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Looking for stories that used to be listed above? Use the button bar or these links to access the following sections: Reviews (DVD, laserdisc and hardware reviews), FAQ & Archives (old feature stories and interviews, and Jim Taylor's Official DVD FAQ) and Upcoming DVD Art (at look at upcoming cover artwork). Finally, My Two Cents - Archives contains all past daily editorial posts dating back to 12/97. |
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| GIVEAWAYS |
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| DVD & HD FORMAT STATS |
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 TOTAL U.S. DVD PLAYER SALES (last data reported 8/24/07 - CEA): 133,443,356 |
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| Editor's Note: The Consumer Electronics Association has discontinued its reporting of DVD player sales data, and they have not begun reporting on Blu-ray player sales. However, our original CEA DVD Player Sales chart will remain available here for future reference. | |||||||
| TOTAL DVD TITLES (11/25/11 - DVD Release Report): 132,906/270* |
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| *Net total of R1 DVD-Video discs released/announced. Discontinued & adult not included. |
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| TOP 10 SELLING DISCS (11/27/11 - Nielsen/VideoScan): |
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| TOP 10 RENTAL DISCS (11/27/11 - Home Media Research): |
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| TOTAL BLU-RAY DISC TITLES (11/25/11 - DVD Release Report): 5,205/208* |
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| *Net total of Region A discs released/announced. Discontinued & adult not included. |
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| TOTAL HD-DVD TITLES (FINAL FORMAT TALLY as of 7/4/08 - DVD Release Report): 429/0* |
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| *Net total of R1 discs released/announced. Discontinued & adult not included. |
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| SOFTWARE MARKET SHARE - BD VS DVD (YTD through 11/19/11 - Nielsen/VideoScan): |
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| NUMBER OF AFI TOP 100 FILMS ON DVD - 2007 LIST (4/20/10): 100/0 (0) |
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| Released/Announced or In Development - ( ) Not yet available on DVD. |
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| MY TWO CENTS - 2/2/12 - by Digital Bits editor Bill Hunt |
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First up today, HBO and Warner Home Video have set Cinema Verite for release on Blu-ray and DVD on 4/24. They've also set Treme: The Complete Second Season for Blu-ray and DVD release on 4/17.
Meanwhile, Warner and the BBC have set The BBC High Definition Natural History Collection: Special Edition Blu-ray and The BBC Natural History Collection: Special Edition DVD box sets for release on 3/27, including the documentary series Planet Earth, Wild China, Galapagos and Ganges. And Universal has set the 2011 version of Tinker Tailor Solider Spy for release on both formats on March 20th. Nominated for 3 Academy Awards, including Best Actor for Gary Oldman, the Blu-ray will sport the usual Ultraviolet Digital Copy, 5.1 DTS HD Master Audio, BD-Live and pocket Blu support. Traditional supplements will include an audio commentary with director Tomas Alfredson and Gary Oldman, as well as a behind the scenes featurette, cast interviews, an interview with author John Le Carré and a selection of deleted scenes. SRP is $34.98 for Blu-ray and $29.98 for DVD and both versions are now available for pre-order on Amazon at the links provided (for a 30% discount). By the way, RE: Cleopatra, our own Jeff Kleist notes that Fox released Tora Tora Tora long before it came out here so it's quite possible that the studio will wait to release it here in the States until next year - the actual 50th anniversary of the film. Meanwhile, we're getting reports from readers in the U.K. that the Blu-ray released there is all-region. There's also a more elaborate box set version available in Japan (for around $80) that includes a book and more. (Thanks to Bits reader Graham S. for the link.) In other news today, Vizio has finally applied a date to their 21:9 (2.39:1 native) HDTV display that allows you (without an expensive anamorphic lens and processing system) to