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The “Planet of the Apes” set will be available on Blu-ray November 4 for $160. A special “ape head” package is available for an extra $20.
How do you get consumers clamoring for Blu-ray? Apparently, they need more than the promise of an awesome picture. Studios are planning to pack more extras into high-def releases in an effort to entice more buyers.
Video Business says that Fox’s upcoming “Planet of the Apes 40-Year Evolution Blu-ray Collection” will have five new never-before-seen features. Coming in 2009, a 30th anniversary edition of the Peter Sellers’ swan song “Being There” (if you don’t count the posthumous “The Fiendish Plot of Dr. Fu Manchu”) will have 10 minutes of deleted scenes and alternate endings that Warner Bros. recently “found.” Even cooler, the advent of BD Live is allowing for funky extras like the “new and improved” Blu-ray version of “Casino Royale,” which will include a peer-to-peer trivia game.
To date, many Blu-ray releases were lacking exclusive extras. Hopefully the new trend will see standard-def versions getting standard extras, while Blu-ray goes for the gold—or at least the green.
Are extras enough to entice you, or is it all about the picture? Were there any specific extras on certain titles that you just had to have? Drop a comment below.
I am like everyone else Better sound and maybe better picture restoration, top gun looked BAD.
I won’t even watch a blu-ray that has compressed audio, so please for the love of GOD the mission impossible series, Assissination of Jesse James come out with uncompressed audio!
Forget about the extras. More movie and sound please.
Heck no.
Just give me the movie with great quality and great sound. Forget all of the extras which I never see, and the new codecs, too. The games are an absolute joke. Every time they say, “Oh, just wait…. they’re going to be sooo cool…” I think, “Yeah, whatever…. haven’t seen it yet.” Don’t waste my time or money. Just make the discs cheaper (and load faster). I don’t see that extra crap in the movie theater, and have no interest in paying you for it anyway!
I’m also sick of the DTS-MA debacle where many expensive receivers like my Marantz SR-8002 will hit an explosive “bomb” sound due to DTS-MA issues.
Just give me PCM 5.1 minimum.
I agree with Tom regarding lame audio. Why should I buy Blu-Ray with ONLY 5.1 surround sound, intermittently grainy scenes, and fewer extras than the DVD version I already have? My DVDs have MORE extras and are upscaled and matrixed nicely by my AVR.
This is why I haven’t purchased the Planet Earth series. I want the Blu-Ray version WITH the same extras packaged with the DVD version. The Blu-ray version costs more, for heaven’s sake!
Produce Blu-Ray versions with (if applicable) remastered transfers, 7.1 sound, and at least as many extras as the original DVD, all at a price under $15, then I’ll be tempted.
Otherwise, my DVDs will do just fine.
I do like extras—NEVER the lame director commentaries, but other things like theatrical trailer, story background, deleted scenes, gag reel, technical/scientific documentaries, etc.
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Just give me movie! I have no need for “extras”. If I wanted to play a game based on a movie, I’d buy a game! Blu-ray is a movie format to me.