Criterion Collection HD Debut Announced

As much as there's always been a temptation to upgrade to Blu-ray for the HD home theater experience, my pragmatic side has always kept me in check for the simple fact that Blu-ray movie selection sucks for anyone looking for cinematic choices beyond big budget entertainment. But it looks like come October, picky cinephiles like myself will have a reason to join the Blu-ray camp (The Last Emperor...yes!)...

Dear Criterion Collection Newsletter subscriber,
We've got some exciting news for this fall, and we wanted you to hear it first.

Our first Blu-ray discs are coming! We've picked a little over a dozen titles from the collection for Blu-ray treatment, and we'll begin rolling them out in October. These new editions will feature glorious high-definition picture and sound, all the supplemental content of the DVD releases, and they will be priced to match our standard-def editions.

Here's what's in the pipeline:

The Third Man
Bottle Rocket
Chungking Express
The Man Who Fell to Earth
The Last Emperor
El Norte
The 400 Blows
Gimme Shelter
The Complete Monterey Pop
Contempt
Walkabout
For All Mankind
The Wages of Fear

Alongside our DVD and Blu-ray box sets of The Last Emperor, we'll also be putting out the theatrical version as a stand-alone release in both formats, priced at $39.95. Our Blu-ray release of Walkabout will be an all-new edition, featuring new supplements as well as a new transfer; we will also release an updated anamorphic DVD of Nicolas Roeg's outback masterpiece at the same time.

As a special thank you to our newsletter subscribers, we'd like to offer you all $10 off any order of $60 or more placed on on criterion.com through Monday, May 26.

[via EngadgetHD]

Try netflix or Greencine for a few months and see how renting compares to owning a finite resource you will hardly ever look at. Seriously those services work as libraries but function much better. You can always spend your dosh later when the titles might be less expensive.

posted by JonD on May 9th 2008 at 8:44pm
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I remember wondering what they planned to do about the HD dilemma. A quick check to there website FAQ said something to the effect of "we don't plan to make our costumers take a side in the format war." Well... so much for that. I already own a few of these titles that I bought after reading that. Specifically because I did not think I would be put in this situation. Frustrating.

posted by jick on May 12th 2008 at 5:01am
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