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

[Penton-Man]

Originally Posted by Bill Hunt

It could be a test to see how the market responds.

Bill,
Call somebody at WB if you can……….I’m walking into a screening as we speak.

Make sure that the Warner Home Video’s press site didn’t come out with wrong information concerning this topic.
As I said here…………………..
https://forum.blu-ray.com/showpost.p...postcount=2653

we floated this idea a few months back and it didn’t get any traction at that time.

[Bullseye]

Originally Posted by Bill Hunt

Yes... what he said.

If thats the case then its unlikely we will see much tv series produced in 2008 if any. Thats a pity as I would love Buffy or Bones on BD.

[WickyWoo]

If thats the cast then its unlikely we will see much tv series produced in 2008 if any. Thats a pity as I would love Buffy or Bones on BD.

You'll see Firefly and current seasons of shows. But not catalog stuff

[aygie]

Bill, Penton, Max, Paid, Wicky any of you care to comment on this comment regarding Red Ray?

http://www.reduser.net/forum/showpos...0&postcount=16

[WickyWoo]

I'm sure they can, notice he didn't make any claims about the quality. What it looks to me like is something that allows them to toss dailies around easily

[ErikR]

Question for Bill, Penton or Wicky or whoever might know....

This is for some of my international friends.... Will Universal be using region coding on Blu-ray?

[aygie]

Originally Posted by WickyWoo

I'm sure they can, notice he didn't make any claims about the quality. What it looks to me like is something that allows them to toss dailies around easily

I did, very quiet with questions. But surely Sony would be all over this, maybe to try and acquire the compression for Blu? 4K on DVDs?

[Gamma_Winstead]

I highly doubt anybody will have any info on this but what are the chances that Season four of The Office might hit Blu?

[WickyWoo]

No

It's not designed for consumer video. Red makes professional video production products. This thing will likely run $20,000

Just because the image is stored at 4K doesn't mean it doesn't look like garbage. Which it certainly will at that level of compression. On top of that I don't want to think about how much CPU power it would take to even decompress a garbage image.

And again, I'd believe them when they actually show the product. It's a mere hypothetical

[aygie]

Originally Posted by WickyWoo

No

It's not designed for consumer video. Red makes professional video production products. This thing will likely run $20,000

Just because the image is stored at 4K doesn't mean it doesn't look like garbage. Which it certainly will at that level of compression. On top of that I don't want to think about how much CPU power it would take to even decompress a garbage image.

And again, I'd believe them when they actually show the product. It's a mere hypothetical

Ok cool.

[Elandyll]

Just because the image is stored at 4K doesn't mean it doesn't look like garbage. Which it certainly will at that level of compression.

Wicky, I'm sorry but you can't go around saying that kind of things, when the guy from Red (I suppose he's from Red) is saying the exact opposite.

The guy is talking about 4k HD Raw footage, which by definition should -never- look like garbage, specially not due to compression (and if you retort Beta SX, I will respond that it was hardly "garbage", and that it actually was excellent for its goal, which was ENG). Here we are talking about Movie Cameras, and you seem to imply that on their $20.000 camera (not counting the optics I guess) there is a "SLP" setting that destroys the quality to benefit space used.

Personally (and even though we are clearly talking about a professional format not intended for consumer use), I am curious to see if their claim of having a technology that stores, let's say "decent", 4K footage + audio up to 2Hours on a dual layer DVD using a red laser (dual layer is .. what.. DVD-9 ? 8.5Gb?) has any substance...

[rlsmith]

Originally Posted by Esox50

...
It becomes a chicken or the egg scenario. Hold back the big titles and inherently slow growth of the Blu-Ray HD format. Or release them sooner, even though the install base is smaller than if you waited, and help to grow the market. I think the latter is the better option in the Blu-Ray format cause you have to give people good reason to upgrade from DVD.

I am not sure I agree with this, and would be happy to hear Bill's comments.

I don't think that the "blockbusters of the past" have that much to do with growing a new format, in particular Blu-ray. Predictable patterns of new D&D releases and highly marketed special editions are much more important.

Quality is a sine qua non and special features and content are going to be critical to format success. The studios are now trying all sorts of experiments, this is great.

Enthusiasts keep pressing in forums for these venerable titles but they really don't have the impact predicted IMHO.

