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HDD Gear Deal Spotlight: HDTVs, Blu-ray Players, and Tablets[teaser]For a limited time, Amazon is offering special discounts on an ASUS tablet, a Samsung HDTV, and a Sony Blu-ray player. [/teaser] As part of the online retailer's ongoing sales and promotions, Amazon is running limited time deals on several home theater products. ASUS VivoTab 11.6-Inch 64 GB Tablet - Currently $400 (50 percent off its retail price). Samsung UN60F8000 60-Inch 1080p TV - Currently $2,298 (38 percent off its retail price). Sony BDPS790 3D Blu-ray Player - Currently $187 (25 percent off its retail price). As always, these deals will only be active for a limited time while supplies last. Make sure to stay tuned to High-Def Digest for more sales and special promotions!Posted Fri May 16, 2014 at 04:10 PM PDT by: -
Cambridge Audio Reveals New Products[teaser]The British audio company has announced a new music system along with upcoming speakers and receivers. [/teaser] Cambridge Audio has unveiled its latest collection of products at the High End show in Munich, Germany. The new lineup includes the Aeromax 2 and Aeromax 6 speakers, an all-in-one music system, and two new A/V receivers. The Aeromax 2 and 6 speakers feature gloss-black and gloss-white finishes along with the company's fourth generation BMR drivers. The Balance Mode Radiator technology creates sound using vibration modes allowing for much wider audio and uses a 250Hz crossover frequency for smooth and coherent performance. Meanwhile, the new Cambridge One music system offers CD player, DAC, FM tuner, 2x30-watt class AB amplifier and Bluetooth support in one device. Finally, the company also announced two new A/V receivers, the Azur 751R V2 and the Azur 551R V2. The 551R V2 is a 7x60 watts into 8 ohms receiver and the 751R V2 is a 7x120 watts into 8 ohms receiver. Both models include HDMI 2.0 support and 4K 60fps video pass through. Cambridge Audio's Aeromax 2 ($749/pair) and Aeromax 6 ( $1,499/pair) start shipping this month. The One music player will be available in June for a suggested retail price of $499. The Azur 551R V2 will also go on sale in June for $1,099 and the Azur 751R V2 will follow in July for $2,199. Sources: TWICE, Cambridge AudioPosted Fri May 16, 2014 at 02:07 PM PDT by: -
'Twin Peaks: The Entire Mystery' Blu-ray Pre-Order Up[teaser]Pre-orders are now available for the long-awaited David Lynch series arriving on Blu-ray in July! [/teaser] As previously reported, Paramount will be bringing 'Twin Peaks: The Entire Mystery' to Blu-ray on July 29. This Blu-ray set was personally supervised by Twin Peaks mastermind David Lynch and will include the prequel film 'Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me.' “During the last days in the life of Laura Palmer many things happened, which have never been seen before,” Lynch said. “They’re here now alongside the new transfer of 'Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me' and Twin Peaks, the television series." The 10-disc set will feature 1080p video, a lossless 7.1 soundtrack, and supplements include: Log Lady Intros, Preview and recaps on select episodes, Image Galleries, Twin Peaks Sneak Peeks, Deleted Scenes/Outtakes, Return to Twin Peaks, An Introduction to David Lynch, and More! New items include: A Slice of Lynch, The Missing Pieces: Deleted/Alternate Scenes, Moving Through Time: Fire Walk With Me Memories, Fire Walk With Me Photo Gallery, and Atmospherics. Suggested list price for this set is $134.99. You can find the latest specs for 'Twin Peaks: The Entire Mystery' linked from our Blu-ray Release Schedule, where it is indexed under July 29.Posted Fri May 16, 2014 at 09:00 AM PDT by: -
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Criterion Announces August Titles[teaser]The distributor has revealed its upcoming slate of August releases, including Bob Fosse's 'All That Jazz' and Alfonso Cuarón's 'Y tu mamá también.' [/teaser] In an early announcement to retailers, Criterion is preparing 'Love Streams,' 'Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down!,' 'Y tu mamá también,' 'All That Jazz,' and 'Vengeance Is Mine' for Blu-ray throughout the month of August. 'Love Streams' (August 12) - The electric filmmaking genius John Cassavetes and his brilliant wife and collaborator Gena Rowlands give luminous, fragile performances as two closely bound, emotionally wounded characters who reunite after years apart. Exhilarating and risky, mixing sober realism with surreal flourishes, 'Love Streams' is a remarkable film that comes at the viewer in a torrent of beautiful, erratic feeling. This inquiry into the nature of love in all its forms was Cassavetes's last truly personal work. The Blu-ray/DVD combo pack will feature 1080p video, an uncompressed mono soundtrack, and supplements will include: New video essay on actor Gena Rowlands by film critic Sheila O'Malley; New interviews with executive producer and director of photography Al Ruban and actor Diahnne Abbott; Interview from 2008 with actor Seymour Cassel; "I'm Almost Not Crazy . . ."