Archived: Ask the Insiders: Judgment Day Edition

[akbungle]

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.

Oh yeah SPOOKS(MI:5) would be sweet!

[Nick Graham]

Originally Posted by coolmilo

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

Paramount did dual encodes, and was about to do separate audio encodes before they abruptly went HD. Universal, when they are on top of their game, can produce reference transfers even with the bandwidth restraints of HD-DVD, so it's all good.

[The Don]

Originally Posted by hollywoodguy

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.

ohh definitely...

I have just tempered my expectations...

I'll make pretend it's a HD-DVD release and maybe it'll more than exceed my expectations

[edgebsl]

Penton, care to drop some hints about retailers considering movement?

It seems some are plenty red some a little more blu and some may have a little yellow in em if you look at their advertisements. Or maybe the way they paint their bricks. Or just the way they need to spell out everything in big fat bold fonts!

Tell me if I hit the bullsye on this one? Or maybe the only yellow is that big smiley face jumping around the store?

[sj001]

Originally Posted by JimSD

Forrest Gump is a Paramount title. This must be more confirmation in a Pentonesque sort of way.

WickyWoo has one of the official Penton-man decoder rings, so he must be able to speak/understand the same language.

[iceman]

Originally Posted by Penton-Man

Hey attention to one of the mods, it seems I am running out of space as I have downloaded too may pics (ha, must be a digital download problem), thank God I'm not trying to watch a movie.

Your attachment space has been increased 100x, let us know if you run out

[iceman]

Notice

This thread will be rebooted after CES and a new, stricter Insiders thread will be created, with more of an Q/A approach with some room for Insiders to talk more freely but less chit chat by regular members. This way the whole Insiders thread will be easier to read and will contain more posts with a certain "weight".

[zipbags]

To the insiders...

Just say Universal wants to go blu. But, is prohibited from announcing or releasing anything until say March 1st. Would a normal contract allow them to start producing their movies in blu? For example they want to release Bourne Ulitmatum. Instead of waiting until March 1st before they announce and then another couple of months to release it. They could do the encodes now and even start production. Then a week or two after announcing (March 1st) they could release it.

Thanks!

[JasonS]

Originally Posted by zipbags

To the insiders...

Just say Universal wants to go blu. But, is prohibited from announcing or releasing anything until say March 1st. Would a normal contract allow them to start producing their movies in blu? For example they want to release Bourne Ulitmatum. Instead of waiting until March 1st before they announce and then another couple of months to release it. They could do the encodes now and even start production. Then a week or two after announcing (March 1st) they could release it.

Thanks!

Good question. I'd be curious to know how this works as well. Clearly they are headed Blu so why not get a head start?

[Balian]

New information from the LA Times via Bill Hunt:

"Warner Bros.' decision last week to start making movies exclusively for Blu-ray players, rather than HD DVD, triggered an "out" clause in Paramount Pictures' contract with the HD DVD camp. An industry source said there was a significant possibility that Paramount would exercise that clause. It plans to decide within a month.

http://www.thedigitalbits.com/#mytwocents

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-f...ck=2&cset=true

[Penton-Man]

Originally Posted by mystiksuicide

Ok fellow bluers I am looking for an hd dvd player from anyone not interested in keep it. I am not looking to buy it since I won't be using it.

I need for a photoshoot (please don't expect to get the player back) or at least in 1 piece since the other prop in the photoshoot is a sledgehammer.

So if anyone has a broken one or one that works (same thing) please e-mail me.

If nobody has one to offer, then my dear, I suggest you check e-bay.
You may be able to pick one up for a winning bid of $20-$30 from one of the folks that was a longtime reader of Amir(and trusted his prognostications) and stood in line for hours for the $99 fire sale.

P.S.
On the other hand, pay for an HD DVD player now?, that may be an oxymoron thing to do.

Later.

[ottscay]

Haha, I guess it was missed due to the speed of this thread, but I offered my A1 a dozen or two posts earlier

[Azumi]

hi Iceman,

Originally Posted by Iceman

We have a somewhat innovative idea of how to handle the communication with the insiders. But before we realize it, we will create at least one new Insiders thread.

I hope you guys will also study some nice initiatives for the "day after" -- after Para and Uni cave in and the format war is over.

