Archived: Ask the Insiders: Judgment Day Edition

[JohnAlden]

I just had this feeling that Bandi Visual will be going blu-ray exclusive within 24 hours and other anime studios will be doing the same. Seeing how they did not put Jin-Ron on HD-DUD.Just A hunch

[Mystery Clock]

Originally Posted by elwaylite

You can still buy paramount bd's in best buy. I bought Payback a couple of days ago.

Sure, I picked up MI1 and MI2 on sale before Christmas. But I was referring to titles that were planned, (apparently) mastered, replicated, packaged and ready to ship when the plug was pulled.

If they crated them off to some warehouse vs. shredding them then, as folks have said, they could get back in with a splash and have titles ready to ship within a couple of weeks, max.

I wonder if Michael Bay would be able to weigh in on what state Transformers on BD was in before the deal was done? IIRC, the mastering techs didn't even know what was happening until after it was out in the press.

-John

[gand41f]

Originally Posted by spam.curitiba

The BBY by my work already has half of one rack for hd dvd empty and had about 12 hd dvd players on discount because of open box,

I've been wondering about this. Is there any sentiment in the industry that retailers got stuck with lots of "damaged goods" due to Toshiba's actions (most notably the $98 firesale, some of which are still returnable at the moment)? Is this considered par for the course?

What are the standard return agreement between a manufacturer and a big box retailer for things like optical disc players? Are retailers taking full advantage of it, or are they still trying to dump the stuff on unsuspecting customers?

enjoy
gandalf

[coolmilo]

Originally Posted by elwaylite

I dont feel either will DROP HDDVD. Neutral is fine for me, and should be enough to push retailers in the right direction. Id love to see Para make a statement before CES is over.

Neutral is not fine. If they stay neutral that means we get crappy ports of HD DVD builds. AAAAAAAAAAArrrrrrrrrrrrrrrggggggggggg

[g.k.]

You know, it could be ironic if Paramount's break from releasing Blu-ray movies ended up being no longer than Fox's last year (5 or so months).

[The Don]

Originally Posted by CptGreedle

He says Paramount might announce as early as tomorrow... which will be at CES.. which would be the better thing to do rather than wait till after CES.
I also think that Uni will change in Feb for sure. However I doubt either will drop HD DVD yet.
On the other hand, I suspect that by Christmas, you will be hard pressed to find any new HD DVD releases.

if so...CES would have been a complete nightmare for Toshiba..

next year I think they'll hire magicians...maybe Chris Angel?..

this way they can have products from other booths magically appear on their's and have more than 3 or 4 people at a time checking out their displays...

as I said...CES 08 has come off like a complete nightmare for Toshiba especially with MS officially tow-timing them..

[The Don]

Originally Posted by JohnAlden

I want the NC-17 version of Grindhouse on Blu-ray.

ahahah....I just hope it has lossless...because the PQ shouldn't look any better than DVD

[Balian]

Bill Hunt stated that Universal is under contract with Toshiba until the end of January. Who to say Universal can't pull a Warner on Toshiba? They could easily announce on Friday that they will no longer support HD DVD after the end of January and it will not breach their contract with Toshiba.

Warner contract won't end until the end of May and we all know how that went down.

[JohnAlden]

Anime+PS3 OWNERS, Like me...Blu-ray= $$$$$$ for Anime Studios.

[JohnAlden]

Originally Posted by The Don

ahahah....I just hope it has lossless...because the PQ shouldn't look any better than DVD

Planet Terror looked not that half bad upscaled on my playstation 3.

[hollywoodguy]

Originally Posted by The Don

ahahah....I just hope it has lossless...because the PQ shouldn't look any better than DVD

Just because the film was artificially degraded/damaged doesn't mean you wouldn't get all the advantages of hi def like higher resolution, additional clarity, added depth, better colors, less compression artifacts, etc. It should look A LOT better than DVD. Probably a more significant upgrade than movies that have a pristine source.

[SpaceDog]

Originally Posted by JohnAlden

Anime+PS3 OWNERS, Like me...Blu-ray= $$$$$$ for Anime Studios.

