Digital Bits interviews Buena Vista's Senior VP of Worldwide DVD Production (1 Viewer)

[LukeB]

I explained very politely that such an

interview that would be ultimately Disney

defending their PAN & SCAN policy would only

make matters worse.

Well, Ron, I think it wouldn't have been a bad thing if you had raised all the great points we have raised in the big Disney phone drive thing.

The Disney VP's spiel at TDB does seem to be a transparent way to say P&S-only releases are okay...but the HTF would have been able to present all these technical ways of pleasing everybody that such an interview could have been beneficial and not just been a Disney defending themselves crap piece.

Would have been interesting...

 

[gregstaten]

I also read the interview with a heavy heart. There's a lot of justification and pandering going on. But, as someone who's fought for years for the importance of education, often the suits consider education an expense better not spent. Instead, they decide to just "give 'em what they want to shut 'em up". Of course, the sad part is that rarely are those that make the decisions educated themselves!

Here's a really sad thought - will we be forced to go to D-VHS to get our widescreen releases of mainstream films?

-greg

 

[Jesse Skeen]

BTW anyone have a 35mm print of "Max Keeble's Big Move" they wanna sell me? I'd take a 16mm print too.

 

[Rob T]

Let me also bring this up here....
HTF is making a lot of noise.

That's good to hear!

 

[Steve O]

I'm doing everything I can to contibute to the cause - letters, E-mails, phone calls to Disney's customer line, etc. However, I must say that, after reading that interview, I'm going to have to bite my lip. Mr. Epstein would kick me off this forum in a heartbeat if I put how I feel about Disney right now onto this thread. Let's just say that there would be some nasty words included.
Please keep in mind that this is coming from a long-time Disney customer. Between clothes, DVDs, food (with Disney on the box), vacations to Walt Disney World, and countless other things -- I would estimate that Disney receives, on the average, $6,000 to $8,000 in revenues from me each year. I wonder how St. Thomas or the Florida Keys would sound for a couple of years?! These people are not fulfilling Walt's legacy at all. Instead of being leaders in technology and setting the standard, they have proven time and again that they make all of their decisions based on marketing charts and "thumbs to the wind." That is, ... well, just sad.
:frowning:
We have Muppet Christmas Carol on VHS from a long time ago and the tape is wearing thin. It's one of our family's favorite movies. If the DVD this year is not a 16x9 widescreen, Dolby 5.1 special edition, I'm making my non-Disney vacation plans posthaste. And, oh yeah, Disney can forget it if they start making pan and scan only. Even if they sell if for $1.00 -- I will not bring that garbage into my house. My kids deserve better than Disney is currently delivering (we even watch widescreen on our minivan's DVD player!).

 

[Richard Waller]

Ron:
Disney:

 

[Scott D S]

Ya' know, this whole battle would make one hell of a movie! (Presented in widesceen on DVD of course)

 

[george kaplan]

I like Bill Hunt and the Digital Bits. But I am disappointed by this interview. This Disney exec makes the ridiculous claim that everyone knows almost everyone prefers pan & scan, and Bill basically said, yeah, you're right, but our small, meaningiless minority would still like OAR. Please?
No Bill, no Disney. There may be more of them than us, but WE buy a hell of a lot more dvds. And believe me, Disney is going to lose more money from unhappy OARers who will never buy their p&s crap in the first place, than from unhappy P&Sers who will still buy the Lion King for their kids. They might bitch, but they'll still buy. We'll hold our dollars.
It's particularly sad to hear that while Disney no longer touts their art work on the disc as a special feature, that they still think it is. :frowning: :frowning: :frowning: :frowning: :frowning:

 

[LukeB]

I personally look forward to the second part of the interview. To say that nobody prefers pan & scan is lying to yourself. However, if an interview was conducted that made our voices heard to one of the highest people involved in DVD Production at DVD, no bad could come from that...even if they tried to defend themselves. So no HTF interview means our thoughts are not heard by Disney's Senior VP. Maybe we can get Bill to bring up all the great points that have been brought up in the interview with marketing. That would be good.

