Movies DVDGuy’s Blog @ Digital Digest

Archive for the ‘Movies’ Category

Weekly News Roundup (2 November 2008)

Sunday, November 2nd, 2008

Only two more months to go before the year’s out. I just remembered that it’s now more than a year since I started the WNR. I really didn’t think I would keep this going for so long, since my attention span when it comes to these sort of things is pretty short. It’s been far longer than that since my last new computer though, so I’ve decided to get a new one this month, maybe even as soon as this week. I posted my buying specs in the “If I were to buy a new computer today” feature I wrote this week. Yet another refurbished PS3 should be arriving tomorrow, fingers, toes, arms and legs crossed that it’s finally okay this time.

Let’s start with copyright news. The Viacom vs Google legal battle continues with Google claiming that Viacom’s copyright cops are more than capable of controlling content on YouTube, so there’s no need for Google to intervene. It certainly does seem that media companies are surprising apt at providing and controlling content online, mainly for promotional purposes. You can’t really have it both ways though, to use the Net and it’s viral characteristics to promote your stuff, while clamping down on sharing and free expression.

21 months for doing this - fair sentence or too harsh?

Ever wonder what kind of punishment you get for camcording and bootlegging films in theatres? 21 months is the sentence for a guy who did just that and got caught. Was it worth it? Depends on how much money he’s made already and how much of it has been stashed from the sight of the police, I suppose. I don’t mind the authorities going after the providers/source of pirated content, it’s when they go after the users of it that doesn’t sit well with me. Those stupid “you wouldn’t steal a car” PSAs at the start of DVDs also don’t sit well with me, and apparently, it’s not just me. The latest movie length episode of Futurama features a spoof of the well known anti-piracy clips, which is ironic because I suspect these Futurama episodes are one of the most pirated shows around.

Can’t believe that the DMCA is now 10 years old. It seems it was only yesterday that it took its first steps to trample on consumer rights. The EFF has been keeping a document of all the unintended consequences of the DMCA is an updated document, and you can read it here. Lots of stories about how the DMCA has hurt not pirates but consumers, scientists, and legitimate competitors. At best, the DMCA has been ineffective. At worst, it’s one of the worst pieces of legislation to ever come out of Washington D.C, and knowing all the crap that comes out of there, that’s saying something. Digital copyright is an important issue, but surely there must be some common ground between content owners and consumers, because neither group can exist without the other. Will the “Change We Need” feature changes to the DMCA? Doubt it, not as long as Hollywood’s deep pockets are helping those in Washington D.C stay in Washington D.C. But we can always hope …

Further proof of the DMCA’s reach, as Hollywood this week successfully sued Chinese DVD player manufacturers for not complying with CSS copy protection. Now I don’t actually know what was behind all of this, just how a DVD player can help to break CSS. Was it because it upscaled DVDs to 1080i through DVI (against the CSS license)? Was it because it could play copied CSS encrypted discs across a network (also against the CSS license)? Or did it have a hidden menu setting that could allow CSS to be turned off (does nothing really)?

A Digital Copy standard for DVDs on the way?

But even Hollywood seems to be trying to find a way around CSS, by providing digital copies of movies along with the DVD. The DVD Forum is currently discussing this, and I think it’s a good idea. To try and stop people making digital copies is just plain silly and pointless. Might as well cash in and provide them with it in the first place. The problem now is that every studio have their own standard in regards to digital copies (Sony’s one plays on the PS3/PSP, Fox’s one is iPod compatible …). If the DVD Forum can sit down and add digital copy support to the official DVD specs, then that’s a move in the right direction. I just hope they don’t stuff the specs with DRM. At the very least have no more than tagging type DRMs, because anything more, and the digital copies are useless. The next logical step would be to have establish a similar standard for Blu-rays as well.

High Definition Speaking of Blu-rays, the format is apparently dead, according one slightly pessimistic blogger on ZDNet. The last few week’s worth of Blu-ray sales data has been very positive for the format, so I don’t really understand where all these “Blu-ray is doomed” stories are coming from.

Bringing back the free movies promotion may help Blu-ray this holiday season

But I can understand the frustration seeing Sony apparently trying very hard to ruin a perfectly good format, with lousy hardware pricing (only now becoming more sensible), marketing, licensing and many other things which helps to fuel Hollywood’s greed at the expense of actually getting Blu-ray into people’s homes. But I think things have changed a bit recently, and I think the fear that Blu-ray may be doomed has actually forced Sony’s hand somewhat. There are new hardware promotions (free movies are back), pricing deals that bring together studios and online retailers such as Amazon (see some of them here – lots of new hardware deals recently, like the Amazon/Warner $100 off deal). The range of good releases have been very helpful for the format as well. In fact, all of this reminds me of last year, except it was HD DVD doing all of this, which may or may not be a good sign. With the exchange rate problems here in Australia, and local high pricing, I haven’t purchased a Blu-ray movie in ages. The last one I got was the Godfather Trilogy Blu-ray, which I only purchased because the online store I got it from made a pricing error, so I got it for $USD 30 express delivered. Now that’s value for money.

