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

[Penton-Man]

Originally Posted by AstroBlu

Penton; are you going to watch the debut of 3net Sunday?

Doubtful, as I’ll be attending the 25th Annual ASC Outstanding Achievement Awards celebration.
If you catch the 3net launch, let us know how it goes.

[JimSD]

Thanks for the hypothetical Penton. Can you possibly nudge your buddies to make that deal happen and get some more Bonds released by the end of the year?

On a different note, are you able to get back to riding now after your health scare?

[Penton-Man]

Live to ride, ride to live.

Yes, I’m back and I’m riding as often as I can (even with helmet and handlebar-mounted Halogen lights - for after dark) but come Monday, it’s all woo-ing my wife as she is the true love of my life –

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2KTFoMJi3uE

[dobyblue]

Hi Penton-Man,
I can't imagine Tony Scott's "The Fan" can be too far off, given that it's a big name director, a huge main star and decent supporting cast. I love this flick, guilty as charged. When this title does come around it would be handled by Sony in the US right

Originally Posted by Dennis M

I know I'm somewhat simplifying the issues here, but I just wanted to show that the environment is very different today then it was in the past. High rez audio has a chance, if it's handled properly.

Amen, now we await NIN's 5.1 Blu-ray of "The Fragile", surround mix by Alan Moulder. ETA - sometime in 2011.

[Josh]

Originally Posted by fitprod

Actually, Blu-ray Profile 3.0 will face the same hurdles:

(1) General consumer apathy to high-rez, multi-channel audio. (When a product is essentially back ground fodder, they don't care how good it sounds. They're happy as long as it will play in all of their portable devices.)
(2) Convenience of downloads.

The minor stumbling block for SACD & DVD-Audio's success was competing formats. It hurt, but again most consumers didn't care. That is why you always had to go to speciality shops to buy the stuff. The average CE Store (Wal*Mart, Best Buy, Circuit City and Ultimate Electronic) can only sell stuff that their "generally" un-educated staff can understand. - You'll notice two of those four companies are gone, so getting any new format into the public's view is just going to get harder and harder. Do you really think Wal*mart or Best Buy will care since they've been cutting back their music oriented product for years now?

fitprod

I think the resurgance of Vinyl is clear evidence of a desire for high resolution audio. Sure, its underground, but that be somewhat explained by the difficulty in finding LPs, and the cumbersome nature of a turn table. Personally, I would never get a turn table because it lacks the conveniences of a CD player (like track selection).

Another bullet to add to your reasons for the failure of SACD/DVD-A is the lack of studio support. Most of the material was classical, and it was hard to find popular music. Even today, some SACDs are eBaying for over $50 because people want the high fidelity and can't get it anywhere else. Paying $20 for a BD-A makes more sense and is - for at least the Tom Petty releases - master quality reproduction. That means, it will never sound any better than what is on the BD-A, so you know you are buying the album for the very last time.

If you check out the high def music forum on this site, you will see a bunch of people who are following BD-A progress as slow as it is. A poll I did some years ago shows hundreds of people (which is actually quite responsive, if you look at the general poll counts of this site) who are interested. There is a demand, we just need studios to jump on board.

That is where Penton can help

[JimSD]

Originally Posted by Penton-Man

Live to ride, ride to live.

Yes, I’m back and I’m riding as often as I can (even with helmet and handlebar-mounted Halogen lights - for after dark) but come Monday, it’s all woo-ing my wife as she is the true love of my life –

Good to hear. I used to night ride regularly pre-kids, but haven't gone for a loooong time. I'm sure the battery wouldn't even charge anymore it's been so long. Plus the closest trails we used to ride on are now buried under the houses you see near the Merge on your ventures south.

[cjamescook]

Originally Posted by Penton-Man

...but come Monday, it’s all woo-ing my wife as she is the true love of my life –

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2KTFoMJi3uE

And hopefully the Mrs. will reciprocate on March 14.
[The video is accurate as to the genesis and is safe for the office, but use headphones. Google will provide more info if you need it.]

[jdc115]

Originally Posted by Dennis M

It would be nice to have hi-rez digital format that will give me the same pleasure that my Japanese press and 200 gram Vinyls do. The downloadable formats just do not measure up.

Cheers

PS: Looking at getting the Niel Young boxset now.

