HD DVD/Blu-ray release calendar: Part 1
 

I have decided to start a new thread which contains all firm titles which are going to be released for the American market.

There are many other lists, but they are arranged alphabetically, or by format and/or studios. Here I intend to make a list by release date, so that anyone can use it to see what is available at any given moment. I'll update it as more information is disclosed.

To qualify, a title must have been announced by the studio (with price and availability date), or be available for preorder (not availability notification or obvious placeholder) at two different North American sites.

Data followed by an asterisk are unconfirmed, based on general claims by the studio or sources close to it.

Note all data are subject to change at any time until release date.

Important pricing information: from 8th August all Universal HD-DVD titles released between April and July will be reduced to $29.98 SRP (from $34.98 SRP).


Color coding:
Red= HD DVD title not announced on Blu-ray
Blue= Blu-ray title not announced on HD DVD
Orange= HD DVD title announced elsewhere on Blu-ray
Green= Blu-ray title announced elsewhere on HD DVD

St: studio (L=Lionsgate, M=MGM, P= Paramount, S= Sony, U= Universal, W=Warner, O=Other)

DT: disk type (DL=dual layer, SL: single layer, CO: combo)

VC: video codec (V=VC-1, M=MPEG-2, A=AVC)

PQ: picture quality rating, taken as the average of the rates given by DVD Town and dvdtalk

Audio: DD+= Dolby Digital+, DTHD=Dolby TrueHD, PCM= uncompressed LPCM

Updates:

July 26: Good Night and Good Luck HD DVD removed per announcement; The Interpreter moved per information on http://hddvdformat.blogspot.com/

July 24: American Psycho, First Blood, Saw II and Young Guns added per announcement.

July 20: Good Night, and Good Luck HD DVD added per announcement; New Orleans Concert BD and HD DVD added per announcement

July 19: Stir of Echoes, Stargate, Total Recall and The Devil's Rejects added per information on thedigitalbits.

July 17:Slither added per announcement; The Fast and the Furious and 2 Fast 2 Furious added per announcement; several Disney titles added per announcement

July 14: Classical Touch titles deleted.

July 13: Day, Good Night, and Good Luck, Kiss, Kiss, Bang, Bang and Rumor Has It (BD) added per announcement; The ATL HD DVD added per announcement; Poseidon moved per announcement

July 11: ten Paramount HD DVD titles added per announcement; four Sony Blu-ray titles added per announcement; Poseidon HD DVD added per announcement; Guitarscape Planet and View from Space with Heavenly Music moved to July 18 per matching information on multiple etailers

July 5: Backdraft, Army of Darkness and Fast Times at Ridgemont High moved per announcement

July 3: That's the Way of the World, Golgo 13 and Galaxina added per announcement; four Classical Touch titles added per matching information on retailer sites

June 30: Best of GetOut! (vols. 1 and 2) and Best of HD World Report added per information posted by the distributor; Sony titles adjusted per announcement; Army of Darkness and Fast Times at Ridgemont Hight moved per information on the Universal website.

June 26: End of Days, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, Dazed and Confused and Land of the Dead moved per information on the Universal Home website.

June 20: RV and Silent hill added per announcement; Red Dragon, Seabiscuit, End of Days, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, Dazed and Confused and Land of the Dead added per announcement

June 14: Traffic added per information on the Universal Home website.


June 13: Animal House and Unleashed added per announcement; Sony titles rearranged per announcement

June 12: Last Waltz and Knight's Tale moved back to July 25th; Legends of the Fall, Kung Fu Hustle, Black Hawk Down, Sense and Sensibility, The Big Hit and Resident Evil: Apocalypse removed per announcement.

June 9: Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang, Syriana and Lethal Weapon added per announcement.

June 8: Guitarscape Planet HD DVD moved; View from Space and Guitarscape Planet Blu-ray added per information received directly from Concert Hot Spot; Night of the Sorcerors and The Lorelei's Grasp added per information received directly from BCI.