—John Cassavetes: The Man and His Work (1984), a sixty-minute documentary by Ventura on the making of Love Streams; Trailer; PLUS: A booklet featuring an essay by critic Dennis Lim and a 1984 piece by Cassavetes on the film from the New York Times. 'Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down!' (August 19) - Pedro Almodóvar's colorful and controversial tribute to the pleasures and perils of Stockholm syndrome, 'Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down!' is a rambunctious dark comedy starring Antonio Banderas as an unbalanced but alluring former mental patient and Victoria Abril as the B-movie and porn star he takes prisoner in the hopes of convincing her to marry him. A highly unconventional romance that came on the spike heels of Almodóvar's international sensation 'Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown,' this is a splashy, sexy central work in the career of one of the world’s most beloved and provocative auteurs, radiantly shot by the director’s great cinematographer José Luis Alcaine. The Blu-ray/DVD combo pack will feature 1080p video, a Spanish 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack, and supplements will include: New documentary on the making of the film including interviews with Pedro and Agustín Almodóvar; actors Antonio Banderas, Victoria Abril, Loles Léon, Rossy de Palma, and Penélope Cruz; production manager Esther García; editor José Salcedo; and cinematographer José Luis Alcaine; New interview with Almodóvar collaborator and Sony Pictures Classics copresident Michael Barker; Conversation from 2003 between Almodóvar and Banderas; Footage from the film’s 1990 premieres in Madrid and New York; PLUS: A booklet featuring a 1990 piece about the film by Almodóvar, a conversation between filmmaker Wes Anderson and critic Kent Jones, and an interview with Almodóvar from 1989. 'Y tu mamá también' (August 19) - The smash road comedy from the Oscar-winning director Alfonso Cuarón is that rare movie to combine raunchy subject matter and emotional warmth. Gael García Bernal and Diego Luna shot to international stardom as a pair of horny Mexico City teenagers from different classes who, after their girlfriends jet off to Italy for the summer, are bewitched by a gorgeous older Spanish woman (Maribel Verdú) they meet at a wedding. When she agrees to accompany them on a trip to a faraway beach, the three form an increasingly intense and sensual alliance that ultimately strips them both physically and emotionally bare. Shot with elegance and dexterity by the great Emmanuel Lubezki, 'Y tu mamá también' is a funny and moving look at human desire. The Blu-ray/DVD combo pack will feature 1080p video, a Spanish 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack, and supplements will include: On "Y tu mamá también": Then and On "Y tu mamá también": Now, two new pieces on the making of the film, featuring interviews with actors Gael García Bernal, Diego Luna, and Maribel Verdú; Cuarón; cowriter Carlos Cuarón; and Lubezki; New interview with philosopher Slavoj Žižek about the film; On-set documentary from 2001; Deleted scenes; You Owe Me One (2002), a short film by Carlos Cuarón; PLUS: A booklet featuring an essay by critic Charles Taylor and character biographies by Carlos Cuarón. 'All That Jazz' (August 26) - The preternaturally gifted director and choreographer Bob Fosse turned the camera on his own life for this madly imaginative, self-excoriating musical masterpiece. Roy Scheider gives the performance of his career as Joe Gideon, whose exhausting work schedule—mounting a Broadway production by day and editing his latest movie at night—and routine of amphetamines, booze, and sex are putting his health at serious risk. Fosse burrows into Gideon's (and his own) mind, rendering his interior world as phantasmagoric spectacle. Assembled with visionary editing that makes dance come alive on-screen as never before, and overflowing with sublime footwork by the likes of Ben Vereen, Leland Palmer, and the awesomely leggy Ann Reinking, 'All That Jazz' pushes the musical genre to personal depths and virtuosic aesthetic heights. The Blu-ray/DVD combo pack will feature 1080p video, a 3.0 DTS-HD Master Audio sountrack, and supplements will include: Two audio commentaries: a feature-length one with editor Alan Heim and a scene-specific one with actor Roy Scheider; Razzle-Dazzle, a new video essay on the film by critic Matt Zoller Seitz; Episode from 1980 of the television talk show Tomorrow, featuring director Bob Fosse and choreographer Agnes de Mille; New interview with Heim; New interview with Fosse biographer Sam Wasson; Interview excerpts and footage from the set, featuring Fosse and Scheider; Portrait of a Choreographer, a 2007 documentary on Fosse; The Soundtrack: Perverting the Standards, a 2007 documentary about the music in the film; Interview from 2007 with George Benson about his song “On Broadway,” which opens the film; PLUS: A booklet featuring an essay by theater critic Hilton Als; and More! 