With crystal-clear high-definition optical disc players coming in a few months, major film studios are gearing up to launch content in the Blu-ray format.

Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment, Sony Pictures Home Entertainment, Paramount Pictures Home Entertainment and Lions Gate unveiled movie titles that will be released on the highly anticipated Blu-ray format.

The announcements, made at the International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, come against a backdrop of controversy over which format will rule the market. Blu-ray, supported by Sony, competes with HD-DVD, backed by Toshiba.

Fearing an industry rift akin to the Sony-Betamax battle of the 1980s, many major movie studios, as well as high tech, have taken to backing both.

Once a staunch Blu-ray supporter, HP recently vowed to support HD-DVD after Blu-ray purveyors failed to immediately satisfy two requests from the high-tech giant.

Blu-ray and HD-DVD use blue lasers, which have a shorter wavelength than the red lasers used in current DVD players. This allows discs to store data at the higher densities needed for high-definition TV.

Consumer electronics retailers are being pressured to aggressively market DVD players equipped with either technology, creating a multi-billion-dollar market space.

Pioneer expects to have one of the first Blu-ray boxes on the market this quarter.

While DVD players equipped with either format aren't expected for a few months, Forrester Research has already tabbed Blu-ray the winner, citing the technology's greater capacity, Java support and ability to be used in games and computers.

The fact that film studios are already going public with titles on Blu-ray could strengthen that theory.

Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment will first pump out 20 films on Blu-ray, including "Fantastic Four," "Behind Enemy Lines" and the "Kiss of The Dragon."

Sony Pictures Home Entertainment said Sony's lineup will also include 20 titles, such as "The Fifth Element," "Bram Stoker's Dracula" and "Black Hawk Down."

Paramount Pictures Home Entertainment's Blu-ray films will include 10 movies, with "Sahara," "Aeon Flux" and "The Italian Job" among them. Also with 10 flicks, Lions Gate's lineup includes "The Punisher," "The Devil's Rejects" and "Saw."

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yike: I have about 50 DVD's now and to think of getting them in HD will be costly! Oh, the agony!! I still have both my Beta and VHS tapes. Why can't the industry settle for the first format, because it is usually better than the "cheap" secondary format. Grrrr....

Great, something else to buy. I'm not even in the DVD era, really.

I'm glad to see that Sahara is getting exposure, though. Maybe with all that extra high definition space on the disc they can digitally remaster the actor playing rudi to look, talk and act like him. th: :lol:

Great way to make money, improve the technology and make it so no one can do without it! We have 2 DVD players that each cost less than $100 and play every DVD, including slightly dodgy ones. It will be a while till Blu-Ray/HD comes to our house!

On the Sahara note, very cool. Additional exposure, more sales = 2nd movie!!!! :lol:

Cheers beer:

Andy

I still have my VHS, but I have tons of DVD's. Oh well....it'll be awhile before I get this new stuff anyways. I don't have that great of a movie set-up at home right now. I'm waiting until I win the lotto or money falls on me from the sky...you know the usual...

Like it is with any new technological advancement, this one will have it's pros and cons and even in my highly technical household, we will wait until the bugs get worked out of the 1st generation and see if a universal one will come out. It's a great idea and I'm glad Sahara will get to be apart of it.

I think I'll second that Empress. I usually wait until they become less expensive. By the time they are less expensive the kinks have usually been worked out.

...and a new one has hit the stores. beer:

does anyone know if there are any other clive cussler books that will be movies, like sahara? new releases

My understanding is that they bought the rights to three books: Sahara, Inca Gold and Night Probe. There's a lawsuit in the works regarding the way that Sahara was made, so any future movies won't be made until after that gets settled. Let's hope it's soon!

Erik