Ask questions to The Digital Bits team (Bill Hunt, Jeff Kleist et.al.)

[Jason One]

Bill, this is my new favorite thread! I've been a fan of the Bits since the beginning of DVD. It is great to see you once again able to engage in a forum without being attacked left and right by HD DVD supporters.

Thanks again for your "Digital Bits picks Blu-ray" editorial. It was the perfect response to Harry Knowles' ignorant and misinformed picking of HD DVD, and it was great to have you emerge as a voice of reason in this format war. (May I suggest that you update the editorial to include mention of the Warner decision?)

Anyway, glad to have you here, and I'm looking forward to following this thread.

[PeterTHX]

Originally Posted by Bill Hunt

Hey, good for you! I think you and I must have been the only two people watching that show. I've been trying to score some of those cool shoulder patches for a while now. The good news is, Enterprise is high-def ready... whenever CBS decides to put it out on Blu-ray. Might be a year or two.

Hey, I watched all *four* seasons

It's just too bad they ended the show when things were starting to get really interesting. They still had Romulan spies on Vulcan...

Good to see you here on this site. :tu:

[phansson]

Bill,

I was very pleased when I found out you were going to be one of our "new" insiders. The fact that you have put so much effort into posting the first couple of days is even more exciting.

Thanks again,

[scragham]

hi bill,

love the digital bits. admittedly a newer reader, having come aboard after the harry knowles hubbub, but have appreciated your willingness to take a stand.

anyway, has there been any talk of releasing some of the old alistair maclean-based movies like ice station zebra, or where eagles dare? force 8 from navarone and guns of navarone i suppose i should mention too, even though i'm not as fond of them.

i know they're kind of esoteric movies, but i do loves em so.

[Marquoz]

Originally Posted by Bill Hunt

Funny... I was just talking to Gord the other day. I suspect you'll see more TV product on Blu-ray later this year. Torchwood, the new Doctor Who and even Stargate would be obvious places to start. But expect it to start slow. For TV product to really sell on Blu-ray, you need a much larger market that yet exists. It was at least a few years after DVD really took off that TV shows started to sell in any kind of numbers, so it's likely to be the same with Blu-ray to a degree.

I can guarantee they will have a customer in me for all three of those series. Even though I already own them all already, I held off getting the Stargate complete series package waiting for it to come on BD. In fact, I've been holding my breath since years ago when they said Atlantis would be the "first tv show on Blu-Ray".

[Canada]

Dear Mr. Hunt

Before I joined this war you and the other editors wrote an amazing article called " What have you done geekhead". I consider my self to be up to date with a lot of home theater advancements but at the time you wrote the artical there was so much BS out there, thank you for cutting through it. I must have read that article 3 or 4 times before I made my decisision. Looks like you lead a lot of people to choosing the right format.

When the Paramount deal broke my jaw hit the ground my faith that the best format would win was shaken. But thank god Warner Brothers looked at this from a logical and consumer perspective and not just a bussiness one.


"Greed is good" Gordon Gekko Obviously he was not talking about the Paramount deal.

Thanks a lot



Bob

[Gotchaa]

Bill,

Been visiting your site since it's been up. While I love the retro look, and I am sure it's easy to edit, it's getting harder to read! When can we expect a new web site design, perhaps a wordpress/blog type desgin, hardest part is the colors! We're not getting younger, need to preserve the eyes for viewing BD! Come on man help a fellow Irvine native out. How about a new website design? Cheers.

[BluStar88]

Originally Posted by Gotchaa

Bill,

Been visiting your site since it's been up. While I love the retro look, and I am sure it's easy to edit, it's getting harder to read! When can we expect a new web site design, perhaps a wordpress/blog type desgin, hardest part is the colors! We're not getting younger, need to preserve the eyes for viewing BD! Come on man help a fellow Irvine native out. How about a new website design? Cheers.

+1 Huge fan love your site, but it could use a make-over making it a little more reader friendly.

Oh and welcome to the sight your devotion is to answering our questions is unbelieveable. It is truly great to have you on the forum.

FYI- don't know if you have been to HDD recently but the discussion over there has been particularly nasty of late.. better to stear clear.

[Nooff]

Hey Bill, welcome to Blu-Ray.com

I'm sure you've had this question asked at least once, but here it goes.

Is there any word on DTS HD-MA decoding by the PS3? There are so many stories floating around that it can't pass it as a bitstream due to the limitations of the chip. Sony, one of the founders of Blu-Ray, is about the only one that currently doesn't have any players that does DTS HD-MA bitstream or internal decoding, like the Panasonic, Samsung and Pioneer do a.t.m. It makes you wonder if DTS HD-MA is important to them, cause they sure make it seem like it's not. Thanks in advance!

