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Paramount, Lionsgate, Warner Bros. & Sony Pictures movies finally available (legitimately) in DivX

by Richard Lawler posted Aug 26th 2009 at 8:00AM


Over the last few years we've witnessed a slew of DivX Certified devices including HDTVs, DVD & Blu-ray player, set-top boxes, game consoles and even cell phones, but until now, despite several content agreements, in the U.S. there hasn't been any content available in the format from the major studios. That changes today now that online store FilmFresh.com, has signed up Paramount, Lionsgate, Warner Bros. & Sony Pictures to offer new release and archive movies for purchase as DivX formatted downloads. The bad news? For now at least, they'll be standard definition (stereo audio) only. Rick Bolton, CEO of Film Fresh as well as Eric Grab and John Greene of DivX filled us in on the details, and from what we've learned -- if you'll stand for lower res video -- the combination of compatibility and portability could make this download service a competitor against the likes of iTunes, CinemaNow and Zune.

Continue reading Paramount, Lionsgate, Warner Bros. & Sony Pictures movies finally available (legitimately) in DivX

Watchmen Director's Cut movie / PlayStation 3 game Blu-ray combo now available

by Vladislav Savov posted Jul 21st 2009 at 8:24PM


If you have the dominant high-def optical storage format -- which can serve both movies and games with equal aplomb -- built right into your consoles, shouldn't you be leveraging that synergy? Well, the assimilation is now complete, as Watchmen Director's Cut launched today with The End is Night Parts 1 and 2 for PlayStation 3 in tow. The price of admission here is a penny under $50 before tax / shipping -- and considering both parts of the game cost $30 total on their lonesome, that's none too shabby of a deal. It'll be interesting to see what film and tie-in game make the merge next -- anyone up for a Charlie and the Chocolate Factory re-release?

Watchmen 5 disc UCE scheduled for the holidays

by Richard Lawler posted Jul 10th 2009 at 2:53PM


This double dipping is getting out of control. The Watchmen Blu-ray disc hasn't even released in standard and Collector's Edition form, and Warner is already plotting a 5-disc set due for the holidays. As shown in the flier there will be 2+ hours of more bonus content, new commentary track plus the Watchmen Motion Comics packed in, with Tales of the Black Freighter integrated into the director's cut of Watchmen for an even longer movie. Because what Watchmen needed was to be longer.

Watchmen BD-Live director's chat set for Comic-Con

by Richard Lawler posted Jun 25th 2009 at 10:58AM

Beyond its Facebook ties, the Watchmen Blu-ray set will include the opportunity to participate in a BD-Live session with the director while he's live at Comic-Con four days after its release on July 25. Hopefully able to do a better job of creating a live experience for home viewers than our experience with Hellboy II: The Golden Army or The Dark Knight, Video Business reports event attendees can watch the movie and observer director Zack Snyder's responses. Other details revealed during a media presentation yesterday included the Blu-ray cut's Maximum Movie Mode, a session that takes the run time up to three hours so Snyder can step in and explain various behind the scenes details of the movie -- only hardcore fans need apply.

Comcast extending VOD window to two days on Warner, Lionsgate & Disney flicks

by Richard Lawler posted Jun 2nd 2009 at 4:34PM

Looks like the studios are finally beginning to loosen their digital distribution grip, now that Warner Bros. and Lionsgate are allowing Comcast to offer extended two day viewing windows this month, with Disney and Summit productions following next month. That coincides with a slew od day and date with the DVD HD VOD postings including He's Just Not That Into You, Gran Torino, Friday the 13th and more. Check the PR for the full list, any ideas how long it is before we see 48 hour replay windows on other cable providers and movie delivery services?

300: The Complete Experience double dips on Blu-ray July 21

by Richard Lawler posted May 14th 2009 at 11:41PM


It appears Warner has finally gotten around to this double dip, with the (re)release of 300: The Complete Experience. For fans (who will probably be in stores at launch July 21 picking up Zack Snyder's Watchmen: Director's Cut) there should be plenty to make up for the extras left out last time around. Besides the formerly HD DVD-only blue screen picture-in-picture video track, there's three new Blu-ray exclusive PiP features: Creating a Legend, Bringing the legend to Life and The History Behind the Myth. No word on price, but the three disc set will include a digital copy DVD, BD-Live My Community Screening and My WB Commentary support, all the old extras included with previous releases, a Dolby TrueHD soundtrack and 50 page collectible booklet. That enough to get you to buy again?