I'm ready for Disney to announce some Miyazaki for Blu Ray with lossless OSL and interactive Storyboard to screen features.

[DetroitSportsFan]

Originally Posted by stockstar1138

Weinstein is having financial problems if you didn't know that.

I'm sure they can improve their financial situation by releasing on Blu.

[MarekM]

Originally Posted by coolmilo

Neutral is not fine. If they stay neutral that means we get crappy ports of HD DVD builds. AAAAAAAAAAArrrrrrrrrrrrrrrggggggggggg

+1

Marek

[DetroitSportsFan]

Originally Posted by JohnAlden

Planet Terror looked not that half bad upscaled on my playstation 3.

The real advantage to having Grindhouse on Blu is that you can recreate the theatrical experience.

Both movies with all of the trailers on one disc.

[CptGreedle]

Insiders, I have a real question here which I can't seem to find an answer to...

After WB, New line, and now HBO have gone Blu-exclusive, will BBC follow suit as well? I am not sure how this affects US vs UK distribution, but there are many BBC shows that I feel would benefit from a Blu release.

[Rukland]

Originally Posted by CptGreedle

Insiders, I have a real question here which I can't seem to find an answer to...

After WB, New line, and now HBO have gone Blu-exclusive, will BBC follow suit as well? I am not sure how this affects US vs UK distribution, but there are many BBC shows that I feel would benefit from a Blu release.

+1 I was just getting ready to ask this as well.

[eat_me_cool]

I believe the BBC will continue to supply on HD-DVD simply because they have to deliver to the widest audience possible. Not for them to get involved in commercial arguments and they are making money on HD-DVD.

[JohnAlden]

Originally Posted by DetroitSportsFan

The real advantage to having Grindhouse on Blu is that you can recreate the theatrical experience.

Both movies with all of the trailers on one disc.

And make sure you have alot of your friends over to watch it. those people who have an projector with an 100" screen,you are in for a reallly good treat.

[WriteSimply]

Originally Posted by Banjo

To Paidgeek or any other Sony insiders,

Right now, digital captioning is incredibly difficult to deal with for many deaf consumers. Therefore, many Blu-ray supporters decided to go with SDH (Subtitles for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing) which I really do like. However, I think it would be quite a great thing if people would take advantage of BD-Java by giving people more options on manipulating the look/style of the subtitles to make it more readable. The deaf consumers have different preferences and tastes in how subtitles should look. I noticed that such a feature is available on PS3 but it hasn't been enabled for any of the movies that I know of, so the feature is rendered useless if nobody is taking advantage of it.

You also have to remember that there are many deaf people who are slightly or legally blind but still can watch movies, but they do have a hard time reading the subtitles because some of them lack a solid background, or isn't thick enough, and the colouring of the font also can make a difference. For instance, many legally blind people prefer bright yellow markings on the stairs and yellow fonts on websites. That's why I'm suggesting that people should be able to manipulate the subtitles so they can read it better. Myself, I read them just fine. But I do know some people who find it difficult sometimes especially on smaller TVs.

Hopefully somebody will be able to do something about this. Warner Bros. is the worst when it come to their SDH style. It's the most difficult to read of all since the black stroke is rather thin and the fonts are white. So whenever they're in front of a bright scene, it's hard to read them. Sony and Fox are the best. Sony use a solid black background, while Fox use a strong black stroke (which I prefer to the solid black background).

Thanks for your time.

+100!

To paidgeek and other studio insiders (indies too!) The rule should be if there are X many original and dubbed tracks in the main feature, that's how many the subtitle tracks should AT LEAST be in the main feature, the PiP feature, the commentary tracks, as well as the extra/special features. For example if the main feature is in English, and the dubbed tracks are Quebec French, Spanish and Italian, then English, French, Spanish and Italian subtitles should exist for the main feature, PiP, commentary tracks and extra/special features. IF there are more subtitles, the better since they don't take that much space anyway (but dubbed tracks do).

I really hope that all the studios would use this. I also hope that studios and CEs could come together and make a blind-friendly BD-Live player so that descriptive audio tracks can be downloaded and played back with the first BDs ever released.


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