-
'After.Life' Blu-ray Dated & Detailed[teaser]Dearly beloved, we are gathered here today to acknowledge the passing of this independent thriller on Blu-ray this summer. [/teaser] Starz/Anchor Bay Entertainment has just announced 'After.Life' to Blu-ray on August 3. The film stars Liam Neeson as a sinister funeral home director whose just been stiffed by a car accident victim (Christina Ricci). The Blu-ray release will be embalmed in 1080p video, a PCM 5.1 soundtrack, and supplements will include: Audio Commentary with Co-Writer/Director Agnieszka Wojtowicz-Vosloo, Delving Into The After.Life: The Art of Making a Thriller, and a Theatrical Trailer. Suggested list price for the Blu-ray is $34.98. You can find the latest specs for 'After.Life' linked from our Blu-ray Release Schedule, where it's indexed under August 3.Posted Tue Jun 1, 2010 at 12:30 PM PDT by: -
'Kalifornia' Dated for Blu-ray[teaser]Welcome to the Hotel Kalifornia serial killer-style on high-definition this August! [/teaser] In an early announcement to retailers, MGM/UA has announced 'Kalifornia' starring Brad Pitt, Juliette Lewis, David Duchovny, and Michelle Forbes is coming to Blu-ray on August 3. In this psychological thriller, two writers traveling cross country researching murderers find themselves a little too close for comfort with the subject matter for their next book. Specs and details have yet to be revealed, but the release will be a Blu-ray/DVD combo pack and suggested list price is $24.99. You can find the latest specs for 'Kalifornia' linked from our Blu-ray Release Schedule, where it's indexed under August 3.Posted Tue Jun 1, 2010 at 11:30 AM PDT by: -
'King Kong (1933)' Dated for Blu-ray[teaser]The black and white epic classic is being restored for a Blu-ray digibook release this September. [/teaser] Warner Brothers has confirmed 'King Kong (1933)' starring Fay Wray, Robert Armstrong, and Bruce Cabot is coming to Blu-ray on September 28. In this very special Blu-ray release, the newly remastered film is presented in its 1933 entirety and includes scenes that were originally considered too shocking for the 1938-1956 re-releases. With equal parts adventure, horror, and old-fashioned romance, King Kong is a milestone of movie-making that has endured for more than seven decades. Named as one of the “100 Best Films of All Time” by Time Magazine, King Kong premiered in New York City in 1933. The film was an instant success, breaking box-office records to become one of the top moneymakers of the 1930s. King Kong’s state-of-the-art visual effects, entertaining story and touching conclusion captivated audiences and started a worldwide love affair with the giant ape. The film has also been included in seven of the American Film Institute’s Top 100 lists, including the “100 Years...100 Movies” list. Specs have yet to be revealed, but the release will be a 32-page digibook and supplements will include: Commentary by creature creator Ray Harryhausen and visual effects artist Ken Ralston, with archival sound bites from Merian C. Cooper and Fay Wray; I'm Kong: The Exploits of Merian C. Cooper (2005 TCM documentary); The Making of Kong, Eighth Wonder of the World (7-part documentary); and Trailers. Suggested list price for the Blu-ray is $34.99. You can find the latest specs for 'King Kong (1933)' linked from our Blu-ray Release Schedule, where it's indexed under September 28.Posted Tue Jun 1, 2010 at 10:30 AM PDT by: -
Save $10 on 'Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland' Blu-ray[teaser]Save $10 off Disney's latest hit on Blu-ray! [/teaser] Here's another coupon offer to save $10 on the 'Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland' Blu-ray. Click this link to access to the page where you can print out your coupon valid at participating retail stores. Printable coupons are available for both the U.S. and Canada, and the promotion expires on June 8.Posted Tue Jun 1, 2010 at 08:30 AM PDT by: -
'Lost: Season 6' and 'Lost: The Complete Collection' Blu-ray Detailed[teaser]TV's global phenomenon comes to an end on Blu-ray with a bang this August. Check out the details! [/teaser] As previously reported, Disney/Buena Vista is planning to bring 'Lost: The Complete Sixth and Final Season' and 'Lost: The Complete Collection' to Blu-ray on August 24. The 5-disc Final Season will feature 1080p video, a lossless/uncompressed soundtrack, and supplements will include: • Bloopers and Deleted Scenes. • Audio Commentaries accompany four episodes (LA X, Dr. Linus, Ab Aeterno and Across The Sea). • The End: Crafting A Final Season – Join the LOST team along with other producers of some of television’s longest running shows as they examine the challenges of ending a landmark series. • A Hero’s Journey – What makes a hero? Which survivors of Oceanic 815 are true heroes? These questions and more are explored. • See You In Another Life, Brotha – Unlocks the mysteries of this season’s intriguing flash sideways. •‘LOST on Location’ – Behind-the-scenes featurette showcasing stories from the set, including all-new interviews with actors and crew. • PLUS: A LOST Blu-ray & DVD exclusive - Go deeper into the world of LOST with a much-anticipated new chapter of the island's story from Executive Producers Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse. The 36-disc Complete Collection will include all six seasons as well as an