In the particular case of Star Wars, I think the market is quite saturated today and that Blu-ray versions would not help the format that much. Lucas released the "original versions" on DVD two years ago to completely underwhelming market response. [Yes, I know they were the LD transfers. We did comparisions.] My advice to Lucas would be to give it a rest.

Indy 1-3 might be a different story given that Indy 4 is coming out this summer and a likely Blu-ray disk at Christmas. But it is a judgement call.

Bill, any remarks?

[WickyWoo]

Wicky, I'm sorry but you can't go around saying that kind of things, when the guy from Red (I suppose he's from Red) is saying the exact opposite.

Where?

This is what he said

The 4K RED-RAY uses standard "red" laser DVD media. The delivery codec is so efficient we can provide more than 2 hours of 4K plus audio on one dual layer single sided DVD.

Where does it say it looks good? All it says is "more than 2 hours of 4K". All there is in there is a commitment of the pixel count of the image.

Seriously, show it to me. Until someone actually sees the physical product in action who does not work for the company, it's absolute bull.

As I said, it would be useful as basically a converter box for shipping dailies back or something. There is simply no way that they can put 2 hours of 4K onto a DVD-9 and have it even approaching anything acceptible for a commercial product

Here we are talking about Movie Cameras, and you seem to imply that on their $20.000 camera (not counting the optics I guess) there is a "SLP" setting that destroys the quality to benefit space used.

That's definately not counting the optics, and no, I wouldn't count RED as a movie camera either. What it is is a great tool for documentaries or indy films, but there's a reason why the camera bodies on the pro models are more like $250,000. What I'm implying is that this box takes the 4K input and does a quick and dirty heavy compression

[jnm422]

Bill,
Do you think, or have you heard if the movie Legend will be released? I know it's old and from Uni but I'm throwing a dart in the dark on this just in case.
Also, I was wondering about one of my all-time favorites, The Changeling(HBO).

[Bill Hunt]

Originally Posted by Alan Gordon

I have a question, but first a little rant about WB today...

So, I wake up this morning, visit your site and find out that a release I was really looking forward to ("The Shawshank Redemption") is coming out in "Digibook packaging" (or as I like to call it, "craptacular packaging") and may actually convince me to hold off on this movie (which I'm ashamed to say that I've never picked up on DVD).

Then, I visit TVShowsOnDVD.com only to find out (article at the link) that the upcoming "Complete Series" of "Birds Of Prey" will be released in "NON-ANAMORPHIC" widescreen (in this day and age).

Then, to top it all off, I go to DVDActive.com to see that rear cover art (cover art & article at the link) for "Fool's Gold" has been posted with no "lossless" audio listed.

While I realize most people won't care about the "digibook packaging" and buy the movies they want, and I'm not sure what could be done, if anything about "Birds Of Prey", DVDActive posted the rear cover art for "The Perfect Storm" a while back with "lossless" audio omitted which you later proved to be incorrect. You were later asked regarding the omission of "lossless" audio from the rear cover art for "Batman: Gotham Knights" as well, but if you've mentioned an answer, I must have missed it.

My question is this, next time you're in touch with WB, could you please ask about "Fool's Gold", and if you've heard back regarding B:GK, please let us know what the answer is, and if either of these releases have lossless, let the people at WB know that every time they release rear cover art excluding lossless that it creates a "frenzy" on the internet.

Thanks!
~Alan

I'll do what I can Alan, but it seems that every day I'm bombarding studios with questions about upcoming releases and if you want to get answers, you need to keep the volume down. The people at WB are well aware that everything they announce, or that gets leaked, causes a frenzy online, believe me.

[Bill Hunt]

Originally Posted by Esox50

Thanks for the info, but that is troubling. Assuming Indy 4 makes it this year (and it better),then Lucas has three major trilogies (Original Star Wars, star Wars Prequels, Indy Trilogy). He's not going to release them all in one year either. So, if he waits 2 years to start releasing:
2010 - release Trilogy #1
2011 - release Trilogy #2
2012 - release Trilogy #3

It becomes a chicken or the egg scenario. Hold back the big titles and inherently slow growth of the Blu-Ray HD format. Or release them sooner, even though the install base is smaller than if you waited, and help to grow the market. I think the latter is the better option in the Blu-Ray format cause you have to give people good reason to upgrade from DVD. I think Blu-ray over DVD is going to be a harder sell than DVD over VHS. Making big titles available earlier in the BD life cycle (vs the same period in the DVD life cycle) one one way to "sell" BD.

