News and Opinions

On August 22nd, Fox Home Entertainment will release the Lindsay Lohan teen comedy Just My Luck on DVD. This disc will inclue both anamorphic widescreen and fullscreen transfers, along with a Dolby Digital 5.1 (English) audio track. The extras will include three deleted/extended scenes, two featuretets (“Look of Luck” & “McFly Behind The Scenes”) & a trailer.

Discussing the old school DVD’s that still sound and look great in the era of Blu-Ray and HD-DVD technology.

I’ve been having a hard time of it lately.

I consider myself an up-to-date guy. I was the first in my group of friends to get a big-screen HDTV and pro-scan DVD player. I love movies, and I love home theater systems. So you’d think that I’d already have a Blu-Ray / HD-DVD player, right?

Wrong.

I don’t know about you, but I’m not too happy with this new wave of …
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On August 22nd, Sony Pictures Home Entertainment will release Silent Hill in separate Widescreen, Fullscreen, and Blu-Ray releases; all of which will be presented with a Dolby Digital 5.1 (English) audio track. Extras will include an audio commentary (by Director Christophe Gans), deleted/extended scenes, and a six-part production diary documentary.

On September 12th, Universal Home Video will release the Anniversary Edition of the Kurt Russell, William Baldwin & Jennifer Jason Leigh film Backdraft. This disc will be presented in an Anamorphic Widescreen transfer, along with an English Dolby Digital 5.1 audio track. Extras have yet to be announced, but we will update this blog as we learn more.

HBO Home Video will release the Complete Sixth Season of OZ on September 5th. This 3-disc set will inclued all 8 season three episodes presented in 1.33:1 Fullscreen along with Dolby Digital 5.1 audio. Extras will include three episode specific audio commentaries (with series creator Tom Fontana and members of the cast), original cast audition tapes, 30-minutes of deleted scenes and an extended cut of the series finale: Exeunt Omnes.

Warner Home Video will release the Complete Third Season of Nip/Tuck on August 29th. This six-disc set will present all fifteen season three episodes in anamorphic widescreen transfers, along with Dolby Digital 2.0 (English) auido tracks. Extras will include a documentary, unaired scenes, and a “revealing look” at the season finale.

The DigitalBits RumorMill is reporting that late 2006 will see the release of the originial (Han shoots first) versions of the trilogy released to DVD. Keep your fingers crossed!

Click Here to see the Guardian’s Top 10 (Blade Runner, 2001, SW: ESB, Alien, Solaris ’72, T1/T2, The Day the Earth Stood Still, WoW ’53, The Matrix, Close Encounters). Got it? Now, compare and contrast with the Top 25 as detemined by UpcomingDiscs DVD BATTLE. Ummm, someone vote down “Aeon Flux” already. Please.

Lorin Thwaits dissects an HD-DVD Player

Some crazy dude bought a Toshiba HD-DVD player and pulled it apart to find that its essentially an off the shelf desktop PC using a Pentium 4, a gig of PC2700 ram, and RedHat Linux stored on a 256MB NAND flash module. There’s also apparently a USB bus, and all sorts of interesting stuff in there. So – does this make the Tosh player a super-hackable ultrafun home theatre accessory? Yes….
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UpcomingDiscs is proud to release our new site design. Along with the new look, we have also added some new functionality (i.e. enlarging cover thumbnails and screenshots, comment on blog posts, new RSS feeds), and fixed some old functionality (i.e. DVD Battle). Please add your comments on the new design.

