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» Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE   » Community   » The Afterlife   » DVD vs BR-DVD -- live together 4 how long? (Page 6)

 
This topic comprises 9 pages: 1  2  3  4  5  6  7  8  9   
Author Topic: DVD vs BR-DVD -- live together 4 how long?
David Stambaugh
Film God

Posts: 4021
From: Eugene, Oregon
Registered: Jan 2002

- posted 10-31-2008 04:29 PM      Profile for David Stambaugh   Author's Homepage   Email David Stambaugh   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
quote: Bobby Henderson
there's next to no one charging $50 for those Close Encounters discs
I just got back from Suncoast Video and they want $49.99 for that title. They want full retail for about 3/4ths of their entire BD stock. Might be closer to 90%. A few titles are marked down 15%-20%.

PLEASE don't tell me to go look online. I'm not a complete moron. I'm just telling you what some brick-and-mortar stores are charging. BB and CC are the same way. They do not discount every title, not 1 cent. Go look at Target and Wal-Mart and they're not all that low, except on special deals.

Not all DVD & BD buyers (present or future) buy online. Someone is buying at brick & mortar stores, and that's where some people's price impressions are formed, and Close Encounters at $49.99 seems like crazy talk.

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Mike Heenan
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1896
From: Scottsdale, AZ, USA
Registered: Mar 2000

- posted 10-31-2008 04:43 PM      Profile for Mike Heenan   Email Mike Heenan   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
IIRC, Close Encounters was $39.99 at Target when I looked at it last. And it has what, 3 different versions of the film on it? True, if they did a seamless branching thing that might have been better, and cheaper. The Blade Runner 5 disc edition for comparision has 4 different cuts of the film, plus 1 disc of extras (I think) and is roughly the same price. I dont know exactly how long Blu Ray has been out, but IIRC, DVD prices were about on par with BR prices in it's infancy, not too mention the cost of the units themselves. Prices will drop over time I'm sure.

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Joe Redifer
You need a beating today

Posts: 12859
From: Denver, Colorado
Registered: May 99

- posted 10-31-2008 04:44 PM      Profile for Joe Redifer   Author's Homepage   Email Joe Redifer   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
Suncoast has always been expensive. I never remember seeing a good price for anything in there. I don't even think they exist here any more because we don't put up with their shit.

I bought the Blade Runner Blu-ray pack at $20 or $25 I think at Target. Close Encounters uses seamless branching. One disc for all three versions. VERY well done! I think it has another disc for extra nonsense as well as a fold out map and some clipped hair from Richard Dreyfuss himself.

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David Stambaugh
Film God

Posts: 4021
From: Eugene, Oregon
Registered: Jan 2002

- posted 10-31-2008 05:26 PM      Profile for David Stambaugh   Author's Homepage   Email David Stambaugh   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
According to amazon the list price for Close Encounters on Blu-ray is $49.95 (I was off by 4 cents). Amazon's price is $34.95. Walmart online is $32.86.

The list price for Iron Man is $39.99. Because I wanted it NOW and Suncoast had it for like $32.99 I bought a copy there. Amazon's price is $25.95. Walmart online is $25.86.

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Bobby Henderson
"Ask me about Trajan."

Posts: 10973
From: Lawton, OK, USA
Registered: Apr 2001

- posted 10-31-2008 05:35 PM      Profile for Bobby Henderson   Email Bobby Henderson   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
quote: David Stambaugh
I just got back from Suncoast Video and they want $49.99 for that title.
The Wal-Mart stores here have Close Encounters of the Third Kind on BD for $29.99. They've had the movie at that level for a long time. Sam's Club has it for $28.

quote: Joe Tommassello
As for "Dark Knight" pricing we all know that Amazon will likely ship the standard DVD at $14.95 to match the mass merchants pricing.
You don't know with any certainty the movie will be discounted by retailers to that level. Predictions were made about Iron Man being priced aggressively low, but that didn't happen.

Also, look back at those full MSRP prices on the DVD versions of The Dark Knight. You love quoting the full MSRP of any Blu-ray movie as if that is what everyone is paying for it. Strangely, you don't keep the same level of consistency when mentioning DVD pricing. You prefer only to mention the discount rate. At the very least, that's SPIN. It could be called lying.

The article you linked is another piece of bullshit spin as well. The "epic fail" Blu-ray graphic shows the red ant bias right off the bat. There's lots of those "doom and gloom" articles out there. Lots of cherry picking data to give the article the right flavor loved by red ants everywhere. There's no shortage of articles showing major sales increases over the past year, but red ants don't like reading any of that.

