Hornets’ Nest
I’ve often said if you really want to know if people are actually reading what you post to the Internets (thank you President Bush), publish something in error. Forget about all that “unique visits” tracking software. Just make a mistake, put it out there for the world to see, and you’ll soon find out who’s really reading your stuff!
As you’ve no doubt guessed by now, I screwed up recently—last week in fact—when at the end of my last From Under the Desk Of column, I said that Universal Studios, along with Warner Brothers, was one of only two major motion picture studios that had decided to release HiDef versions of their films in both HD DVD and Blu-ray Disc.
Well, that was just plain wrong. Although for the life of me, I can’t remember where I got that piece of information.
Universal Studios, along with its subsidiaries and affiliated production companies, are only releasing their HiDef home video products on HD DVD.
Apparently, when it comes to choosing sides in what’s become known as the Format War, feelings run strong on both sides of the high-definition digital divide. Not only did I hear from tons of people regarding my Universal home video screw up, I got an earful, or inbox full, of opinions regarding my “Blu-ray biases.”
After my snarky observation that K-Mart was calling its own customers cheap by saying Blu-ray was too costly for them, “SimpTwister,” from our MiceChat discussion forum, said my comments could be translated “simply as ‘O-meon supports Blu-Ray.’”
Simp continued, “Brad Bird is talking up Blu-Ray because his employer uses Blu-Ray. Period.”
Simp was one of many people who accused Bird, writer director of the Disney/Pixar hits The Incredibles and Ratatouille, of drinking the Disney corporate Kool-Aid and promoting what he’s told by his corporate masters.
Personally, I don’t know Bird all that well, but I gotta tell you, speaking for myself, from what I have seen and heard of him and from what I’ve learned from researching his career, this guy does not strike me as the type to go out and hustle some new form of technology just because Bob Iger and Steve Jobs tell him to.
At this point in his career, Disney/Pixar needs him more than he needs them. Bird’s a storyteller, and his integrity as such is his primary asset. He is charming, eloquent, a dynamic speaker, and very opinionated; in short, just about everything a good storyteller should be. The one thing he is not is insincere, and the one thing he does not do—at least in my brief experiences with him—is equivocate, mince words, prevaricate, or dissemble in any way.
If Brad Bird tells me he’s reviewed Blu-ray Disc and HD DVD, and he believes Blu-Ray is the better of the two technologies, I’m prepared to take him at his word that that’s how he truly feels.
Still other folks, like Faud and Eric, wrote in to tell me that I’d gotten a lot of the terminology I used wrong as well.
Faud said the correct way to refer to the HiDef Disney/Pixar discs, “should just be for the Ratatouille DVD and Blu-ray Disc, and Cars on Blu-ray Disc. Blu-ray Disc is not called a DVD because it's not by the DVD Group. Blu-ray Disc is abbreviated as BD.”
Regarding my assertion that the porn industry had sided with the HD DVD folks, Faud also pointed out that, “Japanese porn producers and a European studio have released titles on BD.”
Eric pointed out, rightly so, that my description of the coming switch to digital broadcast television wasn’t entirely accurate:
All *FULL POWER* *BROADCAST* TV will be *DIGITAL* in 2009. It will not necessarily be high definition. Low power broadcast stations, as things stand now, will not be required to switch off their analog [signals].
And satellite subscribers will not, technically, require a converter box - just the receiver they already have.
I’m guessing the same thing holds true for cable subscribers as it does for satellite subscribers, but I think I better wait until I hear from Eric before saying so.
Our buddy and colleague over at ScreamScape.com, Lance Hart, sent in a very detailed account of how I got everything about the differences between Blu-ray Disc and HD DVD wrong. I’m thinking Lance has already invested in HD DVD. Among other things Lance said,
Intel and Microsoft are also 100% in support of HD-DVD. Microsoft apparently created one of the main video codex used for it, as well as support for HD-DVD on Windows and the Xbox 360 platform where you have been able to purchase an add-on HD-DVD drive for less than $200 for longer than the Playstation 3 has been out.
[The full detailed account by Lance Hart appears at the end of this article.]—Editor
With Microsoft being 100 percent behind HD DVD and supporting it on Windows, I can’t think of a better reason to go over to Blu-Ray. This, however, does not mean that either o-meon or I have decided to back one HiDef home video format over the other.
I have a garage full of VHS, S-VHS, Betamax, Hi8, and ED-Betamax camcorders, players, and recorders. I really don’t give a hoot which HiDef format wins the home video war. I just want there to be one clear winner by the time I purchase that 1080p wall-sized, flat-panel TV to replace my old three-gun, analog, NTSC projection set.
In any event, whichever format comes out on top, they’ll only be there for a few short years before some other technology bumps them off.
Consider this bit of information I got at lunch the other day from Kevin Geiger, President of Animation Options, a friend with decades of experience in digital content management.
“There’s a format coming soon with 20 times Blu-Ray’s capacity,” Kevin said. He went on to tell me that researchers at Arizona State have developed a memory technology 1,000 times more energy efficient than Flash memory for one tenth the cost. “Imagine one of those keychain USB drives you carry around with over a terabyte of data.”
If that wasn’t enough, he went on to say “At Harvard, they’re working on a prototype USB drive capable of storing 50 terabytes of data using bug protein.” He said we could expect protein-based DVDs within two years, “20 times the capacity of today's Blu-ray discs...enough for the most exhaustive director's commentary.”
You can read Kevin’s full blog on the subject here.
WGA the Dog
There is one great entertainment industry struggle that I have decided to take up sides with: The Writers’ Guild of America (WGA) versus the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP).
Over the course of the past several weeks, several things have happened to convince me that WGA’s cause is just, and that the major motion picture studios and television networks—many of which are jointly owned by the same giant corporations—should return to the table and resume bargaining in good faith.
If you don’t know, the charges and countercharges being flung around by both sides in this disagreement are many, frequently nasty, and often hard to keep up with. That’s why we’ve added the Google News search string “Writers’ Strike” to the beginning of our news briefs section, in the far right column of the front page.
As a journalist, I should at least try and remain impartial and simply write about the arguments being put forth by each side. However, after listening to some of the reasoning put forth these past few weeks by the AMPTP, I find it nearly impossible, in good conscience, not to speak up about what I see as a major abuse of power and wealth.
After months of dodging and weaving, the AMPTP has finally come out and said what everyone already knew. They don’t want to pay any residuals at all for the sale of or ad revenue generated by the distribution of writers’ work product—films and television programs— to new media such as iTunes, websites, cell phone download, etc.
Even as the titans of the entertainment industry conglomerates tout the profitable future of new media to Wall Street and their investors, they have been crying poverty to the WGA. Last week, an AMPTP representative went on talk radio and criticized the WGA for seeking a percentage, “of shows given away for free on the Internet.” He was referring to the rebroadcast of popular programs by NBC and ABC on their websites.
Of course, this well-informed spokesperson neglected to inform the show’s listeners that those “free” shows are supported by ads that cannot be removed or fast-forwarded through. Fortunately, the show’s listeners were aware of this and called him on it.
Like all good satire, funny, sad, but mostly true.
Even as Disney’s Big Cheese Bob Iger stands firm with fellow gazillionaires Rupert Murdoch and Sumner Redstone, he’s touting the longevity and “profitability” of Disney filmed entertainment.
“There is a sense on Wall Street that the future is more of a threat than an opportunity,” Iger recently told the FORBES MEET (Media, Electronic Entertainment, Technology) II conference in Beverly Hills. To drive home his point, Iger showed his audience a Mickey Mouse cartoon from the ‘30s on his iPhone and told them it was available for sale on iTunes for $1.99.
What he didn’t tell them was that there are, for all practical purposes, few, if any, production costs associated with distributing this and hundreds of other “evergreen” Disney products via iTunes.
