Fifth Element to be redone, says Sony

[JTK]

http://www.soundandvisionmag.com/art...&page_number=2

bottom of page 2:

On top of that, parts of some discs had been transferred from less than pristine film assets, exhibiting the kind of dirt and scratches seen in a worn print. Sony has now committed to rereleasing The Fifth Element for just this reason.

The way I see this, this is essentially an admission that something was rushed out and a subpar product was released.

I think any of you that bought any of these discs, like Fifth Element, that fall under this auspice deserve full compensation either via a direct trade for the new one (i.e. the version they should have put out in the first place or not bother at all) or a full refund.

[zombie]

Kind of makes you think Sony did this intentionally. I mean seriously, how could they have thought the current BD quality would be good enough to beat HD DVD? C'mon, I'm not that gullable. Along with rereleases I hope they come out with a major pricecut on their player.

[JTK]

I'm probably going to post this at the other forum. Names removed for whatever...

I can't imagine they are going to replace all the shitty titles they have released.

By all rights, they should. They should yank every single one of those subpar discs right off the shelves and start over.


Furthermore, anyone that bought those discs should be fully compensated by a full trade for the newer version* or a full refund.

*(re. the version that should have been released in the first place vs. the rushed botch jobs that should never have seen the light of day in the first place.)

Also, I knew all of these first release discs would get re-released, but it's only been a month! The double-dip train has started, and Sony's in the conducter's seat.

Except this is so needless and could have so easily been prevented.

It's pathetic, really.


What a f'ing waste all the way around.

It's almost laughable really, but if I bought one of these crap discs, I can assure you, laughing is the last thing I'd be doing after reading this admission to putting out subpar material, which is what that basically is.


Just don't bother to release it until you can do it right. Especially when you're trying to launch an entirely new endeavor!



Considering the way the Blu-Ray has gone, maybe Blu-Ray would have been better off waiting until at least August, or even October at this rate, to launch on ALL thrusters, right out of the gate vs. the botchy and half assed rushed job we've seen thus far.

Who can honestly deny it?

This is an admission of rushing out crap to meet a deadline and trying to clean the mess up later.

Doesn't pretty much everyone at this point believe that Blu-Ray would have been better of even delaying as late as October if need be to come out with all that high end hardware from the big boys and software WORTHY of those machines vs. what we've gotten so far? Blu-Ray deserved better than all this!

I do. Very inauspicious way to get started...

I think the launch was a botch and I'm stating it on the record, outright, because Fifth Element is sure as hell not the only disc that falls under that umbrella. Not by a longshot.

[PurpleAardvark]

For all the bad hype you are giving on this post I would like to say that I am much happier with my blu ray player than the piece of junk HD player I had. The pic quality is much eter and so is the sound. I like the copy of the 5th element and I am happy that I bought it. You can nit pick all you want to about double dipping and so forth but the truth is mistakes happen. I imagine that the whole blu ray investment is huge. I am happy as a customer to buy this product and support it to help blu ray grow. I do agree that sony should recall the old copies of the fifth element if there is something wrong. However from what i could see the movie looked and sound 10 times better than the reg. dvd vers. that I had. For the $20 I spent I think it is worth while and maybe by giving feedback in a more positive way the mistakes will be corrected better. That is just my thoughts on this subject.

[Richard Kappele]

Well, I hear people saying how wonderful their Blu-Ray pictures are and I'm glad they are happy with them. I have Blu-Ray and HD DVD and there is no question that HD DVD has a much superior picture, hands down. Sorry, but that's the truth.
By the way, my Toshiba HD-XA1 is a really nice, well-built unit and navigation is lightning fast compared to the hourglass taunting Samsung .

[JTK]

Originally Posted by Richard K

Well, I hear people saying how wonderful their Blu-Ray pictures are and I'm glad they are happy with them. I have Blu-Ray and HD DVD and there is no question that HD DVD has a much superior picture, hands down. Sorry, but that's the truth.

Yes, it is.

By the way, my Toshiba HD-XA1 is a really nice, well-built unit and navigation is lightning fast

LOL, no it's not.

I own the Xa1 with the latest firmware and while the navigation is better than when the units first came out, it is not anywhere close to being that fast. C'mon now...

...compared to the hourglass taunting Samsung

Hmmm...






Look, I'm glad that a better disc is coming along, and frankly, I hope most of the other Blu-Ray discs are given a long, hard look and given the same consideration.


But who can deny it at this point?

This Blu-Ray launch was/is a botch. Not a cataclysmic one, and I've certainly seen worse, but a botch nonetheless.




I am truly starting to wonder if Blu-Ray would have been better of just waiting until October, to do it all right, in a rock solid, unfifed, hardcore launch. Like we all expected, hoped for, and what it should have been.

Have that big boy hardware come out in October, like it's going to anyways, and have software ready with it that's WORTHY of that hardware...unlike what we have now.



