Paramount returns to Blu-ray...

On 20 May 2008, Paramount returns to Blu-ray. The studio is re-releasing the titles that were dis-continued back when Paramount dropped its support of Blu-ray, and it's also releasing some titles that haven't shown up on Blu-ray yet. Blades of Glory, Face/Off, and Next were pressed or authored but not sent to stores. Bee Movie is totally new.

http://hddvdreviews.blogspot.com/2008/05/faceoff-blu-ray-disc-john-woo-1997.html

Eddie, have you reviewed any Blu-rays on your site yet, if so which ones, if not then when? Also I'm glad to see that you now include Blu-rays though I know your preference is still HD DVD.

tony,

that link leads to my first blu-ray review.

eddie

[Post edited by posters5 on May 18, 2008]

Eddie, what BD machine do you use?

i don't have one...i go to a friend's house to use his PS3.

the only people i know who have stand-alone players are people i meet on the internet, and i know only three people in austin with PS3s. of those three, only one of them buys blu-ray discs.

Nice review Mr Feng. I guess this means you're gettin' a bluray player sometime in the near future?

falcon,

no, i have no plans with regards to getting a blu-ray player of my own. i'm content to visit my PS3-owning buddies if i have to review a blu-ray disc. i don't want to buy something that will end up with the red screen of death.

eddie

Wow, I still have yet to see this red screen of death. You wouldn't happen to know of any Blu-ray movies this has happened on? I figured I'll rent one that's known to produce the red screen and see if it happens to me.

I believe the red screen of death only happens with Samsung Blu-ray players.

That red screen message was because of a few newer BD titles were not fully compatible with Samsung players, until the February firmware update was applied. And how nice to see Eddie now adding Blu-ray Hi-Def reviews to his blog site.

Speaking of Paramount returning to Blu-ray... (current hit below already announced for October BD release - in France)



_____________
-JIMI McLovin (the Voodoo Child)

Type in "red screen of death" at the AVS Forums and you'll find various people complaining about various such screens when things go wrong with Samsung players, Panasonics, Hitachis, and, yes, Toshibas, both high-def players and standard-def players. What's more, some readers have complained about their TVs displaying a red warning screen. So apparently it is not a Blu-ray-only problem but a generic term for a variety of problems occurring with a variety of equipment.

John

...but not those who own a PS3

I've never encounted ^that red screen on my 60GB PS3... anyone come across it when viewing a BD on their PS3?


-JIMI McLovin (the Voodoo Child)

So, Eddie, your particular worry is the red-screen warning on Fox Blu-ray discs that are not compatible with certain BD players until the players are upgraded with firmware? I'd say there are many such worries from many manufacturers on such scores. Remember, the Toshiba HD playerss wouldn't even decode TrueHD until they got a firmware upgrade.

John

I have an LG player and have not seen this red screen of death and I know a couple of the brooo-ray movies I have are new, so apparently this annoying firmware crap must be up to date on my beautiful LG (non PS3, non SONY) BH200 -- sorry, had to throw in my shill for LG since there's far too much shilling for PS3 around here.

What I don't get, is Eddie anti Blu-ray or anti SONY? Or is it both? Not that I'm trying to start an argument or anything, I'm just curious. And if so either way . . . then why?

no hendrix, cant say that i've ever seen that screen either on my 60g.

My son's Wii has never shown it either - so I guess game consoles are not affected.

tim,

i'm anti-sony in general because the company sells over-priced products and is always trying to divert the royalties flow by creating new proprietary formats instead of going along with the standards that the rest of the industry adopted (the memory stick being a good example).

blu-ray is a great example of sony's crap attitude towards customers. the format still has region coding, which means that content providers can still lock a disc to play only in certain parts of the world. there's all that firmware/bd-java nonsense, which has been defeated every step of the way by slysoft. all in all, blu-ray is a terrible format.

eddie

Another example of how Sony treats consumers

Last year Sony released a Sat-Nav (Nav-U92T). Pre-release articles stated that amongst other features it would have bluetooth handsfree - in fact photos showed the handsfree in operation.

When the unit hit the shelves the bluetooth had been dropped. The unit still featured the mic although it served no purpose and the Bluetooth LED was still present although the screen print had been removed and it never lit.

Six months later they release a "new" model which is identical to the old version except it had bluetooth.

To me that is showing contempt to consumers. They design a product then disable one of its main features so that they can release it as a new product six months later.

Now as a final kick for purchasers of these units they have announced they have discontinued all their navigation units in Europe including models released in January.

to be fair to paramount and warner, there are content providers who encode blu-ray discs with as little restrictive (i.e. region coding and anti-piracy measures) and fussy (i.e. java games) software as possible to avoid their discs glitching in blu-ray players. on the other hand, this also means that blu-ray discs sometimes have less content than their hd-dvd counterparts. just check out all of the warner and paramount hd dvds that have IME tracks that their blu-ray kin don't.

Hey Eddie, I bet Blu-ray has more content now.

tony,

do you hear that? that is the sound of one hand clapping.



eddie

I'm inclined to agree with Eddie about SONY -- they do make an overpriced product. In my experience over the decades, SONY has always been a gamble for me, much like buying a FORD -- you never know if you're going to get a lemon. Call it bad luck if you want but the only SONY prodcut I've owned that has lasted without issues is my PS2, and even that was a refurbished model.

Obviously, blu-ray is the "forced" upon us format for hi-def discs and that's what I'll have to buy over the years, but I will not by any SONY products no matter how tempting any of their future products may seem. I'm actually happy the PS3 doesn't have the WOW-factor games, as it helps curve the temptation from really wanting one.

tim,

you'll have to return your copy of "the fifth element", then, as that's from columbia tri-star--also known as SONY PICTURES.

eddie

Quote:
you'll have to return your copy of "the fifth element", then, as that's from columbia tri-star--also known as SONY PICTURES.

LOL! The only reason I would get rid of that movie is Chris Tucker!

I have always hated the way Sony has treated the market, and consumers.

Raine Maida (Lead Singer of Our Lady Peace) now has his own recollection of Sony (Music) and the company of a whole on his MySpace Blog. It's is actually quite funny what an artist has to say about the two bit shams that Sony pulls on the artist, never mind the consumers.

The funny part of it all, is to watch thousands of people flock to them and dump countless dollars at overpriced, propietory products that feed the wallets of pudgy fingered corrupt businessmen... That's putting it politely.

This is because Asian companies in general are very dishonest. Luckily, America comes to the world's rescue with Worldcom, Global Crossing, Microsoft, ExxonMobil, and Enron (among dozens and dozens of others). God bless America.

pssst... that's sarcasm folks.

[Post edited by Skyhawk on May 19, 2008]