Audio Video News

Hollywood Reporter reports that Fox is doing a rush job on a Blu-ray Disc release of X-Men: The Last Stand to get it on store shelves on November 14th, just three days ahead of the arrival in the US of Sony's Blu-ray based PlayStation3 game console. The story quoted Fox executives as saying that the PS3 will lend Blu-ray an "unbeatable advantage" over the rival HD DVD format, hence the rush to market for X-Men.

And whatever the PS3 advantage turns out to be, its potential shouldn't be understated. To date Sony has sold over 100 million PlayStation2 consoles. The initial allotment of PS3 units in the US for the holiday season has been rumored to be on the low side at 400,000 units. But reports are already surfacing of retailers selling out their pre-orders and every one of those PS3 consoles is a Blu-ray Disc player. Consider that as recently as CEDIA 2006 Toshiba would only claim HD DVD penetration into 30,000 US homes and it becomes apparent why none of the studios (except Universal!) want to be on the outside looking in with respect to PS3's HD compatibility.

The Reporter's story quoted a $39.98 MSRP for X-Men BD, and even nailed down some of the specs, citing the video as using MPEG-4/AVC compression and a DTS-HD Master Audio lossless soundtrack. In addition to bonus features in HD the BD release will feature a "Marvel Trivia Track" that once engaged pops up on screen during the movie with factoids and other inside information on the characters and events from the comic book world that tie into the film. This last bit is significant. The Blu-ray titles released thus far have done little to deliver on the promise of enhanced interactivity compared with DVD.