the most successful way to market high-res (1 Viewer)

[Michael St. Clair]

If you really want mainstream listeners to try high-res...(I'm not sure if I want to)...

Put ads, clips, maybe even full videos in the movie theaters...you know, before the trailers...with the Pepsi, Monday Night Football, and 350Z commercials? Use the same surround mix as the released discs.

Get some good surround mixes of pop/rock titles...Scheiner mixes of Beck, Steely Dan, Flaming Lips would be a good place to start. Commission some good mixes of Britney, Coldplay, Staind, Red Stripes, etc...get the discs released and also include those artists in the theater ads.

At the end of the ad, tell the patrons that they can hear that same surround mix at home today with [ insert high-res format here].

Frankly, I think this particular campaign would work best with DVD-A since a lot more people could try the lossy surround mix at home without investing in new hardware or going to a store with a decent listening room/area. Also, the DVD-A can include the same video content that they saw in the theater. But this type of approach could definitely work with SACD as well.

Surround will always be the mainstream 'hook'...listeners think MP3 is fine for stereo. But getting them to actually sit down and listen is the hardest part...here is your captive audience.

Warner and Sony own movie studios and distributors, they can do it.

 

[Brian+H]

You know I was just thinking exactly the same thing the other day.

That would be a great way to promote either format.

What a great way to demo 5.1 sound to millions of people.
Go to where the 5.1 setups are: the theaters.

Makes TONS of sense. Even if people don't pay much attention to it, they will subconsciously know about it.
That's the reason ads have music repeating a phrase, so people hum it or hear it in their heads.

Maybe we will see that eventually.

 

[Marc Colella]

While I think it'll only gain a small amount of interest - it's a decent idea.

It would be best to also have video to showcase the features of DVD-A. Some concert footage, etc.

Also, as the patrons leave the theatre - hand them out free DVD-A samplers to try out at home.

 

[Bill Leber]

Not a bad idea for DVD-A. The best thing Sony could do for SACD is stop releasing CDs of their artists! If everything were hybrid SACD there would be no problem!

 

[Lee Scoggins]

mixes of Britney, Coldplay, Staind, Red Stripes

Do you mean the White Stripes or are you a fan of Jamaican beer?

 

[Ron Reda]

Maybe it's just me, but I remember reading something a while back that said that record companies were planning on or already doing that exact same thing...

 

[Ed St. Clair]

If everything were hybrid SACD there would be no problem!

Yes!
It's THAT easy.
Slowly, but surely.
Slowly, at first, for sure.
However, Sony should be MUCH further along by now.

 

[Ed St. Clair]

You know I was just thinking exactly the same thing the other day.

Sounds (pun intended) like the ESPN the mag ad's!

 

[DavidLW]

The only problem with playing music DVD-A in a theater is that music is much more critical to listen to than the sound effects of a movie. You must be seated in the sweet spot near the center to hear and enjoy the music mix. Any other position would have timing problems. The people in the front, rear, left and right would hear a differnent mix. Timing is not too critical when it comes to bullets flying by or hearing voices from people not on the screen in a movie. Or at home where the differnence may only be 15 feet between speakers. But in an average theater, the difference between the front and rear or left and right may be over 100 feet. To hear a chorus or drum beats coming in even one or two milli-second late can ruin the mix. And if your watching the musicians on screen singing and playing instruments, then timming is even more critical (Of course if you're watching B. Spears, J. Lopez or C. Aguilar lip-sync, then bad timing is not an issue). This may not be the best way to show off the potential of music on DVD-A. It may be like trying to watch and listen to the Star Spangle Banner being sung in a baseball stadium.

 

[Rich Malloy]

There is no good reason why the "home theater crowd" shouldn't whole-heartedly adopt the DVD-A format for music... except for the portability thing. But I don't think it's portability that's the problem. I think the average consumer doesn't give a shit about music, and these days the average consumer is fairly well indistinguishable from the "home theater crowd". So, I don't know what the hell to do about these folks... I don't usually think about 'em unless I'm pondering issues of cultural decline.

For SACD, maybe just keep marketing to audiophiles in the buff-books and on the "boutique" cd retailer websites and in circulars, while manufacturing "single-inventory hybrid discs" for all popular artists with the hopes of trojan horsing into the mainstream. In other words, backwards-compatible media that works for everyone until the hardware is ubiquitous.

 

[Rachael B]

Michael, we, the forum, discussed this sort of proposal a year or so ago. I don't think it's time has come. IMO, M/C DVD-A and SACD are not for the masses until it takes less cables to hook them up and that's just for starters....

 

[Michael St. Clair]

David,

I agree there would be mix issues. Using the same nearfield mix at home is not a good idea. The mix would probably have to be different. I still think they could still get a good mix that evokes the home version, though I agree it would not image as well. I've heard some very nice surround music in theaters that would get some attention.

Rachel,

I missed that earlier thread. Nothing new under the sun, I suppose. I do agree that high-res isn't for the masses right now, I'm just sharing an idea that would get more attention than any previous marketing attempts (IMO).

 

[DaveDickey]

I agree whole-heartedly with Rachel's comment about the cord / wire / spaghetti dinner mess. A lot of people I know like the idea of Hi-rez surround, but when I show them how it hooks up, they laugh out loud!