I dont see why Bluray is considered doomed ? It is a fantastic format, crystal clear, and gives me the chance to really feel like being in a movie theater - especially when watching classic movies that I never had the chance to see in such conditions.
The thing is, Blu-Ray isn't anything special, it's just a higher density storage medium than a DVD as DVD was to the CD. It doesn't make the picture more crisp or the sound more visceral, it just has more space for those higher detail media files that have the higher quality. It's the software that matters. The codec provides the excellent fidelity per byte that you think is so fantastic. That same video can be stored on a hard disk, a holographic cube, or a clay tablet for that matter (it'd be enormous, but possible). The disc is just a gimmick to get you to buy in to the technology. They're trying to convince you the disc makes the pretty picture, but it's just storage for digital data. We all know digital data is the same regardless of the medium it's stored on. Back when video was stored in analog format (film and magnetic tape), the medium it was stored on mattered But it's digital now, one is as good as the other.
Blu-Ray is doomed because it's irrelevant, expensive, and unnecessary. Movies are a form of communication and shipping tons of plastic discs across the country by truck to be purchased from a store shelf is about as backwards as the Pony Express is compared to email.
Haha sure yeah so go ahead and tell me where I can get a my copy of District9 in full quality other than getting the BRD ? It might not be an awesome, ultimate tech-dream solution of the future, but that's the only one I have access to, therefore I am not going to NOT enjoy my favorite movies in their best possible rendition just because in theory I could actually copy them to a few hundred thousands floppy discs ...
I don't care a single second about the "sheep customer" not knowing that it's all about the authoring and compression algorithms (widely different from one distributor to the next btw). As a matter of fact, I am, myself, very happy to not have to worry about it. Some battles are not worth fighting. A better solution might come, and I might happily embrace it, but in the current state of things, I am, again, happy to be able to purchase my movies stored on that one storage media, and happy to enjoy movie theater playback quality for the first time in my life!
A better, maybe open source solution might come, new distribution models too - but thats the future, not the present...
Haha sure yeah so go ahead and tell me where I can get a my copy of District9 in full quality other than getting the BRD ? It might not be an awesome, ultimate tech-dream solution of the future, but that's the only one I have access to, therefore I am not going to NOT enjoy my favorite movies in their best possible rendition just because in theory I could actually copy them to a few hundred thousands floppy discs ...
I don't care a single second about the "sheep customer" not knowing that it's all about the authoring and compression algorithms (widely different from one distributor to the next btw). As a matter of fact, I am, myself, very happy to not have to worry about it. Some battles are not worth fighting. A better solution might come, and I might happily embrace it, but in the current state of things, I am, again, happy to be able to purchase my movies stored on that one storage media, and happy to enjoy movie theater playback quality for the first time in my life!
A better, maybe open source solution might come, new distribution models too - but thats the future, not the present...
Blu-Ray just uses MPEG with some proprietary bits added on. It's not like BR holds a monopoly on 1080p video. Any MPEG video of the same resolution would be identical. Lossless compression will have even better fidelity than any lossy compressed BR video, so it's not that BR is the ultimate in movie quality.
Add to that the DRM it comes with is just another nail in the coffin. It's inefficient, it's unreliable (validation errors, firmware, etc.), it's not very portable between devices (only BR players can use it), it's not the best format out there, and people's movie viewing habits have changed so much that many have moved on from dealing with physical discs for watching movies at home. It's costly to invest in a BR player and the media. With the simple addition of H.264, WMV, MPEG4, or DivX codecs, your existing PC can displace the cost of that hardware. The paradigm is changing and BR discs are not part of it. Let's not forget there are much more portable and universally compatible (and even lossless) codecs out there. The BR disc is a hold-over from 20th century business models for media distribution that's floundering in its effort to remain relevant in a broadband connected, digital economy. There's just no truly compelling reason to invest in Blu-Ray as a customer unless you already own a PS3.
