Dawn 78 on Blu-Ray

[Dallow]

Nearly a month after formally announcing its support of the Blu-ray format, Starz Home Entertainment says it will release four horror film classics as its first Blu-ray titles. As we originally reported last month, Starz (formerly Anchor Bay) had been expected to launch its Blu-ray support with its 'Masters of Horror' anthology. Not to worry, 'Masters of Horror' is still bound for Blu-ray beginning in mid-October, but in a surprise announcement, it turns out four other titles will hit store shelves first.

Arriving in stores October 2, the distributor will unleash John Carpenter's 'Halloween,' the horror-comedy 'Evil Dead 2' and two installments in George A. Romeo's original "Living Dead" franchise, 'Dawn of the Dead' and 'Day of the Dead' in first-ever high-def versions. Tech specs will include full 1080p video transfers (codec TBA), and Starz has also elected to go with uncompressed PCM soundtracks for the audio. No supplemental details have yet been revealed.

Note also that while 'Dawn of the Dead' has been released in a "Director's Cut" edition on DVD, no information is yet available on exactly which version will make Blu-ray. Starz has set a suggested $29.98 list price for each title.
I feel sorry for all the Dawn fans who have already bought HD-DVD players...

[UNDEAD FRED]

To be honest I am perfectly happy with just the normal DVD format. I dont feel like spending a small fourtune to update something thats allready pretty good. But if these new DVD formats mean cheaper DVDs for me, thats a good thing.

[Rickgrimes]

If and when you have a chance to see just what 480i or 480p looks like blown up on even a moderate size big screen tv or projector you will be thankful for hd formats such as 720 or 1080. It is a MASSIVE difference. I for one cannot wait for hd versions of these films, Though Day will most likely benefit more considering the original masters of Dawn are probably long gone.

[Dallow]

I for one cannot wait for hd versions of these films...
It's definitely gonna be interesting to see how Dawn and Day will look in HD. The only thing that bothers me are the extras. The extras for Halloween were recently announced and it's turned up considerably more lighter than both of the Anchor Bay DVD versions, only offering basic supplemental content like a trailer, TV spots, radio spots and bios.

[Rickgrimes]

It's definitely gonna be interesting to see how Dawn and Day will look in HD. The only thing that bothers me are the extras. The extras for Halloween were recently announced and it's turned up considerably more lighter than both of the Anchor Bay DVD versions, only offering basic supplemental content like a trailer, TV spots, radio spots and bios.

Can you say 2008 special hd versions of both dawn and day???? Oh Anchor Bay you may have changed your name but your still the same.

[Rickgrimes]

They came out yesterday I will be getting Day tonight(the closest best buy did not get Dawn) I will let everyone know what I think in the next 24hours.

[The Blind Dead]

Bah. The Blu-Ray format has a significant foot up on regular DVDs and HD-DVD including more storage capacity and yet...we get a few puny extras. What a rip-off to offer a superior format without even attempting to push its limits and offer consumers more. Picture quality aside, where's the incentive?

[Rickgrimes]

Again if you dont own a large tv you just will not really get the difference of hd formats... I had a friend who would constantly say things like"Oh whats the big deal"... And "I dont see a big difference", Recently he got his first big screen tv.... on day one he watched dvd's all day....On day two he put down cash on a hd-dvd player for his 360. As far as the whole format war, Blu ray uses and older inferior mpeg format and the data encryption alone they use for security is nearly 25gigs, Frankly I prefer hd-dvd but I dont really get in fanboyism hence owning both formats and players. Anyways all that aside I didnt get to best buy on time the other day. I went to suncoast and picked up both dawn and day on blu-ray

[Rickgrimes]

Well I have now watched both of them and I can say they are as good as it gets for films from the 70' and 80's... As I stated before im pretty sure these or later generation prints they are working with. It is too bad until the 90's the general treatment of work prints or original version of the films were spotty at best. But all that aside the films look fantastic very clear and the level of depth you can visually make out are fantastic! The colors are obviously no where near as vivid as that of a modern film but again theses are old films. If you have a 1080p capable tv and a blu-ray player and you are a member of these boards they are a must. However if you dont have a true hd setup dont worry there are no new features aside from 1080p and uncompressed pcm audio. Right now you can get em for 23-25$ at bestbuy or suncoast or amazon.

[MrShape666]

I sat down and watched both of these. The films look great, better then I've ever seen them really. Celluloid looks a lot more grainy then digital film, so BRDs of older movies never look as good as say, the one for Silent Hill, but it's a treat to see Rhodes get ripped in half in HD.

Like most Blue Rays, the extra content is inferior. Anchor Bay's BR of Dawn can't hold a candle to their awesome special edition DVD set of the same film.

Since Land Of The Dead and the Dawn remake are both out on HD DVD, all we need is a hi def release of NOTLD and the 1990 remake to be in HD dead series heaven (I can live without NOTLD 3d in HD).