Category Archives: Blu-ray

Gladiator for Blu-ray

Posted on June 25, 2009 by Stephen Dawson

Universal Pictures has announced the release of Ridley Scott’s famous Gladiator on Blu-ray. They aren’t skimping, delivering it on two dual layer discs, including the theatrical release (155 mins) and an extended version (171 mins), plus 11 hours of extra … Continue reading →

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New Blu-ray vs DVD comparisons

Posted on June 18, 2009 by Stephen Dawson

Here are some new side-by-side Blu-ray vs PAL DVD comparisons that I’ve just put up: Disaster Movie The Queen Sin City Sleeping Beauty Some really stand out, such as this shot of a newspaper in Sin City: It’s not just … Continue reading →

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Widescreen ‘pan and scan’

Posted on June 17, 2009 by Stephen Dawson

A few weeks ago I recorded The Da Vinci Code from high definition TV, since I was too busy to watch it during broadcast, and in any case I wanted to test out the Panasonic Blu-ray recorder I was reviewing. … Continue reading →

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Blu-ray video inputs and outputs

Posted on June 16, 2009 by Stephen Dawson

Blu-ray players have to cope with many more signal standards than DVD. On the audio side, the latter deal with PCM, Dolby Digital, DTS and (for non-US players) MPEG2, whereas Blu-ray players must deal with all of those, plus two … Continue reading →

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Blu-ray Audio

Posted on June 10, 2009 by Stephen Dawson

Over at the ‘Unofficial Blu-ray Audio and Video Specifications Thread‘ on the AVS Forum, a Russian contributor has put up specifications for a couple of Blu-ray audio discs. Note, there’s no particular format difference between Blu-ray audio and regular Blu-ray. … Continue reading →

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Sound, Branching and Disc Real Estate

Posted on May 31, 2009 by Stephen Dawson

My Blu-ray disc data gathering project continues, in which I try to determine as many technical and standards details as possible about Blu-ray discs. Of the nearly 300 Blu-ray discs in my database, 98 now have a ‘Completion’ score of … Continue reading →

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Warner Bros, Roadshow Entertainment and Gran Torino

Posted on May 30, 2009 by Stephen Dawson

Most Warner Bros Blu-ray discs are fairly basic in their organisation. They lack BD-Java, BD-Live, BonusView and so on. I’m not complaining, because Warner Bros has been pretty aggressive at getting its back catalogue out there in the new format. … Continue reading →

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Speed demon

Posted on April 27, 2009 by Stephen Dawson

One word describes why I felt I needed a new computer: Blu-ray. My old computer would not play Blu-ray discs in any watchable way. Not that I watch them on a computer, but when checking things out, half the time … Continue reading →

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Day and Date everything

Posted on April 22, 2009 by Stephen Dawson

Warner Bros says that it is proposing to release ‘day and date’ (where this term comes from I don’t know, but it means ‘on the same day’) The Curious Case of Benjamin Button in just about all possible formats on … Continue reading →

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New Blu-ray disc notes

Posted on April 22, 2009 by Stephen Dawson

Icon Film Distribution will soon (1 May, I think) be releasing Slumdog Millionaire on Blu-ray. My Blu-ray vs DVD comparison for this title is here. A sample: That company will also be releasing Transporter 3 on Blu-ray on 10 June … Continue reading →

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