But I think you are missing the point - as a user, today, in 2011, there is only one way for me to easily acquire the high quality content that I am looking for, and that's getting it on a BRD. Like you stated it yourself, we all know that it is only a storage form.
Yet, as a movie lover, why would I *not* invest in a BR player ? it might be dead and abandoned in the coming 5 years, but thats not a reason to cut oneself out of quality art pieces in the meantime. It's important to enjoy the present, while still of course keeping an open eye on the future.
To go back to the StarWars point : it's a shame that Lucas is not embracing that as an easy way to release his movies in a simple, clusterfuck free format. It's mindblowing to think that I can walk in a store and get a pristine copy of 2011, but still there's no way to easily get a clean copy of the original theatrical release of the first trilogy. I very "first world" kind of problem, that's for sure
Enough so that I changed jobs to stop working on a Star Wars game.
In high school, my friend bought me a Star Wars book for our Christmas gift exchange.
Not being a huge fan of Star Wars, I threw the book aside, and never read it.
When I went to Art School, my cousin clued in that I was studying animation, and saw that I had a Star Wars book, so trying to be thoughtful he got me a copy of the original VHS tapes.
That Christmas a few friends saw I had an UNOPENED copy of the original unmastered VHS tapes, and so they pitched in together and got me a NEW copy of the remastered THX VHS tapes, a couple of toy light sabers, and a bobo fett figurine.
Then the following birthday my friends saw that the 'Special Editiion' came out, and so they pooled their money together to get me that, so I could have the original VHS tapes, the remastered THQ tapes to go with it completely unopened..
At Christmas, my family saw that I had 3 copies of the triology, a book, a couple toys, and a light saber, and went ahead and got me a couple more books, a poster, and some other random paraphanelia (toys, prints, magazines etc). They also felt I could use the special edition VHS widescreen collection, and so Star Wars took up my entire top shelf.
Then the following year, I had so much star wars crap laying around my apartment, everyone just ASSUMED I was this massive star wars fan, and started picking me up random stuff as it came out, and sending me newsletter emails, comic books, stickers, and anything star wars related.
When I finally was given the DVDs, I broke the news that I wasnt a big SW fan, and it came as a MASSIVE shock to just about everyone. I never purchased a SW thing yet owned nearly a hundred pieces of SW crap.
In high school, my friend bought me a Star Wars book for our Christmas gift exchange.
Not being a huge fan of Star Wars, I threw the book aside, and never read it.
When I went to Art School, my cousin clued in that I was studying animation, and saw that I had a Star Wars book, so trying to be thoughtful he got me a copy of the original VHS tapes.
That Christmas a few friends saw I had an UNOPENED copy of the original unmastered VHS tapes, and so they pitched in together and got me a NEW copy of the remastered THX VHS tapes, a couple of toy light sabers, and a bobo fett figurine.
Then the following birthday my friends saw that the 'Special Editiion' came out, and so they pooled their money together to get me that, so I could have the original VHS tapes, the remastered THQ tapes to go with it completely unopened..
At Christmas, my family saw that I had 3 copies of the triology, a book, a couple toys, and a light saber, and went ahead and got me a couple more books, a poster, and some other random paraphanelia (toys, prints, magazines etc). They also felt I could use the special edition VHS widescreen collection, and so Star Wars took up my entire top shelf.
Then the following year, I had so much star wars crap laying around my apartment, everyone just ASSUMED I was this massive star wars fan, and started picking me up random stuff as it came out, and sending me newsletter emails, comic books, stickers, and anything star wars related.
When I finally was given the DVDs, I broke the news that I wasnt a big SW fan, and it came as a MASSIVE shock to just about everyone. I never purchased a SW thing yet owned nearly a hundred pieces of SW crap.
But I think you are missing the point - as a user, today, in 2011, there is only one way for me to easily acquire the high quality content that I am looking for, and that's getting it on a BRD. Like you stated it yourself, we all know that it is only a storage form.
Yet, as a movie lover, why would I *not* invest in a BR player ? it might be dead and abandoned in the coming 5 years, but thats not a reason to cut oneself out of quality art pieces in the meantime. It's important to enjoy the present, while still of course keeping an open eye on the future.
