Lueg Tech

It’s been interesting to watch the new titles arrive in blu-ray disk format. As I said earlier, I’m not in a rush to replace my DVDs, but for posterity’s sake, there are a few that I’m ready to replace.

One is The Right Stuff. I’ve owned every home video release of this classic movie. There was the pan and scan version on VHS. Then they released a widescreen version on tape. The second DVD I ever bought was a flipper where you had to flip the disk in the middle to finish it. Finally a two-disk version came out in dual layer format that let you watch it straight through except for the bathroom break for those who failed to plan ahead for this nearly 3 1/2 hour epic.

But for blu-ray, I haven’t heard a single peep on the web sites I frequent. I did drop my DVD into my blu-ray player and it does look very good. But what detail am I missing? What authentic textures of the 40′s and 50′s are being ignored in the mere 480 lines that bad ol’ DVD offers? I have to know!!! I even went to amazon.com where you can usually find a popular unreleased title that you can sign up to be notified about, but it doesn’t exist for this title.

Meanwhile, wack-a-doodle titles like Starman and Blue Thunder are being released this week from that decade. I tell ya, if I ruled the world…

The first six Star Trek movies are on sale at amazon.com for $70 and I’m holding back. I have most of the DVDs, but after seeing the 2009 version, I’m loathe to spend money on what seems to me to be less than excellent material. We’ll see. It is classic sci-fi.