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Lord of the Rings on Blu-ray officially pushed back to 2010
Our friend Bill at the Digital Bits continues to deliver on some of the best and worst Blu-ray movie news -- although we really wish he'd make his site linkable already -- and this time it is the sad news that one of the most anticipated Blu-ray releases ever will be pushed to 2010. No word on exactly when The Lord of the Rings will make it to Blu-ray, but it seems pretty certain that it won't be in the next four months. If it were up to us, we'd have a hard time shying away from 10/10/10, but that's just us.
Sources say Universal and Paramount are both going Blu
Rumors just won't stop about the future of HD DVD, and while we try not to post all of them, some seem too believable to pass up. Our friend Bill Hunt, at the Digital Bits, -- still waiting on those permalinks, Bill -- is reporting that his "second to none" sources informed him that both Universal and Paramount are in the process of going blu. But don't bother asking 'em, because the same contracts that prevent them from switching now, prevent them from confirming the rumor. In addition, Bills sources tell him that while Paramount could make an announcement any day now, Universal's won't come until February -- at the earliest -- because "their contract period with the HD-DVD camp expires at the end of January."[Via FormatWarCentral]
Blu-ray and HD-DVD fight kicks up a notch amongst critics [Update]
With our PS3 Blu-ray library growing week by week, we try to stay abreast of the latest in fervent format war discussion. More recently, the ongoing battle between HD DVD and Blu-ray polarized opinions of two key industry critics. Last week, Harry Knowles over at Aint It Cool News, posted a write-up of his decision to "go HD DVD" with his purchase of the Toshiba HD-A2 player. In response, Bill Hunt, editor of The Digital Bits, interjected and laid down what we perceive to be one of the most well written responses on why HD DVD will not win the HD format war. Attacking all fronts, we most enjoyed the Digital Bits interpretation of the porn industry's influence on HD DVD (or lack there-of), and their critical stab at Toshiba and their price drop on HD DVD players, likening it as an act of desperation for a doomed format. Certainly a good read for our Blu-ray fans.[Update: After comparing the two, we felt compelled to change the "picks" to "kicks" in our post title, as suggested in our comments. Thanks, BlackBeltJones.]
Report: 50GB, dual-layer Blu-ray discs WILL play
So check it: intrepid optical media journo Bill Hunt -- the same man who told us with some confidence that 50GB Blu-ray discs would definitely NOT work on currently-configured BD-P1000 players -- is now reporting that dual-layer movies WILL actually play on the Samsung machine, no firmware update required. Hunt was at an unnamed Hollywood studio the other day before a taping of Attack of the Show when he had the privilege of watching one of the first production 50GB discs playing in an unmodified P1000, even observing the seamless switch from one layer to the next. According to Hunt, the previous compatibility problems were restricted to BD-R discs only -- media that was being used to test authoring -- and that the final production BD-ROMs should work just fine on your existing hardware. In all honesty we're kind of disappointed at this revelation, as were just about to snatch up an HD DVD player, and now once again we're hopelessly torn between the two formats. Bah, maybe we'll just cave in and settle for whatever low-res fare we can dredge up on Unbox and iTunes.
Blu-ray camp can't get 50GB titles to work?
Most new technologies have some teething problems as the early kinks are worked out, but it seems like the Blu-ray camp is experiencing more than its fair share of growing pains -- first the delays, then news that the supposed format-savior PS3 might price itself right out of the market, and finally the revelation that first-gen BD-P1000's were shipping with a picture-degrading chip. Well now it appears that there's even more bad news for Sony's pride and joy, as The Digital Bits' Bill Hunt is confirming what many people already suspected after reading their P1000 manuals: the $1,000 player, as currently configured, will be unable to support movies on upcoming 50GB discs. Hunt cites multiple anonymous industry sources in reporting that Samsung is still having problems getting 50GB discs to work on its machines -- production titles weren't even available to test before the players launched -- and that both Sony and Pioneer are experiencing the same issues with their upcoming products. Luckily for current P1000 owners, it seems that this incompatibility is of the type that will eventually be solved by a firmware upgrade, but until that time, movie studios have been forced to delay longer titles like Lawrence of Arabia and Black Hawk Down -- no doubt frustrating some consumers. With so much on the line here, it's clear that this issue will be resolved sooner or later; however, with the HD DVD camp already offering cheaper (and more) hardware, a larger media selection, and garnering better initial reviews than Blu-ray, it's not clear how much time is left before the so-called format war begins leaning decidedly in HD DVD's favor.[Via HDBeat]
