Afternoon, folks. Hope you all had a great Christmas. I know many of you are still on holiday until right after the New Year, so continued fun to you and yours! Nevertheless we’ve got a couple news items for you this afternoon…

The big news today is that Warner Home Video has finally officially announced Ben Affleck’s Argo for release on Blu-ray Combo and DVD on 2/19 (SRP $35.99 and $22.97). Extras will include a feature-length Picture in Picture viewing option called Eye Witness Account, audio commentary with director Ben Affleck (and others TBA) and 4 featurettes (Rescued from Tehran: We Were There, Argo: Absolute Authenticity, Argo: The CIA & Hollywood Connection and Escape from Iran: The Hollywood Option).

Meanwhile, Sony has set Small Apartments for DVD-only release on 2/19. The film stars Billy Crystal, James Caan and Dolph Lundgren. No I’m not kidding. The studio also has Here Comes the Boom coming on Blu-ray and DVD on 2/5, followed by Chicken with Plums on DVD only on 2/26.

20th Century Fox has announced some catalog Blu-ray titles for early 2013, including French Kiss and One Fine Day on 1/8, Wild River, Gentleman’s Agreement and How Green Was My Valley on 1/15, and Laura on 2/5. As far as new releases, look for Late Quartet on 2/5 and Chasing Mavericks on 2/26.

Dark Sky Films will release Stitches on Blu-ray and DVD on 4/2.

Image Entertainment will release Ghoul on DVD only on 1/8.

Magnolia will release Royal Affair on both formats on 3/26.

Also, AIS in the U.K. has set Disney’s Flight of the Navigator for Blu-ray release on 1/29 (SRP $44.98). There’s a very good chance the disc is all-region. [Editor’s Note: This disc was released in the U.K. in November and is simply being imported for the U.S. market by Amazon.]

And in other news today, I’m afraid we have sad news to report: Actors Charles Durning and Jack Klugman have passed away, as well as veteran British TV producer Gerry Anderson.

Klugman was best known for TV’s The Odd Couple and Quincy, M.E. and also film roles in 12 Angry Men and Days of Wine and Roses among others. He was 90.

Among Durning’s credits were TV’s Evening Shade and such films as Tootsie, Dog Day Afternoon, To Be or Not to Be, The Sting and (my personal favorite) O Brother, Where Art Thou? He was also a World War II veteran and was among the first wave of troops to hit Omaha Beach on D-Day. He was 89.

And 1960-70s genre TV fans owe a great debt to producer Gerry Anderson for creating such classics as Thunderbirds, Stingray, Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons, Fireball XL5, UFO and Space: 1999 (note that Season Two is expected to finally be released on Blu-ray in late 2013 or early 2014) among others. The halls of Moonbase Alpha will never be the same without him. He was 83.

One last note: Our own Jeff Kleist posted a Blu-ray 3D review of New Line’s A Very Harold and Kumar Christmas yesterday, so do check it out if you’re interested. We’ll also have a couple of new columns from the guys over the next couple days, so do check back for them.

We’ll leave you today with a look at the final Blu-ray cover art for Warner’s Argo, as well as Sony’s Seven Psychopaths (due 1/29) and Fox’s Laura…

Stay tuned...

- Bill Hunt

All right… just a quick one today with three things for you:

First, our own Russell Hammond has updated the Release Dates & Artwork section with all the latest Blu-ray, DVD and Video Game cover artwork and Amazon.com pre-order links, as usual.

And Jeff Kleist has turned in a new installment of his The 3rd Dimension column featuring his thoughts on the theatrical experience of seeing The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey in HFR 3D. There are lots of mixed reviews of HFR 3D out there and Jeff does his best to try to puzzle out why. I’ve also added a couple comments on my own HFR viewings. We’ve each seen the film twice now in different display formats (IMAX, RealD, etc) and almost every screening seems to offer a different experience. Gizmodo has a piece up on this subject as well.

Finally today, we’re getting reports from readers that there may be an audio issue on some copies of Sony’s new Total Recall (2012) Blu-ray. Depending on the player used, viewers are reporting audio drop-outs near the beginning of the film and bursts of static around 70 and 105 minutes in. I’ve watched the Extended Cut via my Oppo BDP-83 and had no problems, but others are having issues on select Oppo and Sony units among others. It seems to happen most commonly when the player’s audio is set to bitstream as opposed to PCM. We’ll try to look into the matter and see what’s up – if there’s a firmware issue or simply bad discs in need of a replacement program. When Sony gets back to us we’ll let you know.

