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

[kpkelley]

Originally Posted by DenonCI

That guy got what he deserved. Maybe the next idiot will think twice about running onto the field of play.

What's even more ridiculous is that the kid is 17 and was sober

He called his dad before he did it, and his dad was like,"That's not a good idea."


In other pessimistic news of our future generations, two middle schoolers in MA were rushed to hospital after they dared each other to eat the dry ice they were using in chemistry class.

[Bobby Henderson]

I just saw a short (and rather vague) news story about the FCC and movie studios. The FCC has given the go-ahead to studios to use anti-piracy technology in TV sets to prevent duplication of first run movies. I have the impression this applies to pay per view movies on cable/satellite services. However, I wonder if this applies to Blu-ray as well.

A lot of HDTV owners have been dreading the day if or when the Image Constraint Token would be used on Blu-ray discs to limit component video output to only 480p or even block it completely. IMHO, applying the ICT feature would be a really big mistake and only serve to penalize honest customers with older HDTV sets who bought the disc. I don't know how many Blu-ray disc movies have been successfully cracked and put onto the Internet, but the idea that any have been cracked and uploaded would seem to make "plugging the analog hole" (limiting or eliminating component output) a pointless and possibly sales killing act.

[Jeff Kleist]

Without going into detail, the technology is looking for markers in the signal that are only present in the theatrical prints. Given that a pirate copy of a Blu-ray, HDTV or DVD wouldn't function if they carried these markers, no

No one to my knowlege has even discussed using the ICT on Blu-rays, and honestly, the number of TVs without HDMI in use for HD will be so small by the time 2013/14 rolls around,the component players are out of the retail marketplace, that it's barely worth mentioning. I'm sure someone will come out with an absurdly expensive box that will take HDMI and spit out component anyway

[DenonCI]

Originally Posted by Jeff Kleist

Without going into detail, the technology is looking for markers in the signal that are only present in the theatrical prints. Given that a pirate copy of a Blu-ray, HDTV or DVD wouldn't function if they carried these markers, no

No one to my knowlege has even discussed using the ICT on Blu-rays, and honestly, the number of TVs without HDMI in use for HD will be so small by the time 2013/14 rolls around,the component players are out of the retail marketplace, that it's barely worth mentioning. I'm sure someone will come out with an absurdly expensive box that will take HDMI and spit out component anyway

Jeff, I want to know why the CE manufacturers are still putting composite outputs on Blu-ray players. What's even worse is they generally only include the composite cables in the damn boxes! I wonder how many uninformed consumers have their BD players hooked up in this way and wonder "Geez...this doesn't look any better than DVD!"

With a 6 foot HDMI cable running about $3 on Monoprice, one would think this would be the only cable included with a BD player.

[Jeff Kleist]

They don't want to undermine retailer's raping of same with monster cables and such

You can use them for component cables too They work for short runs

[MerrickG]

Originally Posted by Jeff Kleist

They don't want to undermine retailer's raping of same with monster cables and such

That drives me absolutely crazy. BB employees really do a good job on trying to push the "benefits" of monster cable.

Seriously, its a crime how badly they rip people off.

Just like activision can get away with charging $15 for 5 maps for MW2.

[DenonCI]

Originally Posted by Jeff Kleist

They don't want to undermine retailer's raping of same with monster cables and such

Very true..if it wasn't for the high profit margin on these sundry items we'd be paying $40 for Blu-rays.

You can use them for component cables too They work for short runs

True, but J6P wouldn't know where to plug them in because the colors are wrong

[Bobby Henderson]

I can't fault the electronics companies for including cables for backward compatibility. Actually this has been one of the big reasons I have been using to convince friends to consider Blu-Ray when replacing a faulty DVD player. Don't have a HDTV set yet? Not to worry! Buy a Blu-Ray player or PS3 anyway!

Just about every Blu-Ray player on the market, including the Sony PS3, can be attached to an old 4:3 ratio standard definition TV set by way of composite or S-Video connections. I see that as a big PLUS, not a drawback. The customer can use the Blu-Ray player (or PS3) as a DVD player for his current movie collection and use Blu-ray discs even when the player is attached to an older, legacy SD quality TV set. So much more should have been stressed in marketing on this point. But the powers that be had to be greedy and insist on only selling new TV sets.

So many DVD-only players being sold today are wasteful garbage, even if they cost well under $100. A good Blu-ray player does so much more. A PS3 does even far more than that.

[BleedingEdge]

That is very true. The shame of it is, most retailers are concentrating on selling upscaling DVD players to those kind of people, rather than Blu-ray players that do the exact same thing, and at this point have minimal difference in cost. The markup is huge on upscaling DVD players. It's self-defeating, really.

[Jeff Kleist]

That drives me absolutely crazy. BB employees really do a good job on trying to push the "benefits" of monster cable.

Seriously, its a crime how badly they rip people off.

Don't fault the BB employees for pushing them. Their jobs depend on selling those and extended warrantys. See it used to be back in the day that a place like Circuit City or Sears would attach a nice commission to those things. Heck my brother would have gotten $200 for moving a Bose system for Sears (and if they were willing to give him that much, they were making at least 4 times that themselves ). But all the chains stopped doing commission, but they still wanted those sweet profits so they just started threatening their jobs instead of dangling a nice $20 bill in front of them.

