Archived: Insiders Thread

[paidgeek]

Originally Posted by onyxx

Paidgeek, did you find the poll regarding extras valuable? Out of 123 answers, 64 wanted extras and 59 didn't care much for them. This shows that extras are somewhat important and if a studios want people to replace their DVD catalog titles with BD's they should be worth the upgrade in more than audio/video. Maybe polls and discussions like this are already starting to pay off, I will rather wait for a added value 'Starship Troopers' than buy a slim version today!

https://forum.blu-ray.com/showthread.php?t=12325

Every poll has been valuable, not just from the data, but from the comments that are posted that expand on the reasons for choosing one way or the other. On products where we can go either way with a feature, the information we get from the forums has been nudging us one way or the other.

[paidgeek]

Originally Posted by Merlins

Sony have announced in one of it's news letters that it will only release region free discs in Europe. I haven't seen any change from this. It was announced in about the same time Sony and Disney said they would only use Region 1 coding on new releases and not on catalogue titles.

Starship has split rights, so the Japanese version may not play in the US. I can't easily check this for you.

[paidgeek]

Originally Posted by Zinn

Can you or anyone else please find a link to prove that?

Thanks

We may still have to region code a European disc if we don't have rights outside Europe. This should not happen often though. I can't think of a single title.

[FourToedStatue]

Originally Posted by paidgeek

These are great titles, but they don't showcase HD.

That's too bad.

[darinp2]

Originally Posted by paidgeek

Starship has split rights, so the Japanese version may not play in the US. I can't easily check this for you.

Did you mean to say "European version"? As I understand it Japan and the US are in the same region for Blu-ray (which is something I think will put pressure on Universal to release discs that work in the US, but are released in Japan to keep from foregoing that market).

On that note, is there anything you can share about how the 2 formats are doing in Japan? We have Nielsen numbers for the US and have gotten some data for Europe, but I haven't seen anything for Japan as far as the ratios between the 2 formats for discs sold.

--Darin

[kurtlingle]

KJack or other insiders,

Any news on the Chinese Blu-ray players? Any hints at the next time we'll hear something.... Will we see anything in the fall - as was hinted at before?

Any news?

Thanks!

[Frode]

Originally Posted by paidgeek

Starship has split rights, so the Japanese version may not play in the US. I can't easily check this for you.

The Japanese BD should play even if it's region coded since the US and Japan share Region A.

As far as Darin's question about sales in Japan I think this link should be rather illustrative:

http://www.watch.impress.co.jp/av/do...0725/wds05.jpg

The left side is set-top recorders, and the right side is blank media. I've been following things and that seems to be pretty representative of the ROM market as well. A quick check at Amazon.co.jp reveals that their top HD DVD title (miami vice) has a sales ranking of 1315. There's 17 BD titles that have better numbers, and it just goes downhill for HD DVD from there. There is no format war in Japan for all points and purposes - it's a rout. Even Bandai Visual who initially were very gung-ho about HD DVD, have stopped announcing HD DVDs and seem to have gone Blu-ray only for their Japanese releases. So much for their relationship with Memory-Tech.

[paidgeek]

Originally Posted by darinp2

Did you mean to say "European version"? As I understand it Japan and the US are in the same region for Blu-ray (which is something I think will put pressure on Universal to release discs that work in the US, but are released in Japan to keep from foregoing that market).

On that note, is there anything you can share about how the 2 formats are doing in Japan? We have Nielsen numbers for the US and have gotten some data for Europe, but I haven't seen anything for Japan as far as the ratios between the 2 formats for discs sold.

--Darin

Hi Darin,

You are correct, Japan and the US are the same region, I mean to say the European version..

My information is that BD is much stronger in Japan, but I don't have any 3rd party marketing data to share.

[paidgeek]

Originally Posted by Petra

PaidGeek or Penton-Man,

Bill Hunt mentioned at DigitalBits.com about Weinstein about to go neutral at the end of the year. Have you guys heard anything about this? is there any weight to this rumour at all?


thanks

It seems there is more than a rumor. I can't elaborate, but have some inside information that titles are in the works.