Iger went on to say that ABC.com—one of the free Internet TV services—has streamed 160 million episodes of various shows and that 87 percent of the online audience recalls the names of the sponsors.
Iger may be contemptuous of old-school thinking about new media on Wall Street, but he seems perfectly willing to engage in good old-fashioned union busting sitting behind his desk on Buena Vista Street in Burbank.
Just this past week, the Walt Disney Company reported a 25 percent gain in operating earnings at its media-network operations. The same media operations that don’t know if they’re generating any real revenue off that “new media” the boss is so keen on.
And in the surest sign yet that the WGA’s demands are just, former Disney CEO Michael Eisner, according to a report published in The Hollywood Reporter, said, “Writers had been premature in pressing for digital revenue when the model was still unproven, and should have postponed action for at least three years.”
Eisner went on to blame the disagreement between producers and the WGA on Apple CEO Steve Jobs. “[The studios] make deals with Steve Jobs, who takes them to the cleaners. They make all these kinds of things…and who's making money? Apple! They should get a piece of Apple. If I was a union, I'd be striking up wherever he is.”
Picking on Apple and Steve Jobs seems to be the new pastime among aging media moguls. A few weeks back, NBC Universal president Jeff Zucker claimed Jobs, via Apple’s iPod and iTunes Store, “destroyed the music business.” The same music business that just months before Apple launched the iTunes Store was suing its own customers to keep from hemorrhaging billions in lost revenues.
And Now for Something Completely Different
Speaking of the bygone Eisner era, this just in. The Walt Disney Company no longer employs David Stainton, former head of what was once Walt Disney Feature Animation. Stainton, who was last believed to be working for Mickey overseas in a warehouse at the far backend of the Tokyo Disney property, is back in the Los Angeles area. He is reported to have hung his shingle out and is doing business under the name of Henry’s World Media.
Stainton owns a dog named Henry.
C’ya real soon!
Text of Lance Hart’s Response to Last Week’s Column
Just wanted to point out a few errors in your Blu-Ray vs HD-DVD piece...
You mentioned "Universal and Warner Brothers are releasing movies in both formats" when right now it is only WB who is releasing in both formats. Paramount & Dreamworks "were" also releasing DVD's on both formats but over the summer Paramount / Dreamworks decided for a variety of reasons that they would (poor blu-ray vs HD-DVD sales figures perhaps...or perhaps just a check from Toshiba...) no longer support Blu-Ray and only only release films from both studios on HD-DVD starting with the release of Transformers.
Funny you also mentioned Michael Bay's support of Blu-Ray... because he did make a knee-jerk reaction post to the news at first saying he wasn't going to direct Transformers 2, but then revised it with another statement in support of HD-DVD on his website.
http://www.michaelbay.com/blog/files/Michael-Bay-HD-DVD.html
"Last night at dinner I was having dinner with three Blu-Ray owners, they were pissed about no Transformers Blu-Ray and I drank the kool aid hook line and sinker. So at 1:30 in the morning I posted - nothing good ever comes out of early am posts mind you - I over reacted. I heard where Paramount is coming from and the future of HD and players that will be close to the $200 mark which is the magic number. I like what I heard.
As a director, I'm all about people seeing films in the best quality possible, and I saw and heard firsthand people upset about a corporate decision.
So today I saw 300 on HD-DVD, it rocks!
So I think I might be back on to do Transformers 2!"
In your argument about who supports which format, in addition to getting it wrong about how only Paramount / Dreamworks are the only sole supporters of HD-DVD, you left off a few major supporters as well.
Universal (which pretty much means the entire NBC Universal empire of networks) has been 100% behind HD-DVD from day one.
Intel and Microsoft are also 100% in support of HD-DVD. Microsoft apparently created one of the main video codex used for it, as well as support for HD-DVD on Windows and the Xbox 360 platform where you have been able to purchase an add-on HD-DVD drive for less than $200 for longer than the Playstation 3 has been out.
