Five Years with Blu-ray - Part Three

In five years, Blu-ray has certainly broken through and achieved the market penetration and consumer awareness that the format needed to survive. Had the format war with HD-DVD not been rectified and both formats hobbled on, this certainly would not have occurred. A visit to your local video shop or retailer is indicative of the strength of support that exists for the format. Retail stores simply won't invest in floor space when money is not being returned. That the Blu-ray section at my local JB Hi-Fi grows larger and larger every time I visit is evidence that the format is not going anywhere.

Despite this, there exists some media commentators and certain companies with vested interests who downplay the success of Blu-ray and insist that other technologies will soon surpass it. This is grossly exaggerated at best, and woefully misguided at worst. The truth is, Blu-ray is here for the long haul. It will continue chipping away at the market share of DVD until the lustre of the format is well and truly depleted.

Mainstream success is of course, a double edged sword. In the early days of the format, much effort was expended to woo movie buffs with extensive and cutting edge features which offered major points of difference over previous formats. Now that they've latched on, it seems studios are far more reluctant to invest in furthering the technology, and others are rarely used. Take for example some of the earlier Twentieth Century Fox titles, such as Independence Day, Master and Commander and Speed which used all manner of BD Java infused trivia games, meta data tagging and GPS tracking. Whilst none of these features are particularly missed, it is somewhat disappointing that more innovation has not taken place.

Another issue with having the bar pushed so high with spectacular video transfers, is when certain titles (especially of the catalogue variety) receive middling restorations, if any restoration at all. Universal Pictures are a frequent culprit, their transfers for recent releases such as Back To The Future and Jurassic Park were simply not up to scratch. Years ago we would have marvelled at their quality. But when films over double their age can look significantly better than these examples, then you know there are some issues. But as film restoration becomes cheaper, I would certainly hope that this trend reverses. Paramount and CBS' restoration of hundreds of hours of Star Trek: The Next Generation is hopefully the turning point for the industry, as long as it sells in sufficient quantities.

Last year's release of The Star Wars Saga on Blu-ray signalled more than any other the coming of age of the format. Despite this, there are many significant Hollywood titles which have yet to see a release. Disney plans to release their stable of animated classics over the next few years, including titles such as The Little Mermaid and Aladdin. James Cameron's Titanic, True Lies and The Abyss are all still outstanding. Some of Steven Spielbergs biggest hits including E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial, Jaws The Indiana Jones Trilogy and Schindlers List are due this year, along with the remainder of unreleased James Bond titles, and that's just to name a few. Blu-ray still has a very exciting future. There will be some disappointments and upsets along the way (I guess, thats why we still need reviewers), but I've no doubt the future is very bright indeed.

When you can walk into a department store and pick up a reputable brand name Blu-ray for under $100, not only is the future of Blu-ray secure, but the writing is on the wall for the DVD format. In the same way that you cannot purchase VHS titles and it's nigh impossible to find a standalone VHS player, so too will Blu-ray replace DVD. This might take a number of years, but it will happen.

But what about a future beyond Blu-ray? 4K resolution TV's are on the horizon. There will likely be a format to supersede Blu-ray. The HVD format seems to be the most developed as of now, but experience tells us that anything can happen in the weird and wild world of movie formats. Digital downloads and streaming services will continue to chip away at demand for physical media, but the lack of current infrastructure to facilitate the downloading of high resolution media, along with the hesitance of many to embrace formats they cannot hold or touch has surprised many media pundits.

We've come a long way in just five years. Watching a Blu-ray and finally being able to marvel at the love, care and art that has gone into their craft is an extremely gratifying experience for film buffs everywhere. Long live Blu-ray.

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Five Years With Blu-ray - Part One

Cast your collective minds back to mid 2006. I can't tell you much about that year, other than I'd just turned 20 years old. Wikipedia tells me Saddam Hussein was sentenced to death. Some bad stuff happened. Some good stuff happened. But the contextual relevance of 2006 is this was the year when the high definition formats HD-DVD and Blu-ray were released to the US market.

Despite multiple attempts at amalgamation, talks between the principal backers of Sony and Toshiba had broken down spectacularly and both were working feverishly to bring their products to market first - which was thought to be key to their relative success or failure.

By mid 2006, the first Blu-ray discs had made their way to market, principally from Sony Pictures, including; 50 First Dates, The Fifth Element, Hitch, The House of Flying Daggers, Underworld Evolution, xXx and The Terminator. HD-DVD had beat them to the punch two months earlier by releasing a line-up which included The Last Samurai, Million Dollar Baby, and The Phantom of the Opera, a milestone achieved through that formats initially cheaper manufacturing process and higher yields compared to Blu-ray.

