Seen in HD 17 – Happy Blu Year: 2009 in review

Dec 29, 2009 by Phil Lozen

In the spirit of the new year, this week we look at the best, and the worst, that 2009 had to offer in Blu-ray. We also welcome back Matt Paprocki from DoBlu.com to join our discussion on the best of ’09.

Before we get to that, we take a look at a few news items.

First up, Walmart has made it very known that they want in on the home theater game. Adding more HDTV displays and its own install team, Walmart is making a major play. And it seems to be paying off, as recent numbers from NPD show that Walmart has pulled nearly even with Best Buy in Blu-ray market share, claiming 30% of Blu-ray software sales in the third quarter.

Meanwhile, Amazon, which holds the third place in market share at about 15%, used an odd method of measurement to talk about how many Blu-ray players it sold this holiday season.

Finally, we talked about Apple’s plans for a subscription based TV offering before, but now it seems that CBS and Disney have entered into initial talks with the big silver fruit about possibly coming on board.

That leads us to the best of Blu-ray for 2009. Our discussion breaks down this way: best sound, best picture, best extras, best catalog, worst overall, and finally the best overall disc.

Here’s a few of the movies mentioned, with links to DoBlu.com reviews where available. For our complete list, take a listen to the show.

Sound:
A Bug’s Life
Watchmen

Picture:
Drag me to Hell
Up

Extras:
Sleeping Beauty
Wizard of Oz
Shaun of the Dead

Catalog:
The General
Glory

Worst:
Ghostbusters
Alien Trespass

Overall:
Phil – Up
Matt – A Bug’s Life

Our look at what’s coming up in HD, with help from Geek Tonic’s guide to the 2010 Winter TV schedule, shows not too much for this New Year’s week. In the HD Sportsman, you have a ton of bowl games to choose from, with one every day but Sunday, Jan. 3. Adam’s Penn State Nittany Lions take on LSU in the Capital One Bowl on Jan. 1 at 1 p.m. on ABC, while Phil’s Michigan State Spartans play Texas Tech in the Alamo Bowl at 9 p.m. on Jan. 2 on ESPN.

Finally, the Blu-ray releases for Jan. 5 features the John Wayne classic The Green Berets and the animated Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs.

Click here to download Episode 17!

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