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

[Jeff Kleist]

February stuff is just starting to trickle out, wait a few weeks and there'll be a better picture

[thebluemax]

1. Vertigo, Psycho, and all Hitchcock from Universal on BLU ??


2. Natalie Wood Films especially:

Kazan's "Splendor in the Grass" ??

[Jeff Kleist]

1- All of the above would be part of some kind of big Hitchcock push, nothing on the horizon

2- No clue

[FourToedStatue]

Originally Posted by Jeff Kleist

The Sopranos set just recycles existing product with maybe a bit of bonus material on top of it.Blu wasn't "passed up" because there was nothing to recycle except the last season

I assume it'll come out on Blu-ray at some point in the future, but HBO has been very slow dipping their toes into the Blu pool. I expect that From the Earth to the Moon will be the next one to peak out sometime next summer.

Undoubtedly like so many other TV titles they're waiting for the market to get bigger, because the upgrade potential is less than with DVD, and do you really want to be paying $600 for the set?

600 is ridiculous but Fox did release the X-files at hundred a season back in the day. What are the cons in studios releasing tv seasons at a premium and lowering the price as the market increases (just as the X-files has lowered in price over time)?

[rev.and.ride]

thebluemax - I would expect that there will be a 50th Anniversary blu-ray of Psycho in 2010, just like is happening with North by Northwest in 2009.

I would love to see the others coming soon and you would think that the Robert Harris restoration of Vertigo would make that one easier than some that haven't been touched...

[Jeff Kleist]

600 is ridiculous but Fox did release the X-files at hundred a season back in the day. What are the cons in studios releasing tv seasons at a premium and lowering the price as the market increases (just as the X-files has lowered in price over time)?

The DVD set that consolidates the existing Sopranos sets is $399. 30% is a pretty standard markup for Blu-ray.

The cons are that it's a gigantic upfront investment that won't pay off for years. Big business and home video is all about the quarterlies and the first week sales. If they don't think they can make it back come January 1 (or March 1 or whatever), it's simply not going to happen.

X-Files came out at $150 a season because no one believed our friends like Peter Staddon that it would work. 300,000+ copies later on a title that was expected to move 20-30k some were forced to admit they were mistaken Rumor has it that due to the unique profit sharing agreements that Duchovny/Anderson and Carter had, that as much as 20% of the wholesale price went to them because at the time many thought that DVDs would hurt syndication value because people would watch those instead (turned out not to be true)

The X-files sets came down to what people would consider reasonable

[blu2]

Jeff:

Regarding today's digitalbits: http://www.thedigitalbits.com/#mytwocents

Also today, the Digital Entertainment Group held an interesting press event this morning in Hollywood to talk about the latest HDTV and Blu-ray Disc market research. On hand were senior home video execs from all the major Hollywood studios. Among the interesting revelations (and we'll be talking about them a lot more on Monday) were these: We're now a little over 2 years into the growth of the Blu-ray format. At the same point in the early life of DVD, there were 1.2 million DVD players in U.S. homes. Fox's Mike Dunn claimed that there are more than 2.5 million stand-alone Blu-ray players in the U.S. today, with another 8 million PS3s.

These numbers for the PS3 are incorrect. There's something like 5.7 Million PS3s sold to date thus far in the U.S.. The standalone sales also don't jive with info as of CEDIA '08, based on info presented by the BDA (somewhere around 1.3 Million sold as of CEDIA '08, and I can't see another 1.2 Million being sold since then)

[dgator783]

HEy Jeff,

There was talk a few months ago about Back to the Future blu release from Bob Gale, I was wondering if theres any new word on the street about this one?

[Jeff Kleist]

Those are likely worldwide figures, but I'll make sure they get doublechecked

[Jeff Kleist]

There's your answer then That certainly makes sense.

[blu2]

Originally Posted by Jeff Kleist

There's your answer then That certainly makes sense.

