Netflix added the ability to stream movies some time ago, and after taking the plunge to try it out, I have to say I’m sold on the concept.

At first I was hesitant to give it a try because you could only do it on your computer, and I didn’t feel like going through the trials and tribulations of watching Internet videos on my TV.  Eventually a company named Roku brought a Netflix set top box to market, but, I also didn’t feel like plopping down $99 for a dedicated device.

Then, in November, Microsoft updated the Xbox 360 dashboard and added the option to stream Netflix to your TV without any more equipment then I already owned.  With the temptation being too great, I finally gave in and reactivated my Netflix account and decided to give it a shot.

For as little as $8.99 a month (we’ll ignore the $4.99 option as that only gives you 2 hours of video streaming a month), you get one DVD rented at a time, but you get unlimited video streaming to your Xbox.  Quite a bargain if you ask me since they have over 12,000 selections for you to choose from.  True, the movie selection is mainly older films, but for a film buff like myself, I’m thrilled.  They also offer help a very healthy selection of older TV shows, all which are available on DVD, but for three months of streaming, you can save your self buying a DVD set you may not even like, and you will save room in your house.  I finally can try out an older British comedy I have been dying to try for years called Yes, Minister without rolling the dice on an expensive boxed set and risking not even liking the show.

The only drawback to the system is you have to go to the Netflix site to add more videos to your queue.  You can only have 6 active selections show up in your Xbox dashboard at any time, but that is plenty for a night of video watching.

My biggest fear was that you were going to end up with heavily pixalated veiwing since it was streaming over the Internet and being blown up to the size of a TV screen, but I am pleased to say I was totally wrong about that.  Last night my father wanted to watch a movie since he is laid out on the couch recovering from knee surgery, and he chose The Illusionist from 2006.  What little I watched of the movie since I had work to do was just stunning in its quality.  It might not be true high def, but coming over an HDMI cable to our 42″ Toshiba Regza LCD, I noticed little to no “image noise”, no buffering except before the film started, and an overall better experience than a standard definition DVD played on a standard DVD player.

I would still like to see a broader slection of films to watch, and also the ability to add new things to your queue on the fly, but overall, if you have an Xbox 360 already, or feel up to getting a Roku device, this is well worth $8.99 a month.  Also, keep an eye out, but some Blu-ray DVD players are starting to add the ability to stream the videos also.

Can any one, or anything, stop the money making machine that is The Dark Knight?

As the film stands as of today (December 11th, 2008) it has had a box office haul of $530,594,370 domestically and $465,956,888 internationally for a total of $996,551,258 gross. This isn’t to short change the fact it cost $185 million to produce, but it is still a highly successful film no matter how you slice it. There has also been the surprising news that the film will be re-released to theaters on January 23rd, 2009 for another go, and this all but guarantees that the film will break through the $1 billion dollar level.

I bring all of this up because earlier this week the film was released on DVD.  While I certainly expected it be successful, I knew something was up when I was at Walmart at midnight Monday night and there was a line in the electronics department of people waiting for them to wheel out their supply.  I can’t say I remember ever seeing that before any other DVD, so the writing was on the wall this was going to be big.  (For the record, mine was on its way via UPS, I was there for other reasons)

Well, the numbers are in, and the sales for the first 24 hours was 600,000 Blu-ray copies and 2.4 million standard DVDs.  The previous Blu-ray champ was Iron Man with 400,000 copies in its first week… sorry, Iroan Man.

Warner Brothers is trying to woo Christopher Nolan & Jonathan Nolan, the brothers who wrote the movie and Christopher directed, back for another installment, but they are currently not jumping at the chance.  Christopher has been quoted in numerous interviews of fearing the curse of third film in a series (See Spider-Man 3), and he has also said he hasn’t been struck by an idea yet for another outing of the caped crusader.