So to Blu-ray was also beaten to the punch with hardware, for some months the only way to play a Blu-ray was through a PC Blu-ray ROM. Toshiba was far more prepared, releasing multiple HD-DVD players to satisfy varying price points. By the end of 2006, Sony had finally caught up with the release of their flagship player, the behemoth BDP-S1 (it weighed some 10 kilograms), but its necessary multiple firmware upgrades following launch, along with unacceptable load times was indicative of the rush to market that would cripple Blu-ray for some time.

Sony's PlayStation 3 fared much better. For some time, this was the white hot hope for Blu-ray's ongoing success, in much the same way that the runaway success of the PlayStation 2 seven years before solidified DVD as the successor to VHS. Whilst the formidable weapon was due to be released worldwide in November 2006, shortages in Blu-ray ROM components forced the delay of the console in Europe and Australasia regions until March 2007. Even so, shortages were commonplace and retailers had to make do with short shipments and even smaller allowances of critical accessories such as the Blu-ray remote control - one of the ways that industry could ascertain how many consumers were purchasing the game system to be used as a Blu-ray player.

Despite some notable public relations faux pas', a wide and damaging internet campaign of hate directed at Sony, an extremely high launch price of $599 USD ($999 AUD) and a newly aggressive Microsoft with the second iteration of the Xbox console, the PlayStation 3 sold well in the lead up to Christmas, which gave Blu-ray backers considerable hope for the future.

By mid 2008 the format wars had reached fever pitch. Microsoft, Intel and HP had thrown their vocal support behind HD-DVD, as did Paramount Pictures who were whisked away from format neutrality by a $150 million dollar deal with Toshiba. Coupled with exclusive studio Universal and favourable behaviour by Warner Brothers, in opposition to Twentieth Century Fox, Sony Pictures and Disney who all exclusively backed Blu-ray. Hundreds of millions of dollars were ploughed into partner support and advertising. Online forums bayed for the blood of the opposing format. But by the end of the year, the cracks were beginning to show. For big box retailers where floor space equals money, it was proving increasingly difficult to support both formats and it came to pass that many including larger players Best Buy and Target dropped support for HD-DVD, as did rental outlets Netflix and Blockbuster.

However, Toshiba was still in the game. Months of preparation was culminating for the annual Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, where Toshiba planned to strike back with a renewed surge against Blu-ray. But like a Judas kiss, the death knell for HD-DVD was delivered by one its staunchest supporters - Warner Brothers. Withdrawing support for the format was the killer blow that HD-DVD could not hope to recover from. Toshiba immediately withdrew from the 2008 CES show with a mere few days notice to decide its next move. A month later it revealed it - effective immediately Toshiba ceased all manufacturing and abandoned the format.

With the battle over, the Blu-ray camp fired on all cylinders. But another battle loomed on the horizon - the rise of downloadable content.

In the second part of the series, I'll discuss the continued impact of the formats rush to market and the struggles (and wins) of the Blu-ray format until today.

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2012 - Not a blue year for Blu-ray

Despite what the Ancient Mayans may lead you to believe, 2012 will be another good year for the Blu-ray format, with a solid batch of new summer blockbusters, along with many more classics from the back catalogue which have yet to see a high definition release. Let's take a look at what beauties we have to look forward to.

New releases

Steven Spielberg and Peter Jackson's visualisation of Herge's classic The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn will arrive in both 2D and 3D versions in the second quarter. The maligned and unnecessary remake of the 80's disco classic Footloose has yet to be set. Before the release of the last part in the saga, The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 1 will see a release, Dreamwork's Shrek spin-off character Puss In Boots will see a 2D and eventual 3D release, Disney's revitalised The Muppets will bow in the second quarter, the blink-and-you'll-miss-it cinema release of The Three Musketeers might find a larger audience on disc in both 2D and 3D versions, the remake of John Carpenters The Thing would be best avoided (trust me). The hilarious Horrible Bosses will definitely be a keeper in January, Sony's The Smurfs was much better than expected and is released in 2D and 3D versions in January and the monstrosity known as The Zookeeper shouldn't be, but will be released in January.

