Disney to support Blu-ray - Page 2

Disney has let a lot of other great movies get away... When Speilberg wanted to make a movie about a boy who befriends an alien... Disney said no... when George Lucas wanted to make a space western, Disney said no... when Robert Zemeckis wanted to make a teenage comedy about time travel, Disney said no.

Disney says no to lots of things. Lots of people say no to big things... Decca records turned down the Beatles, but they got to Rolling Stones... So maybe Pixar is Disney letting the Beatles go... but sooner or later, just like Disney got "Splash" and "Roger Rabbit" off the ground, they will find their next thing...

This is what I love about the HTF - clarification.

I have read some on this issue, but obviously not enough.

Peace,

DM

I dont care what format it is....I just wish there was just one.

Looks like we're all screwed now. (IM certainly not going to buy a Blu-ray AND a HD-DVD player.) I just wish everyone would agree on something...

Blah. Im really not looking forward to this next generation of DVD

We assume the success of Pixar is a constant, but no one in the entire history of filmmaking has been immune from the dreaded misfire, or even a series of misfires. There are no guarantees. When The Lion King went over $300 million in the mid-90's, everybody started up their own feature animation wing. The marketplace was glutted, there was a rush on premium talent and the result was a sharp expansion followed by a severe retraction as many of these people went bust.

The same thing is happening now. Every studio wants a CGI animation wing. We are going to start seeing a glut of CGI, and some of these are going to be bad CGI movies, it is inevitable. Some of them may even be made by Pixar - at least one of them will probably be from Pixar. It is simply inevitable.

So imagine a future where Pixar is operating independently, competing with a slew of companies. Pixar's talent gets raided like Disney in the mid-90's. Like Disney from 1997-2004, they learn too late they have product in the pipeline that isn't their best work but they can't shut off the conveyor belt because they need the revenue, and we start getting some good but not great Pixar films. Maybe even one or two *bad* Pixar films.

It's possible. Maybe even probable. There are no sure things in the movies. If there were, Hook would have been a masterpiece.

Amen to that.

Two HD-DVD formats will eventually equal the new millenniums laserdisc for which ever one survives.

Low market penetration and high prices for the consumers. I don't want to go back to the days of $40 and up for a single title.

"Two HD-DVD formats will eventually equal the new millenniums laserdisc for which ever one survives. Low market penetration and high prices for the consumers. I don't want to go back to the days of $40 and up for a single title."

I believe NTSC will simply be phased out, meaning that in five years, it will be impossible to buy an NTSC-only DVD player. They won't be manufactured - all DVD players will sport one of these two formats (who knows - maybe even both!). But you probably won't have the option of buying a DVD player that does not have HD capabilities, outside of buying an antique.

Within such an environment, as "old school" TVs fade away as they are replaced due to age, "old school" NTSC DVD will slowly fade away as well. The initial DVDs weren't $9.99 at Fry's, and the initial Blu-Ray discs won't be, either. But as the conversion takes hold, eventually the price points for Blu-Ray dvds will come down. Just a matter of time.

Pixar will never release a bad film, as long as Steve Jobs is in charge. Apple has never made a bad computer. They just believe in presenting a quality product. They won't let a bad one slip through. They will cancel a project before they let a low quailty film be released.

Just to clarify, I still have several View-Master packages from Disney. The Donald Duck one with Chip & Dale is particularly sweet.

I don't have time to read this whole thread, but I recall the statement by Buena Vista was that they were going to officially support Blu-Ray, but not exclusively. This still leaves some room to say that they may still support both formats.

Which has been noted, Mike.

I think the biggest problem with DVD compatibility on Blu-Ray players is that the disc structure is physically different on Blu-Ray discs.

HD-DVD follows the same placement of the data layer in relation to the lens as regular DVD which is 0.6mm from the surface.

Blu-Ray moves the data layer closer to the surface of the disc, which is 0.1mm. I assume this is done for future plans to upgrade to discs with more than 2 layers...I dunno.

Anyway, what I am thinking is since the focal points will be different, Blu-Ray players would probably need to have two different lenses to focus on different spots inside the disc. Who knows, maybe they'll figure out a way to do both laser types at different focal points with the same lens, but my guess is, its going to be more expensive either way for Blu-Ray to do it, as opposed to HD-DVD.

In all honesty, I dont mind paying more for a player...cost really isnt much of an issue to me, because ALL technologies that catch on eventually come down in price.