June 7: 16 Blocks added per announcement; Backdraft added per information on the Universal Home Video website; Guitarscape Planet moved per retailer information

June 5: Big Hit, Black Hawk Down, Memento and Sense and Sensibility added per announcement

May 26: Rattle and Hum, Tomb Raider and Four Brothers deleted per announcement; ; Ray, The Bone Collector, The Interpreter and Spy Game added per announcement

May 22: Basic Instinct 2 and The Benchwarmers added per announcement; Constantine, Firewall and The Perfect Storm added per announcement on thedigitalbits

May 18: Blazing Saddles and The Fugitive added per announcement; Muriel Anderson: Guitarscape and A View from Space with Heavenly Music added per matching hits on retailer sites.

May 16: Sony titles moved from June 27 to July 25 per announcement.

May 4: Sony titles moved per announcement

April 25: Chronos deleted (both formats) per announcement

April 21: Two Paramount titles moved from 5/30 to 6/20; two Universal titles added to 6/13; two Universal titles added to 7/11

April 19: specs confirmed for April 18 titles; Million Dollar Baby moved; Paramount 5/30 titles added

April 18: Ultraviolet added

April 13: Six Universal titles added per information on the Universal Studios website

April 12: Lionsgate titles pushed back per announcement

I like it. Does DL mean dual layer?

Yes, and ICT is the infamous Image Constraint Token, ie "downrez over component".

That could be changed to "Yes" at any point.

Good list, nice work. Guess now we can all but wait.

The ICT flag is set on the disc itself, in which case studios can turn it on for future releases.

But that would affect only subsequent titles. It's like Macrovision - they can use it on a title or not, but they can't remotely activate Macrovision on a DVD you bought a year ago.

Note Lionsgate titles have an asterisk, as they are rumored to be delayed to June 27. When that becomes official, I'll move the titles.

Thanks. Note the list is far for complete - we still don't have firm launch titles for Paramount (HD DVD and Blu-ray) and Disney and Fox (Blu-ray).

16 Blocks street dates on 06/13/2006 on both standard DVD and HD-DVD from Warners.

so in terms of audio, has Universal included DTS soundtrack as an audio option for their upcoming slate of HD-DVD titles?

That's interesting. You have a link?

here ya go.

http://www.tlavideo.com/details/prod...29051&sn=1&v=1

so wait, after the first 2 weeks, there isnt anything coming out for HD-DVD for @ least 2 mos?

The studios are hesitant to announce much of anything. We'll hear more shortly.

Lionsgate has just delayed its titles to June 27. List updated accordingly.

...and new column for audio added.

thanks,

pardon my language, but Universal is being a big asshole for not being supportive of DTS sound.

So HD-DVD will be available in only 5 days? I guess they're just gonna sneak these into stores with barely any promotion.

oh check out the latest issue of Premier - there's numerous advertisements for HD-DVD players and DVD's.

And only 1 HD-DVD I'd be interested in: Jarhead. I wonder if it will have all the extras from the OOP double DVD edition. Should be interesting.

Where's The Matrix?

D

Hasn't been officially announced yet. But it was one of the titles listed at CES, so it shouldn't take long.

I have updated the calendar to confirm the specs for the HD DVD titles already released, and the slight delay of Million Dollar Baby.

So as of right now, there are no official HD-DVD titles releasing after 5/23? And still no Paramount titles yet. I'm sure we'll see plenty more, but I thought they'd have them announced officially at this point. Kong is obviously tops on my list, but I'm wondering what the first new movie will be to debut on the format.

Negative. Usually I'd be puzzled, but considering Serenity first showed up on sites less than two weeks before release date, and that we hadn't a press release until that very day, nothing surprises me anymore.

An article says today that they'll release titles "next month".

Rumor has it it'll be Rumor Has It. :)

I'm loving this list. keep it up.

Well, I checked amazon.com and they have these Paramount titles listed, but no dates:

The Italian Job, Four Brothers, Lara Croft: Tomb Raider, Sahara, Sky Captain, Aeon Flux, Manchurian Candidate ('04), Braveheart, Ultimate Star Trek Movie Collection, We Were Soldiers.

I think Braveheart is not coming out until October. I'll definitely upgrade that one. The dvd version of Aeon Flux comes out 4/25...I'm sure the HD will follow. For the rest, I'd probably updgrade Tomb Raider and Sahara.

Assuming they're released this year, King Kong (Summer?), LOTR Trilogy (December?), Harry Potter, and the Matrix should help sell a few players by themselves. Aside from Kong being HD-DVD only, I'm under the impression that the others will likely debut under HD-DVD first and then months later also be released on BR?