For movie buffs who've been waiting on pins and needles to see their Criterion Blu-ray Disc order status switch from "wait longer, fool" to "shipped," we've got some excellent news. We're beginning to hear individual reports that BDs from Criterion (at least ones that were pre-ordered a few months back) are beginning to ship, and while the company has yet to replace the "Pre-order" badges with "Buy" labels on its website, we suspect that will take place in the near future. Have any of you readers received your discs yet? If not, keep a close eye on that mailbox.

[Thanks, Christopher and Harold]

Remember when high-def discs had to be priced competitively, else the other format would gladly undercut it? Yeah, those were the days. Now that BD is parading around as the lone high-def physical format, the only real competitors are digital downloads, DVDs and internet piracy. All of which are very real threats, by the way. A recent writeup over at The Dallas Morning News brings up an excellent point -- now that Blu-ray player prices are at a reasonable level, when can we expect movies to follow suit? Oh sure, we understand that programming in all that interactivity that eight people care about costs a lot of dough, but seriously, you can't just let admission be next-to-free and then make the rides unattainable. Back in July, we heard that Warner was looking to lower the (pricing) bar this holiday season, but since then, everyone else has been mute. It's about time someone spoke up, no?

[Image courtesy of GamerNode]

Trust us, we too have been looking for a good reason to simply stay put this Black Friday rather than venturing out in an attempt to save $8.43 and contract at least six airborne diseases. Finally, we've found our reason. VUDU has announced on its forums that this Friday, it will sell (read: not just a 24-hour rental) four HDX titles, six HD flicks and a slew of SD movies for $4.99 each. We imagine the motive here is twofold: for starters, it'll generate buzz and probably lead to a few impulse buys; secondly, it could be a litmus test to the real popularity of its minty fresh HDX format. Hit the read link for the admittedly short list, and feel free to register in order to beg for a larger selection prior to Friday.

[Thanks, Rob]

We'll be completely honest -- we had every idea that D-BOX would just fade away into the sunset just a few short months after we initially heard about it. Au Contraire! In just the past week, we've seen the outfit -- which is responsible for a rumbling Motion Code technology that enables you to "feel" the motions of the movie you're watching -- venture into the wide world of gaming and now into Universal's heart. Starting with the December 23-bound Death Race, D-BOX Motion Code will be available on select Universal Studios Home Entertainment Blu-ray Discs, and if we were still placing bets, we'd now say this is probably just the first of many big studio licensing agreements to come.

Aside from producing its own original series, Starz Entertainment is also looking to outsiders to broaden its content offerings. In a recent announcement, the channel discloses that it has just closed a multitude of deals that will net it a "bevy of first run and library titles from Summit, Lionsgate, Hallmark, IFC, the Samuel Goldwyn Co., First Look and Fremantle." Better still, that material can be distributed via a variety of methods including all 16 of its linear channels, Starz HD, Starz On Demand and Starz Play (its broadband video download service). Eager to know what titles these deals will bring? Try 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, By Dawn's Early Light, Call of the Wild, Bye Bye Birdie, Hound of the Baskervilles and Rear Window -- and that's just the tip of the iceberg.

Man, February's gearing up to put a hurtin' on your wallet. Alongside long-awaited titles like Passion of the Christ and Napoleon Dynamite, Fox Home Entertainment is scheduled to drop another duo that should move quite a few units. The cult classic Donnie Darko will finally get the Blu-ray treatment it deserves on 2/10, while the niche comedy Sideways arrives on Blu a week earlier. Details are all but non-existent outside of that, but you can expect MSRPs of $34.95 and $29.99, respectively.

Read - Donnie Darko
Read - Sideways

While most everyone's busy drooling at the thought of checking out HD Netflix streams on November 19th, Blu-ray is peeking its head out for a share of the limelight, too. Hollywood Reporter has it that Blu-ray Disc has hit a rather large milestone today: the all-important 1,000 mark. As of now, over 1,000 high-definition movies have BD written all over it, with 841 on the market currently and 185 scheduled for release. The latest big time announcement for the format is Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment's 70th anniversary platinum edition of Pinocchio, which just notched a March 10, 2009 release date. Huzzah!

You've already seen how Sound & Vision graded the biggest Blu-ray studios, but now we're interested in getting your take. Now that you've had a number of months to check out each studio on a level playing field (read: everyone on team Blu), which studio(s) have impressed you the most? Feel free to include pros / cons from image quality, soundtrack fidelity, extras, BonusView / BD-Live support, etc. Let us know which of the Blu-ray studios has made you smile the most in 2008, and make sure you voice your opinion on which one(s) could stand to improve.

