The Bits impressed w/Blu titles (1 Viewer)

[Bill Hunt]

I refer to Jason's laundry list of titles above. It's pretty self-explanitory. Content is king. Software drives hardware.

Look, I don't care which format wins... I just want one format to win and soon, so high-def video discs don't fizzle out like high-resolution audio did. Whichever format seems to have the content advantage, quality & tech specs being relatively equal, that's where I'm headed. If it were HD-DVD with all those exclusive studios, I'd be arguing in favor of HD-DVD. It just happens to be the other way. There's a window of about 2-3 years here, where one of these formats has the chance to take off, beyond which time most consumers will have decided just to stick with DVD and/or wait for downloading. My arguments are all based on simple reason and common sense, unlike the emotional reasoning of some who "hate Sony!" or "hate Microsoft!" I want to stop with all this crazy debating the format war and get on to watching lots of great discs and reporting on The Bits on how a high-def disc format is taking off and is the best-ever thing since DVD. Seems to me, the way many early adopters have chosen sides, trenched in for a long slug-fest and started back-biting each other is just prolonging this format war and contributing to the likelihood that neither format will thrive.

 

[Carlo_M]

Nice, accurate post, Mr. Hunt. Content is King, I fully agree.

 

[DaViD Boulet]

I'd like to thank Bill Hunt for being a real source of accurate, objective, and informative information on the web. It's not often to get all those adjectives in one source!

dave

 

[ReggieW]

Bill -

If you have a studio contact at Universal, why don't you contact them and find out why Universal didn't add some solid dates for new releases at CES? I would like to hear Universal's reasoning rather than all of the counter-productive speculation I've seen from cyberspace the past few days. People act as if this is IT and that Universal has given up and we won't see anymore new titles.

Balderdash.

As a member of the working DVD community in Burbank, Ca, I can assure you that Universal has LOTS of HD-DVD announcements coming in the weeks ahead. Perhaps they simply thought CES wasn't the proper venue to make software announcements. I can't say for certain. It's my understanding that they also made very few title announcements at last years CES show as well.

I am presently the owner of a Toshiba A2, and will purchase a BD player once prices drop, or a nice Universal player (which the LG isn't) is made to accomodate BOTH formats. I don't believe in using game systems (PS3) for dedicated HT components, and I don't play video games. Content is important, I agree, but that is also in the eye of the beholder. While some of the BD titles announced did raise my eyebrows (Cars, Silence of the Lambs), a vast majority of them wouldn't warrant a purchase from me.

I am happy with the price and performance ratio HD-DVD has offered thus far, and as long as titles like Forbidden Planet, Mutiny on the Bounty, Casablanca, Robin Hood, The Searchers, The Deer Hunter & Reds continue surfacing, then I will continue to support it.

 

[Robert Crawford]

Software is king when it is affordable enough for most HT consumers to buy without hesitation about software pricing. High software pricing kills impulse buying for those us just browsing BB, CC, Target or any other retailer whether it's a B&M one or an etailer. I'm not trying to hijack this thread again, but Fox/MGM and to a smaller degree, Disney needs to realize that offering a great selection of titles is the first step towards format acceptance and further market penetration. However, to really get early adoptors to buy into BR or to switch over from the HD DVD format, they need to make BR software a little more affordable so that such consumers will buy their product in a higher quantity instead of them buying just a couple of their select titles while buying more discs from Warner, Sony and Paramount.

I've own both formats since Samsung came out with their BR player and I have not regretted that decision. My purchase of HD versus BR software was about a 4 to 1 in favor of HD DVD during the summer and Fall. However, since December due to more BR software being made available and the recently expired Google offer of $20 off $50, my current library of HD versus BR product is more like a 2 -1 ratio. I want to continue that trend because the only thing I'm interested in enjoying is as much high definition software as possible without encouraging the trend of overpriced software. I don't have time nor any inclination for any HD DVD versus Blu-ray proponent discussions which I find mostly non-value added and borders on fan mania that doesn't appeal to me at this stage of my life.

IMO, I think most people feel the same way about such silly discussions and what they really want is this format war settled before too much damage has taken place. The question that remains to be answer is even if a format winner is declared, will the winner have enough of a market to champion without it being just a niche market due to it being damaged by this ill-conceived format war? This could be a situation in which the studios, hardware manufacturers and the consumers all lose in some way or another.






