Blu-ray High Definition Movies

No matter how hard we try, catching up with the latest technology is a daunting task. Cell phones get smaller, computers get faster, and the quality of digital cameras keeps on improving. But digital cameras aren’t the only genre where picture quality keeps on improving. With the new era of HDTV, a new era in movie watching has begun as well: the Blu-ray era. Named for the blue laser that reads the discs, Blu-ray Discs are the latest generation in information storage and film viewing. Using a blue laser provides greater precision, so picture quality and storage space vastly increase when compared to traditional red lasers used with CDs and DVDs. New Blu-ray Discs will be recordable, rewritable, and compatible with HDTV.

Storage space on a single layer disc is 25GB, while storage on a dual-layer disc is 50GB. The first general release date for Blu-ray products is May 23, 2006; Samsung will release the first BD player on that date, while several other players and products will be released by other major electronic companies in the months following.

To coincide with the release, Sony Pictures Home Entertainment and Lions Gate Films have each announced plans to release Blu-ray titles on the same date. SPHE has announced the following eight titles: 50 First Dates, The Fifth Element, Hitch, House of Flying Daggers, A Knight's Tale, The Last Waltz (MGM), Resident Evil Apocalypse, and XXX. Eight more films, including Terminator (MGM) will be released on BD format on June 13th. Crash, this year’s Academy Award for Best Picture, will also be released on May 23rd, by Lions Gate Films. Lions Gate will also be putting out The Punisher, Lord of War, Saw and Terminator 2: Judgment Day on the same date. Other studios have not announced release dates for their titles at this time. As with all new products, a Blu-ray player will be on the higher end of the scale: Samsung’s SRP for its player is $1,000. But never fear—your old DVD collection will still play on most Blu-ray players. The price for movies in Blu- Ray format is $29.99-$39.99.

For more information, visit www.samsung.com, www.sonypictures.com,  www.lionsgatefilms.com and www.blu-raydisc.com