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Posted by
BigFool
April 1st, 2008
Happy 2 Live ‘April’ Fools day! Marking our three year anniversary, we Fools bring you a special podcast that will BLOW—YOUR—MIND. Okay, maybe that’s a little dramatic, but listen in to find out the behind-closed-door dealing that went on between Sony and Toshiba and what REALLY settled the HiDef DVD war. Get the skinny on a particular iPod function that doesn’t work on NASA’s Space Shuttle. Hear some Bill Shatner dirt and find out how, in the future, you will be taking the place of CAL State Northridge (leading seismology university). Podcast at bottom.
(Watch this for some support of what we’ve speculated about Mr. Shatner…)
We dare you. Be a fool!
2 Live Fools [62:10m]:
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Posted by
David C. Fein
February 19th, 2008
Short and to the point:
After…
…Warner Bros. Chose BluRay over HD-DVD… HD-DVD camp chose to show shock at this instead of ‘business as usual’…
…Best Buy and Netflix Chose BluRay Support over HD-DVD…
and finally…
…Wal-Mart chooses BluRay over HD-DVD.
That’s it folks. Toshiba has chosen to cease production of both HD-DVD players and media. The game goes to BluRay.
Either stock up on your HD-DVD discs now while you can, or trade in your old HD-DVDs for BluRays today.
Set and Match…. or… Checkmate!
P.S. Universal has already announced upcoming BluRay support for all titles.
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Posted by
David C. Fein
January 26th, 2008
Toy Story Series Gets 3D Digital Makeover
Pixar and Disney have just announced that both Toy Story I & II are being re-rendered in actual 3D for re-release in October 2009, as a prelude to March 2010’s release of Toy Story III–also in 3D. But Why would they go through all of the effort re-rendering both I & II when so much is being converted to 3D from an original 2D format. Why? The answer after the break….
More…
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Posted by
David C. Fein
November 18th, 2007
It’s real! There is an official Apple iCar! I’ve seen it, we’ve all seen it since March 2006. His name is MAC iCAR, and he has the unique distinction of being the only ‘real world’ trademark in the Disney/Pixar motion picture, Cars.
It’s MAC iCAR, the unsung Apple trademarked hero of the film!
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Posted by
David C. Fein
November 1st, 2007
In a huge move in the HD disc wars, Toshiba and Wal-Mart are partnering on a special ’secret-sale’ at 8 AM tomorrow morning!
Get the Toshiba HD-A2 HD-DVD Player for $98.87…. Today it’s selling for $399 everywhere.
Additionally, that player is eligable for the five free disc offer:
Personally, I think you should all get ‘The Thing’ as one of your free discs.
You can find the 5 free HD-DVD offer here.
UPDATED: Now the same unit is also on sale for $99 at Best Buy! Check out bestbuy.com for more information and local availability.
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Posted by
BigFool
August 2nd, 2007
This one’s a sweet one! Listen to the Fools give the lowdown and secret to getting a month to month contract with AT&T for the iPhone. Also, as the HD DVD wars escalate, Dave and Marc cut through the hype and tell all about what is happening now! They also reveal the best way to go if you want an HD-DVD player, but don’t know what to do. The Fools pay homage to two great filmmakers you should know about, and touch upon the current trend of censorship in our lives.
Have fun listening!!!
HD-DVD-BlueRay Wars- iPhone - Censorship [65:26m]:
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Posted by
David C. Fein
June 18th, 2007
It’s the end of the war! BluRay wins! Hands down! Uhh… That’s what I’ve been reading. I don’t agree. If Walmart said they will no longer carry HD-DVD… well, that would be the nail in the coffin, but Blockbuster just made a poor business decision, and people declare the end of the war. This simply is a business decision.
Why did Blockbuster go BluRay? More than any other reason, I’d have to go with Disney’s films. Blockbuster stores have many sections, and right next to new releases would be family when it comes to most rentals. When you consider the studios exclusive to BluRay, Disney, Sony, Fox, etc. While HD-DVD has Universal exclusively, you have to go where the content is.
While Warner is working on a dual disc format that features both versions on one disc, they have been unsuccessful in convincing me that I need to purchase their dual HD/standard DVD discs. I always felt that the secret to winning this battle would be to release dual discs so while someone is buying a new movie, they are receiving a HD-DVD and DVD version at the same time so that by the time they have a player, they already own the movies. Warner Bros. has jumped onto this concept, and released dual version discs, but for $10 more making their HD-DVD releases COST MORE than their BluRay version. What is the use in this?! Now it’s cheaper for HD-DVD buyers to buy the standard DVD of a film instead of the HD-DVD version. This is not acceptable, and is hurting the HD-DVD market. Blockbuster also knows this, and would never want to invest in a disc that is dual format for additional money when they can get the lessor expensive BluRay discs. Thank you Warner for your dedication to the market, yet poor business decision to raise prices above market acceptability.
As for the studios, Fox is willing to do what it takes to move their products. They discount their discs, and continue with unusually high quality releases. When you consider that the successful movies of the summer, Spider-man 3, and Pirates of the Caribbean 3 will be coming to BluRay exclusively you can again understand Blockbuster’s choice.
