My Two Cents
All right, we’ve got some more regular Blu-ray news, and then I’m working on a review of Sony’s Black Hawk Down in 4K Ultra HD for posting in the next couple of days. Let me tell you, it’s terrific. It’s a major upgrade of the Blu-ray, both in picture and sound.
Also, our friend John Schuermann of The Screening Room AV in Colorado Springs has just issued the final results of their recent 4K UHD Projector Shootout and – if you’re a front projector fan like I am – they’re pretty fascinating. Do check them out here. Sounds like the JVCs did pretty well against more expensive Sony projectors.
Meanwhile, Epson just announced a new 4K PRO-UHD projector too... the Pro Cinema 6050UB (MSRP $3,999), with features geared toward home theater cinephiles. You can check out all the details here. [Read on here...]
All right, we’ve got a good sized regular Blu-ray update for you all today here at The Bits.
First up though, we have a nice 4K Ultra HD surprise from Sony Pictures Home Entertainment… look for them to release a Moon: 10th Anniversary Edition on 7/16. Audio will be Dolby Atmos. In addition to the previous extras included on the Blu-ray in the package, look for three all-new items on the actual 4K disc: Retrospective Conversation with Duncan Jones and Joe Utichi, never-before-seen Deleted Scenes, and a Fan Art Poster Gallery. You can see the cover artwork to the left. We’ve updated our 4K Ultra HD Release List here at The Bits accordingly.
And Lionsgate’s Apocalypse Now: Final Cut, officially due on 4K Ultra HD on 8/27, will include all three versions of the film (the Theatrical Cut, the Extended Cut aka Redux, and the Final Cut) on BOTH Blu-ray and 4K on 4 discs. That’s not a typo, we’ve confirmed it with Lionsgate – all three versions fully-remastered in 4K. The 4K will offer Dolby Vision HDR and Dolby Atmos audio, while the Blu-rays will include 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio. Note that, per the press release, the Final Cut audio has also been “enhanced with Meyer Sound Laboratories’ newly developed Sensual Sound a technology engineered to output audio below the limits of human hearing.” [Read on here...]
All right, I’m back on Facebook finally and things seem to be settling back to some kind of normal. So today’s post is going to have a lot of 4K news, with a bit of Blu-ray too, and then we’ll have a big Blu-ray catch up post tomorrow...
First though, we’ve got a couple more new Blu-ray reviews for you: Tim has taken a look at Scared Stiff from Arrow Video, while Dennis has offered his thoughts on The Man Who Haunted Himself (1970) from Kino Lorber Studio Classics. Enjoy!
Now then, we have a bunch of great 4K Ultra HD release news for you, starting with confirmation that Guillermo del Toro’s Pan’s Labyrinth is officially coming to the format from Warner and New Line in July. We don’t yet have a street date, but it’s already up for pre-order here on Amazon (you can see the cover artwork at left and also below). And I must say, of all the titles that could benefit from 4K, wide color gamut, and HDR, this is near the top of the list! Of course, we’ll post more details when they’re officially announced. [Read on here...]
Today’s post is a brief one, as I’m still grappling with this Facebook hacking issue. I’m pleased to report that progress is being made, finally, but very slowly. With a little luck, hopefully this will all be straightened out by next week. Thanks for all your kind words of support – they’re much appreciated.
In the meantime, you’re all welcome to follow me on Twitter here (and The Bits here) for social media updates. Note that The Digital Bits Facebook page is unaffected.
Also today, we continue to post new Blu-ray reviews for you to enjoy, recently including my looks at Apollo 11 from Universal and Baa Baa Black Sheep: The Complete Series from Elephant Films, Tim’s take on Mondo Bizarro and Mondo Freudo from Severin, The Iguana with the Tongue of Fire from Arrow, and Tarantula! from Scream, and Chase’s thoughts on Jackie Chan’s Police Story and Police Story 2 from Criterion. And more reviews are on the way. [Read on here...]
Sorry for the strange topic of today’s post, but I’ve had an insane thing happen to me over the weekend.
In between brief periods of enjoyment of Avengers: Endgame and last night’s amazing “Battle of Winterfell” on Game of Thrones, a pair of clever misanthropes in Hanoi, Vietnam tried to steal my identity (and my wife’s) on Facebook. They managed to take control of my wife’s Facebook business page and group, and then when we reported this to Facebook (which wasn’t easy), the hackers created fake duplicate personal pages, posting as us, and then reported our actual pages as the fakes.
So while we slept, both of our personal accounts were closed and now we have to prove who we are in order to get back online there. Now, of course, it would have been simple for Facebook to simply look at the fact that we’ve been on Facebook for years, while the new fake accounts have only sprung up in the last 24 hours. But no… that would require common sense. Meanwhile, there is literally NO ONE at Facebook you can talk to if you’re having this sort of problem, and the hackers know that, so they cleverly game the system and are always ten steps ahead. [Read on here...]