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

[Bill Hunt]

Originally Posted by Camulus

Hey Bill. Thanks for answering our questions.

I am huge fan of TV Shows on DVD. Have you any info on upcoming TV Shows on BD like Doctor Who or the Stargate franchise?

Funny... I was just talking to Gord the other day. I suspect you'll see more TV product on Blu-ray later this year. Torchwood, the new Doctor Who and even Stargate would be obvious places to start. But expect it to start slow. For TV product to really sell on Blu-ray, you need a much larger market that yet exists. It was at least a few years after DVD really took off that TV shows started to sell in any kind of numbers, so it's likely to be the same with Blu-ray to a degree.

[Bill Hunt]

Originally Posted by iwanttobeabmoviestar

1st thanks for being here 2nd thanks again for being the voice of reason

I personally want to thank you for helping me decide Blu was the way to go as i trusted many years ago a retailer to help me decide dvd and divx and ... well ill say i kinda understand the hddvd anger and sorrow , but my question is

in your opinion why is WB not waiting on its biggest film this year I am legend till after blu exclusivity ? Seems to me it would probably help cement Blu to consumers if only available on 1 format thanks

Releasing titles already committed to both formats on both formats is just good business, and is a nice bit of good will to their existing HD-DVD customers. Unlike Paramount and Universal, Warner is doing the classy thing and making good on the commitments it's already made. I wouldn't worry - there are plenty of huge titles in 2008 that will almost certainly be Blu-ray exclusive. The Dark Knight, Get Smart, Speed Racer, etc.

[WickyWoo]

Doctor Who is shot SD digital video through the upcoming season

Torchwood is HD and it's possible

Stargate Atlantis should eventually be in Blu, not SG-1

I'd like to remind everyone that these threads are specifically not "When is my favorite title coming" threads

[Bill Hunt]

Originally Posted by eat_me_cool

You mean this..

Oh God... yeah, that's the one. Yikes!

[Bill Hunt]

Originally Posted by Nick Graham

Bill, a lot of us Netflix users are having significant issues with pretty much any Blu-Ray or HD-DVD of note being constantly stuck in "Long Wait" or "Very Long Wait". If you call the Netflix helpdesk, the reps state that the studios are throttling the amount of new BDs and HDs Netflix receives in order to encourage consumers to buy as opposed to rent, as I guess Netflix purchases their movies directly from the studios. This story is starting to pick up some press (Engadget just did a story on it), but whether it is the studios causing this or Netflix, I think the more publicity it gets, especially from influential sites, the sooner it will likely be resolved.

Interesting... I'll have to look into it.

[Bill Hunt]

Originally Posted by SpaceDog

Bill, why are you so awesome?

Trust me, I'm not that awesome.

You're the only stalwart on the Internet who fought the good fight with Blu Ray. Although HD-DVD vs. Blu Ray wasn't the same as Divx vs. DVD, I really never understood why the internet community didn't take a similar stand.

There were a couple of others. But I don't understand it either. I wonder if maybe some people in the early adopter community felt - and continue to feel - that two formats fighting over their attention was an embarassment of riches so why not enjoy it? Unfortunately, that's a very short-sighted attitude, because it was just contributing to the status quo, which was a stalemate. And in the long run, that's a threat to high-def packaged media ever being a viable business. That's just my take, but I was as surprised as you. I knew the community was going to be divided by the format war, but I was really surprised at how many people adamantly stood on the sidelines as if it was some kind of matter of principle. I actually recall a recent editorial on one of the sites on how we "shouldn't fear a niche market." Which I just thought was absurd. Our main goal at The Bits is to share our love of film with as many people as we can - as many films as possible in the best quality possible. A high-def niche market doesn't do that. People look back fondly at the laserdisc days, but there were only EVER like 2 million laserdisc players worldwide. The studios looked at it as a joke. It wasn't even a blip on the radar business-wise, and a lot of them dismissed DVD early on because they figured it was going to be just like laserdisc. So for anyone today to say that things would be just fine if Blu-ray and/or HD turned out to be like laserdisc... that just makes no sense to us. We were determined to do what we could to see that didn't happen. In the end, all you can do is make sure consumers have a clear choice. It's up to them how they spend their money. But I have a feeling the prospects for Blu-ray are good once the sense of a drawn-out format war in the minds of consumers is gone. And the mainstream press is already sending consumers that message.