 

[Marc Colella]

No Bill, no Disney. There may be more of them than us, but WE buy a hell of a lot more dvds.

We may purchase more DVDs individually, but they purchase alot more than us as a group.
This holds especially true for titles geared towards kids.

 

[Jesse Skeen]

This is starting to sound like what happened when they released Roger Rabbit and Alice in Wonderland only on DIVX...

 

[Roogs Benoit]

Did any of you read this article? This guy said he is in charge of technical aspects of the discs and their marketing team is who makes the decision of what goes on the disc. If you want to bitch at them bitch at the next interview that will be with the marketing rep! He said he's a film guy (obviously meaning he supports OAR but couldn't say it because he has to work for these marketing bozo's).

The HTF and all who have 16x9 tv's are a minority compared to all who have DVD players.

Most of those people want their screen filled up. I can't wait till all of those people get 16x9 tv's and complain that the DVD's they bought in 2002 and 2003 have black bars on the sides and they bitch at the studio's because their DVD doesn't "fill the screen."

Disney is run by marketing. If more people returned their discs because of non OAR instead of being P&S that is the time Di$ney marketing will change their stance. Di$ney isn't in the business of making sence theyre in the biz of making dollars.

It was once said "consider how dumb the average person is and now remember 50% is even dumber than that!"

Ron... I can't believe after all the years of complaining that Disney wouldn't participate in a chat you had a chance to interview a VP of international DVD and you refused to put him on the spot to answer our concerns. I'm sure they will call again in the future...NOT.

 

[Dave Anderson]

One more thing- where are the people who were in charge of the LASERDISC releases NOW?? Since DVD has replaced laserdisc, that means all the laserdisc customers like myself are now buying DVD. Do we not matter anymore??

That would be Image Entertainment and Pioneer, neither of whom is responsible for major studio dvd releases. But even if they were, chances are they would cater to the majority of the buying public as well. Remember, they're a business. That is what they're supposed to do, whether it's right or wrong in our view.

This is the problem with DVD going mainstream. Like it or not, J6P is king and 4:3 TVs are still in the vast majority of homes. Widescreen TV sales don't mean anything when the other 95% of the country has a 4:3 TV and has no idea what those "black bars" are.

Every time DVD player sales rise, we become more of a minority. When a title is released on separate P&S and WS DVDs, and the P&S outsells the WS - which is becoming the norm, it's one step closer to DVD becoming VHS.

That is what I miss about the "niche" market of laserdisc. I wish DVD never went mainstream; it's not in our best interests.

 

[Terrell]

I ABSOLUTELY WILL NEVER, EVER BUY A P&S DVD! Disney, you suck. Educate the consumers, and stop catering to Wal-Mart moms who don't know **** from shinola.

 

[adrian b]

okay, I don't usually post here much but I check the sight almost every day and here's my thoughts:

I completely agree that these studios are doing wrong by cropping, cutting up, and Pan-n-Scan upcoming releases.

But, if they are going to do this we definately need to have 2 releases of each title.

Release 1: Pan and scan. Stripped down (absolutely no extras what-so-ever. Let's face it, J6P and mini-van moms could care less about how a movie was made or commentaries)

Release 2: 16x9 anamorphic in OAR and Loaded with extras, out-takes, deleated scenes, isolated scores, etc.

Here's the catch - how would (or could) the studios recoup the $$ for this? Easy turn it back a nich market. Sell the "Standard Release" for $20. Sell the super duper deluxe editions for double that if you want.

This may sound ridiculous but having bought LD's @ $40+ when they would street, I wouldn't bat an eye. Yes, my wallet would suffer, but hey, I'd have the movie with everything I could want and presented the correct way.

my .02

(BTW: my son is 4. And he DOES understand the differance between OAR and MAR and definately prefers OAR)

 

[Cynthia]

I was disappointed to see that Mr. Hunt didn't even bring up the topic of OAR education.

