HTF EVENT COVERAGE: 2010 BLU-CON WITH COVERAGE UPDATES ALL WEEK (1 Viewer)

[dana martin]

Panelists: Jeff Baker, Executive Vice President & General Manager, Theatrical Catalog, Warner Home Video
Rita Belda, Director, Asset Management, Film Restoration and Digital Mastering, Sony Pictures Entertainment
Bob Buchi, Senior Vice President, Marketing, Paramount Home Entertainment

Dave Shaw, Senior Vice President Marketing, Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment




Notice an absence there, where the hell is Universal?

 

[Powell&Pressburger]

Really not interested in MOD Blu Ray titles. No offense MOD just sounds cheap and lower quality. MOD DVD is ok but I want a real factory pressed BD.

 

[Charles Smith]

Missed opportunity when the Paramount guy talked about Jack Cardiff's commentary for The African Queen. Namely: Then where the hell IS it??


(Answer: Only on the old sped-up PAL DVD.)

 

[John Hodson]

Originally Posted by Chas in CT

Missed opportunity when the Paramount guy talked about Jack Cardiff's commentary for The African Queen. Namely: Then where the hell IS it??


(Answer: Only on the old sped-up PAL DVD.)

...and on the Region B BD from ITV DVD.

 

[Adam Gregorich]

Originally Posted by Chas in CT

Missed opportunity when the Paramount guy talked about Jack Cardiff's commentary for The African Queen. Namely: Then where the hell IS it??


(Answer: Only on the old sped-up PAL DVD.)

Unfortunately, things were running a bit behind and his panel got off to a late start so he was only able to scratch the surface on what he wanted to cover.

 

[Adam Gregorich]

OK, pull out your 3D glasses. This didn't quite turn out how I wanted. I borrowed the new HDC-SDT750K 3D consumer camcorder from Panasonic and used it to record this event. It is designed to be compatible with all the new 3D sets on the market. I optimistically (stupidly) thought I could upload the files to YouTube and they could be streamed by people with 3D TVs. Unfortunately when YouTube takes the stream for each eye it converts it into a Anaglyph formatted 3D video. Something also happened with the anamorphic formatting. I plays back fine in Panasonic's SW, but tall and skinny in YouTube and Pinnacle 14. I also converted for 2D and it has the same anamorphic problem too. Of course all of this may be answered in the manual which I didn't have time to read and since gave back with the camera. Over the next few days I'll upload the raw files to another site so members with 3D TVs can download them and play them back. I'll also look for a way to fix the anamorphic issue before I post the 2D version. Reminds me of when AVCHD came out. It took a few months for the SW side to catch up.


EDIT: Interesting. When I watch direct on YouTube it shows as Anaglyph 3D. When I embed the video here it shows the "anamorphically challanged" L+R feeds. So if you want to see it in 3D head over to our YouTube channel. It's no Avatar, but it might be fun. You can also view just one eye there if you dont want to mess with the glasses and it looks normal in that view.

 

[Adam_S]

This comment is so random, where did it come from? I for one would love to hear more about MOD Bluray. there are about twenty Warner Archive titles I can't be arsed to bother with as 4GB single layer DVDs, but would probably buy without hesitation if they were 24GB single layer blus. I say that knowing how good films such as that look on SR tape (from which the majority of the warner archives are sourced), having watched such tapes back before for work related clip shows.

Originally Posted by Powell&Pressburger

Really not interested in MOD Blu Ray titles. No offense MOD just sounds cheap and lower quality. MOD DVD is ok but I want a real factory pressed BD.

 

[Adam Gregorich]

Originally Posted by Adam_S


This comment is so random, where did it come from? I for one would love to hear more about MOD Bluray.

I think it was from the Bill Hunt videos. He asked the studios about BD MoD.

 

[Adam Gregorich]

According to Bill Carr from Amazon these are the top 10 requested Blu-rays by their customers:

1. Star Wars Trilogy (IV-VI)
2. Lord of the Rings Trilogy (Extended cuts)
3. Star Wars Trilogy (I-III)
4. The Adventures of Indiana Jones
5. Finding Nemo
6. The Incredibles
7. Titanic
8. Jurassic Park
9. Lawrence of Arabia
10. Pulp Fiction

 

[Adam_S]

what'd they say?

Originally Posted by Adam Gregorich http://www.hometheaterforum.com/for...n-with-coverage-updates-all-week#post_3747285




I think it was from the Bill Hunt videos. He asked the studios about BD MoD.

