Month: March 2008 (Page 2 of 5)

132 million Blu-ray homes by 2012

According to Strategy Analytics, Blu-ray players will be in 29.4 million homes worldwide by the end of 2008. According to, “Blu-ray Devices: Forecasting Sales and Ownership,” Sony’s PS3 games console will continue to drive the Blu-ray market until 2009, after which stand-alone Blu-ray players will become dominant. By 2012 more than 132 million homes worldwide will own at least one Blu-ray device.

“HD-DVD’s withdrawal leaves the way open for Blu-ray to become a major revenue earner for technology vendors and content owners alike,” says David Mercer, Principal Analyst. “The 265 million homes that will own an HDTV by 2012, and Hollywood’s need for a new growth engine, represent huge incentives for the industry to coordinate marketing activities and demonstrate unified support for the successor to DVD.”

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Wrestlemania XXIV marks WWE’s first ever Blu-ray release

WWE Home Video has announced that Wrestlemania XXIV will be the company’s first ever Blu-ray release. Scheduled for release on May 20, day-and-date with the DVD version, Wrestlemania XXIV will feature around 10 matches including the following:

Triple Threat match for the WWE Championship: Randy Orton  vs. Triple H vs. John Cena

World Heavyweight Championship: Edge  vs. The Undertaker

Money in the Bank ladder match:
Mr. Kennedy vs. Shelton Benjamin vs. Chris Jericho vs. Carlito vs. Montel Vontavious Porter vs. CM Punk vs. John Morrison

Floyd Mayweather, Jr. vs. The Big Show (Yes, Floyd Mayweather, Jr… the boxer. He apparently received $20 million for the match)

More details are expected soon. We’ll keep you posted.

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Batman: The Movie gets Blu-ray release

Fox Home Entertainment has announced they will bring the 1966 classic Batman: The Movie to Blu-ray on July 1, 2008. The movie will be presented in 1080p with 5.1 DTS HD Master Audio.

Extras include: commentary by actors Adam West and Burt Ward, commentary by screenwriter Lorenzo Semple, Jr., isolated score track, pop-up trivia, original teaser and theatrical trailers, galleries and much more.

There will also be a limited edition released with only 5,000 copies made which will include a 1/18th scale Batmobile from Hot Wheels.

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New PS3 firmware released

Just a heads up to let you all know that the new Sony PlayStation 3 firmware, version 2.20, launched last night. As mentioned before, the new update adds Blu-ray Disc Profile 2.0 (BD-LIVE) support. All you have to do is go to the System Update section of the PS3 menu and the download will start. It should take no more than 10 minutes. That’s all you have to do. You now have a 2.0 Blu-ray player and are ready to take advantage of new Blu-ray features.

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Semi-Pro scores June Blu-ray release

New Line has announced a June 3rd release date for Will Ferrell’s Semi Pro, which will arrive in an unrated “Let’s Get Sweaty” two-disc special edition.

It’s safe to assume the quick turn around from its theatrical release to home video is due to the fact that the movie didn’t do so well at the box office, pulling in (as of this blog post) only $32 million domestically.

In my opinion, its R rating hurt the film’s potential. PG-13 would have brought in the millions of a teenagers between the ages of 13 and 16 who can’t get into a 17 and over R rated movie. Hopefully the movie will find a larger audience when it arrives on DVD and Blu-ray this June.

Semi-Pro will be presented in 1080p with DTS-HD Lossless Master Audio 7.1 Surround.

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Motley Crue and Ozzfest rock out in high-def

Two new concert Blu-rays have made their way onto DVD Empire where they are up for pre-order.

Motley Crue: Carnival Of Sins — April 29, 2008
Ozzfest: 10th Anniversary — May 6, 2008

No details on bonus features are known at the moment, although these have both been previously released on DVD so we can expect to at least get whatever was on the DVD versions.

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A Passage to India debuts with Columbia Classics series

April 15th will mark the release date of A Passage to India, the first Blu-ray in Sony’s new Columbia Classics series.

The film will include audio commentary with producer Richard Goodwin and seven making-of featurettes and an all-new graphic and subtitle trivia track.

Specs: 1080p/AVC MPEG-4 video, English and French Dolby TrueHD 5.1 Surround audio and  English, French and Spanish subtitles.

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