Speaking of value for money, some Netflixsubscribers are not seeing it in the $1 extra per month that Netflix charges for Blu-ray rentals. I don’t rent that many movies, so I can’t comment, but $1 doesn’t seem too much for me.

Also some good news on the H.264 front, as Windows 7 Media Center will natively support the format that is now widely used on everything from cell phone video to HD broadcasts. I’m sure Microsoft originally intended their VC-1 codec to have taken over the industry in the same was as H.264, but it didn’t work out and so supporting H.264 is the only logical step left. It’s not the first time Microsoft tried to get people to use one of their proprietary formats, failing, and then go back to doing what they should have done in the first place which is to support the industry approved format.

And finally in gaming, Sony’s recent huge losses on the market means that the PS3 will not get a price cut, as Sony says they have a business to run. To be fair, the PS3 is selling well enough given the high price, and prices can always come down when desperation calls for it. Sony will just have to hope that by that time, the cost of manufacturing a PS3 will have dropped enough so they won’t have to lose their shirt to provide discounts, to prevent the PS3 falling further behind. In other PS3 news, a new hotfix firmware has been released to fix several problems with the 2.50 firmware. The forced 60 Hz output is what caused people to report the black & white display problem, for TVs that don’t support PAL 60 I guess.

Microsoft’s new Xbox Experience comes out this month, and there are several previews up for it already. One of the new features takes something from the PS3 playbook by offering HDD installs for games, and testing shows that it only shaves a few seconds off the loading time after the several minute long install process (plus all that HDD space used up). I would be more interested to see what effects it has on performance, as streaming from the HDD should be faster than from a DVD right?

So that’s another week over and done with. The US elections this week, so don’t forget to vote, even if you’re not actually a US citizen. Just write who you want to vote for on a piece of paper and send it to “Election Counting Place, Washington D.C., USA” – remember, every vote counts (except ones of this type, possibly). Also, this is the 58th WNR I think, which is just amazing to me because it only feels like the 55th one what with all the fun I’ve had writing it. I’m going computer shopping this week as well, so I may not have as much time to find and post news. At least that’s the excuse I’m going with this week … see you in 168 hours time.

Posted in Copyright, High Definition (Blu-ray/HD DVD/4K), News Roundup, PS3, PS4, Video Technology, Xbox 360, Xbox One | Comments Off on Weekly News Roundup (2 November 2008)

Blu-ray: The State of Play – October 2008

Wednesday, October 15th, 2008

There has been a lot of stories recently about how well/badly Blu-ray is doing, and I thought a post on it to clarify a few things.

There seems to be a lot of negativity surrounding Blu-ray at the moment, which is strange because Blu-ray has just had it’s best ever week in terms of sales, thanks largely to the release of Iron Man. Before we get to the negativity, let’s have a look at the Blu-ray sale stats from Nielsen VideoScan for the “Iron Man Week”:

Period: Week ending 5th October
Top 20 Sales (by disc volume): 13% of market (87% for DVDs)
All sales (by dollar volume): 15.68% of market (84.32% for DVDs)
Total Sales: $26.84 million

The above figures are impressive because if you’ve been keeping track of the Blu-ray sales stats as I’ve posted them in the forum, then the top 20 sales (by disc volume) averages around 8%, and the all sales (by dollar volume) is around 7%. That’s almost double of what normally happens, and it’s all due to one title (the second most popular title on Blu-ray for that week sold 7 times less than Iron Man). With 13 to 15% of the market, either by disc or dollar volume, that’s pretty impressive for a format that’s really only started to compete about 6 months ago (when Toshiba called it a day on their HD DVD format).

Steve Jobs: No to Blu-ray ... for now

So why the negativity? Well, this last week or two, two pieces of news stories did dampen the enthusiasm a bit for Blu-ray. One was Microsoft saying once again they have no plans to add Blu-ray support. This isn’t a big deal really, because the PS3 is the best console/player for Blu-ray, and the Xbox 360 with add-on drive won’t be able to compete on quality or even price. The second piece of bad news, and this is a big one, is Apple’s Steve Jobs calling Blu-ray a “Bag of Hurt” and wanting nothing to do with it until “things settle down, and waiting until Blu-ray takes off in the marketplace before we burden our customers with the cost of the licensing and the cost of the drives”. The high licensing cost of Blu-ray has always been a weakness of the format, but to hear it from someone like Steve Jobs is something else.

