"Club Penton" - Ask questions to Hollywood insider "Penton-Man"

[SquidPuppet]

Originally Posted by Penton-Man

I haven't seen it but, the way you put it, I may not have to brown bag it tomorrow.

Later.

You could have thrown darts while blindfolded and made 5%.

[Doctorossi]

Are you guys planning to take part in the Warner chat tonight or just spectate? I'll probably only do the latter, but I'll have to see what I still want from the Warner catalog and whether I'll have any pressing questions. I'm not a member over there, though, so I'll have to be really hurting for an answer to get over the hump of my registration-inertia.

[Slec]

Originally Posted by Doctorossi

Are you guys planning to take part in the Warner chat tonight or just spectate? I'll probably only do the latter, but I'll have to see what I still want from the Warner catalog and whether I'll have any pressing questions. I'm not a member over there, though, so I'll have to be really hurting for an answer to get over the hump of my registration-inertia.

Can you re-post the details on this please. I may have some time to check in on it and listen/watch. Thanks

and Villa is letting the gunners back in. Tough stretch coming up though through the end of the season

[horseflesh]

What time is the Warner chat on?
Presumably waaaaay past my bedtime

[Oliver K]

Originally Posted by Doctorossi

I know! I know! Because one of them wasn't scanned at 18k!

Everything below 10 times oversampling is crap anyway

[Oliver K]

Originally Posted by Penton-Man

Only if some Blu-ray bashers who enjoy portraying themselves as some sort of technical experts in the industry, post yet another inaccurate online fake science theory as *fact*….

It fortunately happens much less these days that members claim to know everything about a release - being wrong once or twice usually causes one to be more careful making assumptions and formulating theories

I cannot see much Blu-Ray bashing though, at least not in the Blu-Ray sections. Most members on AVS and HTF seem to be rather happy with the quality achieved with the majority of Blu-Rays and very very few seem to still cling to HD-DVD. And the good thing is that they mostly do not post often in the Blu-Ray sections but elsewhere.

[Doctorossi]

Originally Posted by Oliver K

It fortunately happens much less these days that members claim to know everything about a release - being wrong once or twice usually causes one to be more careful making assumptions and formulating theories

"Usually" being the operative term.

Originally Posted by Oliver K

Most members on AVS and HTF seem to be rather happy with the quality achieved with the majority of Blu-Rays and very very few seem to still cling to HD-DVD.

To paraphrase (and re-purpose) a cliche, everything HD DVD can do, Blu-ray can do better.

[Oliver K]

Originally Posted by Doctorossi

To paraphrase (and re-purpose) a cliche, everything HD DVD can do, Blu-ray can do better.

Well I liked the way that there was no region coding on HD-DVD much better, in fact it is the only thing I still miss from that format and something that I would have hoped to see changed on the Blu-Ray side before the demise of HD-DVD.

Maybe some of the resident insiders can tell us how important region coding still could be when some studios do not use it at all and get along very well while others have it for virtually every title.

[Esox50]

Originally Posted by SquidPuppet

With an ($) today. How'd you like that close?

My portfolio likes it. I'm for less "selective meddling" by the governments as it's partly what got us in this situation. Resources are better put into shoring up & overhauling proper regulation/oversight on the selective few that bring down the many.

[Esox50]

Originally Posted by SquidPuppet

You could have thrown darts while blindfolded and made 5%.

I'll be excited when we get the other 40+% back. Let's not start rejoicing just yet.

[Esox50]

Originally Posted by Penton-Man

I haven't seen it but, the way you put it, I may not have to brown bag it tomorrow.

Later.

Does your old lady pack you PB & J? Just getting out of the office , and one of those sounds really good. . I'll just have to settle for Pad Ki Mao.

[Penton-Man]

Originally Posted by Oliver K

I cannot see much Blu-Ray bashing though, at least not in the Blu-Ray sections. Most members on AVS and HTF seem to be rather happy with the quality achieved with the majority of Blu-Rays and very very few seem to still cling to HD-DVD. And the good thing is that they mostly do not post often in the Blu-Ray sections but elsewhere.

You may be right (regarding not “bashing” the format)………but, everyone has become a grain and sharpening *expert* overnight there (at AVS).
The HTF folks appear much better grounded and more in control of their daily real world lives, i.e. less frustrated, or else they’re getting laid more often compared to some of the Blu-ray *scientists*.

I recall a funny line from a long venting post that reviewer Joshua Zyber?sp made over in *science* not too long ago, which somebody PM’ed me for a giggle where Joshua was blasting everyone sarcastically for *seeing* digital processing artifacts on nearly every Blu-ray title coming down the pipe and hyping it to death.