Not sure if I would consider the Hi-Rez audio situation a reasonable analogy or not, but I would NOT buy a player that did only SACD or DVD-A, nor if we end up with competing, incompatible hi-definition DVD formats, would I buy a player that only handled one or the other. At least not initially when a "winner" is in no way assured.

Of course, if you DO consider it a reasonable analogy, both sides ought to be looking at the state of hi-rez audio as a lesson of how NOT to develope and move product (both HW and SW).

BGL

Depends on your definition of "bad"

The IIGS never sold, the Newton was a flop (although waaaaaay ahead of its time), the portable Macintosh was junk and didn't sell, and the Apple Lisa failed miserably.

And what about all the Mac's between the time the Jobs/Scully left and Jobs came back?

As for Pixar never releasing a bad film, so far so good. Only 6 released (commercially) so far, but again, depends on your definition of a "bad" film.

In this thread, no one has corrected the meaning of this common statement so far. Other past threads here, and I believe at the bits, have noted that this "exclusivity" has to be said, to legally include (not abandon), the current NTSC DVD format, while initially supplying product to the future HD-DVD and/or Blue Ray formats. Disney is not making a statment of “leaving the door open”; at least at this point in time. i.e. In no way, are they making a reference to the possible jumping the ship at a future time.

Paul

With the battle between DVD-R and DVD+R, instead of one format winning out over the other, nearly all DVD burners now support both formats. I think something similar will happen with Blu-Ray and HD-DVD. Supporting both formats in the same box will probably only inflate the price for two or three generations of players but more importantly, it will make the DVD format irrelevant to the consumer.

Jeff,

I hope you're right, but both sides are so stubborn that I really can't see that happening anytime soon. Unfortunately, I think we're headed for a full-blown format war which basically boils down to the consumer getting screwed again. They've milked us to death with special editions, ultimate editions, extended editions, unrated director's cuts, explosive editions, extreme editions and every other method of double, triple and quadruple dipping possible with DVD so it's obvious they don't have any reservations about sticking it to people again with a new format. Both sides will be pushing their new formats hard and hoping that we cave in and buy a Blu Ray and/or an HD-DVD player, but I'm not giving in to their BS this time. Either come up with one format that is backed by all the major studios or create a universal player that accepts both Blu Ray and HD-DVD titles. If not, I'll gladly stick with my current DVD collection and they can continue their little war without my cash. As far as I'm concerned, they're all a bunch of ass wookiees at this point.

With the studios lining up like they are so far, the best model to look towards as far as what's going to happen with all this is, I think, high-resolution audio. There were a number of titles available at launch for both DVD-Audio and SACD, but with two formats, none but the most avid early adopters bought in. Hardware and software sales languished, so eventually the already tepid software support began to sag. Even after combo players were available, few people purchased them. What happened? Now all the talk and enthusiasm is about DualDisc.

This format war is either going to get ugly, or no one (meaning mainstream consumers) will care... or both. Even if there were just a single format, it would still never take off like current DVD did. The quality improvement from VHS to DVD was obvious to consumers - it wasn't just better picture but better sound, ease of use, convenience, durability and extras the likes of which most of them had never seen before. The quality differences from DVD to HD-DVD and Blu-ray Disc are not going to be as obvious. It's the same bells and whistles... just with a better picture. That's just not enough to get most people to upgrade to another new format. Add the format war on top of this, and Blu-ray Disc and HD-DVD are going to face a pretty indifferent market, at least in terms of packaged movies. Game platform and computer industry use is a whole other issue.

You're right on the money, Bill, and that's exactly what I've been saying for several months now. Great column today by the way.

Looks like I have to put in my €0.02!

I think people are forgetting this one fact: optical disc reader/recorder drive technology have improved to the point that it won't be hard for a console player and computer recorder drive to support BOTH formats. I wouldn't be surprised that by 2008 you can buy DVD console players that support current DVD's, Blu-Ray discs and HD-DVD discs simultaneously. The players will likely have DVI outputs, though it's possible you might have component video outputs, too. And of course, by 2007 we can buy combo HD-DVD/Blu-Ray recorder drives for desktop computers that run off the Serial ATA interface.

Besides, unlike Super Audio CD and DVD-Audio, the base of projection TV's, LCD TV's, plasma TV's and even direct-view CRT-based TV's that will take full advantage of what Blu-Ray and HD-DVD offers in terms of higher resolution will be quite large by the time these two new formats become commonly available in 2007; after all, higher-resolution TV set sales are increasing rapidly thanks to the increasing availability of 720p/1080i ATSC high-definition broadcasts and the wide availability of progressive-scan DVD players, which has better picture quality than current NTSC telecasts.

