by Playfuls Staff |
9th October 2006
Two comedies and a war movie will be the first movies to
be released by Sony Pictures Home Entertainment as its first three 50GB
dual-layer Blu-ray Discs (BD). The heart-warming comedy Click, [more] starring Adam Sandler, Christopher Walken and
Kate Beckinsale, will be available on store shelves October 10. Black Hawk
Down, action-packed drama from director Ridley Scott, starring Josh Hartnett,
Ewan McGregor, Tom Sizemore and Eric Bana, features new Blu-Wizard technology
and will be available to film fans on November 14. Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby,
starring writer and producer Will Ferrell and John C. Reilly, hits shelves
December 12. All three titles were authored by the Sony Pictures Digital
Authoring Center (DAC) and manufactured by Sony DADC.
So you can say this event mark (once again) the beginning
of the end for the DVD. The formats intended to replace it, Blu-Ray and HD-
DVD, and devices that can play them back are ready for launch.
This past spring, Samsung became the first manufacturer to
announce the introduction of a Blu-ray player for the living room. The BD-P1000
works with Blu-ray discs with 25 and 50 gigabytes of storage space, as well as
CD and traditional DVD formats. The large storage capacity of the Blu-ray
discs, and for that matter for the 15 or 30 GB on HD-DVDs, allows for films to
be stored in a particularly high resolution.
The Blu-ray and HD-DVD players require an HDMI interface
to be able to play back on television or projectors. Philips has also announced
several Blu-ray devices for the living room. The Media Center PC MCP9480i will
roll into stores in the autumn with 320 gigabytes of hard drive space in tow.
The BDP9000 player is set to follow in early 2007. The DMP-BD10 Blu-ray player
from Panasonic will be available in November 2006 for 1,499 dollars.
Sony, which is the main supporter of the Blu-ray format, firm
is pursuing three approaches to the format: a PC and a laptop with Blu- ray
burners are already available.
Continuing with its commitment to Blu-ray and the promise
to deliver the best viewing experience available to consumers today, SPHE will
introduce a variety of new and exciting Blu-ray Disc content throughout the
fourth quarter 2006. Full of family fun and imagination, Monster House will
debut on Blu-ray disc day-and-date with DVD on October 24th and the Wayans
brothers' comedy, Little Man, hits shelves November 7th.
Sony Pictures Home Entertainment has released a broad
selection of high-definition movies since its initial launch on June 20.
Blu-ray Disc titles currently available to consumers from Sony Pictures Home
Entertainment include 50 First Dates; The Fifth Element; Hitch; House of Flying
Daggers; XXX; Ultraviolet; Underworld: Evolution; Basic Instinct 2: Risk
Addiction; The Benchwarmers; Stealth; RV; Silent Hill; Into the Blue; Memento;
S.W.A.T.; A Knight's Tale; The Big Hit and Tears of the Sun.
Among other studios announcing movies on Blu-Ray format are,
Twentieth Century Fox, with eight titles due out November 10 in Japan and
November 14 in Europe and Australia, Warner which said it would release
"more than 10" in "late 2006." and Paramount plans one main
release at the end of November, Mission Impossible 3. In an indication that
even the initial 25-gigabyte Blu-ray discs may not be big enough for the
studios, Paramount
is to release that film with extra material in a two-disc pack.
Hollywood is expected to continue releasing
most of its movies for home viewing on DVD as well, but the resolution of
images from DVD is grainier, since those discs can only hold a quarter as much
data.
