There’s a decent selection of WiFi gadgets here at CES, and Samsung seems to be combining a little of the old and the new. Their new SMART Hub combines an external DVD disc drive and a conventional WiFi router, allowing connected devices to stream DVD movies and CD music across the local network. In a time when more and more Ultrabooks, netbooks and the like are making do without an optical drive, this could be an extremely useful addition.

CDs and DVDs with data stored on them should be accessible as well, though installing a program from a disc might not. You can also connect a USB hard drive for network attached storage, which becomes accessible to anyone accessing the WiFi signal. The usual collection of security and in-browser management options are included with the SMART Hub, though unfortunately it lacks a battery, so you’ll have to position it near a power outlet. There is no Blu-ray support.

Streaming to smartphones and tablets is possible through an app that connects with Samsung’s AllShare service, and automates the backup of photos and other data. The app will be available for both Android and iOS, according to a Samsung representative. No pricing or availability details were available at CES.

Despite stumbles last year over price hikes and a short-lived Qwikster spin-off, Netflix is bouncing back, releasing Q4 2011 earnings today that beat Wall Street estimates. The company reported $876 million in revenue or $0.73 per share, beating expectations of $857 million at $0.54 per share. It also managed to regain 610,000 subscribers after having lost 800,000 subscribers last summer when it raised prices.

Netflix has been steering customers towards its streaming-only service since it raised prices for its DVD and streaming plans last summer by as much as 60 percent. Although the company did bleed a good amount of subscribers due to the price hike, it has gained 610,000 new subscribers with 220,000 of them signed up for streaming service, boosting the company’s streaming subscriber count to 21.67 million and its total subscriber count to 24.4 million.

Overall, Netflix had good news to report and investors have been pleased, sending the stock up 10 percent in after-hour trading. However, the company continues to warn of unprofitable quarters to come due to expansion costs and diminishing DVD revenue.

[via AllThingsD]

The fury that Netflix generated when it axed the DVD only plan a while back was swift and harsh. There were many angry people that didn’t want streaming and only wanted mail order DVD rentals. Netflix has announced officially that the DVD only plan is back and users can sign up for it right now for $7.99 monthly.

Eligible customers can get a free one-month trial of the service to see if they like it. Netflix has a library of 100,000 DVD titles and had previously wanted to shift the bulk of its users over to streaming. It’s easier and likely cheaper for Netflix to have everyone on streaming rather than some using mail-order DVDs with the costs of postage and processing.

This is part of the results of canceling Qwikster plans by Netflix. Last year Netflix had the bright idea to split out DVD rentals under the Qwikster brand and leave Netflix with video streaming only as two separate services with two separate charges. This plan quickly cost Netflix about 800,000 users as customers around the country walked away. Technically, this “new” DVD only plan is a return of what we had before. I also found it more than a little amusing as a Netflix streaming subscriber, that when I click on the link that is supposed to take me to the DVD only landing page I am automatically redirected to my streaming account.

When you buy a movie from everyone’s favorite mega jumbo giant retailer, you’ll now be given the option of purchasing a digital copy of the film as well. The idea is that customers should think of digital copies as add-ons to their physical disc purchase. The additional fees will be $2 for standard-definition movies and $5 for HD. Either option is available regardless of which format you buy the movie on.

So in other words, for a few extra bucks, in addition to having the satisfaction of owning a physical DVD or Blu-ray Disc, you’ll also be able to watch the movie any time, anywhere through Walmart’s Vudu streaming service. Vudu is a pay-per-view platform that lets users rent or purchase digital copies of movies and TV shows. Walmart EVP John Aden described digital movies as a “complement” to physical discs, not a replacement.

Of course, the downside to this service is that users are them obliged to watch their digital content through Vudu and Vudu alone. That’s not a terrible thing. There are Vudu apps for everything from computers to Internet-connected TVs to Blu-ray players and game consoles. Vudu content is widely accessible, but it’s not a standard. Thus is the problem with digital movie distribution. Videos aren’t as portable as MP3 files, so cloud storage makes sense. But there are many different cloud storage providers in this space.

[via VentureBeat]

When Facebook first announced its Open Graph developer tool that allows users to share activities through Facebook apps, dozens of major brands and services were on board for the launch, including Netflix. However, since then Netflix has released its app to almost every country except the US. And the reason for this exclusion appears to be that an ambiguous privacy law created in the late 1980s could deem the app illegal here in the states.

“Unfortunately, we will not be offering this feature in the U.S. because a 1980′s law creates some confusion over our ability to let U.S. members automatically share the television shows and movies they watch with their friends on Facebook,” said Michael Drobac, director of Government Relations at Netflix.

The law in question is the Video Privacy Protection Act (VPPA), which protects consumers’ privacy in relation to video rentals and does not allow information on what video content a consumer has watched to be shared. However, that law was created with video rental stores of the 1980′s in mind and has become outdated.

What sparked the creation of the VPPA was when a Washington City Paper freelance writer published the video rental history of then-Supreme Court nominee Robert Bork, which was obtained from a video store clerk. The law was then passed to protect people’s video rental privacy and made video tape service providers liable for up to $2,500 in damages.

But why do other video streaming services, such as Hulu, have Facebook apps? Well, it’s possibly due to the fact that Netflix still offers physical DVD rentals, which could classify its business as a traditional video rental service that falls within the scope of the VPPA.

Netflix has created a campaign to urge Congress to update the VPPA and if you feel strongly enough about having a Netflix Facebook app, you can show your support by visiting the campaign page here.

[via CNN]

This week the folks at Samsung have delivered a torrent of speaker systems to the world, including an all-in-one system code-named HT-E6730W. This system is what Samsung calls the Ultimate in Movie Theater Quality Entertainment in the Home and consists of a 1,330-watt 7.1-channel system with two tower speakers and four additional speakers to fulfill your ultimate 3D Blu-ray entertainment fantasy. Included in this system are swivel speakers mounted to front height speakers allowing you position them in a way that “sounds vertically cascade down onto the listener” – exciting stuff!

Samsung’s solution here includes a dual-unit passive radiator subwoofer with rich bass response, two rear wireless satellite speakers for placement wherever you so deem them to be necessary in your room, and right up front and top of the system you’ll see the vacuum tube pre-amplifier, Samsung’s prize. Inside the speakers there are glass fiber cones which of course minimize distortion as they improve sound quality over competing solutions, with Samsung’s Crystal Amp Plus technology right beside them to bring smooth digital audio playback with full protection from audio jumps.

This system works with several content sources up-converting content to Full HD 1080p – these sources include DVD, streaming video, and connected media devices of many kinds. To make this whole system work as smooth as butter, Samsung has included their own Exynos processors, these similar to the ones you may have used in your own Samsung Galaxy smartphones – but of course a different setup here tuned specifically for this system. This system has built-in Wifi, Samsung Smart Home Theater integration, the same Smart Hub you may be familiar with from previous model Samsung Smart TVs, and a whole lot more.

Right here with the HT-E6730W you’ll get AllShare Play integration for instant sharing of media between devices – laptops, smartphones, and your television of course. You’ve got a built-in web browser here for checking out SlashGear.com, HDMI connectivity for the most advanced cord-connected high definition power on the market, and Samsung’s BD Wise for Blu-ray quality replay of video when using your HDMI connection.

This whole system will run you a cool $999.99 and you can have a peek at listings over at Samsung.com – pick up a few!

If you’re a streaming-only Netflix customer, the way you interact with the site is becoming increasingly different than those who have both instant and DVD-by-mail services on their account. Perhaps it’s a good thing if you have no intentions of ever adding DVD support to your account, but then again, it looks like the site is trying to slowly weed out that side of its business altogether.

The first major change that users are noticing is that if you have a streaming-only subscription for Netflix, if you search for a movie and the site doesn’t have streaming rights but does have DVDs available, that movie will simply not show up in your search results. Okay, that sort of makes sense, although for legacy users, it was nice to know that Netflix recognized your search, and you could get affirmation that it was in the site’s database but just not available for streaming.

The bigger issue for customers is that Netflix is now splitting reviews for individual titles based on the account type. So if you watch a movie through Netflix streaming, and I get the same movie as a DVD-by-mail customer, and we both post reviews of the same movie, your review will only be visible to streaming users and mine will only be visible to DVD users. Although it isn’t quite as drastic as creating a completely separate DVD service, it does look like Netflix is trying to break the two services apart as much as possible.

[via VentureBeat]

With a purchase of the ubiquitous domain name DVD.com, Netflix has this week proven that they’ll not be letting go of their DVD-centric business model any time soon. This comes after talk this week that Netflix will continue to set up a wall between DVD and streaming content users, and the company’s expansion of their streaming-only library with the original series Hemlock Grove. The company also recently upgraded their iPad application for streaming media with “Retina quality” graphics, but this week will continue their drive with an announcement of the purchase of DVD.com.

This domain name, DVD.com, currently redirects users to Netflix.com or wherever they were last logged in – for example when I head to the domain name now, I’m taken to my own home screen with streaming content. Netflix will continue to offer listings of both shippable DVD content and streaming content in normal web browsers, but places such as the iPad and the Wii will keep with the streaming-only library. Netflix maintains that they are dedicated both streaming and physical unit audiences, and will not be abandoning either one in the near future.

For those of you out there in non-Netflix land, this means that opponents such as Hulu will continue to have to fight two lines of fire with one. Will this eventually lead to Hulu working with physical disks? We’re making an educated guess as no, absolutely not. Though picking up physical disks now as a service might seem like walking backwards for a newer company, Netflix continuation of such a service will continue to be seen as a legacy they’re best to keep.

[via TechCrunch]

This week Apple has been reported to be sending out an offer which includes a free install DVD for their operating system Mac OS X Snow Leopard – this in order for users to then upgrade to Lion and have access to their premiere cloud storage service iCloud. This offer has been reported by MacGasm where the three steps to make this process a reality start with an email sent out to people already working with Apple’s MobileMe. Have you gotten your email yet?

For those of you already upgraded to Lion or, depending on when you’re reading this, Mountain Lion, you won’t end up seeing the image posted below. Those of you back on a system before Snow Leopard, it’ll very possibly show up if you head to https://www.me.com/snow-leopard/. With the offer, again, you’ll be able to enter in your address and get a free copy of Snow Leopard sent to your home.

Those of you with MacBook Air units will of course have to use a 3rd party disk drive or wireless disk drive via a connection between two of your MacBook units – or towers work too! Install that operating system as swiftly as you can, then you can just stick there or upgrade to Lion. We’ve got a full hands-on look and review of Lion if you want to decide on that. Note that this offer portends the real end of MobileMe on June 30, 2012, and this offer ends on June 15th. So get going!

Samsung has just introduced a new step forward in consumer electronics. The SE-218BB may not have the most exciting name in the world, but it is something that Samsung hopes will be able to revolutionize the market for tablets and ultrabooks. It’s an optical disc drive that is 18% thinner than conventional DVD writers and 8% lighter. Oh, and it also happens to set a new world record.

That record is that it becomes the thinnest optical disc drive in the world with a 14 millimeter height. It connects through its single USB port to provide power and AC connectivity to portable computer devices. This means that it could be possible for something as thin as a tablet to lets users watch DVD content on the go. It supports Android Honeycomb version 3.1 or later. Even though there is so much talk about digital distribution, there is still something to be said for disc media.

The SE-218BB can run all kinds of media at high speeds, such as: 24X CD-ROM, 24X CD-RW, 8X DVD±R recording, 5X DVD-RAM recording, 6X DVD+R Dual Layer recording, 6X DVD-R Dual Layer recording, 8X DVD+RW recording and 6X DVD-RW recording. “With its ultra small footprint, consumers will appreciate the SE-218BB sleek drive as an ideal companion for ultrabook users that quickly connects and is USB powered to access content wherever they are,” Samsung said in a statement. The SE-218BB is available now online with a retail price of around $60.

On the Building Windows 8 blog, Microsoft has outlined its plans for media playback with the new operating system. Media Center won’t be included with Windows 8, and instead will have to be purchased through a “Add Features to Windows 8” option through the Control Panel. While Windows Media Player will still come pre-installed, it won’t be able to play DVDs from the get-go thanks to the removal of the MPEG-2 codec from Windows.

Microsoft cite codec licensing costs, plus the declining sales of DVDs globally. On top of that, more and more Americans are turning to streaming media for their entertainment needs. All those factors combined means the company arrived at a decision to remove MPEG-2 from Windows 8: the majority of consumers won’t miss it, and it would save money.

That doesn’t mean you’ll never be able to play DVDs on Windows 8. You’ll still be able to buy MPEG-2 support via the Windows 8 Media Center Pack or Windows 8 Pro Pack. That will also give you terrestrial television recording and playback, plus VOB container support. As for other codecs, H.264, VC-1, and MPEG-4 Part 2 decoders will all come standard with Windows 8. Dolby Digital Plus support has also made the grade, but doesn’t support what you would find on HD DVDs or Blu-rays.

Even if you need MPEG-2 support and don’t want to cough up the dough for Microsoft’s packs, software players like Media Player Classic Home Cinema and VLC offer the same functionality for free. Still, it’s never nice when features are removed instead of added.

[via The Verge]

Microsoft has defended its decision not to include DVD playback support as standard in Windows 8, arguing that it would be unfair to buyers of ultrabooks and tablets because of limitations in licensing technology. The company faced sharp criticism last week when it was revealed that Windows 8 buyers wouldn’t automatically get the ability to play DVDs, and that they would have to upgrade to Windows 8 Pro in order to do so. That, Microsoft says, is because it is altering its policy on codec licensing to serve the greater good.

For a computer to support DVD playback, Microsoft points out, it must support the MPEG-2 codec as well as the Dolby audio codecs. That costs money – around $2 per Windows license for MPEG-2 licensing alone, apparently – which is either passed on to the buyer, Microsoft, or the PC OEM. In Windows 7, Microsoft chose to include DVD playback support in all but the Starter and Home Basic versions of the OS.

“That means royalties related to DVD playback in Windows 7 have been paid broadly, regardless of whether or not the PC has an optical drive” Microsoft’s Steven Sinofsky writes. “Based on sales and usage, we supplied codecs to a very large number of PCs that were not capable of playing DVDs or simply did not ever play DVDs.”

With more computers – such as ultrabooks and tablets – shipping without optical drives, that relatively sweeping decision is making less sense as Windows 8 approaches. Since there’s no facility for on-demand licensing, where users would pay to upgrade their version of Windows 8 if they needed DVD playback, Microsoft is forced to choose which versions of the OS it will ship with support out of the box.

The strategy, then, is to include DVD support with Windows 8 Pro (which includes Media Center) and the Media Center Pack itself, but not Windows 8. Store-bought Windows 8 systems will likely include everything needed for DVD playback out of the box, as OEMs ensure a solid user-experience for new owners.

Over the past week, I’ve spent most of my entertainment time watching movies and television shows either on demand, through Netflix and Hulu Plus, or streaming over my home network. And along the way, it got me thinking: why do I really need discs?

DVD and Blu-ray mean big money for studios. After all, the companies develop blockbuster hits, and then after printing some discs, charge a boatload of cash just so you can get your hands on them. It’s a great deal for those companies.

For us, however, I’m not so sold. The fact is, I don’t like dealing with storing DVDs and Blu-ray discs. And getting up to sift through my library, find the show or movie I want to watch, and then pop it into a player is just a pain. It’s about time physical media just dies.

Of course, I understand that what I’m saying is something that many of you might already feel. But why hasn’t the death of physical media come quicker?

For one thing, it might just be the speed of our Internet connections. Unfortunately, certain countries, like the U.S., are still far behind in terms of broadband speeds than they should be. And despite promises from Washington, I’ve yet to see a single indication made by politicians that would lead us to believe that’s going to change anytime soon.

Beyond that, I’m suspect of the cloud-based services we have now. Sure, Netflix and Hulu Plus work, but they’re not ideal. And the companies that actually own the content aren’t so willing to play nice.

Which, of course, brings us to our next issue: the content companies.

Unfortunately, for years now, the studios have decided that making services, and thus their users, the enemies is just fine. The studios seem to reason that by doing so, they’ll be able to make far more cash. And in the process, consumers will just accept that and move on.

But why should we accept that? As far as I’m concerned, it’s best for everyone to accept that discs are a thing of the past. The sooner we can all accept that and start doubling down on the digital craze, the better. It’s not only in our interests, but I would argue that if studios actually took the time and put real effort into developing a digital strategy, over time, they could make it quite profitable.

Still, we sit here hoping for a day when physical media will die a cold and lonely death. After all, once that happens, we’ll be able to throw out our entertainment centers and save space in our living rooms for furniture. And with all of our favorite shows and movies in the cloud, ready for the taking, we can reduce all of the time we waste just to find what we want to watch, pop it into a player, and then wait for it to load.

The future has been, is, and forever will be digital. It’s about time we and all of the studios accept that.

Research firm NPD Group has published its latest statistics looking at the movie rental industry for the first half of 2012. According to the statistics, the movie rental industry declined 10% overall during the first half of 2012. The 10% decline is compared to the first half of 2011. NPD says the decline is occurring even though consumers are switching from physical media to digital rentals.

I think one major item we should take into account what this is the quality of movies available to rent during the first half of 2012. It’s been a very bad year for movie rentals if you ask me because it hasn’t been a great year for movies. We didn’t have truly popular movies at the theater to watch, and anticipate on DVD, until the summer movie season kicked off and many of those films, such as The Avengers, are still not available on DVD.

