Fox update

[bruce]

High-def delivery delays due to replication

20th Century Fox Home Entertainment has had to postpone the release of many BD titles, including Mr. & Mrs. Smith, originally expected March 13, as well as three set for April 3: Me, Myself and Irene; Dude, Where’s My Car; and The Fly.

Fox senior VP of marketing communications Steve Feldstein said there were no production problems with these titles.

“Our release schedule is a fluid thing,” he said. “We came out with Eragon on street date, and we will come out with Night at the Museum” on its April 24 street.

However, other studio sources agree that replication is a key reason behind high-def retail troubles. High-def check discs are returned much more often than standard-def counterparts because studios are still fine-tuning the color processing for BD and HD DVD.

“If you’re still having to go through check discs, and they aren’t up to par and are rejected, then ultimately that causes your timeline to be longer than standard-definition,” said one source. “Production people are working miracles putting out the [high-def] releases as fast as they are.”

http://www.videobusiness.com/article/CA6430991.html