The hot new release this week is Madagascar, another animation feature from the digital powerhouse DreamWorks.

This is a family-friendly flick with adult humor along the way, similar to everyone’s favorite ogre, Shrek.

The story goes like this: Spoiled by their upbringing with no idea what wild life is really like, four animals from New York Central Zoo escape in search of their friend and find themselves on route to Madagascar…

Madagascar - rent it from Netflix (free 2 week trial)

Serenity, this year’s Sci-Fi movie based on the cult hit series FireFly will make a rocket jump to DVD is less than 3 months from her theatrical release.

It will be available on December 20th, just in time for those last minute shoppers. (Pretty much all men.)

This is great news, not only for the release of this great title, but also in the speedy transition of movies to dvd release. I hope the trend continues…

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A couple of new, popular and decently rated DVDs are released this week:

Charlie and The Chocolate Factory (widescreen, of course)

This one is rated 7.5/10 at the Internet Movie DataBase

and

The Devil’s Rejects

Which conjures up a 7.0/10 at the IMDB

Rent them from Netflix - free 10 day trial.
Movies right to your mailbox, the ultimate for lazy bum home theater dudes.

Toshiba just made an interesting move with the HD-DVD format. They seem to have a healthy fear of losing the format war, as they have now opened up the manufacturing of HD-DVD drives to Chinese manufacturers.

This effectively drives the costs of manufacturing the units, and speeds the units to market. Toshiba is giving up some revenue by not handling this themselves.

This is an interesting move indeed. Toshiba wants to get a head start and get the momentum rolling before Sony has time to catch up.

I think I’ll pull up a ringside seat…

In the high-stakes battle with Sony over whose format will power the next generation of DVD players, Toshiba has adopted a potentially perilous strategy: encouraging low-cost Chinese competitors to crank out machines using its standard, known as HD DVD.

Toshiba’s push on HD DVD
Via HDBeat

Awright, the last Star Wars release is available today! Star Wars, Episode III - Revenge of the Sith is reported to be a great dvd with over 6 hours of extras.

I have to be honest - I never saw it in the theater. I know, I know - but I CAN’T go there anymore! Why should I pay 15 bucks per head, to sit it crummy seats with my feet on a sticky floor, listening to thousands of popcorn munch echoes, only to miss the best part of the flick when I need to go relieve myself?

I am spoiled, I don’t think I’ll ever go to the box office again. Really, though, why should I?

DVD extras - just another reason to wait for the home release, baby.

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Blu-Ray to come out of the gate first? Maybe they’ll get a leg up on HD-DVD after all.

AOpen, a Taiwanese PC and peripheral maker, plans to begin shipping Blu-ray drives for PCs in November. Just prepare to dig deep into your pockets: while AOpen has not yet revealed pricing, you can bet that it will cost a lot-bleeding-edge technology always does.

So, in November you can be the proud owner of a new Blu-Ray drive! Then what? You’ll have to wait for something to stick in it.

So what will you put in your new Blu-ray drive should you purchase one next month? Judging by the current availability of blank Blu-ray media and Blu-ray movies, not a whole lot. A handful of manufacturers have shown off prototype Blu-ray drives in the last several months, but nothing appears to have made it to market yet.

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Microsoft and Intel are throwing their full weight behind one side in the long-running battle over the format for the next generation of high-definition DVD’s.

Tuesday the two companies will announce that they are backing the HD-DVD format developed by Toshiba over the Blu-ray standard championed by Sony, Matsushita Electric, Samsung and others. Microsoft announced in June that it would work with Toshiba to develop high-definition DVD players. Now, Microsoft and Intel say they will develop software and chips that will allow personal computers to play the next-generation DVD’s from Toshiba.

The companies said they had not ruled out
Read “Microsoft and Intel to Back HD-DVD Format”

Toshiba will start shipping their HD DVD player the first quarter of 2006 with or without a commitment from the studios to provide content.

‘Bout time. Being a professional procrastinator myself, I must say better now (or then) than never.

Marketspeak on HD-DVD media pricing:

When asked about software price, the manufacturer’s representative also indicated that there would be a “small monetary premium” over standard DVD prices.

Hmmm, small by whose definition? Anyway, I can’t wait for this format to take off, and I’m sure you can’t either.

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Article - HD-DVD Launch Off Til ’06

The next-generation DVD format known as HD-DVD won’t be launched in the United States until early next year because of a lack of coordination between partners handling the hardware and software, a Toshiba official said Friday.

Hmmm, now that sounds pretty bogus. “Lack of co-ordination between hardware and software partners.” Huh?

And then:

The consumer electronics company, which is the major backer of the HD-DVD format said, however, that technology will be launched in Japan before the end of 2005 as planned.

So, let me get this right. Hardware/software coordination is going to hold off the US HD HVD release, but they’re moving right along with it in Japan? Can somebody explain how these two statements line up? I mean, does the software need to be translated into English to work on this continent?

Ok, I was pulling for this format, but this is really stupid. The biggest thing in this industry hd-dvd had going for it was lead time. Now they bungle that.

The scales continue to tip in favor of Blu-Ray. Let justice be done!

TOKYO - Japanese electronic maker Toshiba has given up on negotiations with a rival camp led by Sony Corp. to agree on a unified format for next-generation DVDs, a media report said late Tuesday.

Well, I figured this was coming. So much for unity in the world eh? Now, who’s going to be the next betamax?

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