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

[Musashi]

I remember Bill talking of floodgates opening this year. I also see today that SPHE is planning about 100. Any estimates from other studios?

[Jeff Kleist]

Sorry. Like I said, January is a little early. June/July is when the 2nd half really locks in

[Penton-Man]

Originally Posted by NoQuestion

Jeff,

Posted this over in Penton's thread. But can you let everyone in this thread know who is releasing QoS?

https://forum.blu-ray.com/showthread...=1#post1490447

Hollywoodguy is correct.
QoS is a split rights job with Fox to be the distributor of the Blu-ray/DVD home media editions and Sony Pictures having the theatrical distribution rights......except for I think India, which they recently sold or are in the process of doing so.

[Esox50]

Originally Posted by Musashi

I remember Bill talking of floodgates opening this year. I also see today that SPHE is planning about 100. Any estimates from other studios?

You gotta take those estimates with a grain of salt. Plans change. Think of 100 BDs more or less as their "goal".

[Musashi]

Originally Posted by Esox50

You gotta take those estimates with a grain of salt. Plans change. Think of 100 BDs more or less as their "goal".

This is true; I figure it's based on estimated capacity for all steps in the blu-ray production process.

[Jeff Kleist]

It's based on a lot of things, including not oversaturating the market

[Esox50]

Originally Posted by Maxpower1987

A big issue for Blu-ray right now is the mastering and post-production. There isn't enough capacity for many studios to do more than 150 titles a year...

They better call Amir in for some help. I'm sure he has some great ideas.

[Jeff Kleist]

Studios typically have a main company that does most of their work. Sony for Sony, Deluxe for Fox and so on. Then they farm out the "little" titles to smaller authoring houses.

[HeavyHitter]

Originally Posted by Maxpower1987

A big issue for Blu-ray right now is the mastering and post-production. There isn't enough capacity for many studios to do more than 150 titles a year...

I imagine with the economic conditions that won't change anytime soon, will it?

[Jeff Kleist]

It will as soon as more of the support/little houses are equipped for Blu, something that's slowly happening

[patrick99]

Originally Posted by Jeff Kleist

Studios typically have a main company that does most of their work. Sony for Sony, Deluxe for Fox and so on. Then they farm out the "little" titles to smaller authoring houses.

Any thoughts on why so few studios give credit on the disc to the company that did this work? Fox has been the best in this regard, and I see that Universal is now giving credit, but I believe they are the only ones.

[Jeff Kleist]

I think it's something that DVCC (now deluxe) has in their contract, but I'm not sure

Usually there's credit somewhere, but it might not be obvious like a tag at the end of the movie

[patrick99]

Originally Posted by Jeff Kleist

I think it's something that DVCC (now deluxe) has in their contract, but I'm not sure

Usually there's credit somewhere, but it might not be obvious like a tag at the end of the movie

Fox credits Panasonic as well as Deluxe, although I have only seen credit for Deluxe on Universal BDs.

[Jeff Kleist]

Fox primarily uses deluxe, but usually has Panasonic do the really hard/advanced stuff

[Esox50]

Jeff,

Any credibility whatsoever to some rumors making the floor at CES re Lucasfilm readying Star Wars (was unclear whether it was Episodes 1-3, 4-6, or maybe just one movie at a time) for release on Blu-Ray starting in Nov09?

No need to answer specifics, but rather would just like to know if we should completely discount this rumor (like usual).

[Jeff Kleist]

Well, it is the 10th Anniversary of TPM

Personally I would expect him to hold off on the OT until after the 3D release, but maybe that's not working out the way he wants it to

Don't get your hopes up too far, in fact when it comes to Lucas I never have hope until the actual solicitation goes out

[Robert Siegel]

Originally Posted by Maxpower1987

A big issue for Blu-ray right now is the mastering and post-production. There isn't enough capacity for many studios to do more than 150 titles a year...

Well, 150 titles a year figuring about 7 studios (which would work out about right with the indes) is over 1,000 new releases a year. Capacity at several plans is being doubled or tripled so that number should go higher. I know that Paramount wants to release more titles than can be fit into the pressing schedule, and that's a shame, hopefully things will improve.

[woodlandwolf]

I but alot of Blus used and sometimes they have prints on them. I would lke to knw what would be good cleaner that I can use on the disc to make them clean nd looking good.

Thanks,
Woodlandwolf

[Jeff Kleist]

The capacity is much more on the authoring end of the scale than the pressing capacity at this point. There simply aren't enough trained techs/compressionists/workstations to do more

I but alot of Blus used and sometimes they have prints on them. I would lke to knw what would be good cleaner that I can use on the disc to make them clean nd looking good.

Water and a soft cloth.

[Clark Kent]

Do you think the current economic climate might restrain more independent distributors from expanding their offerings of Blu-rays? We saw BCI go out of business and there are rumors that Genius is having problems. Any comment would be appreciated.