Fox delays another Blu-ray disc release

"Quality control issues"

30 November 2007 14:37 GMT / By Amy-Mae Elliott

Due to "quality control issues", Fox has delayed the release of what's described as one of the biggest guns in its fourth quarter Blu-ray arsenal, "Independence Day".

The nineties blockbuster movie was due to launch in the States on 4th December, but Fox has now officially confirmed that the Blu-ray disc version of the film, dubbed "ID4", has been delayed.

HighDefDigest got a statement from Steve Feldstein, Fox senior vice president of corporate and marketing communications:

"While putting 'Independence Day' through our regular and rigorous QC process we detected a minor glitch. Even though 95% of users would likely not know or encounter it, we chose to do the right thing and remaster which necessitates moving the release date."

March 2008 is said to be the new release timescale for this movie, and joins "Master & Commander: The Far Side of the World", "The Amityville Horror" and "I, Robot" as delayed Fox films on the next-gen format.

Fox's history with Blu-ray disc releases has been troubled so far - the studio initially had a long hiatus from new releases whilst the extra layer of copyright protection, BD+ was finalised.

When Fox's BD+ discs were released, they did not work on many older Blu-ray players, and the manufacturers of the players had to rush out firmware fixes.

It's not clear from the limited information available if BD+ is the quality control issue behind the delay this time round, but it seems a likely scenario.