Highly Defined – The World of High Definition

Want to know the perks of working where I do? I get discounts to places. So I walk into Best Buy, and order a Pioneer Elite 92 for the insane price of cost plus 5%. That works out to a little under $700 for a $1300 receiver. It’s good to be the king baby. Once I get it locked and loaded, I’ll let you know what I think of it. 

Hardware wise there’s been a few surprises, the pleasant one appears to be the details on Samsung’s dual format player. The BD-P2400 includes BD-J, HDi, DTS-HD and other little goodies to warm the heart, and at a SRP of just over a grand, might actually help rein more folks into the high defi, er, next generation video format. In lesser but still notable news, the PS3 got a firmware upgrade that included 1080p/24Hz, so now we can all see the films just like in the theater, or something. Oh, and the 360 HD DVD add-on got its price cut as well, down to $179. So, you know, yays all round. 

 

 Disc release news continues to be interesting, not to mention potentially wallet busting. The Blade Runner set has finally been announced for 12/18, with enough extras to choke a replicant. Ridley Scott commentaries, Cast retrospectives and documentaries, an hour of deleted scenes are among the many gems this classic has to offer, not to mention a limited edition briefcase presentation in high def. Expect a high price tag and hours of fun as well. The Star Trek original series comes out on HD DVD on 11/10 with remastered audio and video, commentaries, the works. The first Season of Heroes will include some web-enabled material, not to mention picture and picture commentaries and their own deleted scenes, all on HD on 8/28. I’d discuss the extras for each of these, but they are off the charts exhaustive, so I’ll let others discuss them in detail. The Kubrick films 2001, Full Metal Jacket, A Clockwork Orange and Eyes Wide Shut  come out in both formats on 10/23. I know what you’re saying, FMJ is already out now. But Warner is toting some sort of Deluxe edition (perhaps the making of we’ve all been clamoring for) and they’ll include lossless soundtracks, all of which will be welcome to the high definition library. In similar hip hop hooray news, Steven Spielberg’s Close Encounters of the Third Kind  hits as a Blu exclusive on 11/13 as a third disc set with different versions of the film and a bunch of extras to boot. For more modern films, the third (and hopefully final?) installment in the Pirates of the Caribbean saga comes out on 12/4. The Reaping comes out for both formats on 10/16 from Warner (along with Return to House on Haunted Hill), while the Twilight Zone movie comes out one week prior. And the Led Zeppelin classic Song Remains the Same arrives on 11/13. Blu-ray exclusivos get Reign Over Me on 10/9, and Bram Stoker’s Dracula one week before, while Surf’s Up comes out on 10/9 as well. 

That’s it for me this week, and as always high definers, keep the brightness low and the resolution high!