Items filtered by date: August 2016

All right, let’s get this over with. Our friends over at Trek Core have learned (and they’re right) something that’s going to infuriate Star Trek fans, and sadly suggests that neither Paramount nor Bad Robot have learned from fan complaints about their previous Star Trek Blu-ray mistakes. As you know, Star Trek Beyond is expected to street on Blu-ray, Blu-ray 3D, DVD, and 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray on 11/1, all with lots of extras... except filmmaker audio commentary. Well, you guessed it... once again, the iTunes Digital download version is going to have an exclusive “enhanced” commentary.

[Editor’s Note: Turns out there’s another Target-exclusive Bonus Disc too. See here: “Bonus blu-ray disc with over 90 minutes of extras including 45 minutes of exclusive content: Get a behind the scenes look at the film’s incredible visual effects, costumes and props. Plus, see how Director Justin Lin and the cast and crew of Star Trek Beyond created the climactic Battle of Yorktown, and more!”]

So... yeah. [Read on here…]

Well... based on an overwhelmingly positive reaction to my look at art books on 2001: A Space Odyssey last night, it seems like you guys enjoy it when we roam a bit off in the wilderness here at The Bits, thematically speaking. So I think we’ll try and do it a little more often in the weeks and months ahead. It’s certainly fun and it definitely keeps things interesting. Thanks for all the kind words, and I’ve very glad you liked the article.  [Read on here…]

All right, the big news today is that Network Distributing Ltd. in the U.K. has announced the Region B release of Gerry Anderson’s UFO: The Complete Series on Blu-ray on 11/14 (SRP £69.99). The series is restored in high-definition and includes all 26 episodes with audio in the original mono as well as new 5.1 mixes, and a ton of new and legacy special features. Among them is a brand new feature-length documentary called From Earth to the Moon, featuring interviews, archive video, audio, and stills (some never-before-seen). There’s also the new The Women of UFO documentary, a newly-produced SHADO “briefing film” called Identified: SHADO New Recruits Briefing, textless episode title backgrounds, textless end titles, stock footage, TV spots, extra footage for Identified and Exposed, unused footage from Timelash and The Long Sleep, Italian trailers, audio commentaries on Identified (with Gerry Anderson) and Sub-Smash (with Ed Bishop), S.I.D. Computer Voice Session and audio outtakes for these sessions and Kill Straker!, an archive Ed Bishop audio interview from 1996, the Tomorrow Today: Future Fashions with Sylvia Anderson featurette, extensive image galleries (with previously unseen images), and an exclusive 600-page book on the making of the series by archive television historian Andrew Pixley.  [Read on here…]

All right, we’ve got a couple interesting things for you today. First up, Sony unveiled its first 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray player, the UBP-X1000ES, at the CEDIA Expo recently. It’s an ES Series reference unit that supports the 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray, Blu-ray, Blu-ray 3D, BD-ROM, DVD Video, DVD Audio, CD, and SACD formats, as well as numerous video codecs compatible with Amazon Video, YouTube, etc. It can upscale content to 4K, features HDR compatibility and offers “a dedicated picture mode for HDR content – when playing 4K HDR content on a 4K SDR television the X1000ES utilizes a unique Sony algorithm to reproduce the proper brightness and color gradations to provide the best picture possible.” It’s compatible with Dolby Atmos and DTS-X, plus has a “32-bit processing DAC compatible with both native DSD (at up to 11.2 MHz) and LPCM (at up to 192kHz) Hi-Res Music files, which are available in a number of different formats.”  [Read on here…]

All right, we’re closing out the week with one last new title announcement: Disney and Amblin Entertainment have set Steven Spielberg’s The BFG for Blu-ray, DVD, Digital HD, Disney Movies Anywhere, and On-Demand release on 12/6. Extras on the Blu-ray will include 5 featurettes (Bringing “The BFG” to Life, The Big Friendly Giant and Me, Gobblefunk: The Wonderful Words of The BFG, Giants 101, and Melissa Mathison: A Tribute). Sadly, the best featurette is a digital exclusive, which I hate and you hate, but apparently nobody at Disney cares we hate… John Williams: Scoring a Dream. Anyway, audio on the Blu-ray will be English 7.1 DTS-HD MA. You can see the cover artwork to the left there.  [Read on here…]

