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

[Bill Hunt]

Originally Posted by scott1256ca

Bill:

You mentioned today that Paramount may be going to support BD again around 2nd Q this year and also mentioned Best Buy phasing out HD DVD. This is not the first time we have heard these rumours connected and with this time frame. In fact, the original rumours probably started with an insider on this forum.

You have, in the past, put yourself somewhere between hobbyist and reporter. So how many sources do you confirm with before you print statements like these? Do they have to have certain credentials, or a particular track record before you take them at face value?

Thanks

I would say we're a mix of reporters, film enthusiasts/historians and Ralph Nader style advocates. It's an eclectic mix to be sure. Over the ten years we've been running the Bits, we've built up hundreds of sources, at every level of the industry from the very bottom to the very top. Many of these people we know personally, first-hand. Some have become close friends. Many of them are key talent or decision makers in the industry. Those that are trustworthy quickly become clear. How many we confirm with depends on the source and the subject. But I can tell you with some confidence that not a lot happens in the home video industry that we don't hear about sooner or later, very often from parties directly involved or close to them. We hear and learn a lot more than we can say on The Bits. Part of building our relationship with industry folk is that they have to know they can trust you and vise versa. So we're told a lot of things off the record we never print.

[Bill Hunt]

Originally Posted by Rob Tomlin

Interesting article at Gizmodo:

http://gizmodo.com/346783/the-truth-...hd-dvds-demise

This article says that Universal has a contract to remain exclusive to HD DVD through 2009 and that the contract is null only when the format is declared non-viable. "Graffeo repeatedly placing the onus on Toshiba to declare HD DVD dead seems to confirm this".

Can you comment on the accuracy of this Bill?

Best not to comment on this subject for the time being.

[Bill Hunt]

Originally Posted by msetten

Hi Bill,

Thanks for your participation here, I watch it daily just like your two cents. Now to my question: I just read your post on The Digital Bits regarding the data for standalone players sales. I was wondering are returns deducted from the number of sold units in the graphs or are they still included as sales?

As there have been many reports about returned HD-DVD players, if the graphs you posted do not have the returns deducted, it could actually be even worse for HD-DVD.

I don't believe returns are factored into these numbers.

[Bill Hunt]

Originally Posted by RacerX

Bill, Perhaps you've heard that Time-Warner will be trying out a new pricing policy for their cable internet service. Basically, it will be a pay per kb (mb?) downloaded. In my paranoid mind (I'm a TW cable subscriber), this would seem to be guided towards pushing people away from downloading movies. Do you think this is in good part because Warner Bros. went Blu and want to prod internet downloaders to go blu also?

I haven't really been following this, so best to let someone else with more knowledge comment on this.

[Bill Hunt]

Originally Posted by nhaase

Also, since you did get the actual numbers this time, is that a rare event? Normally all we see (even from Toshiba at CES) is market shares and ratios. I know that is probably the best spin.

We'd like to keep posting this data, but the NPD Group has asked us not to from now on, and we're going to respect that. This data is how they make their money, and it's meant for their paid subscribers. It's been frustrating not having accurate information, but hopefully the BDA will issue statements on this subject more often. We may comment on the data in general - on trends we're seeing - but we won't be issuing actual figures anymore.

[Bill Hunt]

Originally Posted by JackBauer24

Bill do you think the studios are releasing too many titles, too little or in a perfect pace?

I feel studios like Disney could do a little better in the catalog department.

That will come in time. Part of the problem is that it takes a LOT of work to get these titles ready for high-def release. People expect perfection, and making each disc look and sound as good as they can involves time and money. Everyone learned first-hand the lessons of Sony's first Fifth Element release.

[martinstraka8282]

Hi Bill,

I wet shopping today, and all 3 stores in my town that sell HD tiles had The Invasion on HD DVD on the shelves already. I was wondering if WB will be taking steps to ensure that the street dates for the delayed titles dont get broken over the next few months until they are no longer producing HD DVD's. When I tried to complain, 2 of the stores refused to care or check into it, and the other store didnt care but checked and said there was nothing in his computer saying that it wasnt released that day (that was CD Plus).

[Bill Hunt]

Originally Posted by BillCable

Welcome to the forum, Bill! I have sort of an off-the-wall question, which I hope is appropriate. Would you be willing to share some of the more outrageous hate mail you've received in response to some of your pro-Blu articles? I think that stuff would be a blast to read.

I had some guy e-mail me in German and take me to task. One kid was e-mailing from his mother's e-mail account and posting all kinds of nasty stuff. Needless to say, he got in a bit of trouble when she found out. I'd had several people e-mail me to say f--k you I'm never reading The Bits again... only to have them e-mail me again later complaing about something else. Guess they kept reading at least a little. Most of the people who are most angry about our position in the high-def war haven't been reading The Bits for very long, so they don't have any perspective on the positions we've taken over the years or the issues we've championed. I find more than a few of the nastiest e-mails are from young (under 30) gamers, who have a strong loyalty to Microsoft over the Xbox. It's a fascinating mix.

What's more interesting, however, is that for every nasty e-mail we get, we get many, many more positive ones. I can tell you that The Bits readers who have followed our advice in the last year (and either stayed on the sidelines or picked Blu-ray) are very glad they did so today. And pretty much everyone we know in the industry supports our decision to back Blu-ray. So we feel pretty good about our decision overall. Other than a few angry folks in places like AVS Forum, people seem to get why we did what we did. And even most of those who didn't exactly agree with us have been nice about it.

[Bill Hunt]

Originally Posted by elwaylite

Bill,

I know we'll see some hardware data soon for Toshibas price cut. Have you heard anything on how the HDDVD players are selling with the lower prices at this point?

I expect the week after WB to not be the norm, but I really hope the lower price does not boost them past BD standalone sales.

We have posted actual data, so check the Bits. You may already have seen it.

[makaveli21]

Bill, A lot of people (including myself) have been noticing that Paramount titles are showing back up in stores like Best Buy that have not had them for months. Is it possible Paramount has already starting re-releasing their previously existing BD titles, and could this be done without violating the contract they signed with HD DVD? What other explanation(s) could there be for this?

[Bill Hunt]

Originally Posted by radagast

You have reported several calls for Toshiba to throw in the towel, yet they lowering prices on their equipment. I read some speculation that Toshiba was doing this just to make SOME money before quitting hd-dvd. Yet they are advertising on the Super Bowl. Perhaps that was paid for a long time ago. Do you have any solid knowledge of what Toshiba is really doing now? In other words, do they know the war is lost and they are clearing out stock, or are they really still trying to win this? Thanks.

I suspect it's one last ditch effort. I think they know it's over, but aren't quite ready to give up yet. The SuperBowl ad will have little affect other than maybe to help them sell what little stock of HD-DVD players are left in stores. The fact that most retailers are clearancing HD-DVD players tells you every thing you need to know however. Whether they're actually making statements or not, it seems that most stores are clearancing the players and aren't going to be restocking them much. So if Warner wasn't the kiss of death, that will be.

[Bill Hunt]

Originally Posted by mystiksuicide

Bill by when do you believe if it is humanly possible to know that will have all the studios producing blu even if they are neutral.

Not sure I understood the question. Can you rephrase?

[Bill Hunt]

Originally Posted by Paul Arnette

Bill,

I did search this thread, and I didn't see any mention of this issue, so I apologize if I missed it. Have you heard anything from Warner Bros. regarding the issue with Terminator 3: Rise of the Machine being encoded incorrectly at 1080i while playing the feature without the PiP commentary? Last I heard they were "looking into it" and since then not a peep. I'd like to hope this issue would at least garner the same amount of attention as the PotC framing flub, but my fear is the silence is deafening.

Thanks.

I'll try to find out.

[Bill Hunt]

Originally Posted by martinstraka8282

Hi Bill,

I wet shopping today, and all 3 stores in my town that sell HD tiles had The Invasion on HD DVD on the shelves already. I was wondering if WB will be taking steps to ensure that the street dates for the delayed titles dont get broken over the next few months until they are no longer producing HD DVD's. When I tried to complain, 2 of the stores refused to care or check into it, and the other store didnt care but checked and said there was nothing in his computer saying that it wasnt released that day (that was CD Plus).

I don't know about what Warner will do or not. I suspect the retailers fear that if they wait three week sto put the titles out on HD-DVD, no one will buy them.

[Bill Hunt]

Originally Posted by makaveli21

Bill, A lot of people (including myself) have been noticing that Paramount titles are showing back up in stores like Best Buy that have not had them for months. Is it possible Paramount has already starting re-releasing their previously existing BD titles, and could this be done without violating the contract they signed with HD DVD? What other explanation(s) could there be for this?

It's possible yes. I've noticed this too and I'm looking into it now.

[ACD]

There is a nasty thread directed at you Bill on HDD. Basically says you are going to extremely angry about Warner's Invasion not being delayed 3 weeks on HD DVD.

[Braktastic]

Originally Posted by Bill Hunt

I'll try to find out.

I, and I'm sure others, appreciate it.

[IanNM]

Originally Posted by Bill Hunt

We'd like to keep posting this data, but the NPD Group has asked us not to from now on, and we're going to respect that. This data is how they make their money, and it's meant for their paid subscribers. It's been frustrating not having accurate information, but hopefully the BDA will issue statements on this subject more often. We may comment on the data in general - on trends we're seeing - but we won't be issuing actual figures anymore.

Bill,
First of all thanks for all the great work over the last 10 years at the Bits, I've been enjoying it for a long long time.

I'm probably beating a dead horse, but could you clarify a bit for me on what you'll be posting in the future from NPD? Are the percentages still okay (ie bluray had 80% this week, hddvd 20%) or is that out as well?
Thanks,
Ian

[jubaiweaponx]

bill, love your work over at "THE BITS" and its a pleasure to have you here ,I recently read in germany hddvd owners are being offered 150 euros for their players ,blu seems to have been widely accepted around the world (dominates japanese markets) why has adoption in the US. been slowed was blu more heavily marketed outside the states ? And if we could only get that trade in offer here for the poor hddvd`ers
thanks

[Grubert]

Originally Posted by Bill Hunt

We'd like to keep posting this data, but the NPD Group has asked us not to from now on, and we're going to respect that. This data is how they make their money, and it's meant for their paid subscribers. It's been frustrating not having accurate information, but hopefully the BDA will issue statements on this subject more often. We may comment on the data in general - on trends we're seeing - but we won't be issuing actual figures anymore.

Bill,

Can you persuade them at least to let you publish the weekly, YTD and since inception relative ratios like Nielsen VideoScan allows Home Media Magazine to publish? That would be an acceptable compromise.