**Official HTF HD Formats Ind./Retailer/Studio Support Thread-*SEE POST 3176, p. 106* - Page 83

Re: *** Official HTF HD Formats Industry/Retailer/Studio Support Thread

I personally tell that they should get the HD-player now and start buying HD-titles, IF they´re interested in that sort of thing and have that HD-screen. No reason to wait and keep buying SD DVDs, when there are many HD-releases available. Get the player now and enjoy HD-films.

I usually explain "pros and cons" of *both* formats (no reason to "lie" or anything), but I recommend Blu-ray and eventually PS3 (at least before the cheaper 2.0-players are out). Couple of friends already bought PS3 and one bought Wii. Many are not interested at the moment on either of the formats, since they want that HD-TV first.

Bottom line: DO NOT buy a new DVD-player. Get the HD-player.

Re: *** Official HTF HD Formats Industry/Retailer/Studio Support Thread

Even with the format war dragging on and on.

I want to just say that most studios are doing a great job on there HD releases, so to those studios I say good job!


These are some of the HD titles (Blu-ray & HD-DVD), I think the studios should be proud of:

• Pirates Of The Caribbean: 1-3
• Bourne Identity Series 1-3
• Blade Runner
• Harry Potter 1-5
• Unforgiven
• Cars
• Spiderman 3
• The Day After Tomorrow
• Fantastic Four: Rise Of The Silver Surfer
• Fearless
• Transformers
• Memoirs Of A Geisha
• Lady In The Water
• Superman Returns
• Top Gun
• 300
• Shooter
• The Patriot
• Ghost Rider
• The Cowboys
• Hellboy
• The Matrix
• Resident Evil Trilogy
• The Skeleton Key
• Mr & Mrs Smith
• Transporter 1 & 2
• Ice Age 2
• Scorpion King
• Pulse
• Behind Enemy Lines
• X-Men 3: The Last Stand
• Pearl Harbor
• Enemy Of The State
• Million Dollar Baby
• King Kong
• Mutiny On The Bounty
• End Of Days
• Gone In 60 Seconds
• Land Of The Dead
• Training Day
• Terminator Trilogy
• Underworld
• Seabiscuit

I think that the studios that offered lossless audio should receive a huge . I would like to thank the studios for offering uncompress pcm, Dolby True HD and DTS-HD Master Audio. I am sure all of us that own HD players are looking forward to more top notch HD titles in the future.

Re: *** Official HTF HD Formats Industry/Retailer/Studio Support Thread

Among us older folk that have adopted a life attitude of "live each day to the fullest" your suggestion of waiting until next X-mas for HDM adoption would fall on deaf ears.....no pun intended.
I have recommended purchase of the Toshiba HD-A3 at discount pricing. Most of our friends have modest standard DVD libraries and can easily afford this HD player and benefit from its upconversion capabilities as well as HD presentations.

Re: *** Official HTF HD Formats Industry/Retailer/Studio Support Thread

Are we seriously advocating that at this point in time that it's still not clear which way this it all going to end?

It's fine to keep HTF "neutral" in terms of promoting or bashing either side so no ill-will gets harbored by those who've invested heavily in the format that the industry is terminating while all the fallout is still taking place. That's the polite thing to do given our membership. But doing do should not entail pretending that this is still a game of 50:50 chance. Blu ray will be the final single-HDM format in no uncertain terms; it's just a matter of when the official word is uttered by whichever party you happen to use as your personal litmus test. For some that's already happened. For others it won't happen until Toshiba officially folds HD DVD. For others somewhere in between (as when a respected major retailer in their corner of the world drops HD DVD, or when Paramount and/or Universal go blu or purple). But in no way is there any doubt in the industry right now about the outcome of this situation: only "when". And every non-Toshiba party feels pretty confident that everybody will have their litmus test satisfied by the end of 2008 if not sooner.



