Adam Tyner

Lotsa news out of CES so far. I don't have a great recap, but:

Shout Factory announced their first Ultra HD BDs (all 70mm IMAX documentaries): Journey to Space, Humpback Whales, Flight of the Butterflies, Rocky Mountain Express, Wonders of the Arctic, and The Last Reef: Cities Beneath the Sea

Sony pointed to The Guns of Navarone and The Bridge on the River Kwai as future Ultra HD BD releases.

The MSRP for Samsung's launch Ultra HD BD player is $399.99. Looks like a March release?

Doctorossi

I'm very surprised they're considering Navarone, in light of the state of its materials.

Adam Tyner

I haven't seen the 4K restoration, but it looks like it's been screening at least as far back as 2012.

Doctorossi

I really wish the studios/distributors had made a commitment to only release content that would take (relatively) full advantage of the format for the first year or so of its introduction. This product really needs to wow and 2K up-scales aren't going to blow minds.

E Unit

Shout Factory releasing UHD? I smell success for the format! I smell something...

And Sony acknowledging future releases of Guns of Navarone and Bridge on the River Kwai reminds me of when they had Lawrence of Arabia on the blu ray promos back in 2007 when the format began, And look how long that took to actually get released.

Of course Lawrence is already available in 4K via Netflix. Which is a lousy way to promote the next-gen format, by bypassing a UHD release.

Giles

looks like Fox will be including the object based mixing soundtracks exclusive to the UHD editions and NOT the bluray releases:

http://www.heise.de/newsticker/meldu...y-3061663.html

Google Translated (sorry for the broken English here):

"While already other studios such as Universal, Parmount, Sony and Warner movies with Auro-3D, Dolby Atmos and DTS: offer X-Sound on Blu-ray Disc, will Fox the new 3D sound formats as a lure for the coming Ultra HD Blu-ray use.

The home theater division of the Hollywood studios 20th Century Fox wants, according to continue to offer films with "3D sound", but only on Ultra HD Blu-ray discs (UHD-BD) and not for the titles released on Blu-ray Disc become. This was stated by President Worldwide Mike Dunn told heise online at the edge of a previous event at CES.

As this format seems "Dolby Atmos" to be sure already set; next "at least a second" surround sound format will support loudly Dunn. Whether further Auro-3D, DTS now: X or both are, he would not betray the other hand also on multiple demand.

20th Century Fox announced at the event on the new "Ultra HD Premium" that they publish around 100 4K titles on VoD and Ultra HD Blu-ray Disc by the end -. With increased contrast and an extended color space the initial target of the titles " The Martians ", a concrete release date, there is, according to Dunn not First matching players would be available;.. currently the spring was in 2016 in an interview to The Ultra HD Blu-ray discs from Fox initially always bundled with the respective Blu-ray version appear."

Giles

Best Buy and FoxConnect have preorders up

MSRP: $39.99

looks like SHOUT Factory's IMAX releases are combo packs (thank god) in spoiler form due to pic size

bunkaroo

Fant4stic

Giles

^ the death of English language ... and cinema in general

Doctorossi

Yeah.

I want to be an early adopter, but it's so tough to care when the only releases are completely uninteresting movies and you have to do a bunch of research on them, anyway, to determine how much benefit you're even going to see.

*sigh*

bruceames

So according to that spoiler pic, Shout will be including the 3D with the UHD BD. That's good. Hopefully the majors will be as well, since it would really suck to be forced to choose being 3D and 4K, or feel compelled to buy both (such as the latest Star Wars movie).

Adam Tyner

I don't regret buying into HD DVD, but I wish I'd waited for the technology to mature a little, for the prices to drop, and for the catalog to build.

bruceames

Well the $39.99 price is list. Hopefully they will be quite a bit less than that (although the closer to launch, the less separation between list and street price). Good news on the launch player price point though. That's tempting.

Giles

the discs aren't up on Amazon for preorder ... yet, but FoxConnect's sale pricing for the discs are $25.99, Best Buy's preorder prices are a dollar less

Adam Tyner

I hadn't seen that, Giles. That's really, really cool to hear.

bruceames

The Digital Bits has confirmed that there will be no region coding on UHD BD!

http://www.thedigitalbits.com/column...ts/010616_0215

bruceames

That's great. I can justify spending $399 on a player and $25 on a few titles, just to get my feet wet.

Doctorossi

25 bucks is a fine price if they can offer some worthy software (4k masters of movies worth owning).

Giles

Fox 'should' have released 'The Sound of Music' offer up a 70mm feature in it's first batch.

Doctorossi

Yes, there should've been a 70mm feature in the initial batch from each studio.

Spiderbite

About fucking time!

Giles

20th Century Fox to release more than hundred 4K (Ultra HD) Blu-ray movies

Doctorossi

Let's hope they include something watchable.

bunkaroo

What's the time frame on those 100? Within a year? 5 years? Ever?

Maybe True Lies and the Abyss are part of that 100. Ok maybe not.

Doctorossi

For dynamic range/color gamut, but Super 35 productions probably won't gain a lot from 4k in spatial resolution.