Thank you for saying what needed to be said in spite of hostility to the contrary. I think your site is the better for it, unlike some others that for me have been tainted.

A question though? Have you heard if it's likely that Warner will give us new encodes for titles like Batman Begins and V For Vendetta, or are we stuck with more HD-DVD ports?

You're welcome. And yes, I suspect that at least a few of these titles will feature new encodes. Maybe not all of them, but probably at least a few.

[Bill Hunt]

Originally Posted by Moefiz

Mr.Hunt welcom to Blu-Ray.com.

In one of your article you mention that you had made a suggestion to a member of the BDA to offer some sort of compensation to the HDDvd owners to make the switch over to Bluray.I know that you had later stated that they had no plans to do this at this time.
Do you think that it will change as time goes on.

Also what are the other studios saying about Paramount and Universal still sticking with HDdvd.

Thank's for your time in advance.

There's still talk. You might see something. You've already seen Disney do these rebate offers for people who already have certain catalog titles on DVD rebuying them on Blu-ray - I think in The Rock, Con Air and Crimsom Tide. As to what the other studios think about Paramount and Universal, the overall feeling in the industry is that it's time for this format war to end, and they'll be carried along by the tide sooner or later.

[onanie]

Originally Posted by Bill Hunt

That's just my take, but I was as surprised as you. I knew the community was going to be divided by the format war, but I was really surprised at how many people adamantly stood on the sidelines as if it was some kind of matter of principle.

Count me as another fan. I think you are awesome too.

In regards to the online community, I would take it further to say that many people not only stood on the sidelines, but vehemently backed the Microsoft side. In your opinion, what cause the situation?

[Bizdady]

Bill you have officially been immortalized in my sig lol

[bluperch]

Originally Posted by Bill Hunt

It was exactly what you'd expect. Shock. I think the HD-DVD camp really thought they'd won Warner over, and I've been told their event at CES was set to be a big "we've won" celebration. So when it went the other way, they were hit pretty hard.

Sorry if you already answered this ... was Warner really that close to going to HD DVD? Did blu "just squeak by" so to speak?

[Jim L]

Like everyone else here Bill, I'm grateful that you're participating in our forum. Welcome!

Back in the early days of DVD, I think you were one of the champions of things like anamorphic enhancement, which greatly improved DVD viewing on 16x9 displays.

Now that Blu-ray appears to be our next format, do you see any causes that you may champion to the Studios which will better the Blu-ray format for us consumers?

[Just a few of my ideas:]

• Lossless sound should be a standard on ALL Blu-ray releases, where it provides a benefit.
• Original soundtracks should be offered in addition to any modern re-mixes
• Labelling standards for movies (showing video & audio codecs, running time, etc.)
• Menu standardization.
• Ability to skip Java content if you just want to quickly watch the movie

[fronn]

Originally Posted by Bill Hunt

Maybe you've seen different numbers than I have then. When I looked into this last summer, the number was 10% by 2010. Maybe it was 20%, I'd have to go back and look. But it seems to me that it's still a very small percantage of overall sales.

Originally Posted by JadedRaverLA

I don't want to pass myself off as an insider, but this gets brought up all the time. The "approaching 10% figure" is the percentage of total revenue brought in by downloaded media. The "CDs make up only 50% of music sold" is a figure that sites how many individual songs are purchased via download services vs. CD album sales... not exactly a fair comparison. But it makes Apple (and other download services) look good, so they tend to cite it.

In the end, CDs (and other physical media) still bring in over 90% of the revenue.

Originally Posted by Bill Hunt

What he said. Thank you. Exactly.

Hi guys, thanks for the response.

