Paramount Finished With HD-DVD On March 4

Videobusiness reported yesterday that Paramount is done with HD-DVD as of next week. Good, 'cause last month I never picked up the HD-DVD special edition of David Fincher's excellent Zodiac (shot natively in HD), and I'm looking forward to that - as well as the recently canceled HD-DVD of P.T. Anderson's phenomenal There Will Be Blood - on Blu-ray soon.

Live Free Or Die Hard - For Real?

Talk about synchronicity...

On the same day my Blu-ray copy of Live Free Die Hard shows up in my mail, South Florida experiences a strange blackout.

Is this someone or some group testing our infrastructure...? Is this a test run for a "fire sale?"

Weird...

As for LFDH, it's an an imperfect but very worthy and entertaining entry in the Die Hard franchise. Some action sequences (i.e. the tunnel) are indeed jaw-dropping. The bullshit factor gets high, but it's well done and entertaining. The Blu-ray disc is reference quality, with an incredibly sharp and stylized look. Audio in the form of a DTS-HD Lossless Master Audio 5.1 Surround mix (48kHz/24-bit) really puts you in the middle of the action, with bombast and aggressive directionality of sound effects. It's a ride - check it out!

Hi-Res Surround Music, I Miss Ya!

With all the hoopla surrounding the death of HD-DVD and lessons learned from this most recent format war, it seems that hi-res surround music - all but dead (on life support, in a coma) - has completely fallen off the map. Too bad. IMHO, 'twas the best thing to happen to music since, well, the iPod. Tucked into the "get 'em while you can" file are my cherry picks of titles still available.

Here's A-D:

• Aerosmith: Toys In The Attic (Non-Hybrid Stereo/Multichannel SACD, Columbia). Here's my review
• The Allman Brothers Band At Fillmore East (Hybrid Stereo/Multichannel SACD, Mercury)
• The Allman Brothers Band: Eat A Peach (Hybrid Stereo/Multichannel SACD, Mercury). Profiled in my "All-Spin" Zone in the August-September 2005 issue of HDTV Etc. Magazine.
• The Beach Boys: Pet Sounds (DVD-Audio, Capitol). A classic.
• The Beatles: Love (DVD-Audio+CD, Capitol). Wow. I don't know what to say, so I won't say anything...except: get this. Now.
• Jackson Browne: Running On Empty (DVD-Audio+CD, Rhino). This documentary-thru-song of being "on the road" is a revelation in surround.
• Ray Charles and the Count Basie Orchestra: Ray Sings, Basie Swings (SACD, Telarc). Combines archival tracks from Ray Charles' live performances from the mid-1970s and brilliant new recordings of arrangements and performances by the Count Basie Orchestra. Truly stunning. Very aggressive discrete 5.1 surround, and the integration of Charles and the big band orchestra is breathtaking.
• Eric Clapton: 461 Ocean Boulevard (SACD, Polydor). Produced by the late, great Tom Dowd, this classic album sports an excellent surround mix by Simon Climie. Sound quality is phenomenal.
• Eric Clapton: Slowhand (SACD, Polydor). Another classic by Clapton.
• David Crosby: If I Could Only Remember My Name (DVD-Audio+CD, Rhino). Here are some of my impressions.
• Miles Davis: Kind Of Blue (Non-Hybrid Stereo/Multichannel SACD, Columbia/Legacy). Profiled in my March-April 2005 "All-Spin" Zone in DVD Etc. Magazine.
• Al Di Meola: Flesh On Flesh (Hybrid Stereo/Multichannel SACD, Telarc). Here's my review.
• The Doors: Perception Box (DVD-Audio+CD). Their entire catalog in surround. Wow. Here's my review.
• Duran Duran: Astronaut (Hybrid Stereo/Multichannel SACD, Epic). Here's my review. There are something like three or four versions of this album on the shelves; I only recommend the SACD, as it is the only version that includes hi-res surround and stereo mixes.