Retailers are pushing the cheaper Blu-ray players on them now. Makes them more money and the price difference is close enough people will bite. The markup on upscaling DVD players isn't that huge. Pretty much everyone wants to get out of the DVD business and into the Blu on the hardware and the software side. I personally find it very comforting that there are 3 full aisle sides of Blu-ray at my local Best Buy now

[wallendo]

Originally Posted by Penton-Man

A few words about...™ Lord of the Rings and specifically Fellowship of the Ring - #50 on the AFI all-time Best Movies List -

Dead silence with crickets chirping.

Open question to all home theater enthusiasts – Aren’t reviewers supposed to review?....especially a film of such cinematic importance.

C'mon RAH!

Unfortunately, an objective reviewer who didn't give the film a bad review would suffer extreme internet attacks by the scientists.

I was actually quite happy with the movie's appearance. Frodo's face seemed a little bit smoother than I expected, but I think that's just what hobbits look like.

[BleedingEdge]

Originally Posted by Jeff Kleist

Retailers are pushing the cheaper Blu-ray players on them now. Makes them more money and the price difference is close enough people will bite. The markup on upscaling DVD players isn't that huge. Pretty much everyone wants to get out of the DVD business and into the Blu on the hardware and the software side. I personally find it very comforting that there are 3 full aisle sides of Blu-ray at my local Best Buy now

Best Buy is one thing. Target and Wal-Mart are something different altogether. Wal-Mart has recently decreased Blu-ray space in favor of pushing Classic Television DVDs. I could tell you exact sales and markup figures on players and titles, but that would be crossing some lines, and I don't want to get my connections into trouble.

[BluDomain]

Originally Posted by BleedingEdge

... Wal-Mart has recently decreased Blu-ray space in favor of pushing Classic Television DVDs.

You probably should visit a few more WalMart stores.

I could tell you exact sales and markup figures on players and titles, but that would be crossing some lines, and I don't want to get my connections into trouble.

Sure.

[Mr. Cinema]

My Walmart just recently did a whole revamp of their entire BD setup and now has a nice huge selection. They probably have 100+ titles, all from $8-$20 for catalog, and $24.99 or so for new releases.

[Jeff Kleist]

Best Buy is one thing. Target and Wal-Mart are something different altogether. Wal-Mart has recently decreased Blu-ray space in favor of pushing Classic Television DVDs. I could tell you exact sales and markup figures on players and titles, but that would be crossing some lines, and I don't want to get my connections into trouble.

Wal-Mart are the kings of micromanagement. Not only will they adjust that space on a per-store basis, but they will also devestate sections based on the time of year. People GO to movies in the summer, they don't buy them so much, so they reduced the higher priced Blu section to push classic TV comfort food for summer evenings. They also may be planning to move the section or set up displays elsewhere in the store It'll be back in the fall.

[Penton-Man]

A little background for those who do not understand what the heck Torsten and I are talking about…

http://postmagazine.com/ME2/Audience...37BB405BA5F306

[MerrickG]

Originally Posted by Jeff Kleist

Don't fault the BB employees for pushing them. Their jobs depend on selling those and extended warrantys. See it used to be back in the day that a place like Circuit City or Sears would attach a nice commission to those things. Heck my brother would have gotten $200 for moving a Bose system for Sears (and if they were willing to give him that much, they were making at least 4 times that themselves ). But all the chains stopped doing commission, but they still wanted those sweet profits so they just started threatening their jobs instead of dangling a nice $20 bill in front of them.

Retailers are pushing the cheaper Blu-ray players on them now. Makes them more money and the price difference is close enough people will bite. The markup on upscaling DVD players isn't that huge. Pretty much everyone wants to get out of the DVD business and into the Blu on the hardware and the software side. I personally find it very comforting that there are 3 full aisle sides of Blu-ray at my local Best Buy now

Whenever I see a BB employee pushing those Monster Cables on some poor suspecting customer I will on occasion try and take the customer over to the side and mention that I am an active member of the home theater community and tell them that monoprice or even amazon is the best place to buy them. I often get thanked for my help and it makes me happy that I (in some cases) saved the person $100+


On another note I have a question:

If I wanted to make a film and I wanted it to look absolutely pristine would 70mm be the way to go?

[MerrickG]

Originally Posted by Penton-Man

A little background for those who do not understand what the heck Torsten and I are talking about…

http://postmagazine.com/ME2/Audience...37BB405BA5F306

Im a biochemist and a nutritionist which means I NEVER understand what the heck you are talking about!

[Doctorossi]

Originally Posted by merrick97

On another note I have a question:

If I wanted to make a film and I wanted it to look absolutely pristine would 70mm be the way to go?

Your question brings to mind a few more:

How do you define "pristine"?

Is cost an object?

What subject(s) are you shooting?

[42041]

Originally Posted by Penton-Man

A little background for those who do not understand what the heck Torsten and I are talking about…

http://postmagazine.com/ME2/Audience...37BB405BA5F306

If Sony has an in-house scanner that can do 4K at almost real-time, does that bring down the cost of doing a "Minority Report"-quality remaster of an older film? I sure hope we see more of those