Gallery: 300: The Complete Experience

Warner uses Facebook to sync up Watchmen BD-Live viewing sessions

by Richard Lawler posted May 12th 2009 at 11:44PM

In July, BD-Live is going beyond the players when Warner Bros. includes a Facebook tie-in on the Watchmen: Director's Cut Blu-ray release. Probably not enough to turn around BD-Live's rep with this crowd, but others may be surprised to find community screening invites wedged between their Mafia Wars invites and status updates. Also exclusive to the Blu-ray is "Maximum Movie Mode" for a split screen view of the action and video commentary from director Zach Snyder, plus Watchmen: Focus Points, Real Super Heroes, Real Vigilantes and Mechanics: Technologies of a Fantastic World extras. Due either July 21, The Hollywood Reporter says we can expect the theatrical version on VOD, Xbox and PlayStation movie stores, while iTunes and Amazon will deliver the Director's Cut without the disc.

Read - Watchmen Gets Heroic on DVD and Blu-ray on July 21st
Read - Warners teams with Facebook for 'Watchmen'

Waiting for HD syndication on your local affiliates? CBS, Warner and Ascent Media can fix that

by Richard Lawler posted May 6th 2009 at 9:31PM

We've seen your complaints about many of the syndicated shows that have switched to HDTV broadcasts lately, wondering why they don't show up like that in your area. The fact is, many local affiliates can't / haven't spent the cash on equipment capable of handling all the syndicated programming out there in HD, but Ascent Media, Warner Bros. and CBS are creating a joint venture to fix that, ensuring their hard work creating all that HD (& HD ads, lets not forget) doesn't go to waste. We spoke to Senior VP of Ascent Media Rich Fickle and he broke down the plan where the joint venture will pay for and distribute the equipment to more than 800 affiliates (Which ones? Expect major network affiliates, top 100 markets and many others with a list out before the service launches) that will allow them to receive one MPEG-4 HDTV formatted copy via satellite -- instead of the dual SD and HD feeds distributed currently -- that can then be downconverted for SD broadcasts at their location as well as broadcast the way they were meant to be seen. The equipment will start shipping out in the coming months but it's likely the service will launch around the beginning of the fourth quarter of this year. Who's ready for some remastered Star Trek: TOS, Jeopardy & Seinfeld?

Warner reintegrates HD DVD faithful with Red2Blu trade-in program

by Richard Lawler posted Apr 22nd 2009 at 10:28AM


U.S. HD DVD fans that passed up Best Buy's offer of $3 per disc, or just those who stocked up on cheap movies after the format gave up the fight have another option coming from Warner Bros. Send in the cover art sleeve (keep the disc) including UPC from your HD DVD case (plus $4.95 per movie and $6.95 / $8.95 per order S&H) and it will send you back a brand new Blu-ray copy. There's a few other restrictions, like 1 copy per movie and 25 different movies per household, but the biggest decision is likely to be whether giving up your precious I Am Legend sleeve is worth the trade, hit up Red2Blu.com for all the details and necessary forms. It seems to us like a decent offer to make HD DVD owners whole, we'd be surprised if Paramount and Universal came through with similar plans.

[Via DVDTown]

Warner Bros. 'Archive' brings obscure films to DVD on-demand

by Darren Murph posted Mar 26th 2009 at 3:21PM


Being the digital aficionados that we are, we still prefer Criterion's Online Cinematheque over this approach, but those not quite ready to give up physical media will absolutely (and understandably) disagree. At any rate, the studio has just fired up its Warner Archive, a nice little web portal where film fanatics can surf over and locate niche titles to be placed on a DVD and shipped out. Most of the flicks are priced at $19.95, but that's still far cheaper than scouring eBay for hours in hopes of finding the original reel, having it converted and then watching it. Head on over to see if there's anything you like, but don't be shocked if you leave a few Benjamins poorer.