To go back to the StarWars point : it's a shame that Lucas is not embracing that as an easy way to release his movies in a simple, clusterfuck free format. It's mindblowing to think that I can walk in a store and get a pristine copy of 2011, but still there's no way to easily get a clean copy of the original theatrical release of the first trilogy. I very "first world" kind of problem, that's for sure
I'm sorry, but that's not true. It's a misconception that the media industry is glad you hold. There are a multitude of options too numerous to mention to attain HD copies of your favorite movies, you don't need BR. And it's for that reason that you shouldn't invest in expensive hardware when the media exists in other formats that are more upwardly compatible. When BR is obsolete, those files will still be playable on newer hardware or at least convertible to a newer format. Even if BR is the only way to get it, why would you just roll over and let them dictate to you how you will access, store, and enjoy your media? If they want your money, they should be bending over backwards trying to create options that adds value to that media, not burden it with limitations so they can milk you for more money or break your ability to view it at all (firmware DRM for example?).
I happen to love Star Wars, but I will not buy the BR player needed and this pathetic joke of a new edition of it because I know I can get movies I truly appreciate from other channels that are not tied down to a physical format that is already obsolete. I'm sorry that what I say grates against the cognitive dissonance that forced you to rationalize your choice (it's merely human psychology that we are all burdened with, it's nothing against you personally), but BR is simply not a technology that fits the changing trend of media usage.
Hehe I wont go into the argument any further because thats just getting pointless
However, if you can cite me a reliable way of getting, again, District 9 in 1080p format with the same kind of practicality and reliability that I get from ordering it on physical media with one day shipping through amazon or crossing the street to get it from the mall, then please let me know because I am interested!
If not, then I am happy to keep going with the times, give my virtual money to evil distribution corporations and "force myself to rationalize my choice" (you don't really have to be condescendant like that, btw. Just saying). Different people have different priorities, and things in practice are not as black and white as they seem to be.
In high school, my friend bought me a Star Wars book for our Christmas gift exchange.
Not being a huge fan of Star Wars, I threw the book aside, and never read it.
When I went to Art School, my cousin clued in that I was studying animation, and saw that I had a Star Wars book, so trying to be thoughtful he got me a copy of the original VHS tapes.
That Christmas a few friends saw I had an UNOPENED copy of the original unmastered VHS tapes, and so they pitched in together and got me a NEW copy of the remastered THX VHS tapes, a couple of toy light sabers, and a bobo fett figurine.
Then the following birthday my friends saw that the 'Special Editiion' came out, and so they pooled their money together to get me that, so I could have the original VHS tapes, the remastered THQ tapes to go with it completely unopened..
At Christmas, my family saw that I had 3 copies of the triology, a book, a couple toys, and a light saber, and went ahead and got me a couple more books, a poster, and some other random paraphanelia (toys, prints, magazines etc). They also felt I could use the special edition VHS widescreen collection, and so Star Wars took up my entire top shelf.
Then the following year, I had so much star wars crap laying around my apartment, everyone just ASSUMED I was this massive star wars fan, and started picking me up random stuff as it came out, and sending me newsletter emails, comic books, stickers, and anything star wars related.
When I finally was given the DVDs, I broke the news that I wasnt a big SW fan, and it came as a MASSIVE shock to just about everyone. I never purchased a SW thing yet owned nearly a hundred pieces of SW crap.
Never open anything and never throw anything out.
This shit will be worth a fortune one day :poly142:
Hey, I bought a 360 HD-DVD add on, I think I can say if something is "worthless" or not... Actually no thats no fair, because I can go into town, and pick up five HD-DVD films for a fiver. I can't even do that with DVD's 99% of the time...
