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

[Nick Graham]

Originally Posted by Bill Hunt

Ha! I'll say only this... today on the Bits I offered $100 to the first Paramount employee who can send me an undoctored picture of Bell wearing a Blu-ray T-shirt.

Ah come on, too much inside baseball! Spill the beans on the Bell hate!

[darkpoet25]

Originally Posted by merrick97

I think Universal made a very pleasant splash. The only way everyone would be 100% satisfied is if Universal said they were going to release every title in their library tommorrow bluray optimized with AVC on a BD50 with lossless audio.

I do hope, that "more catalog releases planned" does include Serenity, Chuck, BSG, Hot Fuzz and the Bourne films. But I was quite happy with many of the films mentioned.


Universal making an announcement for bluray....its just still a shocker at this point. Not to mention Craig Kornblau making all those quotes of excitement.

Exactly. Some people seem to forget that Universal is having to start from scratch encoding for Blu. It will take them awhile, but I suspect as the year goes on more announcements will be made. We should all be grateful for what has been announced thus far.

[aygie]

Originally Posted by darkpoet25

Exactly. Some people seem to forget that Universal is having to start from scratch encoding for Blu. It will take them awhile, but I suspect as the year goes on more announcements will be made. We should all be grateful for what has been announced thus far.

Dont start praising them for something they should have done two years ago They have a lot of people (us) to make up to.

[Bill Hunt]

Originally Posted by Penton-Man

^ ^ ^

Well, I’m not addressing you in particular but, since you brought this notion to the table, let me say that there is always several months from when the decision is made to do a new title and the street debut of that title.
Deciding upon….. and putting together the added value and/or interactivity is the real time-consuming piece of the puzzle for the high profile titles and that can delay the process even longer……..not to mention bean-counting considerations regarding the current user base.

It kinda amazes me that in regards to one essentially revolutionary [at least in terms of price-point] camera (the Red One) people on the forums and at the shows (NAB) are so willing and without reservation to accept the delays, weaknesses and outright missteps by one company trying to build a foundation for one camera……..whereas, when a large group of diverse studios and diverse consumer electronic companies try to do the same for a revolutionary format having a much higher degree of associated complexity and just coming out of a heated format war to boot…….some people have far less patience and understanding.

P.S.
Bill, please stick around for awhile as I’m just back from NAB and it will take me the rest of this week and all of next week just to catch back up with all my normal workload.

Well said. And will do.

[Bill Hunt]

Originally Posted by rbd3000

Bill,

I am wondering if Paramount will feel pressure to announce something as soon as possible now that Universal has laid out their plans. I just don't see how they can sit and wait now that they are the only studio left to not announce anything. I mean even the Weinstiens told us when to expect their titles at least.

Yes. Sit tight just a bit longer...

[Bill Hunt]

Originally Posted by Aygie

Dont start praising them for something they should have done two years ago They have a lot of people (us) to make up to.

Better later than never, and they DID beat Paramount to the punch...

[aygie]

Originally Posted by Bill Hunt

Better later than never, and they DID beat Paramount to the punch...

oh definitely (thats the second time too! ) But its like my old man says "never forget son, never forget"

[bt12483]

Hey Bill:
Any idea when we will hear any technical specs of the announced Uni discs?

In particular the audio department? All of the Mummy movies had DD+ at 1.5mbps I believe, and since they are the first discs, I am dying to know what the audio on them will be...

[rlsmith]

Thanks, Bill, for all of the information and help.

I just wanted to comment on the notion of a "splash".

I think we have learned some things about this market. It doesn't just work to ship piles of good titles, because guess what: they don't sell. Universal shipped 85 HD DVD titles last year, including many of the best titles from their recent catalog, and most of them made no dent at all in the Nielsen.

Titles that sell are properly packaged and properly marketed. Two instances of this are:

1. Day-and-date with DVD and part of a big marketing campaign.
2. Carefully packaged titles as a part of a new film, TV show, or other event.

It is all about the right package and the right time.

My comments about their plans:

1. "Doomsday" will do its best D&D with DVD. Yes it was a BO flop, but often flops will do much better than expected on DVD/Blu-ray for the simple reason that no one saw them theatrically.
2. The mummy titles are very well positioned against the new summer release.
3. With Heroes 2 on DVD on Aug 26, Heroes 1 and 2 on Blu-ray are perfectly timed.

All of us have our own PERSONAL definitions of a "splash", and no, this is not a splash to me as part of my cinematic tastes. As a realistic and thoughtful response to the market, this is terrific.

