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Sony Announces First Blu-ray Movies

By BetaNews Staff, BetaNews

January 4, 2006, 2:45 PM

Sony Home Entertainment on Wednesday announced the first 20 movie titles that will launch on the high-definition Blu-ray disc format, preempting a scheduled press conference by HD DVD slated for Wednesday evening. The titles will be available with BD-compatible players starting this spring.

Released first will be The Fifth Element, Bram Stoker's Dracula, Desperado, For a Few Dollars More, The Guns of Navarone, Hitch, House of Flying Daggers, A Knight's Tale, Kung Fu Hustle, The Last Waltz, Legends of the Fall, Resident Evil Apocalypse, Robocop, Sense and Sensibility, Stealth, Species, SWAT and XXX. Four Blu-ray titles will be released each month starting this summer, ramping up to 10 per month by the end of 2006.

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By skags442

posted Jan 5, 2006 - 1:07 PM

this is great, we are going to have to have both hd-dvd and blu-ray systems, you know that sony wont relese movies on hd-dvd, and others wont relese on bluray. in the end i think both wont last half as long as vhs or dvd for that matter, waste of $$$

Score: 0

By Scary Guy

posted Jan 5, 2006 - 11:37 AM

Torrent plz :)

Score: 0

By Practice

posted Jan 5, 2006 - 11:17 AM

I'll take a copy of The Fifth Element. Thank you.

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By twosheds

edited Jan 5, 2006 - 3:33 AM

I would say that in general, due to advances in film emulsion over the last fifteen years, the older films are, the less they are going to benefit from these new resolutions. If you have a vast collection of old films I don't think you'd be missing much, if anything, by sticking with DVD.

Score: 0

By maniakmx3

edited Jan 5, 2006 - 9:39 AM

You are incorrect sir!

All they are doing to these films are increasing the resolution and enhancing the color. Just think of watching "Caddy Shack II" on VHS on a 1990's Series Tube Television. Now get the Revisited version on DVD with a "Good quality" HDTV. Wow, Hella difference in picture quality!!

Just think, VHS Resolution is somthing like 120p, and the resolution of a DVD is 720P and a BD-Rom will offer a resolution of 1920p. HUGE difference there in Resolution.

Go ahead right now, Pop a Video game on your computer. Put it at a 640x480 Resolution, Look at it. Then up to a 800x600 Res. Look at it, then up it to a 1024x740 Res. Notice how the picture gets clearer and clearer each time, everything becomes more and more defined, colors stand out more. It's amazing if you actually pay attention to it.

What needs to be done, is someone needs to talk an old 92' MOdel TV, with a VHS Player, Put it beside a 2000ish model TV with a DVD Player, then stick an HDTV with a Blu-ray Player next to it...You'll then see the difference, and how it will change the way you watch tv :)

Score: 0

By ghammer

posted Jan 5, 2006 - 12:41 AM

Wheeeee! Now there's room for more useless director's comments. Maybe now I can hear the thoughts of the bagel girl, the car washer, the head grip and best boy.
Gosh, I'll bet there is room left over for lots more of those funny, funny outtakes and stuff.

Don't care if it is BR or HD, why would I bother exactly?

Main thing driving this is the low profits on DVDs to the studios. BR and HD are not gonna be in the dollar bin soon.

Score: 0

By JacenSolo

posted Jan 4, 2006 - 9:42 PM

Can someone inform me why I care about Sony Blu-Ray?

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By maniakmx3

posted Jan 5, 2006 - 9:29 AM

Because it's the *Current* WInning canadate for the Next Generation DVD? Blu-Ray could be the next *standard* format for DVDs? (Yeah you know...kinda how DVD came out, everyone said "Oh...DVDs are usless, I got me a good ol' VHS" Now EVeryone and their mother owns a DVD player and collection? C'mon dude...

Score: 0

By JacenSolo

posted Jan 8, 2006 - 6:46 PM

I'm not interested in Blu-Ray or HD-DVD. I'm not into movies.

I only use DVD to install Linux or backup files. I don't use VHS :P

If Blu-Ray has use as a back up storage, then I'll look into it.

BTW. YOu say "Winning canadate"... they are both losing badly, as I haven't read any benifits for ME or anyone that only wants to watch movies.

Oh, and can Sony tell me why Torrent isn't better? Other then it's "stealing"...

Score: 0

By beta_animal

posted Jan 4, 2006 - 7:02 PM

Samsung 42" HD Ready Plasma TV = $2,199.99
HD/Blu-Ray DVD Player = (estimated) $399.99
The Fifth Element (Blu-Ray) = (estimated) $19.99
Quality = excellent

Sony 27" Trinitron TV = $299.94
Coby DVD-207 Compact DVD Player = $24.99
The Fifth Element DVD = $11.97
Quality = pretty good

Price of HD setup = $2619.97
Price of DVD setup = $336.90

Ok, it's nice kit. Ok, the quality's better. But DVDs aren't exactly bad quality. I can see the point in the migration to HD, but current pricing and the inevitably strict DRM controls will have me buying DVDs for a good few years to come. Kinda makes the new TV and DVD setup look pretty cheap - think of it this way: Buy a new Sony TV, a new DVD player and a new DVD and you'll save $2283.07!!!

