The Dark Knight Blu-ray Disc review roundup

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We've seen various slates of HD DVD / Blu-ray titles come out today, and heading up the rear of the release lists is none other than Lionsgate. While a Lionsgate film (The Descent) has caused quite a bit of fuss lately, the studio is hoping to create some positive PR noise by announcing that 40 BD titles should be hitting shelves with its name on it during this year, starting with Crank. It also highlighted the Golden Globe-winning TV series Weeds would be making its way to Blu-ray disc, as well as Ultimate Avengers I and II on the animation side. If you're anxious to get a few more Lionsgate productions in your collection, Employee of the Month is landing on January 16th, while the sure-to-be-successful Saw III hits on the 23rd. Overall, Lionsgate's 2007 list is far from spectacular, but it's got a bit of everything mixed in, including one of our personal favorites: Reservoir Dogs on February 6th. Click on through to see the first 21 titles to be released from Lionsgate on Blu-ray disc this year.
A lot of the criticism leveled at early Blu-ray releases cited their use of the MPEG-2 video codec for compression on 25GB single-layer discs. According to Home Theater Spot, a Warner rep confirmed to them that Lethal Weapon, Blazing Saddles and Firewall will all be encoded with the Microsoft codec. Full Metal Jacket however will still ship as MPEG-2. With fixed Samsung BD-P1000 players and properly next-gen encoded titles, perhaps Blu-ray can stand up to HD DVD and show why it is worth the investment. No word on any new extras to take advantage of all that extra space however, we guess we'll just take one order of increased video quality at lower bitrates to go, thank you.
After being rather unceremoniously dropped with no release date in sight, Paramount's HD DVD lineup is now back on track with the first four movies due July 25th. Those movies will be Sahara, Tomb Raider, Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow and Tim Burton's Sleepy Hollow. A week later on August 1, Four Brothers, We Were Soldiers and The Manchurian Candidate follow, with U2: Rattle and Hum, Aeon Flux and The Italian Job rounding things out on the 10th. No word on any special features for any of the movies yet, although they will all carry an MSRP of $29.95. The only movies included in their High Definition Series yet to get a release date are the Mission: Impossible trilogy, hopefully girding for a day-and-date release with M:i:III later this year. The high-def trailers looked great on Apple.com, Super Bowl commercials and Xbox Live.Syriana, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang and Lethal Weapon have been added to the slate of HD DVD titles scheduled as Blu-ray's debut continues to draw closer. With Samsung's BD-P1000 slated for June 25 and the first Blu-ray titles hitting shelves on the 20th, the high definition DVD format war will soon become a reality.
Syriana is a day-and-date release with the DVD edition on June 20, carries an SRP of $34.99, and will contain two featurettes exclusive to the HD DVD version. Also released the same day is Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, the fourth combination HD DVD/DVD disc released and having an SRP of $39.99. Lethal Weapon will follow on June 27 with an SRP of $34.99. The latter two movies will have the same bonus features as the standard-def DVD editions.
Well, Blu-ray is done, which I'd hope it would be, what
with them announcing players and content and all. If you're interested in licensing the Blu-ray technology you can get
in touch with your local Blu-ray licensing
agent and execute the secret handshake licensing agreement. 







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