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Mike Blakesley
Film God

Posts: 12767
From: Forsyth, Montana
Registered: Jun 99

- posted 10-31-2008 05:37 PM      Profile for Mike Blakesley   Author's Homepage   Email Mike Blakesley   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
I don't know why you guys are spending so much time bitching about the prices of Blu-rays. You're supposed to be all happy about the money you're saving by not going to theatres. What happened to that happiness?

Want to really save money? Then instead of being being all 'instantgratificationIwantitnow,' just wait for the things to be in the discount cutout bargain bin, which they will be as soon as the next generation special edition souped up version comes out in about a year or less.

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David Stambaugh
Film God

Posts: 4021
From: Eugene, Oregon
Registered: Jan 2002

- posted 10-31-2008 05:40 PM      Profile for David Stambaugh   Author's Homepage   Email David Stambaugh   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
Suncoast Video wants $49.95 for Close Encounters. That's all I said. You don't have to refute everything.
What the fuck is a "red ant"? Is there a drinking game going on that I didn't hear about? Don't make me google it.
EDIT: I lied and/or was mistaken. Circuit City's price on Close Encounters is $35. Iron Man is $30. I will admit when I've made an error. [Big Grin] I didn't price-check everything on their rack but those BD titles are discounted.
I'm editing this post from the PS3, using a Logitech Bluetooth kbd. It sort of works.

[ 10-31-2008, 09:36 PM: Message edited by: David Stambaugh ]

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Bobby Henderson
"Ask me about Trajan."

Posts: 10973
From: Lawton, OK, USA
Registered: Apr 2001

- posted 10-31-2008 09:53 PM      Profile for Bobby Henderson   Email Bobby Henderson   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
quote: David Stambaugh
Suncoast Video wants $49.95 for Close Encounters. That's all I said. You don't have to refute everything.
I'm refuting the shit Joe said. He throws the $50 term for CETK out there like that is what everyone is going to have to pay anywhere they buy that Blu-ray movie. I provided a couple of specific examples where the $49.99 MSRP is not in effect -and it isn't in effect in most places. Nevertheless, Joe comes back and tosses out that damned $50 full MSRP figure again. On top of that, he insults everyone's intelligence by conveniently only using discounted rates for DVD pricing. Anyone who pulls that shit needs to be called on it. It's bullshit spin.

quote: David Stambaugh
What the fuck is a "red ant"?
"Red ant" is a derogatory term for a die-hard, dyed in the wool (and often blind to truth) hardcore HD-DVD fanboy. There's a lot of disgruntled, scored HD-DVD fanboys looking for any opportunity at all to shit on Blu-ray. The ZD Net dude trolling for readership and ad dollars certainly got a lot of disgruntled HD-DVD fans cheering with his article.

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Joe Redifer
You need a beating today

Posts: 12859
From: Denver, Colorado
Registered: May 99

- posted 11-01-2008 12:18 AM      Profile for Joe Redifer   Author's Homepage   Email Joe Redifer   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
quote: Mike Blakesley
You're supposed to be all happy about the money you're saving by not going to theatres.
But we work at theaters so we get movies for free! Oh, wait...

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David Stambaugh
Film God

Posts: 4021
From: Eugene, Oregon
Registered: Jan 2002

- posted 11-01-2008 12:54 AM      Profile for David Stambaugh   Author's Homepage   Email David Stambaugh   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
Cool, I'm not a "red ant". Sorry I got annoyed.

So I just finished watching my first BD movie, Iron Man, via the PS3. Both the video quality and audio quality are incredibly good. As hoped for. I can't really fault anything about the PS3's speed of loading the disc etc. In fact it might be faster loading than my Oppo upscaling DVD player. The PS3 is outputting 1080p 24fps and although I wouldn't say it looks exactly like film, it does look film-like, and that's a good thing. My Samsung LCD converts everything to 120Hz and the AMP feature is set to "low". More experimentation needed.

I did a quick comparison between Dolby Digital 5.1 and Dolby True-HD, and True-HD sounds much better. That is a slight surprise, was skeptical about being able to hear any real difference. I did though. I had to delay the audio (on the receiver) by about 4 frames to get optimal sync with the picture, no big deal.