It shows that Universal has figured it out.

[rlsmith]

Originally Posted by Aygie

oh definitely (thats the second time too! ) But its like my old man says "never forget son, never forget"

It is odd how Paramount has uniquely managed to annoy all of its customers. Universal, Sony, and Warners have all seemingly escaped the kind of anger that Paramount has engendered.

Howver: the half-life of a studio's ownership is not great. Paramount has gone through many owners in the last 20 years (Gulf and Western, Paramount Communications, Viacom) and this will continue.

The half-life of a studio executive is even less. Some of these folks may not be at Paramount for long (but let's hope they doesn't go to Warners where they could do some real damage).

Ergo, "never forgetting" simply means that you are going to hold a grudge against a corporate logo (which also changes a bit every now and then) rather than the folks who made the offending decision.

I am however glad for two things: 1) Paramount sold their pre-1948 films to Universal (and they do a great job with them), and 2) the Hitchcock estate sold their Paramount classics (e.g., Vertigo) to Universal as well.

Together, these moves seriously reduce the number of classics that Paramount has to mishandle. 'Tis a good thing.

[ErikR]

Originally Posted by Bill Hunt

Yes. Sit tight just a bit longer...

Reminds me of Star Wars...

"Almost there, almost there"

[Paradiso]

Originally Posted by Bill Hunt

Well, look... there's no way EVERYONE was going to be thrilled with the initial announcement. But considering where Universal was just three months ago, this is a pretty big deal. They trumpeted all their big new theatrical releases, and Heroes: Seasons 1 AND 2 was a bit of a surprise.

There's definitely more titles coming that haven't yet been announced. And I wouldn't be surprised to see at least one Spielberg title street before the end of the year.

...yes a Spielberg film that we're all Jonesing for, you might say...

[STARSCREAM]

Indiana Jones on Blu-Ray, can't wait. You know the KINGDOM OF THE CRYSTAL SKULL will be out on Blu this year.

[sj001]

Originally Posted by Bill Hunt

Ha! I'll say only this... today on the Bits I offered $100 to the first Paramount employee who can send me an undoctored picture of Bell wearing a Blu-ray T-shirt.

LOL! I would love to see that one!

I would really hate to be in his position right now after what he said a few months back...

[dialog_gvf]

Originally Posted by Bill Hunt

Ha! I'll say only this... today on the Bits I offered $100 to the first Paramount employee who can send me an undoctored picture of Bell wearing a Blu-ray T-shirt.

I trust there is no stipulation that he has to be smiling.

[dialog_gvf]

Originally Posted by darkpoet25

Exactly. Some people seem to forget that Universal is having to start from scratch encoding for Blu. It will take them awhile, but I suspect as the year goes on more announcements will be made. We should all be grateful for what has been announced thus far.

Kind of embarassing for Paramount that they're last man sitting, considering they were on the field playing 7-8 months ago.

Gary

[sj001]

Originally Posted by dialog_gvf

I trust there is no stipulation that he has to be smiling.

It would be a VERY forced smile at best!

[USF Bull]

Originally Posted by Chaka

Am I the only one that has to read Penton's post at least twice to make sure I didn't miss anything?

well if you look at the bolds "one company", "one camera", "large group", and "format", i take it Cloverfield will be coming any day now.......

[lgans316]

Originally Posted by lgans316

Bill,

Any idea if Lionsgate is remastering Rambo Trilogy ?

Bill,

Any inputs on this ?

[Majoran]

Originally Posted by WickyWoo

And unlike with HD DVD, it's actually possible to do those 50 titles, since there ARE HD DVDs that are quite nice, like Pitch Black that would do just fine being repurposed for Blu with the additiona of TrueHD or PCM. (Riddick on the other hand is a little iffier). I seriously doubt they'll re-encode 40 year old Virgin or Knocked up for example.

I think this is the question that needs to be asked IMO. Will Universal re-encode these releases or will they do like Warner and just do a "port". I think people would be happier if they knew if the titles were new encodes not jsut HD DVD ports.

I have to agree though that a "splash" is relative to everyone, but Universal has made a BIG turn around from where they were less than 3 months ago. While the movies may not be to everyones taste at least they are showing that they ARE committed to releasing titles. I cant see an issue with the 50 number at all, I am sure people will find some "gems" in the bunch. As its been said before though some people are NEVER happy regardless of what you give them. If its not the titles its the dates or the transfers or the packaging.

Thank you Bill for keeping your ear to the streets and keeping us updated. Your hard work is appreciated.