The forthcoming cinema releases will all receive a Blu-ray release before the end of the year pending any sort of disaster, including; Men In Black 3, The Avengers, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, The Dark Knight Rises, GI Joe: Retaliation, Red Tails, Underworld: Awakening, Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance, Dr. Seuss' The Lorax, Wrath of the Titans, Battleship, Snow White and the Huntsman, Madagascar 3, Brave, Prometheus, The Amazing Spider-Man, Total Recall, War Horse.

Catalogue

Whilst the last few years has mined a lot of gold, including the late 2011 release of the much loved Jurassic Park Trilogy and the Star Wars Saga, 2012 will continue filling out the gaps in the Blu-ray back catalogue.

Headlining the 100th anniversary of Paramount Pictures will be the release of at least the first Indiana Jones adventure - Raiders of the Lost Ark, but likely the entire trilogy of unreleased titles. Spielberg's Jaws has been confirmed for later in the year and E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial has been rumoured, and likely considering the titles 30th anniversary. To coincide with theatrical release of The Secret World of Arietty, Madman are due to release one of Miyazaki's best, Howls Moving Castle. Sony will release the mediocre Men In Black 2 before the release of the third film, Paramount have set a February release for Transformers: Dark of the Moon in a 3D special edition, to tap into the 100th anniversary of the Titanic disaster Fox will theatrically re-release Titanic in April, and a 3D and 2D Blu-ray release will follow soon after. Similarly, Fox will return to the Star Wars well to release the Phantom Menace in cinemas and a 3D Blu-ray release will likely follow.

Disney plan to fill out the gaps in the classic animation collection with confirmed February releases of Lady and the Tramp Pocahontas, late 2012 release of Cinderella, but releases of Robin Hood, Tarzan and possibly The Hunchback of Notre Dame are all widely tipped. Sony's multi-year restoration of Lawrence of Arabia is finally set for a mid-year release, and their much delayed release of Bad Boys 2 will finally see the light of day. Monty Python and The Holy Grail will return in a 35th anniversary set mid year. Fox will release one of the final entries in the classic Rogers and Hammerstein collection The King and I later in the year. Panasonic's timed exclusitivity for the 3D Blu-ray release of Avatar expires in February, so a wide retail release can be expected along with a new transfer of The Terminator which will likely take centre stage to a special edition Blu-ray re-release, along with first time releases of True Lies and The Abyss. Hitchcock's Dial M For Murder will likely see a 2D and 3D release midyear from Warner, and Universal will unleash The Birds around the same time.

To coincide with the theatrical release of the latest James Bond title Skyfall in November, now that MGM's financial woes are over, look for all of the outstanding James Bond titles including my personal favourite GoldenEye, along with Tomorrow Never Dies, You Only Live Twice, Diamonds Are Forever, On Her Majesty's Secret Service, The Spy Who Loved Me, Octopussy and the truly awful A View To A Kill.

Finally, if all goes to plan with the current transfer and restoration of the 35mm elements of Star Trek: The Next Generation, we should be able to unwrap a high definition of Season for Christmas.

So save your pennies folks, there is a hell of a lot to look forward to over the course of 2012.

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2012 - Not a blue year for Blu-ray

Disney plan to fill out the gaps in the classic animation collection with confirmed February releases of Lady and the Tramp Pocahontas, late 2012 release of Cinderella, but releases of Robin Hood, Tarzan and possibly The Hunchback of Notre Dame are all widely tipped. Sony's multi-year restoration of Lawrence of Arabia is finally set for a mid-year release, and their much delayed release of Bad Boys 2 will finally see the light of day. Monty Python and The Holy Grail will return in a 35th anniversary set mid year. Fox will release one of the final entries in the classic Rogers and Hammerstein collection The King and I later in the year. Panasonic's timed exclusitivity for the 3D Blu-ray release of Avatar expires in February, so a wide retail release can be expected along with a new transfer of The Terminator which will likely take centre stage to a special edition Blu-ray re-release, along with first time releases of True Lies and The Abyss. Hitchc ock's Dial M For Murder will likely see a 2D and 3D release midyear from Warner, and Universal will unleash The Birds around the same time.

To coincide with the theatrical release of the latest James Bond title Skyfall in November, now that MGM's financial woes are over, look for all of the outstanding James Bond titles including my personal favourite GoldenEye, along with Tomorrow Never Dies, You Only Live Twice, Diamonds Are Forever, On Her Majesty's Secret Service, The Spy Who Loved Me, Octopussy and the truly awful A View To A Kill. Read more at Tweaktown.

