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

[Jeff Kleist]

Originally Posted by PeterTHX

Is that the movie about the 1967 war?

Heh, sorry I had a marathon of some Corn Pone Flicks this weekend

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hXn-npEWOxw

I had one D-VHS - T2. Talk about a technology that didn't go anywhere .
I was really hoping that it'd help me record HDTV, but my cable company never activated their firewire port on the cable box.

They were required to by law, you should have called the FCC on them

[tvine2000]

Originally Posted by AKORIS

I think that the only way PREDATOR is going to look any different from the current version is if they indeed do a DNR scrub--
most likely there will be no reason to buy this title again...

If they did a DNR scrub,i won't buy for sure.Btw anybody out there should check out BILL HUNT rant at the digital bit today[6/7/2010].Bills always gets his point across,but man this is a bill hunt i've never seen.bout time!

[AKORIS]

Originally Posted by tvine2000

If they did a DNR scrub,i won't buy for sure.Btw anybody out there should check out BILL HUNT rant at the digital bit today[6/7/2010].Bills always gets his point across,but man this is a bill hunt i've never seen.bout time!

I read it and loved it!!! I know that studios pay attention to his site so I'm hoping it does some good!


please, please, please get rid of all the stupid BD-Live crapola and give us high quality remasters of our favorite films!!!

[tvine2000]

Originally Posted by AKORIS

I read it and loved it!!! I know that studios pay attention to his site so I'm hoping it does some good!


please, please, please get rid of all the stupid BD-Live crapola and give us high quality remasters of our favorite films!!!

I like the part where he says the studios did some poll and out of that they think we love bd live.I wonder if they make these polls up because i don't know anybody that would take bd live over great pq. Why did i get into blu-ray should be the poll question.BTW send BILL an email thanking him,i did and he replyed right back.

[Mr. Cinema]

The 35th Anniversary of Jaws is on June 20. It's too bad there's no BD to help celebrate.

[Jeff Kleist]

Focus groups are tools, and sometimes the wrong tool is used, or theiy're created making assumptions that don't end up coming to pass. It's not that BDLive is necessarily a bad thing, but dumping $100,000 into it is throwing money down the drain IMO. It's a nice packaging buzzword that people will check out once and never again, no matter how much fresh content you put on there (in 99% of cases)

[AKORIS]

Originally Posted by tvine2000

I like the part where he says the studios did some poll and out of that they think we love bd live.I wonder if they make these polls up because i don't know anybody that would take bd live over great pq. Why did i get into blu-ray should be the poll question.BTW send BILL an email thanking him,i did and he replyed right back.

just sent!

[MerrickG]

Originally Posted by PeterTHX

True Lies on D-VHS looked outstanding...

I was referring to the first bluray of Terminator.

[sharkshark]

Originally Posted by Mr. Cinema

The 35th Anniversary of Jaws is on June 20. It's too bad there's no BD to help celebrate.

Did somebody say Shark?

[garyrc]

Originally Posted by Jeff Kleist

Focus groups are tools, and sometimes the wrong tool is used, or theiy're created making assumptions that don't end up coming to pass. It's not that BDLive is necessarily a bad thing, but dumping $100,000 into it is throwing money down the drain IMO. It's a nice packaging buzzword that people will check out once and never again, no matter how much fresh content you put on there (in 99% of cases)

Yes, and there are many threats to validity in much market research done with focus groups. The demand characteristics show too much. Also, there can be Ash-like effects, Hawthorne-like effects, and what-have-you. There are effects that might be best described as "The Emperor's New Clothes" effects, and "Me Too" effects. That is not to say that all focus groups are necessarily badly designed, just that sometimes the corporation doesn't want the truth as much it wants as findings that support an agenda that will get someone a promotion (or whatever). Experimental Control helps avoid this. Before focus groups there were better tools, with more control, sometimes with unobtrusive measures, etc., used in social, experimental and Industrial/Organizational psychology. It has been suggested that focus groups made a big hit in business (starting about 30 years ago) because they were kinder to preconceived notions and disturbed less s**t than real social psychological research designed to help business in marketing and decision making. The latter was resisted firmly, partly because it often produced unwelcome findings.

[Jeff Kleist]

Gary, why did I waste my time spending 10 minutes coming up with a kinder gentler version if you were going to post it anyway

[tvine2000]

Originally Posted by Jeff Kleist

Focus groups are tools, and sometimes the wrong tool is used, or theiy're created making assumptions that don't end up coming to pass. It's not that BDLive is necessarily a bad thing, but dumping $100,000 into it is throwing money down the drain IMO. It's a nice packaging buzzword that people will check out once and never again, no matter how much fresh content you put on there (in 99% of cases)

I understand about focus groups but how about polling real people like us that use blu-ray. My issue with certain studios is how they don't care about this format.If they do care they have a funny way of showing it.

All i'm saying is poll real blu-ray users,because the first thing they will find out is we want [as bill said] money spent on new hd masters so all catalog titles look like there suppose to look.

As bill said the studios need to address this issue now!They want my money,thats what its going to take or i'm not going to buy there sub par catalog titles.In fact i'd be glad to sit in some studio and oversee a blu-ray project to make sure it gets a proper transfer and i bet 100 million other people would take that job right here at this forum.i know this is not going to happen but I thing you sense the emotions behind this issue with bd movie lovers.

[DenonCI]

Originally Posted by Jeff Kleist

Focus groups are tools, and sometimes the wrong tool is used, or theiy're created making assumptions that don't end up coming to pass. It's not that BDLive is necessarily a bad thing, but dumping $100,000 into it is throwing money down the drain IMO. It's a nice packaging buzzword that people will check out once and never again, no matter how much fresh content you put on there (in 99% of cases)

Hear hear!