Warner Bros. plans to support CBHD, the format war is back on -- at least in China

by Richard Lawler posted Mar 2nd 2009 at 11:31PM


It seems appropriate that after striking the fatal blow in the war between HD DVD and Blu-ray, Warner is the first to break rank and ally itself with the China Blue HD team. Ready to enter the ordinary Chinese consumer's family, according to Managing Director Tony Vaughan, the Harry Potter series, Speed Racer and others will launch for 50-70 yuan ($7.30 - $10.22) per disc. Excuse us while we pick our jaws up from the floor, but with at least one Hollywood studio in pocket and 1999 yuan ($292) players on the way the son of HD DVD looks remarkably closer to a real Blu-ray competitor (and less like the destined for the scrap heap reject we predicted) than ever. With DVD sales shrinking and Blu-ray not quite ready to pick up the slack, how long until another studio decides the Chinese market has enough potential to publish movies on CBHD? [Disclosure: Engadget is part of the Time Warner family]

[Via Format War Central]

Watchmen: The Complete Motion Comic Blu-ray disc includes early movie teaser

by Richard Lawler posted Jan 24th 2009 at 8:28AM

Can't wait to see Watchmen when it comes out March 6? Watchmen: The Complete Motion Comic is set to hit shelves on DVD and Blu-ray three days earlier and will include a sneak peek of the "Prison Break" scene from the motion picture. C'mon, after obsessively reading and re-reading the graphic novel and watching and re-watching every trailer you're going to let a mere $34.99 MSRP keep you from a high quality early preview of the movie? That the Motion Comic is included on the disc is probably just an added bonus to some.

The Dark Knight Blu-ray sells 1.7 million in a week, shows Iron Man a magic trick

by Richard Lawler posted Dec 17th 2008 at 6:46AM Breaking News


Just like it did to the one day Blu-ray sales record, The Dark Knight Blu-ray disc jumped even Warner's projections for its first week, selling 1.7 million copies worldwide, topping Iron Man's 500,000. Apparently undeterred by any claims of issues fans jumped on the release, with DVDs added it moved a total of 13.5 million on both formats. No word yet whether there's still space to chat with director Chris Nolan on the 18th, but Warner's also claiming 300,000 digital copies activated, and the number on spot on iTunes. Not enough celebratory back slapping for you? Check the press release after the break while we try to figure out what movie has a chance of breaking the #1 sales figure next.

Continue reading The Dark Knight Blu-ray sells 1.7 million in a week, shows Iron Man a magic trick

The Dark Knight shatters sales record, moves 600,000 Blu-ray Discs on day one

by Darren Murph posted Dec 11th 2008 at 9:02AM


The numbers are in, and they're big. Just as predicted, Warner Brothers' The Dark Knight was a huge day-one success, with consumers in the US, Canada and UK snapping up three million copies during the first 24 hours (give or take a few) that it was on sale. More germane to our conversation, however, is this 600,000 figure, which tells exactly how many Blu-ray Discs were sold. We already know that around one-sixth of those were moved in the UK, leaving us to determine that North America did some serious shopping. The studio has now projected it to sell one million BDs by Saturday, and curiously enough, current sales have been "especially strong at grocery stores, indicating that the format is broadening beyond early adopters to more mainstream buyers, notably women." Needless to say, this title took down Iron Man's record of moving 250,000 BDs on day one, which just ratchets up the bar for the next big one to take down.

[Thanks, Geoff]

The Dark Knight fan commentary BD-Live feature shown on video

by Darren Murph posted Dec 9th 2008 at 8:50PM


So, you and hundreds of thousands of others picked up your Blu-ray copy of The Dark Knight today, huh? We know you haven't had time to fiddle with the BD-Live extras just yet, but one Joe Lynch from G4 TV has. One of the most intriguing aspects of the flick's interactive feature set is the fan commentary; put simply, users hook up a USB webcam to their player (PS3 included) and then commentate as the film progresses. From there, you can upload your take(s) to the BD-Live servers for others to enjoy. Granted, we aren't too sure how you'll actually find someone bored enough to listen to you jabber on about a film they purchased, but we reckon that's beside the point. Vid's waiting after the break.

Continue reading The Dark Knight fan commentary BD-Live feature shown on video





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