OMG!

Not to go off topic, but this is outrageous!

I love Apple and own several Macs, but let's not fool ourselves.

Can you say "Performa"?

That whole line was junk.

Actually and Mac that was ever made with a 603 chip was junk.

Sorry

Oh yeah.... GO BLU-RAY!




And now back to our regularly scheduled programming...

Disney also had Chuck Jones working for them for a while, while Walt was in charge. But he couldn't think of anything for him to do. Walt also had Orson Welles begging to work with him, but didn't think there was enough room for another "genius" at the studio :-)

And yes, I am a Disney dweeb

I just read in this morning's news that Disney will release ALL of their titles on Blue Ray, this includes Mirimax,Touchstone, Buena Vista, and all of the companies they own. I think this is a real boost for the Blue Ray format, which is obviously the better format if you really read into the specs on these discs.

As for the studios that last week announced support for HD-DVD, do you think that they are going to go with only one format if they have a chance of selling more copies on both formats? I think not. Hollywood is money hungry and would not leave some people without the means to buy their titles. I remember when Disney and Warner Brothers said they would not be supporting laserdisc, just VHS, and then they became 2 of the biggest laserdisc suppliers. I remember Sony saying they would never support VHS, well there's plenty of Columbia titles on VHS. I think this announcement is early, and things change every day out there.

With MGM, COLUMBIA and DISNEY on the Blu Ray side, and Warner, Universal and Paramount on the other, this is going to be very even as far as releases. Unfortunately the consumer really loses, because if they don't make a machine that plays both, we will have to have 2 players to complete a collection. What Bill says above is so true, CD's sound fine to most people, so when there was more than one format of a new breed, people were confused and just said well, regular CD is fine. Considering a major portion of the market thinks dvd is so awesome as far as picture quality after seeing their old VHS tapes, I predict a very slow acceptance by the general public. Most people are not as educated in video and audio as those on the boards here, and some I have talked too said they have stayed with VHS because they can't see the difference of dvd.

Personally, I can't imagine that! On my Sony 11ht projector, there is just no comparison. And when HD comes out there will be no comparison to dvd. I have been watching alot of movies on HDNET, and as an example, they ran AUNTIE MAME recently. Well, I compared it to the dvd, and there is absolutely NO comparison. The colors, the clarity were absolutely stunning on the HDnet. The dvd, which I put on after, was awful. I didn't have HDnet when the disc of Auntie Mame came out and thought the dvd was just beautiful. But after comparing, WOW, 100% difference. But most people in the consumer range aren't using projectors, and many are still using NTSC only televisions.

I've been to many stories including Best Buy and CCity and others, and every single time their HD displays are set so poorly, they look just awful. When you're promoting a new format, a store should make sure these are professionally tuned. The contrasts were up to 10, color way too high, sharpness almost at zero, things like this are really hurting high-def. Some had analog cable tv signals on the screens that were stretched to accomodate the 16x9 aspect ratio, truly sad. Plus there is usually no hi-def signal on the television. A consumer goes into a store and sees this, and in an era of very quick opinions on things, I imagine many are saying "Well, this isn't worth another 4,000.00 for a new tv."

Chuck Jones pretty much worked for everybody at one point - except for Fleischer. He was fired by Ub Iwerks twice.

As for the Disney gig, Chuck wasn't happy there. Mr. Jones went in to Walt's ofice to resign, and Walt asked him why he was leaving.

"Because the only job worth having here is yours." Chuck told him.

"You're right." Walt said - then shook his hand and wished him well.

Chuck and Walt corresponded over the years. Chuck disagreed strongly with Walt's personal politics, but he had enormous respect for Disney and his achievements in animation, later calling him "the Patron Saint of animation". Chuck was very taken, in particular, with a letter Walt had sent him that encouraged him to chart his own course as an artist, and Chuck carried this letter around with him in his wallet for years. Shortly before Walt died, Chuck heard Walt was in the hospital. Chuck went to see him, and during this - their last meeting - Chuck took the letter out of his wallet, and showed it to Walt, and told him how much it meant to him, and he thanked Walt for writing him all those years ago.

"It wasn't hard," Walt told him, "You were the only animator who ever wrote to me."