Universal is experimenting with video codecs, in the form of The Interpreter. The movie is encoded in AVC MPEG-4. This is a departure from the norm for Universal, who up until now have been using VC1 to encode their movies. Universal says that they ‘currently have no plans’ to abandon the VC1 codec.

Personally, I see this as a good sign. I think it’s good that Universal is experimenting. They have to figure out what codec is best for them, and putting out a movie in an alternate codec to see how it turns out is a great idea.

Supposedly the video reviews of this disc are rather mixed, so hopefully Universal’s next experiment goes better.

Universal Going MPEG-4?

Yesterday I put up an article discussing Swanni’s BD win scenario. Now another writer at TVPredictions has had his say, and he doesn’t toe the line. He thinks that Swanni’s off base. So what does this guy, Joseph Whip, have to say?

Mr. Whip thinks that BD will not become a major success, overthrowing HD DVD. While he thinks that HD DVD will do better, it won’t be a smashing success either. Basically, he says that they’ll both be losers. (My words, not his.) Both will languish as niche products, somewhat like laserdisc did. How could this happen? Mr. Whip suggests that HD downloads could play a big part. It could affect the success of both BD and HD DVD.

But!

But if this doesn’t happen, Mr Whip suggests that HD DVD will be the winner in the format war.

But why does he think HD DVD will do better? Cost for one. HD DVD players are cheaper. This is an argument that’s pretty hard to argue with. But HD DVD’s cost advantage won’t last forever. The PS3 is coming, and it’ll cost $500, the same price as the MSRP of the cheaper Toshiba HD DVD player.

Mr. Whip suggests that the PS3 won’t be used to play movies, but games, by the majority. I don’t know about that - I plan to use a PS3 as a BD player myself. Then he says that the HD DVD add-on for the Xbox 360 will be used to play movies, not games. True enough! But he heavily implies that Xbox 360 owners with this peripheral will be watching HD DVD movies by the hundreds of thousands, but that PS3 owners will not. But what’s to say the PS3 won’t also be used to play movies? Why would Xbox 360 owners watch movies in HD, but not PS3 owners? That I just don’t understand, and frankly moots his whole argument, in my opinion. If anything, more PS3 owners will watch HD movies than Xbox 360 owners, just because they don’t need to buy the peripheral, and they can do it right away!

Mr. Whip’s next point is that Disney and Fox are unhappy with the BD rollout so far. He suggests that therefore they may switch to HD DVD. Personally, I think it’s way to early to call that one. We’re in the very early stages of the format war, and to say that a studio will switch sides this soon is premature at best. It may happen, I just don’t think it would happen anytime soon. Which would give BD a chance to stretch its legs and start doing better than it has.

Read the article for more, and feel free to post your opinions. I won’t bite! Though I may disagree.

Blu-ray Wins? Not So Fast

So who’s the biggest of them all when it comes to selling HDTV’s? Best Buy? Fry’s? Wal-Mart?

Well, I don’t know if Wal-Mart sells the most HDTV’s. But according to this article over at TVPredictions, they definitely want to sell the cheapest, at least where flat-panel is concerned. Gary Severson, Wal-Mart’s chief of electronics and toys, says that Wal-Mart offers the cheapest flat televisions 88% of the time. And they’re working on the last 12%. I didn’t even know I could go to Wal-Mart to buy a 42″ Panasonic plasma, let alone that the price is $100 less than at Best Buy ($1,698).

I know someone who was a department manager at a Wal-Mart, and he says that getting the sale is the most important thing in the world to them. They will ruthlessly undercut prices, even taking a loss, to get people to buy at Wal-Mart instead of a competitor.

Hmmm. Makes me think that next time I need to get an HDTV, I should pick one up along with my Doritos. At Wal-Mart!

No One Beats the Wal-Mart?

Now how did I miss this? I scour the news every day, looking for news about HDTV related stuff, and I totally missed the fact that the Philips BD player is now selling.

Mmm. Unfortunately I don’t have an official press release, or an in-detail review or something like that. What I do have, however, is one user’s experience buying a Philips player from WalMart. The player seems to work fine and it doesn’t have any real issues that he noticed. It takes about 17 seconds to load up the movie once he hits the Open/Close button. Not bad. From the scene selections menu, however, it takes about 5 or 6 seconds to load up a scene. That’s not so good.

