As a temporary solution, Warner Home Entertainment is issuing single release replacement discs for owners who found an HD DVD version of 'Goblet of Fire' in their Blu-ray Harry Potter box sets. They will supply a boxset version of the disc, with matching artwork, to you once they have been printed. If you were affected by this, please contact WHV Customer Support at 1-800-553-6937.
We are also investigating an issue with the recently released 'Terminator 3' disc and 1080p playback. Once we have more information, we'll alert you to the problem.
Previously HD DVD-exclusive adult distributor Digital Playground will go dual-format with the Blu-ray release of 'Pirates' in early January.
As we've previously reported, Digital Playground made headlines earlier this year when one-named auteur Joone (the company's founder) was quoted as saying that his company was forced to change HD allegiances after all Blu-ray Disc copying facilities in the United States refused to accept his business.
Said Joone at the time, "Sony wants me to publish my films on HD DVD."
Though the Blu-ray Disc Association denied a coordinated effort to block the release of adult titles on the format (and indeed Vivid Entertainment went on to release its first Blu-ray title this spring), Digitial Playground has issued more than half a dozen titles on HD DVD exclusively.
All of that will change this January, however, when the distributor will unleash its very first Blu-ray release, the adult extravaganza 'Pirates". (The same title hit HD DVD in February of 2007.)
In explaining his company's move to dual-format support, Joone told CEPro that "A lot of people were emailing that bought a PlayStation and they were basically saying, 'When are you guys going to release Blu-ray?'"
Scheduled to ship in January 4th, the Blu-ray release of 'Pirates' will contain the full-length film and a bucket-load of extras (including behind-the-scenes footage, bloopers, casting videos and trailers), all in high definition. The supplemental package on the previously-released HD DVD was presented in standard-def only.
Digital Playground claims to have an 80% share of the market for HD porn, with HD releases now accounting for about one-third of the publisher’s video shipments.
