Audio Video News

The Force Will Be With You- For Three Months


The Lucasfilm Empire has announced that on September 12th of this year it will release the "original unaltered" Star Wars Trilogy- Star Wars, The Empire Strikes , and Return of the Jedi- on DVD. Each film will be available as a two-disc set with the 2004 digitally remastered DVD versions that have already appeared. Taking a page from Disney, these original trilogy releases will only be available until December 31st.

While this fulfills the wishes of many Star Wars fans who have longed to see the movies as they originally appeared in theaters in the 70s and 80s, before Lucas started updating the special effects and morphing characters in and out of the movies, there is more than enough disappointments with these releases to keep fans waiting in line to buy the next Star Wars releases, which could happen as early as say 2007, to commemorate the 30th anniversary of the original film's release.

For starters, the official announcement at starwars.com states that each theatrical edition release is packaged with the 2004 digitally remastered version of each movie only "as bonus material." Since the 2004 remastered trilogy has only been issued as a box set containing all three movies, this release essentially represents a repackaging of those films into individual titles with a new bonus feature.

While no specifics were given on the unaltered trilogy video, the announcement very specifically notes that the audio for each film will be more in line with a DVD supplemental feature than a major re-issue- the audio for each theatrical edition will be 2.0 Dolby Surround only. No 5.1-channel remasters.

Apparently the millions of fans around the globe haven't lined the Lucasfilm coffers with enough scratch to remaster the original edition audio tracks. Or maybe they can't find them to remaster them. Or maybe, just maybe, Lucasfilm will relent and sell us a remastered original theatrical version somewhere down the line on a next-gen format.

Why fans would be asked to pay again for the individual 2004 versions they've undoubtedly already bought is almost beyond me, but not quite. Since Lucasfilm is offering each theatrical edition as "bonus material," the only way to get the $30 a pop that each movie will cost is to add something new that's of theoretical value in each set. Otherwise, stripped down, non-remastered DVDs of the theatrical versions would sell for $9.99 or less like the rest of the old, plain-jane catalog titles we see at Best Buy. By bundling the unaltered theatrical editions with the 2004 versions that every fan already owns, they've got $30 sets to peddle to their enormous and adoring fan base that probably didn't cost very much to produce, knowing that the legions of diehards will undoubtedly buy every re-release from now until the end of time.

Before any of you accuse me of being too cynical, take a look at the StarWars.com web site. The announcement for the unaltered trilogy is so intertwined with an announcement for a new LEGO Original Trilogy video game that I could barely ferret out the DVD release information.

Consider too that the DVD format itself obviates all of this nonsense. King George can prattle on all he wants about the altered 2004 versions being his own personal "definitive" versions of the films, but the fact is that by using the seamless branching feature built in to the DVD format he could already have included the original theatrical releases, the 1997 theatrical re-release versions and the 2004 editions on the same DVDs he already sold us. Users would have been able to choose which versions they want to watch and when. Of course, if George had done that, he would have only sold us one DVD set two years ago, and wouldn't be enjoying the privilege of selling us these new discs with the original unaltered trilogy for a limited time later this year.

There is no mention at this time of selling these versions on Blu-ray, 20th Century Fox's preferred HD format, for even a limited time.

I seldom jump on this kind of bandwagon, but I'm personally going to be sitting out these versions as much as I'd like to own the original theatrical releases, and as much as I'm certainly something of a movie collector. If we keep buying substandard releases like these believe me, they'll keep selling them.

Warner Bows Full Metal Jacket and Unforgiven on HD DVD


On Tuesday May 16th Warner is releasing Clint Eastwood's Oscar-winning, deconstructionist Western, Unforgiven and Stanley Kubrick's Vietnam war mini-epic Full Metal Jacket on HD DVD. MSRP on each title is $28.99 but the street prices will be as low as $19.99.

No word on extras has been given yet, but the HD DVDs I've seen so far have been loaded with all the same features of previously released two-disc special edition DVDs. While Kubrick's films have been stripped down versions on DVD, Unforgiven was re-released in 2002 in just such a feature-laden two-disc edition.

Our sources have indicated that Warner will now be releasing at least two HD DVD titles per week in perpetuity. Watch UAV's Next-Gen Release Calendar to follow all the latest updates with HD DVD and Blu-ray releases.

Rumor Has It Hybrid Disc Punishes Early Adopters


This week Warner unveiled the first HD DVD hybrid disc, Rumor Has It in a combination disc with a dual-layered DVD on one side and a dual-layered HD DVD on the other side. This disc carries a full $10 premium over the full screen and widescreen releases of the standard def DVD put out on the same day. That's right, there was triple inventory on this title in stores Tuesday.

I'm no marketing executive, but this seems on its surface to be a poor way to test consumer interest in hybrid discs. For an extra $10 most DVD buyers, even if they know what the hybrid disc is, are probably just going to shrug and pick up the cheaper standard DVD version of the movie that's sitting right next to the hybrid on the shelf. The only way you provide incentive for the consumer is to offer only the hybrid version of the movie, which means the studios are probably going to need to bring that price down a bit closer to the current DVD standard.

So, what Warner has really done with Rumor is made the HD DVD $10 more expensive for the early adopters out there who have already plunked down on the HD DVD player and don't give a fig about having the standard def DVD. Hopefully the industry won't look at this flawed test case as proof positive that hybrids won't sell.