So how is Blu-ray doing actually? If I had to give Blu-ray a report card score, then I think at the moment, it gets a solid C, maybe a C+. Why the pessimism, you ask? Well let’s just go through them.

First of all, while the Nielsen VideoScan figures, for the Iron Man week at least, is looking great, those stats are a bit misleading (aren’t they all!). Note that the top 20 sales figures are denoted in disc volume. This favours Blu-ray slightly because Blu-ray sales fall off quite rapidly after the top 20 items, in fact, or sometimes as in the case of Iron Man week, fall off after the number 1 item (7-to-1 sales ratio between Iron Man and second place Forgetting Sarah Marshall). DVDs, on the other hand, is almost the opposite, with most sales coming from the bottom end of the sales charts due to discounting and the larger catalogue of movies.

And if you then look at the all sales by dollar volume figures, that’s misleading as well. Blu-ray movies are priced higher than DVDs, usually $2 to $3 higher than the premium DVD version (2 disc collection, for example), and up to $10 higher than the budget DVD version (single disc version). And so if you compare dollar volumes, then Blu-ray can sell less discs, but still have the same dollar volume as DVDs. And considering that many older DVD releases are on sale for under $10, and that Blu-ray has no titles in this price range, it further favours Blu-ray.

The best way would be to compare disc volumes only, because that’s the only way we can see if Blu-ray is successfully replacing DVD as the home video format. For whatever reason, these stats are not available, or not published, and so an educated guess (not including the Iron Man week stats, which might be a one-off) would be that if Blu-ray holds about 7% of the home video market by dollar volume, then it would translate to perhaps about 5% to 6% by disc volume. That’s not too bad, but for a format that has been the sole HD disc format for 6 months already, the gains, if any, are small to say the least.

DISH 1080p: competition to Blu-ray?

But while Blu-ray has no HD disc format competitors, it does have competition in general, and not just from DVDs. High definition downloads and subscription television are becoming more widely available. While normally A/V quality from these services cannot be compared to Blu-ray, a recent review of DISH’s 1080p service did say they the differences were small. And of course, downloads have the convenience of not having to have a physical disc collection, which while being attractive to many people (me included), does not have the convenience of a digital media collection (and full quality Blu-ray managed copy is nowhere in sight). A VOD type service would be allow for greater access to a larger collection for many people, and traditional non-interactive cable services with 1080p would be cheaper than building a large collection, especially if you only watch movies once.

Then we have DVD upscalers, which can already do a decent job of getting faux HD to your HD panel, and Toshiba’s innovative work on improving upscalers even more so with new techniques. In other words, competition is plenty and one gets the sense that Blu-ray doesn’t have a whole lot of time before it has to establish itself as *the* format for HD. Recent figures in Australia showed that only 17% of HDTV owners had Blu-ray players. The heavy reliance on the PS3 as a Blu-ray player is also shown in these figures, with only 7.5% of Blu-ray players being standalone types (the rest are all PS3s).

And the economic problems don’t help, of course.

But it’s not all doom and gloom. The holiday shopping season is just around the corner, Blu-ray hardware prices are falling already in anticipation, hit titles such as The Dark Knight and WALL-E are coming soon as well, so Blu-ray might just have a holiday season to remember. The timing may not be great, but Blu-ray needs to do well in the next few months and if it can, then its future will be safe.

Posted in Electronics, High Definition (Blu-ray/HD DVD/4K) | 2 Comments »

Weekly News Roundup (12 October 2008)

Sunday, October 12th, 2008

So I sent my PS3 back for repairs on Wednesday. I had to do it because the wireless controller/remote drop-out problem was driving me nuts. My old PS3 didn’t have this issue, so I’m hoping the next PS3 I get won’t have it either. Microsoft’s 6 day turn-around for my Xbox 360 repair is starting to look pretty good, especially considering that I got my own 360 back and not somebody else’s slightly broken, but refurbished, PS3. The news items are a bit light this week, no doubt the focus is still on the economic meltdown that is happening around the world.

And despite the economic uncertainty, I bought myself a new monitor this week, a 24″ entry level model from Dell. It’s not the best monitor, the 16:9 ratio is a bit weird compared to other monitors (as is the only 1080 line resolution), but it does have HDMI, is perfect for connecting 1080p devices such as PS3s and Xbox 360s, and of course, there’s the price. I only paid $USD 160 for it (current price is $399) due to a stuff up on Dell’s part, and for that money, I can’t complain too much about the monitor’s deficiencies (of which there are a few, but nothing that I can’t live with, even at the regular pricing of $399). Bargain hunting is now a small hobby of mine, and it feels great to pick one up.

