Josh-da-man

Yeah, that has been historically true, but blu-ray has only seen modest success and home video has been on the decline for years. I don't know if the old rules still apply. I think that if they want 4K/UHD blu-ray to succeed, then they're going to need to hit the ground running with A-list material.

The best bet would a combination of 'demo' material (Transformers, Mad Max Fury Road, etc.) to appeal to the early adopters and a-list classics (2001 A Space Odyssey, Blade Runner, Apocalypse Now, Godfather, etc.) to appeal to the film geeks.

Josh-da-man

I believe Avatar was filmed in 1080p, so the blu-ray is as good as it's ever going to look. 4K wouldn't benefit it much, if at all.

davidlynchfan

It would for me though since I did not own the BD for years.

milo bloom

Get out of here with your suggestions that actually make sense! Seriously, why not some of both? The studio could always re-release the "classics" later with new packaging or add-in toys to sell to the expanded install base.

hanshotfirst1138

Where'd it get a BD release?

I've reached a point where I'm rapidly accepting that ever seeing The Abyss or True Lies on BD is a pipe dream. I have the Vudu version of TL, which looks pretty good, and I guess we're not going to get anything for TA.

Adam Tyner

Kinowelt put it out in Germany.

bunkaroo

I just discovered there's a 20th Anniversary edition released by Koch last year in Germany and it's apparently got better PQ. I've got it inbound now - we shall see. Once I compare it to the Kinowelt I'll likely have one of them for sale.

DVD Polizei

Well, that sucks ass. Maybe Everest. It's interesting such an "amazing" format is being released and we're scrambling to find titles to fit in that category? So, is this gonna be another catch-up format like Blu-ray, where we all have to wait years for studios to get their fucking asses in gear...when they were the ones pushing a new format in the first place.

Oh yeah. Consumers are certainly ready for a new format.

FoxConnect has 11 4K titles on their website. And the titles aren't necessarily 4K worthy. But they have both Maze Trials in 4K.

popegregFKAgoblin23

Strange Days rules! Guessing this is not Region Free?

Why So Blu?

This I did not know. May have to spring for it. I'll wait until I read/hear how good it is in comparison to the earlier release.

bunkaroo

Probably not. I know my Kinowelt isn't. I supposed there's a shot the new one isn't since the one user review I saw didn't mention it, but I always assume European discs are locked unless proven otherwise.

Why So Blu?

No. Region Free players run about $90 nowadays. It's worth it to be region free.

bunkaroo

I had a bunch of disc orders I finally pulled the trigger on from Amazon DE when I saw the Strange Days reissue. Plus the dollar seemed pretty strong against the Euro so my per movie cost was pretty good. No worse than walking into a store here and buying some catalog titles.

I also find Germany has a lot of Paramount catalog titles not released here.

davidlynchfan

If this new version is better than the earlier release, what makes you think the 4K version can't be better than that earlier release.

Why So Blu?

I'm sure it will. My whole point was that I'm not going out of pocket for 4K/UHD any time soon. BD is good enough for me.

Strange Days being suggested as a 4K title was just incidental.

orangerunner

We are really getting conflicted messages from the studios about UHD-Blu-ray.

I just finished watching San Andreas and the two ads at the beginning of the disc was an anti-physical media spot for their disc-to-digital program and the other one was for finding your favorite movies on-line.

Nothing about UHD-Blu-ray or even any other Blu-ray titles for that matter.

Adam Tyner

...although, to be fair, we didn't even hear a release window until a few weeks ago, and San Andreas was on store shelves in mid-October. We'll probably start seeing on-disc promos closer to / on / after March.

orangerunner

True, although I remember the original release date for UHD-BR was set for Christmas 2015, not sure when they decided to postpone it to 2016.

Either way, the disc to digital ad was quite evident that digital is way the studio wants to go.

The animated ad featured a clutter of physical media under a bed, in a storage room, a couch buried in discs, breaking a bookshelf off the wall etc. while pushing the service of placing the disc into your computer, logging on to the "disc-to-digital" website which will (for a fee, of course) transfer your discs into the "cloud'.

For an ad that really mocks physical media as out-dated, cumbersome and messy it would seem odd to suddenly have an ad that would say "Oh by the way, here's the latest and greatest product on the market that you should run out and buy - more discs!"

Coral

It seems odd that you were even able to view an ad mocking physical media on your actual disc. That's telling me they want people who bought the disc to switch over to digital - nevermind staying with BD or upgrading to UHD-BD. It's obvious who they've targeted the ad towards.

UHD-BD is DOA.

orangerunner

I agree. At the very least they have painted themselves into a corner by running those ads at the beginning of Blu-ray discs.

How are they going to convince consumers to buy UHD-BR when they are basically poking-fun at the fact that you just purchased an antiquated, cumbersome Blu-ray disc for $20 when you should be using their cloud service?

They can't promote it both ways and not seem hypocritical in the process.

Giles

Fox has been completely mum on the audio for these discs - but there's some news that the UHD's will mirror what's on the current blurays DTS MA HD 7.1 -

The first Ultra HD 4K Blu-ray arrive in France!

considering at one point, Fox had bumped the release to next week, then bumped back to March 1st - everything must be finalized at this point. If there are no immersive audio mixes on these releases, that in my mind is a huge mistake.

E Unit

What the hell. Anything to sabotage the new format and reel in customers. I tell you, Atmos has some crazy ass immersive sound. Listening to Season 1 of Game of Thrones is absolutely incredible. And I'm not talking about the loud action stuff either. Sounds like rain, snow, horses galloping, it's really exciting to hear. Too bad 4k doesn't mean automatic every disc will have the new sound formats. No incentive to buy, at least those discs.

Coral

I don't think the audio specs are going to be a deciding factor at all. Most people don't have a proper audio set up anyway - and most of those who do will be happy enough with the audio that came on their BD discs.

It's all down to whether people care enough about 4K and physical media. And I'm predicting they won't care.

Giles

The problem is that Fox tangentially stated the "immersive audio mixes" would be exclusive to the UHD editions but with zero confirmation or proactive marketing if the first batch discs ARE to include them makes no sense.

bruceames

So will the initial U.S. Fox discs have the immersive sound or not? Or does nobody know yet?