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Blu-ray releases on June 16th 2009

Lost Season OneUp this week is a big ol' slew of TV shows and catalogs, but that's ok because we're very excited to see the first season of our favorite shows on Blu-ray: Lost. But as much as we love it, we're still waiting on the super all inclusive complete season box set, and since it'll probably cost a small fortune, we'll be saving up in the meantime. That isn't the only great show coming to Blu-ray this week either, as Burn Notice Season Two also comes out, and if you haven't checked out the best action show on TV since the A-Team, you need to go ahead and at least add the first disc to your queue. The last one we'll mention because we loved it so much was John Adams, and we'll just say that we wish our teachers in school made history this interesting.
  • Lost: The Complete First Season (Disney)
  • Lost: The Complete Second Season (Disney)
  • Miracle (Disney)
  • Morning Light (Disney)
  • The Greatest Game Ever Played (Disney)
  • Burn Notice: Season Two (Fox)
  • The Diary of Anne Frank (Fox)
  • Generation Kill (HBO)
  • John Adams (HBO)
  • The Cell 2 (New Line)
  • Ghostbusters (Sony)
  • No Way Back (Sony)
  • Striking Distance (Sony)
  • Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (Sony)
  • Fracture (New Line)
  • Friday The 13th (2009) (New Line)
  • Friday The 13th: Part 2 (Paramount)
  • Friday The 13th: Part III (Paramount)
  • Kickboxer (Lionsgate)
  • The Seventh Seal (Criterion)
  • Spaceballs (MGM)

Lost finally has another HD Easter Egg?


It's been quite some time, but the most eagle eyed among us caught a look at this during last night's episode of Lost, showing an unidentified girl in the shadows during a key scene. It's been some time since the last Easter Egg we picked up on, it's hard to tell if they stopped putting them in or if we just stopped caring, but the debate over who this might be or if it was just a mistake has piqued our interest. So, are you still watching as closely as ever, or will it take a few more hidden secrets, characters rising from the dead or the always interesting Jack / Kate / Sawyer / Juliet romantic entanglement to get this one on the big screen Wednesday nights?

boxee adds ABC.com to its slew of internet video sources


With the latest announcement from boxee, we are really starting to wonder what's left? Sure we know there is plenty of internet content out there that isn't accessible on boxee, but not much. At the very least with that addition of ABC.com, you can now stream video from every major online video source worth mentioning. The bad news is that at this point only boxee Mac users can enjoy the season premiere of Lost via boxee, but the team is working furiously to add it to the Apple TV build just as soon as possible -- hopefully in the "next few days."

Disney / ABC totally, maybe, kind of, considering supporting Intel Widget platform

In a move that in some circles counts as "throwing its weight behind" Intel's CE3100 Widget platform, the president of Disney-ABC Television Group mentioned that shows like Good Morning America and Lost could benefit from interactive TV apps. Without commiting to any action, citing unspecified legal issues that could throw a wrench in any such move, they envision real time voting or commenting onscreen or additional clues for the more-than-convoluted-enough-already-thank you Lost mysteries. From here at least it's hard to see Intel's chips making enough headway to justify such support this season, but based on recent Grey's Anatomy plot twists or the Geico Cavemen TV show we can easily see a desperate ABC desperately seeking some kind of partnership in lieu of improving the quality of its content.

Blu-ray releases on December 9th 2008

The Dark Knight - Blu-rayThis is finally the week that we've all be waiting for. It is the week that the biggest release in the history of Blu-ray hits the shelves. Now if you think this is just yet another PS3 demographic comic book movie, think again. The Dark Knight has an IMDB score of 9.1 with over 300,000 votes. This puts it at number four all time which means it has a much wider appeal than most other movies out there. But even in the off chance that you have no interest in the latest Batman flick, there are still a few others worth a look. Fox has a few catalog comedies including the hilarious Super Troopers and Dodgeball. Disney has the latest complete season of the hottest show on TV, Lost -- although we're still waiting for the first two seasons on Blu-ray. And finally, Universal has a action packed Je Li movie, Fearless.

Just say no to HDTV?

Need a good laugh on a slow Saturday afternoon? Hit the read link and check out this informative hilarious piece on one individual's decision to apply Nancy Reagan's favorite anti-drug policy to HDTV. Not that the HDTV=Drugs comparison hasn't been made before (this time it's meth instead of heroin), but this goes hand in hand with the demon of the "hyper-real", suggesting that more can be seen in 1080p than even real life. Keep reading however, and you'll notice more nuggets, like the suggestion that Lost might hide information in widescreen corners out of the reach of SDTV, a keen observation unfortunately beaten to the punch by more than two years. According to the author, we should thank SDTV for filtering out the unnecessary for all of these years, kept safe from HD's "commodified realness", that we (and likely you, unfortunate reader of this blog) are so sadly hooked on.

Miss Lost? Catch all four seasons on Xbox Live Marketplace in a few hours

Looking for all that ABC and MGM HD content on Xbox Live? You won't have to wait long, with the first three seasons of Lost up now plus the just-aired season 4 premiere (Hurley was all ZOMG!, and Benry was like Bu-bu-but...) available for purchase at 12:01 a.m. PST for 240 MS points ($3 U.S.) per episode -- just barely missing the original "later this month" promise. Due later on in February are hits like the High School Musical series and other content from the Disney Channel, and MGM's releases hit on the 18th. Mr. Brooks, the Rocky series, The Usual Suspects, Saw IV, and Michael Clayton are all coming soon in HD (if you want to call it that). Looks like someone's gearing up to take on the Apple TV, how about a price cut, or loosening up on the DRM?