Anyway, ket’s start with copyright news. The RealDVD vs MPAA case continues, and I wrote what I thought about it in a blog entry mid-week. I wrote my piece after the Judge in the case temporarily suspended sales of RealDVD, pending the outcome of the case perhaps. My opinion was that the case is more about the MPAA (and its members) trying to protect their own future marketing ideas on Managed Copy, and getting peeved because Real Networks beat them to the punch. I also went through the legal arguments about the legality of RealDVD, and I really can’t see why it is illegal at all.

Wal-Mart will have to keep on paying for their mistake of choosing to use DRM

And shortly after I wrote my piece, an article with similar opinions emerged from the Electronic Frontier Foundation, in which they also said that Hollywood’s hate for RealDVD is not due to piracy. I just hope the Judge in the case sees this point of view too, because I think it’s very important that Real Networks win this case. If DRM is really just to protect your licensing cash cow, then that’s more reason to kill it off ASAP.

Wal-Mart’s DRM fiasco, the latest of many, is taking a turn for the predictable. Wal-Mart has backed down and now will ensure their DRM authentication servers are kept online so that people’s DRM-infested files will remain working, no doubt after legal advice from their lawyers. The disadvantages of online based DRM is shown quite clearly here, because it’s not just the consumer that suffers from DRM infection, but the content sellers are obligated to maintain legacy DRM servers forever at a huge cost in the long run (and will have to continue paying license fees for it too, which I gather was the whole point behind DRM in the first place).

High Definition Onto HD news, I found this really interesting article on the process and cost of Blu-ray replication and licensing. What with various licensing fees for the A/V technology involved, the higher cost of replication, the AACS licensing fees, producing Blu-ray discs in small quantities such as 1,000 units could cost up to $14 (for BD-50 discs). This goes down to a much smaller figure for larger quantities, only $2.75, and so you start to wonder why Blu-ray movies cost so much more than their DVD counterparts. One thing is clear though, Blu-ray’s mandatory requirement for AACS (compared to DVD’s CSS and HD DVD’s AACS being optional), plus the higher manufacturing costs, means that Blu-ray is not friendly for independent producers, who will most likely have to rely on DVD even if they shoot their stuff in HD.

The higher cost of Blu-ray is forcing NetFlix to raise their monthly rental fees, but only by a single dollar. But in the current climate, every dollar counts I suppose. And Blu-ray discs could get even more expensive, although with much more storage space, if Sanyo’s 100 GB Blu-ray disc ever makes it to full production.

Iron Man Blu-ray is breaking all records

But cost of otherwise, last week was Blu-ray’s best week since launch, thanks altogether to the movie Iron Man. According to Nielsen VideoScan figures which I have posted here, Blu-ray sales shot up 145% compared to last week thanks to Iron Man, which out-sold the next most popular title on Blu-ray for the week by a ratio of 7 to 1. Blu-ray’s sales ratio to DVD was at a record high 15%, double that of normal weeks. The actual numbers for discs sold is a bit more sober in comparison though. Iron Man on DVD sold 7.2 million copies, while the Blu-ray version sold 500,000 – that’s a ratio of about 7%. This is an improvement compared to when HD DVD was still in the game, and I remember the disc volume ratio being closer to 3% back then. But Iron Man being only a single title, and one that propelled Blu-ray to a record week at that, so the average ratio may be closer to 4 or 5%. The Dark Knight already promises to beat Iron Man’s record, if the Amazon sales charts are anything to go by.

The Australian dollar crashing won't help Blu-ray sales

Not going too well though is Blu-ray sales in Australia. Australia is actually one of the few countries outside of the US and Japan to fully embrace Blu-ray hardware thanks to the PS3’s popularity and relatively low hardware prices (due to our proximity to Asia). But due to high movie prices (at one point, the retail pricing of Blu-ray movies were at $USD 50), importing movies from the US and even UK has been a cheaper way to get into Blu-ray. Not so anymore, after the Aussie dollar crashed this week, and with shipping, getting movies from the US is up from an average of $AUD 23 to now basically the same as local pricing ($AUD 40). A couple of months ago I even imported some Blu-ray movies from the US for sale here in Australia (on eBay), but that looks quite a silly thing to do now. If discussions on this issue in this Australian forum is anything to go by, Blu-ray imports will significantly drop in the foreseeable future. (But as someone who’s income in mainly in US dollars, it’s a good time for me!)

And finally in gaming, it’s another week so we had yet another story on Blu-ray coming to the Xbox 360, and yet another denial from Microsoft about it. I promised several months ago in the forum that I would never post another Blu-ray coming to Xbox 360 story, after the last ten I’ve posted have all turned out to be completely rubbish, just like this recent one.

