Blades of Glory's BD favoring; Optimum Home Entertainment news in the UK

[Avalanche™]

One more for the good guys

https://www.blu-ray.com/news/?id=360
On August 28th, Paramount will ship its first high definition title to include a lossless or uncompressed soundtrack - 'Blades of Glory'. This title will feature a PCM 5.1 soundtrack for the Blu-ray release, but will feature no equivalent on the HD DVD, presumably because of the smaller disc capacity. Two weeks later, Paramount will ship 'Face/Off' with extras features available in high definition, but only on the Blu-ray version, again due to space constraints.

This is a drastic change from the Paramount we once knew. For the past year, Blu-ray owners have cringed as they saw release after release issued with low bit rate MPEG-2 video encodes and Dolby Digital soundtracks, while the HD DVD versions received VC-1 encodes and higher bit rate Dolby Digital Plus audio. It was disappointing to say the least.

The shift began with 'Flags of Our Fathers', which was released with a high bit rate AVC encode for the Blu-ray release. The audio was still lacking, but it was clear they were finally recognizing the Blu-ray consumer as a valuable asset. Now, with the addition of PCM audio, Paramount completes the high definition package and Blu-ray owners can now enjoy their favorite Paramount movies the way they were meant to be seen.

and now for the Pans Labyrinth News
https://www.blu-ray.com/news/?id=358
Optimum Home Entertainment has announced that they will be releasing 'Wolf Creek', 'Pan's Labyrinth', and 'The Host' for Blu-ray on November 12th in the UK. Previously, Optimum only supported HD DVD, but with their recent Blu-ray announcements, it's clear that they recognize the markets are turning in Blu-ray's favor. No specs were announced at this time.

An interesting side note: Optimum is owned by StudioCanal, who releases on HD DVD in Europe. Could they be next to turn?



Pans Better come out in the US!!!