I have to say, “Stick to your guns, Chris”.  If we only get two movies from him of Batman, then so be it.  Sure I would like to see a third film in the series, but I want it to be ‘right’, and not just made to be made.  Sure there are more Batman villains he can tackle, but would they be worthy of carrying a film?  Catwoman is possible… The Riddler is a bit weak… Mr. Nolan has publicly declared he doesn’t like The Penguin… Harley Quinn couldn’t carry a film on her own, and without The Joker, she would be hard to do… Posion Ivy couldn’t do it on her own… Mr. Freeze is too silly and so on and so forth.

With these new sales numbers Warner Brothers is sure to be courting Mr. Nolan harder for a third film, but what say you, should he go for it?

With another year under their belt, why does Blu-ray still seem to be another “also ran” in the home media market?

It was one year ago today that I announced that I had decided to go with HD-DVD, and I knew full well that probably meant I had picked the wrong format in the high def war.  I was proven right in February of this year when HD-DVD threw in the towel, and it looked like a lock that Blu-ray would become the dominant format.

So, why hasn’t it happened?  Blu-ray is still languishing with only a single digit percentage of the home media market, and it doesn’t look to be gainging more traction with the economy in its current uncertain state.  As I see it, Blu-ray is fighting a multi pronged fight that it didn’t even ponder it was going to have to.

• As people have said everywhere, DVDs still look too good on a high def television to warrant people running out and buying yet another format.  With upconverting DVD players pushing standard definition discs to near HD quality, and those players still selling for less than a Blu-ray player, it’s hard for people to make the justification for going with Blu-ray.
• Even when people do go with Blu-ray, they are not buying films in the numbers they were with regular DVDs.
• Streaming media is becoming more common, and on numerous devices people already own.  For instance, the fact that you can stream Netflix films via the XBox 360 now.  Why purchase what you can stream, and be out more money and space in your home?
• The prices for Blu-ray players and their accompanying discs are still just too high compared to their standard definition counterparts.

You add up all of these problems, and it doesn’t look too promising for the high def format.  Yes, I fully admit that this may sound like sour grapes over me goign HD-DVD, but it isn’t, because I have been very close to throwing in the towel and buying a Blu-ray player several times since February.  At this point I don’t think buying into an HD format is a wise choice for any one.  Streaming is becoming more and more prevalent, and I don’t see standard def DVDs going anywhere, so I’m thinking it may be wise to just sit out this home media iteration and see where the chips land.

In short, don’t be me and put all your money on what could be a losing horse.

I’ve just about had it with HBO and their DVD shenanigans.

I’ve talked before about my love of The Wire, and I have picked up the DVD sets as they came out.  Before season 5 premiered, they ran three prequel stories that took place well before season 1 on Amazon.  These were not included on the season 5 set, but they will be in the complete series set… meaning those of us who supported the series for 5 years don’t get the spiffy extra.

I was a huge, INSANE fan of Deadwood.  I think it is quite possibly the three greatest seasons of television ever aired, but it was sadly cut short without any resolution to a few story lines.  HBO promised that they would produce two 2-hour movies that would finish it off, but those have yet to happen.  Now the complete series set is coming out, and, again, I have supported the show as each season was released.  As I am sure you guessed, the complete series will have some extras I don’t have, and normally I survive without them, but this time I am furious.  One of the extras will be a n interview with the creator of the series about what happened after the end of season 3 and what would have happened to each character.

… say what?

Not only did HBO cancel the series due to budget concerns, leaving us without a resolution, then they broke the promise of the movies.  Now they top all of this off by shoving a knife into my heart by saying that by my supporting the series all this time, I don’t get to know what happened to the characters.

Never mind the fact HBO charges far more for their DVDs than standard television sets, so we aren’t talking a $20 a season or anything.  Do they really think I am willing to pay twice for what will end up being a few minutes of footage?  Sorry, but it’s not going to happen no matter how much I would like to see it.

Sure the information will make its way online, but it is the principle of the matter.  Why does the fact that someone waits to buy the complete set at the end of the run gets what amounts to the ultimate reward ofor Deadwood fans, but those who supported all along get nothing?  Not only that, but they’re paying less than the person who supported the individual sets!  Currently if you go on Amazon, the three seperate sets would run you $159.99, but the complete series set is preordering for $125.99.  So, come in late, pay less, and you get the spiffy reward?  How does this make any sense?

