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

[kurtlingle]

Penton/Jeff,

Is WB happy with the Blu-ray numbers for TDK? I would think they are? If you hear anything - please let us know.

Thanks!

[Jeff Kleist]

Of course they are.

No studio is dropping out, ramping back or anything other than increasing Blu-ray production/hype no matter what the FUDsters keep trying to push

[coolmilo]

Originally Posted by kurtlingle

Penton/Jeff,

Is WB happy with the Blu-ray numbers for TDK? I would think they are? If you hear anything - please let us know.

Thanks!

I am wondering if WB realizes that if they build a quality product, people will buy it. Heck, I skipped at least 10 WB movies this year because they did not include lossless audio and/or they were poorly encoded (bit starved for 25 GB disk).

I realize that TDK is a special movie, but if they take the same care with other BD releases as most of the other studios do, they would sell a lot more BD’s overall.

[Jeff Kleist]

People would buy TDK no matter what they did

That said, it's certainly a wonderful example that they will not not buy it because of a little grain

[MerrickG]

Jeff,

Right now the FUDsters are criticizing the numbers because it includes rental sales.

Can you get any idea on how many actual discs were sold to consumers in the US?

Just so we can shove it back in the face of the FUDers.


Thanks.

[Jeff Kleist]

A million is a safe figure

[Blu Titan]

Originally Posted by Maxpower1987

Over 1m sales to consumers.

Enough said.

[MerrickG]

Originally Posted by Maxpower1987

Over 1m sales to consumers.

and JUST so we can be clear. That is US right?

Thanks Max

[Penton-Man]

Originally Posted by Penton-Man

After reading Bill Hunt’s edited Rumor Mill today, I see our friend Digital Bits Bill , has cleaned out the wax from his ears, i.e. South Pacific vs. Sound of Music.

Regarding that, I saw a digital presentation of the restored South Pacific back in Jan.? 2006 at the Digital Cinema Lab(ETC/USC), the exhibited source being a D5 tape projected via a Christie 2k DLP projector and it looked good, from what I can remember.

My question would be to “ender21” (who reads this forum/thread ) or anyone else from Fotokem or Fox.........

Question - Is that same D5 tape being used as the source for the eventual Blu-ray edition of South Pacific or has Fotokem made a new HD master in the interim since ’05? – feel free to PM me if you can find out.

Someone indeed got back to me on this topic via PM.
That was fast.

The content provider did produce an entirely new HD master (since ’05) for the upcoming Blu-ray version of South Pacific, as the D5 digital presentation I saw at the Digital Cinema Lab, for one thing, had only 5.0 audio.

Seems as though TCFHE is going the extra mile for this home media title even after investing so much $$ for the photochemical preservation and digital restoration.

[Penton-Man]

Originally Posted by iceman

Was that in 2005?! Time flies... Penton, since you are in that mood, let me counter with this one:


Should be an excellent show for the Oscars

Actually, my post had a deeper philosophical meaning i.e., how far we’ve evolved as a society in accepting mixed relationships/marriages (Seal and Heidi) as compared to the inter-racial tension subplot depicted in South Pacific a half a century ago.

But, nevertheless, the timetable for 81st Annual Academy Awards is ………….
http://www.oscars.org/81academyawards/timeline.html

[Penton-Man]

Originally Posted by merrick97

Jeff,

Right now the FUDsters are criticizing the numbers because it includes rental sales.
Can you get any idea on how many actual discs were sold to consumers in the US?
Just so we can shove it back in the face of the FUDers.

I don’t know what other forums you guys get all this stuff from.
All that has been reported to me today was that my old friend Rob Tomlin had 6 or 8? of his posts deleted last evening, as well as several other folks’ postings, from a Dark Knight *science* thread.

So, now someone is challenging the sales numbers as well as the picture quality of this Blu-ray?
Set ‘em straight Max!