Score: 0

By bourgeoisdude

posted Jan 4, 2006 - 9:31 PM

Better yet by an equivelent spec TV that is any other brand on the planet and save an additional $250 or more (sony charges extra for those rootkits I think)

Score: 0

By roj

posted Jan 4, 2006 - 5:30 PM

*yawn*

I won't be wasting any money on Sony proprietary DRM'd-to-the-max dreck.

Hopefully, others will have the intelligence to follow suit.

Score: 0

By maniakmx3

posted Jan 5, 2006 - 9:26 AM

Hopfully you'll have the intelligence to realise that these jokes are pointless and old. :)

Score: 0

By joeshmoe7

posted Jan 5, 2006 - 9:32 AM

i dont think he's joking :O

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By Kramy

posted Jan 4, 2006 - 5:24 PM

Curses!...they chose A Knight's Tale!

Now I might actually have to get a player...eventually.

Score: 0

By giwo

posted Jan 4, 2006 - 5:42 PM

I'm a bit concerned at which part of that movie you may be looking forward to seeing in high def....

Score: 0

By Kramy

edited Jan 4, 2006 - 5:53 PM

Oh, the jousting, ofcourse! :P

Score: 0

By PC_Tool

posted Jan 4, 2006 - 4:17 PM

Wow....

Looking at that list of movies, I'm sure glad I won't be missing anything by not running right out and grabbing a player.

IOf that is the selection Sony wants to launch this thing with, you gotta wonder who they have in their marketing deparment and how long the recovery took from their recent lobotomy.

Score: 0

By joeshmoe7

posted Jan 4, 2006 - 4:38 PM

hitch.. nuff said.

Score: 0

By giwo

posted Jan 4, 2006 - 4:27 PM

lol... That's exactly what I was thinking.

But... but... but... Stealth... on Blu-ray!

Score: 0

By kholdstare

posted Jan 4, 2006 - 3:57 PM

just great like we need more space on disks for movies. alll this will do is keep the movie at horrible quality with even more crappy and useless extra content. same will be for HD-DVD. oh well only a couple more moths till PS3 launch sweeeet!!!

Score: 0

By Niro

posted Jan 4, 2006 - 4:55 PM

" oh well only a couple more moths till PS3 launch sweeeet!!!"

LOL...yea, about 11 more months. :)

they don't even know what the controller will look like yet!!

Score: 0

By glasscpp

posted Jan 5, 2006 - 11:30 AM

That a pretty accurate comment. I've got a buddy who works for at a gaming store and he said that everytime their Sony Rep. comes in he gets a later and later ps3 launch date. Last my buddy heard from the Sony Rep ps3 will barely make it for Christmas 06

Just my $0.02

Score: 0

By kholdstare

posted Jan 4, 2006 - 5:21 PM

nah im sure they'll quicken there pace. sense Xbox 360 came out there probly lossing money everyday because of it.

Score: 0

By DamienMcKenna

posted Jan 4, 2006 - 3:43 PM

Anyone know the projected costs on these things? Are they going to do the usual "these are new technologies therefore we need to charge 2x the price of the old media" then force the market to adjust to even higher prices (see: CDs, DVDs, video games, etc)?

Score: 0

By maniakmx3

posted Jan 4, 2006 - 3:48 PM

The "Cost" is higher than that of an actual DVD (avg. Retail Price $14.95) But the retail on them are suppose to be around the same of current DVD ($14.95-19.95) But I Belive the first BD-Rom Player you're looking at about $399(cheapest) Kinda like how DVD Players were when they first came out (ranging from $399-599) I'm just gonna wait for a PS3 :D

Score: 0

By maniakmx3

posted Jan 4, 2006 - 3:29 PM

Sweet, I'm pretty stoked. Can't wait to see how they look!

Score: 0

By heho

posted Jan 4, 2006 - 3:57 PM

Well I hope you're referring to the picture on your TV, and not the physical disk. The films will look better than they do on DVD, however will not be as good as something shot natively in high definition. Watch a high definition program filmed in high definition and compare it to something just being transmitted in HD. There are noticeable differences.

Rest assured though, they'll look better than anything we've seen yet.

Score: 0

By maniakmx3

posted Jan 5, 2006 - 9:25 AM

...duh?

Score: 0

By bourgeoisdude

edited Jan 4, 2006 - 3:26 PM

WOOHOO! Buy a BluRay player so you can see "For a Few Dollars More" in high definition. WOOHOO!

Score: 0

By KSzostek

posted Jan 4, 2006 - 3:00 PM

Boycott Sony! What rootkit are they putting on these disc's?

Score: 0

By joeshmoe7

edited Jan 4, 2006 - 3:44 PM

Oh i don't think sony would do that now, it would be the nail in their coffin. Still i will never buy sony again, because of their attitude.

EDIT: by the way, i agree that in so much as, if sony COULD do such a thing, without anyone finding out, well.. you know.

Score: 0

By maniakmx3

posted Jan 4, 2006 - 3:29 PM

hahahaha...god you're an idiot!

Score: 0

By bourgeoisdude

posted Jan 4, 2006 - 3:27 PM

I am not buying their products either--but even as an anti-Sony guy those rootkit jokes are really getting old, man.

Score: 0

By SirCycO

posted Jan 4, 2006 - 2:56 PM

mmmmm Fifth Element on BD... Looks and sounds great on DVD, wonder how much better it'll be in this format......

-SC

Score: 0

By Practice

posted Jan 4, 2006 - 4:37 PM

I don't know, but I'm going to find out. 8D

Score: 0

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