You just knew we wouldn't let the deadline sneak up on you without a reminder, right? Just in case you missed our original post advertising the Engadget HD CES schwag bag giveaway, here's a hint on what to do now. Head on over, read up on the stipulations and drop your comment while you're there. Oh, and cross your fingers for luck. That's it!

Ever wondered if anyone ever bothered to utilize that Digital Copy that so many films are shipping with these days? Warner Home Video did, so it engaged in a bit of research to find out who exactly was tapping in. In short, BD movie buyers accessed Digital Copy around twice as much as did DVD buyers, and it was found that the uptake rate is "measurably growing among Blu-ray consumers with successive Warner releases." Still, data shows that Digital Copy usage across the industry is still relatively rare, with title uptake across studio titles ranging between 5% and 13%. We found it particularly interesting that adding a copy of the film to a disc carried with it a substantial expense -- around $1.15 per unit -- so we wouldn't be surprised to see studios refine their strategies to ensure that consumers appreciate the addition.

We haven't really heard much from the single entity that emerged after VideoGiants and MusicGiants ran full force into one another, but Niveus Media is keeping said outfit relevant by bringing its movie collections to the Media Server and Storage Server – Cargo Edition. Films will be made available to dealers and consumers in packages of 50 ($1,099) or 100 ($2,099) titles, and of course, each title will come with all of the snazzy cover art and metadata to make searching a breeze. At least for now, the flicks are delivered to dealers on hard drives (50+ movies is a lot to download, holmes), but at least you know you'll be getting the best quality material. Full release is after the break.

We already gave VHS a proper burial after JVC became the last firm to shut the door on VHS player production, but there was still one nail in the coffin that wasn't quite hammered shut. Today, it all ends. The last notable distributor of VHS films -- Distribution Video Audio out of Palm Harbor, Florida -- has shipped its final truckload of tapes, probably to a small town library or a mom 'n pop shop in a place you'll never hear of. According to co-owner Ryan J. Kugler: "It's dead, this is it, this is the last Christmas, without a doubt." An unceremonious way to exit, sure, but we have a sneaking suspicion that it'll one day be able to say it made it longer than practically every other physical film format that succeeded it. Here's one last tear for the format that was -- now, time to plan a trip to the local flea market.

[Via CNET]

Maybe we're just off our rocker, but we can't figure out what NPD Group hoped to actually discover from this here survey to save our lives. Apparently these folks asked around 1,500 movie buyers (read: clearly not movie thieves) if they preferred purchasing a video that included digital copy or simply downloading it from the internet. Shocker: 79% said they favored the digital copy, while only 21% confessed that they'd rather get a low quality rip from a shady website that could potentially infect their computer with some rare strain of virus. Seriously, what's the point? If you're buying a film in the first place, why wouldn't you want the studio to do the hard work for you and include a portable copy? At any rate, this groundbreaking poll also revealed that 38% of those interested in digital copy "appreciated having a physical disc as a backup," while 27% admitted that they would be "more inclined to buy a portable device in order to take advantage of the digital copy feature." Moral of the story? Let us know, will you?

IMAX has been around for years, while 3D is just now starting to really infiltrate the theater scene. Curiously, it looks as if 3D will have more of the alternate cinema market share than IMAX in no time flat, despite IMAX's tremendous advantage in launch time. Thanks to The Dark Knight, however, IMAX could receive that much-needed breath of life it has been waiting for. Director Christopher Nolan has reportedly stated that he'd like to shoot an entire film for IMAX, even though it would undoubtedly be down-converted for playback on traditional screens. He did admit that the noisiness of the camera could cause issues, but that's nothing a hard-working set pusher couldn't overcome. For those who viewed the latest installment of Batman in theaters, many were most captivated by the expansive IMAX sequences -- in fact, we'd be hard pressed to find someone who wouldn't want an entire film to look like that.

[Via FirstShowing]

Sometime between the third crescent moon and a witch's equinox (or early last week, to be specific), Criterion began shipping out its long-awaited Blu-ray Disc collection. The question remains, though: are these much ballyhooed discs worth their weight in gold, or what? We've rounded up a number of reviews from around the web covering a wide range of the first wave titles, and generally speaking, critics were floored. Almost every single reviewer had a difficult time hitting the "stop" button on their praises of the visual / auditory qualities, and while the plots of each film are completely subjective, it's safe to say that these are quite the must-haves for strict audio- / videophiles. The only title that didn't receive an inordinate amount of laud was Chungking Express, with the reviewer noting that it had "a somewhat erratic look on Blu-ray, alternately semi-soft and sharp." Outside of that, however, it's all glowing.

Read - The Third Man review
Read - Bottle Rocket review
Read - The Man Who Feel To Earth review
Read - Chungking Express review
Read - Overview of Blu-ray transfer process

So we've already had a discussion over which ten films that aren't on Blu-ray, um, should be, but this one's about choosing the most beautiful of the titles already available. Popular Mechanics has listed its top twenty Blu-ray Discs in terms of pure visual incredibleness, noting that these winners "reward repeat viewing with great stories, evocative soundtracks and dazzling visuals." Understandably, a few from the Criterion Collection made the cut, with notable others including Wall-E, No Country for Old Men, The Bourne Ultimatum and A Passage to India. We didn't find too many avenues for disagreement on the films that were chosen, but we were taken aback by the fact that Baraka was nowhere to be found. A simple oversight, or a purposeful omission?

Day-and-date VOD / DVD releases -- occasions where a film is released on disc and via video-on-demand channels simultaneously -- have been happening on a small scale for awhile now, and according to a bigwig at Lionsgate, it'll remain that way for some time to come. While speaking at the annual Global Media and Communications Conference, Michael Burns told the crowd that "retail relationships were still too important for studios" when asked about the subject, noting that "we don't want to piss off retailers." Not a surprising stance for a studio vice chairman to take, we guess, but an unfortunate one regardless; holding up progress on the digital delivery front for fear of retailer rebuttal? Puhlease.

As the year 2008 draws to a close, we're seeing report after report talking about Blu-ray sales and / or adoption. The latest to focus on the former comes from Pali Research analyst Rich Greenfield, who has reportedly stated that new DVD release sales are down "almost double digits," even despite respectable performance in the first half of the year. Said figure may help explain why the rental business is doing so well, but we digress. Greenfield also notes that DVDs are slowly but surely losing floor space to BDs, and given that not nearly as many folks are buying the high-def format just yet, it's not exactly helping the DVD cause. Beyond all that, he notes that Blu-ray trends are "encouraging," with titles that appeal to gamers (and thus, PS3 owners) doing particularly well. Then again, it's easy to look good during the holidays, but how will things look when everyone's third home equity loan is dried up in March?

[Image courtesy of BusinessWeek]

While we're still not clear on when Blu-ray Disc prices will fall more in line with newly lowered hardware prices, it seems that movie studios are at least beginning to standardize wholesale stickers. Reportedly, Warner Bros., Paramount, Disney and Sony Pictures Home Entertainment have all priced their BDs for distributors and direct retail accounts between $24 and $26. As expected, none of the studios would comment on the reports, and certain distributors and retailers contacted by Video Business still felt that they were "experimenting with Blu-ray prices and features." Unfortunately, we're still waiting for that one big studio to take a risk and undercut the others, but if Q4 sales don't exceed expectations, we'd expect some drastic measures to be taken early next year.

For movie buffs who've been waiting on pins and needles to see their Criterion Blu-ray Disc order status switch from "wait longer, fool" to "shipped," we've got some excellent news. We're beginning to hear individual reports that BDs from Criterion (at least ones that were pre-ordered a few months back) are beginning to ship, and while the company has yet to replace the "Pre-order" badges with "Buy" labels on its website, we suspect that will take place in the near future. Have any of you readers received your discs yet? If not, keep a close eye on that mailbox.

[Thanks, Christopher and Harold]

Remember when high-def discs had to be priced competitively, else the other format would gladly undercut it? Yeah, those were the days. Now that BD is parading around as the lone high-def physical format, the only real competitors are digital downloads, DVDs and internet piracy. All of which are very real threats, by the way. A recent writeup over at The Dallas Morning News brings up an excellent point -- now that Blu-ray player prices are at a reasonable level, when can we expect movies to follow suit? Oh sure, we understand that programming in all that interactivity that eight people care about costs a lot of dough, but seriously, you can't just let admission be next-to-free and then make the rides unattainable. Back in July, we heard that Warner was looking to lower the (pricing) bar this holiday season, but since then, everyone else has been mute. It's about time someone spoke up, no?

[Image courtesy of GamerNode]

Trust us, we too have been looking for a good reason to simply stay put this Black Friday rather than venturing out in an attempt to save $8.43 and contract at least six airborne diseases. Finally, we've found our reason. VUDU has announced on its forums that this Friday, it will sell (read: not just a 24-hour rental) four HDX titles, six HD flicks and a slew of SD movies for $4.99 each. We imagine the motive here is twofold: for starters, it'll generate buzz and probably lead to a few impulse buys; secondly, it could be a litmus test to the real popularity of its minty fresh HDX format. Hit the read link for the admittedly short list, and feel free to register in order to beg for a larger selection prior to Friday.

[Thanks, Rob]

We'll be completely honest -- we had every idea that D-BOX would just fade away into the sunset just a few short months after we initially heard about it. Au Contraire! In just the past week, we've seen the outfit -- which is responsible for a rumbling Motion Code technology that enables you to "feel" the motions of the movie you're watching -- venture into the wide world of gaming and now into Universal's heart. Starting with the December 23-bound Death Race, D-BOX Motion Code will be available on select Universal Studios Home Entertainment Blu-ray Discs, and if we were still placing bets, we'd now say this is probably just the first of many big studio licensing agreements to come.