Seen in HD 25 – THX, Blu-ray stats, Invention of Lying review

This week, Phil loses his ability to remember anything at the end of the show. Luckily, we were able to make it through most of the show before he loses control of cognitive thinking.

We start out with a look at a great article from Anandtech on THX certification on HDTVs. The company started by Lucasfilm to ensure theaters perform to spec evntually branched out into home video and audio. And now that the THX Certified badge is out there, what does it mean? Is a THX Certified HDTV something that would draw you toward a purchase? Or is it more of a marketing piece now?

Home Media Magazine reported on a study that showed more people have game consoles than cable boxes now (Adam and Phil both have more consoles than boxes). What does that mean for the future of TV at home?

On the 3D front, HDGure notes that Best Buy will be launching it’s full-on 3D efforts with a new promotional area inside its Union Station store in Manhattan. New stores will come online throughout the rest of the year. Also, Mitsubishi is readying a converter box that will allow legacy Samsung and Mitsubishi 3D sets to view content from the newer 3D sources at half resolution.

Finally, we do some homework from last week looking at Blu-ray market share numbers. The most recent numbers (week ending Feb. 28) show Blu-ray at 13% market share with revenue up 76.88% from last year. This is the first time in several weeks that market share was higher than the week before.

Looking historically, it’s very easy to tie large market share numbers to highly anticipated new releases. Watchmen, Up, Snow White and Transformers Revenge of the Fallen all were new releases in the four highest market share weeks since last May.

Our Blu-ray review this week looks at The Invention of Lying starring Ricky Gevais and Jennifer Garner. Delivered on a VC-1 encoded 25GB disc, the video suffers a bit from the smaller disc size. Not a bad presentation, but nothing amazing either. A lack of dimension keeps the print from being anything better than average. On the audio side, the Dolby TrueHD 5.1 mix is likewise average. None of the scenes really give the audio a chance to shine, and as such, it neither offends nor impresses. Kudos to the sound designer for realizing the brunt of this film relied on interaction between the characters, as dialogue is crisp, clean and well balanced. For fans of Gervais’ podcasts, be sure to check out the special features for a Karl Pilkington piece. The rest of the features are farily entertaining as well. Give it a rent, but only buy if you’re big fans of Gervais or Garner.

Looking to the future with the help of our friend Geek Tonic, not too much by way of new premieres this week until Sunday when HBO’s The Pacific kicks off it’s 10-episode run. From the same people that made the Award Winning Band of Brothers, The Pacific shifts focus to the other theater from WWII. Check out previews at HBO.com.

Lots to talk about in The HD Sportsman this week as March Madness hits full tilt with college hoops conference tournaments all week.

There’s some good Blu-ray deals to look at this week, including a $9.99 sale at Best Buy and a sale starting at $12.99 at Amazon.com and two more sales at $9.99. Take a look at these sales, because there’s not much worth picking up from this week’s release schedule.

Finally, Paramount might be copping to serious criticism of it’s Sapphire Series release of Gladiator last year. The disc was roundly panned for poor video quality, and rumors are circulating now that the may be looking to release a “Remastered” version of Gladiator sometime in May.

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[tags]blu-ray, Seen in HD, Invention of Lying, 3D, THX[/tags]