Displaying items by tag: physical media

Afternoon, everyone! On this balmy day before Thanksgiving, we’ve got a trio of new disc reviews for you all to enjoy…

Dennis has offered his thoughts on Harry Beaumont’s Dance, Fools, Dance (1931) on Blu-ray from the Warner Archive Collection, as well as Brad Watson’s The Siege (2023) on Blu-ray from Well Go USA Entertainment.

And Tim has turned in his take on the box-office bonanza that is Greta Gerwig’s fascinating and unexpected Barbie (2023) in 4K Ultra HD from Warner Bros. Discovery Home Entertainment, which more than lives up to its clever marketing pitch: “If you love Barbie, this movie is for you!” and “If you hate Barbie, this movie is for you!” In my humble opinion, any film that starts with a bang-on spoof of Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey is worthy of serious consideration.

So we hope you enjoy those, and be aware that we’ll have one more review for you in time for the holiday tomorrow. As I’m sitting here in The Bits’ palatial West Coast headquarters drinking my morning coffee, I’m waiting patiently for the arrival of our review copy of Oppenheimer 4K, which should be here any time. [Read on here...]

Evening, folks! Sorry about the lack of an update yesterday, but I was A) busy working on several new disc reviews, and B) roped into doing the Thanksgiving grocery shopping here. And you know how that goes: It’s a zoo out there!

But as a result of our work, we’ve got no less than five new disc reviews for you to enjoy today...

First, Tim has taken a look at Brett Ratner’s The Silence of the Lambs prequel Red Dragon (2002), which is new on 4K Ultra HD from Kino Lorber Studio Classics.

Dennis has offered his take on William Kaufman and Johnny Strong’s Warhorse One (2023) on Blu-ray from Well Go USA Entertainment.

Stephen has delivered a look at Wes Anderson’s Asteroid City (2023) on Blu-ray from Universal, as well as Béla Ternovszky’s animated Cat City (1986) on Blu-ray from Deaf Crocodile and Vinegar Syndrome.

And I’ve posted my thoughts on Andrew Davis’ The Fugitive (1993) which just arrived today in a terrific new 4K Ultra HD release from Warner Bros. Discovery Home Entertainment, mastered from a new 8K scan of the original camera negative no less!

I’m also working on a review of Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer (2023) in 4K for posting very soon. The title streets today, but I’m still waiting on my review copy from Universal, which should be here in the next couple days. (FedEx is a little slow, what with the holiday week and all.) My review of the film itself is already complete, and as soon as the disc arrives I’ll dive right in and get the review posted ASAP. So be sure to watch for it. [Read on here...]

Today’s editorial is going to be brief, because frankly some of us here at The Digital Bits have grown a bit frustrated at this point. Disheartened by the state of things, as it were. So too—we suspect—have many of you, our dear readers and fans of physical media. But lately, after nearly twenty-six years of passionate advocacy for film, TV, and special edition content on disc, it’s come to our attention that a couple of the major Hollywood studios don’t seem to have quite that same passion for the subject anymore.

One of these—let’s call ‘em Garner Brothers—just announced a long awaited 4K Ultra HD catalog release with almost no special features. Certainly no newly-created special features, because this studio doesn’t seem to do many of those anymore, and almost no special features on the actual discs, which is where disc fans tend to prefer them. Instead, most of this title’s special features are included as Digital extras only.

Nor does this title include the most obvious extra that fans have been wanting for years, which is the uncut 81-minute “Festival Version” of a certain making-of documentary about this film. Why? Honestly, we’re not sure there’s many people left at this studio who even know that it exists or why fans might care about it. (And if there is, that person should definitely be given a bigger role in making these decisions.)

Now, all of this is particularly frustrating, because if you pre-order this same title on 4K UHD in the United Kingdom, you do get those extras on disc. What’s more, you get a couple of different deluxe packaging options with swag in the UK, both of them terrific, whereas here in the States, the packaging’s artwork simply makes fans of this film weep, created—as it seems to have been—by an intern and novice Photoshop user for reasons unknown (rather than using the film’s already existing poster or production art, which… again… is the kind of thing this studio’s best customers would actually prefer.) [Read on here...]

All right, so... I’ve got some interesting follow up on our Disney and Warner news from the past few days.

First though, we’ve got another review for you and more announcement news...

Tim has just turned in his thoughts on Steve Beck’s Thir13en Ghosts (2001), coming soon to Collector’s Edition Blu-ray from Scream Factory. Check that out here.

In release news, Lionsgate has just officially announced the 4K Ultra HD and Digital 4K release of Mamoru Oshii’s landmark anime Ghost in the Shell (1995) on 9/8, as expected. The 4K presentation will include Dolby Vision HDR and Dolby Atmos audio (in both English and Japanese, along with the original Japanese 2.0 LPCM audio), as well as both new and legacy special edition material. [Read on here...]