2012 - Not a blue year for Blu-ray - More news at DV Hardware

Toy Story 3 3D (2010) Blu-ray Movie Review

15 years after the first Toy Story film, Pixar return to the series that started it all, capping the series off with an emotional and fun ride for the kids of today, but especially so for the kids that grew up in the early 90's whom have grown up with the films.

Andy has grown up and is about to leave home to go to college. The toys don't get played with much these days, but at least they've stayed together. All this is threatened when the toys find themselves at the mercy of the aggressive play at the local day care centre - if they don't make a timely escape, they'll face certain death. But escape may prove difficult under the watch of the bad toys at Sunnyside day care.

Toy Story 3 is a heartwarming capper to a series which has grown in stature and become even more beloved as time has gone by. With fly-by-night films filling toy store shelves and then disappearing just as fast, there are very few film series that can sustain the interest of the public for 15 years, but Toy Story has done just that. I'd always wanted a Woody and Buzz toy for my own, and a few months did just that...but ended up buying the whole collection. That kind of dedication doesn't happen for every film.

Video

Toy Story 3 3D is presented in the aspect ratio of 1.78:1 (its original aspect ratio), encoded with MVC compression.

3D fans might be slightly disappointed by the presentation of Toy Story 3 3D, but it's nothing to do with the technical qualities of the disc. The truth is, the film has some of the most subtle 3D effects yet seen for a 3D film, so those looking to be poked in the eye by a toy should go and play with a toddler. Roger Ebert even advocated to audiences to skip seeing the film in 3D and go straight to the 2D presentation for a brighter image. Ultimately on Blu-ray you have the choice between the 3D and 2D presentation, and truthfully I will probably opt for the 2D version in most cases. The irony is of course that Toy Story 3 is the only film in the series to be natively produced in 3D, yet is also the least impressive.

Despite this, the 2D presentation is simply amazing, with great colours and a razor sharp presentation (as one would expect). The jump in animation quality between the 3 Toy Story entries is really a sight to behold, to the point where it's almost jarring - but it's responsible for its emotional edge over its predecessors.

Overall, another impeccable result from Disney.

Audio

The main audio track is encoded with DTS HD Master Audio 7.1 at 24 bits.

The same amazing mix is featured on both the 3D and 2D versions, and either way they are extremely aggressive and involving mixes. It's hard to imagine but every animated film needs to have an audio mix built from the ground up. Whilst this gives the audio designers leverage to do whatever they want, there is still a sense of reality that must be injected to not completely isolate an audience.

An amazing track that is sure to be a family friendly, demo-worthy track.

Extras

Unfortunately, for this 3D re-release of Toy Story 3, Disney have dropped the 2nd Blu-ray disc of extra features which was included on the previous 2D Blu-ray release which means that fans will want to hold on to the original release to retain all the features. The following features are found on the 2D disc.

Day and Night harkens back to the days of cinema being used to exhibit short films, and this is one of Pixar's latest, but completely separate from any existing franchise or characters. It's cute, but I found out it wore out its welcome relatively quickly.

The Buzz Lightyear Mission Logs is a very short featurette which explains the concept of space travel to the littlies.

The Toys featurtette briefly discusses the introduction of some of the new characters and locations featured in Toy Story 3.

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Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones (2002) Blu-ray Movie Review

Despite its commercial success, many Star Wars fans were left confused and disappointed by The Phantom Menace, which by the time the next prequel was released, had hardened into staunch negativity. This made the launch of Attack of the Clones a harder sell for LucasFilm and Fox, however a strong film could have turned it around. Unfortunately, Clones seemed to take many of the complaints of its predecessor on board and magnify them exponentially.

Anakin Skywalker (Hayden Christensen) has grown up to be a confident, albeit arrogant Jedi under the tutelage of Obi-Wan Kenobi (Ewan MacGregor), who's command of the Force is undoubtedly strong, but altogether reckless. The Jedi are spread thin across the galaxy to defend the Republic from the growing threat of the Separatists, led by Count Dooku (Christopher Lee) but a pawn to be manipulated by Darth Sidious (Ian McDiarmid). When the Jedi become aware of a giant army of humanoid clones designed for the purposes of battle, the wheels for all out war start to grind into action. Amidst this backdrop, Anakin Skywalker now reunited with Padme Amidala (Natalie Portman) foster an impossible relationship which feeds into Anakin's anxiety for control and love.