“My eyes are bleeding -- BLEEDING I tell you -- from all the DNR!!!!!" – and then he proceeded to really slam the majority of the posting membership thereabouts.

And then of course, when they do have access to a real video processing expert (what is it Stacey, two or three patents on your resume?) and who just produced a video calibration disc, which they are buying, they completely disregard his observations on Blu-ray titles, when it suits their personal agendas……..

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showp...&postcount=307

[Penton-Man]

Originally Posted by Esox50

Does your old lady pack you PB & J? Just getting out of the office , and one of those sounds really good. . I'll just have to settle for Pad Ki Mao.

I’m leaving now , and I saved my brown bag so I can recycle it for tomorrow’s lunch because knowing Wall Street, everyone might sell tomorrow or Wednesday in order to capitalize on the gains they made today.

[Esox50]

Originally Posted by Penton-Man

I’m leaving now

No Fair. You're at least two hours behind me!!!

BTW, tell your buddies over at Paramount to announce Braveheart and Gladiator already!!!

[sharkshark]

Originally Posted by Penton-Man

P.S.
Quick, anyone, before sharkshark (the movie/TV quote guru) checks in today–how did Louis Lane respond to the above (in bold), if one substitutes the word *science* for ‘country’.

LOIS
Look. Just why are you in the in first place? I mean , 
why are you here? There must be a reason.
SUPERMAN
I'm here to fight for truth justice, and the 
American way.
LOIS
You'll wind up fighting almost every elected 
official in this country.

Oh, you taunt me so.

Here's a doozy - like Oliver, there are (shockingly) still some "red" things that I liked... For example, I still find the HD-DVD version of Vice to have a more elegant menu than the BD counterpart (not sure if this is a format issue or simply an authoring decision). Plus, the region free capability was indeed nice.

However, our dear Penton, I'm curious whether or not you infact bothered to own a player from the other, erm, "side". Did you have much experience with the titles? Is there -anything- positive that could be said about HD-DVD in this bastion of BluRay fandom, or was it in your eyes simply a non-starter from the very beginning?

I'm not trying to be provocative, honest, I'm curious if in your professional opinion there was anything about the competing format that you felt compelling during its lifetime, and (similarly) if there's anything even to date that you feel BD can learn from its defeated foe.

[HeavyHitter]

Originally Posted by Doctorossi

Are you guys planning to take part in the Warner chat tonight or just spectate? I'll probably only do the latter, but I'll have to see what I still want from the Warner catalog and whether I'll have any pressing questions. I'm not a member over there, though, so I'll have to be really hurting for an answer to get over the hump of my registration-inertia.

I saw the chat tonight and quite honestly, I was very disappointed in the lack of Blu-ray titles mentioned. I was also surprised at how many HTF members were asking about SD DVD titles - yet not many BD titles were asked. It seemed those who participated were more concerned about SD DVD

[Doctorossi]

The only thing I miss is everything being region-free. With the universality of ATSC video, it was an amazing prospect to be able to watch anything, anywhere.

The only other HD DVD advantages that I can think of weren't on the consumer side. As far as a being a better consumer media platform in the abstract (aside from marketability/viability/financial questions), I'd say the region-free aspect is all HD DVD had on Blu-ray. In every other respect, I'd say Blu-ray wins. Of course, this is after the "profile" mess is essentially behind us... and, also, some would give the edge to BD-J's counterpart on the HD DVD side, as far as compatibility, speed and general functionality-robustness, but I don't care enough about either feature to really be fussed.

[Doctorossi]

Originally Posted by HeavyHitter

I saw the chat tonight and quite honestly, I was very disappointed in the lack of Blu-ray titles mentioned. I was also surprised at how many HTF members were asking about SD DVD titles and very few BD titles.

I had the same reaction. I was pleased to see the focus on early titles (and I recognize, of course, that these titles are not really viable on Blu-ray right now), but I expected a few more significant BD announcements/details, as well.

[Robert Siegel]

Originally Posted by HeavyHitter

I saw the chat tonight and quite honestly, I was very disappointed in the lack of Blu-ray titles mentioned. I was also surprised at how many HTF members were asking about SD DVD titles - yet not many BD titles were asked. It seemed those who participated were more concerned about SD DVD

I noticed that as well. This chat seems to me to be so much more laid back than previous chats. Usually Warner announces some very exciting titles during these chats, but this time they only seemed to answer questions (maybe half of them in a direct manner) and offered little more.

[Doctorossi]

Originally Posted by mntwister

Usually Warner announces some very exciting titles during these chats, but this time they only seemed to answer questions (maybe half of them in a direct manner) and offered little more.

Yeah, I was waiting for the "And before we go..." followed by a bunch of announcements about titles no one had happened to ask about, but it never came.