In my eyes, I love the BluRay "idea". I just think we wasn't "QUITE" ready for the jump. My BluRay player is like many, my PS3, but holy shit does it take the whole DVD experience and slow it down. Films take an AGE to load, plus I have a million and one adverts, warning and the like before the film. Sure the picture is crisp, MOST OF THE TIME, but there isn't a set standard. I can buy one film and have it be pixel sharp, like for examalple the new Bond films, STUNNING. But then I can buy another and... Well its like a DVD upscaled...? Why bother?
As for the content vs disk etc debate I have to say, I'm ready to move away from physical media. I've been doing it for years with PC. But the idea of spending time downloading a huge BluRay doesn't really appeal to me yet. Mostly becuase I only have 30meg Broadband, and I don't want to take so long downloading a 2 hour film I'll likely only watch once. In the UK, Broadband is getting better, but nowhere near the speeds we need to get this stuff done right. What we really need is a movie service that lets us buy our 1080p titles online but then keeps them there and lets us stream them any time we want, but with no BS compression issues. I dunno if Netflix and the like does this, never used it, but for movies I see that the way to go...
Anything that just gets rid of slow ass disks has my vote. Hell, I hope the next gen consoles come on some form of USB style stick or memory card... Those go up to 64gig and have fantastic read speeds compared to disks.
This shit will be worth a fortune one day :poly142:
So true. When I was about 8/9 years old and our local woolworths was closing down and selling everything off really cheaply and this included big bags of StarWars figures (about 15 figures for a couple pounds) so me and my brother picked up loads of bags (about 200 figures total) now we played with them but allot were doubles as you can imagine so we kept them in the packages and stored them away... so glad we did.
I sold them recently, almost two grand later I'm glad I kept them in mint condition unopened.
I also have allot of original stuff left over that I am keeping (allot of it boxed and still allot of it unopened), including original VHS videos we had.
On topic a bit more ... I found THIS very, very good article ...(hint : it's about Lucas saying that people shouldn't alter the original films because they are part of the publics cultural heritage and they shouldn't be altered).
I prefer physical copies to things, but until I have my own means of transportation digital distribution is my preferred choice. For me it's a matter of convenience. If I can get somewhere to buy a physical copy, I will do that, and prefer it everytime.
Pior: Greevar won't come out and say it, his alternative to buying the Bluray is piracy.
BZZZZZ! Wrong! iTunes, Zune, etc., offer HD quality movies for purchase. There are plenty of legal ways to get HD movies while avoiding BR. If I was talking about piracy I would have just came out and said it. But since you mentioned it, that is a possibility. If you want to legitimize it, go buy the BR and then download it in WMV, MPEG4, Xvid, or X.264 format so you can watch it when your BR player DRM decides you are a criminal and refuses to function or just to be able to view it on your laptop without buying a separate BR drive for it.
nice to see you going against your ideals just to zing me.
to clarify: Why are you suddently pro paying for digital content that also has DRM on it. In the past you've been against any sort of profit making off of content - saying somehow there's going to be a future where all content is free and someone will figure out a way to pay content producers.
What about 5.1/7.1 sound? Closed captions? Alternate audio tracks (languages)? Video artifacts? Bandwidth usage?
Lol, media war fight. Also keep in mind that not everyone is super broadband bound for net-streaming an HD movie. You certainly can't pull this streaming digital HD movie preaching onto Australia for example.
BZZZZZ! Wrong! iTunes, Zune, etc., offer HD quality movies for purchase. There are plenty of legal ways to get HD movies while avoiding BR.
Upthread, I mentioned watching LOTR on Blu-Ray. As far as I know, this is the only format in which I can watch the trilogy in HD. I know it's not available on Netflix or iTunes. Do you know of any legit way I can get HD extended editions without blu-ray? If there's a legal alternate method, I haven't found it.
Upthread, I mentioned watching LOTR on Blu-Ray. As far as I know, this is the only format in which I can watch the trilogy in HD. I know it's not available on Netflix or iTunes. Do you know of any legit way I can get HD extended editions without blu-ray? If there's a legal alternate method, I haven't found it.
Well, I can't seem to find the fellowship of the ring in HD, but Zune has the other two in HD.