According to NPD, physical discs are still the most common way people rent movies in the US making up 62% of all rentals. Digital rentals made up 38% of the movie rental industry. When you look more closely at physical DVD rentals, kiosk options such as Redbox were the most popular rental locations with 45% of physical disk rentals happening there.

Rentals of Blu-ray discs declined by 17% and the only gain in the movie rental business during the first half of 2012 came via video-on-demand. According to NPD’s numbers, video-on-demand outlets such as iTunes, Comcast, and Netflix grew 5% during the first half of the year. This is no surprise as more and more consumers turned to video-on-demand rather than having to drive to the kiosk or store to rent a film.

[via LA Times]

Fans of digital media have a reason to smile today, as Fox has revealed that it will begin offering digital versions of its movies weeks before physical Blu-ray and DVDs release. The first movie that will getting this treatment is Prometheus, which is scheduled to release on Blu-ray and DVD on October 11. Fox will begin offering the high-definition digital version of the movie on September 18, giving those who don’t mind losing the disc about a three week jump on those who do mind.

Even better is the fact that these digital movies will be offered for less than current going rate for movies. Fox plans to offer its digital flicks for around $15 a pop, down from the $20 that consumers normally pay. The company will offering these movies with “Digital High Definition” or “DHD” branding, and this new initiative marks a team up between Fox and UltraViolet, a digital streaming service that Fox has been hesitant to partner with in the past.

Fox needs to tread carefully here, however. The company has tried to offer early digital copies in the past and failed to succeed for a number of reasons. Not only did Fox offer these earlier releases at a premium, charging as much as $30 per movie, but it also released these digital copies only two months after the movies premiered in theaters. Obviously, that didn’t sit too well with theater owners, so this time around, we’re seeing Fox take a much less aggressive approach to offering digital content early. Everyone should be happy with this new plan, as Fox says that most of the movies it offers early will be out of theaters by the time they become available digitally.

This new initiative will launch in 50 countries around the world simultaneously, and even though Prometheus is the only film with a solid digital release date at the moment, we’re told to expect other Fox films such as Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, The Watch, and Ice Age: Continental Drift to follow suit. If Fox does this right, it could help grow the digital movies market, which is already on the rise but still quite small when compared to the boxed movies market. Stay tuned, because this could get interesting.

[via The New York Times]

The Dark Knight Rises – one of the biggest movies of the year – will be releasing on DVD and Blu Ray soon (December 4 to be specific), and Warner Bros. has one whopper of a promotion planned for the lead up to release. Starting this weekend, Warner Bros. will send a total of six Batmobiles on tour across the country. The Batmobiles span most of Batman’s Hollywood history, starting with the version seen in 1966′s Batman, The Movie starring Adam West and ending with the black and camo Tumblers seen in Christopher Nolan’s trilogy.

Of course, there were plenty of Batmobiles between 1966 and 2012, and those will all be on display too. These include the Batmobile Michael Keaton drove in Batman and Batman Returns, the one Val Kilmer cruised around in Batman Forever, and the one from 1997′s beyond terrible Batman and Robin. As an added bonus, the Batpod from Christopher Nolan’s films will be on display as well.

The tour kicks off this weekend at Cowboy Stadium in Arlington, Texas. On Saturday, the Batmobiles will be parked outside the Miller Lite Club, while on Sunday, they’ll be on display at half-time during the Cowboys’ game against the New York Giants. After the stint in Arlington, the Batmobiles will move onto Baton Rouge and New Orleans, Lousiana the weekend of November 3.

More dates will be announced later on, so no, the Batmobiles will not just be visiting those locations listed above. Make no mistake, if you’re a Bat-fan, this is about as good a chance as any to catch a glimpse at the various Batmobiles that have graced the silver screen throughout the years. Will you be making the trip to see these Batmobiles in person?

For most users, ripping DVDs is a simple, straightforward, and easy to accomplish task. For those unwilling to rip their own DVDs, whether due to legal concerns or a simple inability to, Best Buy has launched the beta of its Disc to Digital CinemaNow service. The discs will be ripped to digital image files and uploaded to the user’s CinemaNow Library.

Users will need to create an account, which is free, and add UltraViolet, which is part of the service and where the videos are uploaded. DVDs can be converted to either standard-definition or high-definition, whichever is preferred. Obviously, the high-definition videos will have a larger file size than the standard-definition files.