[Jeff Kleist]

I understand about focus groups but how about polling real people like us that use blu-ray. My issue with certain studios is how they don't care about this format.If they do care they have a funny way of showing it.

Because though we're a target audience, we are not the entire audience. They have us, they need ways for everyone else to get interested in Blu-ray. And they do pay attention to the very words you're saying now. They don't need to focus group us, we offer information freely and in large quantity

I work in other entertainment related fields as we;;, and I can tell you that you don't always rely on online polls as accurate measure, because enthusiasts will create unrealstic outcomes. Many times also someone polling something that they don't know a lot about, will find themselves a supposed expert, who may only be attached to the enthusiast community, or even just a small(but loud) segment of that community.

Anything with a large entity like a studio is slow moving, look at how WB's quality has picked up in the last 12 months on their catalog stuff. No, I'm not saying it's perfect, but it's a far cry from their smoothie nightmares we were getting before. It takes a lot of water to turn a cruise ship compared to a 2-man speedboat

[MerrickG]

Originally Posted by Jeff Kleist

Because though we're a target audience, we are not the entire audience. They have us, they need ways for everyone else to get interested in Blu-ray. And they do pay attention to the very words you're saying now. They don't need to focus group us, we offer information freely and in large quantity

I work in other entertainment related fields as we;;, and I can tell you that you don't always rely on online polls as accurate measure, because enthusiasts will create unrealstic outcomes. Many times also someone polling something that they don't know a lot about, will find themselves a supposed expert, who may only be attached to the enthusiast community, or even just a small(but loud) segment of that community.

Anything with a large entity like a studio is slow moving, look at how WB's quality has picked up in the last 12 months on their catalog stuff. No, I'm not saying it's perfect, but it's a far cry from their smoothie nightmares we were getting before. It takes a lot of water to turn a cruise ship compared to a 2-man speedboat

Excluding the (unjustified) Lord of Rings whining, I would concur that the Warner complaints seem to have died down.

[patrick99]

Originally Posted by merrick97

Excluding the (unjustified) Lord of Rings whining, I would concur that the Warner complaints seem to have died down.

Jeff, any insight on whether the LOTR BD sales may have been affected by the "unjustified" whining, or put another way, by the "disappointing" PQ?

[Robert Harris]

Originally Posted by Jeff Kleist

Because though we're a target audience, we are not the entire audience. They have us, they need ways for everyone else to get interested in Blu-ray. And they do pay attention to the very words you're saying now. They don't need to focus group us, we offer information freely and in large quantity

As far as one studio is concerned, I believe the word "have" should be past tense. If the majority of cinephiliacs cease pre-ordering and wait for reviews, one sector of sales numbers will quickly erode by their own doing.

BD-Live and other add-ons have nothing to do with "The perfect Hi-def movie experience," but that point may not yet be understood. Precisely like film restoration or building a house. If your foundation is rotten...

And this is a pity.

RAH

[BluDomain]

Silent film fans should be excited about this a bit.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100608/...nd_movie_cache

WELLINGTON, New Zealand – A cache of 75 long-lost silent films uncovered in the New Zealand Film Archive vault, including the only known copy of a drama by legendary director John Ford, is being sent back to the United States to be restored.

Among the movies found in storage are a copy of Ford's "Upstream," the earliest surviving movie by comic actor and director Mabel Normand and a period drama starring 1920s screen icon Clara Bow. Only 15 percent of the silent films made by Ford, who won four Oscars, have survived.

New Zealand Minister for Arts, Culture and Heritage Christopher Finlayson said the find is important as there are no prints of the films remaining in the U.S.

"These important films will be preserved and made available to both U.S. and New Zealand audiences to enjoy," he told The New Zealand Herald newspaper Tuesday.

Film Archive corporate services manager Steve Russell said the films were discovered when American preservationist Brian Meacham visited last year. Many of them remained in New Zealand because distributors at the time did not think the return shipping costs were worth the expense, he said.

"It's one of the rare cases where the tyranny of distance has worked in our and the films' favor," Russell said.

Finding "Upstream" was "a fabulous discovery, particularly for our American colleagues, but also for ourselves," he told The Associated Press.

Because they were printed on unstable and highly inflammable nitrate film stock, "there are very strict conditions when sending it by air," he added.

Returning the films will cost the U.S. National Film Preservation Foundation more than 750,000 New Zealand dollars ($500,000).

"We're having to ship in U.N.-approved steel barrels, a little bit at a time," said foundation director Annette Melville. "So far, we've got about one-third of the films, and preservation work has already begun on four titles."

"About a quarter of the films are in advanced nitrate decay, and the rest have good image quality, though they are badly shrunken," she added.

The late Ford's 1927 film "Upstream" was being copied onto safety stock in New Zealand to prevent further damage in transit.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences hopes to screen the restored Ford movie in September, Melville said.

Copies of the films are to be made available in New Zealand through the Film Archive, and Russell said he expected a "premier" showing of "Upstream" would be arranged at some point.

Russell said that New Zealand Film Archive does not own the recovered movies, which acquired them from private donors and collectors who "have all agreed the original archive material should be returned to the U.S. for preservation work to be done."

Similar film repatriations have occurred with Australian and European archives, including the return to Germany of a nitrate print of the Fritz Lang silent masterpiece "Metropolis" to help in restoring a print of the late 1920s original, he said.

[MerrickG]

The only silent films I like are the ones in Red Dead Redemption!

[garyrc]

Originally Posted by Jeff Kleist

Gary, why did I waste my time spending 10 minutes coming up with a kinder gentler version if you were going to post it anyway

LOL

I had an attack of frankness. These episodes seem to prevent me from sinking in misanthropy.

Seriously, though, when focus groups (under that name) arrived on the scene there was a lot of groaning among the social & behavioral scientists I knew.