exclusive bonus disc with at least 2 hours of additional bonus content. Complete details are as follows: • Over 30hrs of Season 1-6 Bonus materials (previously released materials from Season 1-5 and the all-new Season 6 bonus material). • A unique series of featurettes that takes viewers on very personal tours of Oahu where the series was created, with key cast and crew as they reflect. • Exploring the global phenomenon that is Lost, bonus showcases events ranging from the series cast and crew at San Diego’s famed Comic-Con convention to international voice recordings, local events and even fan parties, all of which helped make the show into a worldwide favorite. • A closer look at some of the props with cast, writers and producers, exploring their significance, stories and emotional ties to the characters. • Humorous yet emotional look at every character who died on the series. • 16 hilarious Lost “Slapdowns” featurettes showcasing celebrity Lost fans who confront Executive Producers Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse to ask press questions about the final season, including the Muppets and cast members Nestor Carbonell, Michael Emerson, Rebecca Mader and more. The exciting collectible packaging also includes: a Special Edition collectible ‘Senet’ Game as seen in Season Six, a custom LOST island replica, an exclusive episode guide, a collectible Ankh, and a black light penlight. Suggested list price for the individual season is $79.99, while the box set is $279.99. You can find the latest specs for 'Lost: The Complete Sixth and Final Season' and 'Lost: The Complete Collection' linked from our Blu-ray Release Schedule, where they are indexed under August 24.Posted Tue Jun 1, 2010 at 07:25 AM PDT by: -
Gone in 60 HD AdvisorsEditor's Note: Each Friday, High-Def Digest's own HD Advisor will answer a new round of questions from our readers. If you have home theater questions you need answered, send an email to [email protected]. If you've already sent a question and don't see it answered yet, please be patient as we work our way through them. To browse through previously answered questions, visit the main HD Advisor page. Answers by Joshua Zyber 1080i Scaled to 1080p Q: Everybody agrees that a movie displayed in 1080p resolution is better looking than 1080i. But I am still confused about one thing: a 1080p screen will uspcale a 1080i signal to 1080p anyway, should we bother with the player output resolution? My understanding is that the 1080p TV combined the even and odd lines of the 1080i signal to display a 1080p image, which means that any 1080p screen will not care about either input resolutions. For example, a Blu-ray player can be set to output its video signal in 1080i or 1080p, so if the screen is 1080p, no real difference will exist at either setting, right? Let's assume here that the upscaler in the Blu-ray player is of similar quality to the TV's. In the same line of thought, my Toshiba A3 HD DVD player outputs its signal in 1080i as reported by my LCD TV (a 1080p), but the picture is upscaled to 1080p by the TV. So am I right/wrong/lost? A: You're correct that a 1080p HDTV will display all content at 1080p resolution. If you feed it an input signal other than 1080p, it will scale the video to its native resolution. In the case of a 1080i signal, that video will be deinterlaced to form a progressive scan image. However, if your HDTV will accept a 1080p input signal, I would recommend setting your Blu-ray player for that resolution. Especially if the TV will accept a 1080p signal at the 24 fps frame rate. For more information on this, see my What's the Big Deal About 1080p24? article. You will not be able to take advantage of 24 fps playback with a 1080i signal. Most Blu-ray movies are natively encoded at 1080p24 resolution on disc. It's generally best to output a "native" signal to a TV of the same resolution, with as few processing steps in between as necessary. If you set your Blu-ray player to 1080i output, the player will break each of the original 1920x1080 pixel frames apart into separate 1920x540 interlaced fields, then apply 3:2 Pulldown to modify the frame rate to 60 Hz before transmission. On the receiving end, the TV will have to deinterlace these fields to reconstruct the original frames. Although, theoretically, this shouldn't be too difficult a process, there's little point in adding extra and unnecessary processing steps to your signal chain. Doing so runs the risk of errors at some point along the way. Downmixing Lossless Audio to Stereo Q: My Samsung BD-P1600 is capable of decoding Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio. I do not have a multi-channel audio receiver (yet, and in no hurry to get one). However, can the player downmix to stereo these audio codecs and output them via stereo analog or HDMI? I am inclined to say yes, because I have compared the lossless tracks to the standard Dolby Digital track ,and the lossless tracks sound richer. Am I right? Or is this simply a placebo effect? A: I can't speak for how the BD-P1600 specifically does things, but if a Blu-ray player has the ability to decode Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio internally, it should be able to downmix these tracks to stereo without losing the lossless nature of the signal (as far as data compression goes). The player will collapse the 5.1 original