What movies can end the War... (1 Viewer)

[Mark Butler]

Originally my plan to get into the HD Formats through the PS3 because I play videogames and love movies so it was a no-brainer to wait for that system but I am a huge Superman/Comic book fan and Warner seemed to be going exclusively HDDVD early on so I began to seriously think about getting a HDDVD player just for that and Batman Begins, and any other DC hero they decide to make a movie of. But then Warner decides to release on both formats so I stuck with my decision to get the PS3. So i have STM, the Donner cut and SR arriving next week on Blu-ray. If Warner had decided to stay exclusive to HDDVD I would have (90% sure) gotten an HDDVD player. I can't help but think if the exclusive studios for Blu-ray like Disney and Fox decide to release their big guns it would start to turn the tide. I mean if you think about POTC and Cars (any Pixar or Platinum 2D). And imagine if Fox could convince George about the Original Trilogy exclusively on Blu-ray how many people would rush out and buy a Blu-ray player (if it was the Original Original Trilogy remastered in HD I think most people here would think that a thousand bucks for a player might be worth it, y'know . So my question is this... If studios were to exclusively release "__________" movie on either Blu-ray or HD DVD what would make you switch or become exclusive to one or the other formats?

 

[JonZ]

The only BR films I see on the shelves that it hurts not to have is Memento and Black Hawk Down.




Ive been pretty happy with HDs releases so far:

While you expect titles like Batman Begins and such, Fear & Loathing in LV, Excalibur and The Thing were pleasant suprises for me.

 

[Robert Crawford]

I already own both formats, but in my opinion, I think the cost and availability of the players will determine whether the general public will buy into one format over the other. Other than Disney, it's been my experience that the general public has little knowledge to the studios specifically associated to most titles.




Crawdaddy

 

[Jason Seaver]

Personally, Columbia releasing the Spider-Man movies on Blu-Ray next year will probably make me spend money on new hardware, especially if the PS3 has become ubiquitous or there's some $400-ish player out. I'd probably roll for Star Wars, too.

Now, what I think a clever thing to do would be for either Toshiba or Sony to approach Criterion and offer to pay the difference in mastering/replication costs between HD/BD and SD for exclusive, concurrent releases. The market Criterion sells to is small but influential, and capturing them might be a good idea, strategically.

 

[Chris S]

If I was completely uninformed I would be easily persuaded with Lord of the Rings, any Pixar/Disney animated film (something for the kids to help justify it to the wife), and the James Bond films. Star Wars is always a no brainer for me so I left it off my list.

 

[Mark Butler]

I have been thinking along the exclusive lines too. But I think DVD makes the exclusive thing a harder sell to the general public. If Sony decided to do Blu-ray only (no DVD) for a new release like Spider-Man 3 for next Christmas what would be the effect? Short term pain in loss of DVD sales but more hardware sales and more Blu-Ray players, more people buying discs? It may have to come to that to be the winner.

 

[ppltd]

I can not think of any particular film that would sway me one way or the other, but then again, I own both formats.

I think that if I owned only one format, I would be satified with the SD versions of a film I could not get in High Def.


I suspect that the result would be very few copies of Spideman 3 sold, and a hugh loss to Sony Studios. Before that happens, HD/BD would be dropped. I doubt it would prompt many hardware sales.

 

[AaronSCH]

That is probably true. I also believe it is the price of stand alone players that will have the greatest impact and not game consoles. However, Microsoft's early denial that it was working on an add-on device for the X-Box 360 indicates to me that the HD DVD camp is quietly working to compete aggressively on price. Reportedly, Toshiba has been chatting with Chinese manufacturers. The HD A1 is available for less than $400 in a few places and the introduction of even lower-priced players in 2007 will make it very attractive for most people to replace those old DVD players with a suped-up HD DVD player. It's a label they understand. The lower costs of manufacturing HD DVD hardware and software may be a bigger advantage than was earlier thought. All this will unfold as the Blu-ray manufacturers are scrambling to get their first generation players with hefty price tags on shelves.

 

[Mark Butler]

"I suspect that the result would be very few copies of Spideman 3 sold, and a hugh loss to Sony Studios. Before that happens, HD/BD would be dropped. I doubt it would prompt many hardware sales."

True, that may happen. But one of these sides is going to have to go all in to win and making some releases exclusive to one format or another might be the only way to get that.

