Audio Video News

Big Fourth Quarter For Blu-ray And HD DVD
The number of Blu-ray and HD DVD releases scheduled in the last quarter of this calendar year is growing rapidly. Warner's second wave of Blu-ray titles will hit stores on September 5th, followed by four more catalog titles from the Warner library on September 12th. Universal has announced four more catalog titles for HD DVD in late October.

Warner's second wave of Blu-ray Discs consist entirely of titles already released on HD DVD, providing plenty of fodder for head to head comparisons between the two formats. The titles are Blazing Saddles, Firewall, FullMetal Jacket, and Lethal Weapon. Hopefully by that time a properly functioning Blu-ray Disc player will be available to make such comparisons as valid as possible.

Warner's September 12th HD DVD slate consists of the Paris Hilton epic House of Wax, Lethal Weapon 2, the geezer-laden Space Cowboys and the recent sword and sandals epic Troy. Troy is singled out as featuring In-Movie Experience (IME) interactivity which will allow viewers to access these features while the movie is running in real time, including director Wolfgang Petersen and the film's creative team providing a tour of the film's recreations of Troy and Greece.

On October 24th Universal will release Terry Gilliam's 12 Monkeys, Steven Soderbergh's Out of Sight, Spartacus and John Carpenter's great 1982 remake of The Thing. Also, the Saen Penn/Nicole Kidman thriller The Interpreter will appear in stores this day, having been bumped from August 22nd.

Track all of the upcoming Blu-ray and HD DVD releases on UAV's next-gen release calendar here: http://www.ultimateavmag.com/features/060606nextgen

Runco Will Debut Seven New 1080p Projectors At CEDIA 2006
Well, ready or not, CEDIA is officially here. Runco has gotten a jumpstart by announcing that it will debut seven(!) new 1080p projectors at the show. It says this is the "broadest line of 1080p projector in the home theater market," and if it's not, well, no one can claim it's for lack of trying!

The new line will start at a remarkably competitive $11,995 for the single-chip DLP Reflection series model and will to all the way up to, gulp, $115,000 for the three-chip DLP Video Xtreme model equipped with Runco's CineWide and AutoScope options.

The Reflection series' RS-1100 and RS-1100 Ultra are single-chip 1080p DLP models and both are ISF-certified with Night and Day calibration modes. Both feature selectable lamp intensity levels to allow flexibility in installation and ambient light.

Runco's trade show demonstration are typically standing room only affairs, and I'm guessing that will be the case again this year!