This pic of an Xbox 360 Blu-ray player is as fake as the rumours about it

But this time I really believe it could be true, and once again, I was fooled. I once again question why people need to make up these stories, perhaps because PS3 fanboys would love the Xbox 360 to get Blu-ray to prove that Sony’s decision to include it was justified (that’s debatable because Blu-ray’s added cost and development time may cause the PS3 to lose the curr-gen console war, or at least not win it as dramatically as the PS2 did last-gen). The Xbox 360 has 11 million users in the US alone, so getting it to support Blu-ray would definitely be a major coup for Sony (but why would Microsoft want that?). I just can’t see it happening though, not until we see a sexier, quieter Xbox 360, because at this moment if the Xbox 360 gets Blu-ray, you only have to compare it to Sony’s effort and there is only one winner – the PS3. Why would Microsoft want to make this comparison anyway, unless they are coming out with a piece of kit that’s better suited to home theatre usage as the PS3. And then there’s the fact that the PS3 uses Blu-ray for games, and the Xbox 360 cannot, so that’s another point of comparison which the Redmond firm does not want. And with Blu-ray’s popularity not exactly making headlines (not the good kind anyway), it feels like Blu-ray needs the 360 more than the 360 needs it. So will Blu-ray come to the Xbox 360? I think it’s wishful thinking on part of many at the moment, but then again, wishful thinking has a way of becoming reality if enough people wish for it.

Okay, that’s all I’ve got this week. See you next week.

Posted in Copyright, High Definition (Blu-ray/HD DVD/4K), News Roundup, PS3, PS4, Xbox 360, Xbox One | Comments Off on Weekly News Roundup (12 October 2008)

Weekly News Roundup (5 October 2008)

Sunday, October 5th, 2008

I started last week’s WNR with news that my PS3 was fixed. I think I may have spoken too soon, as I’m now having problems with the wireless controller/remote. So my PS3 may be broken again, I posted earlier this week, but I may have spoken too soon, as the same problem hasn’t reoccurred yet. A lot to cover this week, so I’ll have to put my PS3 problems off for another week, until I’ve managed to replicate the problem again.

Starting with copyright news, Wal-Mart is the latest to abandon DRM. Normally, that’s good news, but because DRM is the world’s stupidest invention, it has grave consequences for users who did not pirate music and were honorable enough to buy DRM’d music from Wal-Mart. Wal-Mart will shut down its DRM authentication servers, meaning that the DRM’d music files will no longer play. As if people needed more incentive to pirate music.

Apple FairPlay Sued by Norway

And to prove how stupid DRM is again, Apple has been sued by Norway over Apple’s FairPlay DRM. DRM not only makes genuine consumers mad, it also prevents interoperability and fair competition, which is why Norway is suing. I’ve always thought DRM was more about proprietary technology and licensing fees, as opposed to piracy and all that. Sony agrees with me apparently, when the President of Sony Pictures Television said that DRM is one of the the major causes of piracy, although he has no intention of dropping it.

So not only does DRM cause consumer frustration, is anti-competitive, causes piracy, but it may also be killing Blu-ray. Apparently the prohibitive cost of implementing AACS (mainly licensing fees) means that it’s hard for independent producers may have to look elsewhere. Nearly $5,000 may be required to just publish one title on Blu-ray, and that’s for AACS licensing only. HD DVD’s specs said that AACS was optional, but the BDA insists on all Blu-ray discs to carry it, even if the content owners don’t wish to have it (so you can’t really say it’s all about copyright protection). The BDA’s insistence to push DRM onto consumers and producers equally is why I wish HD DVD had won the day, and I’m sure independent producers wished for it too.

So is piracy really that big of a deal in the movie industry? Sony, the champion of DRM and copyright control, is asking ISPs to once more become copyright cops. And yes, this is the same interview in which the Sony Pictures Television President also said DRM is a major cause of piracy and that they love DRM – therefore, they must love piracy. You know who also loves piracy? The MPAA. Despite the deteriorating economic conditions, movie ticket sales are up. Piracy is also up. So therefore, piracy helps movie ticket sales. The MPAA must be very pleased.

And following on the Spore DRM uproar, more and more gaming execs are turning away from DRM. Spore was a hit title that was always going to sell well, DRM or not, but for any other title, bad publicity caused by DRM could really just kill the title.

