Universal Home Video has announced the Blu-ray Disc release of Serenity 
for December 30th, 2008.
To be honest I am surprised that they waited this long - Firefly comes out tomorrow and that would have been an ideal tie in.
Retail will be $29.98, the Amazon price - only $21.95.
Friday The 13th has been freshly listed by Paramount Home Video, scheduled for a February 3rd, 2009 release.
Perhaps this is timed to coincide with the new Friday the 13th to be released in cinemas 0n February 13th 2009.
The retail price will be $29.99, pre-order at Amazon for $21.95.
If you were looking to get a new Blu-ray player or upgrade to the latest BD Live capable set top, or even add a Playstation 3 - now might be a good time!
Amazon currently has a deal where if you buy a new player and two Sony movie titles, you can choose two more movies for free!
Today the Kill Bill bundle at Amazon is the number one seller in DVDs, and for good reason.
Currently you can buy Kill Bill - Volumes 1 & 2 for only $27.95 - less than $14 a movie!
Shipping is free, so if you have been on the fence about these two, now is a great time to buy.
Universal Studios is releasing Death Race on December 23rd, 2008.
The disc features the unrated version of this remake featuring Jason Statham.
Retail has been set at $39.98, find it at Amazon for $29.95.
Lionsgate Home Entertainment has announced the Nicolas Cage movie Bangkok Dangerous for Blu-ray on January 6th, 2009.
This release will also contain a Digital Copy of the movie.
Retail has been set at $39.99, find it at Amazon for $27.99.
Amazon has a number of cool Blu-ray titles at great low prices today.
If you are one of the few that doesn’t own 300 yet, now is a good time to grab it, since Amazon has it for $14.95, a 57% saving off retail!
Amazon also has the recent Weinstein Company title Diary of the Dead release for $13.99, saving 53%.
Today I am going to start something new.
To my mind, there are four phases of a Blu-ray release. There is the announcement, the pre-order listing, the early copies and the street date, when we all get to enjoy the title.
So far I have largely ignored the announcements and talk about releases when the pre-orders are up. I took this approach since I always found it frustrating to hear about a new exciting release and then not be able to do anything about it!
By discussing the title when the pre-order is up, you can pre-order and forget it or now you can add it to your Wishlist and order it at your leisure.
Today however I want to focus on the early copies of the actual discs, since this is the first time that we get to see the real details of what is truly on the release.
The first post in this theme highlights the release of the most recent title from DreamWorks Animation - Kung Fu Panda.
Due to street in a week on Sunday November 9th, DreamWorks has treated us to a great release.
The movie was both critically acclaimed, with a Rotten Tomatoes score of 89% and IMDb score of 7.9/10, and a box office success, hauling in over $215M in the US alone.
The video on the disc is an AVC 1080p encode at almost 21 Mbps, and is presented in its original aspect ratio of 2.35:1.
The main audio is Dolby True HD Lossless with 5.1 channels - 24 bits resolution at 48 kHz.
The disc is a dual layer BD50, with 44.30 GB used and is coded for all regions.
Special features are numerous (see the High Def Douches review for more detail) and includes Bonus View Picture in Picture and BD Live Network features.
The retail price is set at $39.95, or get it at Amazon for $27.95, saving 30%.
Visit the details page for Kung Fu Panda to see full resolution screen captures taken from the disc.
All in all it looks like a great release from DreamWorks Animation!
I must admit that Fox has made me a very happy man with the latest list of announcements from the studio. There are a lot of great titles and what appears to be some movement in the pricing, which is refreshing to see.
20th Century Fox is releasing the Kiefer Sutherland movie Mirrors on January 13th, 2009.
It looks like the Panasonic love at Amazon is flowing, with the new Panasonic DMP-BD35K and Panasonic DMP-BD55K players shipping.
Both of these BD Live capable players are eligible for free Super Saving Shipping.
