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

[Alan Gordon]

Back in Spring of '98, I saw a blurb about DVD in a Entertainment Weekly magazine. I was interested in it, so when I saw an infomercial about it on TV, I paid attention to it. I then went searching for information on it on the web and found your site. Your passion for film and DVD inspired me and my passion for it inspired others. It started with my Uncle and Aunt who purchased my cousin a player while she was recovering from emergency surgery. They later purchased one for themselves later. It then shifted to people I knew online, then my Mom, my Grandmother, co-workers, etc. See what you started?

Originally Posted by Bill Hunt

I think it's our task in the media, as well as retailers, manufactuers and the studios. It's all of our jobs. We'll definitely try to do our share on The Bits. As to a book... I don't know. Maybe. Something to think about.

My Uncle has (jokingly) mocked me for being so interested in HDTV for a while now. He's been happy with his Dish Network SD service and DVDs, and he had no interest whatsoever in HD. Recently, my Uncle and Aunt's 60-inch SDTV has been on the verge of becoming a giant paperweight (it's had problems for a while, but has recently gotten worse), so even though they didn't want to put out the money, the TV got to the point where they didn't have a choice but to upgrade, so they went out and picked up a 1080p 47-inch Vizio LCD on Saturday night (my birthday). I went over to their house while they set up the TV, hooked it up to their Dish Network SD receiver, and then I showed them what HD could look like by hooking up my PS3 to their TV via HDMI, and putting in a few discs. It was late by the time the TV got hooked up, so I couldn't show them as much as I wanted to given the amount of Blu-ray titles I brought to their house, but I was lucky enough that just seeing a minute of the bombing scene from "Pearl Harbor" WOWED them enough to want to upgrade to Blu-ray (and satellite HD). My mother was also present at the time and was sufficiently "WOWED" enough to understand my love of Blu-ray.

You read a lot of articles about how Blu-ray is not a big enough step over DVD to interest a lot of people, but one or two minutes of scenes were worth enough to totally change two people's minds who were totally uninterested in Blu-ray or HDTV before. I can't say my conversion of these two will result in mass adoption for Blu-ray as the only people I really know with an HDTV are my Uncle and Aunt who I just converted, my Mom who probably won't be interested in upgrading her player when the player cost more than the 19-inch LCD she would hook it up to, my grandmother who probably won't be upgrading for the same reasons, not to mention the fact that it probably won't make as much of a difference on her 4x3 15-inch LCD, or my cousin and her husband with their 4x3 32-inch tube HDTV (though I wouldn't be surprised I can get them to go Blu later this year).

While the retailers, media, studios, etc. are the main instruments of change in regards to format adoption (the available on Blu-ray in the advertisements as well as putting the Blu-ray disc in front of the DVD is excellent, BTW), let us not forget the all-powerful "WORD OF MOUTH" that we, as Blu-ray supporters can spread. Whenever we talk to a friend about seeing a movie, let us all make sure we mention, for example, "I was watching '3:10 To Yuma' on Blu-ray the other day". Whenever possible, let us all get the Blu-ray name in people's heads, because once they see it, Blu-ray speaks for itself.

MODERATORS: While not a question to Bill Hunt, it was a story that I wanted him to read due to his quoted comments above and some statements he's made on The Digital Bits before. I apologize for the OT.

~Alan

[jkcheng122]

alan, one issue tho, they may not have noticed any diff if you had instead popped in a dvd of pearl harber instead of the bd and had it upscaled by ps3.

[MerrickG]

Bill,
According to High Def Digest,
Paramount has put out some sort of release details embargo until March 4th.

I wonder if that is when we can expect them to make their intentions official.

What do you think?

[Moonraker]

Originally Posted by merrick97

Bill,
According to High Def Digest,
Paramount has put out some sort of release details embargo until March 4th.

I wonder if that is when we can expect them to make their intentions official.

What do you think?

I think they were only refering to the details of There Will Be Blood for HDDVD

[aygie]

Originally Posted by merrick97

Bill,
According to High Def Digest,
Paramount has put out some sort of release details embargo until March 4th.

I wonder if that is when we can expect them to make their intentions official.

What do you think?

I can't believe you actually got onto that site, its been dead for a couple of days for me.

[makaveli21]

Originally Posted by Aygie

I can't believe you actually got onto that site, its been dead for a couple of days for me.

I can get on it but not into the forums.

[MerrickG]

Originally Posted by merrick97

Bill,
According to High Def Digest,
Paramount has put out some sort of release details embargo until March 4th.

I wonder if that is when we can expect them to make their intentions official.

What do you think?

I would also like to add that hollywoodinhighdef.com has a trailer for this film and it says coming to dvd and bluray.

[Seretur]

Bill,

You were so right to single out the Return of Markéta as THE highlight of last night's show. I don't know if Gil Cates really was instrumental in this, or if John Stewart insisted, though, because Cates really did try to nip every speech in the bud throughout the night. (I've had a thing about Cates' telecasts for a while now, as he seems to be more eager to show anything but award winners actually accepting awards. His priorities seem muddled.) Having someone as worthy as Miss Irglová be recognized and appreciated really went a long way toward returning at least a bit of honor to the honorees.

