Archived: Ask the Insiders: Judgment Day Edition

[ezcobar411]

Originally Posted by Pilam69

Max,

I just wanted to say thanks for the info on this board (really thanks to all of you insiders) but, more than that, I just got done reading about 5 pages of AVS threads where you basically got beaten up for giving your opinion and stating true facts. Your patience and knowledge is appreciated both here and there. I just wanted to say thanks. Keep fighting the good fight.

+1

[SpikesBluBlooded]

I think it can safely be said at this point that once the Paramount announcement is official, all the other studios will follow suit. It would simply be suicide not to. Why would anyone go it alone with a format that would only carry 20% (if that) of available titles? So your studio could be exclusive and different from the rest of the industry? Seriously, if anyone believes this drivel, find an ice pick and clean out your ears. That's right, dig deep to get that "dirt" out. You'll know you got it all when you start drooling and forget all about HD DVD...

Seriously, though, beyond the fact that pretty-much every other studio and CEM is supporting Blu-ray, you can bet retailers (at least B&M) will be dropping HD DVD soon enough, once they've been given the OK to either return current inventory, or sell it off cheap.

This war is over, it's just going to take time for the news to spread to all the troops around the world...

[ottscay]

Let me also say thank you Max, for posting here and at AVS. I actually had some posts defending you over there (same handle) but the were deleted.

Note: To be fair, the whole thread was deleted, and it was a most inappropriate thread.

[darkpoet25]

I have a quick question and I apologize if it's been asked. I was wondering that since Twister won't be out until May, would the encode be the same as the hd dvd version? Or would it even be exclusive to Blu Ray? I have been waiting to get this one for a long time. Thanks in advance.

[SpikesBluBlooded]

Seriously, we need a Warner insider! I too would like to know if they're going to re-encode existing HD titles to take full advantage of Blu. We've seen other studios' best, now it's time for Warner to pony up...

[true2_blu]

Thats why I stand behind our Blu insiders with their PROVEN track record. Thank you, all of you Blu Insiders. I tried standing up for our guys at AVS but my posts got deleted and I got penalized. Oh well. I'll be patient and let this whole thing play out in our favor. Thanks again to our Blu Insiders for giving or hinting to us RELIABLE and POSITIVE information.

[lymzy]

Originally Posted by g.k.

kjack (or anyone),

Where is this Chinese player? The only thing that seems to come close is the Funai announcement, and aren't they Japanese?

I guess it is Shinco. OPPO is also close...

[dialog_gvf]

Originally Posted by g.k.

kjack (or anyone),

Where is this Chinese player? The only thing that seems to come close is the Funai announcement, and aren't they Japanese?

I think it's up to the boys at CES to track it down, like the Daewoo.

Gary

[BoneWSO]

Originally Posted by john_nemesh

You know, some people here just don't get it....<sigh!>

Listen people, the titles we all want and are not available on Blu-Ray right now WILL come!

When a studio releases a title on a new format, they have to decide if it is financially viable for them to do so based on the installed base of players out on the market.

For instance, a movie released now for Blu-Ray would have a potential audience of about 3 million. Now, only a fraction of that number will BUY the movie, but there are 3 million players that CAN play the disc out there.

When there are 2 different formats to choose from, this makes it HARDER for a studio to say "sure, go ahead and spend the $5 million to remaster, encode, and produce this movie", (dollar figure pulled out of thin air...any insider care to let me know how close I am? I know its up there.) because the rather small market for HD movies is divided up into 2 different groups! They also know that 1 format will not be around at some point in the future, so the gains to be had are relatively short term.

When one format prevails, then it becomes a simpler equation: "if I invest x amount now, over the life of the format, I will sell y number of discs". Also, when they KNOW that a format will be around a while, the studios can take a more long term approach to deferring the costs of mastering and replication. If they don't make back the money immediately, they may make it back over the course of the next year or two on that specific title.

Rest assured, the studios want our business, and they want to sell us as many of their movies as possible. I know it is frustrating waiting for a favorite movie to come out, but if everything was released all at once, the studios would not be able to recoup the investment needed to bring these movies to market. I am sure that all studios involved are planning releases as quickly as possible to drive the market and ensure that interest in HDM is as active as possible.

We know the war is over, now we just need to have patience! The movies we want are on the way, we just don't know when for some of them. We do know that now that there is only one format, we will be seeing more and better releases from all studios from here on out. Just remember how slowly DVDs trickled onto the market and you will see how this will turn out!

