HD DVD’s Last Chance For Limelight

Posted on Saturday, March 1, 2008 by MegaZone

As HD DVD plays out its last days on the market, it has had one last shot at the limelight. For the week ended 2/24 HD DVD managed to grab 23% of the high-def market, with Blu-ray taking the other 77%. This makes them 76:24 for the year, and 65:35 since inception. But the real story is American Gangster. It managed to do something HD DVD has done in quite a while, take the top spot for best selling high-def title. In fact, it is the only HD DVD release to make the top 10, outselling second place Blu-ray Michael Clayton 3:2. This is one of the last major HD DVD exclusive blockbuster titles, there aren’t many titles left. And it is possible that some of those announced titles could be dropped, just as Paramount did with their post 3/4 titles.

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Liberty Media Concludes DirecTV Acquisition

Posted on Saturday, March 1, 2008 by MegaZone

Liberty Media has completed their acquisition of News Corp’s shares in DirecTV. The FCC approved the deal on Monday, and the Justice Department followed suit on Tuesday, clearing the deal of any anti-trust hurdles. The full deal has Liberty giving up their 16.3% share in News Corp in return for News Corp’s controlling 41% share of DirecTV, three regional sports networks, and $625 million in cash. The total deal is valued at $13.6 billion. The acquisition has been long rumored to signal the potential return of TiVo as DirecTV’s DVR platform, as Liberty Media is also a corporate investor in TiVo. Only time will tell.

Via EngadgetHD.

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This Weekend’s Amazon Unbox Sale

Posted on Saturday, March 1, 2008 by MegaZone

This weekend it almost isn’t worth posting about the sale. Amazon Unbox is only offering two titles, The Comebacks for $2.49 and The Bourne Supremacy for $2.99.

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Paramount And DreamWorks Animation Drop HD DVD, As Of Next Tuesday

Posted on Friday, February 29, 2008 by MegaZone

Tuesday, March 4th, will see the last HD DVD releases from Paramount and DreamWorks Animation – Into the Wild and Things We Lost in the Fire, both from Paramount. All previously announced HD DVD releases due after 3/4 are canceled. Those titles are Bee Movie (3/11), The Jack Ryan Collection (3/25), The Kite Runner (3/25), Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (4/1), and There Will Be Blood (4/15). So, while Paramount and DreamWorks Animation were the last major studios to official announce the end of their HD DVD effort, it seems they will be the first to actually drop the format due to the abrupt nature of their plans. They did the same thing when they switched from format neutral to HD DVD, canceling Blu-ray releases that were already in retailers’ hands.

This means no high-def releases from the two studios for a couple of months, as they plan to begin distributing their films on Blu-ray this summer. I imagine that the HD DVD films that were dropped will be undergoing a crash remastering effort for Blu-ray. Picked up from High-Def Digest, Video Business, and The Hollywood Reporter.

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TiVo Adds Two High-End Packages To TiVo Rewards

Posted on Thursday, February 28, 2008 by MegaZone

As announced this morning, TiVo is discontinuing the TiVo Rewards program soon. It looks like, as a parting offer, they’ve added a couple of high-end rewards packages for those over-achievers with a high points count. The former high-end was the Series3, which goes for 75,000 points.

Now we have the TiVo Rewards Entertainment Package and the TiVo Rewards Ultimate Entertainment Package. The former goes for 120,000 points and gives you a TiVo HD, TiVo WiFi adapter, and Product Lifetime Service! The latter goes for 150,000 and adds a Western Digital My DVR Expander Hard Drive to the deal.

The TiVo HD alone goes for 35,000 points, and the Western Digital My DVR Expander Hard Drive goes for 28,500 points. I believe that’s a new addition along with the TiVo Duffle Bag and TiVo Backpack, each 5,000 points.

EDIT: Dave Zatz noticed something interesting during an email exchange. The Entertainment Package is 120,000 points and includes a TiVo HD, WiFi adapter, and lifetime service. The Ultimate Entertainment Package is 150,000 points and includes a TiVo HD, WiFi adapter, lifetime service, and a WD eSATA drive. So that means the drive adds 30,000 points to the ‘cost’ of the package. But you can get the drive by itself for 28.500 points – a savings of 1,500 points. Give the Entertainment Package plus a drive for 148.500 – instead of the Ultimate package for 150,000.

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