Spirited Away was a flawless dub. Oversaw by Mr. Lasseter himself.
Totoro was pretty good, so was Porco Rosso.
Only a few casting choices here n there annoy me. Namely Gillian Anderson as the Wolf God and Claire Danes as Princess Mononoke. The rest are pretty good.
So I just rewatched The Phantom Menace today, good god does that film not hold up at all. Even as a kid I recognized what I was experiencing was a toilet perpetually flushing itself. Its funny how the original trilogy looks miles better than the movies that came out twenty years later. It reminds me of how most SNES games look better than most PS1 or N64 games.
So I just rewatched The Phantom Menace today, good god does that film not hold up at all. Even as a kid I recognized what I was experiencing was a toilet perpetually flushing itself. Its funny how the original trilogy looks miles better than the movies that came out twenty years later. It reminds me of how most SNES games look better than most PS1 or N64 games.
and yet, my middle kid and his friends all think the prequal trilogy and anything attached to it is quite literally the nuts.
they actively hate the original trilogy and have been known to ask "are they going to remake them?"
I think Episode I is the best of the prequels... it still feels like a Star Wars film for one. And Darth Maul is cool. The other two prequels are just slaps in the face.
@almighty_gir: I'm pretty sure Lucas has considered remaking the OT
I can relate to how your kid and his friends feel though. When I watched the prequels I didn't feel any nostalgia or connection to the OT at all, it just felt like a different universe altogether.
Has anyone seen the Ewok movies? To me those movies feel more like star wars than any of the prequels; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-1Kwtd1yjUs#t=0m47s
Lucas takes a huge backlash every time he fucks with these movies. I can't fathom why he keeps fucking with things. Lucas, if you hate the originals so much, then remake them. I would find that way more acceptable than screwing up the originals. Why can't we just get one high quality release of the original films, on blu-ray?
nostalgia make everything old seem new or fantastic. I think that's why people didn't really like the prequels. If the prequels were made in the same fashion as the originals then everyone would be complaining about the lack of quality in the new movies. And does no one find it weird that the movies started with chapter 4 and not 1. If 1-3 were made first and 4-6 later, then everyone would be yelling at Lucas say, "why did you make 4-6" or something like that.
What I'm say is, stop bitching and just watch the originals if they're so important to you. Just like I don't intend to buy the blu-ray versions of the Studio Ghibli movies unless they have the original audio for jap and eng.
How do you plan to watch the originals? I don't think he's released them without tweaking shit. I have the VHS versions, and I think they had changes too.
How do you plan to watch the originals? I don't think he's released them without tweaking shit. I have the VHS versions, and I think they had changes too.
VHS came out as the original theatrical releases and the modified special edition or what not.
I am pretty sure that kids hating the original trilogy are just saying that because their friends and friends of friends say the same, and because they have not developed their critical sense yet. Phantom Menace is somehow watchable, but the other two are genuinely bad movies - and that is regardless of the nostalgia factor. Bad acting, bad pacing, a very weird tone going from slapstick to gore from one scene to the next... really bad stuff...
How do you plan to watch the originals? I don't think he's released them without tweaking shit. I have the VHS versions, and I think they had changes too.
VHS came out as the original theatrical releases and the modified special edition or what not.
i've had at least 3 different versions of Star Wars on VHS since the 80s and they've all had different soundtracks. Aunt Beru having a totally different voice, dialogue changes ("it's secure"/"the doors locked"), SFX changes, and so on.
i think it's ace that the films are still a living thing after nearly 35 years
I actually tried to re-watch the prequels the other day. I remember them to be ok films, but now that I'm older... Jesus. Soo bad, I imagine these were made specifically for the children that were raised on Power Rangers, Digimon and such. Stupid gimmicks to attract attention, crap storytelling, laughable vfx.
Atm, I really feel like lucas is trying to move it towards the prequels, and that makes me sad.
Fixing something because it wasn't do-able at the time is cool. Changing something like dialogue, voices and such, that's just messing with a finished product. I'm sure they could have thrown in the "Noooooo!!" back in the 70's, but they didn't, because it would have been stupid.
