**Official HTF HD Formats Ind./Retailer/Studio Support Thread-*SEE POST 3176, p. 106* (2 Viewers)

[bigluigi]

I do agree with your assessment of Bad Bill Hunt. His post where he described the problem one of his readers was having with the 5 free movies rebate from the Tosh purchase made it sound like an ongoing problem rather than an isolated incident. I got my 5 movies from the same rebate program with no problem. He appears to go out of his way to antagonize and humiliate buyers of the HD-DVD format. I would suspect that his own anti HD-DVD rants leave many readers with an attitude of f*uck him and Blu-ray. Had to get this off my chest as well.

 

[Alfonso_M]

Enticing movie studios was all part of the Marketing strategy, and it was unfair from the get go, as Sony has considerably deeper pockets than Toshiba (and controls a Movie studio), also MS made the mistake of not designing the Xbox around the HD-DVD player, a move that combined with the Wii console’s success would have dealt a death blow to the PS3 and Blu.

But I think this is all over, but the crying….



So I got to go now! , i need to pick up more bargain Hd-dvd discs...

 

[DaViD Boulet]

The travesty, obviously, is for those who actually care about transparent audio and video reproduction. The presumption is that that would describe most members of this and other enthusiast forums. If the average consumer happens to not discern these subtle benefits but purchases the discs anyway because they "look great on his new flatscreen" it certainly isn't a problem that the software he's watching happens to contain a transparent audio/video signal that can be fully appreciated by the serious audio/videophile enthusiast. Win-win.

 

[Edward Schatz]

You've been "getting it off your chest" for pages in this thread now.....your obsession with Bill Hunt (and others around here) is baffling and painful to read about.

 

[Alfonso_M]

So in you estimation it is a "win-win" situation when your next door neighbor is forced –due to lack of choices-- to un-necessarily invest additional funds in a format (or expensive electronics) that He will never be able to appreciate or understand so you can have your precious "lossless"?

Man, that’s just plain mean!! (james Coburn on “Payback”)

 

[DaViD Boulet]

What are you talking about?

No one is forcing anyone to move away from standard DVD.

My comments were regarding a consumer who chooses to migrate to HDM, but who's system or perceptive ability might not include appreciating every last drop of picture and audio detail encoded on the disc. Was that not obvious?

 

[Douglas Monce]

But "restricted bandwidth" doesn't explain the number of HD DVDs that DO have lossless audio, making your argument somewhat less that credible.

Doug

 

[Paul.S]

Weeellll it is something of an ongoing problem . . . but that counters Bill's intimation as well: there's an HTF thread about people who've been having problems with the fulfillment company that handles that promotion (it is not Tosh directly) for months. In other words, cases like what he mentioned are not necessarily new and attributing them to some "telling" new desire on Tosh's part to avoid legit fulfillment because of the latest developments is specious.

 

[Edwin-S]

I don't think that is what he meant. I think he meant that someone who purchased an HD DVD player is now going to have to spend more money on a BD player just so someone else can have lossless tracks.

 

[Paul.S]

Speaking of HD DVDs with lossless (whose BD counterparts do not), I wonder how long it will take WHV to re-release personal fave Training Day with lossless on BD. I'm not holding my breath.

AND WHERE THE FRICK IS SHAWSHANK? Steve Nickerson told us "sooner rather than later" last summer . . .

 

[Douglas Monce]

I was just looking over the list of announced titles for the next few months for both blu-ray and HD DVD and I have to say with the exception of A Passage to India, I can't find a single film that I'm interested in until May, when the National Treasure films come out.

Pretty sad, but I guess I'll be saving some money.

Doug

 

[Zack Gibbs]

If your video is very busy, say something that has giant transforming robots and explosions constantly moving and sparking all over your screen, then your bitrate is going to have to shoot up to maintain picture quality and you'll need the bandwidth to deal with that. This is why "Transformers" doesn't have lossless, but something long, but not as constantly taxing on the compression, like "Troy" can include lossless audio.

 

[Brandon Conway]

It's the offseason. It will continue to ramp up with releases as the year goes on.

 

[Jari K]

I pretty much agree.. After all, he has just been betting the right horse in his site (looks that way, at least). Very openly (which is not always a good way for some people..).

 

[Jari K]

Ah, the old and trusted "Sony is the blame" excuse.. and they all were "forced" to choose Blu-ray..

Oh well.

 

[Douglas Monce]

That is not necessarily the reason that Transformers doesn't have lossless audio. It may simply be that the DVD producer felt that the lossless audio was indistinguishable from the master so why waste space. It also doesn't mean that the image would have been noticeably degraded if they had brought the bit rate down to accommodate lossless audio.

The fact that Batman Begins has lossless audio and has long sequences of very fast action that would require fairly high bit rates also suggests that this isn't the case.

Doug

 

[Douglas Monce]

True, but last year at this time there were quite a few releases that I found interesting. I bought 8 or 10 movies between January and April. Right now I only see two that I want until after May.

Doug

 

[Sanjay Gupta]

If anything, Bill Hunt must be commended for having the courage to take a stand and openly voice his support for the format he believed had the best chance of winning. He has, in the end, done a great service to many who may have based on his reporting decided not to buy into HD-DVD. Being neutral in this war was fine for a while, but after a point, it had become increasingly clear, that Blu-Ray had the best chance of survival. Thus, the responsible thing at that point was to help guide readers towards Blu-Ray, which is just what Bill did.

 

[Sam Davatchi]

It's over........I'm happy.

 

[Jari K]

I´ll be getting "In the Valley of Elah", "The Invasion", "Michael Clayton", "30 Days of Night", "The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford", "The Brave One", "No Country for Old Men", "Sleuth (2007)", "I Am Legend", and "Bonnie & Clyde". And "Into the Wild", "The Kite Runner" and probably "The Jack Ryan Collection" from HD DVD.

And that´s Feb-March alone.

National Treasure films doesn´t really interest me (rentals only).

You see my point?

To take this a bit further, IMO we should see the difference between the "movie taste" and "format war". You can´t just choose "one format" and say that the films in that format are "enough". It´s not possible.

What you can do, of course, is to choose "one HD format" and buy the rest in SD DVD. I guess this is what the most hardcore HD DVD-fans are going to do in the future (based on some of their comments). It´s their choice, of course.