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Fox confirms more 50GB, BD-J and MPEG-4 movie releases for December
Fox already announced it is kicking off its support of the Blu-ray format with several enhanced titles timed to hit at the time of the PlayStation 3 launch, now it's announced more extras for several titles scheduled for the following weeks. From Hell will be a dual-layer BD-50 50GB release, authored in Blu-ray Java and using MPEG-4 (AVC) compression. It also features several commentaries, a lossless soundtrack, a trivia pop up feature and 21 deleted scenes. Flight of the Phoenix, as well as the rest of the releases, is authored using standard HDMV, includes a DTS HD Master Audio lossless soundtrack as well as commentaries and HD trailers. Rising Sun comes to Blu-ray using MPEG-4 compression, the only extras mentioned are lossless soundtrack and HD trailers.The Devil Wears Prada and Transporter 2 both use MPEG-2 compression and will include DTS HD Master Audio lossless soundtracks as well as HD trailers. The Devil Wears Prada is still set for a day-and-date release with the DVD December 12th, behind From Hell, Flight of the Phoenix and Rising Sun December 5th. Transporter 2 brings up the rear with a Boxing Day release of December 26th. All of the announced movies share a $39.98 MSRP. We've been complaining about the lack of extras on many HD releases, while Fox may be a little late to the party, it appears the company is ready to give customers the advanced features -- not to mention (hopefully) enhanced PQ with better compression/bigger discs -- once titles do hit the streets.
Paramount reveals World Trade Center Blu-ray, HD DVD extras
Paramount is releasing Oliver Stone's epic World Trade Center on DVD, Blu-ray and HD DVD simultaneously on December 12th. The flick will also be Paramount's first on a BD-50 disc, and they plan to make the experience worth it with lots of HD extras. Still no word on any potential differences between the HD DVD and Blu-ray releases, it appears they will have the same content and MSRP ($39.99). Both have the same 1080p 128-minute film and Dolby Digital Plus soundtracks, plus all the extras of the two-disc DVD set, with certain ones available in HD. The high-def extras include a three-part making of, Q&A with the director, the original theatrical trailer and more. These are the type of extras we expect to see on many new movies going forward, settling for only 480i DVD content isn't very next-gen at all.This title has been added to our Google Release CalendarsHD DVD:Blu-ray:
Warner and Paramount to produce BD-50 discs
Sony Pictures isn't the only Blu-ray studio producing the elusive BD-50 discs, Warner and Paramount has confirmed that they too have dual-layer Blu-ray movies coming out soon. Two of the seven titles Warner announced yesterday, The Searches and Unforgiven, are going to be encoded on the 50GB flavors along with World Trade Center from Paramount. These titles mark the first commitment from both studios to the higher capacity discs. While we know the Warner titles are coming out on October 31, there isn't any release info just yet for World Trade Center but as always, we'll let you know once we hear something.