What doesn't measure up about downloadable formats? Though limited, there is a growing amount of 24/96 and 24/192 music in FLAC that can be purchased from places like HDTracks and they are DRM free. They usually are coming direct from the studio masters and sound amazing. You are often stuck playing from a HTPC or media player but more and more BD also support. You can connect a hard drive to the Oppo BD93 and playing FLAC files up to 24/192 which is the same spec that Neil Young's Archives is recorded in.

I sort of have to accept that high quality recordings is just going to be multi format now, I buy BD audio, HiRes downloadable tracks and SACD's quite often. I do make sure that I keep a safe backup of the downloadable stuff though, I would hate to lose that investment.

Cheers.

PS: Yes, you should get NY's box set, it sound amazing, I wish he would hurry up with the next 10 year set now.

[PeterTHX]

Originally Posted by Josh

I think the resurgance of Vinyl is clear evidence of a desire for high resolution audio.

Not really: it's a hipster thing actually.

CD is too "mainstream"

Seriously.

[Anthony P]

Originally Posted by fitprod

Actually, Blu-ray Profile 3.0 will face the same hurdles:

(1) General consumer apathy to high-rez, multi-channel audio. (When a product is essentially back ground fodder, they don't care how good it sounds. They're happy as long as it will play in all of their portable devices.)
(2) Convenience of downloads.

The minor stumbling block for SACD & DVD-Audio's success was competing formats. It hurt, but again most consumers didn't care. That is why you always had to go to speciality shops to buy the stuff. The average CE Store (Wal*Mart, Best Buy, Circuit City and Ultimate Electronic) can only sell stuff that their "generally" un-educated staff can understand. - You'll notice two of those four companies are gone, so getting any new format into the public's view is just going to get harder and harder. Do you really think Wal*mart or Best Buy will care since they've been cutting back their music oriented product for years now?

fitprod

I must disagree, the format was not a minor stumbling block, just look at BD. It had every advantage over HD DVD so it should have been a slam dunk as a choice and yet when HD DVD threw in the towel many many people that where waiting on the sidelines jumped in. People will always fear throwing away their money and that was one of the issue between SACD and DVD-A. I know I was waiting to see what to go with and then it just looked like neither would go anywhere so I gave up on it and stuck with CDs. Format wars to consumers mean indecision and expense, to the retailer they mean complexity and possibly extra inventory.

You are missing the cyclical effect, people want and buy stuff because they see it and they see it because stores carry it and have it. Do you think it was easier for the average CE store to go with CD? No, just that people where buying it

[fitprod]

Originally Posted by Anthony P

You are missing the cyclical effect, people want and buy stuff because they see it and they see it because stores carry it and have it. Do you think it was easier for the average CE store to go with CD? No, just that people where buying it

Um... People will search for a product if they have interest in it. CE store penetration is a result of actual consumer interest, and there never was enough interest (or product) to warrant big CE store to stock DVD-Audio/SACD on a large scale.

Back when CDs came out in the 80's, it was a monumental format shift which changed the industry. You also have to remember that the CE mega-store were not the primary location where people bought music, they would go to a chain that specialized in music.

fitprod

[Anthony P]

Originally Posted by fitprod

Um... People will search for a product if they have interest in it. CE store penetration is a result of actual consumer interest, and there never was enough interest (or product) to warrant big CE store to stock DVD-Audio/SACD on a large scale.

Back when CDs came out in the 80's, it was a monumental format shift which changed the industry. You also have to remember that the CE mega-store were not the primary location where people bought music, they would go to a chain that specialized in music.

fitprod

Mega chain or minichain, or single store is not an issue, nor if it is single duty or not. Why did BD do well wouldn't it be in the same boat? As for interest, that is the point. How does someone search for something they don't know exists. Before the consumer has interest in something they have to know about it. Like I said before, people where not interest in it because they did not know it existed and those that did did not know what to choose, Stores did not carry it because they did not think people where interested and did not know what would win. In the end that question only existed because of the format war, the two sides where evenly matched and so it was a hard decision and the format war raged on. Why did the retail outlets and WB put a stop to HD DVD?

The issue is that it is a vicious circle. A leads to B leads to C.... leads to N that leads back to A and then the cycle starts again.

in a healthy environment
A) Seeing something in stores leads to people being interested, B)leads them to buying stuff, A)which leads the store into carrying more, B)which leads to more consumer interest.....

