I've seen a number of announcements this morning; all mention a release date in April, and all mention excellent extras, but (could it be possible?) they only mention a BluRay release!!!!!

This will absolutlely put the final nail in the coffin Standard Def, and make HD-DVD obselete! The format was is over!

http://www.dvdreview.com/news/viewnews.asp?id=9855

Perhaps, they're... lying? :ph43r:

Yeah, MUNCHAUSEN is such a touchstone film not only with Gilliam fans, but the American public in general, ranking right up there with IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE, CASABLANCA and STAR WARS with Joe movie fan. Guess that's the end of my new upconverting DVD player.

Oh, wait a minute here's the new 2 disc DVD version coming out on April 8th according to Amazon.com

http://www.amazon.com/Adventures-Baron-Mun...98258966&sr=1-9

which is the same day as the blue-ray disc.

http://www.amazon.com/The-Adventures-of-Ba...8258966&sr=1-10

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_ss_gw/102-5...ausen&x=19&y=17

Any idea if they're porting over the extras from the Criterion laserdisc, or if it's different content?

:ph43r:

Well... I mean, I know there's some cheek tonguing going on, but... This IS the kind of thing that's going to convince me to bother adding another home video format to my overstuffed equipment cabinet. I see no reason to upgrade for for TRANSFORMERS and 300... I don't wanna see those things ever again anyway. It's going to require a deep well of pre-'70s studio catalog titles, plus a serious array of film maudit, cult and genre releases. I don't care enough about current studio product to crack my wallet, and I probably won't do so until boutique labels start producing Blu-zies. MUNCHAUSEN is a shove in the right direction, but really: wake me up when there's a Blu-ray GORE-GORE GIRLS.

Now that that's all cleared up. Let's vote for the DVD artwork:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.html?docI...g=bluraynews-20

...by the way, my wife bought me a Blu-ray player for X-Mas, but I'll always tell the tale of how the Baron made the decision for me.

It would be nice to see those covers closer, but none of them really light my fire. I voted for the one they'll use anyway, #2. It will grab the attention of some of the Lord Of The Rings/Narnia/Harry Potter crowd. Who knows... maybe this will finally get this film the larger fanbase it always deserved.

I know that the very idea of seeing a High-Def Munchausen makes me want to finally take the plunge with an HD set and player.

I don't know... option 3 is at 59%, with #2 at 25%. I voted for #3, but quite frankly, I don't think I've ever seen a MUCHAUSEN promotional image that strcuk me.

Option #3 is interesting, but the style makes it look unfinished.

Yeah, I haven't seen any MUNCHAUSEN materials that really succeed in capturing the proper feel. I suspect that 3 is getting more votes simply in order to avoid yet another photoshop 101 DVD cover. They really are getting very tiresome.

I'll say, though. This is pushing me closer to picking up Blue Ray, as well. HDNET has been playing it in HD, but the bitrate isn't as good as it should be. Still, it looks wonderful.

I haven't seen it listed on HDNet Movies. It has been playing on MOJO though.

I don't even watch HD Net anymore because the down-rezzing (at least through my cable service) results in such a degraded image. I'm hopeful that going satellite will achieve better results.

I'd rather watch a standard-def DVD, where at least the compression has been optimized for a single program.

Tomorrow's the day. I'll be camping out at Best Buy tonight.