The Blu-ray Cover Art Gallery for the week of the 14th of February doesn’t have much for fans of block busters, but has a lot of those of more discerning tastes.

Lionsgate is releasing the first of their Studio Canal Collection on Blu-ray Disc, opening with French film Contempt, dark comedy The Ladykillers, as well as Akira Kurosawa’s Ran.

Not to be outdone, Criterion also has a selection of releases including Hunger,Revanche and Lola Montes.

Sony also has a foreign title with Coco Before Chanel , featuring Audrey Tautou ofAmelie and Da Vinci Code fame, while Warner has a cost down version of theDirty Harry Collection.

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Blu-ray Cover Art Gallery for the week of the 24th of January 2010 shows a number of new releases including the sci-fi thriller Surrogates with Bruce Willis, horror in the form of Saw VI, Michael Jackson’s last performances in This Is It and Drew Barrymore’s directorial debut with Whip It.

If drama is more your style, Universal has both Atonement and Pride & Prejudice and the Criterion Collection has Wim Wenders’ Paris, Texas.

Music lovers might enjoy Soul Power from Sony or a number of classical and opera releases.

Click on any cover to see the details for the title.

Something that has fascinated me a little lately is the trend towards DTS-HD Master Audio, to the point now where it has become the de facto standard for Blu-ray Disc releases.

A couple of studios have used it from the start - Fox, who also distributes MGM, took quite a bit of flack for using DTS-HD Master Audio on their releases back when there were no players capable of decoding it or even passing it on to a receiver.

Universal Studios has also religiously used DTS-HD Master Audio on their releases, though capable players were abound well before they finally started releasing Blu-ray discs after having been exclusive to the HD DVD format.

Disney and Lionsgate moved to DTS-HD Master Audio from Linear PCM and smaller distributors like Image Entertainment, the Criterion Collection and Magnolia Home Entertainment have started using DTS-HD Master Audio as a matter of course.

More interesting to me though is the defection of Sony Pictures Home Entertainment from Dolby TrueHD to DTS-HD Master Audio in recent times, as well as an apparent similar defection under way over at Warner Home Entertainment.

Sony has certainly already made the move and newly announced Warner titles inreasingly have DTS-HD Master Audio where in 2009 only a handful of titles used the codec.

While Paramount has also been predominantly using the Dolby TrueHD codec, there have been cases of DTS-HD Master Audio releases, especially associated with the Star Trek franchise.

I talked to both Sony and Dolby at CES this year and got differing answers regarding the SPHE move to DTS-HD Master Audio.

Dolby stated that the work flow for titles with TrueHD and seamless branching had difficulties, which pushed some studios to use DTS-HD Master Audio for certain titles at least.

This may be a credible reason that we see DTS-HD Master Audio on the Warner release for Watchmen, which used seamless branching for the Maximum Movie Mode on the title.

However we are seeing DTS-HD Master audio listed for upcoming Warner titles like Poseidon and The Box, which seem like fairly standard releases.

Talking to Sony I got a very different answer - they said that the move to DTS-HD Master Audio was one of consumer preference measured by an internet poll.

Regardless of the reasons behind the moves, it is interesting to see the DTS codec now dominating the Blu-ray landscape with over 45% percent of the lossless audio Blu-ray releases, when at launch it looked like it simply wasn’t ready for prime time at all.

If you have any thoughts on this, feel free to add your comments.

Looking over the Blu-ray Cover Art Gallery for the week of the 10th of January 2010, the titles that stand out for me are the new release from the Criterion Collection 8 1/2, the remake of Fame, critically acclaimed The Hurt Locker and perhaps Rob Zombie’s remake sequel Halloween II.

Science fiction fans might find the movie Moon to be down their alley, as well as a single disc, regular packaged version of The Matrix.

The Simpsons have their Complete Twentieth Season on Blu-ray, with a mixture of upconverted and true HD sourced episodes.

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Blu-ray Cover Art Gallery for the week of the 29th of November 2009

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Trust Amazon to torture me with a new promotion for Criterion titles.

Just after I invest a small fortune in half price Criterion Collection movies, Amazon goes and discounts them even further.

On the plus side, some of these titles were not on sale before.

The best deal is In the Realm of the Senses for only $15.99, saving almost $24 off the retail price.

At $16.99, you will find Last Year at Marienbad, The Last Emperor and Wages of Fear.

You can get The 400 Blows for $17.49 and For All Mankind, Kagemusha, Repulsion, The Seventh Seal and Playtime for $17.99.

There are still a number of half price titles, including Bottle Rocket, Chungking Express, Monsoon Wedding, Pierrot Le Fou and Wings of Desire.

Blu-ray Cover Art Gallery for the week of the 22nd of November 2009:

Click on any cover to see the details for the title.

Amazon has kicked off a new promotion listing Criterion Collection Blu-ray titles for half off at $19.99, matching deals at other retailers.

Titles in the promotion include Last Year at Marienbad, The Man Who Fell to Earth, For All Mankind, The Third Man, Chungking Express and The Seventh Seal.

While The Third Man is out of print at Criterion, it appears that Amazon is taking orders for it again.

Additionally, Jimi Plays Monterey & Shake! Otis At Monterey is available for $14.99 and Monterey Pop for $24.99 - again half off.

See a full list of titles after the break:

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Cover Art Gallery for the week of the 1st of November 2009

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Cover Art Gallery for the week of the 18th of October 2009:

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