END RANT....

Excellent post, could not have said better myself. Thank god someone else here has some sense to 'em.

[JBlacklow]

Anyway, on to the Chinese player.

Originally Posted by g.k.

Where is this Chinese player? The only thing that seems to come close is the Funai announcement, and aren't they Japanese?

Check this:

http://formatwarcentral.com/index.ph...-in-the-works/

[Member-9711]

There hasn't been many title announcement at this years CES so far...will there be any? How about last year's CES, if I can remember correctly there was quite a few new titles announced....

[g.k.]

Originally Posted by JBlacklow

Anyway, on to the Chinese player.
Check this:

http://formatwarcentral.com/index.ph...-in-the-works/

Aha.. that clears up that mystery a bit. Invitation only, I wonder why?

[blindcat87]

Very good points. Add to that the fact that there have been several requests from the insiders that people refrain from asking about titles that have not yet been announced.

Chris

Originally Posted by BoneWSO

Excellent post, could not have said better myself. Thank god someone else here has some sense to 'em.

[blindcat87]

It varies from year to year, but it seems to me that since the VSDA show went away and it became a single hardware event with software people invited instead of dual concurrent shows for both the software and hardware sides, CES is less the big announcement time than the opening of the announcement season. At least that is how it has seemed to me the last few years. The number of announcements vary from year to year, but I wouldn't say that a low number of announcements this year means a low number of titles we will see.

Not an industry guy, just a hobbyist that has been watching with envy every year for the last decade or so. One of these years, I am going to make a CES.

Chris

Originally Posted by Dofflan

There hasn't been many title announcement at this years CES so far...will there be any? How about last year's CES, if I can remember correctly there was quite a few new titles announced....

[NoQuestion]

To the insiders or our mods,

Can someone who is at CES check on the new samsung 1500 and ask how long it takes to go from load to first screen? Sharp i think is stating that thier new player coming out takes 10seconds or less. I sure hope that the new players coming will all be around that time or even less.

Any info from the insiders/mods/or members here who are there would be greatly appreciated!

[NoQuestion]

Originally Posted by Dofflan

There hasn't been many title announcement at this years CES so far...will there be any? How about last year's CES, if I can remember correctly there was quite a few new titles announced....

another good question for the insiders...you guys/gals gotta know whats up...if we arent going to get any at CES when can we expect it? Thanks insiders

[Esox50]

Originally Posted by blindcat87

It varies from year to year, but it seems to me that since the VSDA show went away and it became a single hardware event with software people invited instead of dual concurrent shows for both the software and hardware sides, CES is less the big announcement time than the opening of the announcement season. At least that is how it has seemed to me the last few years. The number of announcements vary from year to year, but I wouldn't say that a low number of announcements this year means a low number of titles we will see.

Not an industry guy, just a hobbyist that has been watching with envy every year for the last decade or so. One of these years, I am going to make a CES.

Chris

Agreed. I don't think anyone was asking the Insiders to "spill the beans" HERE. I think some of us just find it odd that there haven't been the usual press releases with the title announcements, and we were wondering if those PRs were forthcoming. For each studio to show off one or two titles is a break from "tradition".

My personal opinion is that during the format war, each side needed to try to trump the other side with content announcements. One, now that the war is effectively over, there is no need to do that. Two, given all the b!tching about Fox last year announcing a bunch of titles and then canceling, the studios probably will hold specifics a little more closely and be less aggressive so as not to disappoint. Third and finally, with Paramount and Universal witnessing their format demolished and subsequently not announcing specific titles for HD DVD...I believe it is possible that the current BD studios *may* have pulled back on title announcements AT THE SHOW so as not to "show up" their soon to be BD content partners (i.e. Paramount and Universal).

As much as we love winning and all this drama, you have to remember that these companies and people in the biz all are going to need to work together VERY SOON to promote one format, Blu-Ray Disc. It could be considered "running up the score" if Sony, Fox, Disney, Warner, & Lion's Gate all came out and announced 20-30 titles for the first half of 2008.

Finally, as much as we joke about dumb@ss comments by Ken Graffeo and the Widescreen Review "HD DVD propoganda" (ooops, I mean "interview") with Alan Bell...it is quite possible that some of these people are going to be out of jobs. That's never fun, but is a reality. So, I'm sure it's a sensitive issue in Hollywood and around the CES right now.