Crawdaddy

 

[Robert Crawford]

All of this speculation is also due to Universal not handling this situation a little more openly to quiet such speculation, especially when they have their competing studios making a splash with software annoucements and some dates attached to them. I'm not going to address what each format's proponents are trying to speculate on Universal's lack of announcements, but it's very apparent that many of the early adoptors that only bought into the HD DVD format are nervous and I can't really blame them because annoucements of HD DVD software has slowed among all of the studios over the last couple of months. Perhaps, this is just the calm before the storm of activity, but some of us are concerned about this matter.

 

[DaViD Boulet]

I used to say the same thing. But the PS3 made a believer out of me.

 

[ReggieW]

I agree Robert.

It has been slow. No doubt.

In my view, Universal has always been one of the least "people friendly" studios around here. I mean, we get the annual Warner chats with Feltenstein and company usually going above and beyond to give us what we request within budget and reason. I have never known Universal to have a presence on the HTF (please correct me if I'm wrong). Just the mere fact that we haven't heard anyone from the company address the lack of title announcements at CES says much about their PR relation. I've seen other "industry officials" do damage control on their behalf, but haven't heard directly from Universal. If I'm not mistaken, Fox and Paramount also have and/or had a bridge to the HTF. Universal has never given us a chat (again, correct me if I'm wrong) and release most of their classic titles as bare bones releases with the exception of the 30's monster films and the over-priced legacy series.

I do wish a more enthusiastic people friendly studio was the exclusive backer of HD-DVD, but I guess we can't have everything. I do hope the announcements start coming because nothing worth having ,imho, has been announced (titles with solid dates) from them so far in 2007.

WHV announcements have also been slow for both formats.

 

[Paul_Scott]

I wish I were a betting man,'cause I would love to wager money on how long this stuff will remain w/ only 'niche' appeal. FWIW, I would bet a lot longer than most are expecting- and that is regardless of whether the 'war' is over soon or not. As much as I prefer to view any given content in the highest quality available, I KNOW that that is not a feeling shared by the majority of consumers out there- who view movies not as art, but as ameanable time wasters. For Heavens sake, Fox is still pumping out dual Wide and Full screen discs! And you guys think an extra percentile of resolved detail (and almost no EE!) or lossless sound is going be alluring to a majority of people who view *updated* technology not as a Godsend, but as an annoying inconvience?
These people are still chaffing at being informed they needed to buy a $50 monster cable when they moved from VHS to DVD- if they wanted to 'really get the performance out of it'. These are people tired of feeling rooked by technology and most are not eager to upgrade their copy of Phone Booth, or add another copy of Master & Commander when they already have the 3 disc super deluxe edition (and in full screen to boot!).

When I bought my first (and only) LD player, it was $300 at the time not much more than the average, decent quality VHS deck. But LD had vastly superior sound and picture and loads of wicked exclusive features.
But who cared? Just us enthusiasts. Everybody else thought i was nuts for buying these things (heh heh Fools! little did they know that those shiny discs would not degrade with each viewing like their miserable tapes and that I could be watching them 20 years later...)

guys--wake up! These are going to be niche formats for quite a while Because people just don't NEED what this stuff offers. They may think its nice in passing and even ooh and ahh on ocassion, but that doesn't mean they will redefine it as something that needs to be budgeted for, -or even more siginificatly- something worth going to the tedious trouble of educating themselves over.

I wish I was a more concise writer, because I honestly think that last point may be the most significant I've been trying to make. The masses, the ones that everyone seems to feel are the ones who will determine everything, are suspicious and intimidated by new technology. They feel like they are being set up to get taken with something they probably don't need. And in this case, I think they can feel justified.

 

[Cees Alons]

Universal, yes perhaps, or so it seems.

Warner and Paramount - that's an altogether different situation.
Every announcement they would make about HR releases would be added to the HD DVD side as well as to the BD side.

So, those people who really seem to think in format war terms (including most of the journalists involved), wouldn't see it as "news". It's funny (sad actually): those two are the only studios with the proper attitude, yet "news" from the bad, offending format-exclusive studios gains them attention by almost EVERY party!

Even some consumers seem to hail format exclusive releases as a proof of the superiority of the (technical) format!


One other remark in this respect: Warner isn't "asleep at the wheel", IMO. Just count the # of releases of all parties involved. Who's are the very very most hands down? And who's have the very very best continuous quality, again hands down? And who broke the "MPEG-2 tradition" on BD, almost single-handedly, before it really got a chance to start?
They're not asleep at the wheel: they're the actual motor and they are so to both formats!