All is not perfect though. I'm using a Pioneer receiver, model number is something 1018 something, a recent model with 3 HDMI 1.3a inputs. I'm using HDMI exclusively from input sources to the receiver to the TV. The HDMI handshaking between devices seems to be very slow sometimes. This makes playing with any of the BD extra features frustrating because you can lose both video and audio for several seconds. Every time you select a menu option or whatever, HDMI has to resync. At least that's what seems to be happening. In addition to dropping the audio, the TV can't see any input signal. Not sure what's up with that. Is that normal for HDMI? My TiVo HD does the same thing via HDMI, so it's not particular to the PS3. Very annoying.

Playback of the movie was flawless though.

That's my initial report. Blu-ray may actually be the bomb after all. [beer]

Oh yeah, spent a couple minutes trying BD Live and the HDMI dropout problem made it unusable. Didn't look like I was missing much though. Trivia questions? [Roll Eyes]

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Joe Redifer
You need a beating today

Posts: 12859
From: Denver, Colorado
Registered: May 99

- posted 11-01-2008 01:10 AM      Profile for Joe Redifer   Author's Homepage   Email Joe Redifer   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
HDMI is wholly disappointing. This handshaking business is nonsense. It is so poorly implemented. The paranoia over piracy is taking its toll. It should just work, like component video does.

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David Stambaugh
Film God

Posts: 4021
From: Eugene, Oregon
Registered: Jan 2002

- posted 11-02-2008 12:54 AM      Profile for David Stambaugh   Author's Homepage   Email David Stambaugh   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
The HDMI problem is mostly gone today. Not sure why other than everything has been rebooted.

OTOH, BD-Live still seems of dubious value.

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Joe Tommassello
Jedi Master Film Handler

Posts: 547
From: Coatesville, PA, USA
Registered: Jan 2008

- posted 11-03-2008 11:07 AM      Profile for Joe Tommassello   Email Joe Tommassello       Edit/Delete Post 
quote: Bobby Henderson
I'm refuting the shit Joe said. He throws the $50 term for CETK out there like that is what everyone is going to have to pay anywhere they buy that Blu-ray movie.
Bob - a check of dvdpricesearch.com showed a low of about $33 to a high of about $40 for CE3K in Blu. Granted $32 is a lot less than $50 but don't you still think that's a lot of money for that title?...especially coming from THE studio that is most associated with promoting the format! This is, indeed, laserdisc pricing.

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Bobby Henderson
"Ask me about Trajan."

Posts: 10973
From: Lawton, OK, USA
Registered: Apr 2001

- posted 11-03-2008 02:08 PM      Profile for Bobby Henderson   Email Bobby Henderson   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
Obviously dvdpricesearch.com isn't updated to show the prices I'm seeing for that movie at Wal-Mart and Sam's. Both locations in my town currently offer it for just under $30.

Currently Amazon is selling CETK for $34.95, which is more than what they usually charge for CETK; however, on the same page they have a link to 42 new copies of it from $24.95 via other merchants.

quote: Joe Tommassello
Granted $32 is a lot less than $50 but don't you still think that's a lot of money for that title?
No.

The CETK 2-disc BD is worth $30 or even $40. It's a well done special edition release. Lots of 2-disc DVDs have tipped the pricing scales past $30. I paid nearly $40 for my Criterion Collection DVD version of Robocop. And that's just a single disc release.

quote: Joe Tommassello
This is, indeed, laserdisc pricing.
Actually, the new 2-disc BD is pretty affordable compared to some of the previous versions of CETK on Laserdisc -namely the Criterion Collection edition. I seem to remember that one costing over $100 brand new -that's the pricing I saw for it at the 4th & Broadway location of Tower Records in NYC back in 1990 when the LD box set was released.

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Joe Tommassello
Jedi Master Film Handler

Posts: 547
From: Coatesville, PA, USA
Registered: Jan 2008

- posted 11-03-2008 03:26 PM      Profile for Joe Tommassello   Email Joe Tommassello       Edit/Delete Post 
Yeah those Criterion LDs got pretty pricey. I bought the first two releases...King Kong and Citizen Kane. I think they were $89 each and you could only get them directly from Criterion so there was no discounting initially. They were fantastic though. I wish I had saved the King Kong...the commentary by Ronald Haver was great. Maybe WB can license it for the Blu-ray version.

I am renting most titles these days from Netflix. I'll see some films in theaters, others on BR. If I liked it I will likely catch it again on cable. By the time it gets marked down or included in a special sale I'll know if I really want to buy it. I am a lot more likely to buy the "Once Upon A Time In The West" on BR than I am "Dark Knight".

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