The simple solution, and the one I’m sticking to, is that I’m done with HBO DVDs.  They have done nothing but spit on their long time fans series after series.  The Wire thing is almost excusable, but I can’t forgive them for the Deadwood situation.  No True Blood DVDs for me… no Entourage… all shows I love, but clearly HBO really doesn’t care about my support, so why should I really bother?

While it’s not clear if anyone has actually requested a refund for buying an HD DVD player yet, Toshiba is making sure every one knows it’s not going to happen. They also said there won’t be any “sweetners” because the equipment still has an “inherent value” in that it can play CDs, DVDs, and your HD DVD collection.

Even as an owner of an HD DVD player I have to say this is the right decision on the part of Toshiba. As I said back when I wrote about why Steve Jobs was wrong to give a refund in regards to the iPhone, if you are an early adopter of technology, you have to expect things like this to happen. I knew exactly what I was getting in to with buying the HD DVD player when I did, and I didn’t expect any hand holding as I took the leap.

Steve Jobs explained it best in his open letter to iPhone whiners customers about wanting a refund when the iPhone dropped in price:

Second, being in technology for 30+ years I can attest to the fact that the technology road is bumpy. There is always change and improvement, and there is always someone who bought a product before a particular cutoff date and misses the new price or the new operating system or the new whatever. This is life in the technology lane. If you always wait for the next price cut or to buy the new improved model, you’ll never buy any technology product because there is always something better and less expensive on the horizon. The good news is that if you buy products from companies that support them well, like Apple tries to do, you will receive years of useful and satisfying service from them even as newer models are introduced.

It’s all part of the technology “game”. If you want to play the “game”, then you need to expect to lose once in awhile, it can’t be helped. Sure, it feels nice to “win”, as the Blu-ray adopters did, but it’s not going to happen every time, the law of averages simply says that if you are an early adopter, you will “lose” sometimes.

I think this speaks to the current technology environment, though. There are so many innovations happening in so many fields that it is becoming more common for people to be early adopters of something or the other that never have been before.

Somewhere along the line there is a disconnect happening, a sense of entitlement that doesn’t make sense to me.  When you buy a car, do you whine when the next model comes out?  Do you whine when there’s a price drop?  No, you expect it and you deal with it.  So why do consumers feel they are owed something, or are somehow slighted, when there are changes in gadgets?  It makes no sense to me.

In short, yes, HD DVD is dead, and there will not be any new discs coming out in the format, but you still have a very nice DVD player that will upscale your standard definition DVDs to near high definition quality.  You bought into it, you knew the risks, you deal with it.  And, again, I have no clue if anyone did actually ask for refunds, but I sure hope no one did.

As was speculated the other day, HD DVD is dead.  Toshiba has made the official announcement in Tokyo just a few minutes ago.

Oh well,  I should have known I would be the curse that would kill it, but what ya gonna do?

Now… bring on the clearance sales so I can pick up some cheap final discs!

Well, it isn’t 100% official yet, but it looks like Toshiba is prepared to pull the plug on HD DVD fairly soon.

I knew this was coming once Warner Brothers said it was going Blu-ray only, it was just a matter of when. Last week was the killing blow when Netflix said it was dumping the format, and then Wal-Mart also announced they were. Seeing as Wal-Mart had been one of the biggest pushers of HD DVD, their departure pretty much sealed the fate of the format.

So, what do I do now? It’s too late to return my Toshiba HD-A35, and that’s fine, I just view it as having a really nice DVD player with upconversion.

When will I go Blu-ray?  Well, this brings me back to why I went HD DVD in the first place, and the fact that the format isn’t finished yet.  Profile 2.0, the firmware that will catch Blu-ray to where HD DVD was at launch, isn’t due for release until October of this year.  So, the first wave of Profile 2.0 players come out, they’ll be high priced through th holidays for sure, you’re looking at 2009 for the price drop.

Great, well, at least I’ll enjoy the HD DVDs I bought already and just bide my time again.  Still, an interesting war to watch play out, too bad it’s over.

Well, I said on November 23rd, when I ordered my HD DVD player, “Now that I’ve picked a side… expect a surge in Blu-ray sales.”  Well, instead, I got the death of a format.

No, HD DVD is not officially dead… yet… but the news that Warner Brothers is going Blu-ray exclusively as of May, pretty much seals the coffin.  This is going to give Blu-ray control of 70% of the released content, meaning HD DVD will slowly choke on a lack of product.

It’s unfortunate because I genuinely believe HD DVD is the superior format for a laundry list of reasons.  The format will probably not die off until February of 2009, when the exclusive deals with Dreamworks and Universal end, but it’s not going to be pretty for the next year.

*Countdown to Roy mocking me… 3… 2… 1…*

Over at TECH.BLORGE.com this past week, I’ve been writing a bunch of stories about the HD DVD vs Blu-ray war, and it’s getting more and more interesting.

It seems that hardware manufacturers are getting more enamored with the idea of releasing dual format players. LG has already done this, but ringing in at a cool $999 (list price of $1,049.99), it’s not exactly a super fast moving device. Now there are rumors that a sub-$500 model may appear next week at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES), and this is followed by news that by 2012, 66% of the HD drives in computers may be dual format.

So, is it the hardware manufacturers who are behind this?  Have they seen that their lack of sales of the HD players is due to the studios being stubborn, and it’s time to take the decision away from them and the consumers?  One has to wonder what’s causing this move.  They obviously see the war as being in a stalemate or else they wouldn’t be investing the money in these new players.

Could it really be this simple?  Could we really see the ‘war’ settled with both formats just co-existing for their entire product life-cycle?  It would make me laugh if this is how it all finally shakes out.

In what is becoming an annual list, I’m going to share the holiday programming I enjoy every year.

A Christmas Carol - Patrick Stewart is a classically trained actor and he brings a powerful tone to the role of Scrooge. A fantastic version of this classic tale of Christmas spirit.

A Christmas Story - Set in the 1940’s does nothing to diminish the fun or relevance of this movie. Every kid has had that “dream” gift on their Christmas list that it seemed no one wanted you to have. Fun, cute and so many quotable lines. “You’ll shoot your eye out” if you miss this one!

It’s a Wonderful Life - Come on…do I even really need to discuss this one? Is there anyone alive who hasn’t seen this? Actually I did find someone this year…and I promptly pointed her out for the heretic she is. This is one of my all time favorite movies. Jimmy Stewart is amazing.

Love Actually - Really, the only connection to Christmas is the time of year, and a couple of holiday jokes, but it’s cute and sweet. Never mind it has a stellar cast of English actors and actresses.

Miracle on 34th Street - While some can believe it’s like a film length ad for Macy’s department store, it’s still a cute film with a central message that Christmas can be magical for any numer of reasons.

National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation - The Vacation movies have been a mixed bag (as has most of Chevy Chase’s career), but this film is so easy to relate to. We all have those dreams of the perfect family Christmas, just to have them dashed and never have them live up to our hopes. Plus, the Cousin Eddie scene in white sweater, with green dickie, is worth the entire price of the movie!

The Nightmare Before Christmas - Not only is it a sweet story, and amazing to watch, how can you not love a movie that can make both the Halloween AND Christmas movie lists?

The Original Television Christmas Classics (Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer / Santa Claus Is Comin’ to Town / Frosty the Snowman / Frosty Returns / The Little Drummer Boy) - I recommend this primiarly for Rudolph, but now you can only get it with all this other stuff. Oh well. What is Christmas without Rudolph? Nothing I tell you!

Santa Claus - The Movie - This movie got ravaged by critics, but it is cute, funny and warm. Deal with it.

You have a fave? Talk about it!

And yes, I know a lot of these movies show up on TV, but if it’s something like It’s A Wonderful Life, PLEASE don’t watch it on commercial television. It is deserving of your hard earned money being spent on a DVD of it. Same with Christmas Vacation. Christmas Story I don’t mind because it’s a 24-hour marathon, I usually watch it 3 - 4 times through out the time period. Yes… 3 - 4 times, I love it that much.

Not that it matters to 99.9% of you, but I have chosen my High Def format and… I went HD-DVD. I ordered my Toshiba HD-A35 and will be getting it next week.

So why did I finally decide on HD-DVD over Blu-ray?  (In no particular order)

1. Cost - HD-DVD is bringing their prices down much faster than Blu-ray.
2. Promotion - I got 10 free movies in addition to the excellent price.
3. Installed User Base - No matter how Sony tries to spin it, the people with HD-DVD players are purchasing more movies per player than Blu-ray.
4. Quality - Again, it’s a matter of spin, but the only MAJOR advantage Blu-ray has over HD-DVD is storage capacity, and when you get up to these numbers, does a person really need THAT many special features?  Otherwise they’re very close to being negligible.

Now that I’ve picked a side… expect a surge in Blu-ray sales.

I have come to the conclusion that if an older television series I like comes out on DVD, I am waiting until all the seasons are out and wait see what happens. The “Complete Series” box sets trick is quickly annoying me.

Let’s take Buffy, The Vampire Slayer as an example. Going through Amazon, seasons 1 - 7 will run $218.93, but if you waited for them to do the complete box set, you can have the entire series for $164.99. Amitadely I started buying the seasons while the show was still airing, but I still wasn’t too happy when the box set came out. You would have thought this taught me a lesson, but oh no.

There have been other instances, but the latest, and the one that taught me my lesson was The Addams Family. Buying sets 1 - 3 separately comes to $59.97, but if I had known there would be a complete series set coming, I wouldn’t have picked them up as they were released. Actually, that’s the burn, I had the first two, and then as the third came out, the set was announced.

So, my lesson has been learned, unless it is something I am trying to catch up on, such as 30 Rock, then I can wait it out and see if the box set is coming out, and hopefully save myself a couple of dollars… or… you know… I could just stop buying DVDs, but… that would make sense…

I have never been big on the whole concept of strikes. Maybe it’s because every one I have ever encountered, I didn’t fully grasp. The Writer’s Guild of America strike though I can relate to, and I have to say I would gladly stand with them.

As of this morning, screenwriters for TV and movies are on the picket line. It is all over money, but understandably so.

As it currently stands, the average writer makes $.04 on the sale of a DVD, they are asking for an increase to $.08. The shocking portion though isn’t the DVDs, it’s legal digital downloads. As it currently stands, writers are paid no royalties on the sale of downloads.

Nothing. Nada. Zip. Zero.

The studios are refusing to budge on downloads, or they are asking for a “no residual” window that would kill the highest portion of download sales, leaving the writers with next to nothing.

I have always felt that writer’s get the shaft, and it’s about time they stood up to the studios. A writer in a good year, an exceptional year, will make around $200,000. Yes, that is most than more Americans, but when you compare it to what directors, actors, producers, studio heads and so on earn, it’s a pittance.

Hollywood has always seemed to not grasp, nor appreciate, how important to the process writers are. If it wasn’t for their concepts, their words, all of these all-star directors and actors would do a lot of standing around. All you have to do is look at any film’s poster to grasp the problem. Why does the director’s name go with the title? Take Transformers for instance. Why does it say “A Michael Bay film”? And I’m not picking on just Mr. Bay, this happens all the time, and it has always irked me.

But, I digress. It’s been 20 years since the writers went out on strike, and at that time it lasted for 5-months. In most cases you won’t notice it happening for a while, but as of tonight, all the nightly talk shows will be in repeats. Prime time shows are filmed months in advance, so those will be okay in to early next year, and film studios stockpiled scripts in anticipation.

This could be a long one as both sides are very set in their demands, and, like I said, I side with the writers. If the studio makes money from their work, then they deserve a cut. To think otherwise is just insane on the part of executives.

I got a chance to take a quick look around NBC’s new “private beta” site today, Hulu.com. This site has been causing quite the stir as it seems this is why NBC pulled their shows from iTunes, and if the current content is any indication, Fox won’t be far behind.

There are two types of videos on the site: Full length TV shows & movies and highlight clips.

I’m not sure what the strategy is here. There is an enormous amount of older shows on the site, most with thriving DVD sales, so you have to wonder why NBC would want to undercut their own sales. I can either buy season 1 of Arrested Development, or I can just go on Hulu and watch it.

Huh?

That’s not to mention there are some full length movies on there as well. Not that I really want to sit in front of my computer for two hours just to watch a movie, but the option is there.

I’m sure NBC has something up there sleeve with this, but what it is, I’m not quite sure yet. It’ll be great if you miss a recent episode though, or your DVR gets too full (as mine tends to do).

So, that post about Even More HD-DVD Temptation? Seems quantities were limited.

I thought about it all night, was going to order the HD-A20 today, and… deal was over for the Toshiba players. You could still get it on the Xbox 360 HD DVD Player, but I don’t want to go that route. So it appears I will be waiting for another similar offer to come along.

Oddly enough, the Sony Playstation 3, 60GB model deal is still on as of this writing.  Hmmmm.

The HD-DVD/Blu-ray war just got a bit more interesting over the Amazon way.

Right now, if you buy a Toshiba HD-A2, HD-A20 (pictured to the left), or an HD-XA2, not only do you get the free five mail-away movies they’ve been offering (which the choices are fairly lackluster, I will admit), Amazon will give you three movies instantly for free, and their selection is pretty nice.

But, where is the format war in all this you ask?

They have a similar deal running if you purchase a Sony Playstation 3, 60GB model. Get three movies instantly for free, and then you can mail in for five more.

Oh no, this doesn’t make this decision any harder at all!

The free instant movies last until September 23rd, the mail-aways are good until October 31st.

I know by now I have to be boring some of you, but please indulge me.

The following started off as a comment to Roy on this post, and I decided to expand upon it.

As much as I love Japan, it is an anomaly when it comes to technology. I can remember on my first trip over there in 2000 thinking to myself “Laser Disc was actually this popular here?!?” I loved my LD player, and I picked up a ton of discs, heck, it was the only place I could pick up Song of the South. They also embraced the mini-disc, which was never more than a whimper over here.

Honestly, I just want the war settled. I have an HD TV, I *want* HD content to watch on it, and I *know* the second I pick a format, whichever one it may be, the other one will win. Now that I have an Xbox 360, the temptation to go HD-DVD is far greater, I won’t lie.

The sad thing is, I remember the Betamax/VHS war, true, I was young, but I remember it. Beta WAS the superior format, but VHS won for whatever odd reason. Between the two new formats, I have heard very, VERY convincing arguments for one being better than the other, but from film aficionados/buffs, I tend to hear more favorable things towards HD-DVD.

The price point, as silly as it may be, will end up playing a major factor in the war, and HD-DVD is winning that side hands-down right now. The Toshiba player I am looking at is currently $238 on Amazon, the cheapest Blu-ray is $456. When Christmas rolls around, and it’s time to add an HD player to your new HD TV, people are going to look at that and go “Wow… well, I dropped a ton on the TV, I’ll go for the bargain player” without giving two thoughts which one may have the crisper blacks.

Sony has made some very critical strategical errors:
1) Pricing
2) The name is nonsensical (HD-DVD is pretty straight forward, what the hell is a “Blu-ray”? I’m speaking from a Joe Consumer point of view mind you)
3) Where porn goes, so goes the format

#3 is what ended up winning the Beta/VHS war, and now, the porn industry has chosen HD-DVD because it’s cheaper to produce. Initially they wanted Blu-ray, but Sony said “No thanks” as they didn’t want their name associated with it.

In short, the war isn’t over, I’m still not sure of my “side”, I know which way I’m leaning, but I’m taking my time to ponder it for a little while longer.

This helpful article lists Sony’s other failures:

Betamax
Memory Stick
Universal Media Disc (UMD)
Mini-Disc
Professional Disk for Data
HiFD
Super Audio CD

I truly feel that Sony’s biggest enemy is themselves. They end up with a successful product like say the Walkman or the Playstation, and they lose their damned minds again.  Blu-ray IS a solid product, but, the cheapest way for me to get into a format I am uncertain of is an overpriced gaming console?  Gee… thanks Sony.

And then articles like this one appear today where the executive vice president and chief technology officer for Paramount, Alan Bell, makes very valid points is to why HD-DVD is a more stable format than Blu-ray.  And as you can see from the above list, there are reason to be weary of Sony saying they have the new solution.

*sigh*

Can’t someone just settle this?  Is it really too much to ask?  I just want to make the leap to HD dammit!

Oh, this is too funny. Me thinks someone has heard from his corporate overlords and was told he was being an idiot.

Yesterday I mentioned how Michael Bay was all up in arms over Paramount going to HD-DVD only? He was proclaiming “…No Transformers 2 for me!” and how he was unahppy with the switch over.

Well, funny how things change:

Last night at dinner I was having dinner with three Blu-Ray owners, they were pissed about no Transformers Blu-Ray and I drank the kool aid hook line and sinker. So at 1:30 in the morning I posted - nothing good ever comes out of early am posts mind you - I over reacted. I heard where Paramount is coming from and the future of HD and players that will be close to the $200 mark which is the magic number. I like what I heard.

As a director, I’m all about people seeing films in the best quality possible, and I saw and heard firsthand people upset about a corporate decision.

So today I saw 300 on HD-DVD, it rocks!

So I think I might be back on to do Transformers 2!

Michael Bay

Oh, this is too funny. Me thinks someone has heard from his corporate overlords and was told he was being an idiot.

The only thing about this that saddens me is it brings him back to ruin another Transformers movie.

As some of you may have heard yesterday, Paramount and DreamWorks SKG have announced they will no longer be supporting Blu-Ray. While I wasn’t sure if this would push me one way or the other, when I heard via Roy that Michael Bay is upset by this, and may not direct Transformers 2 because of it… I immediately started shopping for an HD-DVD player.

I am down to either Toshiba HD-A2 HD DVD Player or the Xbox 360 HD DVD Player. I am leaning towards the stand alone player because I don’t like one device being dependent on another.

Any one have any thoughts?

Well, I certainly didn’t expect to do two DVD posts in a row, but this is too exciting to me not to.

Twin Peaks has gotten more VHS/Laser Disc/DVD releases than I can count, and every version has been missing the USA version of the pilot episode and, instead, had the European version.

Why is this a problem?

Well, in Europe, the pilot was an encapsulated movie. It revealed “Bob” as the killer of Laura Palmer, but Bob was not from the Black Lodge and hadn’t taken over Leland Palmer. (if you consider any of this spoiler… I don’t care, it’s 17 years old)

So all these releases were awkward to say the least. You’d watch the pilot, get an answer, then watch a series that totally ignored the “answers” you’d gotten.

Well, then the problem became that as fans clamored for a proper release, it seemed that no one entity owned the rights to every aspect of the series. For some odd reason some people owned some of the footage and others owned other portions of it. It was all very odd.

Somehow all the rights have been sorted out, David Lynch has returned to work on this new DVD set, and a good portion of the cast has come back to talk about it. No price has been announced yet, but I could really care less, because I’ll be getting it no matter what. October 30th is the release date, but Amazon hasn’t added it for ordering yet, but as soon as they do I will put it on my Upcoming TV DVDs page.

Here’s the entire press release with features, be warned, it’s lengthy.