channels to 2, but should not apply additional lossy compression. In a worst case scenario, a player might default to decoding only the DTS "core" or DD 5.1 backup track if you've set it to 2-channel output. That would be a very poor design, however. I'm of the impression that a player with the proper hardware will decode the full lossless track first before downmixing. Resolution of CRT HDTVs Q: My parents have one of the last 30" Toshiba CRT HDTVs manufactured with DVI. When my dad watches a Blu-ray film on the set, he claims it doesn't look much better than an upconverted DVD. At first I thought it was his eyesight, but after watching a few Blu-rays on his television and then watching them on my 1080p LCD set, I can see that he's right. I read somewhere that CRT HDTVs were incapable of outputting a true 720p/1080i picture and used a technique called bobbing and weaving to produce a faux 1080i image. When watching a Blu-ray, the max resolution would be 540p (or some odd number). Have you heard of this before and is it possible that if I upgrade my parents set to a 1080p set that they will see a marked improvement when viewing Blu-ray films? A: Most CRT HDTVs were 720p or 1080i models, but most (especially tube sets in that size range) were incapable of resolving detail on screen that actually approached those numbers. This was a combination of poor video processing (the "bobbing and weaving" you refer to) and limitations in the raster as to how much detail could make it through onto the screen. Generally speaking, 540p is probably a close estimate for what you'd actually see on such a television. As you note, that's not much better than DVD quality. A modern 1080p digital set is able to produce a much more detailed picture than those CRT models. Perhaps dramatically so. Whether your parents will notice or be able to tell the difference is another matter, of course. But technically, the new sets will be better in this regard. This question ties in nicely with one from two weeks ago about how the black levels of digital HDTVs compare with old CRT sets. I'll refer you back to that article as well, because it's worth noting that digital sets do have some tradeoffs. In any case, if your parents were to upgrade their TV now, they could buy a larger model that weighs much less, takes up less space, and is easier to install than their old set. I have a feeling that they'd find some benefit in that, if nothing else. Reader Feedback In last week's column, I solicited some expert advice to help explain why most movie soundtracks are mixed with bass in the main speaker channels rather than directed exclusively toward the LFE channel. To provide some additional background and clarification, reader Chase offers the following further details. Large vs. Small Speakers Revisited Feedback: In addition to the LF output aspect you covered, one of the primary reasons for using a subwoofer crossover system at home is to control the LF resonances that dominate bass response in small rooms. It is much easier to place one or (preferably) more subwoofers for smooth bass across the listening area as opposed to 5 or 7 large speakers. Some experts contend that electronically summing LF from all channels to mono like this has a negative impact on the spatial character of LF (i.e. bass is stereo), but I would characterize that as a minority view (not saying it's right or wrong). It can also have some unintended side effects, most notably too much bass. The acoustic summing of 5 or 7 large speakers plus the subwoofer in a room is not as perfect, so the effect is less. Also, if there happen to be phase discrepancies between channels (most common between mains and LFE), then electronically summing them can actually cancel bass out! Overall, subwoofer crossovers are still preferred because of the huge benefits of resonance control and flexibility in the placement of smaller main speakers. It's not a perfect world, though. On the production side, it's important to note that, while many of the main monitors and cinema speakers used to mix movie and music programs are physically large and powerful, they still do not reach to the lowest octaves with much punch. Look at the specs for big 2- and 3-way cinema speakers, and you'll find that LF cutoffs between 35-45 Hz are common. These boxes are also usually vented, which means the response dives quickly after the cutoff. (Even more interesting, you'll find a similar occurrence with cinema subwoofers!) In the studio, it's not uncommon for a surround mix to be performed on monitors with limited frequency response (like nearfields) and a subwoofer monitoring only LFE. As a result, mix engineers sometimes artificially boost the low end in their mixes to compensate for speaker roll-off. This works just fine in the cinema world where the speakers in movie houses work just like the dubbing stages, but when you take those mixes home to systems that will play 20-35 Hz, you get more bass than the mixer intended. This is exacerbated by home systems employing subwoofers crossovers, because they play lower louder. Fortunately, studios are getting wise to this and checking mixes on systems with subwoofer crossovers prior to minting the home release. Another note on the production side…some cinemas do not have subwoofers, so it is inappropriate to route all LF content to LFE. I think there is greater