastic 4 on HD DVD is worth it. It wasn't a very good movie. There are some others though that I plan to get shortly.
A lot of HD DVD imports can be had here: http://xploitedcinema.com/catalog/hd-dvds-c-35.html
"Highlander" would most likely be exclusive to Blu-ray because if I am not mistaken, MGM took control of the Republic Pictures film library, and MGM is exclusively in the Blu-ray camp with Fox distributing its titles.
I have no idea on "Highlander 2" - and who cares anyways - but I would not be surprised if Disney holds claim to all Dimension titles prior to the Weinsteins leaving Miramax and if that is true, then "Highlander 3" would also be Blu-ray exclusive if they chose to release it.
I only care about the first movie. I deny the existence of any others.
You mean blue ray exsclusive till available on HD DVD in Europe.
I saw this the other day.
The fact is that [b]HD DVD offers the largest amount of actual available, exclusive and potential movie content.[/b]
Here's how, these are facts....
(bear in mind these numbers apply in the USA & they have yet to remove the Viacom/Paramount numbers)
http://www.blu-raystats.com/index.php
http://www.hddvdstats.com/index.php
Total available content -
Blu-ray 325
HD DVD 318
Total available exclusive content -
Blu-ray 195
HD DVD 187
Then [b]remove from the Blu-ray total the number of supposedly 'exclusive Blu-ray titles' which are nothing of the sort and which can be sourced on HD DVD internationally cos HD DVD is region-free everytime[/b]
See here - http://areahd.dvdtiefpreise.com/?p=109
and here - http://forums.highdefdig...d.php?p=45960#post45960
(over 60 titles, but call it 60 for ease of calculation)
This leaves us with -
Blu-ray genuinely exclusive titles = 135
HD DVD genuinely exclusive titles = 187.
(I have heard of 1 HD DVD exclusive available in Japan on Blu-ray - but it could have been photo-shopped, nothing like 60+ tho)
[b]HD DVD has more exclusive content, by far[/b]
Then add those same 60 titles to the total number of titles available to HD DVD and
remove the 30 Paramount movies Blu-ray no longer has and the 3 Dreamworks titles
and we are left with -
Blu-ray available content = 292
HD DVD available content = 378.
[b]HD DVD has more available content, by far[/b]
Actual available and exclusive content and by that measure HD DVD is clearly far ahead
(and with a further 120+ HD DVD movies just announced by Viacome/Paramount as they really start to ramp up production that can only grow).
.....and given the major and smaller independent studios using HD DVD (cos the costs are lower and replication is available as opposed to being choked with short supply & low availability with BD)
[b]HD DVD also has the largest potential catalogue.[/b]
These are the facts that count -
HD DVD offers image and audio quality 2nd to none,
HD DVD has the most content,
HD DVD has the most exclusive content,
HD DVD has the most potential content,
HD DVD offers a proper range of spec & prices,
HD DVD has the lowest entry-level prices,
HD DVD has fully functioning advanced features,
HD DVD has a complete and functioning spec and
HD DVD's 'high end' players (ie the Toshiba HD XA2) are the same price as the under spec'd absolescent Blu-ray entry level players.
......oh, and lest we forget, HD DVD does not have the additional DRM sh*te that Blu-ray is attempting to foist on people
.....and HD DVD is not entirely dependent on a kiddies game console.
Blue ray isn't region free..so can't play a Japan blu ray disc in north america....unlike HD DVD which is region free and can play discs from europe and japan and china, etc.
Actually, as of blu-ray, Japan and North America are in the same region:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blu_ray#Region_codes
so you CAN play a Japan disc in North America. But yeah, region coding sucks. Just like it sucks on DVD. But hey, wait a minute...wasn't DVD region coding cracked? Yeah it was, and so will Blu-rays. Just give it some time.