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Seen in HD 40 – Netflix’s new deal, Sony channel, Predator review

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News

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It was a really slow news week this post-holiday. Netflix made some waves with its announcement of a deal with Relativity Media that will allow it to stream movies from the studio during the “pay TV” window. However, unlike some bombastic predictions, we don’t feel this is even a thumbtack in Blu-ray’s coffin.

Elsewhere, Sony has announced that it will join MGM and Universal in having it’s own channel to showcase its wide catalog of films. HD Report, citing an LA Times story, says Sony hopes to have carrier agreements in the fall. The main sticking point? How much. Word is Sony wants as much as $1.50 per subscriber. According to this list on All Things Digital, that would make it the third-most expensive channel behind only ESPN and FOX Sports and ahead of TNT. For comparison, MGM gets 53 cents and Universal 27. We also wonder what this means long-term for channels like HBO and Starz.

Marketshare/Sales

Pretty tame for Blu-ray for the week ending June 27. It’s pretty much what we expected,  marketshare was 12% and revenue, while up 3% from last year at $15 million, was down $9 million from last week.

Book of Eli held on to No. 1 in Blu-ray sales for the second week in a row, with new release Green Zone right behind. Deep discounts on the Toy Story films put them in spots 3-4. Combo disc sales looked the same in the top two spots, while Blu-ray share was near 30% for most of the top discs.

Blu-ray Review Predator: Ultimate Hunter Edition | Doblu.com review

Vitals: MPEG-4 AVC, 1.85:1 aspect ratio, DTS HD Master Audio 5.1, DD 4.0

Great ’80s action movie full of brilliant one-liners and lots of things exploding hits Blu in this special edition just in time for the release of Predators in theaters, and handy enough, you get a $10 movie credit with the disc. 20th Century Fox claims an all-new digital restoration of the film, and therein lies the problem. Nearly any spec of film grain is gone, replaced by “a DNR’ed disaster” according to Matt’s review. The audio does take a turn for the better, with solid surround placement and a score that is highly improved over the film’s original release on Blu-ray.

Gaming

Crackdown 2 hits shelves this week, and Matt has some pretty solid critiques of it. Also, we learn that Sony got a week of people scrambling for PS+ subscriptions in order to get Hulu, only to find out that requirement is during the preview period only, whatever that means. Finally, Japan is getting a white PS3 with a 320GB hard drive, no U.S. release date yet.

What we’ve seen/are watching

  • Geek Tonic’s listings show that the summer premieres are winding down. Warehouse 13 and Big Brother are the only two really worth mentioning.
  • The HD Sportsman this week is bad enough that I didn’t even do a full schedule on the site (plus I was lazy from the holiday weekend.) There’s only one event worth noting, albeit a HUGE one. The World Cup championship game is Sunday on ABC at 2 p.m. featuring Spain and my Oranje Crush from the Netherlands. Saturday Germany and Uruguay tangle in the third place game, same time and channel.

Blu-ray deals/Releases

Only 12 Blu-ray releases for July 13, and man are they lame. See for yourself, I can’t bring myself to list any of these titles.

Deals were very light again for this week:

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[tags]blu-ray, Seen in HD, Predator – Ultimate Hunter Edition, Hulu, PS3, podcast, Sony, World Cup[/tags]

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