While Sony was quick to point out how so many Blu-Ray players have been sold... they are also counting each and every Playstation 3 in those figures, but that is not a guarantee that every Playstation 3 owner is buying Blu-Ray movies or even if they have an HD set to view them on. Meanwhile Xbox 360 can track just how many add on HD-DVD players they have sold and know that people are buying them to watch HD-DVDs. Add in the very poor selling numbers for Playstation 3 which was considered to be very overprices in comparison to the Xbox 360 and Wii, and Sony is now on the losing end of the gaming wars and dare I say it... there many never be a Playstation 4 because of it.
HD-DVD also has an advantage that the production facilities that make normal DVDs can be modified to make HD-DVDs. Blu-Ray technology requires entirely new production facilities, resulting in higher costs per disc and less profit to be made.
WB's solution to this was to work on a combo HD-DVD / Blu-Ray disc that would put a version on each side, but technology limitations have caused them to drop this idea entirely.
Meanwhile a major selling factor for me in the HD-DVD market is the fact that about half of the titles now do have a combo HD-DVD and DVD versions, allowing me to buy titles in HD-DVD and allowing me to flip the disc over and use the other side in my old regular DVD players. So even if HD-DVD does lose the war somehow, I'll still have a playable DVD, so no risk is taken. Blu-Ray can not offer combo support from what I've read.
Then there are the technical fallings of Blu-Ray, where from what I understand Blu-Ray can not offer picture in picture playback like the HD-DVD can. In other works... instead of just hearing the director / actor commentary during the movie, I can SEE it and any other behind the scenes items they want to show me as well. The interactive features of HD-DVD are superior from what I've seen so far.
Sony's claims that Blu-Ray discs can hold more than HD-DVD are un-proven at this point in time.
A single layer Blu-Ray disc is 25 gigs... compared to HD-DVD single layer of 15 gigs...
But when HD-DVD was released they were making double-layer HD-DVDs that hold 30 gigs, and at the start Sony was unable to make double-layer Blu discs at 50gig, so at launch HD-DVD was the bigger data holder. Sony has long claimed they could make a triple layer Blu disc holding 75gigs, but has not been able to produce one from what I've read. Meanwhile Toshiba has finished the creation of a triple layer spec of an HD-DVD disc that will hold 51 gigs... matching Sony's current 50 gig Blu-Ray capacity. To date the triple layer has not gone into production however as no film title has even come close to needing that much space or filling up the current 30 gigs available in the double layer titles, so the "size" point in kind of pointless in the end of things.
Title wise, things are split... with Wikipedia numbers from October 2007 claiming there are currently 327 HD-DVD titles vs 351 Blu-ray titles. However... another important advantage of HD-DVD over Blu-Ray is that fact that HD-DVD discs are region free. Because the current "support" deals with Blu-Ray from American studios only count in North America, you can buy official import titles from current Blu-Ray only supporters online and still get an official HD-DVD version of those movies, all with the original English soundtrack intact.
http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/notag/blu+ray+only-titles-found-abroad-in-region+free-hd-dvd-312535.php
http://xploitedcinema.com/catalog/hd-dvds-c-35.html?osCsid=f035402b856965dee1beff0bbcbc9cbe
Fox has released Fantastic Four in HD-DVD amongst other titles, along with even a few titles Sony and Disney sub-studios like Total Recall (Lion's Gate, with Fox as their DVD distributor) , Underworld (Sony), Reign of Fire (Touchstone).
With Blu-Ray players still at a price tag between $700-1000 and HD-DVD players now below $200... I think the real writing is on the wall for Blu-Ray. Rather than drop that kind of coin on the player alone, I'd rather buy an HD-DVD and spend some of the movie saved on buying movies. Just as Sony lost the VHS / BETA war so long ago, their arrogance is going to cost them again because they wont even consider dropping the prices of Blu-ray to compete with HD-DVD when the bottom line is that visually most movies look the same on both formats depending on how they were produces. (Sony also took a shot in the foot when some of the first Blu-ray titles released used an inferior quality codex that made those titles looks inferior during side by side comparisons between HD-DVD and Blu-ray.)