Agreed. If they go cheap enough, I may get on myself to enjoy some cool HD DVD exlusives before they come out on blu. My reciever has 3 more HDMI ports and it would be sweet to enjoy a few flicks like King Kong, Pride and Prejudice, and Transformers (without starting a debate about the lack of lossless audio ).

Re: *** Official HTF HD Formats Industry/Retailer/Studio Support Thread

David,
Who are you addressing with your post?

Re: *** Official HTF HD Formats Industry/Retailer/Studio Support Thread

As I near retirement, I wouldn't call myself a spring chicken, but "living each day to the fullest" can be done without HDM.



Crawdaddy

Re: *** Official HTF HD Formats Industry/Retailer/Studio Support Thread

Re who David is addressing: Gary Oldman screaming "EVERYONE!!" in Leon immediately lept into my mind. LOL.

Re: *** Official HTF HD Formats Industry/Retailer/Studio Support Thread

Ahhhhhhhh...but wait till you "cross over" that retirement bridge. My wife has a group of retired buddies that meet every week. She uses our home theater to screen film favorites followed by group discussion, coffee and dessert. I like the dessert part. It's just a pleasant way to socialize.

Re: *** Official HTF HD Formats Industry/Retailer/Studio Support Thread

After giving considerable thought to my reply and after having spent a long time typing and revising it, something freaky happened. Just as I was almost done typing the last lines of my reply, the power went out. Then to make things even stranger, few seconds later, almost as if some kind of 'divine intervention', the usually very reliable UPS also decided to fail and thus I lost whatever I had typed. Since, I neither have the energy nor the will to rethink and retype, I suppose this is best left alone as one of those 'not to be' things.

Re: *** Official HTF HD Formats Industry/Retailer/Studio Support Thread

Karthago delenda est!



There's still not much anime on either format. I've been waiting to decide whether to pick up Wings of Honneamise on HD-DVD or BD, and for a while I was leaning toward the former because Bandai seemed to be supporting it more, but at this point I think I'll take the latter.

Re: *** Official HTF HD Formats Industry/Retailer/Studio Support Thread

Thank you for sparing us.

Re: *** Official HTF HD Formats Industry/Retailer/Studio Support Thread

And it would be nice if you could spare us from your condescending comments. I bet, I can guess which format you chose. After all, it's becoming quite evident, supporters of which format, are the one's who think they can and do get away with make disparaging remarks on this forum.

Re: *** Official HTF HD Formats Industry/Retailer/Studio Support Thread

Sanjay,

Believe me: my powers don't go that far.
But perhaps it was a sign after all (better ask M. Night Shyamalan about it).

(Let's leave this subject at that, folks!)


Cees

Re: *** Official HTF HD Formats Industry/Retailer/Studio Support Thread

Sanjay,
Perhaps, you need to take a look at your own posting history before you start commenting on others as to which format they chose or what they think they can get away with saying on this forum.





Crawdaddy

Re: *** Official HTF HD Formats Industry/Retailer/Studio Support Thread

Weird join date - before everyone else.

Re: *** Official HTF HD Formats Industry/Retailer/Studio Support Thread

Hey Cees and Robert,

Whats up with some of the members having join dates of Jan 1970 ? Micro computers where not even around back then.

Just curious when did HTF first start?


Hey ChrsitopherDAC,
I had never heard of that title but am wondering if you think I should pick it up? Did you pick up a copy yet? I am wondering how good does it look in HD. The reason I am thinking about it was I used to watch a anime show years ago called Robotech. I am thinking that this title might be similar to that show?

Re: *** Official HTF HD Formats Industry/Retailer/Studio Support Thread

Off topic:

The forum in this current form, started in 1997. Before that, there was a "previous version", with some of the members we still have here ( ) , going back to as long ago as about 1987, if I'm not mistaken.

During one of the rather recent transfers to a new software, some of the registration dates were destroyed, and those members got an erroneous "default" registration date of 1970.

Basically, it's "0", meaning: "not present" (the date! The member is present of course ).


