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

[gand41f]

Originally Posted by Bill Hunt

I suspect things will become clearer as the year goes on.

Reading between the lines, I assume what is meant here is that it is actually Toshiba and retailers working in unison to find a spot for a "soft landing" (as opposed to "crash landing"...massive returns, etc.) and they have a tacit agreement to stop the whole charade in a few months...but they can't yet since we're still in the Christmas return period?

Note that I still think it is a sleazy tactic to try to fool customers any longer, but if that is the case, I (as a Blu-ray supporter and an HDM fan) am not going to be too worried about it. I just hope it's existing HD-DVD owners purchasing these machines as backups, not new customers buying an expensive paperweight (even Toshiba's own 1080p upconverters cost less than 1080i HD-DVD players).

enjoy
gandalf

[monkyman]

Hi Bill, again welcome to the forum.

My question is about Paramount/Dreamworks. Do you believe they will make the move together to blu, or like Newline, one may stop HD DVD all together while the other continues to support them for the time being?

Any word on how the relationship between Mr Speilberg and Paramount/Viacom/Dreamworks are? There was talk that Speilberg and Geffen may leave by the end of this year.

Thank you.

[Cold_As_IceSMM]

Simple questions:

-Solaris (Soderbergh)

-Minority Report (Confirmation - Dreamworks controls USA home video distribution, correct? I assume Steven negates this, however...)

-The Thin Red Line

When?

Thanks in advance. I read your site nearly everyday.

[Nooff]

Originally Posted by Cold_As_IceSMM

Simple questions:

-Solaris (Soderbergh)

-Minority Report (Confirmation - Dreamworks controls USA home video distribution, correct? I assume Steven negates this, however...)

-The Thin Red Line

When?

Thanks in advance. I read your site nearly everyday.

Eventually they will all be on Blu-Ray

[Teazle]

Originally Posted by Cold_As_IceSMM

Simple questions:

-Solaris (Soderbergh)

-Minority Report (Confirmation - Dreamworks controls USA home video distribution, correct? I assume Steven negates this, however...)

-The Thin Red Line

When?

Simple answer (from post #1 of this thread):

"Please conduct your inquiries in a professional manner and avoid asking "chicken little" questions or asking when unannounced titles will come out."

[cj-kent]

Bill, it is awesome that you have graciously given us some of your time. My question is this: What is a realistic time table for HD DVD software to be phased out of retailers' stores? When you consider how slowly Universal is likely to drag their feet and that Warner won't stop releasing HD DVD until June, will we really have a clear-cut winner for the general public to choose from for the 2008 Holiday shopping season? I guess what I'm really asking is, could it already be TOO late for the HD format? You said countless times at the Bits that another Holiday season of indeciveness could kill any chance of mass adoption for either format.

[micks_address]

Hi Bill,

Long time reader of the bits from ireland.. i asked this on a different thread, then realised you had a thread open here -

Blue Ray is definetly the format of choice in ireland.. a tiny market i know.. i dont think you can even buy a HD DVD player in any shop over here.. apart from the XBox add on..

i bought a HD DVD player from the UK in october mainly to watch Transformers. I've since sold it on now that Warner has gone Blue Ray, my questions

1) what do you think is a realistic timeframe for Paramout and Universal to start releasing on Blue Ray?

2) do you think Warner will re release some of their earlier titles with PCM sound?

3) will Warner stick with VC 1 encodes?

4) Apart from any space issues why dont all studios include PCM on Blue rays? wouldnt it save having to pay DTS or Dolby royalties for using their codecs and result in cheaper disk prices?

5) what do you think of some HD DVD supporters who are suggesting that Paramount and Universal will stick with HD DVD until neither format takes off and people start to embrace digital downloads? - i cant for the life of me seeing people downloading 30gb plus movies over the net especially in some countries where DSL broadband is only taking off.. our connection is only 1meg at the moment - can imagine how long it would take to download a hd movie!

