Some fairly big news this week, as word broke shortly before recording the show that Walmart had bought online movie service Vudu in what’s being reported as a $100 million deal. This could either be a good thing for Vudu, giving the young company more capital behind it to expand and give Netflix a run for its money, or it could go the way of the Walmart MP3 store and leave thousands of customers out in the cold in the future.
On the TiVo news front, the company that became a noun meaning “DVR” is rattling the cage about switched digital video (SDV) and why it’s a bad thing for companies like, well, TiVo. Basically, SDV requires two-way communication to work, and the current TiVo boxes don’t provide that which means that in areas where SDV is deployed, TiVo recorders can’t change channels. Take a look at this explanation of SDV for a good high-level overview of what it is.
Our weekly look at 3D news brings word that, seemingly once and for all, HDMI 1.3 WILL work for 3D assuming you have the right cable. Lots of misinformation has come out about the new 3D HDTVs and Blu-ray spec and what consumers will need in order to enjoy those active shutter glasses. HDGuru gets to the bottom of things with an interview with “Waheed Rasheed, director of product marketing for Silicon Image, the company that created HDMI and its related standards.” Sony also said last week that it’s new 3D Blu-ray decks will work with HDMI 1.3. Finally, Avatar has been announced for an April 22 bow on Blu-ray, but no in 3D. James Cameron, the films director, says he expects a 3D version in November. Will the release of the 3D version just seven months after the standard Blu-ray (just I just say standard Blu-ray? What is the world coming to?) hurt sales in April? Or will consumers vote in April that 3D is not something they are really that concerned with yet?
Other news includes word that Mitsubishi has new tech to convert 1080p into 4k by 2k images, Sony has killed OLED production, and Redbox has agreed to a 28-day delay for Warner titles and will have Blu-ray mid-year.
We’re starting a new section on the show, one that we hope to continue every week, looking at the best Blu-ray deals around. Thanks to @gadgetwisdom for the suggestion. This week, Best Buy has a nice deal that will allow you to pre-order Toy Story (March 23) or Toy Story 2 (May 11) on Blu-ray along with another Disney Blu-ray title and save $10. With “Up” only $16.99 right now, you can get two Blu-rays for about $16 each. Not bad. Note: Toy Story is currently sold out on Bestbuy.com. If you find any other deals, let us know at @lozenp on Twitter.
Our Blu-ray review looks at Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. The sixth installment in the series follows the pattern of increasingly dark themes that its predecessors have started. This is not a movie for your 9-year old like the first few were. It is, however, a very good movie. Not the best in the series, but certainly one of the better. Some fans were upset over how the ending was handled, including me, but it didn’t take away from the rest of the film.
The audio comes wrapped in a Dolby TrueHD 5.1 mix that is very good. Balanced, well-mixed and powerful when it needs to be. The score is very well-placed and sounds great, and there’s a little bit of everything, from LFE effects to subtle, quite and dramatic scenes. While it doesn’t have the jaw-dropping power that Hurt Locker or Inglorious Basterds had, this disc does have it’s very good moments, 4.5 out of 5.
On the video side, there’s been a lot of controversy over this title. Reviews have varied wildly. Friend of the show Matt from Doblu.com has a very in-depth review pointing to several shortcomings on the video transfer. The fine folks at HighDefDigest have a different feel for some of the issues. Over at the AVS Forums, this disc has drawn lots of conversation. For me, much like Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix on HD DVD, I wasn’t blown away by the visuals, and at times, a was a little let down. I wasn’t able to recreate all the issues that DoBlu.com saw, but certainly some of them. Black levels were inconsistent at time, deep and inky sometimes, washed out at others, and banding was an issue for me as well. I’ve definitely seen worse (Ghostbusters anyone?) but for a movie of this caliber, I expected more depth and dimension to the picture, 4 out of 5.
If nothing else, this is a chance for those of you who wanted to know more about what people look for in Blu-ray reviews to do so. A lot of the reviews have timecodes that will lead you to the scenes in question, so use this as a learning opportunity.
Most shows are taking time off during the Olympics, and there’s hardly anything to speak of in Geek Tonic’s guide to the 2010 Winter TV schedule this week. The HD Sportsman is headlined again by Olympic coverage, with the gold medal hockey game leading the charge Sunday on NBC at 3 p.m.
The lack of Blu-ray releases continues this week. Only nine new titles coming out on March 2, lead by the disaster film 2012, the 1984 fantasy The Never Ending Story and last year’s Where the Wild Things Are.
Click here to download Episode 23!
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