Why Can't We Get Standard Def TV series on Blu-ray? (1 Viewer)

I've heard all the arguments about causing consumer "confusion," but hasn't Blu-ray been around long enough to overcome that?

I'm looking at this from a storage capacity angle. Wouldn't it be convenient to have a whole season of a favorite show on 1 or 2 discs at 480 lines? If a show's original source doesn't go past standard definition (and there are many from the 70s and 80s that do not), why can't Blu-ray help in another way by cutting down on the size of the enormous DVD boxed sets that came out years ago?

Good question.

I wouldn't be surprised if the answer has to do with $$$$ and demand. (Unfortunately).

Cinescott said:

I've heard all the arguments about causing consumer "confusion,"...

Click to expand...

Consumer confusion is exactly the reason that I think that studios should never, ever release SD material on Blu-ray. They can put warnings on the package and explanations at the beginning of the disc and there will still be people who buy it and wonder why a mid-80's sitcom still looks like crap when it's "high definition". In the minds of some consumers that would create or reinforce the idea that everything that isn't modern has no increase in resolution because it's "old".

On the issue of demand, the question is how many people are willing to "double dip" on such "sd bluray" discs.

Personally, I'm only willing to double dip on an older catalog tv show set if the bluray version has much better picture quality than the original dvd versions. (For example, stuff like Star Trek).

TravisR said:

Consumer confusion is exactly the reason that I think that studios should never, ever release SD material on Blu-ray. They can put warnings on the package and explanations at the beginning of the disc and there will still be people who buy it and wonder why a mid-80's sitcom still looks like crap when it's "high definition". In the minds of some consumers that would create or reinforce the idea that everything that isn't modern has no increase in resolution because it's "old".

Click to expand...

I simply don't buy this point of view. The whole "consumer is too stupid" argument never made sense to me. To me, there are distinct advantages to Blu-ray that very few seem to be capitalizing upon, and storage capacity is one of them.

I'm not implying that studios need to go all out and start a "SD TV on Blu-ray" campaign with multiple shows, but how about one? Test the waters and see if it sells. How else is anyone going to know? Pick a very popular SD show from the 70s or 80s, put it on BRD and see what happens. I think people will recognize that there are many, many more shows per disc and make the connection. When people see the boxes next to one another on the shelf, it seems to me they'd prefer the smaller one. There should be a disclaimer about the source material, yes, but that's not a bad thing.

Convenience was one of the selling points of Blu-ray in years past, but it never seemed to come to fruition. Blu-ray is no more convenient than DVD, just clearer. Downloads and streaming are gaining more foothold. Why? Convenience.

I brought this up long, long ago.There is even a "B-movie drive in" disc on BD out there with around 10(15???) Movies on it at 480i.Makes sense it was done...and purists hitched about "lessening BD as a brand".

Blu-ray is, after all, a high capacity storage medium. Right? People here understand that, and it would certainly be fine with me if it was used in this way.

But since it was sold to the general public as a high definition format, I reluctantly agree that the kind of releases suggested here would probably cause rampant confusion and dissatisfaction.

This won't/ can't happen until DVD is discontinued as a standard, solely in favor of blu-ray. When the last DVD is pressed and the last dvd-only player is sold and blue is the last man standing, then they can have more fun with the format.

Charles Smith said:

I reluctantly agree that the kind of releases suggested here would probably cause rampant confusion and dissatisfaction.

Click to expand...

We couldn't possibly withstand consumer confusion...What, with LED TV being the rage cause of how tremendous it is...

In addition to the lack of demand (I can't imagine enough people rebuying everything for shelf space), marketing has something to do with it as well. Why aren't SD TV series on Blu-ray? Well, why are TV releases on both DVD and Blu-ray often the same disc count? Because a multi-disc set is more collectible than everything crammed onto one or two.

If it doesn't happen for shows that would actually benefit all around, it's tough to see how it will happen for shows that only benefit from storage capacity. And are already on another format to boot.

Ethan Riley said:

This won't/ can't happen until DVD is discontinued as a standard, solely in favor of blu-ray. When the last DVD is pressed and the last dvd-only player is sold and blue is the last man standing, then they can have more fun with the format.

Click to expand...

I wouldn't hold my breath. Both formats would give way to downloads and streaming before that happened.

