BUT BLU-RAY IS EXPENSIVE, ISN'T IT?

ISN'T IT?!

No.

Amazon is running a special: Pixar's Up is priced at 20 bucks for the 4 disc Blu-ray. Ok, so one of the discs is a DVD copy and one of the discs is a digital copy disc, but still. That's 20 bucks for one of the best films of the year.

But wait. There's more. If you buy Pixar's Monsters Inc. along with it for 23 dollars, they knock off 10 bucks. You can pay 33 dollars for Up and Monsters Inc together. Pretty good, right? Averages out to about 16.50 per, which would be a great price even for a DVD of a successful Disney film.

But wait. There's more. There's also a general Disney promotion where buying a third Disney movie of your choice from a list will knock off another 10 dollars from the total. You could get Up, Monster's Inc, and Snow White for a total of 43 dollars (20+23+20-10-10). This is an average price of 14.33, practically unheard of for Disney films this well respected on home video overall, let alone in a high-end HD format.

That's 43 dollars. For three Blu-rays, each of which also happen to include a DVD copy of the movie. For reference, buying each DVD edition would cost $57.50!

Update: http://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.html/ref=amb_link_86017571_1?ie=UTF8&plgroup=2&docId=1000451521&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=right-1&pf_rd_r=1P3Y3D7S2D5XM9CV5C6N&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=499588751&pf_rd_i=193640011

Up + Monster's Inc. + Cars

For 35 dollars and change. That's less than 12 bucks a piece for three Pixar movies. On Blu-ray. Cars doesn't come with a DVD like Up and Monster's Inc., but seriously? Fuck DVD.

Halloweiner

I wish I had a reason to wear a costume this year.

What happened.

I should throw on my Spider-man costume anyway for no reason.

Beatlemania Running Wild

09/09/09

Interesting.

There are two failures I see here.

#1: Only a remaster. Where's the remix? The stereo mixes are badmouthed constantly, so why not do proper stereo remixes using the mono mix as the basis? This would give stereo mixes which are the aural equal of the superior mono mix. It's not that mono is better, it's that the stereo mix is worse! On top of this, do it in 5.1. Surround, motherfucker.

#2: No high resolution release. I wouldn't buy it on SACD or DVD-A myself, but when they remaster in a high resolution form, they should make it available in a high resolution form. There are rumors of Blu-ray and vinyl releases. But screw that. Where are those releases now? Also: screw vinyl. Analog media, even if high resolution, is too easily damaged by simply playback, and I really don't want to buy myself a turntable just to hear this music.

But they got the Rock Band game, so I can't really be mad... but now I play the waiting game for my boxsets and game to arrive from Amazon. Still surprised they actually sold out before street date. Weird.

New PS3... who cares?

So a new PS3 is coming out. Should be good. Smaller, less electricity, lower price (300 bucks, nice), and even bitstreaming HD audio (not that that matters).

But I don't care. PS3 still lacks exclusive games I care about. Not the 360 actually has it, but I already have a 360 and it's still cheaper.

But the thing that bugs me: they missed their chance for PS2 software emulation. I mean, technically they should be able to do it with a firmware update to the fat model even, but they apparently don't want it. It's terrible. It's one thing for a Super Nintendo to not be compatible with NES cartridges, but once everything is optical discs, there is NO excuse for not having software emulation at the very least. I only own one Gamecube game, but I am so damned grateful the Wii is compatible regardless. It's just asinine to ACTIVELY not have this feature. Yeah, that's right, Sony USED TO have emulation for PS2 in PS3. Older models even had whole chipsets devoted to it. Then it became software emulation. Then that was dropped too.

Retarded.

Oh well, at least PS3s dropping down to 300 should make them more appealing to the general masses, and once a PS3 is in their home, Blu-ray should be able to jam its foot in the door more easily. And as market penetration for the format goes up, that means the studios will finally get off their asses and bring the titles they've been sitting on.

Niche my ass!

http://www.homemediamagazine.com/research/watchmen-blu-ray-strong-showing-charts-16567

Watchmen sold 36% in Blu-ray format during it's first week.

