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'Tears of the Sun' already looked great on standard DVD, so I was not surprised that the source material was pristine. I spotted approximately one single white speckle during the film's entire 121-minute runtime -- that's about as good as it gets. Blacks are dead-on and contrast excellent, with the image always perfectly balanced -- whites never bloomed and even the darkest scenes boast terrific shadow delineation. Colors are wonderfully saturated, from the lush greens of the jungle to the deep, midnight blues of the nighttime scenes. Fleshtones, too, are a perfect shade of orange, and thankfully not overpumped. And if that isn't enough, detail is exquisite, with the presentation never looking anything less than three-dimensional throughout. 'Tears of the Sun' is full of close-ups of grizzled military men, and you could spend hours just freeze-framing images and counting every last follicle of stubble on Bruce Willis' five o'clock shadow. Even a friend who popped over unannounced, and who is about as tech-saavy as my grandmother, couldn't help but exclaim, "Wow, that is one #@$&! kick-ass picture!" Score a big one for Blu-ray.

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We couldn't break the staffers for an exact release date of the Pioneer BDP-HD1 Elite Blu-ray player, but they did say "within weeks." We'll take that as it is right on with the fall release that they have been stating for sometime now. The unit hasn't been put-off without cause though as Pioneer is shooting for a error-free launch.

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Today at CEDIA we caught a sneak peak at Pioneer's forthcoming Blu-ray DVD player. The model on display, which is not due to be shipped until Spring of 2007, was functional and provided excellent images.

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