Paul Penna
Screenwriter
- Joined
- Aug 22, 2002
- Messages
- 1,230
- Real Name
- Paul
Originally Posted by Mike Frezon
As my wife and I were waiting (and waiting) for a Blu-ray to load in the player last night, I turned to her and told her how we (the HTF) had the ear of one of the top guys at Fox Home Entertainment on the very subject of Blu-ray discs and why hobbyists would support the format. I added that many were commenting on the long load times as a negative--and that, in particular, common-sense suggestions were being made about relocating the FBI/piracy warnings to the back end of the process and making the trailers for other films a bonus feature option...in other words--eliminating the barrier between the consumer and the desired product. She thought about that awhile--this was a subject which she clearly had never given a moment's thought before--and said simply "Cool. They really have made it difficult, haven't they? It is way too complicated...and long. Do you suppose they'll change it?" I agreed that it would be a huge step towards making the presentations better and said, "Well. They asked. We're hoping they listen."
And the disc still hadn't finished loading.
I think your wife is not only The Voice of Reason, but The Voice of How Most People Would Look at It. We tend to overlook the big part convenience plays in the mass-market adoption of new technology. LPs over 78s, CDs over LPs, DVDs over cassettes, they all had technological advantages, but they wouldn't have succeeded as they did if the big, mass market hadn't found them significantly more convenient than their predecessors. Now we have Blu-Ray that already has hurdles for the bigger market: greater expense for a relatively (for lots, if not most people) modest quality improvement. So they then proceed to make less convenient than the preceding technology.