Here's some more about our history, with lots of pictures (some recovered from a hd crash!).


Cees

Re: *** Official HTF HD Formats Industry/Retailer/Studio Support Thread

@Dave Moritz:

Wings of Honneamise is a great film. It's hard to make a comparison with other anime. Technically, it's very well executed ; the plot is well-constructed, & the characters are very well-realized ; and the real gem of the piece is the design, which presents us with probably the most real, self-consistent fictional world in cinema.

Aside from having space travel in it, it's not much like Robotech. There is a little combat, a little political machination, but they're not the focus. It's also a very serious film. The plot focusses on the efforts of a small kingdom in a world very much like but not quite the same as our Earth to launch the first manned spacecraft. The "Royal Space Force" is composed of losers and burnout cases who wound up there because the military services wouldn't have them, and between the dangers involved in developmental space work and minimal funding, they have unpleasantly high casualty rates. A chance encounter with a religious fanatic convinces one of these down-at-the-heels space cadets that there really is something worthwhile in what he's theoretically being paid to do, and the film is essentially his journey toward orbit and enlightenment. It also has one of the best-executed rocket launch scenes in any film, including the actual documentary films of NASA launches.

I have it on LaserDisc, the Japanese "Memorial Box" with some of the most remarkable extras out there. It's a visually beautiful film, with some extraordinary animation and design, and I'm sure it looks beautiful in HD. The sound design is also wonderful, very immersive ; the BD apparently has linear PCM for the original stereo mix, and TrueHD for the 5.1 remix which was done for the 10th anniversary — considering how good the LD AC-3 of this mix sounds, it could hardly help but be excellent.

Re: *** Official HTF HD Formats Industry/Retailer/Studio Support Thread

Re: *** Official HTF HD Formats Industry/Retailer/Studio Support Thread

Thank you for proving my point. I rest my case, your honour.

As for my own posting history, I am sure as an administrator, you probably have the means to review all my past posts, atleast as far back as the archives go, that is. I have been a long standing member of this forum, if memory serves me right, July - August 1997 is when I officially registered, ie. just around the time that this forum was born and I have always prided myself on being a member of this, the very best of all Home Theater related forums. During this entire time, I don't recall ever attacking and or being rude to anyone personally. Considering, that the HDM formats are not the first contentious issues to have inflicted this forum, DD vs DTS & DVD vs DiVX are two that come to mind right away, although I must admit that niether of them were as marginilizing or as prolonged as the HDM format 'war' has become. Thus, there have been occassions, when I have not agreed with someone's viewpoint and vice versa and I may have strongly defended my stand, but never have I, even felt the need, to insult anyone. But I am sorry to say, lately there have been several condescending and disparaging posts that have been directed at me personally. Now, we even have someone taking issue with my date of joining, or should I say the 'displayed' date of my joining. Something which obviously I have no control over and if someone really has an issue with it, I suggest they take it up with the administrators and or owners of the forum.

EDIT: Sorry, Dave & Cees, I just saw your posts regarding the mystery of the 'erroneous "default" registration date of Jan 1970'.

Re: *** Official HTF HD Formats Industry/Retailer/Studio Support Thread

National Geographic Makes Move to Blu-ray Exclusivity (UPDATED) | High-Def Digest

Re: *** Official HTF HD Formats Industry/Retailer/Studio Support Thread

Thanks for the info Cees, I just thought it was kinda funny when I went through some of the members list seeing so many Jan 1970 join dates.

Re: Lawrence Of Arabia in HD

I think the "real problem" is:

3. does Sony want to go through the expense of releasing such a high profile film at this time considering the poor reception of another of their stellar offerings, Close Encounters of a Third Kind.

I don't think the PS3 crowd will ever buy this title in sufficient numbers to justify the expense. Just a hunch.

Re: Lawrence Of Arabia in HD

I've never seen any sales numbers or evidence that CET3K did poorly. Assumption is the...
They put the "Blade Runner" Blu-ray in the top 10 last week.

