Some general thoughts (and q's) I have on blu-ray...

[zachd73]

I recently got in to blu-ray with the purchase of a samsung BDP-2500. I also recently upgraded my mits rptv (dinosaur) to a mits hc-1600 projector with a 106" screen. With the larger format screen, the difference between blu-ray and standard discs is really noticable. The audio quality is also a huge leap from standard dvd.

For these reasons, I'm pretty excited to be on the blu-ray train..

HOWEVER

1. They are too expensive to buy. I stopped buying SDVDs when it became apparent that this format was not going to last and would be replaced by a hi-def format or a downloadable and/or hi-def format. I'm glad I did! I probably watch one movie from my collection of 60 or so every 3 months. I own a record store and sell DVDs and have seen how most DVDs on the used market are worth next to nothing.. check amazon.com and most popular dvds sell for less than $5, sometimes, for .01!

I feel like investing a lot of money in blu-ray would be a bad idea. It seems to me inevitable that the format, as cool as it is, will probably be superceded in time, whether sooner or later by a downloadable format if there is bandwidth to achieve the same quality as blu-ray.

Also, it's widely reported that blu-ray discs don't cost that much more than sdvds to produce... so why the high price tag? I feel like I'm being bilked and or milked by a $30+ price tag on a disc that I feel should be $20-$25 at most.

Are they going to lower the price soon or what?!

2. I really am not please with the current selection and release rate of Blu-Ray discs. I check my local rental store which has maybe 120 titles. Many of them are terrible movies I would not want to watch. I understand there is no accounting for taste though, probably most of these movies did great at the box office and thus are being put on blu-ray first. There are some classic movies out there, but in somewhat of a paradoxical situation.. my favorite classic movies are the ones I have seen the most and am not ready to revisit... for example, the films of Kubrick or Hitchock that I have seen many times.

I guess I am saying overall, that for a "film geek" there is not a very wide availability of intersting titles readily available (via netflix, rental, or to purchase easily). It is cool to see some intersting titles appear... some examples are Old Boy, Let the Right One In, Bottle Rocket, or Vanishing Point. I am not a huge fan of Vanishing Point, but that's more in line with the kind of movies I would like to watch hi-def on my 8 foot screen.

Do you think there will be an 'explosion' of titles available soon now that the format war is over? What's holding the studios back from release more than a few titles a month? Is the blu-ray mastering and pressing process that much more complicated than SDVD? Is it close to maturity or have a ways to go? Are high prices holding back adoption rates (I say yes)? Is it the economy (I say no). By the time the less popular/more interesting titles are released... will it be close to the time for blu-ray to go away??

3. Having expressed these opinions of dissastisfaction... I would love to be part of the 'solution'. I always wanted to somehow get in to DVD production. Specifically, to find obscure but great movies and give them proper release on DVD. I feel like there is a huge gap between what was available on VHS and what became available on DVD. I think it's a travesty that such films as "Yor, the hunter from the future" or "metal storm: the destruction of jared-syn" have never made it to dvd. It's hard to watch them on VHS as the tapes are so degraded now it's almsot impossible. I'm sure there are a lot of people out there who feel the same way about a lot of 70's and 80's exploitation films and b-movies. There are some great dvd labels, obviously, Criterion and Anchor Bay plus lesser known ones like Mondo Macabre that really help by releasing some great non-mainstream, b-movie, and foreign titles... but still.. it's still greatly lacking and especially on blu-ray.

With that in mind.. I wonder if..

Any people here are currently in the field of DVD or blu-ray production? What are the barriers to entry there? What do you think the total cost of releasing a film on blu-ray would be? What would be the greater hurdle - the equipment needed to do a quality film to blu-ray transfer - or securing the legal rights to release the films? What do you think the ratio of people are who would like to see Metalstorm on blu-ray? 1 in 100? 1 in 1000? 1 in 10,000?!!

Even aside from the more obscure films... where is the Blues Brothers? Repo Man? Indiana Jones?! Does the "Bucket List" really deserve to be put out before Indiana Jones?!

That's it, just had to get those off my chest! Not hating on blu-ray just to hate - if it wasn't such a kick-ass experience to watch a blu-ray disc (and so far, I have only see the Road Warrior, Iron Man, and Predator) then I wouldn't be so dissapointed in the current state of selection and price!