From the Toshiba/Paramount/Dreamworks article posted above:



Shows how small the market really is, and how much money the companies were tossing around to win.

Haha, Magnolia for me ranks up with Vanilla Sky as the biggest WTF movies of all time. PTA movies are very polarizing indeed.

I am down with all PTA films. Didn't care for HARD EIGHT as much as the others. BOOGIE NIGHTS had to grow on me. THERE WILL BE BLOOD is by far his best work IMHO and I'd love to see more period films from him.

Anger that Paramount wont release it on HD DVD? not so much. Anger that I may have to wait extra months for Blu Ray. Hell yeah.

No love for PT here, eh? Magnolia FTW....

I think There Will Be Blood has to be his most commercial film to date.

I saw Magnolia when it first came out on video and did not care for it, but that was a long time ago. I may have to revisit it. On the other PTA's, I saw Boogie Nights in the theater and was kind of "meh" about it. I liked Punch-Drunk Love on DVD and never saw Hard Eight. TWBB is easily my favorite PTA film at the moment, but it's far from perfect IMO.

Right after they release Good Burger on Blu-ray, yo!

What's the best guess on a Beowulf Blu-Ray date?

It's coming out on 3/17 in the UK and Japan (region-free). As far as a U.S. version, supposedly there will be some Paramount announcements on 3/4, so maybe it will be listed then.

Well it's coming out 03/17/08 in the UK. From past releases, Warner does not region lock their day and date releases. Btw, the Warner release is the director's cut and also has Dolby TrueHD as well. It was a no brainer purchase for me and I ordered it from amazon uk. Here's the link
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Beowulf-Blu-...4133254&sr=1-3

Says the guy who gave the last two, virtually unwatchable Pirates of the Caribbean sequels 4 stars a piece.

http://www.dailytech.com/article.aspx?newsid=10889

Lite-On, Philips Introduce First External Blu-ray Disc Drive
Marcus Yam (Blog) - February 27, 2008 5:42 PM



The Lite-On DX-4O1S external drive (Source: PLDS)Hook a Blu-ray Disc drive up to your laptop


With Blu-ray Disc now the clear victor in the high-definition format war, those cautious about buying hardware can spend with ease. Those with home theater PCs or laptops will be pleased to learn that Philips & Lite-On Digital Solutions (PLDS) will be soon releasing its first USB external BD-ROM drive in Q2 2008.

“Due to recent market developments we can expect an increasing volume of movies to be released in high definition on Blu-ray Discs,” said Jelmer Veldman, European Marketing Manager at PLDS. “The market adoption of Blu-ray as the optical disc standard for High Definition content results in a growing demand for Blu-ray playback solutions. The portable external Lite-On BD-ROM drive allows users to playback their Blu-ray discs on any PC via a USB 2.0 cable.”

The upcoming model, designated the Lite-On DX-4O1S can read Blu-ray Disc media at 4X, single-layer DVD at 12X, dual-layer DVD at 8X, and CD media at 32X maximum.

Those who prefer internal drives can find the Lite-On Blu-ray Disc drives for around $150.

Alternatively, HTPC addicts may consider the Xbox 360 HD DVD drive, now on clearance for $50. While HD DVD may have limited future potential, the Xbox 360 add-on, which works with natively with Windows Vista, is an affordable option to view today’s high-definition content.

I have the same concern about this drive as I had with the 360 add-on - is USB 2.0 good enough to handle the video/audio bandwidth needed? On paper I think it is, but I'd still think twice about it.

I'll almost certainly put an internal in the next PC I build.

Wait, wait, WAIT! Who do what to who now? Warner's day and date releases are NOT region encoded?!? Please elaborate on this subject if you would be so kind. Gracias in advance.

^Yep no region coding. Check the below list for new release BD titles like The Brave One and Assassination of JJ to see that they are region-free. The majority of BD's are region-free, except for Fox.

http://www.blurayregioncodes.com/

Wow. So are their foreign releases that have better extras that US releases don't? A short list or link would certainly be appreciated!

USB 2.0 has a maximum transfer rate of 480Mb/s. Although that may not be the real-world performance, it's still well over the 54Mb/s needed.

FWIW, I haven't had any issues with the HD DVD add-on on my computer, but of course the bandwidth is lower there at about 30Mb/s.

That's what I thought.

Any issues with glitches in audio or video if other devices are running on USB at the same time?

I'm not sure, because mine is connected to its own controller (each controller having two or more ports) with nothing else. Try to do that, if possible. I'd at least make sure no hard drives or other high-bandwidth devices are connected to the same controller. A mouse or keyboard may be fine though.

Regarding the Lite-On/Philips External Blu-ray Disc Drive, it would be nice to have an eSATA port. I beleive eSATA is about as fast a transport as you can get. We're talking 3000 Mbits pr/sec versus USB 2.0 at 480 Mbits pr/sec.

And that coming from the guy who crapped all over Stardust.

Reviewer fight!!

Stardust was good, dammit.

So, how does the news about New Line folding into Warner affect BD? I imagine not much would change, other than Warner handling the titles. One thing I can think of is that future NL titles could have TrueHD or PCM audio instead of DTS-HD MA.

I hope they don't use DTS. The PS3 still can't handle it.