I don't think the vfx in the prequels are bad at all, some shots are in fact amazing. However they've made the mistake of using it too much, entire worlds are made by cg + real actors. This, along with a lot of other things that's wrong with this trilogy, is of course a mistake made by the people in charge and not the vfx people, actors or whatever.
Replies
The thing is, Blu-Ray isn't anything special, it's just a higher density storage medium than a DVD as DVD was to the CD. It doesn't make the picture more crisp or the sound more visceral, it just has more space for those higher detail media files that have the higher quality. It's the software that matters. The codec provides the excellent fidelity per byte that you think is so fantastic. That same video can be stored on a hard disk, a holographic cube, or a clay tablet for that matter (it'd be enormous, but possible). The disc is just a gimmick to get you to buy in to the technology. They're trying to convince you the disc makes the pretty picture, but it's just storage for digital data. We all know digital data is the same regardless of the medium it's stored on. Back when video was stored in analog format (film and magnetic tape), the medium it was stored on mattered But it's digital now, one is as good as the other.
Blu-Ray is doomed because it's irrelevant, expensive, and unnecessary. Movies are a form of communication and shipping tons of plastic discs across the country by truck to be purchased from a store shelf is about as backwards as the Pony Express is compared to email.
I don't care a single second about the "sheep customer" not knowing that it's all about the authoring and compression algorithms (widely different from one distributor to the next btw). As a matter of fact, I am, myself, very happy to not have to worry about it. Some battles are not worth fighting. A better solution might come, and I might happily embrace it, but in the current state of things, I am, again, happy to be able to purchase my movies stored on that one storage media, and happy to enjoy movie theater playback quality for the first time in my life!
A better, maybe open source solution might come, new distribution models too - but thats the future, not the present...
It's already here. There are a multitude of file formats that look and sound just as good as what Blu-Ray provides. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Video_codec
Blu-Ray just uses MPEG with some proprietary bits added on. It's not like BR holds a monopoly on 1080p video. Any MPEG video of the same resolution would be identical. Lossless compression will have even better fidelity than any lossy compressed BR video, so it's not that BR is the ultimate in movie quality.
Add to that the DRM it comes with is just another nail in the coffin. It's inefficient, it's unreliable (validation errors, firmware, etc.), it's not very portable between devices (only BR players can use it), it's not the best format out there, and people's movie viewing habits have changed so much that many have moved on from dealing with physical discs for watching movies at home. It's costly to invest in a BR player and the media. With the simple addition of H.264, WMV, MPEG4, or DivX codecs, your existing PC can displace the cost of that hardware. The paradigm is changing and BR discs are not part of it. Let's not forget there are much more portable and universally compatible (and even lossless) codecs out there. The BR disc is a hold-over from 20th century business models for media distribution that's floundering in its effort to remain relevant in a broadband connected, digital economy. There's just no truly compelling reason to invest in Blu-Ray as a customer unless you already own a PS3.
Yet, as a movie lover, why would I *not* invest in a BR player ? it might be dead and abandoned in the coming 5 years, but thats not a reason to cut oneself out of quality art pieces in the meantime. It's important to enjoy the present, while still of course keeping an open eye on the future.
To go back to the StarWars point : it's a shame that Lucas is not embracing that as an easy way to release his movies in a simple, clusterfuck free format. It's mindblowing to think that I can walk in a store and get a pristine copy of 2011, but still there's no way to easily get a clean copy of the original theatrical release of the first trilogy. I very "first world" kind of problem, that's for sure
In high school, my friend bought me a Star Wars book for our Christmas gift exchange.
Not being a huge fan of Star Wars, I threw the book aside, and never read it.
When I went to Art School, my cousin clued in that I was studying animation, and saw that I had a Star Wars book, so trying to be thoughtful he got me a copy of the original VHS tapes.