RealDVD: Not so legal, says MPAA

And finally in copyright, the big news of the week. The MPAA and Real Networks are now locked in a legal battle over the legality of Real’s RealDVD software. As reported earlier in the WNR, RealDVD is Real Networks’ “legal” alternative to DVD rippers, because it keeps the CSS encryption intact on DVDs and then add their own layer of DRM to prevent sharing of the copied movie. Despite this, the MPAA is not happy and wants RealDVD to be scrapped, and is suing Real Networks for breaching CSS licensing (again, despite RealDVD not touching CSS at all). This one will be worth keeping an eye on, as the legal decision could go either way. The way the MPAA is acting could be considered anti-competitive, not allowing a particular use of a product just because they’re not making money from it (I don’t think the MPAA is against this sort of “managed copy”, as long as they’re the ones to profit from it I suppose). And Real could have the capital to fight this all the way too. The Electronic Frontiers Foundation, champions of user rights and fairness in copyright protection, states in this article why they think the MPAA should lose this case. I’m not a fan of Real’s products, but I support them on this one 100%.

High Definition Onto HD news now, next week will be when the Iron Man Blu-ray sales figures filter through the Nielsen VideoScan figures. Early indication suggests that Iron Man Blu-ray will be the best selling Blu-ray title of all time, but I suppose that’s not really saying much. This week’s figures include the release of The Godfather Trilogy on Blu-ray, and as expected, it gave Blu-ray sales a bump to become the second best week (I think) ever (the best week being the Transformers bump). Next week should see Blu-ray break all it’s own records, although whether it will set records in terms of sales ratio to DVDs depend on how well the DVD version sells. With DVD users like myself preferring to buy movies a few months after their initial release, and Blu-ray owners (and early adopters) generally preferring to buy all the latest releases as quickly as possible, the figures should favour Blu-ray, but we’ll have to wait and see.

HD DVD in zombified form still selling well

The weird story of the week though is about HD DVD. Yes, that old thing. Apparently, HD DVD sales are still going strong, mainly due to the rock bottom prices that movies and hardware are being sold at. If anything proves that cheap will always outsell better, this is it (better in this case means a format which has a future versus one which definitely doesn’t). DVD will always outsell Blu-ray if this principle holds true, and DVD will never become a obsolete format as long as Blu-ray is alive (thanks to Blu-ray being backwards compatible with DVD). Toshiba is still not supporting Blu-ray, but they are adding PS3 technology to their TVs. I think the more accurate statement should be the PS3 using Toshiba technology, as the Cell processor that Toshiba will use in their LCD line-up is now a Toshiba owned product.

And as predicted a few weeks ago, prices for Blu-ray hardware will drop for the important holiday season. More reason not to buy a Blu-ray player until later this month or in November, December, when the sales really start. I’ll post any good Blu-ray deals I find in the usual place.

Although I’m quiet optimistic that Blu-ray will do quite well during this holiday season, mainly thanks to the major releases of Iron Man and especially The Dark Knight, it could always use a boost. Apple has always been a Blu-ray supporter, sitting on the board of the BDA, but it is strange why they haven’t announced support for Blu-ray in their computers yet. The theory is that Apple have their own plans in relation to movie distribution, and Blu-ray is not part of it (or you might even say that Blu-ray is against their plans).

Another way to promote Blu-ray may be to include the SD DVD version of the movie in the same package, like HD DVD combos (but clumsier in that you need 2 discs, but better in that the discs can be used at the same time). Disney is doing just this with the Sleeping Beauty Blu-ray version. The way I see it, if Blu-ray is to fully replace DVDs, then it will need a combo format of its own. If Blu-ray is happy to be the more expensive alternative to DVD, to exist side by side with it, then the current marketing strategy is working fine.

And in gaming, Xbox 360’s with the Jasper update may (or may not be) appearing in stores already. Jasper reduces the size of the GPU to 65nm, which will help reduce heat production and improve stability.

Will we ever see a slim Xbox 360?

The rumours of a “slim” Xbox 360 just won’t go away though, and there is definitely a new iteration of the 360 coming possibly early next year.

And that’s all the news for this week. I’m going to have to keep a close eye on the MPAA vs Real Networks legal battle, as I think the verdict of this case could prove quite important. If the MPAA wins, then unless they themselves come up with their own managed copy solution (which Real could then sue them for not allowing themselves to do the same thing), then the idea of a disc-less home theatre is dead. If Real wins, then we could see more and more products “circumvent” CSS legally. See you next week.

Posted in Copyright, Electronics, High Definition (Blu-ray/HD DVD/4K), News Roundup, Xbox 360, Xbox One | Comments Off on Weekly News Roundup (5 October 2008)

Weekly News Roundup (28 September 2008)

Sunday, September 28th, 2008

I finally got my PS3 back to fix the Blu-ray drive problem. Unfortunately, it acted up in strange ways at first, but a full system restore seems to have solved these issues (so if you get your PS3 back from repairs, do a full system restore first – takes a couple of hours, but it’s worth it). I’ve finished upgrading the search system on dvdloc8.com as well. I think it’s easier to find stuff now, but I’m no expert on search engines so I don’t really know what I’m doing anyway. If you search for “bat” and the first result returned is Last Stand of the 300 – The Legendary Battle at Thermopylae, then you’ll know why.

