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  • War of the Worlds

    • 10 out of 10
    • Jeff Wayne
    • With the new movie adaptation of H.G Wells' classic Sci Fi invasion tale, War of the Worlds, currently on theater screens everywhere, there's new interest in Jeff Wayne's rock opera version, and it is
  • 2112

    • 10 out of 10
    • Rush
    • We all know it, right? Well, ya just gotta have it. 2112 finally showed Rush out on their own, doing their own thing, and doing it well, IMHO.
  • Kind of Blue

    • 10 out of 10
    • Miles Davis
    • The jazz album to end all jazz albums. Miles Davis and John Coltrane and Cannonball Adderly and the list goes on. The who's who of who's who in jazz have assembled for this monumental record. Get this
  • Velocifero

    • 6 out of 10
    • Ladytron
    • "Back to the future" isn't the right turn of phrase for Ladytron's newest album,

  • Zooropa

    • 10 out of 10
    • U2
    • This record is perhaps U2's finest hour, yet it has been forgotten as a strange by-product of the ZooTV tour's overload, and is generally regarded by most fans as a poor effort. It is this sentiment t

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News

Solution for Blu-ray/HD DVD War: Buy Abroad

In the Blu-ray vs. HD DVD war, some studios have sided with one format and some with the other. That makes getting some titles for a specific player impossible in the U.S. For those who’d like to get around that, there is a solution. Buy the movies from Europe, according to the Wall Street Journal on Thursday. [Subscription may be required.]

For example, while Sony BMG, Fox and Disney release their movies in the U.S. only on Blu-ray, in Europe several of their titles are published on HD DVD. The reason has to do with various agreements and distribution rights. As a result, all the customer has to do is visit amazon.co.uk to legally purchase the movie, although shipping charges will be extreme.

The one thing to watch for, however, is region codes. While HD DVD doesn’t have region codes, Blu-ray does. [The region code for Europe is different than the U.S. for Blu-ray.]

Sarah McBride of the WSJ wrote that it’s too soon to say whether this loophole might give an edge to HD DVD in the format war. The game is still too new. "This odd dichotomy only helps reinforce the idea that the high-def market is still in its relative infancy," said Paul Erickson, director of DVD and HD market research at NPD Group’s DisplaySearch. "The studios themselves are still watching, waiting and evaluating the market."

Buying these discs from overseas sources is also legal. "Anyone can lawfully purchase a single copy of a DVD from outside the U.S. if it is for private use and not for distribution," said Owen Sloane, an entertainment lawyer at Berger Kahn in Los Angeles.

iPO notes that shipping costs and the ever changing tides of the format war may dissuade some customers, but others, who are early adopters, may see it as just one of the advantages of the HD DVD format to be exploited until things settle out.

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