Attack of the Clones is essentially a good story, told poorly. Once again, the actors look confused and unconvincing composited from the blue screen into an ILM created backdrop. The Clone War battle is basically a joke; the most bloodless, unrealistic and cartoony portrayal of war ever seen. There are no consequences to any actions, making the sequences feel like watching someone play a video game. The script, despite input from screenwriter Jonathan Hales, is still very pedestrian and despite some effort by the cast to inject warmth and humanity into its robotic words.

Overall, Attack of the Clones solidified to many that Lucas had lost the handle on the franchise and left many hardcore and casual fans alike rather disappointed one times too many.

Video

Attack of the Clones is presented in the aspect ratio of 2.35:1 (its original aspect ratio), encoded with AVC MPEG-4 compression.

Unlike Menace, Clones had a state of the art DVD transfer, the first live action DVD to be mastered from digital files. As such, this Blu-ray whilst still a generational leap in quality, is just not to the same level.

Ten years ago, Lucas shot Clones on the Sony/ Panavision CineAlta 24p 1080 camera. Think about the amazing leaps in digital photography quality we've had in this time. They are significant. Most digitally shot films are now lensed at 4K resolution, so it's kind of a shame that 1080p will be the best Clones will ever look, unless the live action segments are upconverted - which is unlikely. The transfer's digital pipeline certainly magnifies the cartoony CG aspects of the film, making it appear all the more unrealistic. But that is the film and little can be done about that.

Colours are generally bright and bold, with a fairly sharp amount of detail, even if some live action is strangely soft in focus (which was apparently a deliberate decision of Lucas whilst filming).

So for all intents and purposes, save for compression, this Blu-ray might as well be the films master. The reality is it will never look better than it does here.

Audio

The main audio track is encoded with DTS HD Master Audio 6.1 at 24 bits.

Sound mixer Gary Rydstrom knows how to mix a film and he returns for the last time to the Star Wars universe to create an aggressive, full blooded mix with deep and booming bass that will rock the foundations of the home theatre. The mix has been accused of being 'overly cooked' by some home theatre gurus, but most will simply turn it up. It's amazing.

Whilst there is no real issue with hearing dialogue, occasionally it becomes obvious that some of the on-set dialogue which should have been re-recorded has not been, and has a noticeable hiss underneath it. The lossless nature of the track means it's not able to hide deficiencies as well as before.

The soundtrack by John Williams is quite reasonable, although far from his best. George Lucas evidently didn't love it that much either. He cut it to bits during post production and added segments from Menace. If you have a keen ear, the sloppy editing does become fairly obvious.

Surround channel use is very high and when the clone battle begins, you'll at least believe you are there.

This is a reference quality mix. My cat hates it, but it gets a thumbs up from me.

Extras

Again, LucasFilm have included some worthwhile extra features designed to co-exist with the previous DVD supplements. That is, they aren't replicated here, so you'll have to hang onto your old DVDs to retain everything.

The main disc features two audio commentaries. The first is carried over intact from the DVD release, featuring George Lucas and many members of the crew, including Producer Rick McCallum, Sound Editor Ben Burtt and ILM staff. The second, newly produced track is comprised of interview comments and edited together in a fairly relevant and cohesive manner.

The remaining bonus features are contained on the first extras disc, along with the bonus features for Phantom Menace and Revenge of the Sith For this review, I will talk about the bonus features relevant to Attack of the Clones. The bonus features are divided by the four 'worlds' relevant to the plot: Coruscant, Naboo, Tatooine and Geonosis.

Next up are five Deleted Scenes including a more explained backstory for Count Dooku leaving the Jedi order, a very unfinished extended speeder chase (the sequence was already way too long), more light on Anakin's nightmares, a brief talk between Anakin and Padme's disturbingly Australian father and a subplot from the climactic end battle where Jedi master Ki-Adi Mundi leading an attack on the droid control ship.

The Overview segments are some of the more interesting features on the disc, which take a brief look at each of the four menu worlds. Despite their brief length of just 3-4 minutes each, there is a lot of information imparted and they are edited very well together.

Next are a few brief Interviews segments; one with Ewan McGregor and another with Hayden Christensen, and another brief segment with Hayden Christensen and Christopher Lee discussing the complexities of blue screen photography.

The Collection shows a few of the stunning models, costumes and creatures created for the film, with impressive 360 degree turns which show the detail the artisans went to.

Finally, the concept art gallery brings a handful of high resolution concept art sketches and artwork to screens. Star Wars fans will recognize a lot of this art from the 'Art of Star Wars' series of books. Whilst much of the art is impressive, I've always disliked on screen still galleries and this doesn't change my mind.

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