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Planet Earth Special Edition Blu-ray set coming to the US from BBC America
Last year, BBC revisited its acclaimed Planet Earth series of nature documentaries with a Special Edition Blu-ray set, and now BBC America shop has revealed the set will also be released on this side of the pond. While the discs shipped last fall in the UK and were region free, they were encoded in a 1080i50 format that most US Blu-ray players (most notably the PlayStation 3) don't support. The new special editions fix one of the quirks of the original releases by opting for two 50GB BD50 discs instead of four 25GB platters, and adding new high definition extras including audio commentaries and options to isolate either the music or sound effects. There's still more to see however, with content from Planet Earth's Greatest Moments, Snow Leopard: Beyond the Myth and a sneak peek at the upcoming Frozen Planet project on the discs. The set also includes the standard def extras omitted from the original high definition releases, that consists of several Making Of featurettes and a three part Planet Earth - The Future documentary, and two new standard definition extras. There's no word on a release date or pricing, but if you've been drooling over the UK rereleases (which apparently suffered a problems on a couple of the discs in initial runs but have since been fixed) a little patience should pay off nicely -- if you've forgotten how amazing the footage is or somehow missed out the first time around, check out the original trailer after the break.
Don't forget: Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind comes to Blu-ray January 25th
Come January, if your recollections of 2010 leave you wishing for a full brain reformat, unfortunately science -- at least in its legal incarnations -- can't help you. Universal's decision to release Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind on Blu-ray this coming January though will at least let you live vicariously through the trippy shenanigans of Jim Carrey and Kate Winslet. Available for pre-order now from Amazon for just shy of $20, the 1080p version will ship as a single 50GB dual-layered Blu-ray disc and feature a DTS-HD 5.1 Master Audio soundtrack along with a host of extras, like interviews with the cast and short documentaries on the film's production. Now that you've been alerted, if you try to pull the I don't remember card come January, we'll know Frodo, Kirsten Dunst and Mark Ruffalo stopped by your crib in the middle of the night.
Panasonic's DMP-BD50 Blu-ray player gets reviewed
Panasonic's pricey Profile 2.0-compliant DMP-BD50 can't really be worth that much more than the PlayStation 3, can it? According to a review over at CNET, the answer is likely no, but if you can somehow overlook the sticker, there's a really solid Blu-ray player behind it. Phrases like "excellent image quality" and "outstanding soundtrack support" dominated the review, but even though it was deemed the "most recommendable standalone Blu-ray player to date," critics still couldn't deny that the PS3 was simply "better and cheaper." After all, standard DVD performance was seen as lackluster and operational speed was "sluggish" compared to Sony's latest console, leaving us to wonder how in the world Panny justified such a price tag. Nevertheless, the full review (video included) is waiting just down there, but if you weren't sold already, we doubt this will sway you.
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:
