• Eight extra minutes of footage in the unrated version of Conquest of the Planet of the Apes
• Beyond the Forbidden Zone Adventure Game
• Science of the Apes: scientists, anthropologists and sociologists discuss the first film
• Evolution of the Apes: HD featurette that traces how the Planet of the Apes went from book to screen
• Impact of the Apes: HD featurette about how the story became a pop culture phenomenon
• HD “Making of” features for each sequel
• Commentary by composers, actors and make up artists.
• A Behind the Planet of the Apes documentary
• The original theatrical trailers
• Behind the scenes galleries

... and much much more! The five disk set will retail for roughly $160. [The HD Room]

Purchase New Movies on iTunes Same Day as DVD Release CUPERTINO, Calif., May 1 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ — Apple(R) today announced that new movie releases from major film studios and premier independent studios are available for purchase on the iTunes(R) Store ( http://www.itunes.com ) on the same day as their DVD release. New releases and catalog titles will be available from 20th Century Fox, The Walt Disney Studios, Warner Bros., Paramount Pictures, Universal Studios Home Entertainment, Sony Pictures Entertainment, Lionsgate, Image Entertainment and First Look Studios. Movies purchased from iTunes can be viewed on an iPod(R) with video, iPhone(TM), Mac(R) or PC or on a widescreen TV with Apple TV(R), with new releases priced at $14.99 and most catalog titles at $9.99. "We're thrilled to bring iTunes Store customers new films for purchase day-and-date with the DVD release," said Eddy Cue, Apple's vice president of iTunes. "We think movie fans will love being able to buy their favorites from major and independent studios." New releases available for purchase on the iTunes Store this week, concurrent with their DVD release, include "American Gangster" and "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly." Other popular titles now available for purchase include "Juno," "Cloverfield," "I Am Legend," "There Will Be Blood," "Alvin and the Chipmunks" and "Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story." The iTunes Store is the world's most popular online music, TV and movie store with a catalog of over six million songs, 600 TV shows and over 1,500 films including 200 in stunning high definition video. With Apple's legendary ease of use, pioneering features such as new iTunes Movie Rentals, integrated podcasting support, iMix playlist sharing, the ability to turn previously purchased tracks into complete albums at a reduced price, and seamless integration with iPod and iPhone, the iTunes Store is the best way for Mac and PC users to legally discover, purchase and download music and video online. Pricing & Availability Movie purchases and rentals from the iTunes Store for Mac or Windows require iTunes 7.6.2, available as a free download immediately from http://www.itunes.com. iTunes movie purchases and rentals require a valid credit card with a billing address in the country of purchase. iTunes Movies are available in the US only and are $9.99 (US) for library title purchases and $14.99 (US) for new release purchases and $2.99 (US) for library title rentals and $3.99 (US) for new release rentals, and high definition rental versions are priced just one dollar more with library title rentals at $3.99 (US) and new release rentals at $4.99 (US). Short films are available to rent for 99 cents (US). Movies can be previewed, purchased and watched on iPod classic, iPod nano with video, iPod touch, iPhone and on a widescreen TV with Apple TV.

According to an AP story, advertisers in this lucrative program currently include Warner Music, 20th Century Fox and New Line Cinema. They'll be paying $20 per 1,000 clicks. The first videos to run the ads will be from artists signed to Warner, and from a totally horrible band I only just heard about called Killswitch Engage (wish it were literal). People who host videos on YouTube will be able to opt into the program, though it's not yet clear what the revenue share is between YouTube and the content owner.

Why is this happening? Because Google bought YouTube for $1.76 billion, and yet last year it only generated about $15 million. Chump change, as they say in Silicon Valley. [AP]

That's right, starting in February of next year you'll be able to download-to-own (DTO) films and TV shows, or rent films on a video on-demand (VOD) basis from those studios in addition to the already agreed-upon Warner Bros. Home Entertainment, Egami Media, Hart Sharp, Koch Entertainment and The Orchard.

Take a look at a bit of told-ya-so ranting and partial list of the films that will be available:

Finally, Hollywood studios get their heads out of the sand and realize that unless they make deals for movie downloads, the downloads will happen anyway. Of course, we're assuming that none of these movies will be available in HDTV formats yet, where the conventional wisdom says that those films are much too big for download. Sure, maybe 1080p films are too bulky, but it's amazing what compression can do these days, especially over fat pipes.

Who knows what price the studios will attempt to charge for this content, but it better be cheap or this idea will tank.

And hey, does this have anything to do with Apple's upcoming iTV video distribution hardware that was teased a few months ago? Could that be BitTorrent equipped, too? – Charlie White

Through these new partnerships, BitTorrent customers will be able to select from a variety of popular film titles from 20th Century Fox, Kadokawa, Lionsgate, Palm, Paramount and Starz Media such as "X-Men The Last Stand," "Ringu," "Saw III," "13 Tzameti," "Mission: Impossible III," and "Ghost in the Shell." TV programming will include hits like "Attack of the Show" from G4; "24" and "Prison Break" from 20th Century Fox; "City of Men" from Palm; "Laguna Beach" and "Celebrity Deathmatch" from MTV: Music Television; Emmy and Peabody-Award winning "South Park" and "Chappelle's Show" from COMEDY CENTRAL; "Hogan Knows Best" from VH1; "SpongeBob SquarePants" and "Avatar: The Last Airbender" from Nickelodeon; and "Skyland" from Nicktoons Network.

Press Release [BitTorrent Inc., via CrunchGear]

Both sides have been on a long summer vacation since May, and at summer camp they chose up sides and decided that it's just too late to negotiate a unified format. Gee, thanks for all the hard work guys. The battle ahead won't be good for anyone (especially us). This month Sony partnered up with 20th Century Fox, Lion's Gate and Universal Music to pack a wallop for Blu-ray. Plus, let's not forget the PS3—which will definitely be using a Blu-ray drive. That's going to sting. About the only thing Toshiba can really boast is an HD-DVD product they showed last January at the CES and plan on marketing by end of year. They also cozied up to Bill Gates to jointly develop a PC HD-DVD drive, which they plan on selling in the next few months—but not in the Xbox 360.

Toshiba, Sony fail to unify DVD format [Daily Yomiuri]