Atlantis among Sony’s first Blu-ray offerings

Stargate Atlantis will become the first television series released on Blu-ray, one of two competing next generation, high-definition DVD formats, Sony Pictures Home Entertainment announced today. The complete series (presumably all of Seasons One and Two) is being readied for a summer 2006 release.

“Beginning this Spring, SPHE will support the rollout of BD-compatible players, PCs and drives from a variety of consumer electronics and computer companies by offering a wide-breadth of high-definition movies and other promotional materials,” SPHE president Benjamin S. Feingold said.

Sony movie titles in the first wave of 20 high-def releases include “The Fifth Element,” “Bram Stoker’s Dracula,” “Desperado,” “The Guns of Navarone,” “Hitch,” “House of
Flying Daggers,” “A Knight’s Tale,” “Kung Fu Hustle,” “Legends of the Fall,” “Resident Evil Apocalypse,” “Robocop,” “Stealth,” “Species,” “SWAT,” and “XXX.”

The next-generation format will offer TV and films with a crystal clear 1920x1080p picture, along with such improvements over current generation DVDs as “enhanced menu navigation, increased added-value and new interactive capabilities,” Sony said. The Blu-ray format offers five times the storage capacity of today’s DVDs.

Sony also said that Blu-ray DVD players will be fully backward-compatible with current CD/DVD formats. The new technology will also be a part of the anticipated new video game console, Sony’s PlayStation 3.

Sony is currently waging a high-definition DVD format war with Toshiba, which plans to debut its HD-DVD technology early this year.

(Thanks to Nathan Wall for the tip)