Highly Defined

Listen to my tale, will you?

OK, so I’m in an interview last week for a job, really more to get involved in the interview process again, and giving the right answers to the questions, and I’m asked about my hobbies. So I politely tell the guy that I write online as a reviewer, and so the question is asked, “So, what about this Blu-Ray?” Too friggin’ funny, so I discuss the format war. So I guess I’ve got an offer coming to me, but I don’t know if I wanna drive that far.

Caution: reading any of this entry may cause you to break down, cry and accuse me of “unappropriate” things.

Well, a week back into the fold (save for a business trip) doesn’t report much new news to speak of. In fact, the most notable news (aside from still poring over the Superman discs) is that the Blu-Ray release of Speed seems to be coming up with some glitches on playback, specifically that it won’t play on the Samsung player. Thankfully, Fox is providing replacement discs (hey, sounds familiar...) to those that are having concerns with it.

What, you were expecting something profound from a short week?

Seriously? Well, for whatever it’s worth, the big news this week is the release of Superman to HD-DVD and Blu-Ray. The Bryan Singer film Superman Returns (which looks like a beaut on HD-DVD), along with the Richard Donner-helmed Superman and Superman II (both of which are also beauts to boot).

Normally, I’d tell you about the PS3 or something, now that it’s out, but if I need to have a bulletproof vest on when I buy a gaming console, something’s friggin wrong in my country.

Snacking on ginger snaps at work while I try to figure out how to kill these next three days, I can’t really tell you anything about the PS3 that you don’t already know. From what I understand, the Blu-Ray capabilities are the best of any of the three machines out there, even if some of the games can’t be played at 1080i or 10...0p. Besides, wait 6 or 8 months for more updated products and (more importantly) a large supply, and maybe you’ll have my money. That’s how I fell into the 360 a couple months ago. Oh by the way, I’ve had to buy new towels from mopping up the drool after numerous hours of Gears of War. What can I say, it’s the bomb yo! Well, Microsoft’s HD-DVD add-on gets to come out this week, so we’ll see how the rebuttal goes.

Miss me?

Well, as the fourth quarter and Xmas get closer and closer, and people start to wait in queue for a Wii and a PS3, things get ramped up for a good week of next-gen DVD releases also. Paramount will be releasing Black Rain on 1/23, and Failure to Launch will come on 2/7. They will be coming to both formats, with presumably identical extras. On the Blu-Ray exclusive side, All the King’s Men will be a day and date release on 12/19, and Kung Fu Hustle a week before that. Son... will also release Winged Migration and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon on 1/16.

Did everyone get my Daylight Savings Time cards?

Well, nothing too much on the horizon, presumably because it’s getting close to Christmas, so what else can really be announced, right? Samsung did manage to release some details on their now-available firmware upgrade, some of the patches include DTS and HDMI compatibility and playback problems now being resolved, along with (not official) improved loading and playback times.

(In my best John Lennon sound-alike voice)I’m so tired…

Forgive the drowsiness, I’ll do what I can with what I have. The big news is that Sony has apparently postponed their Blu-Ray player yet again, from late October (this week I believe) to early December. Perhaps this was done to strike on both flanks with the PS3 furor, perhaps they’re still trying to get the bugs out of the machine. At this point, it’s anybody’s guess. In other hardware related news, Samsung has released a firmware upgrade (their first..., which includes fun things like, well, I don’t know. Hopefully, it deals with the noise reduction issue that had been a problem in some units.

Happy belated Columbus and Thanksgiving Days!

Well, while early HD-DVD adopters were poring over the Batman Begins release, assuming one could be found somewhere in North America, the business of trying to win the hearts and minds of the next-generation home video buyer continued in earnest, with various types of news coming out over the last week.

So how about this, Blu-Ray plans to region-code their discs. While it’s probably a formality that the HD-DVD camp does this sometime, it makes buying the Fox releases in Europe and Japan all the sweeter for the time being. This is while Warner revises forecast for BD and HD-DVD spending, saying that people won’t spend as much for the remainder of the year, mainly because of equipment delays (Sony, I’m looking at you on that one…).

If you’re lucky enough to live where the Target employees aren’t the brightes... bulbs in the lamp, then you might be able to snag Batman Begins, The Polar Express and Corpse Bride just before they’re due to street on Tuesday. I haven’t been as lucky, but from what I hear (and read), the Batman release appears to reason enough to get into the next-gen player buying business. The audio and video are reference quality, so for you early adopters out there, get your arse down to Tar-shay, or at least your local electronics store, so you can snap this release up pronto.

I may have some more free time to do this now…

Maybe the studios shot their holiday wads when it came to big name releases last week, because the most notable news on the next-gen front was that not only will the PS3 maybe have a Blu-Ray demo disc to show off the magic of the format for those 31 or 32 of you that will be able to find and buy one when it comes out. To counter this, Microsoft will apparently include King Kong when folks buy their HD-DVD add-on when that comes out in November. Stay tun...d to this space for more details as they’re received.