Back tomorrow – stay tuned!

- Bill Hunt

This is just a quick post to wish you and yours Happy Holidays and a very Merry Christmas! Cheers and seasons greetings from all of us here at The Bits!

Peace out!

- Bill Hunt

Well, folks… I hope you’re all enjoying yet another lovely Nopocalypse afternoon! It wasn’t the first time the less scientifically literate among our fellow Earthlings thought the world was coming to an end and it surely won’t be the last. I know the planet’s continued existence today is probably a bit of a surprise to those who’ve been watching The Hysterical (read: History) Channel from the fully-stocked panic bunker, but hey… if they were savvy shoppers all that freeze-dried food will still be good when the next big scare comes along! And I’ll bet the Christmas tree looks great down there underground.

By the way, I don’t think even the Mayans thought the world was really going to end today. If I’m not mistaken, their long-form calendar was just supposed to start over again like ours does on January 1st. But nobody ever sold a lot of books telling that story. ‘Cause you know… zombies!

For my part, I slept in a little bit this morning and then enjoyed my coffee while watching John Sturges’ 1957 classic Gunfight at the O.K. Corral. As some of you may know, I’ve got a real soft spot for a good western... especially those about the infamous Tombstone incident. Burt Lancaster and Kirk Douglas really deliver as Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday, and what I especially like about the film is the slow, deliberate pace Sturges uses to establish the friendship between the two men. It’s a great flick that Paramount should release on Blu-ray one of these days. For that matter, I’d love to see Fox release John Ford’s My Darling Clementine on BD too, but then I’m still hoping against hope that they’ll do more Master and Commander movies, so… you know.

Today’s column headline doesn’t just refer to the total lack of Mayan-themed chaos and carnage, by the way. Near as I can tell, there is almost no Blu-ray, DVD, high-definition or home theater related news to report this afternoon. Hollywood’s a ghost town by now – the studio execs have all flown off to Bermuda with their families and only lowly production assistants and interns remain in the office today to board up the soundstage doors and shutter the windows until after the New Year.

So… really… my only purpose here today is to shout out a friendly hello to all our readers – we hope this finds you well! And of course, all of us here at The Digital Bits wish you and yours safe travels this weekend as many of you head out to visit loved ones for the Christmas holiday. We’ll probably check in from time to time over the next week or so and we’ll be back for sure on Wednesday (and maybe Thursday too) with quick news updates. But in the meantime, all of you have a great holiday, eat lots of fine food, watch tons of excellent movies and just enjoy flat-out yourselves. Given all the crazy politics and tragedy and what have you of the past year, I’d say we’ve all earned a break and a much better 2013. So here’s to it!

Merry Christmas and whatnot! And always know that we’re really thankful to have such fine and admirable folks as yourselves as readers. Peace out!

- Bill Hunt

Okay, news is definitely slowing down today in advance of the Christmas holiday. But we do have a couple quick things to report today.

First, Warner Home Video and the BBC have set Being Human: Season 4 for release on Blu-ray and DVD on 1/15. However, Bits reader Brian B. reports (thanks, Brian!) that it’s already available at Walmart as a retail exclusive. Adjust your plans accordingly.

Warner and Viz Media have also set Inuyasha: The Movie - The Complete Collection for release on Blu-ray on 3/26 (SRP $29.99).

20th Century Fox has announced A Late Quartet for Blu-ray and DVD release on 2/5, followed by Atlas Shrugged: Part II on both formats on 2/19.

PBS has set Downton Abbey: Season 3 for release on Blu-ray and DVD on 1/29 (SRP $54.99 and $49.99). This is the U.K. edition with more than 2 hours of bonus content.

Lionsgate has set Abducted: The Carlina White Story, The Bay, Thomas & Friends: Go Go Thomas and Tyler Perry’s House of Payne: Volume Ten all for DVD release on 3/5.

And Gaiam Vivendi Entertainment and Nasser Entertainment will release The Bouquet on DVD only on 2/5.

Finally, all of those newly-announced Criterion March Blu-rays are now available for pre-order on Amazon, including Terrence Malick’s Badlands, Charlie Chaplin’s Monsieur Verdoux, Robert Bresson’s A Man Escaped, Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger’s The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp, Fritz Lang’s Ministry of Fear and Irvin S. Yeaworth Jr’s cult classic The Blob.

And that's all for now. Stay tuned...

- Bill Hunt

Every once in awhile, people try something crazy and new with cinema. From sound, to ultra-widescreen, Technicolor and 3D, to anamorphic projection, digital surround, digital 3D and even smell-o-vision (currently in Korea only), many of these innovations have been great improvements. Last weekend, the first change in close to a century in the frame rate that commercial cinema is projected in came to light with Peter Jackson’s The Hobbit.

High Frame Rate (HFR) projection is supposed to bring a more natural look to film, to smooth out the bumps in pans and vista shots, and to improve the 3D experience by having a lot more frames of information to keep the illusion alive. Anyone who knows me will tell you I’ve been really skeptical as to whether this would be an improvement and not a hot mess in an epic film like The Hobbit, especially since I saw a piece of the early test footage about six months back. Was I wrong? I hoped so.

All right, we have official word from Disney on the extras you’ll find on those new animated Blu-rays set for release on 3/12…

The Who Framed Roger Rabbit?: 25th Anniversary Edition BD will include 3 animated shorts (Tummy Trouble, Roller-Coaster Rabbit and Trail Mix-Up) all digitally remastered along with the Who Made Roger Rabbit? documentary, audio commentary, 5 featurettes (On Set! Benny the Cab, Behind the Ears: The True Story, Before & After Split-Screen, Toon Stand-Ins and The Valiant Files) a deleted scene, a gallery and the theatrical trailer.

The Mulan: 2 Film Collection BD (Mulan and Mulan II) will include audio commentary, 11 deleted scenes, 15 featurettes and 6 music videos.

The Brother Bear: 2 Film Collection BD (Brother Bear and Brother Bear 2) will include Rutt & Tuke’s commentary, a deleted song, deleted scenes, outtakes, Bear Legends, Sing-Along Songs, a music video and 2 featurettes (The Making of Brother Bear and Behind the Music of Brother Bear 2).

And The Hunchback of Notre Dame: 2 Film Collection (The Hunchback of Notre Dame and The Hunchback of Notre Dame II) will include audio commentary, a multi-language reel and 3 featurettes (The Making of The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Behind the Scenes with Jennifer Love Hewitt and A Gargoyle’s Life).

Also today, Warner Home Video has set The Factory for release on DVD and digital download on 2/19.

Drafthouse Films has set Wake in Fright for release on Blu-ray and DVD on 1/15.

Magnolia Home Entertainment will release Nature Calls and Nobody Walks on Blu-ray and DVD on 1/22.

Shout! Factory has set MADtv: Season 2 for DVD only release on 3/26.

And finally, Trek Core has posted a few details about the extras you’ll find on CBS’ Star Trek: Enterprise – Season One Blu-ray release which is tentatively expected to hit stores in March. All of the previous DVD content will carry over. New bonus features will include a 3-part making of documentary on the process of launching Enterprise and making the first season, all-new audio commentaries including one with executive producer Brannon Braga and actors Connor Trinneer and Dominic Keating on the episode Shuttlepod One, and video of an in-depth discussion between Braga and fellow executive producer Rick Berman. As with The Next Generation Blu-rays, Roger Lay Jr. and Robert Meyer Burnett are crafting the new documentary material. Sounds terrific!

Stay tuned…

- Bill Hunt

All right, kicking things off today, our own Russell Hammond has once again updated the Release Dates & Artwork section with all the latest Blu-ray, DVD and Video Game cover artwork and Amazon.com pre-order links. As always, a portion of absolutely anything at all that you order from Amazon in the same session after clicking through to them from our links goes to help support our work here at The Bits and we really do appreciate it!

The big release news today is that Criterion has announced their March Blu-ray and DVD slate, including Terrence Malick’s Badlands (Cat #651 - BD and DVD - due 3/19), Charlie Chaplin’s Monsieur Verdoux (#652 - BD and DVD - due 3/26), Robert Bresson’s A Man Escaped (#650 - BD and DVD - due 3/26), Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger’s The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp (#173 - BD and DVD - due 3/19), Fritz Lang’s Ministry of Fear (#649 - BD and DVD - due 3/12) and Irvin S. Yeaworth Jr’s cult classic The Blob (#91 - BD only - due 3/12)! Check out some of the cover art below.

