Over America and Over California on Feb 5

[Merlins]

Looks like Topics Entertainment will release Over America and Over California on Blu-ray February 5:

http://www.amazon.com/Over-America-D...735373&sr=1-11

http://www.amazon.com/Over-Californi...735246&sr=1-11

This is specially interesting since they were going Blu-ray but got uncertain because of the Paramount buy-off:

http://www.videobusiness.com/article/CA6480428.html

Another supplier, Topics Entertainment, was about to begin authoring titles in Blu-ray when the announcement was made that Paramount Pictures and DreamWorks Animation would drop their Blu-ray support and release movies exclusively for HD DVD.

“Paramount threw us for a bit of a loop,” said Greg James, Topics president. “We were going to go with Blu-ray for sure, but now we haven’t made our final decision.”

The company is still committed to releasing titles on high-def this year, but now it’s giving HD DVD a second look for a slate including the PBS titles Over Washington, Over California and Over America, which were shot in high-definition in the mid-’90s.

The company is talking to both Blu-ray replicator Sony DADC and HD DVD proponent Microsoft to see which format can be brought to market more quickly. Topics had some concern that the titles might not be replicated in time if they chose Blu-ray, because fewer replicators work with that format.

At this point, Topics is most likely to go with whichever format camp offers the company the best deal.

“We want to see who can do it cheaper,” Topics DVD manager Lindsay Collins said.

Cost considerations continue to hold back other independents.

“We master in high-definition, but since we’re a smaller studio, we’re still trying to maximize our margins with standard DVD,” said Chris Donaldson, director of marketing for Liberation Entertainment.

And I can’t find any HD-DVD releases from them Looks like they again can see the light and that Blu-ray is the most cost effective alternative for them!