Update Steelbook Blu Ray News Review – Tuesday, January 14, 2020 4:36 PM My Bloody Valentine update, Parasite, Quiet Place 4K Steelbook, new BD reviews and more at CES and physical media by Bill Hunt
Well, we’ve got some more news and thoughts about CES and the state of physical media here at the start of 2020. But first, we’ve got a bunch of new Blu-ray reviews for you…
Update Steelbook Blu Ray News Review
First of all, Dennis offers a different perspective on Todd Phillips’ Joker on BD from Warner Bros. Home entertainment. He seemed to have enjoyed it a bit more than I did. Check out his thoughts.
Star Wars’ Limited Edition Steelbook Blu Rays Arriving This Fall
Dennis also turned to watching Aaron Schimberg’s Chained for Life on Blu-ray from Kino Lorber.
And Tim has a review of Richard Franklin’s Road Games (1981), now available on New Writers Blu-ray from Scream Factory.
Speaking of Scream, the company has just announced that their upcoming Blu-ray Collector’s Edition of My Bloody Valentine will feature new 4K scans of both the original theatrical release and also the Uncut version mastered by the original The camera is not good. [Read here…]
However, the label added this note about the release: “The historically infamous ‘Harriet drill bit’ shot was never seen or included unfortunately. We looked and asked endlessly. It’s not of the old bad and there are no photos that we can find. Trust on.us, we like the movie as much as you do and we’re trying!” Still, share a lot of good news, especially if Paramount can remain the film’s original negative.
Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 1 Arrives On Blu Ray, Dvd & Limited Edition 4k Uhd Steelbook
Extras will include the following on disc one: A new 4K scan of the original camera negative, 8 features (An Anemic Valentine: An Interview with Director George Mihalka, From the Heart: The Interview with Actor Paul Kelman, Friends of Mine: Interview with Actress Lori Hallier, Axel, Be My Valentine: Interview with actor Neil Affleck, Becoming Sylvia: Interview with actress Helene Udy, The Secret Service: An interview with actor Rob Stein, Broken Hearts and Broken Bones: An Interview with Special Makeup Designer Tom Burman , and Holes in the Heart: A Look Inside The Difference Between Drama and Nonfiction), old movies, old TV spots, old radio spots, and original sites.
Disc two includes: A new 4K camera negative, new commentary with director George Mihalka, My Bloody Valentine: 35th Anniversary Cast Reunion Panel featurette, and Thomas Kovacs performing “The Ballad of Harry Warden” at the Bay of Blood Convention.
Now then… Universal has just announced the Blu-ray and DVD release of Bong Joon-ho’s Parasite on 1/28, with a 4K digital version available today. For now, it appears that 4K is strictly digital only here in the US, although it’s possible that a physical 4K version could be released later if sales are strong enough. Plus will include a Q&A with director Bong Joon-ho featurette.
Paramount has also announced that John Krasinski’s A Quiet Place will be re-released in 4K Ultra HD on 10/3 in a new Mondo Steelbook volume. This is an opportunity to promote the theatrical release of the sequel, which hits theaters on 3/20. You can see the artwork above and below.
Limited Edition 4k Blu Ray Steelbooks Include Spider Man: No Way Home And Venom
Now then…back to the subject of CES and physical media. Some of you long-time readers may have noticed, but I haven’t attended CES in person for a few years now. And the reason is simple: Hollywood studios are almost absent from the show anymore, and there simply haven’t been many important 4K and Blu-ray related events at the show. Notably, no new 4K or Blu-ray players have been announced there – certainly not this year. And the only significant development at this year’s show is the news from the Ultra HD Association that Samsung and Philips will support the Filmmaker brand, as we said yesterday.
Here’s the thing: All this news might be easier from the office rather than the theater. And I’m constantly meeting with studios and business people here in SoCal anyway – just need a little more to attend CES in person.
