RE:
POSTED BY: Howard
UPDATED: Thursday, October 27, 2005 22:50
VIEWED: 10000
PAGE 5 of 5
The extra features stuff I mentioned? I didn't say everyone would start doing it more just because of HD or Blu-Ray. I just said that that would make it worth it, IF, and only if, it was consumer-friendly (having to buy a license for something you already bought, for instance, is not "consumer friendly") and widely-adopted.
Because it's going to be really expensive at first, it'll probably be a while before your average Joe Consumer buys into either format. I believe both formats also allow for older DVD discs to also be playable on them, though, so many people who are buying a DVD player for the first time, assuming the tech doesn't tank, will probably buy it because both the new and old formats will work on it (in theory, at least).
Assuming it's remotely consumer-friendly and does support older discs, I might EVENTUALLY buy into one of the formats... once the price goes down and there's been time enough for any loud backlashes against components in the tech to have occured (or if I ever break down and buy the PS3). Either way, I'm reserving judgement until the final product is actually released and has probably been out for a while.
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Which would be nice but aren't going to change the way we view movies in the way DVD did. People bought DVD because they were so different, because of the promise of things they couldn't do with their video players, freeze-frame, zoom, skipping, special features, commentaries. The new selling point seems to be DVD but better. Why would Joe public, a guy who has little to no interest in hearing 'Best Boy commentary', buy it when DVDs look and sound exactly the same on their standard old TV set?
You do make a good point. Although actually, even though my set is 20 years old (older than me!), high-def video and audio really do sound and look a shade better even on it. That said, true high-def is overrated. I still remember reading a post-Oscars article in the newspaper that was all about how OMG IF YOU HAPPEN TO BE ONE OF THE FEW PEOPLE WITH HIGH DEF SETS, YOU COULD SEE SUCH AND SUCH VAPID CELEB HAD ZITS!!!11 I don't need to see people's zits in higher def.
I think that for a long while, at least, traditional DVD will still beat it out, since both the new and older players will be able to play them (and hence, you'd be publishing to a wider audience). They might, however, go down in price a little, which would be nice.
Oh, and I'm definitely with you on the extra features. Often, my decision to buy one title or another isn't "do I really like this series?" but "I really like this series... OOH! Audio commentary with Jane Espenson and [insert a few other random extras like gag reels or featurettes or deleted scenes]! SOLD!" One nice thing about this is that it often feels like you're getting more for your money, especially when the commentary is as enjoyable or more than the movie (such as the commentary on Manga Video's release of the Evangelion movies, which is HYSTERICAL. Not the movies, they're some of the most mind-bending, violent, depressing flicks ever made, but the commentary by people who had to work on the thing for so long and then just had to start laughing or they'd go nuts... liek comparing the Mass Produced EVA units to "The Shmoo" or a "transvestite whale", or noting that oneof of them had while in Tokyo seen a poster with all the characters smiling and holding a brand of canned coffee drinks: "It's the official coffee of the apocalypse! Serving all of your post-apocalyptic caffeine needs." I... just... so, so entertaining. The commentary alone was worth the $20 I paid for the second DVD - I won the first volume in a contest, but had I already known about the commentaries, I would still have gladly paid $20 for it).
-Runa27
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It is not unusual for American companies,
products and services to be able to get away
with greater audacity in foreign markets.
Consumer rights are stronger sometimes in the
USA so they screw the rest of the world
instead.
But that is changing. Things are getting worse
at your end now and a little better at ours.
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For the record the only thing that is unique to
DVD is the ability to put entire TV seasons into such a small package.
ALL the other features and MORE existed or
could have existed on LASERDISC for 20 years
before DVD.
LD did not have anamorphic widescreen but that was
a corporate decision NOT a technical limitation.
Direct access to a favourite scene was far more
direct and easier on LASERDISC and there was NO
region coding. Plus superior sound in either or
both FM and Digital form.
DIRECTOR'S COMMENTARIES began on LASERDISC and were of a higher intellectual mindset because it
was niche market not mass market so academics would do film analysis on Criterion discs etc.
When DTS sound came out it ran on LASERDISC at 1:4meg (1,400KPS) as opposed to the applied level on DVD of a mere 720KPS or less.
While regular digital sound on LD was CD quality
16 bit and the analogue sound on LD was pure
uncompressed full dynamic range sound that gave you everything that was on the master.
By the way LASERDISC was around before VHS !!
In the 1980's in Japan there was even an analogue
HDTV version of Laserdisc called The Muse system.
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Okay, this is a fun little debate y'all have going...but I think we're all missing the point here. It doesn't matter. Anyone remember when the music industry tried to 'update' our technology? Yeah. Anyone buy that? Nope.
