Ditto....cant wait for the studio canal releases.

As far as the sony PS3 problem. Im loving it. I cant wait to make some money on these like I did with the 360s. Shortages are good for me (as long as I can get them through my channels).

Are the Japanese HD DVDs of decent quality? I've not heard good things about them for some reason. Though Studio Canal generally put out a high quality product - Brotherhood of the Wolf is a fine DVD and should look great in HD.

I have Finding Neverland (which is in AVC/MPEG4) and it looks very good but not on par with the VC1 releases. Others have said The Brothers Grimm looks absolutely fantastic.

The rest that are coming out in Europe in the fall will be in VC1 (AFAIK).

The japanese version of Equilibrium looks stellar in my opinion. Its MPEG4.

As far as the euro studio canal releases, supposedly (according to Amir), MS worked with them on their releases. He confirmed they will be encoded with VC-1 and similar quality to the US releases. They will also be using the shorter boxes for hd-dvd unlike the japanese releases.

These will be the ones that I get (of the reported titles that will be coming out this fall).
Le Pacte De Loups
T2
Stargate
Total Recall

Yeah, I'm all over those European releases. I caught T-2 HD on cable the other day and it looked good, so a well done VC-1 HD DVD release should be amazing.

Do we know if any of the StudioCanal releases will have DolbyTrueHD?

Edit: Rock, I thought they said Brotherhood of the Wolf won't have English subtitles.

Who said that?

Since its coming out in the UK, I dont see why it wouldnt.

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/win...vd/movies.aspx

There would be no excuse for leaving english subs off this title.

Okay, my bad. Must have misread something or other.

Do we know when we'll be able to buy these European releases?

The really cool 3 or 4 disc french dvd version that came out years ago didnt have english subs or dub track. Thats probably where the speculation came from. I would think with this release, leaving off the english subs would be a HUGE mistake.

I think its Nov 20 for the initial titles.

Its my understanding that they will be announced in the next couple weeks during IFA in Berlin.

http://www.dvdtimes.co.uk/content.php?contentid=62420

No, I'm neutral. But to someone blindly obediant to their "Master S" of course I'm an HD-DVD backer. As I have said for months and months and months, if BD can get it's shit together then they can win. Sony is screwing the pooch at every turn. IF they get BD 50 working and produced, and IF they can make the picture and sound better on their releases and IF they can release quality players at a competitive price then BD can, and probably will win. Problem with that is there's a whole lotta if's.

Were there to be a lower priced BD player in the Tosh range, we'd all benefit. The two formats would get competitive with the pricing and we'd see prices on both drop a lot faster.

For the record, I try like hell to find nice things to say about BD, but the real actual fact is that HD-DVD is cleaning the floor with them.

So you are saying that you think there are more 35 and older people playing video games than people under 15? Come on.

What about us "middle" people? the 15-35?

Btw...QGJ...where did you get your sig?

I wouldn't doubt that people 18-25 are the largest group of game players. But surely it is not a stretch to imagine that all the kids in the country playing games soundly trounce the number of 35+ year olds playing games. Toy companies are in crisis because traditional toy sales are slipping because kids want video games rather than toys.

My sig is from "Clerks II"

ALOT of 18-35 year olds play video games AND have money to spend on them. BUT, I think kiddos play games more frequently (my opinion).

That said, a huge percentage of video games are played by kids and I just dont think their parents are going to plop down $600 for the PS3.

In the end, it will all come down to games though, not BD titles to sell the PS3. If the PS3 can release some stellar games that addict people (like GTA 3 did), then it will do well. After all, it is a GAMING system.

Im 31 and I have a shitload of friends my age and up to 40 that play computer games (like WOW and Everquest). They dont play as much console games though.

I would be curious as to what the percentage of CONSOLE gamers are above 25.

I have to agree. I remember being EXTREMELY addicted to video games when I was younger and probably still could be. But unfortunately, i love movies too much and i need to keep paying my bills so that would leave very little time to devote to video games.

I can't see parents spending over $700 one a system and ONE game. i couldn't even believe it when my parents got me a nintendo and a couple of games for christmas. My, how times have changed.

Hmmmm.....





Ya sure you want to shout that on an internet forum that EVERYONE can see?

While the theatrical editions of Kill Bill Vol. 1 and Vol. 2 still belong to Miramax and hence Disney, "Kill Bill: The Whole Bloody Affair" belongs to The Weinstein Co., which has sided with HD DVD.

I dont play computer games....i only play games on my 360. Never got into online gaming even though my friends have tried to coax me into it.

