Ask questions to The Digital Bits team (Bill Hunt, Jeff Kleist et.al.)

[Bill Hunt]

Originally Posted by PaulGo

For those not familiar with Bill (I was not) this page from his website fills in a lot of the blanks. Care to add anything additional?

http://www.thedigitalbits.com/advertise.html

Yeah, I hadn't thought of that. Good thinking. You can read a short history of The Bits here:

http://www.thedigitalbits.com/advertise.html#history

And my bio is here, followed by bios of Doogan, Sarah, Dr. Jahnke and Barrie:

http://www.thedigitalbits.com/advertise.html#staff

[Bill Hunt]

Originally Posted by iwanttobeabmoviestar

WARNER ALSO HAS NEVER RESPONDED (CALLED 3 TIMES AND GOT SAME ANSWER "WE DONT KNOW WHAT WERE DOING ABOUT IT YET") ON THEIR T3 MISHAP FOR 1080I NOT 1080P PRINT AND I HAVE YET TO GET MY LABEL TO SEND BACK PIRATES TO DISNEY IS THERE A REASON THESE COMPANIES TAKE SO LONG ON THESE I HAD TO DO THE SWITCH WITH WB ON THE SUPERMAN SET AND IT TOOK ABOUT 2WEEKS TO REMEDY

I will try to find out what's happening. Can't promise anything, but I'll ask all the right people at Warner.

[ThatArtGuy]

There's still no word on the incorrect disc in the Blade Runner set as well, unfortunately.

[dzirzow]

Bill, I apologize if this has already been mentioned. DO you know if Blu-ray discs are capable of encoding HD 3-D? I used to live 4 miles from an IMAX theater showing 3-D movies. To see Polar express in 3-D in IMAX was downright amazing!

I am not sure if encoding would require that much difference on the disc and the 1080p TV sets can handle it.

But I assure you, I would love to have a pair of polarized lenses next to the TV to watch some of the movies that have been released in 3-D.

Any thoughts on this?

Thanks,

Dan

[richteer]

Originally Posted by ThatArtGuy

There's still no word on the incorrect disc in the Blade Runner set as well, unfortunately.

My Blade Runner set suffered from the incorrect disc issue. Fortunately, I bought it from a B&M store, so I exchanged it. I checked the new disc in store before I went home. ;-)

[Bear26]

Hey Bill,

I hadn't heard of you before joining this site, but I think it's great what you are doing to give consumers some answers and you seem to have some really great insight.

I was wondering the following:

It's clear Blu Ray will win, just a matter of time, so that's great for the 5% HDM market.

However, with this format war ongoing, are we losing more of the DVD market? Blu Ray only benefits those with HD systems...sure everyone could buy DVD's, but I dont see adoption of Blu Ray that easy because of the high costs involved with HDTV's etc. What is your take?

Thanks
-Barry

[zipbags]

Originally Posted by Bill Hunt

Yeah, but they'll get back into it when the time is right. I think their few HD-DVD titles haven't sold well. I have confidence that Harvey and Bob will go Blu when the time is right.

I have read that the main reason Weinstein hasn't gone blu is the money issue. I wonder if this wouldn't be a good use of BDA funds to "help" them out. Whether it be with cash or discounted replication costs. Maybe, on one of their films that hasn't been released on hd-dvd either.

[Beta-guy]

Originally Posted by iwanttobeabmoviestar

SORRY NOT YELLING CAP LOCKS BROKEN

see if this works, go to start -> Programs -> Accessories -> Accessibility (Ease of access on vista) them click onscreen keyboard and hit the caps button on there that may solve the caps lock issue for now, but in the long run got a new keyboard

[rondanto]

I bought my mother a Sony Bravia 26" lcd for Christmas. She doesn't have a big room and this size fits nicely. I want to know is a 26"screen at 720p
comparable to 46" LCD WITH 1080P. Onr guy at Sony consumer help told me it was.

[darkpoet25]

Hello Bill, welcome to the forums. I apologize if this had been asked before, but I have seen posts about a rumor that Universal had been sniffing around BD authoring facilities. I think it is a rumor and was wondering if you had any insight on this. Sorry if you had been asked this before, I just thought of it as interesting bit of news or rumor. IF this is the case, does that mean that they are trying to get authoring materials for putting movies on Blu Ray? Seeing as how most of your predictions have come to fruition I thought I would ask you. If there are any other insiders here that can answer as well that would be great. Thanks in advance.

[Bill Hunt]

Originally Posted by darkpoet25

Hello Bill, welcome to the forums. I apologize if this had been asked before, but I have seen posts about a rumor that Universal had been sniffing around BD authoring facilities. I think it is a rumor and was wondering if you had any insight on this. Sorry if you had been asked this before, I just thought of it as interesting bit of news or rumor. IF this is the case, does that mean that they are trying to get authoring materials for putting movies on Blu Ray? Seeing as how most of your predictions have come to fruition I thought I would ask you. If there are any other insiders here that can answer as well that would be great. Thanks in advance.

Nope, that's true. They've been doing it for a few months now. I have that straight from multiple sources at said facilities, AND elsewhere within the industry.

[Luis_A51]

Originally Posted by Bill Hunt

At the top of my list would be the new Battlestar Galactica, Apollo 13, Blues Brothers, The Big Lebowski and something from the Spielberg catalog. One can only wait and see.

Would you not think Universal would want to release the newer titles first and take advantage of the fact that they still are relatively new and fresh in peoples minds?

[darkpoet25]

Originally Posted by Bill Hunt

Nope, that's true. They've been doing it for a few months now. I have that straight from multiple sources at said facilities, AND elsewhere within the industry.

Thanks for clearing this up for me.

[sj001]

Bill,
Now that things are much more clear, do you think that combo-making CEs like LG and Samsung will finally see the light, and maybe put a red light on these dual format players? I just can't see many people at all wanting to put up an extra $200-$300 just for HD-DVD support. Makes more sense to put it into just a BD player.

[TauHeel05]

Hey Bill,

I remember reading your "my two cents" column about the Weinstein Company's uncertainty regarding their future high def plans. Is it possible that they could also be holding up progress on blu-ray releases of their catalog titles, which Disney/Buena Vista now has the home video distribution rights for?

Thanks.

[CAB]

Originally Posted by Bill Hunt

Well, I obviously think all the manufactures should get up to 2.0 ASAP. Even if people don't use the features, 2.0 at least makes downloading firmware updates easier. Ideally, the Blu-ray companies shouldn't have rolled out with three profile targets, but a few execs have told me that they didn't really have a choice. HD-DVD already had a six month head start and if they didn't roll out, by the time the final Blu-ray spec was complete they might not even have had a chance to get into the market. So it wasn't an ideal situation. I just steer people to the PS3, and say if you want a standalone, just wait a few months and fully complaint units like Panny's BD50 are on the way. But again, as I've argued on The Bits, this situation is not unlike the first few years of DVD, where people had to buy new players to use DTS audio and RSDL dual-layer switches and seamless branching. The good news is, the market is still so small, and is composed mostly of early adopters who knew that going in, that the situation will resolve itself pretty well over the next year or so.

I think the controversial portion from the OP was making optional features mandatory. I'm more in favor of letting the CE find their own space. The Panasonic BD-30 has it's place even after the BD-50 is shipping. It fits those that have HD audio processing (often higher quality) than what the BD-50 offers. Do we force CEs like Denon to add decode features to an already very expensive high end transport?

[DaViD Boulet]

Well, I obviously think all the manufactures should get up to 2.0 ASAP. Even if people don't use the features, 2.0 at least makes downloading firmware updates easier. Ideally, the Blu-ray companies shouldn't have rolled out with three profile targets, but a few execs have told me that they didn't really have a choice. HD-DVD already had a six month head start and if they didn't roll out, by the time the final Blu-ray spec was complete they might not even have had a chance to get into the market. So it wasn't an ideal situation.

Agreed.

My point is that it's not just a delayed development time-line, it's not even required that BD players be full-spec... EVER.

I see a big problem when the average consumer finally gets that Disney BD with BD-live features, and *then* discovers that the player he/she just paid $$ for won't work with those features. It's a lot to ask even for enthusiasts to tease out the differences between players given the profile issues and lack of mandatory feature-set; asking the average consumer to take on the same burden is impossible, yet that's exactly what the BDA has set up will have to happen.

An unhappy BD consumer is a bad thing. Since 1.1 is already mandatory, and 2.0 isn't that much more to add, I'm pushing for just going the extra distance and making all BD hardware full-spec so that every player can play all in-spec features on the discs. Let me stress that this conversation is about the average-consumer (the one who would actually use web-features on Disney BDs), not the enthusiast crowd who educate themselves and typically make well-informed hardware purchases based on that knowledge. Suggesting to my "normal" friends that they buy a PS3 as a "movie player" usually gets a blank stare. But naturally that's the player in my own system as... well... I'm an enthusiast who made a well-informed hardware purchase based on my knowledge.

[hyperdine]

Originally Posted by Bill Hunt

Steve's a great guy, who did a lot for DVD in his day. He originally came to Warner from Toshiba, so I think you can draw your own conclusions as to which high-def format he leaned towards from that. But I'll tell you that I have a ton of respect for him and I wish him all the best.

Thanks, Bill! Much appreciated. That helps.

[tron3]

Originally Posted by sj001

Bill,
Now that things are much more clear, do you think that combo-making CEs like LG and Samsung will finally see the light, and maybe put a red light on these dual format players? I just can't see many people at all wanting to put up an extra $200-$300 just for HD-DVD support. Makes more sense to put it into just a BD player.

I'm not Bill, but here are "My 2 cents"

I have always said combo players are best served as a "cross over" technology. Many red campers have hundreds, or thousands invested in movies. To get them to "cross over" to blu-ray without loosing that investment it takes a combo player. Not everyone wants the second player, nor has the room for one. It is quickly becoming a niche market, but one that is essential to keep from screwing the red camp.

They are early adopters and buy High Def Media (HDM) so we don't want to turn them off to the whole thing because they lost player support. Combo players need to co-exist to support those users.

[mtmw1863]

Hi Bill, I have a quick question. With the defeat of the HD-DVD format, do you think that we will start to see actual numbers of units sold (For the disks as well as the players) for the Blu-Ray format? I know your website tracks number of DVD players sold and was wondering if you could show the total number of disks and movies sold? Percentages are nice but don't you think the actual numbers of units sold (both disks and players) will ultimately decide the success or failure of the format?