That Christmas a few friends saw I had an UNOPENED copy of the original unmastered VHS tapes, and so they pitched in together and got me a NEW copy of the remastered THX VHS tapes, a couple of toy light sabers, and a bobo fett figurine.
Then the following birthday my friends saw that the 'Special Editiion' came out, and so they pooled their money together to get me that, so I could have the original VHS tapes, the remastered THQ tapes to go with it completely unopened..
At Christmas, my family saw that I had 3 copies of the triology, a book, a couple toys, and a light saber, and went ahead and got me a couple more books, a poster, and some other random paraphanelia (toys, prints, magazines etc). They also felt I could use the special edition VHS widescreen collection, and so Star Wars took up my entire top shelf.
Then the following year, I had so much star wars crap laying around my apartment, everyone just ASSUMED I was this massive star wars fan, and started picking me up random stuff as it came out, and sending me newsletter emails, comic books, stickers, and anything star wars related.
When I finally was given the DVDs, I broke the news that I wasnt a big SW fan, and it came as a MASSIVE shock to just about everyone. I never purchased a SW thing yet owned nearly a hundred pieces of SW crap.
I'm sorry, but that's not true. It's a misconception that the media industry is glad you hold. There are a multitude of options too numerous to mention to attain HD copies of your favorite movies, you don't need BR. And it's for that reason that you shouldn't invest in expensive hardware when the media exists in other formats that are more upwardly compatible. When BR is obsolete, those files will still be playable on newer hardware or at least convertible to a newer format. Even if BR is the only way to get it, why would you just roll over and let them dictate to you how you will access, store, and enjoy your media? If they want your money, they should be bending over backwards trying to create options that adds value to that media, not burden it with limitations so they can milk you for more money or break your ability to view it at all (firmware DRM for example?).
I happen to love Star Wars, but I will not buy the BR player needed and this pathetic joke of a new edition of it because I know I can get movies I truly appreciate from other channels that are not tied down to a physical format that is already obsolete. I'm sorry that what I say grates against the cognitive dissonance that forced you to rationalize your choice (it's merely human psychology that we are all burdened with, it's nothing against you personally), but BR is simply not a technology that fits the changing trend of media usage.
However, if you can cite me a reliable way of getting, again, District 9 in 1080p format with the same kind of practicality and reliability that I get from ordering it on physical media with one day shipping through amazon or crossing the street to get it from the mall, then please let me know because I am interested!
If not, then I am happy to keep going with the times, give my virtual money to evil distribution corporations and "force myself to rationalize my choice" (you don't really have to be condescendant like that, btw. Just saying). Different people have different priorities, and things in practice are not as black and white as they seem to be.
Never open anything and never throw anything out.
This shit will be worth a fortune one day :poly142:
Here, let me gif that for you:
In my eyes, I love the BluRay "idea". I just think we wasn't "QUITE" ready for the jump. My BluRay player is like many, my PS3, but holy shit does it take the whole DVD experience and slow it down. Films take an AGE to load, plus I have a million and one adverts, warning and the like before the film. Sure the picture is crisp, MOST OF THE TIME, but there isn't a set standard. I can buy one film and have it be pixel sharp, like for examalple the new Bond films, STUNNING. But then I can buy another and... Well its like a DVD upscaled...? Why bother?
As for the content vs disk etc debate I have to say, I'm ready to move away from physical media. I've been doing it for years with PC. But the idea of spending time downloading a huge BluRay doesn't really appeal to me yet. Mostly becuase I only have 30meg Broadband, and I don't want to take so long downloading a 2 hour film I'll likely only watch once. In the UK, Broadband is getting better, but nowhere near the speeds we need to get this stuff done right. What we really need is a movie service that lets us buy our 1080p titles online but then keeps them there and lets us stream them any time we want, but with no BS compression issues. I dunno if Netflix and the like does this, never used it, but for movies I see that the way to go...
Anything that just gets rid of slow ass disks has my vote. Hell, I hope the next gen consoles come on some form of USB style stick or memory card... Those go up to 64gig and have fantastic read speeds compared to disks.