It would be a shame that our fellowship of Insiders disband, and everyone goes his way. It would be great if this forum uses the good relationship and good manners you have with the film industry, to build some dialog that would be beneficial to all Blu-ray users. Some Insiders may pop in less frequently than before, but the end of the competitive nature of the format war might allow them to speak more freely.

As I mentioned a couple of times in the past, Blu-ray.com might host chats with reps from Warner, Disney, Fox, indies and the like, where we may learn what good things they have in store.

Also, the forum might be consulted on some matters (lists of movies we'd like to be published, choosing a cover), just like Paidgeek has done a few times in the past.

And it could be educational too. Just like Penton wrote on 3D cinema or digital preservation, we could ask our technical insiders to teach us things on authoring, DI, replication and the such.

And this forum could even be a vehicle for some constructive criticism. There are always things that can be perfected -- from the LFE issue on the Panasonic BD-30 to the pricing of Fox BDs. Maybe this forum could be much more helpful than placing a call to an anonymous call center. And likewise, the 15,000 members of this Forum are an excellent panel to point out features we'd love to see and things we didn't like.

I understand that Internet forums are by nature volatile. Perhaps there's a way to stick all this literature for all future forum members to see.

[kjack]

Would anyone happen to have the graphics that showed the marketshare of all the HD DVD and BD player manufacturers?

[Balian]

Originally Posted by kjack

Would anyone happen to have the graphics that showed the marketshare of all the HD DVD and BD player manufacturers?

[Crackbone]

Originally Posted by kjack

Would anyone happen to have the graphics that showed the marketshare of all the HD DVD and BD player manufacturers?

Here you go Keith,

[ottscay]

Ouch, has Toshiba ever lost marketshare with standalones the last 5 months. Even WITH the $99 firesale.

[kjack]

Thanks for slide! Now to combat some competitive FUD...

[Azumi]

Originally Posted by ottscay

Ouch, has Toshiba ever lost marketshare with standalones the last 5 months. Even WITH the $99 firesale.

I remember reading that Toshiba had a standalone marketplace approaching 70% last Spring, and then down to 55% or so late last summer.

If some of you have kept their press releases, it would be very educational to see the erosion of their market share...

[OokieSpookie]

I still think that Toshiba and MS are going to make one more attempt at something really stupid in the near future.
The MS backpeddle :

There was a critical element of our comments missing from the story -- Microsoft currently has no plans at this time to consider Blu-ray as an option. We continue to believe that HD DVD is the best optical solution for consumers, since it's the only format today that delivers quality experiences at affordable prices.
While the article states that Microsoft might possibly look into Blu-ray, we just want to emphasize that there are no current plans to consider Blu-ray as an option. Microsoft continues to be dedicated to the HD DVD format and we don't want the Reuters article to mislead or suggest otherwise.

and also Bill Hunt's rather rapid (though minor) back peddle :

Just a quick update... the L.A. Times is now reporting that Warner's switch did in fact trigger Paramount's out clause with HD-DVD. Here's the relevant text from the story:

"Warner Bros.' decision last week to start making movies exclusively for Blu-ray players, rather than HD DVD, triggered an "out" clause in Paramount Pictures' contract with the HD DVD camp. An industry source said there was a significant possibility that Paramount would exercise that clause. It plans to decide within a month.

Paramount officials said they would continue to support HD DVD, a format for displaying videos in higher quality whose backers include Toshiba Corp. and Microsoft Corp. Universal Pictures, which has been a strong supporter from the beginning, issued no public statement on the matter here."

Meanwhile, the same story reveals that Toshiba has been in meetings with its retail partners about their continued support of HD-DVD:

"Toshiba said Tuesday that retailers have expressed their commitment to HD DVD during private meetings at the show, which is the world's largest consumer tech gathering."

As to whether or not retailers would abandon HD-DVD immediately, the story offer this comment:

"Industry executives said it would be unusual for retailers to abandon any format so soon after Christmas, for fear of sparking a flood of returns."

The plot thickens. The key thing to note is that it seems as if the remaining HD-DVD supporting studios plan to take their time making any major decisions, which is smart. It gives them time to develop their own plans, to see what the fall out from CES is, etc. So don't expect any more major announcements in the next couple of weeks at least. As we said earlier, everyone take a deep breath, and let's just have patience while we all wait to see how things play out in the next month or two.

are not helping.
Toshiba seriously should be sued all to hell if they keep dragging this thing out.