Also, Paramount has set Paranormal Activity 4 for release on Blu-ray/DVD Combo and DVD on 1/29. It will include both the theatrical cut and an unrated cut of the film, along with The Recovered Files which is described as "nearly 30 minutes of found footage" (SRP $39.99 and $29.99).

Lionsgate and Summit will release The Cold Light of Day on Blu-ray and DVD on 1/29 as well.

And 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment has just made Taken 2 available in digital HD streaming on Amazon Instant Video, CinemaNow, Google Play, iTunes, NOOK Video, PlayStation, VUDU, Xbox Video and YouTube. Note that the Blu-ray and DVD versions street on 1/15.

Here’s a look at the Blu-ray cover art for some of Criterion’s March BD slate as well as Disney’s Brother Bear: 2 Movie Collection (due 3/12)...

Stay tuned!

- Bill Hunt

All right… just a couple quick items today but they’re good ones!

First up, Disney has officially set the Who Framed Roger Rabbit?: 25th Anniversary Edition Blu-ray for release on 3/12 (SRP $26.50). Not only will you find the cover artwork below, the title is already up for pre-order on Amazon.com!

Also today, Sony Pictures Home Entertainment has set Seven Psychopaths for release on Blu-ray and DVD on 1/29 (SRP $35.99 and $30.99). Extras will include 6 featurettes (Martin McDonagh’s Seven Psychopaths, Colin Farrell is Marty, Woody Harrelson is Charlie, Crazy Locations, Seven Psychocats and Layers).

Sony has also set Smashed for Blu-ray and DVD release on 3/12 (SRP $35.99 and $30.99). Extras will include audio commentary with director James Ponsoldt and actress Mary Elizabeth Winstead, a “making of” featurette, footage of the Toronto Film Festival Red Carpet and Q&A and deleted scenes.

And Amazon.com is now taking pre-orders for Paul Thomas Anderson’s The Master on Blu-ray and DVD from The Weinstein Company. Street date is TBA, but SRP is $39.99 and $29.99 respectively.

Here’s a look at the Blu-ray cover artwork for Disney’s Who Framed Roger Rabbit?: 25th Anniversary Edition, the Mulan: 2 Movie Collection and The Hunchback of Notre Dame: 2 Movie Collection (street date for all 3/12). All are now available for pre-order on Amazon by clicking on the covers…

Back tomorrow morning with more. Stay tuned…

- Bill Hunt

All right, given the tragic news of the day I’m sure many of you are about as interested in BD/DVD news as I am in reporting it. Nevertheless, there’s a bit of news. So here goes…

Lionsgate has added a couple more titles to its February release slate, including Weeds: Season Eight and Nurse Jackie: Season Four, both due on Blu-ray and DVD on 2/12.

Disney has set Michael Mann’s The Insider for release on Blu-ray on 2/19. And for you Disney animation fans, look for Brother Bear, The Hunchback of Notre Dame and a Mulan: Special Edition all on Blu-ray on 3/12.

Paramount is releasing the classic Sampson and Delilah on DVD on 3/12. No word yet of a Blu-ray release.

20th Century Fox is bringing The Bible to Blu-ray sometime in early 2013, probably right around Easter. Watch for an official street date shortly. Not sure if this is a new edition or a re-solicit of the 1966 John Huston film on BD that first came out in 2011.

And finally Cohen Media Group has set Farewell, My Queen for Blu-ray and DVD release on 1/15.

Finally today, as all of you know The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey is now playing at your local cineplex. I had to good fortune to catch an early screening of it in HFR 3D yesterday afternoon, and it’s well worth your time. However, I would suggest that if you’re planning on catching the 3D presentation, make sure it’s not one that uses active shutter glasses. That’s what I saw and while the film looked great, the active shutter glasses gave me a serious headache. I’ve heard that RealD 3D is the way to go, so I’m going to check it out again that way over the weekend hopefully to compare.

Anyway, have a great and safe weekend everyone. And our hearts go out to all those who've been affected by today’s sad events in Connecticut. Peace out.

- Bill Hunt