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

[aygie]

Originally Posted by Penton-Man

Do you realize with all the German presence on this forum, I am going to have a difficult time rooting for England on Sunday.

I will be conflicted.

[Doctorossi]

Originally Posted by Penton-Man

Do you realize with all the German presence on this forum, I am going to have a difficult time rooting for England on Sunday.

That's ok- just don't root for them; they're a bunch of tossers.

[Doctorossi]

Originally Posted by kefrank

This begs the obvious question...why wouldn't there be a "high presentation quality of the feature" policy that brands a company's entire line?

One of those things you'd think would be obvious, wouldn't you?

My guess is that the "high presentation quality of the feature" policy would interfere with the "good enough and cheaper" policy*.



*also known as the "you can't say it ain't got both Hs and Ds" policy

[DenonCI]

Originally Posted by Penton-Man

There ya go!
Not so fast though.

Read the original offer. Our boys still have to win the next two games for you to get your gift. Get out your vuvuzela and blow , as I want to hear that you’ve driven Peter THX totally bonkers from the sound coming out of your house miles away in a different county.

And what happens in Vegas ….stays in Vegas.

OK...that makes it a lot tougher. Maybe I should hop on an overnight to South Africa and offer my services at left wing...or maybe not, I doubt I could run for 15 minutes on the pitch let alone 90

Go USA!

[PeterTHX]

Originally Posted by Penton-Man

Get out your vuvuzela and blow , as I want to hear that you’ve driven Peter THX totally bonkers from the sound coming out of your house miles away in a different country

[Truewitt]

Originally Posted by Jeff Kleist

The Doctor got it. The point is that they're dropping tens of thousands of dollars on BD-Live features that no one cares about, and not dropping 30-50% of that budget on a new modern scan and cleanup

See, this is the problem. "Tens of thousands of dollars" is a gross overstatement, at least in regard to my specific knowledge of the subject. You mentioned Spartacus and you need to know that nothing could be further from the truth in that specific case. Spartacus had no interactive or BD-Live features that weren't previously "developed" and thus subject to almost no cost to add them to that specific title. Also, maintaining them is the tiniest of costs you could imagine. So, in the case of Spartacus, and I dare say many other titles that are being railed against, the inclusion of these features, and their respective costs, impacts the quality of the presentation to no degree.

The quality of the elements simply have to be held in higher regard. Interactive features have no impact on the decision whether or not to redo a master, etc.

[Penton-Man]

Thank you.

It seems other than for you..."Men in general are quick to believe that which they wish to be true."

[Penton-Man]

Other than Truewitt (who appears to have his wits about him), most of you guys still don’t get it.

I’m saying that the decision by content providers in regards to the need to produce a new HD master (and scan, if warranted), is being made prior to and for the most part independent of consideration of any budgetary concerns regarding *added value* interactive or not. Hell, a lot of the time, people don’t even know until later stages what *added value* will or won’t make it onto the disc because of all the legal hoops which have to be jumped through later on in the process.

I’ll turn the situation around to make it even clearer to some of you folks. There are some catalog titles which are being held back primarily because the cost of a new scan and master doesn’t justify the predicted revenue given history from past sales and rental of superb PQ looking classics…..regardless, of what the creative types have planned further on down the line in terms of *added value*, interactive or not, to complement the main presentation.

*Added value* production costs are not preempting or significantly affecting the decision for the need to do a new scan and/or HD master.

[Penton-Man]

Originally Posted by aygie

The ‘Three Lions’ have looked for the most part like ‘Three Kittens’. If on Sunday, England steps-up and actually plays they like do in the Premier League (RUN) on match days, then I’ll be cheering them on with enthusiasm.

On the other hand, you could not meet a nicer guy than Jürgen Klinsmann. Plus, Torsten and Oliver K are two of our strongest Club members here...as long as Oliver doesn’t ever tell me his last name is Kahn.

So, see my dilemma?

[Doctorossi]

Originally Posted by Penton-Man

I’ll turn the situation around to make it even clearer to some of you folks. There are some titles which are being held back primarily because the cost of a new scan and master doesn’t justify the predicted revenue given history from past sales and rental of superb PQ looking classics…..regardless, of what the creative types have planned further on down the line in terms of interactive or *added value* to complement the main presentation.

Well then maybe the upshot of what people like Bill are saying is that the organization of the production/approvals process needs to be changed to better reflect the priorities that would make the consumers give the studios their money.

The bottom line is that it doesn't matter to consumers why the system is currently set up so that bells & whistles end up taking precedence over new transfers. If the studios want consumers' money, they need to find a way to become more responsive to what consumers want.

Maybe it's out of place to blame the bells & whistles any more than one might blame, say, the plastic cases, but they're an obvious target when their whole point is to scream to the consumer "Look at how fancy, high tech and special I am! Look at how much value I represent!"

[Penton-Man]

Originally Posted by Doctorossi

Of course they're not mutually-exclusive in a technical sense...