'Vengeance Is Mine' (August 26) - A thief, a murderer, and a charming lady-killer, Iwao Enokizu (Ken Ogata) is on the run from the police. Director Shohei Imamura turns this fact-based story—about the seventy-eight-day killing spree of a remorseless man from a devoutly Catholic family—into a cold, perverse, and at times diabolically funny examination of the primitive coexisting with the modern. More than just a true-crime tale, 'Vengeance Is Mine' bares humanity’s snarling id. The Blu-ray will feature 1080p video, an uncompressed Japanese mono soundtrack, and supplements will include:Audio commentary from 2005 featuring critic Tony Rayns; Excerpts from a 1999 interview with director Shohei Imamura, produced by the Directors Guild of Japan; Trailer and teaser; PLUS: A booklet featuring an essay by critic Michael Atkinson, a 1994 interview with Imamura by writer Toichi Nakata, and writings by Imamura on Vengeance Is Mine and his approach to filmmaking. Suggested list price for each Blu-ray is $39.95. You can find the latest specs for all of the titles listed above linked from our Blu-ray Release Schedule, where they're indexed throughout the month of August.Posted Fri May 16, 2014 at 08:00 AM PDT by: -
'The Unknown Known' Announced for Blu-ray[teaser]The highly touted account of the life of former United States Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld by Academy Award® winning filmmaker Errol Morris is planned for Blu-ray in July. [/teaser] In an early announcement to retailers, Starz/Anchor Bay is set to release 'The Unknown Known' on Blu-ray on July 1. Director Errol Morris—winner of the Academy Award®, Best Documentary Feature for THE FOG OF WAR (2003)—offers a mesmerizing portrait of Donald Rumsfeld, the larger-than-life figure who served as United States Secretary of Defense and as the principal architect of the Iraq War. Love him or hate him, you cannot take your eyes off Rumsfeld in this unique kind of cat-and-mouse game of argument and counterargument, evasion and evidence. Morris takes us where few have ever been—beyond the web of words into the unfamiliar terrain of Rumsfeld’s mind. THE UNKNOWN KNOWN presents history from the inside out. It shows how the ideas, the fears, and the certainties of one man, written out on paper, transformed America, changed the course of history—and led to war. Premiering at the 2013 Telluride Film Festival, THE UNKNOWN KNOWN was also an official selection of the 2013 Toronto International Film Festival and 70th Venice International Film Festival. RADiUS-TWC went on to release the film theatrically on April 2, 2014 to high praise. In his review for The New Yorker, Richard Brody asserts that the documentary is “a masterwork of political epistemology and dialectical jujitsu." Jon Frosch of The Atlantic declares THE UNKNOWN KNOWN is “the story of American power pursued and misused." Special features include Feature Commentary with director Errol Morris, A Conversation with Errol Morris, Third Annual Report of the Secretaries of Defense (1989), and a Four-part op-ed The Certainty of Donald Rumsfeld by Errol Morris. Suggested list price for the Blu-ray is $29.99. You can find the latest specs for 'The Unknown Known' linked from our Blu-ray Release Schedule, where it's indexed under July 1.Posted Fri May 16, 2014 at 07:00 AM PDT by: -
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VUDU Adds Movie Sharing Feature[teaser]The UltraViolet digital copy service now allows users to share movies and TV shows with friends. [/teaser] VUDU has announced the launch of the "Share My Movies" feature. The new option gives customers the ability to invite friends to watch titles from their UltraViolet library. With the new feature, all VUDU users with an UltraViolet library can now share their digital titles without lending out their passwords. Instead, the users can send special invites to up to five friends. The friends can then access the original's user's entire library of UltraViolet films and shows through their own VUDU accounts and connected devices, including smartphones, tablets and Smart TVs. The option also supports up to three simultaneous streams, letting multiple friends watch the same programing at the same time. The Share My Movies feature is now active on VUDU free of charge with no extra subscription fees. Source: VUDUPosted Thu May 15, 2014 at 05:00 PM PDT by: -
