It’s the return of Superman Returns, along with a few more titles that Warner is re-issuing as non-combo discs. This shaves about $4 off the price of the combo version, and finally removes the price disparity between HD DVD and Blu-ray versions of these movies.

Many HD DVD fans won’t miss the DVD version on the flip-side of the disc at all. The reissued discs are The Ant Bully, The Departed, The Fountain, Good Night and Good Luck, Happy Feet, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, Lady in the Water, The Lake House, Letters from Iwo Jima, Rumor Has It, and Superman Returns.

The bad news is that the week only brings a few brand-new discs: Top Gun, A Room with a View, Dreaming Nevada, and Galapagos. It’s as if they spent all their time gearing up to put the reissues out.

The four new discs: (all links go to Amazon.com pages)

Top Gun (1986) Tom Cruise, Kelly McGillis, Val Kilmer, Anthony Edwards Directed By Tony Scott Rated PG

A Room with a View (1986) Maggie Smith, Helena Bonham Carter Directed by James Ivory Unrated

Dreaming Nevada Not rated

Galapagos (2006) Narrated by Tilda Swinton Not rated

And the reissued discs… (more…)

Better educating consmers about the benefits of high-definition is a top priority for HD manufacturers and retailers alike. The HD DVD group has decided to make things a little more enticing for the “students” by offering a “scholarship” of sorts in their latest promotion: a $25,000 high-def home theater makeover (naturally featuring HD DVD of course) as well as some tips for going high-def.

The entry form is available at the HighDefYourHome.com web site, and the education part consists of a link to collection of tips by Omar Wasow, such as (I’ve summarized the actual tip wording):

• Get a Game Plan

Don’t rush in, think it all out. This can be a big project.

• Think Outside the Living Room

A rarely-used dining room might make a good spot, as might a room with few windows and a large wall.

• See the Big Picture

Purchase the screen first and put it at eye-level.

• Equip Yourself

(more…)

Study results from the NPD group show that 73% of HDTV owners claimed to be satisfied with their current DVD player and felt no need to go high-def via either Blu-ray or HD DVD. Only 11% of them expressed a strong interest in buying a high-def player in the next six months, with 62% stating they’re waiting for prices to come down.

In an interview at Beta News, NPD analyst Russ Rubin points out that some consumers only start seeing the differences between up-converted movies versus those playing on high-def players when things are pointed to them.

Another executive NPD analyst said that “Once consumers become convinced of the superiority of high-def, and find a way to navigate the format issues, there will be a great deal of pent-up demand for HD DVD or Blu-ray content.”

These reports of consumer ignorance are consistent with news from a Best Buy study where it seems that lots of people enter into an HDTV purchase without really knowing what they’re getting into. The survey polled 1,012 customers from August 3 to August 5, and found that 89% of people admitted to lacking a proper understanding of HDTV technology. Nearly half (48%) of customers don’t account for the fact that they’ll probably also need to sign up for some kind of HD service from cable or satellite (and probably invest in a high-definition player too). (more…)

Pricing on individual discs is still a little irritating to many of the early adopters who haven’t been able to pick up as many movies as they’d probably like to, but Warner is going a long way towards easing some of that pain. Earlier in the month, they released their “Best of HD DVD” bundles which pack four movies in each set. Naturally, the price of the set is less than getting each movie individually.

Two new “Best of HD DVD” sets have just been announced with Nov. 6 release dates, and they include some of the movies that were released in the the last couple of weeks. If you were already thinking of picking up one or more of these movies, check out the bundle and see if it’s worth waiting until November and getting a whole set instead.

It’s pure genius to release the Family bundle in time for Christmas shopping.

Action: Best of HD DVD Alexander Revisited Troy: Director’s Cut Blood Diamond Wyatt Earp

Family: Best of HD DVD The Ant Bully Happy Feet Scooby-Doo Tim Burton’s Corpse Bride

Clicking on the links takes you to the relevant Amazon pages for pre-ordering.

Just about every HD DVD studio is represented in the ten movies released this week.

Paramount’s Releases

Next (2007) Nicolas Cage, Julianne Moore, Jessica Biel Director: Lee Tamahori Rated PG-13

Warner’s Releases

The Wild Bunch (1969) William Holden, Ernest Borgnine Director: Sam Peckinpah Rated R

Wyatt Earp (1994) Kevin Costner, Dennis Quaid, Gene Hackman Direcor: Lawrence Kasdan Rated PG-13

Gods and Generals (2003) Jeff Daniels, Stephen Lang, Robert Duvall Director: Ronald F. Maxwell Rated PG-13

Gothika (2003) Halle Berry, Robert Downey Jr. Director: Mathieu Kassovitz Rated R

Anime from Bandai Visual

Freedom Vol. 2 (2007) Daisuke Namikawa, Morikubo Shotaro Director: Shuhei Morita Unrated

Universal’s Releases

Knocked Up (2007) Seth Rogen, Katherine Heigl Director: Judd Apatow Rated R

The Getaway (1994) Alec Baldwin, Kim Basinger Director: Roger Donaldson Unrated (film was originally rated R)

Patch Adams (1998) Robin Williams, Peter Coyote Director: Tom Shadyac Rated PG-13

Evening (2007) Barry Bostwick, Glenn Close, Vanessa Redgrave, Toni Collette, Meryl Streep Director: Lajos Koltai Rated PG-13

Freedom: 2 is the second episode in the Freedom OVA series (Original Video Animaton – a series specifically released on DVD and perhaps later to theaters or television). In Japan, the series is already heading into its sixth episode, and we’re only now getting the second one here on HD DVD. It’s actually part of an advertising campaign for Nissin Cup Noodles, but this aspect is subtle enough to not be a distraction.

Aside from the fact that Freedom was the first HD DVD anime in North America, it’s also notable because these are also the first TWIN format discs released here. A TWIN disc has both the HD DVD and DVD layers on the same side. Whereas a traditional combo disc requires you to flip the disc to select formats, on a TWIN disc, you just pop it in, and your HD DVD or DVD player automatically reads the appropriate format.

The last review here was for the venerated Royal Space Force, a classic hand-drawn anime. Freedom is a bit more modern, not only in that its story takes place in the 23^rd century, but also (more…)

Next week’s release of Halo 3 wasn’t the only news making the rounds at Xbox fan sites. Word started to spread really fast about a new HD DVD drive for the Xbox 360. It all started with an article at Personal Computer World UK, that quoted Mark Bennett, Microsoft’s European business development director for HD DVD, saying that a new HD DVD drive was coming in 2008 for the Xbox 360. These remarks were made at a presentation commemorating Microsoft’s 25th anniversary of making hardware (keyboards, mice, etc.). As websites were busy repeating the news, Microsoft contacted gadget site, Gizmodo, to deny that there’s a new drive coming next year, and that this whole story is based on a misquote.

It is routine procedure for Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo to deny stories about price cuts and new hardware, (more…)

HDi, Microsoft’s implementation of the interactivity layer (developed with input from Disney) for the HD DVD format now has an official logo program. This means that products which support or feature HDi can display the HDi logo so that consumers can make better-informed purchases. This is an important point to note because LG’s first dual-format player did not support HDi, which is actually a mandatory feature on all HD DVD players.

All Toshiba HD DVD players have supported HDi, and in a couple of months the new third-generation units will sport the HDi logo. Movies that have HDi features will also display that logo on their packaging, which will make it easier to figure out whether a movie has any kind of advanced interactivity in it or not.

All HD DVD movies already have some kind of HDi, even if it’s just the live menus during movie playback (instead of stopping the movie to go to the menu). What’s more interesting is the web-enabled aspect. (more…)

Details for the HD DVD release of Shrek the Third are out, and it’s also ready for pre-order at Amazon. The disc includes the standard bonus material of deleted scenes, trailers, and the usual short features, and the HD DVD version goes beyond by including:

• “The Animator’s Corner” — a picture-in-picture commentary with storyboards, deleted scene pitches and technical bloopers
• Shrek’s Trivia Track
• Customizable menu skins
• Donkey’s Digital Coloring Book
• Web features to be announced later

There’s likely to be some more information about the disc as we get closer to its November 13 street date. As they did with Transformers and many other movies, the audio is done as 5.1 Dolby Digital Plus instead of Dolby True HD and we’ll have to see if that turns out to be a disadvantage or not when the reviews come out.

Speaking of discs where there’s likely to be more information… We’ve already known that the Harry Potter series is coming to HD DVD this Christmas as a box-set. We now have word that the movies are also coming out as individual discs, and while digging around at Amazon, I found that they’ve started to take preorders on the first three four. The most recent two are one is still in the “notify me when this product becomes available” stage. All of these Harry Potters list for $30 each, but go for about $20.

• Shrek the Third
• Pre-order Harry Potter 1-5 Limited Edition Giftset on HD DVD
• Pre-order Harry Potter and the Sorceror’s Stone on HD DVD
• Pre-order Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets on HD DVD
• Pre-order Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban on HD DVD
• Pre-order Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire on HD DVD