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Pixar films to appear in 3D starting next year

Walt Disney Company announced on Tuesday that Pixar has committed to release all of their films in 3D format beginning next year with Up. Chief Creative Officer John Lasseter is very excited about 3D technology and even made an animated short in 1989 called Nickname. “My wedding pictures with my beautiful wife Nancy were [even] made in 3-D,” he said.

Even though Pixar sells tickets without fail, 3D films have drawn two to three times the sales at $3 or more per ticket. If you do not have a digital cinema nearby, these films will also be released in traditional 2D.

While I’m also excited to see traditionally hard-drawn animation coming from Walt Disney Animation Studios (The Princess and the Frog Christmas 2009), I’m also excited about the upcoming Pixar movies which will all appear in 3D beginning May 2009. Unfortunately Wall-E will not be in 3D.

Aside from the previously mentioned Up, Pixar is planning Toy Story 3 for June 2010, Newt summer of 2011, The Bear and the Bow Christmas 2011 and Cars 2 for the summer of 2012.

In addition to the new films, Disney is planning to convert the original Toy Story and Toy Story 2 to 3D! I hope they release them to theaters as well!

While DVD and HD DVD do not support 3D, Blu-ray does. We can expect to see these at home as well. Truly brining the theater home

Source: KomoTV

Blockbuster expands Blu-ray to all US and Canadian stores

Last year, Blockbuster Video scandalized the “format war” by choosing Blu-ray for 1,700 of their stores across North America. Yesterday they announced they will be expanding to all corporate stores in the US and Canada. Franchise stores are not included, but can opt-in if they’re willing. With nearly 5,200 stores in the US, this is a big boost for the Blu-ray business.

Not only will they feature Blu-ray rentals and purchases, they are also pushing Blu-ray by displaying a kiosk with a 42″ HD television and a Sony Playstation 3 playing Blu-ray content. Another example of the industry now fully embracing the winning format.

While this is all good for some, locally there have been five Blockbuster franchise stores close in the past several months. It is beginning to look like the brick-and-mortar video rental shops are increasingly less sustainable. With Movie Gallery filing bankruptcy in October of last year, and their subsequent closing of 500 stores, they too are looking to online rental and video downloads to increase their business.

Press release

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.

More details on Pioneer’s plasma business

Previously it has been reported that Pioneer will not be manufacturing their own plasma panels but will be sourcing them from Panasonic. Well, I have just received information from Pioneer that this doesn’t affect their Elite line of plasmas.

Pioneer will be manufacturing the glass and assembling the Elite plasmas for model years 2008 and 2009. There will be four models in total: both 50″ and 60″ televisions and monitors. These will remain at the current price points.

The Pioneer brand PDP panels will be sourced by Panasonic and assembled by Pioneer. This is so they can compete in the aggressive plasma market. There will be two models at 50″ and 60″.

Later this year there will be Elite brand LCDs.

JVC introduces new 4k VHS tape

It’s hard to believe, I know, but JVC is still trying to capitalize on their VHS technology. When DVD was taking the world by storm, they introduced D-VHS with 1080i video, and now they’re attempting to compete with Blu-ray by upping the ante once again.

4k resolution has 3996 × 2160 pixel resolution, and is used in most digital cinemas. Studios have been scanning film at 4k for years for preservation, and it is from this resolution that Blu-ray Discs start before they’re compressed and down-scaled to 1080p. JVC is hoping studios will release their existing library of 4k films on the new X-VHS (I thought “X” went out of common use a few years ago) for the high-end video enthusiasts.

I think this is ridiculous because the only 4k projectors our are professional level. There is very little market for a consumer product like this. Aside from that, who wants to go back to using a VHS rewinder? Who wants to stop a film halfway through to change to the second tape like I had to do with Braveheart? It’s insane! But I guess JVC has always stuck in the past like this, reveling in magnetic tape technologies. Too bad it’s the 21st Century.

Source: Tribute Finance