All of this said, we've put up with a lot of sh!t. So let's have a little reasonable fun. After this all unfolds, let's "get it all out" (w our LOL @ HD DVD) over the following week or so, and then move on enjoying our abundance of great BD content.

[blindcat87]

I think all of your points are valid. I also think that it may also be that with the HD world all abuzz about recent events that some announcements that might have been planned but that did not have big presentations planned for them might have been scrubbed for a later day so that plans could remain flexible for any impromptu events at the show having to do with good news that might or might not come during the show or for later partnered BDA promotions post CES.

Whether we get any more titles announced at CES or not, I would still give a lot to be there right now.

Chris

Originally Posted by Esox50

Agreed. I don't think anyone was asking the Insiders to "spill the beans" HERE. I think some of us just find it odd that there haven't been the usual press releases with the title announcements, and we were wondering if those PRs were forthcoming. For each studio to show off one or two titles is a break from "tradition".

My personal opinion is that during the format war, each side needed to try to trump the other side with content announcements. One, now that the war is effectively over, there is no need to do that. Two, given all the b!tching about Fox last year announcing a bunch of titles and then canceling, the studios probably will hold specifics a little more closely and be less aggressive so as not to disappoint. Third and finally, with Paramount and Universal witnessing their format demolished and subsequently not announcing specific titles for HD DVD...I believe it is possible that the current BD studios *may* have pulled back on title announcements AT THE SHOW so as not to "show up" their soon to be BD content partners (i.e. Paramount and Universal).

As much as we love winning and all this drama, you have to remember that these companies and people in the biz all are going to need to work together VERY SOON to promote one format, Blu-Ray Disc. It could be considered "running up the score" if Sony, Fox, Disney, Warner, & Lion's Gate all came out and announced 20-30 titles for the first half of 2008.

Finally, as much as we joke about dumb@ss comments by Ken Graffeo and the Widescreen Review "HD DVD propoganda" (ooops, I mean "interview") with Alan Bell...it is quite possible that some of these people are going to be out of jobs. That's never fun, but is a reality. So, I'm sure it's a sensitive issue in Hollywood and around the CES right now.

All of this said, we've put up with a lot of sh!t. So let's have a little reasonable fun. After this all unfolds, let's "get it all out" (w our LOL @ HD DVD) over the following week or so, and then move on enjoying our abundance of great BD content.

[darinp2]

An actual question for insiders (I'll save some funny stuff about plazman since this is the insiders thread ).

Any plans to do any commercials during the Superbowl for Blu-ray that you can talk about? Since commercials during that game generally get talked about and posted about in articles before and after the game, I would love to see articles on the internet and newspapers that list something along the lines of: Sony commercial explaining that the PS3 plays Blu-ray high definition movies, besides videogames. Since Peyton Manning is a spokesperson for Sony, seems like he might be a good one to use to try to get this point across, although I do like the PS3 morphing commercials.

And as far as Sony, is Dale Earnhardt Jr. still going to be a Sony spokesperson? I haven't seen any more on that in a while. Seems like another good person to get the point across about all the capabilities of the PS3.

--Darin

[Rob Tomlin]

Originally Posted by darinp2

An actual question for insiders (I'll save some funny stuff about plazman since this is the insiders thread ).

Any plans to do any commercials during the Superbowl for Blu-ray that you can talk about? Since commercials during that game generally get talked about and posted about in articles before and after the game, I would love to see articles on the internet and newspapers that list something along the lines of: Sony commercial explaining that the PS3 plays Blu-ray high definition movies, besides videogames. Since Peyton Manning is a spokesperson for Sony, seems like he might be a good one to use to try to get this point across, although I do like the PS3 morphing commercials.

And as far as Sony, is Dale Earnhardt Jr. still going to be a Sony spokesperson? I haven't seen any more on that in a while. Seems like another good person to get the point across about all the capabilities of the PS3.

--Darin

Good questions, especially regarding Dale Earnhardt Jr. (yes, I am a huge NASCAR fan). Haven't seen or heard anything regarding him promoting Sony, and I would have thought that they would have been anxious to start using him ASAP.

Perhaps using Peyton Manning in a Blu-ray/PS3 commercial for the Super Bowl and one using Dale Earnhardt Jr. for the Daytona 500 in mid February would be a great combo. Jr. is known for his love of video games, so he is a natural choice to endorse the PS3.