Similar to Walt Disney Studios' Disney Movie Rewards Live program -- which will launch alongside Sleeping Beauty on October 7th -- Sony Pictures is crafting its very own rewards program. The Sony Pictures Blu-ray Club will supposedly encourage purchases of BD-Live-enabled titles by giving owners "points" that they can redeem toward "sweepstakes entries and other added values featured in the existing Sony Rewards program." Obviously, it costs nothing to actually join the loyalty program, and while we can't help but announce this news with our heads pointed decidedly downward, at least Sony gives users the ability to register each new disc via their Blu-ray player should they choose. Launch date? October 7th, with Sandler's You Don't Mess With the Zohan driving the sure to be widespread momentum.

[Via VideoBusiness]

No matter what your current stance on Blu-ray is, one thing everyone can agree on is that the prices for discs have to come down. If you'll give Hollywood the benefit of the doubt for even a second, you can't blame them for starting disc prices high, in attempt to figure out what the market will bare. Luckily it didn't take long before the market leader woke up and realized that $40 for an older catalog title was just too much, as Warner lowered the initial price on many of its older titles to about $20. For whatever reason Fox has been the last to follow suit and if the more recent releases are any indication, even Fox is getting with the program now. The real win for consumers though, is that not only is the retail price of many older titles now $20, but the street price is coming in around $13. If this is any indication of the future of Blu, it combined with players that rival the price of upconverters, could easily carve out a solid market for Blu-ray in the future.

Read - Blu-ray Stats News Log
Read - Format War Central

As more and more music releases head to Blu-ray, we've got one more coming to stores next month. Elton John's The Red Piano collection will hit stores on October 28th and will include a single Blu-ray Disc and two audio-only CDs. The discs will include 14 song performances from the Red Piano show and a documentary about the making of The Red Piano show. Fans can check it shortly for $29.99 (MSRP).

At last count, the Blu-ray camp was holding a marginal 260 to 241 lead in the likely frivolous release race, but those numbers haven't always been that close. Taking a look at Q1 of this year, the gap was noticeably larger, but thanks primarily to Universal Studios releasing 33 HD DVD titles on its own of late, HD DVD seems to be making a comeback. Reportedly, 70 new HD DVD flicks claimed shelf shape from April 1st to June 30th, whereas 63 Blu-ray films were released in the same period. Sure, a gap so diminutive may not mean much when looked at statically, but it's been quite awhile since HD DVD held the momentary crown in terms of releases at all. Still, the latest VideoScan numbers are once again showing Blu-ray sales as the strongest of the two, but all the drastic price cuts in the rival camp could potentially alter that in the coming months.

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.

Considering Blockbuster is already trialing HD DVD and Blu-ray rentals in brick-and-mortar locations, Netflix's full backing of the formats, and the record-setting performance of Paramount's M:I III, we'd say that opening up a bit more shelf space for next-gen flicks is a fairly intelligent business move. The Video Buyers Group's 1,700 members will launch HD DVD and Blu-ray sections this month in anticipation of holiday sales, and numerous Targets are going out of their way to not only provide easier access to next-gen store displays, but to educate consumers on the technology behind the buzz as well. Reportedly, the bullseye-clad stores will boast "signage highlighting key differences between the formats," including clear alerts that signify what hardware is necessary to play back the snazzy HD discs. So when perusing the (presumably crowded) aisles this holiday season for those must-have titles, don't be alarmed to see next-generation setups placed front and center in the electronics department -- well, behind the Wii and Playstation 3 goods, of course.

In advance of their press conference tomorrow at the IFA in Berlin, the Blu-ray Disc Association was showing off their wares in Japan. They're promising 75 Blu-ray titles by year end, a few dual layer 50GB discs, the debut of h.264, you know the drill. Interestingly, the Japanese will be getting Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl this year while Disney's Buena Vista leaves the US with Paul Walker. They had a real Playstation 3 in attendance playing back high bit-rate encoded Blu-ray discs, although all we've seen is pics of the very PS2-reminiscent menu. Also on hand were other companies releasing Blu-ray products soon, mostly showing the same preview units we've seen since CES. Basically the theme was all is well, Blu-ray is on track, PS3, dual-layer and BD-J are coming, stay the course.

Read - PS3 BD-ROM Playback Demonstration - Impress
Read - Blu-ray camp to offer 75 software titles in Japan - Reuters
Read - Blu-ray disc simultaneous announcement - Impress