This would have given HD-DVD an uncontested 5-6 months tops (?) in the marketplace.

This is realitively little to nothing, in terms of retail and the big picture, but obviously there's risk involved.


But here what doesn't add up:

How does Sony allow a threat like Microsoft, a company you never underestimate, to have a YEAR's headstart on them with the Xbox360 (which is hot and kicking ass, btw), and at the end of that year, their response is to bring out a product that's $100-$200 more expensive that's going to play mostly the same kinds of games...but yet they didn't/couldn't leave HD-DVD out there by itself for any lenght of time?



We all can argue about BD being in the PS3 all we want, but here's the facts:

1.) Most gamers don't give a damn. They don't even know what it is. They're going to walk in the store during the holidays and look to their left, look to their right, see more or less the same exact games, and then most of them are going to choose the cheaper ticket to those same games.



2.) Sony did help themselves with a C showing at E3 when it needed to be an A+.

To that end, starting from E3 on forward, their completely arrogant and out of touch rhetoric and corporate speak in addition to (especially) the prices, has done an excellent job in alienating an ever growing segment of their primary marketplace: The gamers.

Believe me: As a gamer of nearly 30 years, it's the damned truth. You can go to gaming forums all over the net and you can talk to them in person.


It doesn't matter how many times Sony talks about "It's a computer. It does everything but wipes your ass."

The end result is the same.

You can go all the way back to 3D0 and see what happens EVERY time someone tries to come into the gaming console world with this: "Be everything to everyone/glorified home theater set top box" idea and then charge extra for it.

The gamers DON'T CARE.

Yeah, I was one of the suckers that bought that thing because I FELL FOR AND BELIEVED THE PROMISES AND POTENTIAL.

The 3D0 was way ahead of its time. Amazing machine! And yet it died.



I'm wondering if the PS3 might have a bit of that same problem.

Maybe Blu-Ray should have been an add on situation or added later when developers are actually going to start USING the BD power and capacity...which will not happen anyways for several years.

You're going to see the SAME games, looking and performing almost exactly the same for at least the next 2-3 years, across platforms.

BD will offer NO appreciable advantages to gaming for the at least the next 2-3 years.

As is, and you can look this up, a lot of the game developers are not really thrilled with the PS3 dev kits. You just had THQ drop a popular title like WWE RAW vs. Smackdown 2007 this week. It's an Xbox360 and current gen consoles title only. That's not good news, folks.



Maybe Blu-Ray should have been saved for PS4. Who knows...


At this point, Sony has a terrible PR problem going for them, at the very least, and especially with their primary marketplace: The gamers. But don't take my word for it.


^^

All this, and yet they rushed Blu-Ray out so HD-DVD wouldn't be left out there for any amount of time, basically?

I think I know the obvious answer as to WHY that happened like that, but I'll leave that up to you all to figure it out for yourselves.


The only thing I'll say to it is this:

The typical early adopter will blow money out of their butts if they want something hot.

If he bought HD-DVD first and enjoyed it for six months, and then Blu-Ray came out and was even better? Guess what? No harm, no foul. He's either going to add Blu-Ray to the mix and/or dump HD-DVD for it.

This stuff just doesn't add up...

[Richard Kappele]

The Toshiba takes forever to start-up, load a disk, and go in and out of set-up; but once the disk is loaded, navigating and jumping to a scene is faster than on any DVD player I have (and I have 6 from Pioneer Elites to Panasonics).

[zombie]

Reopened

[Psiweaver]

The home penetration will win in the battle imo. The problem though is that if Blu-Ray looks like crap when the PS3 launches it could turn a lot of people off of it. Unless Toshiba can get some more CE industry support the war will be over in another year or so.

[dobyblue]

I would be just as pissed at this as I am at the continual "Extreme Edition", "Ultimate Edition", "Special Director's Cut" and all this bollocks that has been going on in the DVD world since its inception.
There's already three different versions of The Fifth Element you can buy, three Silence of the Lambs, several Dances With Wolves with yet another one on the way, etc., etc., etc., blah, blah, blah.

Will the studios ever be able to release ONE version of a movie that has the best audio, the extended cut, the theatrical cut, the extras, everything in the ONE release?

So far me thinks not.

[ProvenFlipper]

Originally Posted by dobyblue

Will the studios ever be able to release ONE version of a movie that has the best audio, the extended cut, the theatrical cut, the extras, everything in the ONE release?

So far me thinks not.

Of course not... Movie studios take money out of their pocket? Not likely.

[Zvi]

Originally Posted by dobyblue

There's already three different versions of The Fifth Element you can buy

That's nothing compared to T2. I have 5 copies of that movie, last 2 in metal box. Extreme and ultimate.. Good part is that I got 4 of them as a present, and only last one I bought myself.
Now there's BR version of it too, and it's not the extended but theatrical version which is missing few kewl scenes. I assume and hope the next version will be on DL BD and will be extended edition which I will have to buy. Sigh..