We're going on-demand. Can anyone say Windows Media Center? It's gotten a lot better over the last year. In fact, it's pretty great now...and I hate microsoft. The 360 combined with media center is going to be huge. The new imac and front row software? Same thing....Apple has added video to it's store. It's just a matter of time before the mini has the same media software...I mean how cool would that be: a slim mini sitting near your DLP in the living room...shiny.
It's not Bluray and HDdvd you have to think about: it's mac or ms.
btw. it's just a matter of finding a machine that 'forgets' to verify...it'll look like a bug.
www.thatweirdgirl.com
---
"...turn right at the corner then skip two blocks...no, SKIP, the hopping-like thing kids do...Why? Why not?"
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I think that this is basically correct, the movie companies are trying to monopolize content, and it has nothing to do with copyright. This is what happened with regions.
But there is another side to it. They're dumb. These format wars are dumb. Conventional media it seem to me is in serious trouble. It's getting damn near extinction. I often use the expression when I think someone is using an unwise tactic, "They're shooting themselves in the foot." In this case I think they've got a submachine gun aimed at their foot.
Digital internet video is a serious threat which is just going to grow. Threat for them, yay for us. If they try to shut down access to information, which they will apparantly, we will just get it elsewhere.
Consider this: The avg new laptop, about 600-700 dollars is already capable of playing a dual layer disk and has a built in 1080i WS capabale screen. To purchase this kind of system in home entertainment, both player and tv, you're setting yourself back about $2000.
In addition, there will be more and more bandwidth available. I know people around here, which is the middle of nowhere, getting 1MB, 2mb, 4 or 8mb dedicated lines. If a server supports this, there will be a capacity for some pretty high quality video for download.
Okay, everyone saying piracy, dadadadadada, but: In the not too distant future Joss will be able to set up an internet broadcast HDTV that we all can play for a pay for DL sort of scenario. In this scenario, we would go to Joss' own page, where he would be selling the content directly to us, and we'd pay $1 an ep or something to DL it.
Not market viable? Think od this. In order to support the show through advertising, Joss needs 4-5 million viewers. In order to support it through a pay for DL model, he'd need 2 million.
Furthermore. Who doesn't pay $40, $50, $60 or more for cable these day? But the avg. fan watches only 6-8 programs regularly. So if you could get those for $1 a piece each week, or $4 a month, you might easily be cutting your cable bill in half.
All that's needed for this to work is the bandwidth to be in place. I'm increasingly convinced that this will happen, quite possibly within the next 3-5 years.
All of which doesn't help us get firefly today, or get around the blu ray issue, but it ought to be a serious concern for the media companies, but just like the radio companies getting broadsided by television, inspite of the oncoming internet train, HDTV/DVD seems to be having a fist-fight on the tracks.
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I see THATWEIRDGIRL so you think a music download at what 300KPS ? 200KPS? 125kps? is
"pretty great" do you?
A redbook standard CD runs at 1,400KPS and even that does not match the best of analogue be it a reel to reel or audiophile vinyl LP or an FM track on a Laserdisc or pre-optimod FM radio of the late 1960's early 1970's the quality of which was beyond anything today's teenagers have ever heard or dreamed of.
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DREAMTROVE you have the right idea but wrong
numbers. In the academic world they already
have 100meg broadband. In the consumer world
in France and South Korea people already have
22meg broadband though in performance you have
to always half what you have for the reality.
When people have 50meg broadband and its only
a few short years off you will then be able to
download 30meg HiDef movies.
Personally I still prefer the civilized
presentation of a prerecorded product.
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You should now I own both a turn table and a reel player. I like good sound. I can appreciate media.
Here's the thing...I'm thinking the future of media. I'm not thinking next month or next year...there will always be a small demand to own in our hot little hands high quality media. My point is it doesn't matter who wins because the general consumer will soon be downloading on demand content. I don't know how that will play out exactly. Could be a rental type thing or it could be some kind of ownership of the media. In the short term, i don't think it'll matter much. By the time the execs all agree on a format, someone will have something better.
Bluray is producer friendly....anything's crackable.
HDDVD is consumer friendly.
I've been leaning towards BluRay for a while now.
www.thatweirdgirl.com
---
"...turn right at the corner then skip two blocks...no, SKIP, the hopping-like thing kids do...Why? Why not?"
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Thank you for your response. Nice to hear.
Well I think a two tier culture is being built
with part of the population using Blu-Ray and
the other
part using a movie version of iTunes.
One high quality one low quality.
HD-DVD is dead already. All studios have
announced their intent to release on Blu-Ray
plus SONY has an edge via PLAYSTATION.
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