Am I happy about the choice? No, but given the fact that there is a war going on at the moment, we have to hold steady until the market decides. At least Xbox 360 owners who have purchased the HD-DVD player attachment know that they didn’t have to make the huge investment into one side or another, and if BluRay does win out, you can bet the Microsoft will quickly release a BluRay attachment for the 360 as well. With the Playstation 3, you have no other choices but BluRay, and Blockbuster knows that as well. Every PS3 game renter is a potential BluRay disc renter, whereas they don’t know for sure who has HD-DVD.
After comparing both formats, my enjoyment in presentation says firmly with HD-DVD while my appreciation of which technology is superior falls on BluRay.
The saddest part of this whole war is that to most people, standard DVD is crisp and clean enough, and they really don’t need a HD disc format at all.
Before DVD, low quality, fuzzy, and full-screen VHS ruled the world. People are just not ready to repurchase their collections over again in HD.
BluRay 1, HD-DVD 0 this round. Let’s see what’s in store next. Cheers!
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Posted by
BigFool
May 20th, 2007
Just as everyone is offering this upcoming Tuesday release for $79.99 in their Sunday advertisements (including Circuit City), it WAS available for pre-order at Circuitcity.com for $19.99 plus $1.25 for shipping.
The three discs are double-sided, and offer over 25 hours of bonus footage. Great deal, grab it now!
Sorry folks… This promotion has ended, and the discs are now available for $79.99.
However, it was just announced on xbox.com that if you purchase the “Complete Matrix Trilogy” on HD-DVD, there will be a coupon inside the box that will allow you to download additional content to you Xbox 360 hard drive including “The Animatrix” which is included in the more pricey “Ultimate Matrix Box”. While “The Animatrix” is in standard definition in the Ultimate box, it is still unknown as to its hidef status from the Xbox Live Marketplace.
From the xbox.com website:
Xbox LIVE Brings You Even More Matrix Content
When you purchase The Complete Matrix Trilogy, you will also receive a token in the box to download the entire Animatrix series from Xbox LIVE® Marketplace.
There will also be great content available on Xbox LIVE Marketplace from The Complete Matrix Trilogy and Animatrix.
From May 15 through May 25, download free content like HD trailers from all three Matrix movies and some of your favorite scenes in HD like “Bullet Time in the Subway” and “Morpheus fighting Agent Smith.” You can also purchase and download themes for all three films plus Animatrix.
Don’t forget, you can still rent the original Matrix movie in standard definition as a download from Xbox LIVE Marketplace.
So if you want to find out the difference between knowing the path and walking the path, get The Complete Matrix Trilogy—and get on Xbox LIVE Marketplace.
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Posted by
David C. Fein
May 4th, 2007
The old cliché is that if you don’t learn from history, you’re doomed to repeat it.
Let’s go back to 2000, DVD is fairly new to the market, and it’s a locked down format. AH HA! DeCSS (descrambler code) comes out and defeats the protection on DVDs, and the legal war over the right to access and copy your own DVD ignites a free-speech and free-use blaze that still haunts studios and content creators today!
Flash-forward to 2007, these numbers: 09 F9 11 02 9D 74 E3 5B D8 41 56 C5 63 56 88 C0 have become a new scandal! They can be used to read data from a HD-DVD and BluRay disc! Oh No! We MUST stop these numbers from escaping! They are going to destroy the world! By the way, they add up to 799 (if you know how to add in hexadecimal).
Read this!
More…
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Posted by
David C. Fein
February 16th, 2007
Okay… you’ve heard me rant on the podcast about things like this, and now I want to applaud Warner Bros for their recent release of The Departed on HD-DVD and DVD on the same disc. This simply is the way to go. In order to make the format work, they should simply declare disc release is both HiDef and DVD! So bravo to Warner for another combo disc release (it even includes all of the special edition features on the HD side!).
The only problem with this release is that it’s more expensive to own than the others. Okay… points to warner for releasing a combo special edition disc. But come on… does it really have to cost more than the two disc special edition below? Amazon is selling the Combo version for $27.95 ($39.99 Retail) whereas the two disc special edition is $20.49 ($34.99 Retail)! So in this case, you’ll have to pay $7.50 more for the Hidef release with everything on one disc… BOOOOooo!!! To make matters worse, you can get the Blu-Ray only version for $23.95 ($34.99 Retail) but that only gives you Blu-Ray and not standard DVD.
So for the record… Warner… Make HD-DVD/DVD discs THE STANDARD!!! If you want to charge more for a special edition, that’s fine with me, but make the HD-DVD/DVD disc with the special features THE SAME PRICE as the standard special edition dvd…. $34.99 retail price. Oh yeah… and for the record, there’s almost no one out there who needs both; I just want my HD discs at the same time as my DVD purchases so when I (an average consumer) get my HD-DVD player, I don’t have to repurchase the same movie over again. (How many times have I repurchased a title? VHS–>Laserdisc–>DVD Release 1, 2, 3, 4, 5….->HD-DVD???)
Oh… and for those who haven’t seen the film… go get a copy of The Departed..loit’s violent, but great at the same time…
On standard DVD Warner has released two different versions of the film:
The movie only version of the film (Available in widescreen and unwatchable pan-and-scan… (This isn’t a review of the film in pan-and-scan, I just personally believe a film not in it’s proper aspect ratio is unwatchable.):
Widescreen:
Full-Frame/Pan and Scan:
and the two disc special edition:
The BluRay release:
and finally… the release that should be standard… the HD-DVD/DVD Combo Disc (GET THIS ONE!):
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