Bill Hunt/Graffeo HD DVD debate video from July 2007

[GasCat]

Originally Posted by BStecke

I don't even get a play button. If I use IE I get a white box, if I use Firefox I just get nothing.

It's quicktime so you may want to update. It really isn't anything special. There is also a link to the transcript.You can try that if the upgrade doesn't worlk.

[Jodi]

Originally Posted by dillycheeze

interesting videos.....i really have to say....ken graffeo is ridiculously mechanical....everytime he is asked a question, he avoids it almost immediately by reciting some obscure statistic.....actually....he does this so many times it gets incredibly annoying.....of course a high level executive is going to pay attention to stats but you can tell this guy just has no common technical sense....amazing that he is the one prolonging this war.....one guy that really asked some great questions couldnt really get a straight answer (yellow shirt..at the beginning of clip 2)....the hd-dvd guys seem to think that cheap prices, and a finished format with interactivity is the road to victory...and that content doesnt matter.....just amazing...do they not realize that in 6 months to a year, blu-ray will inherit everything that is good about hd-dvd and advance even more...and by then prices will be very low.....so whats left? CONTENT.....we all know the exclusives that are rattled off in these forums everyday......who in their right mind is going to buy an hd-dvd player when they cant have these titles? and its not like there is really a possibility for disney or fox to go neutral let alone switch....they are obsessed with copy protection and what these hd-dvd guys seem to not understand is that in the eyes of these studios, this is a huge format flaw.......if by an act of god, hd-dvd pulled tight, and ran away to win....the remaining studios would want another format....but the reality is...its already here in blu-ray
graffeo does not have the presence of someone who runs a company....not a good speaker at all, seems nervous.....and really doesnt seem human...LOL

Will someone PUH-LEEZE fire up the Hubble telescope and try to find out what planet Graffeo is from!!!
What an idiot!

Jodi

[BStecke]

Finally got this working. My favorite part was when the guy on the end (not Graffeo) is trying to be smart-assed when he's talking about how, "if we're going to count video game consoles (for number of players sold), we should just go ahead and count PC's, and then the picture really changes." And he's talking about how "many" people use their PC as a source for watching movies. Who does this!?? Is there a single person on this forum that plugs their PC into their home theater setup to use as their main player, or has ever even CONSIDERED doing this!? This video series really is a must-see . . . comedy ensues throughout.

[KenThompson]

With these people behind hd dvd its no wonder they are dying a quick death. What possible reason would you have to watch your movies on your computer unless your tv crashed just like a cheap microsoft computer.

[BStecke]

Not only that, but he's saying people are going to use their PC as an HDDVD player to watch on their TV, not just on their PC. The only time I've done this is at a hotel . . . and needless to say, you're not going to get much benefit from your HDDVD's at a hotel.

[darinp2]

Originally Posted by clyon

Or the part when they say Disney is only for 2-5 year old kids & snobs them off like Disney films are nothing.

I haven't been able to watch the video yet. Who was it who said the above?

--Darin

[DJeffries]

I don't remember which one of the HD-DVD panel members talked about Disney, but the point they were trying to make is that a 2 to 5 year old (Disney's only demographic implied by this panel) won't know the difference between watching a VHS vs DVD vs Blu-Ray so they are not a factor in the format war.

Well I'm a bit older than 5 and have bought quite a few Disney BDs. In fact I have not bought any format other than BD since I got my PS3. DVD only releases I want to see now get rented.

[darinp2]

Originally Posted by DJeffries

I don't remember which one of the HD-DVD panel members talked about Disney ...

I found it and it was an audience member.

I posted this in a different thread, but seems like it fits here too, so I'm going to repeat part of it here:

I would like to get just the last 5% or so of part 4 as I think it makes a great soundbite. Graffeo talks about how HD DVD isn't to the point where Speilberg would be okay with them releasing one of his titles. The best I can make out of what he said was:

"In regards to the Spielberg, umm ... It wasn't umm ... Steven was, wanted to wait for DVD 'til it was a higher penetration for that. Umm, right now with 100, 200 hundred thousand players and 150 thousand - he wants to wait until there's more penetration because umm you know when you do release - and Jaws was the first umm Steven Spielberg film that we came out with and at that time when we released we sold a million units. More than we ever sold on VHS. But you had to have some sort of like - I don't want to say "critical mass", because ... you have close to 3 to 4 million umm households that have players. It's too early now and I think we have to work very close with our filmmakers because they have a very integrated part in you know, in what we do. So that would answer your question on Steven."

How prophetic of him. Blu-ray has between 3 and 4 million households worldwide with players (counting the PS3) and Sony isn't giving us excuses about Steven Spielberg feeling that their chosen format isn't ready for one of his films, but instead has given us a date and specs for Close Encounters of the Third Kind.

Makes me think of a guy who says that some girl won't dance with him but it has nothing to do with him, she just dance and 15 minutes later she's out on the floor with some other guy. Based on what Graffeo said and subsequent events it seems that Universal has put themselves into a situation where Spielberg doesn't want to allow them to release his films on HD DVD at this point, but will let Sony release at least one of them on Blu-ray. Maybe Universal will think about what they could do to have enough of a market that Steven might let them have a dance, so to speak, since going neutral would more than double their target market size and give them an even bigger target market than Sony has just being exclusive to Blu-ray.