Fox Home Entertainment will release the 2006 remake of The Hills Have Eyes in separate R-rated & Unrated editions on June 20th. Each will be presented in 2.35:1 anamorphic widescreen transfers, along with Dolby Digital 5.1 and 2.0 audio tracks (the R-Rated version will also include a 1.33:1 fullscreen transfer). Extras will include an audio commentary (by director Alexandre Aja, screenwriter Gregory Levasseur & producer Marianne Maddalena), A behind-the-scenes documentary made up of a collection of featu…
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New Line will release the teen-horror flick Final Destination 3 in separate widescreen and fullscreen “Thrill Ride” Editions on July 25th. Both versions will be include English DTS 6.1 ES, Dolby Digital 5.1 EX & 2.0 audio tracks. Extras will include an audio commentary (by director and co-writer James Wong, co-writer Glen Morgan & director of photography Robert Mclachlan), a “Choose-Their-Fate” Interactive feature, two featurettes (“Dead Teenager Movie” & “Planned Accidents”), a “Kill Shot: The Making of …
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UMD looks like its on its way out, with Wal-Mart purportedly taking UMD off the shelves, studios stopping UMD production, and backlash building against proprietary formats.

Warner Home Video will release the Harrison Ford & Paul Bettany thriller Firewall on June 6th. This disc will be presented in a 2.40:1 anamorphic widescreen transfer, along with an English Dolby Digital 5.1 audio track. Extras will include a conversation with Harrison Ford & director Richard Loncraine, a “Firewall: Writing a Thriller” featurette, & the theatrical trailer.

Fox Home Entertainment will release the Martin Lawrence comedy Big Momma’s House 2 on May 9th. This disc will include both anamorphic widescreen and fullscreen transfers, along with a Dolby Digital 5.1 (English) audio track. Extras will include an audio commentary (by director John Whitesell, producer David Friendly, & actor Zachary Levi), a “Big Momma’s Secrets” Featurette, 12 deleted/extended scenes (with optional commentary), & a collection of trailers.

Buena Vista Home Entertainment will release the basketball drama Glory Road (starring Josh Lucas) on June 6th. This disc will be presented in separate 2.35:1 anamorphic and fullscreen versions, both with Dolby Digital 5.1 audio tracks. Extras will include two audio commentaries (the first with director James Gartner & producer Jerry Bruckheimer; the second with screenwriters Christopher Cleveland & Bettina Gilois), deleted scenes, extended interviews (with the actual UTEP players), two featurettes (“The …
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Just so you all know – UPCD is undergoing a big redesign right now. In addition to a new aesthetic treatment, there will be a tonne of great new features added and functionality improvements – long needed things like spam filters on comments, for instance. Also, DVD Battle will return to review pages, along with renewed and reinvigorated hardware and game reviews sections.

So, stay tuned! And if you have any comments or suggestions, please email me at rod@upcomingdiscs.com….
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Well, eat my hat – looks like Blu-ray has an official launch date for hardware and titles – May 23, as reported by Engadget. Here’s the official release from Sony, which in addition to the date, drops the list of release titles:

The first Blu-ray Disc titles from SPHE and MGM Home Enterta…
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Here’s a quick one from Engadget: Sony and NEC have and optical drive joint venture underway, slated to get rolling this spring. The key finding here is that Sony has a 5% edge in the JV, implying that it will be to manufacture BR drives exclusively – which takes a major hardware manufacturer out of the running for HD-DVD production.

CNET has a good round up article on the recent issues with Blu-ray DVD technology, and the business fallout that’s resulted. After starting hot, Blu-ray has been beset by delays; its now reached the point where the PS3 is rumoured to be delayed as a result, and CNET is actively comparing Blu-ray to Beta. Good luck, Sony!

Paramount Home Entertainment will release the Queen Latifah & LL Cool J comedy Last Holiday on May 2nd. This disc will be in an anamorphic widescreen transfer, along with an English Dolby Digital 5.1 audio track. Extras shouls be posted soon.

On May 23rd, Fox will release the Director’s Cut of the Orlando Bloom film Kingdom of Heaven on May 23rd. This 4-disc set will be presented in a 2.35:1 anamorphic widescreen transfer, along with both English DTS & Dolby Digital 5.1 audio tracks. Extras will include an Introduction by Ridley Scott, an Audio Commentary (with Ridley Scott and crew), a multi-part Documentary entitled Path to Redemption (Part I: Good Intentions, Part II: Faith and Courage, Part III: The Pilgrimage Begins, Part IV: Into …
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