 

[Clint B]

 

[Joseph Bolus]

The really sad thing about all of this is if the studios had just "stuck to their guns" for another six months or so this issue would have become moot.
I know this to be true due to the fact that several friends of mine who were raving P&S fanatics just six months ago converted to preferring OAR within a month of acquiring their DVD players.
In each instance all it took was viewing one of their favorite 2.35:1 movies in it's proper framing in this format. As soon as it hit them as to what they had been missing all of this time, they were hooked.
THE BOTTOM LINE is the studios are trying to fix a problem that they wouldn't have if they would just keep DVD an OAR format. Today's teens and young adults understand Widescreen. They are, after all, constantly exposed to it via MTV. For most of them, DVD is today's "in" format mainly due to the easy availability of widescreen. It's taking longer for the parents of those teens and young adults to warm up to Widescreen (after all they grew up with MAR films), but even they are starting to "see the light" once exposed to a widescreen presentation of an old favorite movie.
Mainly due to Widescreen DVD, sales of big screen TV's (both analog and digital) are up. These people are going to be even more upset than J6P if their main source for widescreen entertainment starts to dry up due to the misguided studio executives who feel that America needs exclusive mutilated movie releases.
To do what Disney, CTS, and others are doing is worse than stupid. It's more like format suicide!!

 

[Lyle_JP]

If there was one part of the interview that pissed me off, it was this statement from Chris Carey:

I've read many an article, and it's not new news to you - the vast majority of America wants full frame. They do. And when we put out a widescreen version, we get lots of, "What's wrong? My DVD is broken. I want my money back." And we get that from really a surprisingly large number of consumers, especially when you're talking about family titles that are more likely to be watched by a broader audience in a non-technical environment. Where they're probably watching on a 19-inch TV or smaller.

Hey Chris! There's a format that already serves this consumer market. It's called VHS!! Let them watch all the Pan and Scan crap VHS on ther 19" Zeniths withn the 1/2" speaker that they want, they'll never be able to tell the difference anyway. But leave the Videophile format of choice alone!
NO OAR = NO SALE
-Lyle J.P.

 

[Ronald Epstein]

Ron... I can't believe after all the years of complaining that Disney wouldn't participate in a chat you had a chance to interview a VP of international DVD and you refused to put him on the spot to answer our concerns. I'm sure they will call again in the future...NOT.

First of all, this was not offered as a LIVE CHAT
with our membership, nor would I have considered
it based upon the anger that would have ensued.
Second of all, this was nothing short of a PR
campaign to gain acceptance of Pan & Scan.
Bill Hunt was only doing his job. Though I
turned it down, this is DVD news, and it is Bill's
job to cover all angles of what happens within
this industry.
The "manifesto" that I have put together is
going "live" next week. It will spell out exactly
why the studios have made huge mistakes releasing
pan & scan DVD product.
The studios gave in to demands that were not there.
There was never an outcry from the public. Do
any of you remember people picketing merchants
because they couldn't get full-frame titles?
Does anyone remember an outcry from the media?
The answer on both accounts is NO. There was
never an overwhelming demand from the public or
media that stores stop selling widescreen only
titles.
The real reason studios jumped on the
pan & scan bandwagon was because some major
retailers threatened to stop selling widescreen
titles because they were tired of complaints
from customers whom the studio never gave the
opportunity to educate.
Do you think any store is really going
to stop selling widescreen DVD titles and let
their customers go across the street instead?
One of the replies in this thread hit the
nail on the head. We came soooo close to public
acceptance of widescreen. Had the studios forced
it down their throats for another year, with
nothing else available, the public would have
accepted widescreen. Just like every new
technology that inconveniences people at first,
they eventually accept it and wonder how they
ever got along without it.
I am putting way too much in this reply as
the article that is going up next week touches
upon all of this.
The bottom line is that the studios gave in to
a demand that just was not there. Maybe they
got scared that stores would stop stocking their
widescreen product -- but would they?
It's so sad to see this format dumb down the
Consumer. The studios have now given up any
chance of the public accepting widescreen.