But the opposite is also true

A)not having stuff readily available, B)leads to fear, uncertainty and doubt in the product, c)leads into consumers staying away, A) leads to stores being less interested in carrying it.

Now why did that reluctance happen with SACD/DVD-A in both consumers and retailers? simply put, the format war.


Don't get me wrong, I don't disagree that quality and surround sound is less important when you want to listen on a cheap portable player with crappy earphones and you want as many tunes as you can carry. But you can't under estimate the effect of the format war.

Now will 3.0 have a hard time? probably, but people need to get educated, and educating people is a lot easier when there is only one format since you don't spend half the time fighting the other one.

[Josh]

Penton,

First off, sorry for hi-jacking your thread

Second, hope you enjoyed Valentine's Day. Me and the wife went to Capital Grill in Tyson's Corner. Great food for a quick lunch, when you come back to the East Coast. The 8oz Filet with 4oz Fresh Water Lobster Tail was amazing! Since the baby is a few weeks away, she wanted to wait until after to go back to Cityzen.

[Penton-Man]

No prob ….firstly, I’m attending a tech retreat all this week anyway so any and all contributions are welcomed. Secondly, congrats and best wishes to you and your lovely wife on the new upcoming family member.
In view of the former, these two videos should give food for thought to those interested in TSN and sound mixing/original score, esp. as the Oscars approach –

http://designingsound.org/2010/09/re...ocial-network/
http://designingsound.org/2010/11/th...ocial-network/

And to those whom PM-ed me about the extravagantly low price you can preorder the Blu-ray of the motion picture Taxi Driver (given its restoration pedigree which I outlined on the main Taxi Driver thread we have here), shucks, if you’re truly feeling really guilty and like you should be somehow spending more as a collector of anything related to this motion picture, there are always alternatives (on the right side of page) –http://www.taschen.com/pages/en/comm...axi_driver.htm

P.S.
Yes, thanks for inquiring as we did enjoy a fabulous Valentine’s Day, had a fine dinner at a local restaurant followed by me giving her a romantic piece of jewelry….and a promise to her to have the entire flooring in the upstairs of our San Diego place replaced (something I think she always desired) with Peruvian Tigerwood < I’m actually a little nervous to look at the square foot price of that exotic wood for fear of what I got myself into.

[sharkshark]

ah, more TASCHEN porn...

Note that if they follow what they've done with the previous versions that there will be a more reasonably priced unlimited edition. To be honest, the snaps/content in the Godfather book seem more impressive, but, of course, I'll be picking this up for myself. Sigh...

Oh, and consider this my little happy dance that LOLITA and LYNDON are making their way to Blu. This will be my, what, 7th time buying some of these titles? For Kubrick, it's well worth it...

[Doctorossi]

Originally Posted by sharkshark

Oh, and consider this my little happy dance that LOLITA and LYNDON are making their way to Blu.

I'm going to sit this dance out, as I don't like the number they're playing. Come find me by the punch bowl when they start the 'singles' dance.

[DenonCI]

Originally Posted by Penton-Man

Yes, thanks for inquiring as we did enjoy a fabulous Valentine’s Day, had a fine dinner at a local restaurant followed by me giving her a romantic piece of jewelry….and a promise to her to have the entire flooring in the upstairs of our San Diego place replaced (something I think she always desired) with Peruvian Tigerwood < I’m actually a little nervous to look at the square foot price of that exotic wood for fear of what I got myself into.

Are those code words for one of Tiger Wood's mistresses

[JimSD]

Originally Posted by DenonCI

Are those code words for one of Tiger Wood's mistresses

I see I'm not the only one who saw Tiger Woods jokes in Penton's comment.

[Penton-Man]

Originally Posted by Penton-Man

...attending a tech retreat all this week...

At which, on Day 1, even though the focus of this retreat is more about motion pictures, workflows, professional displays, etc. and Happy Hour….for those computer geek historians, more than one attendee reminisced In Memoriam about ‘the most important man nobody knew’ –

http://thestir.cafemom.com/technolog...en_died_he_was

[Penton-Man]

Originally Posted by sharkshark

...Oh, and consider this my little happy dance...

^ Nice segway posting phrase for me to 3D.
Wim Wender on choreographer Pina Bausch and ‘dance’…and 3D –http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/video...ch-wim-wenders

or, for those readers out there – http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/...71C2AV20110213

^ Thanks to my colleague at the film festival in Berlin for both links.