[gand41f]

Originally Posted by Bill Hunt

More or less. Retailers don't want to rush too soon into pulling the plug on HD-DVD because a lot of their customers obviously purchased the format from their stores over the holidays - they run the risk of pissing people off and getting a lot of returns. On the other hand, sales were down across the board last year and especially over the holidays. With Warner having made their move, there's a feeling at retail that this is nearly over. All you have to do is look at the mainstream press post CES to see that feeling reflected there. So going forward, you're not going to find a lot of retail sales people recommending HD-DVD to their customers without heavily qualifying it to cover themselves. So, you're not going to see a lot of mainstream consumers buying HD-DVD. Even with these sales - if low prices were enough to win this thing for HD-DVD, that would have happened already. So as these players slowly go out the door, I'm guessing they won't be restocked by many retailers. Hardware and software sales will slow dramatically, and that will be all the more justification not to stock them. It will snowball.

Thanks Bill. Yes, that makes sense. Even for Toshiba, if they are just clearing their inventory, selling them at a loss is still better than not selling them at all. And I'm assuming they are currently stuck with a lot of inventory, given that they had to do a massive $99 sale just before Thanksgiving week to move tens of thousands of A2, which I'm sure put a huge damper on the A3 sales during the "official" holiday shopping season with their (relatively speaking) higher prices.

In fact, people are pointing out today that the price of the current A3 firesale is still a full 50% higher than that of the A2 firesale, and that maybe the A3 will eventually come down to the same level or lower so people who are looking for a spare HD-DVD player should wait.

Toshiba seems to have really backed themselves into a corner with player prices here. I'm really surprised that a large corporation would allow something like this to happen. Even if they were able to pull off a "stalemate" to kill HDM and preserve their DVD revenue stream, Toshiba still would have had to supply massive numbers of HD-DVD players at price points people expect (which seems to be just above regular DVD player prices now) for a few years just to support that stalemate, since they even priced the Chinese players out of the market.

Do you know if this was all factored in their battle plan at the beginning, or did something just horribly go wrong and they completely lost control of the financial structure of the market?

enjoy
gandalf

[JBlacklow]

Bill,

At last year's ComicCon, Weinstein reps were saying they were going to release on Blu-ray. At the time they were already a couple months into a HD DVD title drought, which is still going on. They haven't released anything in about 7 months. Recently, we've been hearing from other insiders that Weinstein has basically dropped out of the whole hi-def media thing for the time being. Does this jibe with what you're hearing?

[DaViD Boulet]

Bill,

I've started a thread on this which has garned a bit of controversy:

https://forum.blu-ray.com/showthread.php?t=31763

Basically it's asking the question "should the BDA require 2.0 spec in all BD hardware?"

I understand the reasoning of manufacturers and some on this board that web features might not appeal to all consumers and therefore lower-cost web-free players should be available.

However, I think that all this does is muddy the waters of BD hardware specs for "normal" consumers who aren't tech-saavy and haven't dedicated hours of their free time to become self-made BD-specification experts.

To suggest that the average consumer should simply purchase the BD player that meets the spec requirements they desire is a rediculous postion, IMO. It pre-supposes that the average consumer would:

1. even be aware that there's an issue of multiple-spec options they need to consider
2. educate themselves about these differences since no one else will (store clerks know less than the average man on the street in regards to these things)
3. tolerate such a situation as a credible way to deliver advanced-technology gear.

The reality is that most consumers who buy BD players won't learn about profile 1.1 or 2.0 until the first time they try to access that advertised bonus feature and can't. Now you have a frustrated BD customer, not a happy one.

IMO it's simple: every BD player made should play every feature on every disc that is within the defined BD specification. (obvious provisions for car/mobile BD players to ommit 2.0 web connectivity would apply. HD DVD hardware specs probably have similar provisions for car-based devices that lacked web access.)

Some insiders have already stated that the additional cost to go to full 2.0 over 1.1 is minimal, so I don't see the problem with making the full 2.0 spec mandatory. If anything, it would facilitate firmware updating for players given the inordinate number of updates required of many players to keep pace with developing disc-software trends.

I'm curious as to your thoughts about how the muddy waters of player-specifications might impact the average consumers enjoyment of BD software, and what you see as the best solution (and how to obtain it).

[iwanttobeabmoviestar]

Originally Posted by Bill Hunt

I don't think there's been any official comment. Have you contacted their customer service number? I'm sure it's just a pretty straightforward replacement process.

WARNER ALSO HAS NEVER RESPONDED (CALLED 3 TIMES AND GOT SAME ANSWER "WE DONT KNOW WHAT WERE DOING ABOUT IT YET") ON THEIR T3 MISHAP FOR 1080I NOT 1080P PRINT AND I HAVE YET TO GET MY LABEL TO SEND BACK PIRATES TO DISNEY IS THERE A REASON THESE COMPANIES TAKE SO LONG ON THESE I HAD TO DO THE SWITCH WITH WB ON THE SUPERMAN SET AND IT TOOK ABOUT 2WEEKS TO REMEDY

[Razzy]

Originally Posted by iwanttobeabmoviestar

WARNER ALSO HAS NEVER RESPONDED...