6) Do you think Sony will add DTS Master audio decoding to the PS3?

ok thats about it - appreciate you putting in the time to answer questions

Cheers,
Mick

[GJN]

I've been surprised and somewhat dismayed by the lack of new release announcements since the holiday season. I should think that this time of year is ideal for maintaining the momentum of December sales and further diversifying the demographic base for HDM. I jumped heavily into Blu-ray a year ago on the basis of titles announced at last year's CES; I'm sure many others would have done the same this year. Any comments?

On another note, has anyone in the BDA made overtures to smaller firms like Criterion and Image to encourage them to release in Blu-ray? I would think that help with mastering and replication costs would encourage these small but very influential DVD producers to test the high def waters.

[EricJ]

Originally Posted by micks_address

Hi Bill,
2) do you think Warner will re release some of their earlier titles with PCM sound?

3) will Warner stick with VC 1 encodes?

And to complete the Warner-question trifecta:
(And okay, so most of these aren't "questions", so much as "Possible future website soapbox-fodder to consider: )

3a) Going on the assumption that Warner is going to fill immediate space by dumpwaring most of their previous HD catalog, is there any reasonable hope of their converting their previous "poor selling" (haha) Casablanca and Adv. of Robin Hood, and possibly helping to break studio-wide "4:3 Vintage titles" phobia?--Or are those pretty well gone for good with the studio "sales" alibi?

(Once they can get past Robin Hood on Blu, it's only a step to their already Ultra-mastered GWTW and Oz...)

[onyxx]

Greetings Bill, nice to have you on board blu-ray.com!

Have you allowed the director of "Downfall" to use of your name in this soon to be smash hit Hollywood picture?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=friS4OOcdgQ

[radagast]

Thanks Bill, for participating here. I have recently heard a different history of this format war that places Toshiba as working on hd-dvd first, with Sony being the spoiler by starting on Blu-ray later and causing the war. Before that, I had always heard that Sony and Philips started Blu-ray long before Toshiba started hd-dvd. And that since hd-dvd was such an easier spec to do, that is the reason Toshiba got to the market first. I think you are a good person to know the real history and not any revisionism. Could you clear this up? Thanks.

[JTK]

This is way overdue. Warm welcome, Mr. Hunt!

[HeavyHitter]

Hi Bill,

I know you took an awful lot of flack last year from people over at AVS because you took a stance for Blu-ray simply because you believed it was the best choice. Well, you were proven right and they were proven wrong. You've done a great job of coverage on your site and look forward to reading your posts here.

Question: I know Indy 4 is being planned for BD later this year. Is there any chance we'll see the original three movies along with it?

[dobyblue]

Originally Posted by radagast

Thanks Bill, for participating here. I have recently heard a different history of this format war that places Toshiba as working on hd-dvd first, with Sony being the spoiler by starting on Blu-ray later and causing the war. Before that, I had always heard that Sony and Philips started Blu-ray long before Toshiba started hd-dvd. And that since hd-dvd was such an easier spec to do, that is the reason Toshiba got to the market first. I think you are a good person to know the real history and not any revisionism. Could you clear this up? Thanks.

Can you link the article of HD DVD's timeline?
The "Blu-ray Disc Founders" were established in December 2001.

http://www.blu-raydisc.com/Article-14804.html

Tokyo Japan, February 19, 2002: Nine leading companies today announced that they have jointly established the basic specifications for a next generation large capacity optical disc video recording format called "Blu-ray Disc". The Blu-ray Disc enables the recording, rewriting and play back of up to 27 gigabytes (GB) of data on a single sided single layer 12cm CD/DVD size disc using a 405nm blue-violet laser.

The companies that established the basic specifications for the Blu-ray Disc are: Hitachi Ltd., LG Electronics Inc., Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd., Pioneer Corporation, Royal Philips Electronics, Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd., Sharp Corporation, Sony Corporation, and Thomson Multimedia.