[Penton-Man]

Originally Posted by Petra

PaidGeek or Penton-Man,

Bill Hunt mentioned at DigitalBits.com about Weinstein about to go neutral at the end of the year. Have you guys heard anything about this? is there any weight to this rumour at all?


thanks

Sorry, no comment at this time.

[mattym]

Originally Posted by kurtlingle

KJack or other insiders,

Any news on the Chinese Blu-ray players? Any hints at the next time we'll hear something.... Will we see anything in the fall - as was hinted at before?

Any news?

Thanks!

funai are aiming for q4, if you go to their site and look at the financials for the year it mentions it in there. Gowell have removed the page but left the left to bluray player, as to the rest, Kjack what do you know?

[Penton-Man]

Originally Posted by mattym

funai are aiming for q4, if you go to their site and look at the financials for the year it mentions it in there. Gowell have removed the page but left the left to bluray player, as to the rest, Kjack what do you know?

Yeah, Kjack speak up !
As an aside, there’s alot of talk about q4 on all the forums. I expect HD DVD to blow their wad on q4 and have nothing left for the proverbial 5th quarter.

[Petra]

Originally Posted by paidgeek

It seems there is more than a rumor. I can't elaborate, but have some inside information that titles are in the works.

Originally Posted by Penton-Man

Sorry, no comment at this time.

O_o, something is definitely up

thanks guys

[nhaase]

Originally Posted by Penton-Man

Yeah, Kjack speak up !
As an aside, there’s alot of talk about q4 on all the forums. I expect HD DVD to blow their wad on q4 and have nothing left for the proverbial 5th quarter.

Is the BDA expecting that their exclusive line-up (POTC, Spidey, Ratatouille, Fox movies if Fox returns, which I've been reading they will) of new titles (and box sets for some of those, cough, Spidey) will be enough, or are they going to counter with more? I know you may not be able to speak much on this, but any info will be nice

Thanks in advance.

[Josh]

Originally Posted by Penton-Man

Sorry, no comment at this time.

Now, when has this ever happened

People at the show said to expect the Grindhouse features to be the first titles on Blu-ray. Really, not a surprising move considering how linked Weinstein is to Blockbuster. My initial gauge on the situation was that they went HD DVD because Disney (their sworn enemies) went Blu-ray.

Insiders, I know you can't confirm, this is an information post only.

[Esox50]

Originally Posted by Penton-Man

I expect HD DVD to blow their wad on q4 and have nothing left for the proverbial 5th quarter.

C'mon. They'll just drop player prices another $100, and give away another incremental 5 HD DVDs with a player purchase because, you know, ...that's worked so well up to this point in terms of giving them the lead in this format war...

[FourToedStatue]

Hey paidgeek,

Earlier this year, Grudge 2 was being rumored as a day and date release. What happened to it and are there any plans to release it and Grudge 1 anytime soon? Thanks

[WickyWoo]

My initial gauge on the situation was that they went HD DVD because Disney (their sworn enemies) went Blu-ray.

As far as I know, from some people in a position to know, it was strictly a financial deal. HD exclusive people enjoy massive discounts and the startup costs are lower.

[JonasK]

Originally Posted by Frode

The Japanese BD should play even if it's region coded since the US and Japan share Region A.

As far as Darin's question about sales in Japan I think this link should be rather illustrative:

http://www.watch.impress.co.jp/av/do...0725/wds05.jpg

The left side is set-top recorders, and the right side is blank media. I've been following things and that seems to be pretty representative of the ROM market as well. A quick check at Amazon.co.jp reveals that their top HD DVD title (miami vice) has a sales ranking of 1315. There's 17 BD titles that have better numbers, and it just goes downhill for HD DVD from there. There is no format war in Japan for all points and purposes - it's a rout. Even Bandai Visual who initially were very gung-ho about HD DVD, have stopped announcing HD DVDs and seem to have gone Blu-ray only for their Japanese releases. So much for their relationship with Memory-Tech.

The right hand graph doesn't show blank media, it shows movies. So the Blu-ray movie title market share in Japan during the first three months of this year was slightly above 90%.

[WriteSimply]

paidgeek,

What's the idea behind the Spider-man HiDef Trilogy set? Specifically, why does Spidey-3 get the 2-disc version but Spidey1-2 didn't?

Is the reason the same reason why The Fifth Element remastered didn't come with any video extras whatsover?


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