All right, we’ve got two reviews for you today. As expected we’ve got my thoughts on Shout! Factory’s Flight of the Butterflies in 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray, which I think is their best release on the format to date. I’ve reviewed the Warner Archive’s Longmire: Complete Seasons 1-4 on Blu-ray this morning too. The DVDs are available from Warner Bros Home Entertainment, the Blu-rays via Warner Archive, and you can stream the series – which is terrific – on Netflix. The new season of Longmire debuts on Netflix tomorrow, so do give it a look. I think you’ll really enjoy it.  [Read on here…]

We’re kicking off the day today with a couple of new 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray reviews... my thoughts on Shout! Factory’s recent Rocky Mountain Express, which is terrific, and Wonders of the Arctic, which is also a nice release. It’s fun to watch these 4K titles mastered from IMAX source material. They really look spectacular. Anyway, I may have at least one more review up today as well if you check back later, which would be Shout!’s Flight of the Butterflies in 4K. So do watch for that.

Here at The Bits today, our own Russell Hammond has just updated the Release Dates & Cover Art section with all the latest Blu-ray, DVD, and 4K cover art, as well as Amazon.com pre-order links. As always, anytime you order product from Amazon – literally anything at all – through any of our links, you’re helping to support our work here at The Bits and we really do appreciate it.  [Read on here…]

All right, the big news today is that we finally have the official word from our contacts at Paramount Pictures Home Entertainment: Star Trek Beyond will arrive on Blu-ray Combo, Blu-ray 3D Combo, DVD, and 4K Ultra HD formats on 11/1, with the Digital HD release due on 10/4. There will also be Star Trek Trilogy Collection on Blu-ray, as well as a number of retail exclusive SKUs (see here, here, here, and here). Audio on the Blu-ray and 4K versions will be English Dolby Atmos. Extras on the Blu-ray versions will include deleted scenes, a gag reel, and 9 behind-the-scenes featurettes (Beyond the Darkness, Enterprise Takedown, Divided and Conquered, A Warped Sense of Revenge, Trekking in the Desert, Exploring Strange New Worlds, New Life, New Civilizations, To Live Long and Prosper, and For Leonard and Anton). You can see the final cover artwork to the left and below.  [Read on here…]

Afternoon, folks. Hope you had a fine weekend. I’m been busy working on new Blu-ray and 4K reviews, the first of which I’m pleased to offer you now...

Here are my thoughts on Universal’s new Frankenstein: Complete Legacy Collection and The Wolf Man: Complete Legacy Collection, which streeted last week and are now available. Both are good upgrades of the previous DVD box sets of the same name, but the value proposition for each is a little complicated. I should note that in order to review these sets, I had to purchase them at my own expense. Universal chose not to make them available for review. Meanwhile, I’m working on additional reviews for posting later and tomorrow, so stay tuned for those.  [Read on here…]

All right, I’ve been busy working on Blu-ray reviews for you these last couple days, and we have four to share with you now. Late yesterday I posted my thoughts on Magnolia’s The Wave (aka Bølgen), which is a nifty little Norwegian disaster film from last year, as well as Madman Entertainment’s excellent North Sea Hijack (1979), better known to Americans as ffolkes! The film stars Roger Moore and it’s a great little gem. Best of all, though the packaging says Region B, the disc is actually an All Region release. Then today, our own Jim Hemphill has turned in his thoughts on Twilight Time’s new double feature of the Frank Sinatra films Tony Rome (1967) and Lady in Cement (1968). Finally, I’ve just completed my thoughts on CBS and Paramount’s whopping new 30-disc Star Trek: 50th Anniversary TV and Movie Collection Blu-ray box set, which as many of you know includes the first-ever release of Star Trek: The Animated Series on Blu-ray. That title will also be released separately on Blu-ray later this year, but in the meantime do check out our thoughts on the box set.  [Read on here…]