Warner, New Line, Paramount, Universal ... The Studios/Networks Thread - Part 2
01-08-08, 06:19 PM
#327
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Originally Posted by Tracer Bullet
No, no, no. The digital switchover has nothing to do with HD.
Other than the fact that millions upon millions of digital TVs will be sold in the next year, 99% of which will be HD, you're right. No correlation there at all.
01-08-08, 06:21 PM
#328
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Originally Posted by rdclark
Other than the fact that millions upon millions of digital TVs will be sold in the next year, 99% of which will be HD, you're right. No correlation there at all.
And I'll be extremely surprised if "millions upon millions" of HDTVs will be sold because of it.
01-08-08, 06:26 PM
#329
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Originally Posted by mzupeman2
This is something people keep inferring to but although digital downloads may be a bigger thing in the future, I don't think that anybody is really going to look at a hard drive, and look at hard media such as something on disc, and think it's going to last. You could plunk all that money down on digital movie downloads, run out of space and have to delete movies in order to download new ones... or the service can go down, whatever. A hard drive can fail. Hard media is still going to appeal to many, many, many people. Not only that, but people like to show off their film collections. Hard media isn't going anywhere. I'd feel much more comfortable with having my DVD's than having them all on a hard drive that could fail on me in two years.
01-08-08, 06:31 PM
#330
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Originally Posted by IIG
I really don't see why people either can't understand this or simply ignore it.
01-08-08, 06:32 PM
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Originally Posted by mzupeman2
This is something people keep inferring to but although digital downloads may be a bigger thing in the future, I don't think that anybody is really going to look at a hard drive, and look at hard media such as something on disc, and think it's going to last. You could plunk all that money down on digital movie downloads, run out of space and have to delete movies in order to download new ones... or the service can go down, whatever. A hard drive can fail. Hard media is still going to appeal to many, many, many people. Not only that, but people like to show off their film collections. Hard media isn't going anywhere. I'd feel much more comfortable with having my DVD's than having them all on a hard drive that could fail on me in two years.
As somebody who joined the iPod crowd, I upload my CD's to the iPod, but I don't sell or throw them away after uploading them. The CD's are there should I lose the iPod or it breaks down. Movies will be no different.
01-08-08, 06:49 PM
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Originally Posted by Tracer Bullet
That's a side effect. There is nothing inherent in the digital switchover that has anything to do with HD.
And I'll be extremely surprised if "millions upon millions" of HDTVs will be sold because of it.
And I'll be extremely surprised if "millions upon millions" of HDTVs will be sold because of it.
As for numbers, do you expect new TV sales to go down in 2008? Olevia sold 120,000 TVs in one day last November. According to this - http://www.quixelresearch.com/popup....007_census.gif - over 6 million HDTVs were sold just in the third quarter of 2007.
It doesn't matter if any of these sales are inspired by the digital changeover or not. What matters is that these tens of millions of HDTVs are being sold as part of an overarching process that will leave us in a world where everyone who has money for home entertainment will be feeding HDTV's, and the changeover to HDM is part of that new landscape.
01-08-08, 06:54 PM
#334
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Originally Posted by cardaway
I don't know about showing off a collection being an issue, but I can agree that the minority will not want to give up having a backup copy of movies they puchased.
As somebody who joined the iPod crowd, I upload my CD's to the iPod, but I don't sell or throw them away after uploading them. The CD's are there should I lose the iPod or it breaks down. Movies will be no different.
01-08-08, 07:09 PM
#335
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Originally Posted by mzupeman2
This is something people keep inferring to but although digital downloads may be a bigger thing in the future, I don't think that anybody is really going to look at a hard drive, and look at hard media such as something on disc, and think it's going to last. You could plunk all that money down on digital movie downloads, run out of space and have to delete movies in order to download new ones... or the service can go down, whatever. A hard drive can fail. Hard media is still going to appeal to many, many, many people. Not only that, but people like to show off their film collections. Hard media isn't going anywhere. I'd feel much more comfortable with having my DVD's than having them all on a hard drive that could fail on me in two years.
Now imagine that it was all digital. You click a button on your remote, wade through a few menus and you are in the episode. Want to switch to something else? Hit a few buttons and you are there.
I love my DVD library. I can TOTALLY see the benefit of having it be media-less however.
01-08-08, 07:10 PM
#336
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Originally Posted by mzupeman2
This is something people keep inferring to but although digital downloads may be a bigger thing in the future, I don't think that anybody is really going to look at a hard drive, and look at hard media such as something on disc, and think it's going to last. You could plunk all that money down on digital movie downloads, run out of space and have to delete movies in order to download new ones... or the service can go down, whatever. A hard drive can fail. Hard media is still going to appeal to many, many, many people. Not only that, but people like to show off their film collections. Hard media isn't going anywhere. I'd feel much more comfortable with having my DVD's than having them all on a hard drive that could fail on me in two years.
