With Blu the victor, it's time to demand some changes....

[Seretur]

Hi, Nick! Thanks for posting this here, as HTF is really not somewhere I care to go anymore.

Point by point:

1 -- This is Fox, basically. Their attitude to BD releases smacks of planned double-dipping, and combined with your Point 4, has made me refrain from purchasing the vast majority of their titles. Look at it more widely: Fox are also obsessed with region coding and copy protection, so they're the odd company out in many ways. But then again, they're also obsessed with transfer quality (nowadays) and playability.

I'd guess that's just a different attitude than that of Disney or Sony, who give us discs that for the most part can be considered definitive releases -- a corporate MO that will certainly have to be adjusted in the upcoming months.


2 -- And this is why I've held off from buying all the titles you mention, and then some. As a rule of thumb, I won't accept less than lossless audio on any film released with a digital soundtrack, i.e. post-1990 (although I'm well aware that they could all have lossless -- it's just how I've rationalised buying, say, the Peckinpah titles, which I really wanted).

Warner are coming around in regard to lossless, though -- apparently even Jesse James will have it, contrary to initial reports. And I'm quite certain it would be no problem for them to repress most lossy releases, the way they did Superman Returns, so hopefully we see that happen this year.


3 -- Um, no. DTS-HD MA is a very good audio option. We shouldn't be judging it based on yesterday's players and receivers (and I'm saying this as someone who has a yesterday's player and receiver).

Even now, it can be bitstreamed from sub-$500 players, and processed by sub-$500 receivers. Those of us who care about audio can certainly invest in such gear (and prices are falling daily, see Funai). Those who don't care about audio still get at least DVD-quality DTS. I actually prefer this option to straight PCM, as it leaves more room for other things on the disc.


4 -- This is Fox and MGM, basically. Double dippers all. Well, thankfully The Fly was done justice to... And it seems they're getting better. Fox had a very trying year in 2007, now they can relax and start doing things right. And I'm not touching The Fifth Element until Sony finally release it as a proper SE. It's a silly film which you have to deck out like a Wallachian bride to make appealing...


5 -- Hey, it's all coming. I can take or leave the current "indie" cinema, but I want my classic titles done right, and that means care. None of the Universal catalog approach. (Those bozos will have to redo most of their transfers for the eventual BD releases, as I hope even they understand.) I'd rather have one big catalog title per studio every month, but done right. You know, like CE3K or BSD...


Speaking of BSD, I'm tickled pink to go over to HTF and see how Dave Mack is taking the Warner news...

...but nahh. Cees will probably want to give me a full cavity search, as soon as I click on the URL.