Here's an article which provides the details:

http://tech.yahoo.com/news/ap/200811...ay_christmas_1

The executives hosted by The Digital Entertainment Group, a consortium of movie studios and electronics manufacturers, forecast that 10.5 million households would be able to play Blu-ray videos by the end of the year — with about 2.5 million standalone players and 8 million PlayStation 3 game consoles.

That estimate is much lower than the 14.4 million households that Adams Media Research said in June would be playing Blu-rays by the end of the year. But if it is to come true, about 1 million more standalone players and 2.3 million more PS3s must be sold through the holidays.

So Bill's article was seemingly using very optimistic end of year projections provided by DEG rather than the current data (I really think that should be clarified).

Sony would have to have a blowout (Wii-like) Nov/Dec to sell an additional 2.3M PS3s, and similar blowout performance for standalone sales.

[rlsmith]

According to vgchartz, the PS3 has sold about 16.71M worldwide and 6.33M in the US as of today. [I tend to believe their numbers; vgchartz is certainly not pro-PS3 btw!]

This means that 8M in the US by the end of the year looks very do-able.


I do expect that we are seeing a switch between PS3's and stand-alones. For a long period, folks whose primary interest was Blu-ray were often buying PS3's simply because it is an excellent Blu-ray player (as it still is).

With a large number of good stand-alones now in the market and prices dropping, this kind of customer will move toward the stand-alone models. Folks who wanted Blu-ray but did not want a PS3 (IR remote, physical design, lack of analog outs, general prejudice against gaming) will find satisfaction.

I fit into this category. I have two PS3's but just bought a Sony BDP-S550 for the analog outputs. The new Sony and Panasonic players are clearly excellent performers, and I am sure the others are as well.

[Blu Titan]

Hi Jeff, I was wondering if you guys had any info on a Sin City December 2 release. Apparently, Amazon has a pre-order for the title.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...SIN=B001ECDVZE

[Jeff Kleist]

That's almost certainly just the domestic stock of the Canadian disc, just like Amazon has been stocking UK discs.

Nothing on Disney's site either

I know that because it's out in Canada they're fast tracking it to try to stem the imports

[mevans]

Hi Jeff, I was wondering if you knew if in the
The X Files Movie 2-Pack the 'I Want to believe' movie is going to be the same as the single movie pack. I read several places that indicate that the one in the 2 pack does not have the BD-Live and other features. Have you heard of anything definitive?

Thanks

[mevans]

Hi Jeff, one other question if I may. I know HBO has been very slow in releasing their shows in Blu. But I thought that it was poor marketing and lost sales to not release the John Adams mini-series day and date with the DVD. With that said have you heard any rumblings on a release for Blu-ray.

Thanks

[Jeff Kleist]

The discs should be identical on X-files

HBO just released band of brothers, and more will be coming. I wouldnt' be suprised to see JA sooner rather than later, maybe next summer

BTW Matrix people, Revolutions is next for me to watch, I've sent everything you've given me onto the right people long ago though encouraging an exchange program if/when they fix it

[Paul H]

Originally Posted by Jeff Kleist

BTW Matrix people, Revolutions is next for me to watch, I've sent everything you've given me onto the right people long ago though encouraging an exchange program if/when they fix it

Thanks Jeff,

Your efforts are appreciated.

FYI:
Just sent my "Starship Troopers" (Blu-ray) disc into Sony Pictures Home Entertainment for replacement. I have to give them an A for effort in trying to correct defects, just like The Fifth Element.

Paul

[mark antony]

"Just sent my "Starship Troopers" (Blu-ray) disc into Sony Pictures Home Entertainment for replacement"

What faults does it fix, which email address did you contact?

Thanks

M

[Paul H]

Originally Posted by mark antony

"Just sent my "Starship Troopers" (Blu-ray) disc into Sony Pictures Home Entertainment for replacement"

What faults does it fix, which email address did you contact?

Thanks

M

There is a minor glitch in a battle scene that repeats a few frames (only on the U.S. release) even though the sound is not affected.

It will be nice to get a corrected copy for my HD collection.

Details can be found here.

Paul