What kind of oil is used on stripper poles again?
OK, this round of activity should be pretty bland, as all the rage and anticipation is saved for the coming days, as CES has just started (or about to start) as you’re reading this. Lots of announcements are forthcoming, with the speculation apparently that Blu-Ray will be the king of new news, with many new releases and perhaps the revelation of a second-generation Samsung player. The HD-DVD camp is a mystery at this point, but we’ll have a roundup and spec…lative analysis once things have completed. With newer Sony titles, you can currently see some previews of upcoming titles, including Lawrence of Arabia, Spider Man, Once Upon a Time in Mexico and Bad Boys II, to name a few.
The big news is the on-again, off-again player from LG, designed to be a dual format player is apparently on again. More news will apparently be forthcoming at CES, but pre-order information has started to come through on sites like Best Buy, with the expected price to be in the $1200 range. Of course, things are all subject to change on that. Samsung will unveil their second generation Blu-Ray player during the show, featuring nice things like HDMI 1.3, and for a price tag of $800 and a March launch. Toshiba will release a mid-level player similar to the HD-A2, but the only difference appears to be that it will have 1080p but very little else, from the Toshiba second-gen models. For disc news, Warner will apparently release Blu-Ray/HD/SD hybrids, with more information to come at CES. Combo discs? Combo players? Second generation players? What’s a girl to do? Either way, it makes for some interesting happens in Las Vegas this week.
For disc announcements, Warner will release Beerfest and The Wicker Man day and date on 1/30, with a TrueHD track on The Wicker Man for HD-DVD buyers. The question I have is…how necessary is that? Oh well. The only release to speak of this week is Crank, and it comes out on Blu-Ray.
That’s all from me this week, so until next time high definers, keep the brightness to low and the resolution high, and let’s enjoy what comes out of CES!
