TheMovieman

I have this in my hands and it does have a 7.1 track, as well as a 5.1 which it probably will default on, so you'll need to switch before playing.

TheBang

I found both Blade and Blade Trinity at my Best Buy stores on Sunday. They are on sale until July 7 for $9.99 each, plus they each have $5 movie cash for Dark Knight Rises. The website should show you accurate stock at your local stores now, or you can order them online too.

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/Blade+-+...lade&lp=9&cp=1
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/Blade%3A...ade&lp=10&cp=1

growly

Thanks Todd B.! It shows Blade as being in stock at my local Best Buy. I'll pick that up along with Barbarella tomorrow hopefully.

LosingMyMind

I'll hold off for the inevitable $15 triple pack.

Brian T

The DVD for the original BLADE had an alternate ending hidden on the disc as an Easter egg. Does anyone know if the new Blu-ray has likewise included this sequence somewhere?

bigjim25

I got mine for $5.98 each when Columbia House had a sale plus I got Dark Knight movie cash with 2 of them, waiting til II comes in then I'm having a marathon.

TheMovieman

Not sure how it's considered an Easter Egg but it's within the "La Magra" featurette (about 8-minutes in). And yes, it's on the Blu-ray.

Manzana

Is there going to be a Blade Trilogy BD release? If it comes out at $30 (as I expect) then there's no savings over buying the individual releases @ $10 each. I guess Fry's had 1 & 3 for $7.99 last month and I missed that, so I may wait for another Fry's deal now that I've read these BDs are worthwhile DVD -> BD upgrades.

Can someone confirm that Blade II and Trinity aren't missing any extras from the previous DVD sets while Blade is missing the isolated score and still galleries? That's what I gathered by comparing the extras.

Of course my Walmart is too lame to have any of the Blade BDs in stock with the movie cash. I assume the prices will jump up tomorrow. Oh well. I guess it'll just have to be on my want list for 1-2 years until the Trilogy is $20. Asking a Walmart electronics employee about Blade or Blade Trinity BD (or Treasure Planet BD for that matter) results in a shrug with a "I have no idea. I haven't seen them so we probably don't carry them." and then they walk away. I love Walmart. NOT!

joltman

There hasn't been any info on a Blade trilogy, I'm assuming LosingMyMind is assuming it will come out based on the other Warner triple packs (TMNT, Superman, Ocean's, etc)

PhantomStranger

I wrote this for the Picture Quality Tiers found here and thought it might be of help.

recommendation: Tier 2.25

The Blade BD was released around two weeks ago courtesy of Warner Bros., finally releasing the 1998 New Line movie on the format after it had been put out in other countries by different distributors. Running 120 minutes on a BD-50, the AVC video encode averages 29.88 Mbps. The picture quality is fairly strong for a catalog title but does have one troubling flaw that discerning viewers might find objectionable.

The compression has been handled in a satisfactory manner that goes well beyond the typical Warner effort. Outside of possibly one scene near the finale where dust and smoke completely fills the screen as Blade battles a horde of vampires, the picture is totally absent of compression noise or artifacting. More importantly, the generous bitrate budget preserves the excellent amount of micro-detail visible in most scenes beyond the scope of older AVC encodes from Warner.

Outside of a few soft and dated CGI moments, the image is very sharp with excellent depth and focus. The pleasing dimensionality provides ample pop to the set action pieces. Unlike many other recent catalog releases on Blu-ray, the contrast has not been pumped up and the color timing has not been manipulated towards magenta. That leaves the flesh-tones with a normal appearance and the color palette fairly neutral.

Black levels are very strong with substantial shadow detail, outside of one scene where Deacon Frost first meets with the vampire elders. That particular scene does not look like the rest of the movie and almost looks like it wasn't from the same camera negative or film source. Which is odd as the transfer clearly has been taken from the camera negative. The BD shows zero print or film debris, and overall has an amazing level of clarity for a 1998 production.

Most of the film has outstanding high-frequency content, showing off a plethora of facial information in close-ups and even long shots. Digital noise reduction has been sparingly applied if used at all and likely in select moments only, leaving the film looking very good with a decent sense of cinematic texture. The grain does look a little strange in a few early scenes but my concerns were allayed as the movie developed.

What does bother me and will likely bother viewers on the largest screens over 55”, are the all-too-frequent signs of ringing and sharpening throughout the movie. The halos are noticeable and will be spotted by viewers aware of their appearance. Blade's car glows with them and they show up in other places on a regular basis. It's not a dealbreaker for a transfer that generally looks great in most other aspects, but it's clearly not perfect or desirable. The problem was serious enough for me to drop my final ranking some ways down the Tiers List.

Blade does enough to satisfy most requirements of Tier One, but unfortunately the ringing is bad enough to place it in Tier Two at the very least. The BD is still a must-buy for interested fans and looks much better than the available alternatives.

Watching on a 60” Pioneer KURO plasma played from a Sony PS3 (firmware 4.21), at a viewing distance of six feet.

BDInfo scan (courtesy of Patsfan123):
http://www.avsforum.com/t/1155731/ne...#post_22186280

Comparison against the Netherlands BD:
http://caps-a-holic.com/hd_vergleich...D=1126#auswahl

E Unit

Just picked up Blade II from Best Buy for $5. So for all 3 movies, about $18. Not bad, considering we got just about all of the extras. Blade II sounds damn good too.

joltman

'just about all of the extras'? What's missing?

joltman

Nevermind, did my own research. Here's what appears to be missing:

Blade
Blade II
Blade Trinity

Spiderbite

My Costco has the first Blade with the movie cash for $7.99. No copies of Blade 3.

Might want to check your local store.