[MerrickG]

Originally Posted by Penton-Man

I don’t know what other forums you guys get all this stuff from.
All that has been reported to me today was that my old friend Rob Tomlin had 6 or 8? of his posts deleted last evening, as well as several other folks’ postings, from a Dark Knight *science* thread.

So, now someone is challenging the sales numbers as well as the picture quality of this Blu-ray?
Set ‘em straight Max!

They are just arguing that Warner is inflating the numbers by including sales to rental chains. They refuse to believe that Bluray is here to stay.

[Jeff Kleist]

Even if you use numbers from me or Max, they'll just toss it back and say we're agents of evil. They will never believe no matter what. They'd rather sit in their martyrdom holes and cry and whine about how Sony abuses them, and how Blu-ray will never win blah blah blah. No evidence can ever be good enough, because it doesn't support their side.

[iceman]

Originally Posted by Penton-Man

Actually, my post had a deeper philosophical meaning i.e., how far we’ve evolved as a society in accepting mixed relationships/marriages (Seal and Heidi) as compared to the inter-racial tension subplot depicted in South Pacific a half a century ago.

But, nevertheless, the timetable for 81st Annual Academy Awards is ………….
http://www.oscars.org/81academyawards/timeline.html

Well yes, I understood that it was a bit more than that, I just saw an opportunity to post a funny/unexpected video
Running that show on a larger public event is probably slightly controversial even for Europe... maybe not France... but a lot of other countries

I haven't seen South Pacific but I would say that we've come so far that I didn't even reflect over Seal being black and Heidi white, I always judge people purely by their actions.

[Penton-Man]

Originally Posted by iceman

but I would say that we've come so far that I didn't even reflect over Seal being black and Heidi white, I always judge people purely by their actions.

P.S.
I don’t know how I’m ever going to out-video-clip you now after that.
That was definitely *shock and awe*.

[PaulGo]

About the Dark Knight - I guess with all the copies sold (and the high rate of disks that are defective) the world wide capacity of Blu-ray disks must be zero and no additional titles will be published for at least a year.

The above statement is somewhat of an inside joke going back a year when all the HD-DVD fanboys stated Blu-ray disk manufacturers could not meet demand because of the high defect rate and therefore Blu-ray was doomed to fail.

I really hope the outstanding sales of the Dark Knight will finally make them realize Blu-ray is a success and here to stay. I was at Costco today and about 30% of the shelf space devoted to DVDs was stocked with Blu-ray disks.

[dialog_gvf]

Originally Posted by PaulGo

About the Dark Knight - I guess with all the copies sold (and the high rate of disks that are defective) the world wide capacity of Blu-ray disks must be zero and no additional titles will be published for at least a year.

The above statement is somewhat of an inside joke going back a year when all the HD-DVD fanboys stated Blu-ray disk manufacturers could not meet demand because of the high defect rate and therefore Blu-ray was doomed to fail.

Ah yes, the Digital Video ghost of FUD-Xmas past.

[dialog_gvf]

Originally Posted by merrick97

They are just arguing that Warner is inflating the numbers by including sales to rental chains. They refuse to believe that Bluray is here to stay.

Ah, because in troubled economic times rental stores waste huge amounts of money buying large quantities of an unrentable title?

[HeavyHitter]

They are really losing it over there at that other forum. Dark Knight's BD success in terms of sales, video and audio quality, IMAX, etc. is taking its toll on them. lol

I saw someone claim Dark Knight is the worst high def image they've ever seen. It's really just this: it's killing them that it's not HD DVD sales that are over one million from Dark Knight. What's even funnier is how many of them are supposedly outraged at the SD DVD quality of Dark Knight and Warner's supposed hidden agenda to "ruin" SD DVD quality to make Blu-ray look better than it really is. The fact BD has six times the pixel resolution and a whole slew of other PQ benefits including far superior compression doesn't matter as facts and reality have never mattered with them.

[dobyblue]

Originally Posted by Penton-Man

how far we’ve evolved as a society in accepting mixed relationships/marriages (Seal and Heidi)

And Michael and Lisa or course....or was he already white by the time that took place?