Katzenberg: HD is a Niche (1 Viewer)

[Paul.S]

Glad you're still here, JohnPhi. Do you mind speaking to my/the question of selling SD DVDs to help make BD more affordable for you?

It sounds like you're committed to SD for SD's sake--which is what it is--but from BOGOs to used to selling SD DVDs, I think it's quite 'do-able' to both get SD titles for your kids and BD titles for yourself (and the rest of your family) on a $40/month-for-all-DVDs budget.

 

[RickER]

Thats funny. I do that too. Cant watch Blade Runner without thinking of the Criterion disc side change right after "Move on, move on", coming from the automated police radio.

 

[JohnPhi]

Well the problem is my collection is not huge like a lot of you guys and I have only bought what I really like, thus selling what I have is not an option. No, I am not committed to sd, just saying that I could care less on SOME titles. I will not replace my whole collection.

 

[Douglas Monce]

No it is not at all now films are made to day. But back in the studio days 1930s through the early 1960s, the studio camera departments dictated what equipment and film stocks each DP was going to use on a particular film. Of course in those days there were few choices. There was for the most part one film stock, Eastman B&W, and one camera, the Mitchell BNC.

For an interesting read on a dp butting heads with the head of MGM's camera department, read John Alton's book "Paining with Light". He was fired several times and re hired for not doing what he was told.

Doug

 

[Douglas Monce]

I'm not sure you can say that Laserdisc failed. It was around and thriving for 20 years. More it lived out it's viable life span just as VHS did.

It's kind of like saying the phonograph failed because it's not around anymore.

Doug

 

[Patrick Sun]

Jari's review of LD history makes me think he was a youngster when LDs were still being pressed and released.

The novelty/advantage of LD was that the playback quality consistency was going to be better than VHS tapes (repeated playback always reduced video quality for VHS tape through sheer friction of tape to tape head over time), plus you got the nifty commentary features/tracks that we now take for granted, and 5.1 dts or DD audio tracks. Also, it became easier to jump from chapter to chapter (within a playing side, of course) with a press of a button, and absolutely no need for rewinding if you rented the LD! Shoot, there was even a Columbia House LD membership club, for crying out loud!

For the movie enthusiast/collector during its 20 year run, LD was the better A/V option at that time. Of course, time marches on, DVD showed up, though the MPEG-2 compression in the beginning was a little digital-looking at times, exhibiting the kinks that would finally be worked out in a few more years of refinement by DVD compressionists. But given the existing TV feature set/capabilities at that time, LD was a good product, albeit an expensive one, but the film enthusiast market was willing to support it given the alternative that was VHS (plus VHS was originally all about their rental pricing phase, to the point that it was cheaper to buy a LD at $30, than a VHS tape at $90 for the same title). But that was then, and now a new generation (the "portable/iPod" generation, in some ways) who grew up being basically familiar with mainly DVD as the predominant playback medium for films (and less knowledgeable about the revolutionary jump from VHS to DVD) is now faced with the evolutionary choice of HDM, and that's going to be the biggest hurdle for HDM marketing to overcome for the potential HDM consumers of today.

 

[Douglas Monce]

Ah the Columbia House LD club! 10 Laserdiscs for a penny!!!!

Doug

 

[bigluigi]

Yes....it may be uniquely American. Not to long ago I was at a friend's house and he was showing off his new HT equipment. I didn't think it was much an improvement over his old equipment but he had spent mucho bucks so to show support for his spending habits, I swooned.

 

[Jari K]

I don´t consider myself as a "portable/iPod" generation (I have Macbook, but not I don´t really use iPod etc) and I can definitely remember the revolutionary jump from VHS to DVD.

It´s true that the "kids" today download and rent many of their films. There are even these "DivX"-collectors ("I have 1000 films in DivX! Way cool!"). But they also have the latest LCD/Plasma-TVs (at least in their homes), which even things up a bit (they just can´t ignore the "quality"-aspect).

Blu-ray for the masses isn´t going to be easy, that´s for sure. But I also believe in natural evolution* when it comes to these A/V-issues. Slowly - but steadily.. "Round one" (format war) is now done.. Slowly - but steadily..



*This seems to be a hard to grasp for some people now. "Cheap" Blu-ray-players should arrive tomorrow from every manufacturers and software should cost 10$. If that won´t happen *NOW*, "Blu-ray is going to be a failure".. Sure, prices should (and they´ll) come down and all that, but it´s good to add some realism to the mix also.

 

[bigluigi]

You know I have no doubt that hardware prices will slowly be reduced to affordable levels within several years.

It's the software that may remain relatively expensive for many years to come. Just think about it and apply some common sense. Who started this format war and why? It was the hardware manufacturers because SD DVD was no longer a cash cow for them because of the introduction of cheap Chinese players. But (and this is a BIG but) that does not apply to the studios. They still enjoy huge revenues from the sale of SD DVD titles and sales of HDM titles are probably a minor concern for them at this point. (read=few new title announcements) Sure the studios are complaining about reduced profits on SD DVD sales but I seriously doubt that their going to abandon the SD DVD format and aggressively promote HDM at anytime in the near future unless, of course, their well paid for it.

You know in thinking back to the Laserdisc format I remember the players being reduced in price over time but NEVER the software....except at the very end of Laserdisc's run.

 

[RickER]

My last LD player, the Pioneer 704 cost me about $1000 back in the day. But i was willing to pay it for one of the finest LD players ever made. Same with my Sony 7700 DVD player, one of the best! (i still own both, and both play great! *knock on wood*) You get what you pay for, most of the time. I have my eye on that new Sony 2.0 player thats coming out this summer. That will give me 2 Blu-ray players in the house!

 

[BrianB]

You're flat out wrong. SD-DVDs have been turned into a commodity by the likes of Walmart, driving down the price & profit on the discs as consumers now expect but bargains on SD-DVDs. The studios are just as keen to see a new format as the hardware manufacturers are.

 

[bigluigi]

Have you seen the price of new SD DVD releases even at Walmart? (btw my favorite place to shop) For example $16 for "No Country for Old Men." Outrageous! BTW, again, check out the titles in the $5 bin - got some good ones in there. I saw all the episodes for "Victory at Sea" in there and picked it up.

 

[RickER]

 

[bigluigi]

In 1999 I was paying on average less than $9 per title (even new releases) by using special online membership codes for joining and rejoining Columbia DVD club. "Frugal" is my middle name.

 

[bigluigi]

Man,
I know you mean well....but are you trying to get me killed.
I think your married so you probably know that "suggesting" how the better half should perform something as simple as how to watch a movie is fraught with danger.
Besides, she belongs to a special group of people that don't need 1080p nor lossless audio to enjoy a story. That's right....she's first and foremost a book worm. Not that she doesn't enjoy films, although I think it's mostly because of my film hobby that she does watch so many. But, I have a feeling that if she never saw another film it wouldn't faze her in the least because, it goes without saying in our household, that the book is/was always better.