Criterion to sit out the format war (1 Viewer)

According to today's Digital Bits:



The Bits' source: http://www.videobusiness.com/article/CA6316722.html

A wise decision.

I'll be sitting it out with them.I'm actually getting worried that my loathing of all things Sony is influencing every decision I make with regard to a great hobby/passion




~M~

I would love to have a high definition format at home, but the major thing stopping me is the lack of titles that interest me.

Foreign and independant films (from any studios) won't be seeing these new formats for a while. These are the types of films I watch, and there would be around 20 Criterions that I would love to have in either of these formats.

Of all the titles being mentioned by both the HD-DVD and BR group, I was only interested in Altman's The Player.

The hardware's great, but without the software it's pretty pointless (for me at least).

Me too^. While Hi Def is great, it will be years before either of these formats catches on. I have a high def projector, and am happy watching HD channels, XBOX360, and an upconverting OPPO. I cannot justify shelling out a ton of money for a new format that may at any time go one way or the other. And maybe it's just me, but I hate Sony for putting a Blu-Ray player in the PS3! They know people are going to buy the PS3 in droves, and oh by the way there just happens to be a blu-ray capability built into it. Sound familiar? Windows anyone? I just feel like Sony is really forcing the issue, and IMO, the only reason for the delay on the PS3 is to force feed Blu-Ray to consumers. I'm sincerely thinking about never buying a Sony console again.

I'm fine with them sitting things out until the dust and costs settle down.

When Criterion does settle on the winning format, they will surely bring us some wonderful presentations!

Wasn't Criterion also late into double layer discs, and late into anamorphic? They're a tiny company. Can't blame them for waiting until things are cheaper.

Yeah, but most of their problems with poorly mastered DVDs had nothing to do with cost but rather were part of an "NTSC mind-set" that they just couldn't get out of.

Their head-guys insisted on staying 4x3 even when 16x9 mastering was just a mouse-click away.

Insomnia was their first 16x9 title and it was only 16x9 because a 3rd party individual helped coax the Criterion crew into doing a 16x9 transfer along side the 4x3.

In any case, I'm hoping that when they finally get going with HD that we won't have the same level of incompetence that they had with DVD. Hopefully they learned their lesson the last time. I think this might be the case...so far no big speeches on how 'DVD is the format for the film collector' like they made about laserdisc!

dave

Any news, or even rumors, of Criterion jumping into HD anytime soon?

I think that announcement will be far off...they're just not that big of a company to produce title in both formats...


~Jason

Very old news. As they have made no recent announcements one way or the other, we can not even make an educated guess if and when they might junp into the arena. But 9 months is a lot of time for them to reevaluate their position.

This is why the format war is so...
GREAT!!!
;-)

They are certainly taking their time and losing sales because of it. While only one title, The Leopard would be stunning in HD DVD and while Criterion sit on the fence, it's being released in Europe on HD. If it's the same stunning transfer that Criterion have, I for one won't wait and I'll get it from Europe.

I dunno

I paid $299 for my HD DVD player and am currently watching a glorious projected image from a Sony Pearl on a 120" screen

The disc came from Netflix and I have about 20 title in my queue to follow

I really don't care who wins the "war" I'm just enjoyinmg HD and will buy a PS3 once things have settled down to watch Blu Ray. No interest in the games at all

Rob

If you already have the XBox 360, HD DVD will set you back a whole $200.00. HD DVD is so much better than upscaled DVD, it's not even in the same ballpark. Think VHS -> DVD.

Ted

Aren't we already enjoying wonderful presentations. What can Criterion do to improve upon what we already have (1080p and TrueHD)?

Criterion can improve the quality of our film collections. A film may be presented in 1080p and have TrueHD audio, but those alone are not reasons enough for me to want to own a film.

Things Criterion does that can improve upon what we already have:

1) They bring obscure, foreign, and cult films to home video.
2) They are actively involved in the physical restoration of these films.
3) They work closely with directors, DPs, etc. to ensure that their works are presented properly and as intended on DVD.
4) They produce exclusive, in-depth, and detailed extras for their releases.
5) If it weren't for Criterion, many of these films would either not be available at all on DVD or they would be released in substandard form.

In short, Criterion strives to deliver films on DVD as good as they can possibly be presented, and they go out of their way to reach that goal. They have a LOT to bring to the high-def disc table.

Very smart of them to explain it like that.
No-one can define the "end" of the war objectively, so at any moment in time they can say that it's (sufficiently) over and start releasing.

Of course a small company like Criterion (Image) cannot make profit with HR discs at the moment: the market is much too tiny, especially for specialty productions (foreign film, obscure and cult movies).
The big studios are producing as an investment in the new formats. They're not making profits either, IMO.

Criterion is not losing HR-sales at the moment: they're avoiding losses.


Cees