watch CinemaScope ratio movies without the black bars. Unfortunately, unlike its projection brethren, no allowance is able to be made for 16:9 or 4:3 ratios to similarly avoid the darkness, so the appeal of such $3499 (as this first one retails for) sets will likely be limited. Also as a follow-up our story yesterday, NASA has released video of the far side of the moon, which is impossible to see from Earth. A quick tour from the North to South Pole, the material will be part of the educational outreach program of the GRAIL lunar mapping mission. Students will be able to designate targets for higher resolution photography later in the program. Pretty cool. Stay tuned... 2/1/12 It's a bit of a slow news day, so we're going to keep it short. Warner Home Video has just announced the Blu-ray and DVD release of Chuck: The Complete Fifth and Final Season on 5/8 (SRP $49.99 and $39.98). All 13 episodes will be included, along with 2 audio commentaries, 6 featurettes (Chuck: The Final Episode, Sandwiches and Superfans: The Saving of a Show, Spy Tunes: Scoring the World of Chuck, Chuck: The Beginnings, Chuck: Through the Years and Chuck: The Future), deleted scenes, a gag reel, full versions of the Buy More commercials and an extended version of the series finale. Our friends at Trek Movie have posted an update on the expected Blu-ray release schedule for the remastered Star Trek: The Next Generation TV series. Season One is tentatively due in late summer or early fall of this year. The idea after that is to release about two seasons per year, with a goal of having the complete series out by 2015. Once the project is done, there's also likely to be at least consideration given to applying the same process to Deep Space Nine and Voyager, presumably if interest (and disc sales) allows. Meanwhile, Lionsgate has announced Madonna: Truth or Dare for release on Blu-ray on 4/3. Shout! Factory has set the animated Astonishing X-Men: Dangerous for release on DVD only on 4/10. The company has also announced the MOD DVD-R release of Mystery Science Theater 3000: Girl in Gold Boots and Mystery Science Theater 3000: The Wild World of Batwoman on 3/20, available directly from the Shout! website. FilmWorks Entertainment has set Blind Turn for release on DVD on 4/24. Also, it appears that the 1963 version of Cleopatra (staring Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton) has just been released on Blu-ray in the U.K. as a 2-disc set for its 50th anniversary, which means you may expect 20th Century Fox to release the film on disc here in the States as well later this year. Interestingly, 2012 is actually the film's 49th anniversary. Still, if Fox has U.S. release plans one would expect an official announcement in the coming weeks. Thanks to several Bits readers who sent over the link. There's also hints at Hit Fix (thanks to Bits reader Albert G. for the link) that Peter Bogdanovich's At Long Last Love may be coming to Blu-ray and DVD. And in other news, while Netflix agreed to delay stocking new Warner Home Video releases on disc for 56 days as requested by the studio, Home Media reports that Redbox has refused and will be offering the movies on the day of release. They'll obtain product through "alternate means", which in the past has meant running over to Best Buy and coming out with an armful of discs to stock their kiosks. How long the rebellion will last is anyone's guess, but the truce between bargain rentailers and the studios (who wish to exploit the first 90 days of home video release to the fullest) may be coming to an end. Also, to coincide with yesterday's release of Transformers: Dark of the Moon 3D, NASA has announced that they may have found the crash site of the lost Lunar Orbiter 2 probe on... you guessed it, the far side of the moon. Originally tasked with finding landing sites for the Apollo missions, the probe lost contact with Earth back in 1967. Now, thanks to the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter's high resolution mapping mission, they think they may have located its final resting place. Either that, or Michael Bay was way ahead of the science curve and slumbering giant robots await. You decide. Stay tuned! 