Re: Lawrence Of Arabia in HD

You're hunch has been domonstrated to be a baseless myth over and over again. Many serious film collectors bought the PS3 as their primary BD movie player as it's the most future-proof and best-performing of any player available. That sub-group of PS3 users, combined with stand-alone BD owners, probably accounts for a far greater number than stand-alone HD DVD owners. Since most HD DVD owners are actually "gamers" who own the 360 add-on as their movie-player, should we dismiss classic titles on HD DVD as well?

I enjoyed COT3K very much on my PS3. My friend with his Lexicon surround and JVC 1080p projector enjoyed buying and viewing Close Encounters on his PS3 as well. Niether of us own a single PS3 game.

Move on to another topic, please.

Re: Lawrence Of Arabia in HD

I agree David. Please, let's do move on.

Re: Lawrence Of Arabia in HD

I think that some studios indeed seem to be treating some titles as kind of premium or flagship products and therefore they are ready to invest more into them than they will immediately get back from let's say the first year of Blu-Ray Disc sales.

Fox does that with their 70mm catalogue and I hope that Sony will do the same for some of their large format titles and also for older titles that were in other ways noticable.

Re: Lawrence Of Arabia in HD

Since when did the data change to support that statement?

Re: Lawrence Of Arabia in HD

I'll find the microsoft quote that supports the following (I've googled it before so I know I can dig it up).

More Xbox 360 HD-DVD Players Sold Than Standalone Units


Add-on for Xbox 360 outsells standalone HD-DVD players - SlashGear



Keep in mind that when Toshiba only talks about "stand alones" without mentioning the 360 add-on separately, they are *including* it as a stand-alone in their sales figures:

X-bit labs - HD DVD Promo Group Claims 1 Million Standalone Players Sold in the U.S.


So don't let isolated "standalone" figures from the HD DVD group fool you.

Note that *recently* the HD DVD group has only (to my knowledge) been discussing combined sales of both the 360 and real standalones in their "standalone" talley. Perhaps this is because they don't want to draw attention to the large numbers of 360's which make up that percentage. I don't ever remember numbers being posted which indicate that the ratio has shifted fewer add-ons than regular standalones (if I missed it, please share).

Now, perhaps with all the sales lately *real* HD DVD stand-alones are now out in greater numbers than add-ons. But (ignoring returned items) since software sales have continued to drop, it's hard to argue that these new haredware sales have expanded the HD DVD consumer base, let alone the HD DVD audience for "classic titles" in particular.

In any case, here's the point (and what's relevent to this thread):

both HD DVD and BD movie consumers are largely comprised of persons using "gaming" machines as their primary movie-player for HDM (regardless of the exact ratios). So what's good for the goose is good for the gander, and if HD DVD consumers enjoy classics, so to BD consumers.

Re: Lawrence Of Arabia in HD

And don't forget that some BD owners are also HDD owners (and some of them even use the PS3 as their primary BD player). There are certainly quite a few of them in HTF -- and I probably would've joined them if the format war looked like it'd last indefinitely (and w/out risking the survival of both).

I find it odd that nobody seems to talk about that when statistics are bandied about even though plenty of such HDM owners regularly post here. I really do wonder what percentage of the HDM market consist of just such owners. Would it surprise anyone that maybe as much as 50% (if not more) of standalone player owners own both formats? I guess the CE companies and studios probably aren't so interested in having such figures published since it could potentially reveal that the market size is actually much smaller than people might otherwise think.

As for the low sales figures on catalog titles, I wonder if part of that isn't due to the rather high prices of HDM so far. Don't sales figures show that some catalog titles do quite well when they show up in certain promo pricing deals, including BOGOs? Maybe many are just waiting for prices to come down a good deal before jumping on them. Interest in individual movies isn't a B&W matter afterall. Many people may have different pricing tolerance for different titles (and extra features, or lack thereof, can be a factor too) -- that certainly applies to me...

_Man_