**Official HTF HD Formats Ind./Retailer/Studio Support Thread-*SEE POST 3176, p. 106* (1 Viewer)

[Robert Crawford]

It's a point that has been made often and maybe, it's time to let it go? Otherwise, we might be promoting it's continue existence. Whatever happens with HDM and downloads, it will happen in due time without us becoming so emotionally invested in their promotion. One thing this latest format war has proven is that corporate entities and not HT enthusiasts decide the future of video formats. Sure, we might give them some marketing data, but business alliances are the ones that actual make the decisions about the video industry. We are nothing but another tool in that process. We all need to relax a bit and just enjoy what we have as far as home entertainment. Let's not fall for the same trap again in which we fight among ourselves and cause more major divides among the HT enthusiast group. We're small in numbers and we can't afford to be too fragmented as the rest of society kind of view us as oddballs anyway.






Crawdaddy

 

[Jari K]

True. We "oddballs" should stick together now.

Blu-ray might be the last physical format that we´re going to get. If it fails, it´s "bye bye" movie collecting. At least in the sense that we have learned to "collect" movies over the years.

 

[Douglas Monce]

Well I don't know about where you live, but in my town Cox had automatically bumped everyone with high speed cable up to the highest bandwidth service. So if you have cable, you have the highest speed available.

Now Phoenix is a town were Cox tends to test these things out so it maybe something that will go system wide for them in the future. Who knows if this will be a trend that will extend to other cable providers.

At this point for me downloading an image files of a blu-ray disc would be a matter of an over night thing. Again I don't care if it is a download as long as I have the right to make at least one physical copy like I do when I download songs from itunes, and the quality is consistent with existing blu-ray releases.

Doug

 

[Douglas Monce]

Someone should tell the RIAA about itunes which allows you to do exactly what she says violates their copywrites.

Doug

 

[Douglas Monce]

We're doomed....DOOMED!

-Doctor Smith in Lost in Space

 

[Douglas Monce]

Ultimately the market will go where the general public wants it to go. The studios can't really force downloads if downloads don't sell. If the general public decides that downloads are convenient and a good value then they will take off.

The reason the music industry has gone toward downloads is NOT because they wanted it. The Music industry has gone kicking and screaming in that direction, but they had to because people stopped buying CDs in huge numbers. I really suspect that this was more a matter of perceived value than anything else. When I can buy an album on CD for $20 dollars or more at the store, or download it for $9 from itunes, what do you think most people are going to do.

The proof against downloads will be if the public sees physical media as a good value. If people think that it is over priced and lacks quality content, then it is clearly doomed.

Doug

 

[David Wilkins]

Can I get an "Amen"?

This kind of stuff is the primary discussion in the hi-def forums. It doesn't end. Even threads on other subjects, have an annoying habit of circling back to one version or another of this topic.

I spent some time over the past two weeks, over in the SD forum. It was so damn refreshing to hear enthusiastic, even passionate talk about movies again. New editions of discs are still being released, some that will take years to see the light of day in HDM, and people are still enthusiastic about them. The SD market will be/is the first area to fall to the advance of downloads and VOD, but that doesn't seem to be a primary discussion/obsession in that forum.

Maybe I'm blind to it, having spent nearly two years, exclusively in the hi-def forums, but there seems to be a guiding spirit of love for film and home theater in those forums, that has to a large extent been abandoned here in favor of never ending clamor about manipulations by multi-national corporations, and talk about market penetration and price points.

This entire mind-set has taken away much of the enthusiasm I had when HDM first hit the marketplace. I've noticed stretches of two or three days, when there aren't any new threads here, just added posts to a couple such this one. Is that all we're about anymore?

What the hell. Maybe I should keep my mouth shut, and start spending more time in the SD forums. This one is getting dry and tedious.

 

[David Wilkins]

Oops...my reply got inserted into Crawdaddy's quote. It begins with "Can I get an 'Amen'". Sorry about that! If a mod can correct, or even delete it, that would be fine with me.

 

[Malcolm R]

The bigger issue in the music industry is being able to buy a song you like for $1 or less, rather than having to buy a $20 album. The music moguls essentially torpedoed their own industry when they stopped issuing physical singles in the 1990's. Once the technology advanced enough for fans to swap the songs they wanted electronically online (via Napster, etc.), it was all downhill from there. Their "embrace" of digital downloads is simply a last ditch effort to try and reclaim some of that market that they themselves abandoned.

If you don't deliver entertainment options in the formats that people want, they'll probably find a way to get it anyway (legal or not). The studios would do well to learn from the history of the music biz before they eliminate any popular physical media options.

 

[Mike Frezon]

Amen, brother.

I advocated, many pages ago, that this thread had run its course and could be closed. I was rebuffed however, by those who wanted to continue the conversation.

To my mind, however, this thread--indicative of many others in the HD section--continued the merry-go-round discussions of downloads vs. physical media, what led to the result of the BD win of the format war (even more HD-DVD vs. BD debate!), and the speculative future of the home video industry.

I surely considered unsubscribing to this (admittedly popular) thread as I felt as if the conversation was going nowhere, but quickly. I decided, however, to "stay tuned" as I figured I might gain some insight into the industry.

But I agree whole-heartedly with your assertions, David, about the SD forum and how this endless debate about the industry has not yet overwhelmed the discussion about the product that we enjoy. And to be fair, there are still many threads/reviews in the HD forum which provide the same satisfaction for HD product.

But rather than going-on with what amounts to nothing more than a thread-fart I suppose, I will probably go ahead and unsubscribe and spend my HTF time in other pursuits.

Have at it friends!

 

[ManW_TheUncool]

Amen to that.

I think I just need to spend more time watching (and catching up on) my movie collection and practicing the violin instead -- Lord knows I need the practice, LOL.

I'm bummed though that I missed out on the 3:10 to Yuma sales that went on this past week between Target and J&R -- showed up to J&R just too late for it.

_Man_

 

[Douglas Monce]

I agree, and I also think it started even before downloads, when people would borrow CDs from friends and make a compilation CD of just the songs they wanted.

Doug

 

[Patrick Sun]

I take it you've never made a mix tape for someone you've pine for?

 

[Douglas Monce]

I used to record songs I liked off the radio when I was a kid. But I never made one for someone else.

Doug

 

[Dave Moritz]

I know this is a bit off topic but, one of my coworkers recently left Cox and he has one of the new cable boxes that are not yet available. I guess that Cox here in Phoenix will be offering 1080p cable boxes! I have no reason to not belive my co-worker but I can't wait to see these boxes actually at the Cox store to see if they are any good or not.


I loves my HD movies! They are my precious

 

[Douglas Monce]

It wouldn't surprise me. Like I said Phoenix tends to be a test sight for Cox.

Doug

 

[RickER]

I agree with that 100% Doug. We DO have a say, with our pocket books. Havent a few movie download services already failed? I was thinking Wal-Mart had some such thing? Maybe i just worked to much today, and only think i remember reading that?

 

[TravisR]

I'm 99% sure that you are correct that Wal Mart had it. While I don't know if it failed (I think it did though) but if hasn't, it's obviously not moving too fast.

 

[Jari K]

Eventually, that would probably do more harm that good.

If the "bitter thoughts" are there, they´ll come out in the open in one way (=thread) or another.. But it seems that some people are slowly spreading their "doomsday"-talk to several threads (most recently to the Fox-thread, I guess) and that is not good. One thread is enough..

 

[ManW_TheUncool]

Me neither really. I guess that's why High Fidelity didn't work quite as well for me as for many others.

_Man_