**Official HTF HD Formats Ind./Retailer/Studio Support Thread-*SEE POST 3176, p. 106* (2 Viewers)

[Cees Alons]

No it isn't, because the "50%" and "57%" are based on the MSRP, while the BOGO sales were in effect up to 50% (of course) from the already much lower retail proce.


Cees

 

[Paul.S]

 

[Vegas 1]

I checked out 2 local Best Buys here for Blade Runner, one store had none BR, HD or SDDVD & the other only had a couple of the SDDVD.

 

[BrettB]

Retailers Make More Room For Blu-ray

 

[FrancisP]

That doesn't hurt hd-dvd at all. The space issue was significant because Warner believed in catalog titles. Universal and Paramount don't believe in catalog titles. What has Paramount released that is a catalog title and not named Star Trek? I believe the Jack Ryan Collection will be the first. I will be buying it on hd-dvd.

I don't believe that the blu-ray people are happy. I am sure they would like to see companies drop hd-dvd entirely. At least consumers will get to choose whether hd-dvd stays or not.

 

[Jason Seaver]

Universal probably released more catalog titles than several BD studios combined last year, and Paramount has released a few - Untouchables, The Warriors, Black Rain, Reds. The point stands, though - nobody touches Warner in terms of releasing more titles from more genres from more years.

 

[DaViD Boulet]

Agreed Jason.

Francis, for someone who apparently loves HD DVD, I'm surprised you didn't know this.

Oh, and the Blu-ray fans are very happy right now. Don't worry about us.
No informed enthusiast believed that retailers would drop HD DVD within 24 hours of Warner's annoucement just prior to CES. Realistically, most of us (on both sides of the format fence) are presuming it will be mid-to-late 2008 before HD DVD starts to disappear from some of the major brick and mortor chain-store shelves. Until then, there will be many HD DVD exclusives that consumers (many of which are dual-format collectors) will probably be buying... maybe at some nice discounts. Heck, even if Universal and Paramount when blu tomorrow, it would still take months before their existing library of HD DVD discs appeared in blu cases.

 

[Paul.S]

You beat me to it, Jason: I understand the point (and goddess knows, what with their tardy SD DVD SEs and Top Gun HD DVD with no supps, I've done more than my share of grousing about Par over the years), but Coming To America, Trading Places, Face/Off, Rattle and Hum and Top Gun are all "catalog" titles.

As are 12 Monkeys, Apollo 13 and Casino.

 

[Paul.S]

Precisely.

Inside Man and The Pianist didn't come off my 'to buy' list just because of Warner (and Fox'?) corporate shenanigans. And HD DVD will be the only disc-based way to see Queen Elizabeth and Jim Lovell in high def for, say, at least 18 months to two years?

 

[Paul.S]

The percentage of HDM buyers who shop at the mall rackjobbers that make up the most of TransWorld's store portfolio has got to be very small.

 

[Jason Seaver]

Well, that depends which Queen Elizabeth you're talking about.

 

[Paul.S]

Those rackjobbers' prices are usually terrible though. But I can't speak for the awareness/smarts of some of these kids today, running around with their pants halfway down their arses.

Good point re "the queen." Cate, not Helen.

 

[Jason Seaver]

I'm not saying it in a "teenagers are dumb" way, just in a "I want it right now" way. Sure, you can save ten bucks ordering something on Amazon, but that doesn't help with "Paprika in HD? Dudes, that's mind-blowing... Let's watch it tonight!" You're paying extra for convenience and (theoretically) better selection than what's at Best Buy.

 

[Paul.S]

Well, as far as the consumer behavior of teenagers, we're spitballing.

But I would disagree with even the theoretical notion that those mall stores have more selection than the big boxers. I've seen Best Buys with CD and DVD sections bigger than the entire footprint of many Suncoast and FYE stores.

 

[Jason Seaver]

Which is why what used to be the Musicland group is in freefall and has been shuffled between several owners in the past ten years - back in the VHS/LD days, Suncoast was pretty damn indispensable for me; it was the only place in town to get anything but the week's top 2 releases, anime, etc. Now they're pretty much obsolete, but there are always going to be people who keep coming out of inertia until they're truly dead.

 

[BrettB]

The Digital Bits Rumor Mill - Current Posts


Grain of salt and what have you.

 

[Paul.S]

More like a Costco-size shaker.

Not unlike so many other assertions of his, I have to ask in response: "word" according to whom?

Work with me here: DaViD, you've asserted that Warner's BDs offer a representation of what their HD DVDs look like given that WHV has been authoring to the 'lowest common denominator' instead of optimizing encodes for BD's greater bandwidth and capacity.

IF we can generally state that Universal's best-looking (HD DVD) releases have as good of PQ as WHV's best-looking BD releases, then this notion that U's HD DVD authoring isn't good enough for BD presentation doesn't compute. It's akin to saying (and I know some have) that all of WHV's BDs "aren't good enough."

 

[Chris S]

I'd be surprised if we did see Universal's HD DVD transfers remastered for Blu-ray. Do some of their titles need to be re-done, sure, but most I suspect will simply be ports leaving the door open for double-dips for those that need to have all 50Gb filled. The quality of the HD DVD discs that I own is very much on par with my Blu-ray discs.

However, if this is the stance Universal is taking then this is more than likely a negotiation tactic in order to get some free encoding out of the BDA, nothing more.

 

[DaViD Boulet]

As a consumer, even if via the BDA's bill, I'd rather get decent HD masters from Universal titles the first time around!

 

[ManW_TheUncool]

This is tangential, but did The Fugitive BD use the same transfer as the HDD (or was there a remaster like T5E)? I tried doing a search on HTF and checking a couple different reviews elsewhere, but couldn't find anything conclusive on this.

Thanks.

_Man_