awareness of the whole bass management issue now vs. a few years ago. However, as far as I know, the production side of things still favors "large" speakers with no crossover and subwoofer for LFE only. Lucky dogs. They don't have to contend with resonances. Oh...forgot to mention one thing on the why-don't-mixers-use-just-LFE topic. It's theoretically possible that mixing all the bass in a soundtrack to LFE would overmodulate (clip) the LFE channel. I don't remember the exact numbers -- it may be that all channels full scale would be 121dB, or 6dB higher than LFE can handle. In fact, the LFE channel was originally created to prevent a similar problem from occurring with the main channels: overmodulation from extreme LF demands. You can't just turn the mix level down to allow more LF to be mixed in, because the track has to play at reference. P.S. Automatic speaker setup systems are often wrong about the small/large size of a speaker and the appropriate crossover frequency. To be used as a guideline only. Check back soon for another round of answers. Keep those questions coming. Joshua Zyber's opinions are his own and do not necessarily reflect those of this site, its owners or employees.Posted Fri May 28, 2010 at 09:55 AM PDT by: -
'Star Wars: The Clone Wars - The Complete Season Two' Announced for Blu-ray[teaser]The second season of the hit Cartoon Network animated series is headed to high-definition this fall.[/teaser] Warner Brothers (and LucasFilm) will be bringing all 22 episodes of 'Star Wars: The Clone Wars - The Complete Season Two' to Blu-ray on October 26. Specs haven't been confirmed yet, but the release will likely mirror Season One as a three disc set with 1080p video and Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtracks. Supplements will include: Attack of the Zillo Beast; Magic of the Holocron; Return To Geonosis; Creating Mandalore; Audio commentaries; and a 64-page Production Journal with concept designs, original sketches and notes from Supervising Director Dave Filoni. Exclusive to the Blu-ray is The Jedi Temple Archives - an extensive database exploring test footage, early concept art, 3-D character and object turnarounds and early animation. Suggested list price for the Blu-ray is $59.99. You can find the latest specs for 'Star Wars: The Clone Wars - The Complete Season Two' linked from our Blu-ray Release Schedule, where it's indexed under October 26.Posted Fri May 28, 2010 at 09:00 AM PDT by: -
'Blood Simple' Dated for Blu-ray[teaser]A retro thriller from the Coen Brothers is slated for Blu-ray release this August. [/teaser] In an early announcement to retailers, MGM/UA has announced 'Blood Simple' starring John Getz, Frances McDormand, and Dan Hedaya is coming to Blu-ray on August 3. This noir tale of small town double-cross and murder was directed by Joel Coen and has been called "fiendishly clever" by Roger Ebert. Specs and details have yet to be revealed, but the release will be a Blu-ray/DVD combo pack and suggested list price is $24.99. You can find the latest specs for 'Blood Simple' linked from our Blu-ray Release Schedule, where it's indexed under August 3.Posted Fri May 28, 2010 at 07:00 AM PDT by: -
'Sons of Anarchy: Season Two' Announced for Blu-ray[teaser]The second season of the gritty FX biker drama from series creator Kurt Sutter ('The Shield') will be charming up high-definition this August. [/teaser] 20th Century Fox is prepping 'Sons of Anarchy: Season Two' starring Ron Perlman, Katey Sagal, and Charlie Hunnam for a Blu-ray bow on August 31. Drawing an average of 4.5 million viewers per week, “Sons Of Anarchy” saw a 72% increase in viewership from season one to season two. In the volatile second season, internal alliances are formed, relationships within SAMCRO are strained and the leader of a white separatist League of American Nations (LOAN) moves in to gain a foothold in the Northern California heroin trade. Undermining SAMCRO within the community, LOAN attempts to drive the club to self-destruction. The 3-disc set will contain all 13 episodes with 1080p video, a DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack, and supplements will include: deleted scenes, gag reel, The Moral Code of Sons of Anarchy, A Night Out with the Crew at Happy Endings Bar, Sons of Anarchy Happy Ending Roundtable, John the Revelator Music Video, and commentaries on select episodes. Suggested list price for the Blu-ray set is $69.99. You can find the latest specs for 'Sons of Anarchy: Season Two' linked from our Blu-ray Release Schedule, where it's indexed under August 31.Posted Thu May 27, 2010 at 03:55 PM PDT by: -
'Escape from New York' Announced for Blu-ray[teaser]Snake Plissken finally heads to the big apple on high-definition this August![/teaser] In an early announcement to retailers, MGM/UA has revealed John Carpenter's 'Escape from New York' starring Kurt Russell is coming to Blu-ray on August 3. Specs and details have yet to be revealed, but the release will be a Blu-ray/DVD combo pack and suggested list price is $24.99. Snake's second citywide escape over on the West Coast is already available on Blu-ray and you can read Michael S. Palmer's review of 'Escape from L.A.' here! You can find the latest specs for 'Escape from New York' linked from our Blu-ray Release Schedule, where it's indexed under August 3.Posted Thu May 27, 2010 at 12:00 PM PDT by:
