With Blu the apparent victor, it's time to demand some changes.... (1 Viewer)

[MatthewA]

I also despise the inability to skip FBI warnings and want to see an end to that.

 

[ScottHM]

That's about the only thing that will get me to join in. I can barely afford all the DVDs I buy.

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[Stephen_J_H]

When it does finally come down to one format, I have two simple demands: no ICT and no region coding. With day-and-date international theatrical releases becoming more and more common, the reason for region coding is becoming less and less relevant. As for ICT, it's going to be a pretty strong temptation once we're down to one format. The other suggestions are all important, but if I'm ever going to buy into HD, these two are key.

 

[Jason Harbaugh]

So all those wanting the movie to start up automatically, you like having to disrupt the already started movie and then load up a menu to select audio/subtitle options?

I don't like forced trailers, elaborate spoiler ridden menus and all the fbi warnings etc either. All I'm suggesting is that when you put the disc in it stops at a static screen that asks you what audio/subtitle you want and you hit play. Movie starts with all your settings correct, no extra fluff. What's so wrong about that?

I'll add if they can get the player to automatically select the lossless audio track then I have no problem with the movie starting automatically. I would know to just get everything before inserting the disc. They don't do that though.

 

[Marc Colella]

Sure, from studios who currenty support BD... 10 more well-known titles (in comparison to independant/foreign) I'd buy on BD would be stuff like Boogie Nights, Magnolia, Amadeus, Fargo, The Sweet Hereafter, The Thin Red Line, Taxi Driver, Lone Star, Badlands, Manhattan. That's just off the top of my head... that's probably as mainstream as I'll get.

Can you hook me up?

 

[Edwin-S]

What is wrong with the use of overlaid menus? The movie starts. While the usual FBI crap is running you open the overlay audio menu and select your track. It takes all of a few seconds. By the time you are done the credits have barely started. I'd rather have the overlays if it is choice between static menus or overlays.

 

[Paul.S]

I don't think you can get to the audio ("overlay") menu until after the FBI warning/the movie starts.

Thanks, Marc. Just trying to get a better sense of your tastes. I've seen and for the most part enjoyed all of those (I found Sweet Hereafter maddeningly pretentious, especially after listening to the writer/Atom Egoyan commentary).

But I like Thin Red Line, which many hate/find pretentious/inscrutable. But good God almighty John Toll's cinematog could look STUNNING in HD. Not to mention how wicked that Hans Zimmer score could sound in DTS HD MA. It makes "my heart beat like a distant little jungle drum, I must say" every time I scan my SD DVDs and think of what I'm hoping gets released on HDM soonest.

 

[Marc Colella]

Definetly... the cinematography would really be a showcase in HD, and I love the score - one of my favorites... bought the CD, listen to it a lot. I love the film, so it's not just demo material to me. I'd pay the retarded Fox pricing on it - even if there were no extras (it's Malick, so Im not expecting it anyways).

Let's hope Criterion jumps aboard, because I don't think I'll be seeing many foreign film releases from the major studios. There's only been a handful after a 1.5 years.

 

[WadeM]

I agree with you on this completely. But I want to emphasize your point about the "spoiler ridden menus". I just tried watching Tony Scott's "Revenge" with Kevin Costner, which I hadn't seen before, but I got because Quentin Tarantino said it was Scott's masterpiece, and lo and behold, they show you half the freakin' movie before you can even press play!! If I were head of a studio my policy would be to fire anyone who puts spoilers on the packaging or in the menus!! When will they ever learn!?!?! If I'm watching a movie it's either because I haven't seen it before, or it's been long enough that I've forgotten a lot of it so that I can experience it again.

Another complaint partially addressed already is for them to stop restricting what I can do with my remote!! I bought their disc at a premium price, give me a break!! Let me do what I want, when I want with my copy of the movie. I wanted to pause on one of the previews and step back a few steps, but, no, "that operation has been disabled" on that disc!! So much for showing off a particularly great shot on my high definition picture!

Those two things make me sooo angry at the studios!

And regarding the DTS-MA audio, if you can't decode it, then, as someone else stated, that's the price of being an early adopter. I'm fine with it.

 

[Carlo_M]

My brief list, a lot of which has been addressed:

1. Lower MSRP/selling prices. Of course, I fully believe the market will regulate this once more people begin buying. They'll be able to tell that, gee, the $19.95 titles sure sell more than the $27.95-$34.95 titles.