Traveling Matt said:

In addition to the lack of demand (I can't imagine enough people rebuying everything for shelf space), marketing has something to do with it as well. Why aren't SD TV series on Blu-ray? Well, why are TV releases on both DVD and Blu-ray often the same disc count? Because a multi-disc set is more collectible than everything crammed onto one or two.

If it doesn't happen for shows that would actually benefit all around, it's tough to see how it will happen for shows that only benefit from storage capacity. And are already on another format to boot.

Click to expand...

I would say the bigger reason for same disc counts is that one format is 480p, while the other is 1080p. That would change with standard def. on BD.

These shows must still sell, since they don't go OOP, and continue to be available on DVD. Why not try both formats during the next production run and see which does better? I'd re-buy my most favorite series on Blu-ray, provided the disc count went way down and I could carry them with me much easier.

There would be benefits in addition to storage capacity to SD on Blu-ray as well. Better codecs, less compression, lower manufacturing costs, etc. Not major selling points, but I think they would actually look better.

Cinescott said:

I would say the bigger reason for same disc counts is that one format is 480p, while the other is 1080p. That would change with standard def. on BD.

Click to expand...

I don't think that difference accounts for the same number of discs though. Full 1080 episodes should still fit on fewer discs in total.

Overall I just don't think the interest is there. Companies like Mill Creek are spending their money reprinting existing titles onto fewer DVDs, not fewer Blu-rays, to appeal to the $5 crowd. Since $15 is too much for a four-disc set. That's the direction it's going.

The Blu-ray Disc Association requires the main feature of every BD to be HD. As much as I would like to see whole shows done on as few discs as possible, this will have to change before that happens. And I'm not rebuying All in the Family or The Golden Girls again without substantial picture and sound quality improvement and more extras (in the former's case, consistent color balance from shot to shot would be a start, and it already got a box set with substantial extras).

There's another aspect as yet undiscussed: Blu-ray offers better picture quality for SD material, too. The AVC and VC-1 codecs are better at handling video noise than MPEG-2 ever could, and with smaller file sizes to boot. That's the best reason I can think of to redo these shows.

But if they're not exactly flying off the shelves on DVD, why would BD be any different?

If this were ever to come to pass, it should be for shows that haven't been released before. Don't start by asking people to double-dip.

MatthewA said:

The Blu-ray Disc Association requires the main feature of every BD to be HD.

Click to expand...

Is this a legally binding agreement between the BDA and the movie studios producing bluray releases?

MatthewA said:

The Blu-ray Disc Association requires the main feature of every BD to be HD.

Click to expand...

Then how did this and a number of other concert releases slip through on SD Blu-ray?:

I had no idea about that Bee Gees release. All I knew about BDA's policy was a comment TVShowsonDVD.com made on its Facebook page regarding why certain shows are not on BD.

MatthewA said:

I had no idea about that Bee Gees release. All I knew about BDA's policy was a comment TVShowsonDVD.com made on its Facebook page regarding why certain shows are not on BD.

Click to expand...

The facebook post in question.

http://www.facebook.com/tvshowsondvd/posts/10150826906226063?comment_id=23418598&offset=0&total_comments=7

Jim, the Blu-ray Disc Association (BDA) will only sell a studio a license to produce Blu-ray Discs if the agree that they will not put featured content onto a BD in anything other than a high-def video format. "Bonus Material" can be standard-def, but whatever the main show/film is on the title HAS to be in high def. The reason for this stipulation is because Blu-ray is sold/advertised as a high-def (HD) media, and if some studios put standard-def (SD) content onto some Blu-ray releases just for storage reasons, it will confuse people and give them examples of items to point to and say "see, Blu-ray quality isn't so great!" So its disallowed.
April 20, 2012 at 4:08pm

jcroy said:

The facebook post in question.

http://www.facebook.com/tvshowsondvd/posts/10150826906226063?comment_id=23418598&offset=0&total_comments=7

Jim, the Blu-ray Disc Association (BDA) will only sell a studio a license to produce Blu-ray Discs if the agree that they will not put featured content onto a BD in anything other than a high-def video format. "Bonus Material" can be standard-def, but whatever the main show/film is on the title HAS to be in high def. The reason for this stipulation is because Blu-ray is sold/advertised as a high-def (HD) media, and if some studios put standard-def (SD) content onto some Blu-ray releases just for storage reasons, it will confuse people and give them examples of items to point to and say "see, Blu-ray quality isn't so great!" So its disallowed.
April 20, 2012 at 4:08pm

Click to expand...

And there's exactly what we're talking about.