In addition to actively promoting the new format throughout the Industry, the nine companies listed above plan to begin licensing the new format as soon as specifications are completed. Licensing is expected to start around spring 2002.

[greekjgg]

Mr. Hunt, what do you see happening first?

1. Universal or Paramount going blu (either neutral or exclusive)

or

2. A major retailer going blu exclusive

[scott1256ca]

Bill, in your column yesterday you wrote

All new players sold as of last November MUST be profile 1.1 ready. Stand-alone profile 2.0 players will be available in the next few months, beginning with Panasonic's BD-50. By the end of 2008, virtually all new Blu-ray players should be 2.0 compatible

I think you might want to clarify for your readers that this applies to new models introduced last November, not just new units of older models.

[gandley]

A big welcome to Bill Hunt. It great to have you here. Much respect goes to you and your site for drawing a line in the sand and having the fibre to stick with it.

When you came out on the side of BD, i knew it was a format worth buying into and so far its looking like youve got it right again.

Looking forward to your comments here so thanks for that. Would also like to thank the Mods here for making this happen ( i did ask a couple of times ).

I think many on this site have found themselfs defending the name of Mr Hunt on other forums, and for my part its been an honour to do so, i just like a guy who calls a spade a spade, and hackles Ken Graf

Bill, you must take alot of stick for your comments about HDDVD. does it ever get to a point where you think it gets too much?

[Fozziwig]

Originally Posted by Marcusarilius

Nice to hear you use the word "us" Bill. Such an honor to have you here.........

I believe Bill was refering to the team at Digital Bits (not all of us).

Every time a pro Blu-ray article appeared on the Bits a mob of HD DVD fans would gather and hurl abuse and accuse Bill of taking a payoff. Total garbage of course but I think it demonstrated how important Bill's comments have been in helping Blu-ray win the format war - maybe only a small part of the victory Bill, but I get the feeling you have a lot of respect in the industry and what you say can make a difference.

While I'm on the subject I would like to add my thanks for the stance you (Bill) took in backing Blu-ray, standing firm even through the P/DW debacle. You could easily have sat on the sidelines, and I don't think anybody would have minded if you had.

You did what you believed was the right thing to do even though it meant taking a lot of heat from the HD DVD side and potentially damaging the readership of your website. I sincerely hope the outcome of all this is that The Digital Bits is even more successful and that you get invited to a lot more parties!

[USF Bull]

hey bill, welcome to the forum! i asked this question to max but he's gone for awhile so maybe you could shed some light into my question. The latest news on the digital bits was that Toshiba had told Universal and Paramount not to announce anything for a couple of months, we most assume they want time to try to right the HD DVD ship. However, they used the work "announce", so does this mean that maybe Universal and Paramount have both already decided on what they're going to do and Toshiba is just asking they delay those announcements so they can liquidate as much inventory as possible while there is still some value in HD DVD? I mean Warner Bro. won't be exclusive until June, but announced early to end the war now, maybe Toshiba didn't want to take another blow right away if it didn't have to? What are your thoughts?

[DaViD Boulet]

Hey Bill,

not posting to add to your work-load of responses. Just want to add my vote to thanking you for everything that you've done (and continue to do) for the HT community, and HDM in particular.

Your voice was one of the few who really dared to candidly, and logically, approach this format war, and you were willing to take a stand when it mattered despite the risks. While the HD DVD side called you biased because they chose to not respect your articulated rationale, those of us willing to hear what you said knew that you were right about your position that the format war (if it continued) was bad for consumers and bad for HDM, and the Blu-ray was the best choice for a single-format solution given our choices.

Thanks for the courage to speak honestly, confidently, and courageously despite all the back-lash the HD DVD camp attempted to throw your way. I know that part of the reason that things are moving strongly and swifly towards a single-HDM format at this time is, at least in part, due to your excellent and vigillant efforts.

Thank-you.