2. No more MPEG2 authoring. Both VC-1 and AVC are superior and don't really cost the studio any more to use.

3. Lossless audio for all. PCM is best

4. Hardware manufacturers: start making affordable machines that decode DTS-MA and TrueHD. Whether this is in the BD player or AV receiver (or preferable both), this needs to happen sooner rather than later.

5. Port over old extras when applicable, and if they are of sufficient quality. Some DVD extras just plain suck, no need to port those.

6. When creating new extras, make them in 1080p please.

7. Encode to use all of the BD-50 storage capacity. Place a premium on A/V quality, even if it means using a second disc for extras when the movie is long.

8. Resume play.

 

[DaveF]

Disrupt? If all movies started immediately, I wouldn't put the movie in until I was ready to watch it.

And on regular DVDs, I don't think I've needed to select sub-titles or audio options in four years. Foreign films have subs on automatically, and I've not seen a disc with DTS as an option in years.

Now, as the auto-start option is not universal, I'd rather it always not than sometimes happen. That would be confusing and annoying.

 

[DaViD Boulet]

Nick,

I'm with you on everything you say in your opening post except:


I LOVE DTS-HD MA because it has a GREAT sounding core stream for legacy listeners without HDMI (which is a lot of consumers who don't have HDMI-enabled receivers) and DTS-HD MA decoding is onboard now with more and more BD players doing it out the box, streaming it to HDMI 1.3 receviers, or being firmware updated to do it internally (ala the PS3).

Oh, and one thing to add to that list:

LOSSLESS AUDIO ON ALL HI-DEF RELEASES. NO EXCEPTIONS. NONE.

 

[Ray_R]

The format war isn't anywhere over. I guess alot of people only factor in North America and not the rest of the planet. There are alot of BR "exclusive" titles which are also on HD DVD in other countries. Besides, HD DVD just seems like the natural successor to DVD in terms of disc layout and manufacturing. At least HD DVD is region-free and both formats are HD which nullifies the NTSC/PAL signal stuff. Although it still comes down to the different Hz everything is being run at compared to DVD.
I'm still wanting alot of catalog releases to show up. Yes, even titles as far back as the 1930's. There's a reason why my DVR is almost constantly on TCM. Hell, there's alot of classic films which aren't even on DVD still barring any region.
It isn't over yet.

 

[Edwin-S]

You would think that region free would give HD DVD a leg up overseas, but that doesn't seem to be the case. I was reading an article (the link is somewhere on this board) that stated Blu-ray was outselling HD DVD by an even wider margin in Britain than it was in the U.S. I also believe that they mentioned Japan and Europe as whole as being more Blu than Red. In fact, the sales ration between BD and HD DVD was closest in the United States. They didn't mention anything about the little patch of ground I live in: Canada.

 

[TravisR]

How many people are going to be importing titles? I've already seen multiple people say that they're going to pass on the Zodiac HD DVD on Tuesday because they're just going to wait for a Blu Ray release. If they're passing on a title that's coming out this week, I can't see huge numbers of people being all that interested in importing titles for months and years to come for what they consider a dead format.

 

[Edwin-S]

I agree. When I listened to the DTS core for Kingdom of Heaven it sounded great. Lots of range and good LFE.

 

[nolesrule]

Oh, hell yes. Anyone with kids knows it's quite often impossible to get through a movie in one sitting.

And want to watch the Lord of the Rings Trilogy Extended Edition? Took me 3 days in about 8 sittings last week (not my choice). I wouldn't have survived without the DVD resume play feature.

 

[DaViD Boulet]

Region-coding is optoinal on BD. And there are only three regions. Most BD catalog titles are region-free. In fact, I own a few I've imported from the UK. I can't remember it now, but there's a website which tracks the region coding information so consumers abroad can figure out which BDs are safe to import.

Keep in mind that region-coding works both ways. Why is Hairspray only on BD and not HD DVD? It's because the studio wanted to release it on hi-def in the USA while it was still in theaters abroad. Since HD DVD had no region coding, they withheld it on HD DVD while releasing on BD exlusively (what was to be eventually put on HD DVD at the time, of course).

 

[Gabriel.H]

I agree whole-heartedly with all the above, especially pricing.

If I am able to buy Pan's Labyrinth on either HD format for 26.99$ brand new then other HD discs should be around the same price range give or take a few dollars, but with some discs being 40+$ that's almost a 20$ price difference....this is madness......madness? no, this is.....not another 300 quote.

 

[Jason Harbaugh]