August 9th: Digital Bits' Blu-ray Rant, Part 2

[EricJ]

Originally Posted by hyperdine

Have no fear...Fox will be here!

At this point, we're just taking them at their word that they were just holding out for the more secure BD+ coding we finally got last month, after all those overblown hacker/HD scares.
And if MGM could start recently getting back on the horse for the same reason, take that as a good sign.

[Zod]

Relax people, it's still a new technology and FOX is in this to make money. They'll release on blu-ray. HD-DUD is a dead format, the only formality being the official time of death.

[ReduxInflux]

regarding FOX:

the longer we wait to eat, the hungrier we are! people are growing impatient and the Blu-Ray ownership base is growing. And when the food is ready, we can expect an onslaught of strong sales for FOX.

[BorrowedTime]

Originally Posted by blublublu

The first test for Fox will be their next major release on DVD.

Frankly they haven't had a major new release since "Night at the Museum" (as far as I recall), and I'm not sure what the next one would be besides the last Die Hard.

I can't see how they would not release this and The Simpsons on Blu Ray.

lol,

I'm sorry, this comment made me laugh. As soon as I read "The Simpsons", and the last few comments were about Fox. I just had the image of Ralph Wiggum standing in the middle of the "O" on the Twentieth Century Fox Logo, screaming out the FOX theme music. Damn... now I wanna see this movie again.

[tvted]

Thanks for the Bill Hunt post.

If anything its convinced me to buy CE3K to show support for the format because I'm not a fan of the film. I do hope it gets exceptional; sales for a caralogue title to prove that BD is a winner.

ted

[darkblueme]

Published August 9, 2007
http://www.thedigitalbits.com/mytwoc...40.html#uniema

[erowe83]

Originally Posted by darkblueme

Published August 9, 2007 on
http://www.thedigitalbits.com

BADASS...

[BTBuck1]

I was smiling from ear to ear after reading that.

[dialog_gvf]

But when Graffeo answered this question, in the way he did, I actually felt bad for the guy. It was clear to me, and to others who were on hand to witness the exchange (and I've confirmed today that many others who were there shared the same impression), that Ken (and Universal as a whole) is under a LOT of pressure related to his studio's exclusive support of HD-DVD.

Yeah, in the video I saw a rather tired looking Graffeo who looked very old, slouching and worried (lines on the forehead).

I wonder if the Kornblau thing was a way of relieving some pressure on Graffeo? In other words "stop blaming him, the buck stops here".

If that is the case, the pressure is even more than any of us imagine. And cracks are definitely showing everywhere. Graffeo feels so persecuted that Kornblau had to come to his aid in the HiHD piece.

There's another issue here that's worth mentioning as well. Just a few minutes before the exchange above, Graffeo was asked by an audience member about the possibility of Steven Spielberg's films appearing on HD-DVD. I believe it happens at the end of video clip #4 on the HTF. Now... you may recall that earlier this year (on 1/29 to be exact), the HD-DVD Promotional Group had listed a number of Spielberg films on their website with the suggestion that they were "Coming Soon" to HD-DVD, including Jaws, E.T. and Jurassic Park. But shortly after they were posted, which caused an understandable stir, the Group removed the titles from the site and posted a retraction. To my knowledge, nothing more on the subject of Spielberg on high-def came to light until Graffeo was asked by an audience member (at the EMA panel two weeks ago) about the possibility of Spielberg films on HD-DVD. Here's his answer:

Graffeo: In regards to the Spielberg, um... it wasn't... Steven wanted to wait for DVD til there was a higher penetration for that. Um... right now, with 100... 200,000 players and 150,000... he wants to wait til there's more penetration. Because, um... you know when you do release... and Jaws was the first Steven Spielberg that we came out with, and at that time we released we sold a million units. More than we'd ever sold on VHS. But you have to have, sort of like... I don't want to say critical mass, because you had close to 3 or 4 million households that had players... but it's too early now. And I think we have to work very close with our filmmakers because they have a very big part in what we do.

Okay... I bought that argument and I think so did everyone else at the panel. And that would have been the last word on the subject... EXCEPT that just a week later, Sony announced at Comic-Con the first Steven Spielberg film to be released on high-definition, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, EXCLUSIVELY on the Blu-ray Disc format (on 10/2). Huh? Something doesn't jive here. Given his position within the industry, and Universal's close ties with Spielberg over the years, how did Graffeo not know this was coming just a week later? And for those of you who would say that Sony controls CE3K and not Spielberg, I was told directly by Sony reps at Comic-Con that Spielberg personally approved the high-def transfer of the film. Not only that, he's recorded a new interview just for the Blu-ray release. So he HAD to have approved this. How does Universal not know that was coming? In what light does that cast Graffeo's comments at EMA from just a week earlier? And, maybe even more to the point, what does it say about Spielberg's opinion of, and position on, this high-def format war, when his first high-def disc release is a Blu-ray Disc exclusive? Add to that Lucasfilm producer Rick McCallum's comments from a few weeks ago at the Star Wars Celebration convention in Europe, to the effect that if Hollywood doesn't get its you-know-what together and end this format war soon, Lucas might bypass high-def discs altogether and release the Star Wars films in high-def via download only. What does all that say about how good this format war REALLY is for consumers, regardless of Universal's belief that having helped to drive hardware prices down so quickly justifies their position? Who, at this point, does continuing this format war really benefit?

Clearly, it now benefits only those that aren't interested in HD discs.

So, Universal is a pawn in the war against discs. And they are too poor (due to years of box office nightmares) to give up sucking from the Microsoft teet.

Gary

Oh, BH RULZ!

[Blu Tiger]

Graffeo: "In regards to the Spielberg, um... it wasn't... Steven wanted to wait for DVD til there was a higher penetration for that. Um... right now, with 100... 200,000 players and 150,000... he wants to wait til there's more penetration. Because, um... you know when you do release..."



...and, um...you're fired!!!

[whippersnapper]

Originally Posted by dialog_gvf

Yeah, in the video I saw a rather tired looking Graffeo who looked very old, slouching and worried (lines on the forehead).

I wonder if the Kornblau thing was a way of relieving some pressure on Graffeo? In other words "stop blaming him, the buck stops here".

If that is the case, the pressure is even more than any of us imagine. And cracks are definitely showing everywhere. Graffeo feels so persecuted that Kornblau had to come to his aid in the HiHD piece.



Clearly, it now benefits only those that aren't interested in HD discs.

So, Universal is a pawn in the war against discs. And they are too poor (due to years of box office nightmares) to give up sucking from the Microsoft teet.

Gary

Oh, BH RULZ!

Yeah, in the video I saw a rather tired looking Graffeo who looked very old, slouching and worried (lines on the forehead).
I wonder if the Kornblau thing was a way of relieving some pressure on Graffeo? In other words "stop blaming him, the buck stops here".

Hey, neither Graffeo or Kornblau should worry too much. After all, the Pet Rock Company could use a new marketing guy and a CEO. Don't expect those positions would pay that much right now. But the Pet Rock future may be more promising then the holes they're digging for themselves now.