While I have little doubt that downloading will supplant hard media for movie viewing eventually, I think it may be some time before that happens. As someone who has a collection of CDs that I still regularly listen to and doesn't have an Ipod, I hope that I will be able to collect physical media for some years to come. I don't even have satellite TV (cable doesn't exist where I live) because I refuse to pay $500 a year to watch TV. I'd rather spend it on DVDs or HDM that will "last" and can be sold if I no longer want them.
But, yes, that means I am one of the old dinosaurs who will part of the "niche" hard media market in the years to come while the coming generations happily watch movies in pay-per-view, save for those technically adept enough to pirate them instead.
The gist of that editorial was that we who buy HDM are "suckers" since pay-per-view will come to dominate home movie viewing in the future. That's nonsense because if we get entertainment value from the discs in our collections we have ALREADY received our "money's worth" from our purchases.
01-08-08, 07:20 PM
#337
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Originally Posted by Tracer Bullet
Because people made a similar argument about CDs and look where that market is right now.
01-08-08, 07:21 PM
#338
If you're thinking of getting into Blu-ray, don't let some of these guys scare you off by saying downloads are going to take over the world in a few years. The infrastructure is nowhere near in place for that to happen. I think it'll be more than a decade before downloads show up. And even then, I think it'll be used for rentals. What if that hard drive fails? No more movies.
Funny, I don't remember seeing posts about downloads until it was clear Blu-ray was going to win the war.
Funny, I don't remember seeing posts about downloads until it was clear Blu-ray was going to win the war.
01-08-08, 07:28 PM
#339
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I agree, to an extent.
You can't spend your life waiting for the next big thing. If you want HD content now, then it seems like BD is a pretty safe choice. There should be plenty of releases at least for a few years. BD is fairly cheap, too. If you can afford it, and want HD, why wait?
However, I think we are now seeing a switch of focus from "who wins the format war" to "now what happens" and we are seeing post from a lot of the people who were pretty much "against" both formats popping in and sharing.
Finally, downloading will be here a lot sooner than a decade. There are several VOD-DDS plans ready to bear fruit.
You can't spend your life waiting for the next big thing. If you want HD content now, then it seems like BD is a pretty safe choice. There should be plenty of releases at least for a few years. BD is fairly cheap, too. If you can afford it, and want HD, why wait?
However, I think we are now seeing a switch of focus from "who wins the format war" to "now what happens" and we are seeing post from a lot of the people who were pretty much "against" both formats popping in and sharing.
Finally, downloading will be here a lot sooner than a decade. There are several VOD-DDS plans ready to bear fruit.
01-08-08, 07:41 PM
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Originally Posted by slop101
Fixed
No offense, but you must be old. Yes, movies will be no different, but in that most people don't care about having "back-up" CDs in case they lose their ipods, they're not gonna care about having back up movies (especially as in the case with itunes, if they can just re-download them). Fewer and fewer people want (or have the room) to have the physical media sitting around them anymore - most people in their early 20s don't even know what a jewel case is.
No offense, but you must be old. Yes, movies will be no different, but in that most people don't care about having "back-up" CDs in case they lose their ipods, they're not gonna care about having back up movies (especially as in the case with itunes, if they can just re-download them). Fewer and fewer people want (or have the room) to have the physical media sitting around them anymore - most people in their early 20s don't even know what a jewel case is.
My point was not about the music I have downloaded, but the digital copies (iPod) of the hundreds of DVD's I (and millions of other "old" people) own. If things were to go wrong it's nice to know the hard copies are there to upload again.
I feel the same way about the stuff I have downloaded and will likely always burn those to disc as well. But that's because I simply don't trust iTunes to have the songs available again should something happen to my digital version.
As for the "fixed" crap, Please take that part out of your post. I find it very offensive for people to modify the posts of others in that manner. Call me old, but IMO it's very inappropriate in forums like this one.
01-08-08, 07:46 PM
#341
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Originally Posted by porieux
CDs aren't going anywhere. There is a lot of hype but CDs are still big business and will continue to be for the forseeable future.
01-08-08, 07:47 PM
#342
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I completely see cardaway's points here. What would happen if the service you bought 200 movies from went tits up and your HDD or whatever crashed? What if WB decides to dump iFlix and goes with Moviester, taking the license for their films with them? Would previous customers still be able to restore in a loss? What about films who's distribution rights change? The non-corporeal-ness of the whole virtual ownership thing causes what should be natural concern.
A few months ago I was 1000% against any type of downloadable system, but I am starting to see some positives for it. Right now, the negatives still outweigh the positives for me.
A few months ago I was 1000% against any type of downloadable system, but I am starting to see some positives for it. Right now, the negatives still outweigh the positives for me.
01-08-08, 07:48 PM
#343
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New Line goes Blu - immediately
Well, we all expected it - just not this quickly. From http://bluray.highdefdigest.com/news/ :
New Line Details Transition to Blu-ray
Tue Jan 08, 2008 at 05:06 PM ET
Tags: Industry Trends, New Line (all tags)
Confirming earlier reports that it would follow Warner to Blu-ray exclusivity, New Line says its first HD DVD title ('Pan's Labryinth') will also be its last.