Why are you yelling at Bill? He doesn't work for Warner.

[PaulGo]

For those not familiar with Bill (I was not) this page from his website fills in a lot of the blanks. Care to add anything additional?

http://www.thedigitalbits.com/advertise.html

[iwanttobeabmoviestar]

Originally Posted by Razzy

Why are you yelling at Bill? He doesn't work for Warner.

SORRY NOT YELLING CAP LOCKS BROKEN

[Bill Hunt]

Originally Posted by Gotchaa

Bill,

Been visiting your site since it's been up. While I love the retro look, and I am sure it's easy to edit, it's getting harder to read! When can we expect a new web site design, perhaps a wordpress/blog type desgin, hardest part is the colors! We're not getting younger, need to preserve the eyes for viewing BD! Come on man help a fellow Irvine native out. How about a new website design? Cheers.

Yeah, I hear you. We're still stuck back in the 20th Century. I have sworn that by the end of 2008, we will be more user friendly. So hang in there. We'll get there this year...

[Bill Hunt]

Originally Posted by Nooff

Hey Bill, welcome to Blu-Ray.com

I'm sure you've had this question asked at least once, but here it goes.

Is there any word on DTS HD-MA decoding by the PS3? There are so many stories floating around that it can't pass it as a bitstream due to the limitations of the chip. Sony, one of the founders of Blu-Ray, is about the only one that currently doesn't have any players that does DTS HD-MA bitstream or internal decoding, like the Panasonic, Samsung and Pioneer do a.t.m. It makes you wonder if DTS HD-MA is important to them, cause they sure make it seem like it's not. Thanks in advance!

Don't know, but I'll see if I can find out. You might want to float the idea over in PaidGeek's insider thread. He has better connections with Sony.

[Bill Hunt]

Originally Posted by JBlacklow

Bill,

At last year's ComicCon, Weinstein reps were saying they were going to release on Blu-ray. At the time they were already a couple months into a HD DVD title drought, which is still going on. They haven't released anything in about 7 months. Recently, we've been hearing from other insiders that Weinstein has basically dropped out of the whole hi-def media thing for the time being. Does this jibe with what you're hearing?

Yeah, but they'll get back into it when the time is right. I think their few HD-DVD titles haven't sold well. I have confidence that Harvey and Bob will go Blu when the time is right.

[Bill Hunt]

Originally Posted by DaViD Boulet

Bill,

I've started a thread on this which has garned a bit of controversy:

https://forum.blu-ray.com/showthread.php?t=31763

Basically it's asking the question "should the BDA require 2.0 spec in all BD hardware?"

I understand the reasoning of manufacturers and some on this board that web features might not appeal to all consumers and therefore lower-cost web-free players should be available.

However, I think that all this does is muddy the waters of BD hardware specs for "normal" consumers who aren't tech-saavy and haven't dedicated hours of their free time to become self-made BD-specification experts.

To suggest that the average consumer should simply purchase the BD player that meets the spec requirements they desire is a rediculous postion, IMO. It pre-supposes that the average consumer would:

1. even be aware that there's an issue of multiple-spec options they need to consider
2. educate themselves about these differences since no one else will (store clerks know less than the average man on the street in regards to these things)
3. tolerate such a situation as a credible way to deliver advanced-technology gear.

The reality is that most consumers who buy BD players won't learn about profile 1.1 or 2.0 until the first time they try to access that advertised bonus feature and can't. Now you have a frustrated BD customer, not a happy one.

IMO it's simple: every BD player made should play every feature on every disc that is within the defined BD specification. (obvious provisions for car/mobile BD players to ommit 2.0 web connectivity would apply. HD DVD hardware specs probably have similar provisions for car-based devices that lacked web access.)

Some insiders have already stated that the additional cost to go to full 2.0 over 1.1 is minimal, so I don't see the problem with making the full 2.0 spec mandatory. If anything, it would facilitate firmware updating for players given the inordinate number of updates required of many players to keep pace with developing disc-software trends.

I'm curious as to your thoughts about how the muddy waters of player-specifications might impact the average consumers enjoyment of BD software, and what you see as the best solution (and how to obtain it).

Well, I obviously think all the manufactures should get up to 2.0 ASAP. Even if people don't use the features, 2.0 at least makes downloading firmware updates easier. Ideally, the Blu-ray companies shouldn't have rolled out with three profile targets, but a few execs have told me that they didn't really have a choice. HD-DVD already had a six month head start and if they didn't roll out, by the time the final Blu-ray spec was complete they might not even have had a chance to get into the market. So it wasn't an ideal situation. I just steer people to the PS3, and say if you want a standalone, just wait a few months and fully complaint units like Panny's BD50 are on the way. But again, as I've argued on The Bits, this situation is not unlike the first few years of DVD, where people had to buy new players to use DTS audio and RSDL dual-layer switches and seamless branching. The good news is, the market is still so small, and is composed mostly of early adopters who knew that going in, that the situation will resolve itself pretty well over the next year or so.