Cees

 

[ppltd]

Could not agree more. IMHO, it is Warner that has maintained the HD formats up until now. They have driven the quality up for all releases, and have maintained a very wide selection of quality film releases without the studio overblown hype the exclusive studios have found it necessary to spew. Without a doubt, it was Warner's releases that drove me to finally jump into the HD market.

 

[Tim Glover]

Agreed.....when news of Batman Begins and the eventual HD-DVD for Superman Returns was inevitable....I got in. Big time. Universal has been great for sure...but Warner remains the Grand Poo Bah for ALL home video formats.

 

[Larry Sutliff]

It was the Warners announcement of the Superman films last year that hooked me into HD DVD. Most of the HD DVD's and BD's they have produced have been of exceptionally high quality. I also think Warners deserves a lot of the credit for salvaging BD from its near disastrous launch last summer. The discs they released allowed people to see that BD done right was on par with HD DVD, something that wasn't apparent from most the early Sony and Lionsgate software.

 

[Ryan-G]

The "masses" are going to, at the very least, be migrated quietly without any interruption to their lives. The very worst scenario is the "Masses" update to HD as their old SD dies, at the same cost they would've spent on SD. Others will update due to the added features the HD brings, such as the space-efficient "Hang on the wall" thin displays.

It's literally impossible for this to be a niche format. It's just a question of whether adoption will be a rapid flash like DVD was, or if it's going to be a slow process of migration.

Likely it'll be a combination of the two, as Gen-X and younger who're used to tech progression update willingly and the Gen-X and older migrate silently or for added-features for the most part.

Plus, the increasing penetration of the "Home Theater" concept will drive the penetration faster. Many people love the concept of a "Home theater" and with the Movie Theater buisness a great deal weaker than it once was, I'd expect to see middle-class and up start looking seriously at the idea of a Home Theater in increasing numbers.

Honestly, the idea of having a theater in the house has long been a symbol of affluence, and with costs driving down into the range of the middle-class, it'll soon start entering the "Keeping up with the Jones's" phase.

 

[Jason Harbaugh]

I know I posted that copy/paste list earlier but I just looked over Robert's list here of what titles are coming up with dates on both formats. (I believe he has updated with all the CES news)

Titles (with dates) being released through April 24th.

Blu-ray -- 72
HD DVD -- 20

That's more than a 3:1 ratio. That's a lot of titles for HD DVD to make up, especially if BD keeps that pace up.

 

[Cees Alons]

Partly they already did. Several of those titles are available on HD DVD already (some even for a relatively long time).
As far as "news" is concerned: what BD is mainly doing as well, is catching up (which isn't bad news for BD at all, of course!)


Cees

 

[Jason Harbaugh]

BD already has caught up in terms of titles that are available. From Robert's list:
Blu-ray - 127
HD DVD - 132

Come April:
Blu-ray - 199
HD DVD - 152

I realize that there are a number of titles that BD will just be getting that HD DVD already has, mostly Warner titles which we'll be glad to have on BD. However, there will be and are a lot of titles on BD that HD DVD doesn't have, and won't get which is probably the basis of this thread. So yes, HD DVD is going to have a lot of catching up to do.

 

[ppltd]

Actually, DVDEmpire listed 184 HD-DVD films by end of February last week. Of course, movies pop on and aff their list all of the time, so these numbers fluctuate. Currently, HD-DVD has over 155 films released.

 

[Jason Harbaugh]

Going to dvdempire they list HD DVD as 144 (click complete list) and BD as 134.

Up in the corner on the HD Wars thing it shows for titles, HD 190, BD 203.

Not sure what exactly they are counting for any of those, instock, released, coming soon, has a sku?

I just used Robert's list since it was brought up earlier by Cees.

Reguardless, the number of titles of both formats right now is about the same, but with the huge number of releases coming to BD vs HD over the next 3 months, BD will pull away.

 

[Carlo_M]

Regardless of what the numbers are, what is hurting the HD formats is how Best Buy and other B&M stores carry a selection of about 30-40 distinct titles for each format!

Yes I know a lot of us buy over the web, but if one of these formats is to win (regardless of which one), they need the B&Ms to start stocking most of their titles. It's only about 140 each, so it's not like it would take up an inordinate amount of shelf space!