People were impressed when Konami and Kojima Productions managed to fill up an entire dual-layered 50GB Blu-ray disc with Metal Gear Solid 4. But 50GB discs? That's so passé. Pioneer has just developed a sixteen-layer Blu-ray disc that holds 400GB of data (!). With this kind of disc, your PS3 hard drive could be copied five times over, just for the heck of it.
Unfortunately, this impressive tech will not be compatible with your current PS3. [Update: There is some debate over this fact. Some are claiming current BD lasers will be able to read these discs. More info should be revealed next week.] However, the specifications used to manufacture these 400GB discs will allow any future reader that supports these discs to be backwards-compatible with older Blu-ray discs. We can already see the future: Final Fantasy XV on PS4, with over 2 weeks of cutscenes.
Now, for most of you, this week's Batman releases are what you are more accustomed to. You can bet Warner Bros. will churn out as much Batman as possible before Dark Knight. Really, we just saw a Dark Knight tie-in with Comcast cable service. That's right, cable service. Here are the rest of this week's Blu-ray releases:
First up, we've got Batman Begins on Blu-ray. Unfortunately there aren't any new extras except for a Dark Knight prologue in HD. The limited edition includes Hollywood Movie Money which takes $7.50 off your movie ticket for Dark Knight and some art/comic books. Batman: Gotham Knight is the Animatrix-esque prelude for the current Batman franchise. Featuring five directors, five stories and voicework by Kevin Conroy, this is a must-have if you are a Batman fan. The Blu-ray release even includes 4 episodes from Batman: The Animated Series. The Ruins is actually not a terrible movie, as it follows in the footsteps of recent horror flicks like Cabin Fever, but we would wait till the price goes down a bit.
The annual report of the Entertainment Merchants Association released recently stated that PS3 is "the primary driver behind Blu-ray sales, with 87% of PS3 owners watching Blu-ray movies on their console." With 3 million units sold by the end of 2007, the PS3 easily outsold the HD-DVD add-on for the Xbox 360, which sold 316,000 units. The EMA feels Blu-ray was the losing format in 2006, but thanks to the PS3, it rebounded in 2007 to become the de facto winner. Their prediction is the PS3 will be "the main force behind Blu-ray disc sales until 2009, when standalone Blu-ray players are expected to outpace the sales volume of the PS3." We think this report raises a number of questions:
Is the PS3 really the driving force behind Blu-ray? Or is Blu-ray the driving force behind the PS3? Did Sony take too much of a gamble with a new format and didn't invest enough into the games? If so, will that improve now that Blu-ray has won?
What about the credibility of the report? Almost a year ago, the NPD Group found that 60% of PS3 owners didn't know it played Blu-ray discs. Is that a contradiction with this study or have consumers become more educated? As a side note, the study found the average gamer to be 33-years old with 24% that are older than 50. Are 25% gamers really 50 and over? If true, this might be good news for Sony.
What do you guys think? Fire away in the comments below.
We know some of you must be interested in these particular films: the um ... Godfather trilogy? Why would movies about someone's godfather be all that exciting? Regardless of they are about, Paramount has just announced The Godfather Collection: The Coppola Restoration, a four-disc boxset of the trilogy, including a bonus disc. Each film will be in a BD-50 dual-layer presentation with 1080p video and English Dolby TrueHD 5.1 Surround sound. The first two Godfather films also received frame-by-frame restoration under the direction of Francis Ford Coppola and cinematographer Gordon Willis. Extras include audio commentaries by Coppola on each film, featurettes, galleries, deleted scenes, storyboards and trailers. Look for this on September 23rd for the retail price of $119.99 or pre-order it now for $86.95.
Best Buy is having another special on Blu-ray films: 2 for $30 this time. Need movie recommendations? Enjoy one of the movies on the list but not sure what else to get? Do you just like being told what to do? Here is a humble classification of the movies on sale:
The picture above is to make sure everyone knows a certain Batman: The Movie released this week is the 1966 production with Adam West, and NOT the 1989 Burton production. This is the campy and hilarious comedy that was never meant to be taken seriously, so make sure you know what you are buying. With that being said, here are the rest of this week's Blu-ray releases:
There's quite a few award winners here in the mix; Gangs of New York has Oscar winner Martin Scorsese pairing up with a post-Titanic Leonardo DiCaprio and the Daniel Day-Lewis, In the Line of Fire stars Clint Eastwood in a disturbingly effective thriller and Mad Men is a series that has rack up a few Golden Globes. If you are into Korn (pre-religious conversion and before Head left) or John Mayer, their live concerts on Blu-ray are natural must-haves.
What to avoid at all costs this week: Tyler Perry's Meet The Browns, Vantage Point
After all the drama with Michael Bay threatening to drop out of Transformers 2 because Transformers wasn't released on Blu-ray, we thought you guys would like to know the movie is finally coming out on Blu-ray September 2nd. The date was announced a while back, but now we have the box-art and details concerning the release. The box-art looks more or less like the DVD/HD-DVD releases, but Blu-ray will have an additional feature of Dolby TrueHD 5.1 Surround audio that was missing from the HD-DVD release. Other features include audio commentary with Michael Bay, two four-part documentaries, a featurette, still gallery and trailers. It will also be BD-Live-enabled with details to be announced later.