I’m going to do something different this week and start with the copyright news. Oh yes, very different. The RIAA has rejected a Judge issued damages amount and want to go to trial to get more money from a teenager. The Judge initially ordered damages capped at $200 per song, but the RIAA wants to get the maximum $700 per song, because I supposed with the current economic climate, they need the money or something. Actually it’s because the Judge believed the defendant’s claim that it was a case of “innocent infringement”, because Whitney Harper (16 at the time of the infringement, now 20 years old) didn’t know about copyright laws, how KaZaA worked and all of that. In the eyes of the RIAA, everyone is guilty, so obviously there is no such thing as “innocent infringement”, and so the RIAA wants to go to court and get a jury to decide on damages. When the RIAA is not going after 16 year olds, they are going after single mothers. A single mother was convicted and the RIAA was awarded $222,000 in damages, but a Judge has now ruled that the damages rewarded were “wholly disproportionate” and “oppresive”. I say the industry response to copyright theft can also be described as “wholly disproportionate” and “oppressive”.

Download Heroes episodes instead of recording them: illegal?

The outgoing Bush administration wants a new International agreement concerning copyright protection that companies like Google are trying to fight. Shortly after, the US senate passed a MPAA/RIAA/BSA approved bill to crackdown further on copyright abuse, to create a new office of the Copyright Czar, funded by taxpayer money to help big business maintain the profit margins. Well at least they’re consistent on this last point, and it’s good to see with all that’s going on at the moment, preventing you from downloading the latest episode of Heroes is what’s most important. Speaking of downloading Heroes, here in Australia, illegal downloads have been described as an “epidemic”. Piracy is popular here because we get shafted by free-to-air TV stations, which pay big money to secure TV shows (thus preventing the cable networks from having first-run on these shows), and then stuff the program full of ads and show them at the most inappropriate times (if they show them at all). And if you missed a show on TV, didn’t record it, then is downloading it really a crime? It is though, legally speaking, I think.

PlayStation Store Downloads: Beware of DRM restrictions

Moving onto gaming related copyright issues. Activision will now go after individual pirates, targeting people who have pirated the Xbox 360 game Call of Duty 3, and is seeking damages of between $30,000 and $150,000. And if you purchase content from the PlayStation store, be aware that you cannot re-download content, which means if you had to wipe the HDD to do a full system restore due to a shoddy Blu-ray drive, then you’ll have to re-purchase everything. If you had pirated the stuff instead of paying for it, you’ll get better treatment, so what kind of message is this sending to consumers anyway. The Spore DRM thing refuses to go away, and talks of class action lawsuits as well as censorship on EA’s part means this one will drag on for a while now.

In other words, DRM sucks.

High Definition Let’s skip to HD news, because the copyright stuff is depressing. Transformers on Blu-ray: it’s apparently great news for Blu-ray and also the worst to ever happen to it. Depending on who you read. As I mentioned in the last WNR’s, Transformers on Blu-ray caused a sales surge to give Blu-ray the best week ever in terms of sales ratio to DVD. Then the following week, sales dropped back to normal and so there was a huge drop in Blu-ray sales for the week-to-week numbers. And these numbers have caused some in the media to write more “Blu-ray is doomed” stories, because a 13.39% drop in sales means that just, despite Blu-ray sales being up 29% and 16% for the two weeks prior.

Transformers on Blu-ray: causing debates about Blu-ray's popularity

This forced EngadgetHD to write a story debunking these rubbish stories, and rightly so. There is truth to the story that Blu-ray isn’t doing as well as it should be, but to take facts and stretch them to present an extreme point of view (to gain hits, no doubt), is not on. Unfortunately, this happens all too much these days, and not just in less than important news items like Blu-ray sales. But unfortunately, EngadgetHD’s article did their own bit truthstretching and number fudging, as they came up with the wrong conclusion that Blu-ray’s market share (compared to DVD) has actually doubled. They came up with this statement based on only two sets of data – one in March for the week when I Am Legend was released, and another for the Transformers bump. While bothmovies are similarly “hit” titles that will be similarly (but not equally) popular amongst movie lovers, they were both released under different circumstances. I Am Legend was available simultaneously on DVD and Blu-ray, whereas this latest Transformers Blu-ray release was Blu-ray only, and occurred in a week where there were no other Blu-ray and DVD releases of note. So basically you have one that released in a busy week and thus having a 6% market share for the Blu-ray version, while you have another title that is released in a week where it is the only major release and only available in Blu-ray with a 12% market share. So what do these numbers tell you? Nothing at all, other than when a popular movie is released only on Blu-ray in a week when no other releases were as good, then the Blu-ray market share goes up (and then goes immediately down the next week).

