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The Day The Earth Went Green
Eco-friendly isn’t normally a word we’d associate with the traditionally wasteful Hollywood filmmaking process, but with the eco-conscious ‘The Day The Earth Stood Still’ due for release on DVD and Blu-Ray tomorrow, we may have to reconsider. Temporarily, at least. More »
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Quantum Of Solace Hits Blu-Ray And DVD
When the latest 007 incarnation, Quantum Of Solace, was released in theatres late last year, the film went largely unmentioned here on Lifehacker. Our gadget-mad contemporaries over at Giz, on the hand, were not so subdued, praising the film as “not only the perfect Bond movie, it’s the best Bond movie ever, period.” We here at LH still reserve judgement (Connery vs every other 007; can any other topic truly inspire such passionate, subjective debate? Religion? Science? I think not), but we’ll all get a chance to decide, when the box office hit explodes onto DVD and Blu Ray on March 18th. Starring Daniel Craig and Oscar winner Judi Dench, the Blu-Ray is packed full of special features, including behind-the-scenes featurettes, crew files, plus a music video for “Another Way to Die” featuring Jack White and Alicia Keys. So grab a copy when the film hits store shelves this Wednesday and judge it for yourself. More »
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What’s Inside Vista SP2
1:15AM Kevin Purdy | The All About Microsoft blog posts a seriously complete list of what’s going to be included in Service Pack 2 for Windows Vista, expected to be out in April 2009. Major items include the Vista Feature Pack for Wireless for easier/better connections, built-in Blu-Ray writing, and reduced resources required for sidebar gadgets. Nothing majorly huge, so it’s worth looking at Windows 7 features you can get in Vista. More » Advertisement
New French Science Experiment To Dwarf Old French Science Experiment
The Large Hadron Collider may be out of commission until April due to a helium link problem, but that doesn’t mean the French have pulled the plug on all oversized international science experiments. A $8.8 million experimental thermonuclear reactor is currently being built in the south of France, in an attempt to solve the world’s ever-increasing energy turmoils. Said to dwarf the LHC, the project has been funded by seven of the world’s largest economies, including the EU and US, and will look into such issues as desalinisation, recycling and the long term viability of fusion as a source of power. Is this new experiment doomed to the same fate as the LHC? This month’s issue of tech mag Popular Science (on sale today) takes a closer look at the ground-breaking experiment and it’s attempts to make fusion reality. Press release after the jump. More »
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7:28PM Angus Kidman | The disappearance of HD DVD from the market was expected to give a boost to Blu-ray, but so far it seems we’re are quite happy to stick with DVD and skip any hi-def alternative. Michael Bodey at The Australian reports that on the most recent sales figures, Blu-ray accounts for just 1.35% of the total Australian DVD movie market — despite the healthy sales of the PS3 (which sports built-in Blu-ray support), falling prices on other Blu-ray players, and gangbuster sales for high-def TVs. Why do you think Blu-ray hasn’t taken off? Is the extra resolution not worth it? Are the blanks too expensive? Are you sick of constantly buying movies in new formats? Is it easier just to head to the iTunes store and grab a flick? Share your thoughts in comments.
High-def TVs muscle out their digital rivals [The Australian] More »
Why aren’t we excited by Blu-ray?
7:28PM Angus Kidman | The disappearance of HD DVD from the market was expected to give a boost to Blu-ray, but so far it seems we’re are quite happy to stick with DVD and skip any hi-def alternative. Michael Bodey at The Australian reports that on the most recent sales figures, Blu-ray accounts for just 1.35% of the total Australian DVD movie market — despite the healthy sales of the PS3 (which sports built-in Blu-ray support), falling prices on other Blu-ray players, and gangbuster sales for high-def TVs. Why do you think Blu-ray hasn’t taken off? Is the extra resolution not worth it? Are the blanks too expensive? Are you sick of constantly buying movies in new formats? Is it easier just to head to the iTunes store and grab a flick? Share your thoughts in comments.
High-def TVs muscle out their digital rivals [The Australian] More »
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1:28PM Angus Kidman | If your media hunger makes the thought of burning to a 50GB Blu-ray disc tempting, but you’ve been put off by the price, here’s some good news: Sony just cut the RRP for its BWU200S internal burner from $899 to $599. Of course, the discs themselves are still a touch on the pricey side, but it’s a welcome drop nonetheless, especially if you’re regularly over-filling your hard drive with video and audio. Got any good sources for cheap Blu-ray media, or would you rather just stick to conventional DVDs and ever-expanding USB sticks? Let us know in the comments.
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Sony drops Blu-ray burner price
1:28PM Angus Kidman | If your media hunger makes the thought of burning to a 50GB Blu-ray disc tempting, but you’ve been put off by the price, here’s some good news: Sony just cut the RRP for its BWU200S internal burner from $899 to $599. Of course, the discs themselves are still a touch on the pricey side, but it’s a welcome drop nonetheless, especially if you’re regularly over-filling your hard drive with video and audio. Got any good sources for cheap Blu-ray media, or would you rather just stick to conventional DVDs and ever-expanding USB sticks? Let us know in the comments.
More » More ideas on handling the death of HD-DVD
10:20AM Sarah Stokely | Yesterday we pointed you to Gizmodo US’s take on how to handle the death of HD-DVD (their tip: sell off your player on eBay before the rest of the world realises it’s a dead format). But Nick over at Giz AU has come up with a pretty good alternative – he says there’s around 1,000 movies out there on HD-DVD, and you’ll be able to scoop them up pretty cheaply, so why not hang onto your player and get your money’s worth. Makes sense to me.He’s also got some tips on how to best get into Blu-ray (PS3!) – remembering that you need an HD TV and surround sound to get the most out of it.
So Blu-ray won the format war – now what? [Gizmodo AU] More » Consumer’s Cheat Sheet to the HD-DVD versus Blu-ray war
10:38AM Sarah Stokely | Well it wasn’t a very exciting fight for those of us who were sticking with DVD to see what happened, but the media is now trumpeting that Blu-ray has won the format war, with the news that Toshiba is quitting production of HD-DVD players and recorders. That won’t mean much if you’d stuck with DVD to see how the battle went down, but if you’re an early adopter, Gizmodo has kindly put together a guide to what to do next. Their top (cynical!) tip is to offload your HD-DVD gear pronto, before the rest of the world figures out that it’s a dud. Nice.
A Consumer’s Cheat Sheet to HD-DVD’s Death and Blu-ray’s Victory [Gizmodo] More » HD-DVD ‘not taking Australian market seriously’
3:54PM Sarah Stokely | A report in the SMH today has Blu-ray aligned movie rental outfits Video Ezy and Blockbuster quoted as saying the HD DVD lobby is “missing the boat” and not taking the
Australian market seriously enough. Our pals at Gizmodo reported back in October that JB Hi-Fi, (which was snuggled up to Sony at the launch of Blu-ray in Australia saying it would never carry HD-DVD in its stores), had backflipped after eight months and will actually stock both formats. Is it really a ‘two discs enter, one disc leave’ situation? I know there’s already at least one player on the market that can handle Blu-Ray and HD-DVD.
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