With Blu the victor, it's time to demand some changes....

[Nick Graham]

I posted this over at HTF, but since (based on comments made here, anyway) there isn't a lot of cross-traffic from here to there and vice versa, I was curious what you guys thought. Hopefully all of these points get expressed at CES this week.


1) $39.99 catalog titles - Okay, since this whole war was about what was best for the consumer, and ending it was so that high def optical would have a chance to thrive in the mainstream, how about stopping the early adopter price gouging on catalog titles? Even with one format for the retailers to get behind, are mom and pop really gonna buy up BDs like they did DVDs when Die Hard is $9.99 on SD and $29.99 on BD at Wal-Mart? The early adopter phase is now over - players are $299 at Sam's Club, Wal-Mart, and Target. The perpetrators of this pricing are more than likely getting some incredible incentives to have stayed so loyal for all this time. How about passing that savings on to the consumers? Every single Fox title I own I have purchased used, with the exception of one, which was purchased during the 50% off Amazon sale. How much revenue are you getting from me for those?

2) Big budget movies with low bitrate lossy audio tracks - Warner, there should not be a single movie sizable budget released in the last 10-15 years
that should have a lossy audio track on Blu-Ray, or HD-DVD for that matter. Maybe I'm wrong, but I don't recall The Aviator, The Fountain, or the Ocean's 11 movies being quaint little indie affairs with small production budgets.

3) DTS-MA - New Line, exactly what were you thinking (aside from "Thanks for the incentives!)? I realize DTS probably told you of all the umpteen BD players that would be able to decode the full lossless track any day now, but guess what?! They don't exist, and you've just screwed the majority of the Blu-Ray customer base, as they don't have the ability to hear more than the standard DVD level core track.

Fox, your continued support of this codec makes me shake my head, but chances are you have received some nice compensation is some form from DTS, so you may just not care. Regardless, it's not to late to go TrueHD, or at least demand that SCEA and DTS find a way to get at least the PS3 able to decode the lossless stream, and to get with the CE manufacturers and get crunching on getting any players with the horsepower to decode it to decode it.

4) Featureless BDs with feature-laden SD counterparts - MGM, you are the only kids left in the room for this one. 2007 has been a year of great two disc feature-laden standard def releases of your catalog films, coupled with featureless BDs of the same films with a retail of $39.99, which means $29.99 in the real world. Guess what? Unlike Fox, I haven't even purchased any of your discs used!! What possible incentive do I have - you won't even include commentary tracks on these things! Even at a 50% discount, I'm still not touching it. We have patience (most of us, anyway), and I would bet your sales numbers reflect that. It's 2008 - how about taking a new approach fro a new year? The DTS-MA rule applies to you as well, assuming you have control over such things.

5) Fifth and final - release your high profile indie/art house fare and your classics on BD! One of the best sleepers of the year from Fox was Waitress, a movie that played literally for months at some of the theaters in both KC and Tulsa due to endless word of mouth going around. Juno looks like it will blow that out of the water, and yet I am expecting only an SD release for it. Buena Vista is at least doing us right on this, with stuff like The Lookout (though I am still waiting for The Hoax to be put back on the schedule.) Sunshine is a good start, but please increase the output, all of you! Same thing goes for classic fare - now that there is only one format, the sales will happen if you release them. Warner doesn't seem to be swimming in red ink from releasing them.

That's enough for one night, but I'm hoping these things get brought up in a courteous, professional way to those who have the power to make changes at CES.