 

[Dave W]

Exclusive titles are pretty much the ONLY reason to own one format over the other IMO. Yes, of the titles available in both formats usually the HD-DVD is rated better but, each has their own "hits" to be fair. In my case I went with HD-DVD first because that was the format that has the movies I deperately wanted in HD - Batman Begins, Serenity, Phantom of the Opera, King Kong, Pitch Black, etc. And in my case, having Universal studios is a Big factor as well...

Titles that would sway me (If they were only available on one format):
Star Wars (obvious, but also obvious that it will most likely be avail on both formats at some point)
Lord of the Rings
Jurrasic Park movies
Superman movies
Spiderman movies
Scarface
The Godfather movies
Pixar movies

 

[Shawn Perron]

The price of the software is far more important then the price of the players. If a consumer sees that the software has a $10 premium over DVD they won't even bother to head over to the players to see how much they cost. If a consumer looks at the discs and sees they are comparable to the price of a DVD, they'll think they are getting better value for thier dollar and investigate a HD player. Really, anyone that concerned about saving money on the player is going to be totally turned off by the premium on the software itself. No one that is very thrifty is going to be interested in buying into HD as the prices stand now.

I just don't see that Hollywood is seriously interested in these formats succeeding. If they really wanted these to take off, we'd be seeing day and date releases priced like DVDs. That $500-$1000 looks far more appealing if you know that you will be buying lots of software. It's hard to justify buying movies that you are only moderately interested in at the current premiums.

 

[Brent T]

For me its Lord of the Rings, Braveheart, Star Wars, Pulp Fiction, and the Godfather series.

I own the 360 HD add on so I am happy we will have LotR and Braveheart.

The only movie on Blue Ray that I am really missing at this point is Kingdom of Heaven. I love the directors cut.

 

[AaronSCH]

What came first the chicken or the egg? It hurts far less for most consumers to shell out $20 for a favorite flick vs. making a $600 - $1000 investment for an HD player that can be purchased for $300 or less in an equally impressive if not superior format (and please don't tell me about disc space since most people don't give a rat's ...). I don't see many people replacing their entire DVD libraries with HD DVD or Blu-ray. They will be far more selective in the beginning. So in this case I believe it will be the cost of hardware that will drive adoption of either format. Especially since since they will have the benefit of viewing their current DVDs and HD content on both formats.

 

[Brent M]

The guy in my avatar says it all.

 

[Shawn Perron]

It's not a chicken or egg situation. The fact that DVD is so big makes HD irrelevant to a majority of consumers. The real fight isn't Blu-Ray vs HD-DVD, it's HD vs SD DVD. Pretty much every customer investing in HD is going to have to be won away from standard DVD. Like it or not, most consumers are not going to be won over just on technical merits. Those of us that are so concerned about quality are a very small minority of the overall market for prerrecorded movies.

If you are a real movie lover, just the fact that you will spend more per movie, and from a smaller selection, is a real con. Add to this the fact that you aren't getting movies on the same day as DVD and it's just not very attractive. To see this in action, just ask people with large DVD collections how many of those discs they will actually upgrade to HD.

 

[ppltd]

As many as the quality of the HD release allows.

 

[Andrew Bunk]

Personally, I have bought way more DVD's than I ever intended to due to impulse buys.

I look at HD DVD and Blu Ray as a way of getting back to quality over quantity.

I have about 1000 films right now. If every single one of them was available on one of the new formats, I'd probably upgrade somewhere around 200.

 

[Brent T]

As Aaron mentioned earlier I also believe the branding of the name HD will have a large impact on who wins. Most of my family and friends are not AV buffs but they all know what the name HD brings to the table, not one of them knows whats Blue Ray is or what it even is about.


Back to the topic, can someone post what companies will put out HD and BD versions of their movies ?

 

[MarekM]

yes they know HD , but they don't know HD DVD
don't LABEL HD as HD DVD, HD is HD DVD and Blu-ray

there are hundrets of threads for your question.... and answare is JUST TWO STUDIOS - Warner and Paramount (so far...)

Marek

 

[Brent T]

I hear ya, however your average consumer does and will. HD is a name that people associate quality TV with because thats all the hear... HD HD HD. So HD-DVD has that advantage built right in.