As far as the comment about Disney and kids, that was some guy in the audience. I hope that Graffeo would be smarter than that and believe that he probably is from what I've seen of the video through the 5th segment now.

BTW: I watched through the time when Ken Graffeo left and I didn't see him say that GE was pressuring him. He does say that they are comfortable with the decision they made and continue to make, but he also says multiple times that the consumers will decide. So, if they do decide to go neutral they can use that last one as an out and say that the consumers have now spoken enough that Blu-ray will stick around and so they are going to support it too. He seems to make it pretty clear that Universal wants cheaper players, so if the Chinese Blu-ray players that kjack has alluded to show up then that could weaken Universal's stance and give them a reason to support Blu-ray. There is also the interactive side that he keeps mentioning, but if Blu-ray will deliver on that for at least new players that could weaken there stance there, even with not all old players supporting all the features.

--Darin

[clyon]

Originally Posted by darinp2

I haven't been able to watch the video yet. Who was it who said the above?

--Darin

it was the guy on the left, I forget what video (I watched them out of order, might have been #3)

[Cain]

PS3 = $1,000.00 for the consumer !?????

[BStecke]

Yeah man! And don't forget those $80-$100 controllers too!

[GoldenRedux]

Originally Posted by MrBogey

It won't run on Mac's?

Of course it runs on Macs, it's Quicktime. I'm running OS X 10.4.10 on a Mac Pro and it worked fine for me in Safari 2.0.4.

[digital.view]

Originally Posted by coolwavepic

This is rediculous. The fat man on the right Michael is a jabroni. He claims that most people hook up their PCs to their TV.

We will definately talk about this on the radio show on Monday.

Any way I can get mp3 of your BLU-RAY SHOW? Any podcasts?

[digital.view]

Originally Posted by BStecke

I heard there was a video floating around from the HD DVD panel at HME where Bill Hunt and others basically disprove everything the HD DVD panel is saying about Blu-ray. Anybody have a link, I'd love to see it.

Which one is Bill Hunt? The guy in the audience?

[dialog_gvf]

Originally Posted by darinp2

BTW: I watched through the time when Ken Graffeo left and I didn't see him say that GE was pressuring him.

He does say he faces pressure "every day". But, it comes across (to me) as a general comment on getting things right, rather than specific pressure to change.

It is hilarious that days after making a comment that implies Spielberg will allow releases when he perceives it is/will have mass adoption that Spielberg OKs a release on Blu-ray.

I expect Graffeo to backpedal on his stance PDQ. His "let me tell you little people how it is" attitude really bit him in the ass there.

Gary

[dialog_gvf]

Originally Posted by BStecke

Yeah man! And don't forget those $80-$100 controllers too!

Yeah, this guy gets numbers (especially prices) wrong so often, you have to wonder if he is making decisions on what he thinks the numbers are rather than the real numbers.

- $1000 PS/3
- $100 controller
- $199 price point (1 million players on Black Friday in 1999 - I think it was 2003 and the price was $39)

He's either incompetant or a liar.

Gary

[BStecke]

At this point I'm going with incompetent.

Bill Hunt is the guy in the beige-ish shirt with glasses in the audience who calls BS on Graffeo's rant about DIVX.

[BluFox]

Originally Posted by dialog_gvf

Yeah, this guy gets numbers (especially prices) wrong so often, you have to wonder if he is making decisions on what he thinks the numbers are rather than the real numbers.

- $1000 PS/3
- $100 controller
- $199 price point (1 million players on Black Friday in 1999 - I think it was 2003 and the price was $39)

He's either incompetant or a liar.

Gary

http://www.hometheaterforum.com/ema2...4%20copy-1.jpg

It's like he actually got this info from the Amir and Kevin (sitting next to him) at Microsoft. He really needs to distance himself from those guys. Like before he gets fired, if it's not too late already!

And what the hell was Robert Zohn (an independant retailer) doing there!! He had nothing to say the entire time!! LOL!

[kaliraver]

What a complete waste of time, the whole thing was a total lie and crap. Universal knows damn well they are getting paid big bucks to stand behind HD-DEAD. Graffeo is a joke and doesn't make any sense when speaking; if you are going to run a company atleast know what your competitors are selling and the price points, geesh. That old geezer in the panel was a lame duck, the only thing he said was that he never got a single HD-DEAD player returned, big whoop. Without content HD-DEAD has no chance to make a comeback. Blu-Ray is picking alot of steam lately and its starting to look real bad for that camp. HD-DEAD exp 1/1/08, lol.

[darinp2]

Originally Posted by kaliraver69

That old geezer in the panel was a lame duck, the only thing he said was that he never got a single HD-DEAD player returned, big whoop.

I tried to listen closely and I believe what Robert said is that with over 4k HD DVD players sold, he's never given a refund on one. Maybe people did try to return them. I don't know, but I thought it was interesting wording.

--Darin