Doc, c’mon read my post again. I said, “unless you’re technically speaking…”

[Penton-Man]

Originally Posted by Doctorossi

Well then maybe the upshot of what people like Bill are saying is that the organization of the production/approvals process needs to be changed to better reflect the priorities that would make the consumers give the studios their money.

The bottom line is that it doesn't matter to consumers why

It does matter why to me...and it should to you if you're really interested in how the business works.

Don't blame interactive added value for poor (or selfish) decision-making regarding mastering decisions!

[Penton-Man]

Originally Posted by PeterTHX

Now that's the spirit!

[Doctorossi]

Originally Posted by Penton-Man

Doc, c’mon read my post again. I said, “unless you’re technically speaking…”

Right- I got you.

[Penton-Man]

Public Notice

Since Saturday and Sunday are SPECIAL days in the lives of US, England and German football supporters, the previous moratorium in regards to not talking about the results on this thread is hereby lifted.

You guys can start immediately discussing the play and results as soon as the match is over.

[Oliver K]

Originally Posted by Penton-Man

Do you realize with all the German presence on this forum, I am going to have a difficult time rooting for England on Sunday.

I will be conflicted.

Our participation here is part of our secret master plan to regain world dominance in football

Dominance aside this is a pretty exciting matchup as both teams are about equal in their capabilities and historically speaking Germany against England are always special matches. Incidentally the last two matchups with victories over England ultimately resulted in Germany winning the whole tournament (World Championship 1990 and European Championship 1996).

[Doctorossi]

Originally Posted by Penton-Man

Don't blame interactive added value for poor (or selfish) decision-making regarding mastering decisions!

There isn't really a cause-effect relationship, but you must understand how the bells & whistles set themselves up in the line of fire. It's galling to have to "eat" the expense of the bells & whistles when the better mastering decisions aren't there. Its similar to other "value adds" like digital copies. If the part of the product that actually motivates the buying decision is found to be lacking, all of the unwanted 'look at me!' extras are going to suffer a little resentment.

To cross-analogize TM, if you've been shouting at your manager to buy a new keeper for the past three seasons, you're probably not going to smile really big when he unveils that expensive new winger, are you? Might be the best winger in the world, but he's not going to be your favorite player, is he?

[aygie]

Originally Posted by Penton-Man

The ‘Three Lions’ have looked for the most part like ‘Three Kittens’. If on Sunday, England steps-up and actually plays they like do in the Premier League (RUN) on match days, then I’ll be cheering them on with enthusiasm.

Too true and hopefully Capello has given Rooney the slap he needs to bring him out of whatever slump he's in.

On the other hand, you could not meet a nicer guy than Jürgen Klinsmann. Plus, Torsten and Oliver K are two of our strongest Club members here...as long as Oliver doesn’t ever tell me his last name is Kahn.

Yeah completely agree with that JK is a legend.

So, see my dilemma?

Yeah maybe...

[Oliver K]

Originally Posted by Penton-Man

Other than Truewitt (who appears to have his wits about him), most of you guys still don’t get it.

I’m saying that the decision by content providers in regards to the need to produce a new HD master (and scan, if warranted), is being made prior to and for the most part independent of consideration of any budgetary concerns regarding *added value* interactive or not. Hell, a lot of the time, people don’t even know until later stages what *added value* will or won’t make it onto the disc because of all the legal hoops which have to be jumped through later on in the process.

I’ll turn the situation around to make it even clearer to some of you folks. There are some catalog titles which are being held back primarily because the cost of a new scan and master doesn’t justify the predicted revenue given history from past sales and rental of superb PQ looking classics…..regardless, of what the creative types have planned further on down the line in terms of *added value*, interactive or not, to complement the main presentation.

*Added value* production costs are not preempting or significantly affecting the decision for the need to do a new scan and/or HD master.

I have no illusions that BD-Live is something that the studios spend much money on and my pet peeve is only that it is sometimes forced upon us - just put it in the menu as Warner and Sony do and please do not make us skip through endless trailers before we even get to the menu.

When Blu-Ray started out I predicted we would have a harder time with catalog titles mainly due to two causes:

- less installed players compared to DVD and therefore less potential customers
- higher costs for a new master/scan compared to DVD

This of course is a very unfortunate combination. It is like the candle that is lit on both sides and it is a bit disheartening to see that this still holds true

[Clark Kent]

Sony should really be exempt from consideration in this discussion of catalog titles on Blu-ray. They consistently have been the best studio in terms of maximizing the A/V quality of their catalog properties while replicating the look of the original film, with a few minor exceptions. The other major studios are much less consistent in the visual quality of older films.

Take for example the Karate Kid, a catalog title that certain other studios simply could not have properly brought out on BD. That was a superior transfer of a movie that is not likely to break sales records. Sony should look into licensing their technical department for handling transfers to the other studios. It would save us videophiles much consternation.