Sony Offers Pre-Order Discount for 4K Media Player[teaser]The FMP-X10 4K media player is now up for pre-order along with a $200 discount. [/teaser] Sony has announced pricing and availability for its upcoming FMP-X10 4K Ultra HD Media Player. The set-top box is the successor to the previously released FMP-X1. The proprietary set-top box only works with Sony brand Ultra HD televisions and projectors and gives users the ability to download, store, and stream a growing collection of 4K movies and TV shows. Sony's Video Unlimited 4K service currently offers over 200 titles, including recent hits like 'American Hustle,' upcoming releases like 'The Amazing Spider-Man 2,' and ongoing TV shows like 'The Blacklist.' In addition to Sony's service, the device offers support for Netflix 4K streaming as well, making it a perfect fit for early Sony 4K TVs that lack integrated H.265/HEVC decoding. The box also features 1 TB of storage and includes TRILUMINOS technology for expanded colors. The FMP-X10 will start shipping in July for a suggested retail price of $699. With that said, Sony is now offering a limited time pre-order promotion, giving customers who pre-order the player between May 15 and July 15 a special $200 discount. This brings the current price down to $498 on Amazon. Source: SonyPosted Thu May 15, 2014 at 10:30 AM PDT by: -
'Twin Peaks: The Entire Mystery' Announced for Blu-ray[teaser]The missing pieces will be revealed on Blu-ray this July. [/teaser] In an early announcement to retailers, Paramount will be bringing 'Twin Peaks: The Entire Mystery' to Blu-ray on July 29. This Blu-ray set was personally supervised by Twin Peaks mastermind David Lynch and will include 90 minutes of never-before-seen deleted and alternate scenes from the prequel film Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me.' “During the last days in the life of Laura Palmer many things happened, which have never been seen before,” Lynch said. “They’re here now alongside the new transfer of 'Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me' and Twin Peaks, the television series." You can find the latest specs for 'Twin Peaks: The Entire Mystery' linked from our Blu-ray Release Schedule, where it is indexed under July 29.Posted Thu May 15, 2014 at 10:30 AM PDT by: -
HDD Deal of the Day: 'Dexter: The Complete Series' Blu-ray $105.99 at Amazon[teaser]Today's Gold Box deal at Amazon is the entire run of the hit Showtime series on Blu-ray for seventy percent off! [/teaser] Amazon has reduced the price on 'Dexter: The Complete Series' Blu-ray for $105.99 (70% off suggested retail price. Headlined by Michael C. Hall in his Golden Globe® and SAG Award-winning role as the now-iconic titular character, and winner of 31 awards including two Golden Globes® and four Emmys®, DEXTER was named as one of the best-written series of all time by the Writers Guild of America. The acclaimed series follows the seemingly mild-mannered vigilante serial killer (Hall) as he spends his days solving crimes and nights committing them. The series features a stellar ensemble cast including Julie Benz, Jennifer Carpenter, Erik King, C.S. Lee, Lauren Vélez, David Zayas, Geoff Pierson, Desmond Harrington, Aimee Garcia and James Remar. The set includes: “Grafix: The Art of Dexter” -- collection of photography, fan artwork and iconography and images used in the series’ cutting edge promotional campaigns; an all-new bonus disc with access to over three hours of behind-the-scene interviews, featurettes and more; and the packaging resembles a replica of Dexter's blood slide trophy box. Click here to be linked to this fantastic today-only offer!Posted Thu May 15, 2014 at 08:10 AM PDT by: -
'The Addams Family' Blu-ray Bound[teaser]Barry Sonnenfeld's creepy and kooky comedy is planned for Blu-ray this September. Pre-order here. [/teaser] In an early announcement to retailers, Warner Brothers has revealed 'The Addams Family' will hit Blu-ray on September 9. When long-lost Uncle Fester (Christopher Lloyd) reappears after twenty-five years in the Bermuda Triangle, Gomez (Raul Julia) and Morticia Addams (Anjelica Huston) plan a celebration to wake the dead. But their daughter Wednesday (Christina Ricci) barely has time to warm up her electric chair before Thing points out Fester's uncommonly "normal" behavior. Could this Fester be a fake, part of an evil scheme to raid the Addams fortune? Specs and supplements haven't been revealed yet. You can find the latest specs for 'The Addams Family' linked from our Blu-ray Release Schedule, where it is indexed under September 9.Posted Thu May 15, 2014 at 08:00 AM PDT by:
