Home Media Magazine - April 20-26, 2008 - (Page 8)

HIGH-DEF Starship Troopers: Marauder www.homemediamagazine.com Blockbuster Ups Blu-ray Support By Erik Gruenwedel RETAIL Blockbuster Inc. said it will begin installing nearly 5,000 displays in corporate stores selling and renting Blu-ray movies. The Dallas-based No. 1 rental company last year committed itself to the format early when it made Blu-ray rentals exclusively available at 1,700 of its company-owned locations. The Blu-ray displays feature a 42inch high-definition television playing movies via a Sony PlayStation 3 game console. Spokesperson Randy Hargrove said the initiative is being done in association with multiple studio support. “We’re installing them to further highlight the availability of Blu-ray BRIEFS I SONY CREATIVE’S DVD ARCHITECT 5 TO IMPROVE BLU-RAY AUTHORING Sony Creative Software has upgraded its DVD Architect and Blu-print software applications, smoothing the process of producing and authoring Blu-ray Discs and DVDs. DVD Architect 5, shipping in midJune, will be available as a free downloadable upgrade for registered users of Vegas Pro 8, an authoring software program, and Blu-print 4.3, available in May, will work with Ensequence on-Q Create for Blu-ray Java. Dave Chaimson, VP of global marketing for Sony Creative Software, said Blu-print 4.3 offers “tools that help streamline the development of interactive Blu-ray features such as Internet-connected content and multistory discs.” – Chris Tribbey ‘Starship Troopers’ Titles Storm Blu-ray By Chris Tribbey PRODUCT Do you have what it takes to become a Citizen? All you’ll need is a Blu-ray Disc player and a stomach for alien arachnids, as Sony Pictures Home Entertainment releases both the first and the latest “Starship Troopers” movies on highdef July 29. The DVD and Blu-ray releases of the third film, Starship Troopers: Marauder, coincide with the release of the original 1997 film on Blu-ray. Both Blu-ray releases will feature a twist on the standard picture-inpicture special features Blu-ray is capable of, with pop-up video segments that include interviews, graphics, special effects information and more. The Blu-ray release of the original Starship Troopers, starring Casper Van Dien, Denise Richards and Neil Patrick Har- ris, will also feature a “Recruitment Test” that will quiz viewers on their “Starship Trooper” knowledge and place them in the appropriate military branch based on their answers. All the special features on the original DVD release — including deleted scenes, several featurettes, a commentary, a documentary, episodes of the TV series “Roughnecks: The Starship Trooper Chronicles” and more — will be included on the Blu-ray. Van Dien returns for the third film to reprise his role as Johnny Rico. Now a colonel, Rico will have to fight both the bugs and traitors in the government, and a special weapons system called Marauder may be all that stands between mankind and extinction. Both the DVD and Blu-ray releases of Starship Troopers: Marauder will include two featurettes and two commentaries. in our stores and let customers experience the movie-viewing advantages of this high-definition technology,” Hargrove said. “It also will drive home that point that PS3 consoles double as Blu-ray players.” Blockbuster also activated a Bluray link for online subscribers so they can indicate automatically whether they would like to receive rentals in the format. “With this national rollout, we believe Blockbuster is perfectly positioned to drive consumer adoption of this next-generation DVD format and to become the customer’s headquarters when it comes to renting or buying Blu-ray movies, whether in-store or online,” said David Podeschi, SVP of merchandising, distribution and logistics at Blockbuster. I WHEREISHD.COM LAUNCHES Denver-based Media Business Corp. has launched WhereIsHD.com, a free Web site that allows