Why is this community sometimes, more A.D.D than chipmunks?
lol i still love you guys, but god damn
So true. When I was about 8/9 years old and our local woolworths was closing down and selling everything off really cheaply and this included big bags of StarWars figures (about 15 figures for a couple pounds) so me and my brother picked up loads of bags (about 200 figures total) now we played with them but allot were doubles as you can imagine so we kept them in the packages and stored them away... so glad we did.
I sold them recently, almost two grand later I'm glad I kept them in mint condition unopened.
I also have allot of original stuff left over that I am keeping (allot of it boxed and still allot of it unopened), including original VHS videos we had.
On topic a bit more ... I found THIS very, very good article ...(hint : it's about Lucas saying that people shouldn't alter the original films because they are part of the publics cultural heritage and they shouldn't be altered).
BZZZZZ! Wrong! iTunes, Zune, etc., offer HD quality movies for purchase. There are plenty of legal ways to get HD movies while avoiding BR. If I was talking about piracy I would have just came out and said it. But since you mentioned it, that is a possibility. If you want to legitimize it, go buy the BR and then download it in WMV, MPEG4, Xvid, or X.264 format so you can watch it when your BR player DRM decides you are a criminal and refuses to function or just to be able to view it on your laptop without buying a separate BR drive for it.
to clarify: Why are you suddently pro paying for digital content that also has DRM on it. In the past you've been against any sort of profit making off of content - saying somehow there's going to be a future where all content is free and someone will figure out a way to pay content producers.
Lol, media war fight. Also keep in mind that not everyone is super broadband bound for net-streaming an HD movie. You certainly can't pull this streaming digital HD movie preaching onto Australia for example.
Also, that DRM fear excuse is stupid.
Upthread, I mentioned watching LOTR on Blu-Ray. As far as I know, this is the only format in which I can watch the trilogy in HD. I know it's not available on Netflix or iTunes. Do you know of any legit way I can get HD extended editions without blu-ray? If there's a legal alternate method, I haven't found it.
Well, I can't seem to find the fellowship of the ring in HD, but Zune has the other two in HD.
Distributed them in the west? On DVD? You'll have to be more specific.
hmm now i just need to get a vcr and find a way to digitize it.
Who on earth listens to the dubs? ;D
Totoro was pretty good, so was Porco Rosso.
Only a few casting choices here n there annoy me. Namely Gillian Anderson as the Wolf God and Claire Danes as Princess Mononoke. The rest are pretty good.
and yet, my middle kid and his friends all think the prequal trilogy and anything attached to it is quite literally the nuts.
they actively hate the original trilogy and have been known to ask "are they going to remake them?"
I can relate to how your kid and his friends feel though. When I watched the prequels I didn't feel any nostalgia or connection to the OT at all, it just felt like a different universe altogether.
Has anyone seen the Ewok movies? To me those movies feel more like star wars than any of the prequels;
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-1Kwtd1yjUs#t=0m47s
What I'm say is, stop bitching and just watch the originals if they're so important to you. Just like I don't intend to buy the blu-ray versions of the Studio Ghibli movies unless they have the original audio for jap and eng.
VHS came out as the original theatrical releases and the modified special edition or what not.
still crappy quality - until there's a Bluray version of the unmodified original the best version is the Laserdisc release.
i've had at least 3 different versions of Star Wars on VHS since the 80s and they've all had different soundtracks. Aunt Beru having a totally different voice, dialogue changes ("it's secure"/"the doors locked"), SFX changes, and so on.
i think it's ace that the films are still a living thing after nearly 35 years
edit - http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/List_of_changes_in_Star_Wars_re-releases
big list of changes well before the horrible special editions there. Nothing new. Stop yer moaning.
Atm, I really feel like lucas is trying to move it towards the prequels, and that makes me sad.
Fixing something because it wasn't do-able at the time is cool. Changing something like dialogue, voices and such, that's just messing with a finished product. I'm sure they could have thrown in the "Noooooo!!" back in the 70's, but they didn't, because it would have been stupid.