Anyway, I’ll keep you informed of any reviews I find. If I find them, that is. Harrumph.

The Philips Review thread

Swanni, the dude who likes to rate how good celebreties look in HD, has cast his ballot in the next-gen HD disc format war, and this ballot shows a checkbox next to Blu-ray. Why? I’ll run down the reasons here:

1. Studio Support
   I’m not surprised at all to see this on the list, but I would have added the support of the consumer electronics manufacturers to the list as well.
2. PlayStation 3
   Like the post by Mole yesterday says, the PS3 will add a bunch of BD players to market when they’re needed most.
3. Price
   This was strange to see, but Swanni gives his reasons. Check out the article!
4. Politics
   Will studios that support both formats feel pressure to pick a winner? Swanni seems to think they will, and that they’ll pick Blu-ray.
5. Peace Treaty
   Swanni predicts that Toshiba will see the end is near and will initiate peace talks. Personally I doubt this one.

So what do you all think of this list?

Blu-ray Will Win HDTV DVD War

Sorry about all this BD news of late (actually, no I’m not), but there’s been so much of it! This latest piece of news is another studio putting out 50GB dual-layer Blu-ray Disc movies. Buena Vista has announced that Enemy of the State (Nov 11), Flightplan (Nov 11), and Pearl Harbor (Dec 19) will be dual-layer BD releases.

Not only that, but the studio’s first day-and-date with DVD release was also announced. The title is Invincible, which will be released on December 19th, on both BD and DVD.

Unfortunately, there is no word on whether any of these titles are encoded in MPEG2, VC1, or MPEG4. Also unknown is what kind of soundtracks will be on the disc. Hopefully more studios start using Dolby TrueHD 7.1, which is an option BD and HD DVD format.

Buena Vista Unveils First Day-and-Date and 50GB Blu-ray Titles

I haven’t given a rundown of HD movie trailers in a while, and for that I’m sorry. But I’m back with this feature with a black and white movie set in 1945 Germany:

Based on the novel by Joseph Kanon, The Good German takes place in the ruins of post-WWII Berlin, where U.S. Army war correspondent Jake Geismar (George Clooney) becomes embroiled with Lena Brandt (Cate Blanchett), a former lover who is trying to escape her past in the aftermath of the war.

I might be showing how uncouth I am, but I’d prefer if the film was in colour! I kinda get what the director was after with this look, but that doesn’t mean I hafta like it! Other than that, this film looks like it might be good!

The Good German

Next up is a movie about some a trio of women called The Dreamettes.

Set in the turbulent early 1960s to mid-70s, Dreamgirls follows the rise of a trio of women - Effie, Deena and Lorrell - who have formed a promising girl group called The Dreamettes. At a talent competition, they are discovered by an ambitious manager named Curtis Taylor, Jr., who offers them the opportunity of a lifetime.

Dreamgirls

Then there’s Venus:

Venus tells the story of Maurice and Ian, a pair of veteran actors, whose comfortable daily routine is disrupted by the arrival of Ian’s grand-niece, Jessie. Maurice takes the teenager under his wing, but is surprised to discover how very little he actually knows now as his own life is drawing to a close.

Venus

Then there’s Norbit:

Norbit has never had it easy. As a baby, he was abandoned on the steps of a Chinese restaurant/orphanage and raised by Mr. Wong. Things get worse when he’s forced into marriage by the mean, junk food-chugging queen, Rasputia. Just when Norbit’s hanging by his last thread, his childhood sweetheart, Kate, moves back to town.

Norbit

And last up, Pan’s Labyrinth, a film by Guillermo del Toro:

Award-winning filmmaker Guillermo del Toro delivers a unique, richly imagined epic with PAN’S LABYRINTH, a gothic fairytale set against the postwar repression of Franco’s Spain. Harnessing the formal characteristics of classic folklore to a 20th Century landscape, del Toro delivers a timeless tale of good and evil, bravery and sacrifice, love and loss.

Pan’s Labyrinth