users to input their area codes to find HD services. The site pulls up all available local providers of HD, such as Comcast or DirecTV, and what channels they offer with HD programming. The site also shows what percentage of each programmer’s service is in HD, and is updated weekly – Billy Gil PS3 RELEASES V2.30 FIRMWARE UPDATE By Chris Tribbey T he latest firmware update for the PlayStation 3 debuted April 15. Version 2.3 updates the PlayStation Store, and for Blu-ray Disc fans adds DTS-HD Master Audio output. The update comes quickly on the heels of the 2.2 update, which added BD Live capabilities, allowing for downloadable content for Blu-ray movies, and other features, including quicker streaming options for downloads, DivX- and WMVformatted video playback for files larger than 2GB, and a restart feature that starts Blu-rays and DVDs right at the point they were playing when the gaming system shut down. The updated PlayStation Store exists as an application on the PS3 system, rather than as a Web-based storefront. TOP 10 HIGH-DEF SELLERS H IG H -D EF SELLER S Week ended April 13, 2008 FORMAT LABEL INDEX TOP 10 HIGH-DEF SELLERS HI GH- DE F S E L L E RS Aggregate by Title Week ended April 13, 2008 FORMAT LABEL INDEX TITLE TITLE The Orphanage H I G H -D E F C O M I NG U P STREETING The Orphanage Blu-ray New Line Street Date: 4/22 Sublime Blu-ray Warner Street Date: 4/22 First Knight Blu-ray Sony Street Date: 4/29 Motley Crue: Carnival Blu-ray WEA Corp. Street Date: 4/29 Ocean’s Eleven Blu-ray Warner Street Date: 4/29 Ocean’s Twelve Blu-ray Warner Street Date: 4/29 27 Dresses Blu-ray Fox Street Date: 4/29 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 I Am Legend Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story The Water Horse: Legend of the Deep Alvin and the Chipmunks No Country for Old Men Planet Earth: The Complete Series Over America 300 Enchanted Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End Blu-ray Blu-ray Blu-ray Blu-ray Blu-ray Blu-ray Blu-ray Blu-ray Blu-ray Blu-ray Warner Sony Pictures Sony Pictures Fox Disney/Miramax BBC Video Topics Warner Disney Disney 100.00 70.69 60.55 44.08 42.60 42.08 35.84 25.66 25.48 19.87 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 I Am Legend Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story The Water Horse: Legend of the Deep Planet Earth: The Complete Series Alvin and the Chipmunks No Country for Old Men Over America 300 Enchanted Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End BD; HD DVD/DVD Warner Blu-ray Sony Pictures Blu-ray Sony Pictures BD; HD DVD BBC Video Blu-ray Fox Blu-ray Disney/Miramax Blu-ray Topics BD; HD DVD/DVD Warner Blu-ray Disney Blu-ray Disney 100.00 49.37 42.29 32.24 30.78 29.75 25.03 18.68 17.80 13.87 Source: Nielsen VideoScan First Alert Source: Nielsen VideoScan First Alert TOP 5 HIGH-DEF BLU-R AY D ISC Week ended April 13, 2008 LABEL INDEX TOP 5 HIGH-DEF HD DVD Week ended April 13, 2008 LABEL INDEX TITLE TITLE 1 2 3 4 5 I Am Legend Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story The Water Horse: Legend of the Deep Alvin and the Chipmunks No Country for Old Men Warner Sony Pictures Sony Pictures Fox Disney/Miramax 100.00 70.69 60.55 44.08 42.60 1 2 3 4 5 I Am Legend Appleseed: Ex Machina Transformers Planet Earth: The Complete Series American Gangster Warner 100.00 Warner 10.82 Para./DreamWorks 9.69 BBC Video 9.45 Universal 9.14 Source: Nielsen VideoScan First Alert Source: Nielsen VideoScan First Alert 8 Home Media Magazine April 20–26, 2008 http://www.homemediamagazine.com http://WHEREISHD.COM

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Home Media Magazine - April 20-26, 2008 Contents News Commentary TV DVD Horror Reviews Pipeline Research Top 20 DVD Sellers Top 20 Rentals and Top 10 Charts Just Announced

Home Media Magazine - April 20-26, 2008

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