This is getting oddly similar to the late 90's where people were complaining about Lucas. For someone who pushes the technological envelope on just about everything else, it makes little sense to me why Lucas take the opposite stance in terms of home video releases.

Keep in mind that it took, what... six years after DVD first appeared to get a Star Wars movie on the format? We're two years into Blu-ray, even if it takes two more years, we're still ahead of the curve. You don't prime the pump with your crown jewels. They'll be out and I'd bet sooner than later.

[Bill Hunt]

Originally Posted by Penton-Man

Bill,
Call somebody at WB if you can……….I’m walking into a screening as we speak.

Make sure that the Warner Home Video’s press site didn’t come out with wrong information concerning this topic.
As I said here…………………..
https://forum.blu-ray.com/showpost.p...postcount=2653

we floated this idea a few months back and it didn’t get any traction at that time.

Turns out it's just a typo on Warner's database. They had the DVD set for 6/17, and the Blu-ray for 6/10... New Line's press release shows the DVD for 6/10, which is the actual street date for both.

[Bill Hunt]

Originally Posted by Aygie

Bill, Penton, Max, Paid, Wicky any of you care to comment on this comment regarding Red Ray?

http://www.reduser.net/forum/showpos...0&postcount=16

Is this the quote you mean: "The 4K RED-RAY uses standard "red" laser DVD media. The delivery codec is so efficient we can provide more than 2 hours of 4K plus audio on one dual layer single sided DVD."

Yeah, translation... they compress it all to hell. This is the first I've heard of it, and I wouldn't be surprised if this is the last I hear of it either.

[Bill Hunt]

Originally Posted by rlsmith

I am not sure I agree with this, and would be happy to hear Bill's comments.

I don't think that the "blockbusters of the past" have that much to do with growing a new format, in particular Blu-ray. Predictable patterns of new D&D releases and highly marketed special editions are much more important.

Quality is a sine qua non and special features and content are going to be critical to format success. The studios are now trying all sorts of experiments, this is great.

Enthusiasts keep pressing in forums for these venerable titles but they really don't have the impact predicted IMHO.

In the particular case of Star Wars, I think the market is quite saturated today and that Blu-ray versions would not help the format that much. Lucas released the "original versions" on DVD two years ago to completely underwhelming market response. [Yes, I know they were the LD transfers. We did comparisions.] My advice to Lucas would be to give it a rest.

Indy 1-3 might be a different story given that Indy 4 is coming out this summer and a likely Blu-ray disk at Christmas. But it is a judgement call.

Bill, any remarks?

New releases - particularly action and Sci-Fi - drive sales of new video formats. That's how it's always been. The industry has to grow the market to a size where people are buying classics, TV shows and older catalog gems in any real numbers. That takes time and we've only just seen the end of the format war. Most people are only now even starting to think about Blu-ray as a possibility. Star Wars and Indy on BD would sell well now - I think those WOULD drive substantial sales. But the longer Lucas waits, the bigger the market gets and the more demand for the titles builds up in high-def. It's a much different thing to have a #1 seller when there are 10 million players vs a #1 seller when there are 50 million. And these titles have been dipped so many times already, that Lucasfilm is probably not going to get more than one or two viable shots at a Blu-ray version. So why would he rush it? Let other studios release big A-list catalog titles to grow the market, and in a couple years the time will be right.

I think the problem is that, now that the format war is finally over, all too many Blu-ray fans are demanding EVERYTHING be released RIGHT NOW. And that REALLY isn't very realistic. I wonder how many were around in the first three years of DVD, when it took time for your favorite films to come out. The installed player base has to grow, the replication and authoring capacity has to grow. Give it a little time, folks. That's the dark side of the success of DVD I think - people who grew up with it just expect every film they want to be available right now, at the click of a button from Amazon. Meanwhile, the rest of us remember a time not so long ago when you couldn't even watch most films at home... PERIOD. Patience folks. Good things take a little time.

[darkpoet25]

Hello Bill,
I know you have been busy lately and I appreciate the news that you have given us, so far. I have a question about the Back To The Future trilogy being prepared for a Blu release next year. I saw that they will be using the restored digital masters, which is wonderful. Do you think that by the time they come out, Universal will go from using VC-1 to AVC? What about the sound? I'm sure it will be lossless, but do you think it is possible that they will use both True HD and DTS-MA? Thanks in advance.