 

[TravisR]

Originally Posted by Adam Gregorich

According to Bill Carr from Amazon these are the top 10 requested Blu-rays by their customers:

1. Star Wars Trilogy (IV-VI)
2. Lord of the Rings Trilogy (Extended cuts)
3. Star Wars Trilogy (I-III)
4. The Adventures of Indiana Jones
5. Finding Nemo
6. The Incredibles
7. Titanic
8. Jurassic Park
9. Lawrence of Arabia
10. Pulp Fiction

I'd bet that most of those will be out in the next two years. Star Wars and The Incredibles are coming next year, LOTR will likely be out with The Hobbit in 2012, Titanic will probably come out after it gets its 3-D re-release in 2012, Finding Nemo seems likely for a spring 2012 release to tie-in with the summer Pixar movie, Lawrence Of Arabia is always "coming soon" and now that there's a new owner of the Miramax movies, I'd assume that Pulp Fiction will be at or near the top of their release list. Nothing more than a guess but I think there's a good chance that Lucasfilm will release Indiana Jones in 2012 for their yearly dose of money.

 

[oscar_merkx]

Hi

Sounds like the blu con event was really interesting.

I will certainly be watching all the video links that have been posted.

Thanks

 

[FrancisP]

Should anybody be surprised that bluray releases are running behind dvd? I think there's a funnelling process that goes on. There were no precedents for videocassettes so pretty much anything was thrown out. The barriers to entry were easy so you had a lot of small companies. The barriers to entry were slightly higher and releases that didn't do well on videocassette were for the most part not released on dvd. A lot of small companies got culled out. The barriers to entry on blu ray are higher and dvd releases that did not do well will not make it to blu-ray.

 

[Brianruns10]

I am both surprised and very reassured that "Lawrence of Arabia" cracked the top 10 of blu-ray requests. It seems anything older than thirty years doesn't get much respect by the masses. Not to mention, it sure means the film is on Columbia/Sony's radar. Sadly, I have a feeling we wont' see this until the anniversary, meaning at least a year or more to wait!

 

[RBBrittain]

Originally Posted by Brianruns10

I am both surprised and very reassured that "Lawrence of Arabia" cracked the top 10 of blu-ray requests. It seems anything older than thirty years doesn't get much respect by the masses. Not to mention, it sure means the film is on Columbia/Sony's radar. Sadly, I have a feeling we wont' see this until the anniversary, meaning at least a year or more to wait!

I believe the issue with LoA is, and always has been, the quality of the original film elements. Sony has been including scenes from LoA in its BD promo discs (the ones you see in stores all the time) for years, but let's not forget it was a tough struggle to get that film to video in the first place. The reason Sony hasn't released LoA yet (and just now released Kwai) is the time it took to get the transfers JUST right for BD. That is especially an issue for for ANY Eastmancolor negative before the mid-1970's or so, including both LoA & Kwai. (Before Kwai & TSoM this week, the *ONLY* pre-1970 Best Picture shot on Eastmancolor to reach BD was, of all films, Gigi; the Best Pictures of the early 1970's to reach BD--Patton, The French Connection, and in some quarters even GF I & II--have had their transfers criticized, perhaps because they too had Eastmancolor issues.) (Edit: Though for GF I & II, they were mitigated by Gordon Willis' participation in the restoration process, which made them top-quality by most reviewers' standards; compare that to William Friedkin's snubbing his DP and making bad color-timing decisions for TFC.)


I'd like to see LoA on BD too; if ANY classic will benefit from BD, it should be LoA. But I'm also convinced Sony is correct in waiting till they can get the transfer RIGHT before releasing it. I'd rather see them get it right the first time than issue a bad transfer and have to change it, as with The Fifth Element and Gladiator. (Speaking of which, Gladiator was Universal's fault; why weren't they there?)

 

[RobertSiegel]

I think one of the most exciting areas they talked about was Blu-on-demand. I am so glad Bill brought this up because I have been thinking about this since the Warner Archive series was released. Prices on BD media are coming down, and the executives stated that the on-demand pressings for Blu-ray would be a "dream come true." This would be a great way to release more classics. The problem I could see is they might not spend as much on mastering as they do with retail releases. But the concept gives great hope for pre-1970 classics on Blu-ray that the studios might not consider for a retail pressing. One of the panel mentioned it takes about 200 copies of a DVD on Demand to turn a profit, where it takes alot more for regular DVD releases.

 

[DaveF]

This is a neato thread. I've only skimmed it so far, but I've got a few comments and questions:


* Adam's 3D video: tried the anaglyph on YouTube. It works, but my cheap SpyKids 3D glasses (I tell my wife I need to save this junk because I never know when I'll need it! And I was right!) don't match my monitor too well, so it's not pleasant to watch.

* HTF logo in 3D is not right. Maybe it's OK for 3D TV but the anaglyph version is goofed up.


* Do I understand right: Blu-ray player sales match DVD player sales, but Blu-ray media sales are about 20% of DVD, for same time duration?


* Combo packs doing well: Any indication that TV Seasons could see combo packs? I'd love that: I'd like to buy more of my TV seasons on BR, but I have to buy a few on DVD so I can transfer them to my iPhone for watching at the gym, on planes, etc.