Typically after major holidays, the number of new releases dries up for a week or so as studios recover from the push to get content onto store shelves for gift purchases. Unfortunately for Blu-ray fans, Father's Day is considered a major holiday in the home video industry, and today is noticeably lacking of hot new Blu-ray releases. While I will comment on a few titles that are coming out today, I would first like to address the recent Harris Poll which has caused a “sky is falling” mentality within the journalistic community.
The poll (which can be found
here) indicates that, of 2,401 consumers questioned, 7% own a Blu-ray Disc player compared to 11% who own an HD-DVD [sic] player. On the surface, it appears as though the now defunct HD DVD format has better adoption rates than Blu-ray, the format that bested it in the high definition format war. Of course, that should be the first indication that something went wrong during polling.
Looking further at the data, we see that there are two more categories that are applicable to this discussion – those owners who indicated they own a PlayStation 3, and those who indicated they own an HD-DVD [sic] Xbox 360 external add-on. Taking these two categories into consideration, we now see that the percentage of consumers who own a Blu-ray Disc capable player is 15% compared to 14% who indicate they own an HD DVD capable player.
This analysis raises the question as to what percentage of those consumers who indicated they own a PS3 actually use it to play Blu-ray discs? I will argue that same question can be applied to HD DVD and DVD as well. Does a consumer who owns an HD DVD player use it only to upconvert DVDs? Are these HD DVD and DVD players being used at all? If I were to truthfully answer this poll, I would indicated my ownership of a Blu-ray Disc player, PS3, and DVD player, but the fact that the DVD player is boxed-up in a closet never being used not being taken into consideration.
That is one of the fundamental flaws of this poll that should cause concern for anyone using it to draw conclusions. I imagine that if VCR was a choice, it would rank higher than Blu-ray and HD DVD, but that doesn't mean that Hollywood is going to start making video tapes again. A better question for this poll would have been, “Which of the following devises have you used in the past 6 months?” At least then you could separate out those closet units and those rarely utilized.
Another issue is that there is no option for “upconverting DVD players”, a term that has been often confused with HD DVD. This issue is somewhat verified by looking at the third table of results. Consumer were asked to indicated how many titles of each format they would be in the next six months. While the number of Blu-ray titles averaged to seven discs, HD DVD titles averaged to six, almost twice as many as DVD. When a dead format trumps one that is still selling on a weekly basis, there are issues with the data used.
The fallout from the poll has been most damaging, which is disappointing considering the obvious issues with the data used. Hollywood studios have been working feverishly to promote the high definition format, and to have a poorly crafted poll receive so much press attention shows they still have a lot more work ahead of them.
Back to the job at hand, me and the wife recently watched ‘
Confessions of a Shopoholic', which comes out today on Blu-ray. While the film is not my cup of tea, so to speak, she found it enjoyable enough to add it to her collection. I showed her the
review of the disc by Staff Reviewer Kenneth Brown, whose sentiments I tend to agree with, but she made an excellent point, “if you don't appreciate good clothes and nice shoes then the movie isn't really for you.”
On a technical standpoint, the disc has some noticeable issues. Video is generally strong, as typical of a Disney Blu-ray release, but there are some scenes that definitely don't hold to that rule. They appear much flatter and unappealing, though that is most likely a result of the film itself, rather than the video encoding. The more disappointing aspect is the soundtrack. Presented in DTS-HD Master Audio, I expected a very strong audio presentation, if not only due to the bombastic audio on the title screen. I was disappointed when scenes I felt should have really popped in the audio department fell short. Again, it's likely due to the film rather than the encoding, but a problem nonetheless.
Sony is releasing the Golden Globe award winning foreign film ‘
Waltz With Bashir' today, the animated film documenting the experiences of an Israeli soldier during the first Lebanon War. The film has been critically praised for using a unique animation style to tell a gripping story. As Staff Reviewer Martin Liebman
points out, “Sporting near reference-quality 1080p picture and lossless surround sound, not to mention a fair helping of bonus materials, this Blu-ray release of Waltz With Bashir is a disc that should find its way into every cinephile's collection.”
Criterion fans are awarded today with the Blu-ray release of ‘
Last Year in Marienbad', the controversial 1961 film from Alain Resnais. Not surprisingly, Criterion has done yet another outstanding job to bring this classic film to Blu-ray. Staff Reviewer Svet Atanasov remarks in his
review that ‘Marienbad' is a, “fantastic film with a fantastic transfer.”
For a complete listing of all the Blu-ray titles released today,
click here.