I'm I wrong in assuming that all releases in the new High Def will be bare bones so that the studio can release SE packages a few years later? Will there be no end?
Well, we only have ourselves to blame. If everyone had just said no and not bought every "new" version that came out, the studios might have taken the hint and released everything that had in a SE the first time. They know suckers when they see them.
I'm rather amused at the whole "double/triple/quadruple" dipping weeping scenarios. I suppose it's because I'm basically a movie only kind of guy so the subsequent bells and whistles special editions don't hold much interest for me.
Still, business wise, it DOES make sense, doesn't it. Get as much cash flow out of one product as you can and then gussy it up a bit with a little dressing and release it again and make some more money out of it. C'mon, guys! We're consumers. We're supposed to have money squeezed out of us. Businesses = make a profit, consumers = provide the profits for the businesses. Or did you think home video companies are here merely to build up our movie libraries on demand?
I'm actually more perplexed that with the veritable smorgasbord of diverse titles out in the DVD marketplace at the consumers who seem to keep buying the same set of titles over and over again or seem to keep wanting not only "special" editions of titles already out there but special editions of titles that already have a ton of extras on them.
No doubt there are those still unsatisfied with the 3 disc Titanic because there aren't enough extras and they won't be satisfied until there's a audio commentary by the caterer describing what he fed Cameron, DiCaprio and Winslet.
If people desire to hand over their money then they have the right. There are only 2 films that I have ever done that on. I also have no intention of rebuying my entire collection of dvds on high def. The shame is that the effort required to create these new versions could be used to put out films that are not currently out on dvd.
I'm rather amused that people are dismissing this rather unethical practice and labeling it as a 'business tactic'. Just because it's a business tactic does not make it right. Maybe some of you have all the money in the world to buy 8 versions of some movie, but most of us do not. And I'm not referring to revisiting titles that have been OOP or one of the format's earlier titles. I'm talking about releasing a new title, and then re-releasing it a few months or more down the line in a full blown SE, a'la Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind without notice.
I really like the very slim packaging (slimline?), like what is used to hold discs for TV box sets. Or at least a packaging that is half the spinal width of current DVD cases.
Well, its entirely possible that the studios will figure we'll be so excited to have movies in HD that we'll purchase barebones titles, then they'll put out the SE, which we'll also buy. But let's wait and see.
It's a real issue/concern AFAIC. Re-releasing a SD SE after it's less-endowed predecessor, for instance, sees great sales is one thing. But the issue William is addressing is a horse of a different color in that we're looking at a shift to a new format. Criterion SE LDs notwithstanding, we didn't know a lot of the supplemental content we've grown used to even existed when DVD first arrived. Of course some of this content is newly-created for new films.
So the question of whether the studios will product position Blu-ray's high definition film presentation--period--as the premium content worthy of, say, a $35 price tag, and purposefully withhold for future release at a higher price point an HD SE with the supps we know to exist now is a legitimate one.
We know from various quotes in trade stories from studio reps and analysts that the studios are going to handle HD differently than SD. Not only because it's probably going to be a niche for a while, but also because there's palpable desire to manage its product cycle better than was done with SD. Much effort is going to be expended to prevent the rapid commodification and "rush to the bottom" that we've seen with SD. Just yesterday at Costco, I saw new copies of The Natural and the SuperBit Panic Room for $7.49. The destruction of SD DVD's margins is part of raison d'etre of HD on DVD.
I'm also concerned about the equivalent of what we saw during the LD-to-SD DVD transition as far as transfers are concerned: probably not Sony, but I'm concerned about, say, Paramount releasing SD transfers on Blu-ray and labeling them "HD" just because the format is capable of that, even though the content of a particular release is not 1080i.
So to put it another way, is Par going to release Braveheart--which they announced as one of their first HD DVDs--on Blu-ray using the existing transfer and without Mel Gibson's (serviceable) commentary, only to release a true HD transfer with the existing (and maybe some new?) supplements later down the road?
It's a legitimate, vexing issue/possibility and only time will tell. It's yet another reason I wish we could get a BD release slate and spec announcement already.
I hadn't even thought about this, but considering that HD home video will probably be a niche product for a while, I'm sure that those with good HT setups will not tolerate rehashed SD transfers.
Personally, I think we will see something similar to what happened during the LD to DVD transition: mostly decent 1080i transfers (which will probably look fabulous next to their 480p counterparts--just as DVD versions generally looked much better next to their laserdisc counterparts), and fewer extras initially, except maybe on high-profile titles like "Batman Begins" (early DVD releases of catalog titles such as "Wizard of Oz," "Gone With the Wind" and "The Frighteners" were barebones and did not have their LD extras ported over until much later--even "Psycho" was and still is missing the isolated score from the old Signature Collection LD).
I'm not sure I understood your last post. Anyway, it just seems your putting more effort into pointing out how bad you think this topic is instead of helping to make it better. No topic is bad; only bad replies.
I can really see this happening. The studios will say something like "We've improved the quality of this movie, but we really didn't have enough space to put any extras on the same disk. We decided not to make this a 2-disk SE, because the costs would go up. In the future, when double-layer disks are out, we'll reissue this again with the extras added."
Ok, maybe they won't really say that, but that is what I'll be thinking when I see the 1st single-layer disks come out - bareboned!
Sorry you thought the thread was useless. It was not meant to stir the pot but was a serious question. Let me explain.... I've been enjoying reading about recent releases with very nice packages that include multiple extras. For example, the 3 disc Wizard of Oz release. I'm planning a home theater, and i'm just now ready to build a nice library. I had wanted to wait and build this collection with High Def discs, but I began to realize that it may be years before I see these same extrordinary packages in high def form. My question simple was to confirm this belief. I'd like some of these nice SE too, but I feel i'm a little late to the SD party. Would anyone here build a big SD library from scratch at this point? Still that Oz release is nice! Maybe a few SD SE's wouldn't hurt!