Once converted, it will automatically be added to both UltraViolet and the CinemaNow library. Users can access the ripped videos via both using apps that support the services. Users can use an iPad, for example, to watch their movies, which have been ripped and uploaded to the cloud. Hundreds of titles can be ripped using the service; you can see the full list here.

The list of titles that can be ripped using the service is being slowly expanded, so if a movie you want to convert isn’t supported yet, be sure to check back in the near future. The computer software is available for both Windows and Mac OS X. Android and iOS apps are available for use with UltraViolet and CinemaNow.

[via CinemaNow]

We’ve actually known for awhile that Jurassic Park would be making its 3D theatrical re-release this year, and that will come officially on April 5 for one week. After that, all three films will be released individually on 3D Blu-ray starting April 23, as well as the normal 2D versions for those who live life on the edge without that third dimension.

The three movies, which consists of Jurassic Park (1993), The Lost World: Jurassic Park (1997), and Jurassic Park III (2001) will include full 1080p HD and DTS-HD 7.1 Master Audio sound. Each release will also come in the form of a “combo pack” with a DVD, Digital Copy, and an UltraViolet digital copy, on top of the Blu-ray disc that’s included.

The titles are all available for pre-order right now over at Amazon with price tags in the $25 range for 2D versions, and the $35 range for 3D versions. Bonus materials will also be available in all three movies, and they’ll mostly be identical to those found on the previously available trilogy DVDs.

Sadly, though, only the first film in the series will be seeing its theatrical re-release on April 5, and none of the CGI has been redone, so while the movie will be in 3D, all the original work from the 90s will still be viewable. As for modern-day Jurassic Park shenanigans, you’ll have to wait until June 13, 2014 when Jurassic Park 4 releases.

[via High Def Disc News]

THQ may no longer be amongst us, but its Relic Entertainment-developed game Company of Heroes is still in the all clear with its movie adaptation. The straight-to-DVD movie is set for release next week on February 26 in North America, with a European release roughly a month later on March 25.

The full-length film, based on Relic Entertainment’s real-time strategy series, is about a band of soldiers that are tasked with stopping the Germans from completing their own atomic bomb during the Battle of the Bulge during World War II. The movie will be available on both Blu-ray and DVD, and will include two behind-the-scenes featurettes, as well as deleted scenes.

The movie is directed by Don Michael Paul, who is known for directing a handful of smaller movies, as well as starring in The Island. Company of Heroes stars Tom Sizemore, Vinnie Jones, Neal McDonough, Jurgen Prochnow, and Chad Collins. Sizemore has starred in past war films, including Saving Private Ryan and Black Hawk Down.

Earlier last month, THQ sold most of its assets to other companies, and Relic Entertainment ended up being snatched by Sega for $26.6 million. There’s no word on what will happen to the Company of Heroes video game series, but we at least have the movie to look forward to. Hopefully it’s good, but it probably won’t live up to Steven Spielberg’s and Tom Hank’s own WWII films.

[via Joystiq]

Complete with a lovely dual-interview opportunity for the public with two of the classic film’s integral artists, Lucasfilm Ltd. and Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment are re-releasing Willow. This movie will be appearing on both DVD and Blu-ray after director Ron Howard and star Warwick Davis give an “Artist to Artist Twitter chat” this month. You’ll be able to join in, too!

If you’ll head to Twitter on March 12th (that’s a Tuesday) from 2-2:30 PM PST, you’ll find both Davis and Howard giving a talk – and you can join in if you’d like! Follow #WillowChat and you’ll see the whole epic trading of words commencing. Then comes the features in the actual release!

With this release of Willow as a 25th Anniversary Edition, you’ll find a brand new personal video diary from none other than Warwick Davis – he’s going all-out to promote this, one of this most well-known starring roles. You’ll find matte paintings, photos of on-set bits and pieces, and deleted scenes as well. You’ll be getting a set of remarks from Ron Howard as well – what better wait to gain insight into the making of the classic?

This release will also include a new introduction from Ron Howard to the original 1988 featurette for the film, “The Making of an Adventure.” You’ll also see special effects master Dennis Muren give a new introduction to his bit of the collection, “From Morf to Morphing: The Dawn of Digital Filmmaking.” Sounds rather great! We’ll see the release of Willow in its newest fully digitally restored edition on both Blu-ray and DVD Combo Pack starting on March 12th wherever fine films are sold.

Have a peek at the timeline below for more Lucasfilm-related business in the recent past – there’s one whole heck of a lot of it!