Actually, all the news at CES this year was focused on the new 4K and especially the 8K display. But again, just don’t need 8K. Sure, commentators will say, “But the advancement algorithms are so good that the material used in 4K will be fine for 8K!” I have little doubt that is true. But aside from a few new movies released in IMAX or classic titles shot in 65mm, there is simply no content in 8K. Again, most movies are still broadcast in 2K DI, although native 4K DI is finally becoming more common. But doing it in native 8K – especially doing VFX work at 8K in post-production – is expensive and time-consuming. There are no plans for a physical 8K format that would be necessary to deliver content to consumers at full bandwidth. And most people (especially in the US) still don’t have the internet bandwidth to watch high-quality 4K streaming, much less 8K. The simple fact is that every video format since DVD has won over a small portion of the consumer market. Blu-ray has a smaller audience than DVD, and 4K has a smaller audience than Blu-ray. In fact, look at the percentage of home video sales for the first week of 2020 (per NPD VideoScan and Media Play News)…
Sure, there aren’t many big and demanding 4K titles being released in the fourth quarter, and this is in the way of consumer spending for Christmas, but still. These are not huge sales numbers for 4K discs. And DVD still dominates all disc sales, more than a decade into the Blu-ray format.
Event Horizon (25th Anniversary Steelbook) (4k Ultra Hd Blu Ray Review)
An interesting thing that happens at CES every year is that my friends at the Digital Entertainment Group release their year-end report on home entertainment. The good news is that total US home entertainment spending rose 8.4% to $25.2 billion in 2019, an all-time high. The bad news is that all the benefits lie in digital spending. Digital sell-thru increased 5.1% to $2.58 billion, while physical media sales declined 18.3%. Overall, all sales were down 9.4%. However, subscription streaming increased by 23.7%, representing a total digital increase of 17.5% in 2019 compared to 2018.
Consider what that means: Physical advertising was down 18% in 2019. You can return to our service (from this time last year) at CES 2019, when we announce that the media agency was down 14.6% in 2018 compared to 2017. And in our service at CES 2018, we announced that body sales are down 14.1% in 2017 from 2016.
The trend line is all the way down on physical media, and the rate of decline is beginning to accelerate.
So our message to all of you who love movies and TV entertainment content on Blu-ray, DVD and 4K continues to be this: Support the format for as long as possible with the money you spend. The records haven’t disappeared for quite some time. 4K and Blu-ray continue to be supported by Hollywood studios and especially indie labels, and we expect that to continue for a few more years. This is facilitated by the fact that Sony will include a physical 4K unit in its new PlayStation 5, which is expected to launch in November this year. Microsoft’s Xbox Series X will also include a 4K UHD drive when it arrives in time for the holidays. And given that the average lifespan of gaming systems is around 9 years, that means there will be physical support for many more years.
John Wick 4 Steelbook (walmart Exclusive) (blu Ray + Dvd + Digital Copy) With Character Cards
But there is no doubt that physical media will become a niche format during that time, with more and more consumers moving mostly or entirely to digital consumption. It’s just life and time and the advancement of technology.
So buy your favorite movies and TV titles on disc when you can, as much as you can. The more of you that do, the more names we will all get and the longer Hollywood will continue to promote the records.
But you’d better be open to embracing digital releases as well, as more and more exclusive 4K titles will only be released in the future.
We’ll let you see the cover art for some of the titles mentioned above (and more) with Amazon links if available…
Army Of Darkness 4k Blu Ray Collector’s And Steelbook Edition Prices Get Slashed
Bill Hunt is the creator and editor-in-chief of The Digital Bits, and the author (with Todd Doogan) of the Amazon Top 50 best-selling book The Digital Bits: Insider’s Guide to DVD. Hunt launched The Bits website in 1997,…
Product #4K review – @stephenbjork revisits #Disney #animated classic CINDERELLA, now available exclusively from @Disney Movie Club in 3-Disc #4K #UltraHD #Bluray #DVD #Digital release with beautiful presentation. @BillHuntBits /item/cinderell…
Product #4K review – @BillHuntBits returns from Stuart Baird’s STAR TREK:
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