This means that of people who bought Watchmen during it's first week out, MORE THAN one in three persons with the movie got it on Blu-ray. This means that over 1/3 people who own this movie have a Blu-ray player.

Previous record before this for first week was like 18% or something too. Just goes to show what can happen when movies on Blu-ray are priced fairly; Watchmen was available for under 21 dollars at many places. I got my copy from Amazon for $20.50. I think I heard people getting it as low as $19.50... probably those bastards with Fry's near them. I checked, and the closest Fry's to southeast Michigan is located in fucking Illinois. What.

But I digress. People are STILL saying Blu-ray is failing to catch on. How? I can understand saying "I don't think it will replace DVD as mainstream media of choice", but to say it is failing is just totally wrong. I mean, what is the point that those people would consider Blu-ray to be successful? It's already a huge financial success, so that can't be it. Maybe 50% software market share? 50% hardware market share? I don't get it.

If I only have two ears, why do I have 7 speakers?

Dropped a ton of cash on a receiver and some speakers. It's great. Got it because the reviews of Watchmen finally pushed me to take the plunge. And the film was great, even if the dialog was overly quiet; that just made the explosions of sound hit even harder due to the overall higher volume necessary. But I digress.

The receiver doesn't have stereo input. I don't get it. The standard 3.5 mm "headphone" jack. Can't take input from that. And that's all my computer's sound card can output, and that's how I listen to my CDs. But the thing has plenty of RCA inputs I'll never use.

So I check Amazon, and yes, they have stereo-to-RCA cables. They cost a couple dollars, and I opt to pay a couple dollars more to get it next day. I wanted them right away, but didn't feel like driving up to Best Buy and spending 15 bucks on the same product.

It came in while I was asleep yesterday. I set it up when I got home from work this morning. Shit doesn't work. Oh, one side works, but the other doesn't.

So now I listen to one side of music. Hard pans fail completely. It's like wearing in-ear headphones, except only one. One. I pay all this money for a shitton of speakers and I get ONE input to play from. Thanks.

I think I'm going to splice up my own stereo-to-RCA cable on my day off next week. I'm not about to waste more money to get this shit to work, not when I'm confident that I can handle a simple splicing of two cables.

I watch the Watchmen

Watchmen is a comic series about superheroes. It is kind of a big deal. They recently made a movie about.

This movie is coming out next week. Because I was excited for it, I looked around to see if I could get one piece of merchandise.

A smiley button with a stylized blood splatter.

Long story short, in the comic, there is a man called the Comedian. He wears a smiley button and he is murdered. When he is killed, the button gets splattered with blood, and this iconic image of the blood splattered smiley face button has become a symbol of sorts for the entire series.

Ok?

So I was looking to find an official button. Not possible. They don't even make it. They make TONS of buttons for Watchmen (appealing to the Hot Topic crowd I suppose), but not a one of them is the iconic blood splattered smiley. What the hell?

Worse, like I said, this icon has become a symbol for the entire series, mostly thanks to it being used as the cover for the paperback collected edition I think. But it's not used in any of the artwork for the movie release. Instead, they have a special edition release with the Doomsday Clock colored yellow FOR NO REASON, and splattered with blood as the smiley button is supposed to be. Basically, they replaced the smiley with the Doomsday Clock (which itself is a noteworthy symbol in the series). Sucks.

Reason: As far as I can guess, it is because the original smiley graphic is copyrighted, and even though Time Warner was willing to pay to use it for the collected edition of the comic, they were not willing to pay to use it for the home video release of the movie. They weren't even willing to pay the case to get the graphic used on any of the MANY buttons they made to coincide with the film's release. Apparently, they never even made any for just the comics release either, but wow. How hard should it be to give the fans a simple button with a yellow smiley face and a small splatter of blood printed on it?

And while I'm babbling about Watchmnen, I'd like to say this: Amazon has it on pre-order for 20.50. New release Blu-ray of a high profile comic adaptation. Just barely north of 20 dollars. And people are STILL complaining about how expensive Blu-ray is compared to DVD. Check again, fool, the DVD of this movie is only a couple dollars less.