Highly Defined

And now for a little change of pace this week, here’s a list of my Top Ten War Movies in honor of Memorial Day. Everyone should never forget…with the inclusion of these into your collection.

I figured what the hell, let me attempt to dive into my own list, and attempt to do some justice to a hotly debated movie genre…war movies. The ability of fighting forces across the world to hurt people and break things has evolved over the years, and so have the war movies, as many have done with the dramatic death in ...

Hopefully the next generation format’s week to put in Thunderdome can bear some real fruit.

Well for the sake of relevance, Tuesday is THE week to be a supporter of the next generation formats. On the HD-DVD side, the Matrix films see their debut from Warner, with the extras from the Ultimate Matrix Collection for those who want them, and IMEs on each of the films. Meanwhile, Blu-ray buyers get to see both Pirates of the Caribbean films on two-disc editions, with Blu-ray exclusive content, and...

This space here for rent for a small fee.

Not to harp on one particular subject, but it appears that any real substantiated news of the week focuses more on the hardware that the software. Onkyo is starting to roll out their new receivers, the ones that support HDMI 1.3. And late last week, Pioneer said that their Elite Models for this year will carry it as well, so to finally get a taste of things to come will be a welcome one. The other news turned out to be nothing more than an unsubstantiated rumor, as ...

And the number of Canadian teams left in the playoffs for Canada’s title is down to one.

Well what can I say, things are in their summer quietness, with very little to discuss. As this particular writer will be joining everyone else on vacation in several weeks, I can tell you it’ll be nice to go to Hawaii and tear myself away from the TV and high def players. General news doesn’t offer too much, other than Universal finally responding to their issues with Children of Men and The Good Shepherd...

And how did you spend YOUR NFL Draft weekend?

This seems to be a week where things just aren’t happening news wise (granted, the $299 HD-DVD player remark was clarified to be a little vaguer this week, but that’s about it), but there’s some fun things on the disc release front, most of it for Blu-Ray fans. Sony pimps out The Patriot, Wild Things and Flatliners on 7/3. Lion’s Gate puts Season Two of Weeds out on 7/24, and Waiting comes out one week prior. Warner will be rel...

Apologies to all last week for the postponement of last week’s column. As one who has a personal interest in the activities surrounding Virginia Tech, I had a lot more on my plate to digest. Anyway, onward and upward in the next generation news and opinion.

Several big things have happened over the course of the last couple of weeks, the first being Samsung’s announcement of their own hybrid player. Like the current LG player, it will play both formats, unlike the LG player, it will support HDi, which is go...

Sorry guys, in between starting a new job today and the news ongoing at Virginia Tech, I'm busy trying to find out what's going on at a school I'm very familiar with. Back with more news and updates next week.

Happy Easter, with eggs, and bunnies, and Jesus, and all that.

OK, so your friendly neighborhood format neutral buyer decided to pick up a title he already had on HD-DVD just to do some comparisons, but also to cover my bases in the event that one format suddenly tanks. So when I got Superman Returns, aside from not having a lossless track, the picture seems a little bit on the blandish side. In the interest of full disclosure, I haven’t seen the HD version in awhile, but seriously, I hope that there...

And another week remains quiet on the western next-gen front.

Well, HD-DVD seems to be firing back when it comes to their lack of releases in the first quarter of the year. The problem seems to be though that not many releases are new, and the equipment price cuts that have been previously reported elsewhere were rehashed here. So on the impressive scale, it’s a light rock in the ocean. But still, it’s nice to see them doing SOMETHING. European buyers will be seeing a version of the Sony BDP coming out this...

Breaking the Blu cherry and all still remains well. I hope you’ve enjoyed my first two Blu reviews for the site. Rest assured, everything is always a work in progress, and we’re coming along rather nicely, don’t you think?

The big news for the week has to be the announcement of The Matrix trilogy arriving to HD-DVD shelves on 5/22, with a BD release sometime down the road. The common assumption for the BD delay appears to be the lack of BD-J interactivity right now, which would also explain why Ba...