Lost returns to ABC at 8, are you ready?

Over the last few years, the favorite show of many of our readers -- except for those who think its jumped the Dharma shark -- has been Lost. Tonight it's back, after numerous delays and last night's mind numbing re-air of the season finale, "enhanced" with pop ups for those (all) of us who have entirely forgotten why anyone cares about this island (Hint: It's the Other's fashion sense). If you still need a rundown of the upcoming half-season before the show starts at 8 p.m., check out Variety's review, or more info at TV Squad, albeit with a few spoilerish hints mixed in.

Read - Six reasons to look forward to season four of Lost
Read - Lost Review

The writers strike is in full effect

WGA StrikeIn case you haven't noticed, most of the best HD shows are in reruns. December is usually a month of reruns, but we've already seen an alternative season finale to Heroes, and in January when we'd normally expect to see our favorite shows come back, you can expect to see more reruns and more reality TV. There are some of our favorites that have some episodes left, like eight episodes of Lost, nine episodes of Medium, ten episodes of Battlestar Galatica, and seven episodes of Jerico. But others like the Office, Heroes, and Big Bang Theory are already out. Hopefully, the writers will get compensation for downloads before the remaining shows run out, and if not at least we'll have more time to watch all those HD DVD and Blu-ray discs.

[Via ZatzNotFunny]

The writers' strike effect on HD programming

LostThe ability for a group to go on strike is a fundamental right in American, and while we don't really understand what the problem is -- we'd assume the writers want more money -- we do know we're going to miss out on some HD programming. The first shows to feel the pinch are the live shows like Leno and SNL, next up is the scripted shows which mostly seem to have about 9 episodes under their belt. Luckily some HD programming is resilient like sports and reality TV -- not that there's much HD. At this point it's hard to know how long the strike will last, but if it lasts more than a few months, at least we'll finally be able to catch up on all those HD movies we've been meaning to watch. Here's a short list of our favorite shows that will go into reruns if this thing doesn't end before too long.

Heroes - Seasons will end early on Dec 3rd
Lost - Expected to have eight out of 16 episodes ready.
Medium - Will have 9 of 22 episodes completed.
Battlestar Galactica - Has 10 hours of episodes, plus a two hour movie to air this Fall.

Lost: The Complete Third Season Blu-ray price drops $30

Losties are left with limited options for their our HD fix until the series returns in February, but to make the wait a bit easier and cheaper, Disney has announced a drop in price for the third season Blu-ray boxed set. After rumors of prices as high as $200 per season for HD Lost, it originally carried a $124.99 MSRP for all seven discs but that has now been reduced to $96.99, and actually listed for as low as $67.85 (compared to $38.99 for the DVD version) on Amazon. We don't know what prompted the price drop, but along with a BD-J special feature, 1080p transfer and uncompressed 5.1 soundtrack when it is released December 11, we're not complaining.

Lost: The Complete Third Season headed to Blu-ray Dec. 11

According to Home Media Retailing Magazine, Disney representatives confirmed that one of our favorite HDTV shows, Lost, will make its Blu-ray debut day-and-date with the DVD set of season three December 11th. No word on possible HD special features or price, but we can expect more details soon.


[Via MovieWeb]

ABC.com's free online HD player is live

ABC.com's long awaited free "HD" player is finally available on its website, delivering 720p video at 24 fps. Users with a fast PC and at least a 2 Mbps connection can take a look right now, at one episode each of Lost, Desperate Housewives, Ugly Betty or Grey's Anatomy. The streaming technology adjusts to available bandwidth, on a 6Mbps cable connection, it kept the HD light in the lower right hand corner lit and high quality video streaming, however if bandwidth drops it can become a pixely mess in a hurry. Check after the break for a few more screens of the player and let us know how its working out for you so far. Good enough that you won't worry about DVR'ing HDTV episodes of Lost anymore, or not quite ready for prime time viewing?

[Via LostRemote]

HDTV Listings for March 28, 2007

What we're watching: Lost? What Lost? We'll check out Friday Night Lights and Jericho tonight....and Lost.

Our traditional high-def listings continue below.

ESPN airing 2007 Hula Bowl in HDTV

That ESPN is airing a college football game in HD isn't news, that the game is in Hawaii and will look just as good as Lost on your HDTV, is. Due to the cost of shipping the necessary equipment to the islands, the Pro Bowl and other games relegated to 480i. Even this year, the Hawaii Bowl on December 24th will be the only ESPN bowl game not in HD, but on January 14th the 2007 Hula Bowl college all-star game will be in high definition. The reason for the switch? A poll after a recent college game on ESPN indicated 13% of viewers watched it in HD, and 32% of those people said the fact it was in HD influenced their decision to watch it. Whether or not HDTV is a viable business model for broadcasters may still be open to interpretation for some, ESPN is putting its money where its mouth is and making this happen by paying another company to ship the necessary equipment by air in time for the game. Here's hoping this attitude extends to the Pro Bowl and other sporting events in 2007.




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