If Russian composer Tchaikovsky were to get into a brawl with Italian Stallion Rossini, who would win? Perhaps Tchaikovsky would lull Rossini to sleep with a soothing tune and then pound him with an out-of-nowhere melody. Maybe Rossini could call upon a choir of opera singers and gang up on Tchaikovsky. It's a really interesting thought. It's hard to decide who to bet on. Oh, and here's this week's Blu-ray flicks ... almost forgot:
Hmm, it seems this week is a time machine ride through history. The trip begins with prehistoric creatures, to the beginnings of man's civilization, a look back at prominent music composers, and then to more modern times and the Iranian Revolution. We only wished we'd see some Bill & Ted this week. That would've been "excellent."
Blu-ray sales are a bit more rare after the end of the format war, but there are still some hot deals to be found. Here is the latest offering from Best Buy: 2 for $25. Two of these films are this blogger's personal favorites - Dawn of the Dead and Total Recall. The MastersofHorrorseries is also worthy of a look, although the quality of each director's feature varies greatly. There is even a pre-order for a small gem of a Western that has yet to be released.
Keep in mind, however, this offer is only valid online.
How did we miss this news? Thankfully, reader Simstim sent us a tip about the esteemed Criterion Collection moving to Blu-ray. Film buffs know the Criterion Collection houses some of the most treasured films, and each volume in the collection is handled with meticulous care. The quality of the packaging and video transfer is something true videophiles can appreciate.
Expect the first discs to begin rolling out in October:
This week's Blu-ray flicks are few. There are only four movies to be exact. But that's okay; the movies seem pretty good. Men in Black was a lot of fun back in the day. This writer is looking forward to seeing Be Kind Rewind -- it's at the top of his Netflix queue.
An interesting piece of trivia comes from one of Matthew McConaughey's quotes in Fool's Gold. He said he learned to fly a plane "from PlayStation." Pretty cool Matt. We learned how to shoot aliens, drive cars, rob banks, kill goblins, make love to wenches, and destroy massive mechanical beasts. You're not the only one who learned something, brah!
Singulus Technologies, a manufacturer for optical disc technology, has stated to shareholders at its Annual General Meeting that Blu-ray adoption is picking up fast. It's so fast that it's out-pacing DVDs. Said Singulus CEO, Stefan A. Baustert on Blu-ray trends: "... orders for Blu-ray in the first year of the dual layer technology already by far exceeded the volume at the start of the DVD eleven years ago ..."
His claim to rising interest in Blu-ray tech is based off internal numbers and requests for Blu-ray dual layer machines. Pointing to current statistics, 21 machine orders have been received for Q1 2008 and have carried a steady flow into Q2 2008. What this all means for general Blu-ray consumers and PS3 owners alike is that we're certainly going to see more Blu-ray content in the near future as the means to produce said content is growing.
Given that Blu-ray won the format war early this year, it's not surprising to see adoption spike in that very same quarter. What will be noteworthy to watch over is if interest will carry on throughout the next few quarters. As Singulus expects selling prices for Blu-ray hardware to "reduce substantially" (probably excluding the PS3), we might be seeing higher consumer interest to complement those manufacturer investments.
Nothing could top last week's Blu-ray releases. So, even if this one tried, it still wouldn't hold a candle to it. Nothing really sticks out for this week other than Natural Born Killers -- a film which made wearing red tinted sunglasses chic. Here's the full list:
We're good sports. While Blu-ray has "won" the "format war", there are still a number of areas where it needs to watch its back as this Digitimes Research data has revealed. What are they? Let's make a bulleted list so it's easier to separate them.
Not all game consoles support Blu-ray. With DVD, every game console decided to base its hardware on the disc. However, the Wii isn't fully HD and the 360 probably won't jump into the Blu-ray bandwagon, so it's all up to the PS3 to shoulder the weight of Blu-ray. But hey, add-on drives to the 360 aren't an impossibility.
In-car audio/video equipment is basically incompatible with Blu-ray. Not that we'd really recommend you playing a Blu-ray video in a car anyway, but DVDs work fine. You need a screen double the size of those available in cars to even get a proper resolution.
As far as backing up stuff on the PC is concerned, Blu-ray isn't that necessary. DVDs and CDs cover the small stuff while external drives are useful for backing up the big stuff.
The same goes for business use in terms of backup. Blu-ray isn't competitive enough with the UDO market in the business industry.
They conclude saying that Blu-ray is useful only for watching movies and playing PS3 games. It's a decent list of worries, but are they really big worries, or just making mountains out of mole hills? Let us know your thoughts. [Thanks, Henry!]
This week should be dubbed "Blu-ray Days 2008" because it's truly going to be quite a celebration for movie aficionados. Why do we say that, and where is the list? To answer both those questions, the list is way too long to fit on the front page, and well, that should really speak for itself as to why you should be excited for this week's Blu-ray releases. So check the full list after the break and be shocked and awed at the bountiful harvest of flicks for the summer.
People were impressed when Konami and Kojima Productions managed to fill up an entire dual-layered 50GB Blu-ray disc with Metal Gear Solid 4. But 50GB discs? That's so passé. Pioneer has just developed a sixteen-layer Blu-ray disc that holds 400GB of data (!). With this kind of disc, your PS3 hard drive could be copied five times over, just for the heck of it.
Nothing could top last week's Blu-ray releases. So, even if this one tried, it still wouldn't hold a candle to it. Nothing really sticks out for this week other than Natural Born Killers -- a film which made wearing red tinted sunglasses chic. Here's the full list:
