Universal's Blu-ray release plans uncovered, details later today

We won't have to wait long to find out Universal's plans for Blu-ray, Reuters just noted that later today the studio will announce plans to release about 40 movies on the format in the second half of the year, including Doomsday. The only studio to support solely HD DVD from the beginning will come out with all three of its Mummy films: The Mummy, The Mummy Returns, and The Scorpion King July 22 (sounds like someone's bitter about HD DVD and taking it out on Blu-ray owners to us), with catalog releases jumping over from red like Miami Vice, Knocked Up, American Gangster and others before the year is out. Keep an eye out for specifics later on, like whether those U-Control and community features from the HD DVD versions will make the jump intact

[Sukhminder @ Apr 17th 2008 4:23AM]

Not really surprising, but good to hear none the less.

[gabe @ Apr 17th 2008 4:25AM]

people still pay for movies?

[cduran01 @ Apr 17th 2008 9:28AM]

Most of us understand that movies are made with the work of thousands of people who deserve a paycheck just like the rest of us do when we WORK for a living.

[Davsot @ Apr 17th 2008 7:35PM]

1080p is the best part about buying movies, also like the guy above me said people put a hard effort in creating these movies.

[YoMomma @ Apr 17th 2008 9:52PM]

does your momma pays for her movies?

[ChrisTheFeral @ Apr 17th 2008 4:33AM]

Meh.. who cares O.O

[Adam @ Apr 17th 2008 5:13AM]

Yeah seriously, those are all terrible movies except for Knocked Up and American Gangster. Who will plan to buy the Mummy Trilogy?

[rawd @ Apr 17th 2008 6:56AM]

The Mummy series is one of Universals top selling movies believe it or not.

[Anthony @ Apr 17th 2008 4:34AM]

lol ::points to Universal Studios:: "told ya so!"

[teej @ Apr 17th 2008 12:02PM]

LOLOL

[fantasylee @ Apr 17th 2008 5:02AM]

恩，不错。支持了。

[Bobs @ Apr 17th 2008 5:48AM]

You must have goten lost, you need to go here
chinese.engadget.com

[Mark @ Apr 17th 2008 8:29AM]

ian9outof10, the situation was no different when DVD appeared. The studios will hold back on the good stuff until the format has matured and the market has grown. The more people, the more likely the "digitally restored, remastered, special platinum collectors limited edition" is to sell when it appears.

It took AGES for the likes of The Godfather, Star Wars, Indiana Jones etc. to turn up on DVD. At least Indiana Jones will benefit this time around because of the new movie coming out.

We're still mostly seeing a mix of "classics" (quality titles but not major sellers), new releases (which inevitably means 8 of 10 titles are dross) and shelf filler crap like The Mummy.

I think the situation is normalizing though and releases will probably mirror DVD by the time year is out.

[Tony C @ Apr 17th 2008 1:06PM]

Babelfish sez: "Graciousness, is good. Supported."

Google sez: "TU, it is true. Support."

Methinks both Babel and Google have horrible grammar engines.

[ian9outof10 @ Apr 17th 2008 5:35AM]

Universal are probably just keen to fit in with all the Blu-ray studios who have been releasing crap since the format was released.

I'm not bitter about HD DVD as I've got a Blu-ray player, but I do think the movies on HD DVD were more to my taste.

Still, this will all improve with time. Now just need Jurassic Park, Star Wars trilogy and Indy on Blu-ray and all will be well...

[Mark @ Apr 17th 2008 8:57AM]

Read my comment above. This blog has terrible visual cues and I clicked on the wrong Reply button.

[ArcticFox @ Apr 17th 2008 6:27AM]

Whats all this crap, wheres Jurassic Park, Back to the Future, Indiana Jones, etc..?

[Funke, Tobias Dr. @ Apr 17th 2008 1:02PM]

My three absolute necessities too. Nice call.

[Luke @ Apr 17th 2008 6:43AM]

Just give us Battlestar Galactica on Blu Ray and I'll be happy!

[ian9outof10 @ Apr 17th 2008 7:02AM]

Battlestar looked horrible on HD DVD from what I heard, so it would be nice to see it re-done for Blu-ray

[TDavis @ Apr 17th 2008 7:36AM]

Battlestar looked great on HD DVD, better than the Universal HD re-airings, and FAR better than the original Sci Fi SD broadcasts.

Some nitpickers disagree, but while it could be better, it already looks excellent. You might want to avoid panning something you apparently haven't seen, Ian.

[shawnmos @ Apr 17th 2008 8:28AM]

That is as good as BSG can get. You can't magically make the source look better w/o running it through a ton of filters which IMO usually do more harm than good.

[Dy Phan @ Apr 17th 2008 8:42AM]

BSG on HDDVD does look horrible.. I have it. The blacks are grainy and even more lighted scenes aren't as sharp. It's not my tv setup because other stuff looks great. I will say though that the HDDVD is much better than the SD aired versions and slightly better than the HD aired versions. So I'm not sure what I should have expected.

Bring on the cylons in bluray.

[TDavis @ Apr 17th 2008 7:22PM]

Dy Phan,

BSG was shot that way...grainy image, blown out whites. It's identical to the source.

Not everything is supposed to look like some CGI effects-fest.

[ThePremierAssassin @ Apr 17th 2008 8:13AM]

Besides The Mummy Series and American Gangster there announced titles SUCK.

How about they get their ish together and give us what we want.

[shawnmos @ Apr 17th 2008 8:27AM]

Finally. Now where the hell is Paramount?!

[Matt @ Apr 17th 2008 8:28AM]

Serenity please!!!

[BTomazic @ Apr 17th 2008 9:54AM]

I agree Serenity ... and maybe Transformers

[Tony C @ Apr 17th 2008 1:00PM]

Serenity would be... shiny!

Universal will likely convert the catalog titles they've already released on HD-DVD, which would be much less painful for a studio that's never laid claim to Bluray before.

So that's ditto on the Hot Fuzz, but Shawn of the Dead would be sweeter. Yes to Transformers, Bourne trilogy, Big Lebowski, Batman Begins, Heroes and 12 Monkeys for some of the heavy hitters in my HD collection. An eye on the horizon would be Back the the Future. Someone said Indiana Jones, but that's a Paramount title.

[Salacious @ Apr 17th 2008 8:31AM]

All that is currently announced is titles that are available on HD DVD or the new releases. No news on catalog titles that they would of been working on. I hope the do release some of the classics from their vaults. You wont see them releasing Indiana Jones since that is from Paramount not Universal.

[Galley @ Apr 17th 2008 8:57AM]

"Serenity", now!

[Aaron @ Apr 17th 2008 5:53PM]

heehee... great Seinfeld reference!

[Funke, Tobias Dr. @ Apr 18th 2008 3:40AM]

Serenity now... insanity later.

[giedrys @ Apr 17th 2008 9:29AM]

Who's barking about The Mummy? The Scorpion King is pathetic, but first 2 are actually decent "Indiana Jones" wannabes . Definitely much better than that cheesy overrated POS Knocked Up.

[Tony C @ Apr 17th 2008 12:48PM]

The first Mummy was relatively painless and fun little cinema romp.

Second was full of those inane and badly rendered little CGI pico-pygmies -- me and my friends nicknamed it "The Dummy Returns".

And Scorpion goes without saying -- even worse CGI than the second movie and a leading man that had a smaller script vocabulary than a two-year-old.

[h0mi @ Apr 17th 2008 11:04AM]

Serenity and Hot Fuzz please.

[casey @ Apr 17th 2008 11:17AM]

I'm a little ignorant to the conversion process, but how long could it possibly take to convert from HD DVD to Blu Ray? I don't understand why some of the movies won't be coming out for another 8 or so months... Could someone clarify?

[alexmueller @ Apr 17th 2008 11:54AM]

I'm guessing they need to re-encode the movie, seeing as how there is more space on a Blu-Ray disk you can encode it at a higher bit rate. The designers will also need to redesign the layout and menus of the disc for when you pop it into your Blu-ray player. It's not photoshop you can't just take your psd file and say save as Blu-Ray, HD-DVD or .jpg.

[chris fredette @ Apr 17th 2008 12:51PM]

Anyone know what happened to all the hd-dvd's. no smart ass comments please.
They are gone from al the BB, CC and target's near me. They just upped and sent them all back.

[TreyIM @ Apr 17th 2008 2:22PM]

"American Gangster," "Knocked Up," "The 40-Year-Old Virgin," - I need those on Blu-ray, thank you, very much. I have Virgin on DVD but passed on buy DVDs for the other after getting my PS3. It's about time. They shoulda NEVER backed that inferior HD-DVD format, to begin with. Some of us have vision and others, uhh, just don't, Universal and Co.

[Rick @ Apr 17th 2008 8:41PM]

Who cares. As long as Sony keeps these movies $30+ a peice I'll keep renting and downloading via AppleTV.

[Deluxe @ Apr 18th 2008 3:42AM]

Step 1) Google: Blu-ray,
Step 2) Think
Step 3) Realise you just shouldn't comment.

[Nando @ Apr 17th 2008 8:51PM]

Serenity!!!!

[Stace @ Apr 17th 2008 10:19PM]

Can I ask what I think is a relevant question here?

Why does the U-Control link in the article above link to articles tagged with "U-Control", of which there are precisely one, and it's the post above?

Why not link to something that actually explains what "U-Control" is to those who may not know?

[cmc @ Apr 18th 2008 10:30AM]

True Google doesn't even know
http://www.google.com/search?source=ig&hl=en&rlz=&q=U-Control&meta=

[Daniel @ Apr 18th 2008 7:30PM]

it almost 11 pm wheres the update about there plans on blu-ray. i guess this is a late April fools

[Nelson @ Apr 20th 2008 7:39PM]

Hurry up Universal, its the year 2090 and your stuck on VHS, bring your A game Universal create it, make it, sell it, Blu-ray!