Check it, Blu-ray fans. That totally believable rumor about Transformers finally fitting into a BD sleeve was indeed accurate, and now we're starting to see the nitty-gritty details about what we can expect come September 2nd. For starters, the Blu-ray edition will feature a 5.1 Dolby TrueHD track as well as a 5.1 PCM uncompressed track to complement the obligatory 1080p transfer. We're also told to expect a trailer for the BD release of Iron Man, BD-Live content and a lengthy list of supplemental material -- all of which is expected to be in beautiful high-def. Tap the read link for the full list of extras, and start saving that $39.99 (or so) right now.

[Thanks, Wii60Warrior]

The day Michael Bay and fans of Blu-ray and big robots have all been waiting for is September 2, according to advanced, inside information obtained by TVShowsonDVD.com. Last year's HD DVD blockbuster Transformers is finally coming to Blu-ray after last fall's exclusivity agreement fell by the wayside, in a 2-disc release described as "similar" to the previous version. Hopefully that means all HDi and internet connectivity features intact, with new bits added courtesy of 50GBs of storage space and BD-Live. We expect there should be, and with a majority of Blu-ray owners using PlayStation 3s, they may even surpass the HD DVD edition's 30% internet-connected rate.

[Via Seibertron.com]

Michael Bay can breathe easy, Paramount (Dreamworks included) has officially gone Blu-ray. Two and a half years after announcing itself purple, and exactly five months after becoming HD DVD exclusive, this move makes all six major Hollywood studios Blu. Don't make space for that Blu edition of Transformers in your DVD rack just yet, as the company plans to "monitor consumer adoption and determine our release plans accordingly", but with PS3 sales up and BD Live on the way, we can't imagine it will take very long. The Hollywood Reporter expects to see Universal and Paramount new releases hitting Blu-ray and DVD at the same time by late spring or early summer, when we can forget this whole thing ever happened -- unless of course you picked up an HD DVD player for Shrek, in which case we have a few ideas on what to do next.

[Thanks to Robert and everyone who sent this in]

It's hard to believe it's actually over, but for more than two years we've followed what has come to be one of our favorite topics as Blu has faced Red in a battle to be the next physical home media format. In the end it came down to studio and consumer electronic industry support -- not to mention the PS3 -- but it was by no means an easy victory, and just because it was more popular than HD DVD, doesn't mean Blu-ray can win over the hearts of millions of DVD fans. But while we wait to see how well Blu-ray is adopted by the masses, we wanted to take a second to look back at how it all ended up working out.

We'll start this story way back in the Summer of '05 where the talks to create a unified format broke down: this is the moment most of us realized we were in for some fun. Sure, this thing got started way before that, but we have to start somewhere and this is when it really began to get interesting. As HD DVD approached the BDA to join forces and demanded too many changes to the Blu-ray disc format, the BDA told them to pound sand.

Per usual, we'd recommend not getting too riled up over this until it's proven definitively true or false, but considering that pallbearers actually hoisted up HD DVD's casket already this morning, maybe there's not too much sense in doubting. Nevertheless, an eagle-eyed Circuit City employee has apparently located Transformers in its internal database completely doused in Blu. You heard right -- a Blu-ray 2-disc edition of the Michael Bay flick is reportedly showing up with a UPC code different than the HD DVD version. 'Course, this really isn't quite as surprising today as it would've been yesterday -- you know, considering that BD and HD VMD are really the only options left for studios to run to -- but feel free to make of it what you will.

[Thanks luvincharity and Kyle]

The HD DVD camp can still tout online connectivity as a feature Blu-ray doesn't have yet, and now they've released numbers on how many people are actually using it. According to the HD DVD Promotional Group, Universal's web-enabled discs averaged 30% of owners going online, while Transformers notched 80,000 unique online viewers with 30% logging on again to download additional content later. HD DVD-exclusive studios Paramount and Universal seem encouraged enough by the numbers that we can expect the content to continue to flow, but we've got to wonder if the added features will translate into increased sales.

You'd think that Michael BDA Bay might be happy with his record-breaking HD DVD release of Transformers, but he re-voiced his preference for the blue camp in a recent interview. Granted, his movie probably would have been wildly successful on either HD format, but it seems like either he's got a bit of "gift horse"/"mouth" or he's come down from the kool-aid. Talking about the format war, he said "It's short-sighted and it has delayed consumers' moving to HD (home video). As a director, my critical eye is that Blu-ray is where my money is." We totally agree with him on the format war being a real mess, but if he really wants to get feedback on which format consumers prefer, shouldn't he be pushing for a dual-format release?

Paramount couldn't wait for the Nielsen numbers to announce that Transformers has become the best selling day one and week one HD title on Blu-ray or HD DVD. Blu-ray or HD DVD is important, because it appears even its 190,000 HD DVDs sold in the first week is still behind 300's week one mark of 250k combined. Still, over 100,000 of those sold on the first day and definitely make this the biggest exclusive release since Sony's Casino Royale broke the 100k copies shipped barrier back in March. Two things appear to be confirmed, that the lack of lossless audio wasn't that big of a deal to many buyers, and that HD sales are still miniscule when compared to the 8.3 million Transformer DVDs that sold in the first week.

[Thanks, domerdel]

Transformers was one of this year's biggest blockbusters at the theater, and now its one of HD DVD's biggest weapons in the format war. With exclusive features and online connectivity, the HD DVD camp expects this disc to show why Paramount chose them, and consumers will too. The biggest part of any HD release is the picture quality, and all the reviews we've found have high praise for the 1080p MPEG-4 AVC transfer. While HighDefDigest noticed some jaggies during horizontal pans, there were no other faults to be found, impressive considering the high speed action in the film. An unfortunate casualty of all the extras on this two disc set was a high-res audio track -- a strike against HD DVD's 30GB capacity -- although the Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround mix that is present got the all-important "reference material" nod from several outlets. Paramount's much-ballyhooed special features include the opportunity to check out the CGI models in HD, all of the DVD extras in HD, and online options to download special widgets that play along with the movie or check out continually updated IMDB-style guides about the movie and its makers. Perfect its not, but reviewers seem to agree, this is a huge step forward for the format...will it be enough to keep Michael Bay happy?

Read - DVD Talk
Read - Home Theater Forum Review
Read - High-Def Digest

Ha, so much for standing up to the boss-man. Michael's latest post now says that, "I drank the Kool Aid" blah blah blah "so I think I might be back on to do Transformers 2!" Whatever, wuss.

So by now you've heard that Paramount has dropped support for Blu-ray right? Good, so has a notable Hollywood director. Michael Bay -- the man behind "Transformers," "Bad Boys," "Pear Harbor," etc. -- just threw down with Paramount in his personal blog. In a forum post titled "Paramount pisses me off!", he states, "I want people to see my movies in the best formats possible. For them to deny people who have Blu-ray sucks! They were progressive by having two formats. No Transformers 2 for me!" That's right Mike, aim your PS3 right at their coffers!

Update: Ha, so much for standing up to the boss-man. Michael's latest post now says that, "I drank the Kool Aid" blah blah blah "so I think I might be back on to do Transformers 2!" Whatever, wuss.

[Thanks, Pilam69 and Carl G.]