TWIN PEAKS(TM) THE DEFINITIVE GOLD BOX EDITION

Loaded with All-New Exclusive Special Features and Beloved Vintage Materials,
All 29 Newly Remastered Episodes, Plus Two Versions of the Original Pilot,
This 10-Disc Collection Debuts October 30, 2007

HOLLYWOOD, Calif. - The highly-anticipated Definitive Gold Box Edition of the series that became one of television’s most acclaimed events finally arrives - with all 29 episodes plus both the original and European versions of the pilot - on October 30, 2007 from CBS Home Entertainment and Paramount Home Entertainment. Considered both technically and artistically revolutionary when it debuted, TWIN PEAKS(TM) garnered 18 Emmy(R) nominations over the course of its two-season run with its cast of memorable characters, stunning cinematography and intriguing plot. Co-creators David Lynch and Mark Frost and a large number of the cast and crew have returned to participate in this extraordinary new collection.

“Finally the pilot is together with the series. The picture looks clean with good color correction. The sound is really good,” said David Lynch. “I think this is a great definitive Twin Peaks Gold Set - the Gold represents the highest quality. A lot of work has gone in to this, and in my opinion it has really paid off.”

“Working closely with David Lynch, I believe we’ve put together the ultimate Twin Peaks DVD box set with the most unique, interesting and comprehensive collection of content possible that will more than excite the ardent fan and engage new ones,” commented Ken Ross, Executive Vice President and General Manager, CBS Home Entertainment. “And we drank some damn good cups of coffee along the way.’”

This 10-disc set includes “Greetings from Twin Peaks” collectable postcards and a plethora of special features, including hours of newly-minted bonus content, featuring exclusive cast and crew interviews and rare footage never before released on DVD, produced by award-winning DVD producer Charles de Lauzirika (”Alien Quadrilogy,” “Spider-Man 2: Special Edition,” “Blade Runner: The Final Cut.”)

“Secrets from Another Place: Creating Twin Peaks” is a collection of four new documentaries exploring the origins, production and impact of the show. The cast and crew, including co-creator Mark Frost, composer Angelo Badalamenti, singer Julee Cruise, actors Kyle MacLachlan, Joan Chen, Piper Laurie, Ray Wise, Sheryl Lee, Kenneth Welsh, Maedchen Amick, Miguel Ferrer and many others share their memories of creating the show in this in-depth piece covering the sensational and tumultuous evolution of TWIN PEAKS in four parts: “Northwest Passage: Creating the Pilot,” “Freshly Squeezed: Creating Season One,” “Where We’re From: Creating the Music” and “Into the Night: Creating Season Two.” Co-creator and four-time Academy Award(R) nominee David Lynch, Kyle MacLachlan and Maedchen Amick take an amusing look back at the series in “A Slice of Lynch,” an all-new get-together of friends over piping hot coffee and sweet cherry pie. “Return to Twin Peaks” follows a group of devoted fans to the 2006 Twin Peaks Festival, where the show’s faithful have been regularly gathering for costume contests, celebrity sightings, trivia games and other wildness in the woods outside of Seattle. And an Interactive Map allows viewers to revisit the show’s unforgettable locations as they appear today…and how to find them in real life.

Thought to have been lost forever, a selection of deleted scenes has been unearthed for this collection and approved by David Lynch, offering viewers additional clues and background on some of their favorite characters and locations in the series.

The collection showcases the phenomenon that was TWIN PEAKS with such archival nuggets as the “Saturday Night Live” opening monologue and “Twin Peaks” sketch featuring Kyle MacLachlan, the “Falling” music video featuring Julee Cruise, the Richard Beymer behind-the-scenes photo gallery, original network promo spots and many more rare gems!

Newly remastered from the original negative and personally approved by David Lynch, the episodes have never looked better. Moreover, viewers will have the option of enjoying the episodes in either new 5.1 Surround Sound or the original 2.0 network television audio.

DVD

TWIN PEAKS The Definitive Gold Box Edition is a 10-disc collection presented in full screen with English 5.1 Stereo Surround and English 2.0 Stereo. The DVD is Not Rated in the U.S. and rated 14A in Canada. The total running time is 25 hours, 1 minute. The DVD disc breakdown is as follows:

Disc One: