Highly Defined

P>The first full week of being format neutral, and all appears to be well.

Well, that pretty much sums it up, doesn’t it? I picked up Casino Royale, Layer Cake and Black Hawk Down, and all seems to be pretty good. All of them having PCM soundtracks doesn’t hurt either. I’ve also grabbed Motorstorm and Resistance Fall of Man recently, so the gaming and movie split is about 50-50 right now, on top of everything else I’ve been doing. The reasoning for those three titles, aside f...

Happy March 13th (and a very special one at that)!

Well, your humble reviewer has gone through quiet a bit in the last several days. I’ll try to make it as brief as possible; work sucks ass. Let me count the ways; I came in at 1:30 in the morning once on a day I wasn’t working, I helped my boss repel some REALLY explicit propositions by one of his employees when we were in New York City on business, I get some medical attention to him when he has a stroke on ANOTHER trip to New York, and what do I get as re...

When last I left you, the viewer, I was in the midst of frantically typing “Yo” so that I could be a participant of the chat with Warner Brothers Home Video, to ask about any coming next-gen titles from the studio. What we found out was fairly illuminating. The Warner hits L.A. Confidential, Poltergeist, Deliverance and the Kenneth Branagh version of Hamlet will all appear on HD-DVD and Blu-ray this year, with Heat and The Music Man to come out in 2008. They also reconfirmed ...

Well, the news late today about Sony deciding to come into the affordably priced standalone market by introducing a Blu-Ray player of their own that will come out in the spring/early summer. The BDP-S300 will retail for $600 and unlike the first gen that’s $300 more, will actually include CD playback. So now that they’re making their strides towards affordable hardware (stop with the PS3 argument) with more price drops to come, it’ll be interesting to see when, how much and how often the cheaper HD-DVD equipment does...

Welcome one and all to the circus that is the format war. Well, let’s skip past the part where Sony will be putting copies of Casino Royale into their PS3s for the European launch, along with Fox’s announcement of Eragon on Blu-Ray for 3/20, along with rumors of Jaws on HD-DVD not dying anytime soon and Disney’s rumored releases of the two Pirates of the Caribbean and Sin City movies, and tackle a shot fired across the bow in the online community.

I like Bill Hunt and read...

First off, thanks and much love to those who filled in while I was gone. And wow, while I was gone, apparently HD-DVD did the same. After a lackluster CES, the only other thing they could do was announce that Spielberg films like E.T. would be “coming soon” to the format. However, Senor Spielburgo put the kaibash on that pretty quick, and those responsible for the gaffe (namely the HD-DVD Promotions Group) issued a quick apology. For what it’s worth, now that Blu-Ray has caught up and passed HD-DVD in the numb...

In a week filled with minimal news, there was one major announcement that is sure to make HD DVD fans happy. Yes, Universal has finally announced some of their exclusive HD DVD title line-up. Although none of the big blockbuster titles we know Universal has sitting around on a shelf were announced, more than a few big name titles were announced that will be sure to put a smile on your face. With upwards of 100 titles to be released throughout 2007 we can expect great things from Universal this year.

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This may take a little while.

So did we enjoy our thoughts and impressions of what CES 2007 held and brought? Well, let’s take a look at things that didn’t relate to Apple, shall we? First off, it appears the new color to speak of is purple. You’ve got word of the Warner Total Hi-Def disc, which is a dual format disc. The packaging is even a compromise too, with the HD DVD red on one side, and the Blu-ray blue on the other. It costs slightly more than a HD/SD combo, but does certainly provide for some inter...

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...

Give a brutha some slack, OK?

So in between a busy daytime job that included being in the office for 19 hours of a 24 hour day and the holiday week, things have been a little busy at the casa de Keefer. Besides, everyone’s bracing themselves for the CES show next week and the fun stuff to come from it, right? So let’s take a look at those next-gen discs that have made this particular reviewer stand up and smile. Oh, and as far as the lack of Blu love here, if someone wants to spring for a player for me, fee...