Though it was widely assumed that New Line (whose parent company is Time-Warner) would follow Warner Home Video's lead and continue to release on HD DVD through May 2008, a company rep tells us that New Line's move will go into immediate effect, with all of the studio's planned HD DVD releases now cancelled (including the HD DVD versions of current Blu-ray releases 'Hairspray' and 'Rush Hour 3,' which had previously been planned for HD DVD release sometime in early 2008).
As for 'Pan's Labryinth,' which hit stores late last year as the first (and only) New Line HD DVD release, the studio says that once current retail supplies are depleted, the title will be discontinued -- making it an instant collector's item.
New Line says it's not planning to issue an official press release trumpeting the move, ending its short-lived HD DVD support with a relative whimper.
The studio also tells us they won't be revealing any new Blu-ray titles at CES, though they do plan to continue to support the format throughout 2008 with a variety of new release and catalog titles to be announced in the future.
Tue Jan 08, 2008 at 05:06 PM ET
Tags: Industry Trends, New Line (all tags)
Confirming earlier reports that it would follow Warner to Blu-ray exclusivity, New Line says its first HD DVD title ('Pan's Labryinth') will also be its last.
Though it was widely assumed that New Line (whose parent company is Time-Warner) would follow Warner Home Video's lead and continue to release on HD DVD through May 2008, a company rep tells us that New Line's move will go into immediate effect, with all of the studio's planned HD DVD releases now cancelled (including the HD DVD versions of current Blu-ray releases 'Hairspray' and 'Rush Hour 3,' which had previously been planned for HD DVD release sometime in early 2008).
As for 'Pan's Labryinth,' which hit stores late last year as the first (and only) New Line HD DVD release, the studio says that once current retail supplies are depleted, the title will be discontinued -- making it an instant collector's item.
New Line says it's not planning to issue an official press release trumpeting the move, ending its short-lived HD DVD support with a relative whimper.
The studio also tells us they won't be revealing any new Blu-ray titles at CES, though they do plan to continue to support the format throughout 2008 with a variety of new release and catalog titles to be announced in the future.
01-08-08, 07:51 PM
#344
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Originally Posted by Mr. Cinema
IWhat if that hard drive fails? No more movies.
The collecting/"owning" aspect could easily be handled via virtual shelves for ones watched/wishlist/owned (if they allow one to pay a lower fee to have unlimited access to something versus renting it each time). Bring up a menu that shows cover art, synosis, cast/crew info, stats.. much the way that IMDb and media collecting sites offer.
As long as the quality was equal to HD disc based media, which will be nearly a decade away, and they offer fair pricing structures (since there won't be much room for bargain shopping via coupons, sales, used market, etc.), I would welcome the reduced hassle of space issues, condition of physical product, time and effort to do physical shopping etc.
Transportation of physical goods is only going to get more and more expensive, outside of someone inventing something that radically alters the way society operates.
01-08-08, 07:57 PM
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Originally Posted by Tracer Bullet
The point is that many were saying that people would never stop buying CDs, that downloads would never replace physical media. Yet CD sales continue to slide, year after year, while downloads grow.
People like me who buy their music for long term enjoyment are still buying CD's, and will always want a hard copy so they can enjoy it for years to come and not be screwed because the download service no longer has the title or no longer exists. If there were not enough people like me CD's would already be phased out. IMO there obviously are still enough people out there who care to have the hard copy AND the digital copy. IMO there always will be.
01-08-08, 07:58 PM
#347
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Originally Posted by Qui Gon Jim
Wasn't this announced a few days ago?
01-08-08, 07:59 PM
#348
DVD Talk Hero
Originally Posted by cardaway
But that is IMO because people that used to buy a CD for one song, or just to listen until the artist is no longer the it artist, are now downloading rather than buy the CD.
People like me who buy their music for long term enjoyment are still buying CD's, and will always want a hard copy so they can enjoy it for years to come and not be screwed because the download service no longer has the title or no longer exists. If there were not enough people like me CD's would already be phased out. IMO there obviously are still enough people out there who care to have the hard copy AND the digital copy. IMO there always will be.
01-08-08, 08:01 PM
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Originally Posted by Mr. Cinema
If you're thinking of getting into Blu-ray, don't let some of these guys scare you off by saying downloads are going to take over the world in a few years. The infrastructure is nowhere near in place for that to happen. I think it'll be more than a decade before downloads show up. And even then, I think it'll be used for rentals. What if that hard drive fails? No more movies.
Funny, I don't remember seeing posts about downloads until it was clear Blu-ray was going to win the war.
Funny, I don't remember seeing posts about downloads until it was clear Blu-ray was going to win the war.
What would be really sweet is this if you could load up your movie collection onto a home server and just click and browse through the movies you have. The first initial load up of this would take a while, but imagine that. All your movies at your fingertips and whenever you get a new disc just load it up to the server and put it away. You get the best of both worlds. I can't even imagine how much a storage array like that would cost to support such large collections.
I'm still surprised at the fact that no one has yet created a movie equivalent of the CDDB.
