Sony Schedules 7 More Blu-ray Movie Titles

Mathew Everett 15 Jun, 2006 at 1:57pm ET Article published in Tech

Sony is quickly trying to catch-up to HD DVD by releasing a slew of movies for its new Blu-Ray player. While Sony will have its first wave of movies out by June, their Blu-ray player will not hit shelves until August. Unless you’re able to get your hands on one of Samsungs new Drive slated from June 25th. You will get to look at a handful of pretty new disks.

One 20 June, the company will be launching the first wave of titles, including 50 First Dates, The Fifth Element, Hitch, House of Flying Daggers, XXX, The Terminator and Underworld Evolution. Within the first month after launch, there will be seven more titles, bringing the total portfolio to 14: The thriller Ultraviolet will be available on 27 June; 11 July will bring Basic Instinct 2: Risk Addiction and on July 25 SPHE will launch Stealth, Species, SWAT, Benchwarmers, The Last Waltz and A Knight’s Tale.

Source: TG Daily

Comments

15 Jun 2006 ~ 2:40pm Enverex Possibly a stupid question, but how much better will these titles look on "Blu-Ray" than on normal DVD? I mean I can see new things being a higher resolution but, how much more can they increase quite old titles like 'The Terminator'?
15 Jun 2006 ~ 3:45pm Sledgehammer70 They will be in HD, allowing everything to be crisp. IMO HD from regular TV is like night and day. That is the whole point of HD DVD and Blu-ray, to provide HD quality movies.
15 Jun 2006 ~ 3:47pm Enverex I know that's the 'concept' but there's a limit to what something can me. I mean, it's like "digitally remastering" music. You can't make it better than it was originally. I wouldn't have thought that 'The Terminator' was originally made in such high quality.
15 Jun 2006 ~ 4:15pm Thrax Maybe it was, maybe it wasn't, but I think today's remastering techniques are profound. Case in point, the new Star Wars releases look and sound like they were recorded on digital masters in the last three years. Regardless of your affinity for the films, the technical expertise demonstrated in their restorations boggle the mind.

Hell, even here at home I can upsample a 720p video to 1080p and make it look as good or better than the original. Of course, it renders at 3 frames per second, and takes a week to encode, but the point is, even I can do it.
15 Jun 2006 ~ 4:21pm Sledgehammer70 The quality is the difference. We as human or even Man always want more and make that more better... this is what HD is doing, allowing us to see things better, crisper and all out better... to me it is worth the cost for the most part. maybe not a $1000 Blu-ray player but a $499 - $599 PS3 will do. Since my TV is HD ready with 1080i support I figure I'll wait until the new Pirates of the Caribbean comes out on Blu-ray and it will be my first purchase into the new tech. By than I bet prices will start to drop as Blu-ray players flood the market.
15 Jun 2006 ~ 4:37pm airbornflght To bad it is only 1080i, interlaced scanning doesnt provide all the detail. because it lights up half the lines, then the other half in another scan. so it takes two scans to put refresh all the lines, versus one scan to refresh all the lines on a progressive scanning tv.

but yes, there is a major difference between hd and even sd (720i/p) not to mention reg tv. do this if you have a chance. watch a true hd movie, and then prompty put in an old vhs tape or even just watch plain old cable, trust me, there is a huge difference. it is like going from 1280x1024 to 800x600.
18 Jun 2006 ~ 5:37pm drasnor

Enverex wrote:

I know that's the 'concept' but there's a limit to what something can me. I mean, it's like "digitally remastering" music. You can't make it better than it was originally. I wouldn't have thought that 'The Terminator' was originally made in such high quality.

If you haven't already, go rent the DVD release of Wizard of Oz. The original was shot in straight Technicolor with each frame of video being shot on three pieces of film (one for each color). In the old days, the red, blue, and green frames were lined up by hand and age took its toll on the film. The remasters were scanned from the original negatives, digitally aligned, and noise reduction techniques employed. One of the nice bits about having the same scene captured on three sets of film is that degradation on one set can be repaired by inferring detail from the other sets. The end result is probably the best I've ever seen, especially in light of it being such an old movie.

I'm pretty sure the same techniques apply regardless of the resolution.

-drasnor