We've had a few Blu-ray titles announced today, but what really struck me was the new Criterion batch. Really, there's NOTHING I would love to buy more right now than The Thief of Baghdad with a Scorsese/Coppola commentary, but DVD quality is just not my criterion anymore. This film needs to be seen as close as possible to cinema quality, precisely because it's a silent B&W release. Please, nudge, prod, cajole, and otherwise force the good people at Criterion to embrace Blu-ray. I know it's inevitable, but this is a studio that for the longest time insisted on non-anamorphic releases, so PLEASE, be the old Bill and make them stop going to the same How to Muddle Your Priorities seminar that Gil Cates attends. I'm just sayin'.

(And yes, I know that Thief is a pillarbox release.)

[Sporty]

Originally Posted by merrick97

I would also like to add that hollywoodinhighdef.com has a trailer for this film and it says coming to dvd and bluray.

I take it your talking about "There Will be Blood"

I just watched it and at the end of the trailer on hollywoodinhidef it clearly says "Coming soon to DVD and Hi-Def, Only on Blu-Ray"

Kinda makes you wonder....

[phloyd]

I wonder if this is getting released by Miramax rather than Paramount...?

[Sporty]

Originally Posted by phloyd

I wonder if this is getting released by Miramax rather than Paramount...?

Might be possible to by-pass any Paramount/Toshiba crap.

But Paramount previously announced it for HD-DVD and seems to have taken it off their release lists.

[NoQuestion]

Originally Posted by merrick97

I would also like to add that hollywoodinhighdef.com has a trailer for this film and it says coming to dvd and bluray.

I wouldnt be shocked that if on March 4th Paramount/Dreamworks announce that this and a bunch of other titles are set for release in the coming weeks. March 4th gives them enough time to figure out a rough release schedule for the coming months. Looking forward to March 4th to see what happens.

[blitz6speed]

Bill, a paramount insider on a different forum has been quoted saying "A LOT of Blu-Ray movies are coming out WAY sooner then anyone thinks."

Are we talking Hours, Days, Weeks? You can use a code system like penton and capatalize the letter that suites the answer =)

[NoQuestion]

Originally Posted by blitz6speed

Bill, a paramount insider on a different forum has been quoted saying "A LOT of Blu-Ray movies are coming out WAY sooner then anyone thinks."

Are we talking Hours, Days, Weeks? You can use a code system like penton and capatalize the letter that suites the answer =)

Is this insider reliable? Also, guys/gals, we need to wait and see what happens on March 4th. I cant imagine they will only announce one title on that day. If There Will Be Blood is going to be announced then there should be other titles announced as well.

8 days and counting

[blitz6speed]

Originally Posted by NoQuestion

Is this insider reliable? Also, guys/gals, we need to wait and see what happens on March 4th. I cant imagine they will only announce one title on that day. If There Will Be Blood is going to be announced then there should be other titles announced as well.

8 days and counting

He is ROCK SOLID reliable. He has been with paramount for a long time.

[OokieSpookie]

My opinion of Paramount's "embargo" is that it comes down to this:
If Toshiba keeps fighting about the money than Paramount will pull the rest of the hd dvd releases and have them ready for blu with a quickness.
If Toshiba concedes the money to Paramount than hd will still get the promised releases but blu news may trickle through.
Would love to hear Bill's opinion though.

[DaViD Boulet]

Bill, a paramount insider on a different forum has been quoted saying "A LOT of Blu-Ray movies are coming out WAY sooner then anyone thinks."

What forum what insider? Link?

[NoQuestion]

Originally Posted by blitz6speed

He is ROCK SOLID reliable. He has been with paramount for a long time.

There was a thread opened about Bee movie where the OP stated that he/she read an article in the NY times stating it will be release March 11th on bluray.

Bill, it seems like there is alot of info seeping out relating to Paramount releases. Is it time to assume that we will see some news on your site very very very soon?

[dialog_gvf]

Originally Posted by blitz6speed

He is ROCK SOLID reliable. He has been with paramount for a long time.

Is he talking about lots of authoring, or lots of solid release dates?

The issue for the next few months would be replication slots. Think about it. Every announcement of a switch you've read about is a company needing slots.

It will be a non-issue by fall. But, everyone pumping out lots of titles right now probably isn't possible. And, it may not make a lot of sense from a market perspective anyway.

Gary

[blitz6speed]

Originally Posted by dialog_gvf

Is he talking about lots of authoring, or lots of solid release dates?

The issue for the next few months would be replication slots. Think about it. Every announcement of a switch you've read about is a company needing slots.

It will be a non-issue by fall. But, everyone pumping out lots of titles right now probably isn't possible. And, it may not make a lot of sense from a market perspective anyway.

Gary

He is purposely vauge, as he doesnt want to get in trouble at work. The guy let everyone know that Transformers would not get lossless on HD DVD before anyone had a clue, he was the one that leaked that Blades BD has Lossless audio, etc etc. The guy is 100% on the dot accurate and is kind of a blu-ray *****, he likes to attack HD DVD fanatics even when paramount was exclusive with them.