Good to know. I hope they release it soon!

EE Times: Semi News
Blu-ray hardware makers mum on plans


Yoshiko Hara

Page 1 of 2


EE Times
(08/29/2006 5:40 PM EDT)


TOKYO — A gathering of Blu-ray Disc companies here revealed an avalanche of content coming from content providers, but a dearth of available hardware on which to play the titles.

The meeting and demonstration were attended by 14 content providers and five hardware suppliers. The Blu-ray Disc content suppliers showed off nearly 100 BD-ROM video packages, but hardware suppliers clammed up about their hardware introduction plans.

"We want to bring a high quality of content in BD-ROM video disks—movies, music and animations that are better than HD broadcasting to homes," Kiyoshi Nishitani, deputy president of the Sony TV and Video Business Group, said in his introductory comments at the demonstration.

Digital media critic Reiji Asakura predicted that the next-generation optical-disk systems will mark the biggest advancement "in 25 years, since the advent of VHS, in enabling audio/video content that makes a real emotional impression on people."

But thus far the cheerleading is coming largely from the software providers. Only Samsung Electronics is selling a BD-ROM video player, the BDP-1000, in the United States. Matsushita is expected to introduce a player in the States in September, followed in October by a Sony introduction.

In contrast, Japanese consumers won't be able to buy Blu-ray Disc players in Japan until November, when Sony launches its oft-delayed Playstation 3, which incorporates a built-in BD player. Other Japanese consumer electronics vendors are not divulging their product introduction plans for Blu-ray.

The prevailing thinking among Japanese hardware vendors is that a recording function is essential for Japanese consumers. Looking to the current DVD market for insight into trends for follow-on formats, vendors note that DVD players have dominated U.S. hardware sales for that format, whereas the Japanese market has been more focused on the sales of DVD recorders.

"We are selling DVD hardware in Japan at a ratio of 10 DVD recorders to every DVD player," said Sony's Nishitani.

But none of the hardware suppliers—Sony, Matsushita, Pioneer, Hitachi or Sharp —clarified its marketing plans, saying only that BD recorders could be released by year's end.

More than 10 million units of high-definition TVs for terrestrial reception are in use in Japan, and more than 50 percent of digital video recorders can record terrestrial DTV programs, said Masayuki Kozuka, general manager of the Matsushita Storage Devices Business Strategy Office. The Blu-ray Disc supporters hold about a 75 percent collective share in the digital HD video recorder market in Japan, he said.

Sony's Nishitani said the company would introduce a BD recorder first for the Japanese market, since there are plenty of HDTV programs available for recording in that market.

Page 2 of 2


EE Times
(08/29/2006 5:40 PM EDT)



Disc production issues
Also facing the Blu-ray camp are disc production issues.

For BD-ROM disc production, Sony's disc manufacturing group DADC set up the production system (see article). The BD group claims the 50 Gbyte capacity disc realized by the dual-layered structure is an advantage over competing HD DVD, but the difficulty of producing the discs has been regarded as a big hurdle.

Matsushita's Kozuka stressed that Matsushita has already established a volume production system at its BD Replication Task Force (BDRT) at PDMC (Panasonic Disc Manufacturing Corp. of America) in Torrance, Calif. Matsushita now lacks a disc replication business in the U.S., so is considering turning the replication line into a commercial line.

"By the Christmas season, dual-layered discs will be on market," Kozuka said. Matsushita is offering the disc production technology to other replicators through its affiliate company Origin Electric.

Sony also plans to begin producing dual layered discs at its Shizuoka plant.

http://www.eetimes.com/news/semi/sh...cleID=192500151

Well of course there are always people in the neighborhood who happen to have 360s just laying around...They even have family who work for EA and MS so they have a shit load of games as well

http://www.theesa.com/facts/gamer_data.php

For Computer Gamers...

* Thirty percent of most frequent game players are under eighteen years old.
* Twenty-six percent of most frequent game players are between 18 and 35 years old.
* Forty-four percent of most frequent game players are over 35 years old.

For Console Gamers...

* Forty percent of most frequent game players are under eighteen years old.
* Thirty-five percent of most frequent game players are between 18 and 35 years old.
* Twenty-five percent of most frequent game players are over 35 years old.

Wow....GREAT article!

You guys should definitely check this out.

http://www.dvdtimes.co.uk/content.php?contentid=62615

Yeah, some good (and some potentially not so good) stuff in there.

Hmm, that is some very interesting reading material there.