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Paramount reengages Blu-ray

After two months of silence, Paramount is back! Last night, Paramount Home Entertainment announced their plans for reentering the Blu-ray market.

Beginning 20 May, the high-def Judas studio will be selling Blu-ray Disc titles once again. The first slate of films will include There Will Be Blood, Cloverfield, Bee Movie, Face/Off and Next. (No Country For Old Men is on their list for August even though it is already out on Blu-ray through Buena Vista Home Entertainment.) They are also reenlisting their previous Blu-ray line up for sale on 20 May, including Babel, Black Snake Moan, and Dreamgirls amongst others.

Their first day-and-date title will be The Spiderwick Chronicles on 24 June. Their major motion pictures should all be released alongside DVD from now on.

I’m excited, especially with Jack Ryan finally coming to Blu-ray! Now all major studios are supporting the next-generation format. The future looks bright for the high-def niche.

Netflix plans to raise prices for Blu-ray subscribers

An upsetting move from Netflix who recently lowered subscription rates, President and CEO Reed Hastings recently announced a rate hike for Blu-ray subscribers was in the works.

Purchasing Blu-ray DVDs costs more both at retail and wholesale than standard definition DVDs, and consumers are used to paying more for high-definition content in every other channel, including video rental stores, video-on-demand, and cable channels. Because of the higher cost of Blu-ray and the consumer expectations around high-def content, we are planning on implementing a modest monthly premium for access to Blu-ray some time this year.

He did not give any information concerning when this increase would take effect or how much it will be. I hope it’s no more than $1.00 per month.

While I do agree that Blu-ray is a higher quality product and worth the extra cost, I feel this is not a competitive move while Blockbuster is offering this for free, plus they include free rentals when you return a movie to a store location. While I prefer the Netflix service, if Blockbuster starts offering more features for less I might have to revisit that option.

Universal announces initial Blu-ray titles

The biggest studio supporter of HD DVD has finally given their plans for Blu-ray. Universal Studios (an NBC/Universal company) will begin releasing titles on Blu-ray starting 22 July. This is almost two months after the official end of the format war. It is anticipated that all new releases will be on Blu-ray Disc and DVD day-and-date.

The first batch of films will be catalog titles on 22 July with The Mummy, The Mummy Returns, and spin-off The Scorpion King. These will be in stores just in time for the latest theatrical release of The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor.

New releases will be day-and-date with DVD starting with Doomsday, the unfortunately horrible post-apocalyptic film staring Rhonda Mitra.

The new releases later this year will include: Heroes: Season Two along with a re-release (on Blu-ray this time) Season One on 26 August; The Incredible Hulk, the new one releasing later this year featuring Edward Norton; Wanted, the upcoming assassin film staring Morgan Freeman and Angelina Jolie; Hellboy II: The Golden Army; Mamma Mia!; and The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor, the latest in The Mummy franchise.

More catalog titles included in the Universal press release are: American Gangster, Knocked Up, The 40 Year Old Virgin, Miami Vice, End of Days, U-571 and The Land of the Dead. They indicate more titles but haven’t named them yet.

On a humorous note, Craig Kornblau is now spewing Blu-ray boilerplate, even including trademark notices. “As awareness for Blu-ray™ continues to grow, consumers will learn to rely on the superior quality picture, sound, interactivity and connectivity home entertainment delivers.” I wonder if he’s an android.

Blu-ray: Buy 2 get 1 free at Amazon

We’ve seen these sales before, but this one actually has movies you want. Over at Amazon.com you can pick up a free Blu-ray Disc when you buy two (from a selection of titles). Amongst the lot you’ll find Pan’s Labyrinth, the 5-disc Blade Runner collector’s set, Monty Python’s Life of Brian, the cult classic, Reservoir Dogs and even a couple of horror classics like Halloween and Dawn of the Dead.

If you happened across a tax return, why not add to your collection?

3D coming to Blu-ray with Hannah Montana

A first of its kind, 3D video is coming to home television sets with the help of next-generation Blu-ray Disc technology. Hannah Montana and Miley Cyrus: Best of Both Worlds Concert Tour, to be released by Disney (Buena Vista Home Entertainment)on August 19, will feature both 2D and 3D viewing options in 1080p. The audio is also getting the royal treatment with uncompressed PCM audio in 7.1.

It is unclear if this works on all TV sets yet. Mitsubishi is developing a player to convert 2D images to 3D, and they’ve also been working on including 3D support in their upcoming Laser TVs. I haven’t heard if the 3D Blu-ray would play on a CRT, or RPTV though. You do have to wear glasses, however.

The movie will retail at $35.98, but I imagine you can pick it up (for your pre-teen daughter of course) on Amazon for less.

Playstation 3 receives BD-Live update

Sony has just released version 2.20 for the Playstation 3, adding BD-Live support. BD-Live is the name used for BD2.0 online features. So far only two movies (War and Saw IV, both from Lionsgate) have BD-Live features, but more are coming (as soon as 8th April).

Also included in the update is BD-R 1.2 readability which allows for low-to-high (LTH) discs to play. These discs may use an organic dye bringing the cost of the disc down. So far LTH is only supported for BD-R, not in pre-pressed BD-ROM.

Another upgrade which is great to see is Mosquito Noise Reduction for DVDs. This reduces the artifacts seen on the edges of images. This feature is also available to home BD-R movies, but not to commercial BD-ROM discs.

The final feature I want to highlight is resume play. Now you can resume a film from where you last stopped it even if you turn the PS3 off. This works with DVD and Blu-ray, but doesn’t work with BD-Java enabled discs.

For instruction on how to find the new features int he menu, visit the official site.

With all this ridiculous talk about Blu-ray prices rising, we’re pleased to see a new sale on Blu-ray movies at Amazon.com.

Most films are 50% off, and some are over 55% off. It’s a good selection of movies, so feel free to browse the selection. With movie tickets at $10 it’s now cheaper to buy a Blu-ray than take your wife out on a date.