Well, the new week is here. And unfortunately, in the wake of our post on Friday about Walt Disney Home Entertainment’s catalog 4K plans (or lack thereof), the news today isn’t good either...

Per Deadline this morning, WarnerMedia has begun a round of layoffs and restructuring meant to help the company survive the pandemic and its resulting economic downturn. Jeffrey R. Schlesinger (President, Warner Bros. Worldwide Television Distribution), Ron Sanders (President, Worldwide Theatrical Distribution & Home Entertainment and EVP, International Business Operations), and Kim Williams (EVP and Chief Financial Officer, Warner Bros. Entertainment) are all “exiting” the company per this arrangement. Ron Sanders has been with the company for almost thirty years, going all the way back to the early days of DVD. So his departure is a big deal. (Our friends at Media Play News have a good profile on Sanders up today here.)

But here’s the rub from the linked Deadline piece... “about 600 employees across multiple divisions are expected to be let go, starting today. Warner Bros Entertainment is believed to be heavily impacted.” [Read on here...]

Afternoon, folks! We’ve got a couple things for you today here at The Bits...

First of all, our own Michael Coate has just turned in a new History, Legacy and Showmanship column featuring a look back at Franklin J. Schaffner’s classic George C. Scott war epic Patton in honor of its 50th anniversary.

Michael is joined this time by author and historian Steven Jay Rubin for a discussion on the film and its legacy. We think you’ll really enjoy it, so do give that a look. [Read on here...]

What a way to follow-up my state of the home video industry report circa CES 2020 yesterday!

The news is breaking this morning that Warner Bros. and Universal Pictures are going to be merging their physical media distribution operations. The combined venture will distribute Blu-ray, DVD, and 4K Ultra HD discs in North America over the next decade, beginning in early 2021.

The merger will first have to be approved by the United States Justice Department.

Universal Pictures Home Entertainment president Eddie Cunningham will lead the new venture. [Read on here...]

All right, we’ve got some news and more perspective on CES and the state of physical media here at the start of 2020. But first, we have more new Blu-ray reviews for you...

First of all, Dennis provides another perspective on Todd Phillips’ Joker on BD from Warner Bros. Home Entertainment. He seems to have liked it a little more than I did. Do check out his thoughts.

Dennis has also turned in a look at Aaron Schimberg’s Chained for Life on Blu-ray from Kino Lorber.

And Tim has a review of Richard Franklin’s Road Games (1981), now available in a new Collector’s Edition Blu-ray from Scream Factory.

Speaking of Scream, the company has just announced that their forthcoming Blu-ray Collector’s Edition of My Bloody Valentine is going to include new 4K scans of both the original theatrical edition and also the Uncut version mastered from the original camera negative. [Read on here...]

All right, we start today with a bit of news for gamers that will also make physical media fans happy... or at least it should.

Sony has begun to reveal details about its forthcoming PlayStation 5 game console (and yes, that is the official name), which is due in late 2020 (in time for the holidays), and the great news is that they’ve confirmed it will have an optical 4K Ultra HD disc drive for movies and 100 GB optical game discs.

Other details include an SSD drive, an AMD Ryzen CPU, Navi GPU hardware with ray-tracing acceleration, controllers with adaptive triggers and improved speakers to boost haptic feedback, and more. You can read all the details here at Wired.

Now, here’s the thing: Physical media is in decline. There’s just no doubt about it. Sales are down, studios are getting more choosy about what they release on disc, and studios like Disney are dumping catalog titles on 4K disc ahead of paywalling them all as Digital 4K streams with HDR on Disney+. [Read on here...]

You know… Hollywood certainly isn't going out of its way to reassure its consumers that purchasing home video content is a good or safe investment these days, is it?

Now, we are obviously big fans of digital entertainment here at The Digital Bits, whether that entertainment is served up on a disc or a download. After all, the word “digital” is right there in our name and has been since 1997.

And despite the fact that we often expound upon the value of purchasing physical media over digital, we are no strangers to enjoying a good online streaming or download experience. After all, there’s much great digital-only content these days. Movies like Roma on Netflix, TV series like Jack Ryan on Amazon Prime… these wouldn’t exist without those streaming services and you can’t buy either of them on disc. Digital is convenient and it’s awfully nice to be able to access it anywhere from any device.

But like any format, it has its drawbacks… and once again today, those drawbacks have made themselves rather inconveniently obvious for the 30 million customers of DECE’s UltraViolet digital movie locker service. You know… the service that managed all those codes that came on slips of paper with your Blu-ray, DVD, and 4K titles for years. [Read on here...]