1/31/12 Morning, everyone. We've got a new Blu-ray Disc review for you this morning. But first... Our own Russell Hammond has once again updated the Release Dates & Artwork section with all the week's latest Blu-ray, DVD and Video Game cover art and Amazon.com pre-order links. As always, any orders you make from Amazon after clicking to them through our links helps to support our work here at The Bits and we greatly appreciate it. Now then... our resident classic films expert and esteemed colleague Barrie Maxwell has checked in today with a review of Paramount's new Wings Blu-ray - the kick-off BD title for the studio's 100th anniversary celebration! Having seen both the disc and a recent screening of the film at the Academy, I can tell you personally that it's well worth your time and money. So do check it out and enjoy! And in release news today, our friend Jason Schlierman over at Open Vault Disney has let us know that Disney is releasing their live action Trenchcoat (1983) on MOD DVD-R, as well as the Disney Generations Collection live action titles Beyond Witch Mountain (1982), Endurance (1999), The Richest Cat in the World (1986), Justin Morgan Had a Horse (1972), The Leftovers (1986) and Back to Hannibal: The Return of Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn (1990). All should be available as of today via Amazon.com. Also, a quick search of Amazon.co.uk reveals that Eureka Entertainment is releasing a trio of classic films on Blu-ray in the coming months as part of their Masters of Cinema collection, including Alfred Hitchcock's Lifeboat (1944 - due 4/23) and Billy Wilder's Double Indemnity (1944 - 6/25) and The Lost Weekend (1945 - also 6/25). One would hope (and suspect) that corresponding U.S. releases are in the offing as well. Here in the States, the 1953 Clifton Webb version of Titanic is due on Blu-ray on 4/3 from 20th Century Fox. And Film Chest has also set The Strange Love of Martha Ivers (1946) for BD release on 5/29. Here's a look at the Blu-ray cover art for Magnolia's Melancholia (due 3/13), Universal's The Deer Hunter (3/6) and Sony's U.K. art for David Fincher's The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (due 4/23 - TBA here in the States)...   
Stay tuned! 1/30/12 Afternoon, folks. Let's get to the announcement news, because there's a major announcement to report today... Paramount has officially set Martin Scorsese's Hugo for release on Blu-ray 3D/Blu-ray/DVD Combo Pack, Blu-ray/DVD Combo Pack and DVD on 2/28 (SRP $44.99, $39.99 and $29.99). An hour of bonus features will be available on the Blu-rays, including 5 featurettes (Shoot the Moon: The Making of Hugo, The Cinemagician, Georges Méliès, The Mechanical Man at the Heart of Hugo, Big Effects, Small Scale and Sacha Baron Cohen: Role of a Lifetime). Audio on the BDs will be 7.1 DTS-HD MA. I'm trying to recall... is this the first time Paramount has released a title on Blu-ray 3D format? That would seem to bode well for a Blu-ray 3D (and regular BD) release of Titanic later this year. [Editor's Note: A few of you have correctly pointed out this evening that Paramount released Thor, Transformers: Dark of the Moon and Captain American in BD3D. Still, it's nice to see them embracing the format and we do think it bodes well for Titanic eventually.] Meanwhile, Warner Home Video will release One Tree Hill: The Complete Ninth and Final Season on DVD on 4/10 (SRP $39.98). The 3-disc set will include all 13 episodes plus 5 featurettes, an audio commentary, deleted scenes and a gag reel. RaroVideo has set a number of Italian catalog titles for release on DVD in February and March, including Alfredo Giannetti's The Automobile (1971) on 2/28, and Luchino Visconti’s Conversation Piece (1974), Antonio Pietrangeli's The Visitor (1963) and Fernando di Leo's Young Violent Dangerous (1976) on 3/13. Well Go USA has set the creature feature Splintered for release on Blu-ray/DVD Combo and DVD on 3/20 (SRP $26.98 and $19.98). Extras will include behind-the-scenes footage, deleted scenes and trailers. And Outsider Pictures has acquired the U.S. video release rights to "the first Cuban zombie comedy Juan of the Dead" and will be releasing it on disc and download later this year. Sound interesting. In other news, it appears that some are having audio sync issues with MGM's new Annie Hall Blu-ray. We've heard from several readers that this the case. No word yet from the studio. Here's a look at the BD and DVD cover art for Paramount's Hugo...   
Back tomorrow with a review of Paramount's Wings Blu-ray from Barrie. Stay tuned... Bill Hunt, Editor The Digital Bits billhunt@thedigitalbits.com |
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