Blu-ray Sales Stats

What is probably better is to compare actual sale figures. It isn’t a good way either, because sales fluctuate seasonally, but because Blu-ray is playing the catch up game, its number should be ever on the increase as it gains more market share and tries to beat the slowly “dying” DVD format. Unfortunately, data on the week I am Legend was sold is not available. The earliest data I have is from the week ending April 20th. For that week, Blu-ray sold $9.93m. I had a search on the ever useful Blu-ray Disc Stats website and it seems that was the week that Aliens vs Predator: Requiem were released on Blu-ray, as well as the classics Commando and Predator, as well as the new release Juno. The other titles were “Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead”, “Mariah Carey: The Adventures of Mimi” and “A Passage to India”. To do a comparison, let’s look at the week ending September 14th. Now this week had some good releases, Kill Bill vol 1 and 2, the new comedy Baby Mama, classics such as Cool Hand Luke and Jerry Maguire. Jackie Chan’s The Forbidden Kingdom was also release in the week, and so were the latest seasons of Grey’s Anatomy and Smallville (other titles: “The Alps”, “Day Watch”, “Don Giovanni”, “The Fall”, “How the West Was Won”, “Manilow Live!”, “Night Watch” and “Rudy”). And it was also the week following the Transformers release, so I’m sure it sold some as well. So how did this week compared to that week in April? Total sales for the week ending 14thSeptember was $9.18m. That’s a drop of 7.6%, despite the most recent week having tons more releases than the other one back in April. So what does this tell you? Not much really, because again we’re comparing different titles that appeal to different segments of the market and one was a week with a new to disc release, and the most recent one was full of (admittedly box office heavy) catalogue releases.

Catalogue releases bring up the question: which DVDs will you re-buy on Blu-ray? I think the fact that this is being debated suggests that Blu-ray will have trouble with titles already available on DVD, as I don’t think there are many that will upgrade every single DVD they have to Blu-ray. I do plan on upgrading selected titles, such as Band of Brothers, The Godfather Trilogy, LOTR Trilogy, Star Wars – only because I’ve watched these about a million times (each), and so the investment is worthit. Otherwise, I’ll stick with my existing DVD collection, which is still growing faster than my Blu-ray collection as I’m not buying shit movies that I watch maybe once on anything other than in a “Under $10” sale. So without catalogue releases, how can Blu-ray increase market share? Cheaper Blu-ray hardware is a start. Remember when the BDA said that cheap HD DVD players were a sign of desperation? A Sony Blu-ray player available for under $200 on Amazon just last week must mean something then. What was also a bit desperate was Amazon’s attempt to run a run-of-the-mill 3 for 2 promotion, but a misplaced link in a newsletter and they ended up having to honor all Blu-ray titles at Amazon as part of the 3 for 2. Ouch (especially in this financial climate).

Toshiba threw in the towel on HD DVD rather quickly, but they’ve not forgotten their customers and are still releasing firmware updates. These machines are still top of the range DVD upscalers at the very least, and the crazily cheap money these players went for after HD DVD’s demise still makes them excellent value (and more so if Toshiba continues with the firmware updates). Toshiba is still saying no to Blu-ray though.

And finally in gaming, not much going on this week. I think the Xbox 360 outsold the PS3 in Japan again, but the Wii reclaimed top spot. PS3 sales have slumped rather quickly in Japan, but more surprising is the surge in Xbox 360 sales. Microsoft’s new strategy of wooing Japanese game publishers to publish exclusive titles on the 360 seems to be working.

PlayStation Home: Finally coming to a PS3 near you

And we’re very much near to Sony unveiling its PlayStation Home system. “Finally”, I hear you say, will it revolutionize how gamers interact with each other, and will it be a Xbox Live killer? We’ll just have to wait and find out, I suppose. The firmware update to allow this puppy to run on the PS3 will be huge, I suspect, and given my recent experience with firmware, I think I shall skip it until other more fearless users have volunteered to be guinea pigs for it.

So that’s it for this week. It was long one, thanks to my Blu-ray rant in the middle, plus all the other rants around it. Until next week, WNR readers!

Posted in Copyright, Electronics, High Definition (Blu-ray/HD DVD/4K), News Roundup, PS3, PS4, Xbox 360, Xbox One | Comments Off on Weekly News Roundup (28 September 2008)

DVDGuy’s Blog @ Digital Digest

Archive for the ‘Movies’ Category

Weekly News Roundup (2 November 2008)

Blu-ray: The State of Play – October 2008

Weekly News Roundup (12 October 2008)

Weekly News Roundup (5 October 2008)

Weekly News Roundup (28 September 2008)

Pages

Links

Categories