If that is indeed the case, then it surely makes it hard for people to argue that downloadable HD movies will be taking over in no time... If music hasn't already taken over CDs in the last few years then movies have little chance.

It's some very important information that should settle the stomach of any person fearing BR won't catch on because of downloads.

[richteer]

Originally Posted by Bill Hunt

I doubt it. There's no point. All they have to do is include 2 50GB discs, and people feel like they're getting more for their money. That was all about counter-punching the bulls--t triple-layer 51GB HD-DVD announcement Toshiba made.

I can think of one reason to introduce BD100 movies: LOTR EE (OK, that's three reasons!) I don't think I'm alone in wanting the extended edition of each LOTR movie on its own BD, using as little compression as possible + lossless audio.

Sure, they can be made to fit onto a BD50 each (+another BD50 for the each movie's extras), but the quality won't be the ultimate. (Though I'd prefer this to having swap discs half way through, like we have to on the DVD version today.)

[elwaylite]

Bill


I deleted my posts in this thread, if you feel the need to delete your reply to me today, please do.

[edgebsl]

Hi Bill!

We haven't heard much about 3d in awhile.

Heard any rumblings about it lately?

It would be nice once the studios caved to eventually see "Beowulf 3D" on blu.
Something we know is not even possible on hd dvd.

[Mr. Spiffy-Pants]

Originally Posted by eat_me_cool

You mean this..

You mean... There are APES in that movie?! THANKS FOR SPOILING THE SURPRISE, Eat and Fox!!!

:runs to his room crying:

[depooter]

Bill.
I know the market share is small and that most early adopters like action movies, but could you please tell the studios that we want smaller films on BD too. I really don't want to buy standard dvd anymore and the chances of getting these later is small (since they won't be new releases). I'm talking specifically about..

Sony - Southland Tales
Fox - Darjeeling Limited
? - The King of Kong

please help...

[jd213]

Fox could definitely sell a few copies of Darjeeling Limited if they play up Natalie Portman's nude scene in Hotel Chevalier (assuming it's included, don't see why it wouldn't be since it's a prologue to Darjeeling Limited).

[Bill Hunt]

Originally Posted by onanie

Count me as another fan. I think you are awesome too.

In regards to the online community, I would take it further to say that many people not only stood on the sidelines, but vehemently backed the Microsoft side. In your opinion, what cause the situation?

I suspect some of this had to do with the gaming world - some people's acceptance of the Xbox and Xbox 360 - as well as a little built up anamosity towards Sony for having the number one gaming platform for so long. Plus, the have a long history of always trying to go their own way with proprietary formats, and then there's that whole rootkit fiasco on music CDs. So when they packed Blu-ray into the PS3, causing the price to be so high, it all just kind of boiled over. Sony has done plenty of stupid things in their day. On the other hand, so has Microsoft. To me it was never about any of that stuff. But loyalty to, or hatred of, certain brands is a bigger issue with some folks.

[Bill Hunt]

Originally Posted by bluperch

Sorry if you already answered this ... was Warner really that close to going to HD DVD? Did blu "just squeak by" so to speak?

I don't think so, no. This is really being played up in certain quarters online. Warner was internally a bit divided between Lieberfarb's camp (who strongly backed HD-DVD) and others who were more practical about it all. I suspect the main thing is that Warner leadership just wanted to make sure that whatever decision they made - whichever format they chose - that their change of status would end this format war, or at least trigger the beginning of the end. If they'd gone HD-DVD only, you'd have had a 50/50 split of studios which is a stalemate. By going Blu, you've got 70/30, which is a game changer. Plus, Blu had been outselling HD-DVD all year in terms of software, and the hardware was outselling HD-DVD over the holidays even given the lower HD-DVD prices. And as we've noted and Warner even cited in their press statements, they realized that not only was the format war keeping people from going high-def, they were no longer buying DVDs either. There was a lot of politics and wheeling and dealing involved as there always is in this kind of thing, but in the end the logic of their decision is pretty easy to follow I think.