HD DVD exclusives

[Lone_Gunmen]

Red Dragon is out on Blu in Australia, under Universal.

[vinnie97]

Arizona Dream and King Kong (1976) are out on Studio Canal on 6-17-09
Chevaliers Du Ciel, Les appears to be out in Germany as of May 8, 2008: http://www.e-m-s.de/dvd.php?name=116573

[bruceames]

Got it, thanks..

[vinnie97]

sure...just in case you overlooked my domestic comment a few posts above:

"Friendly reminder: Spy Game's out, Inside Man's delayed 'til 6/2"

[bruceames]

Missed that, got it now.

[vinnie97]

Wow, still 245 titles with no Blu-ray release dates. Talk about a trickle. I wonder if they'd be coming more expediently if it wasn't for the economic downturn.

[bruceames]

Originally Posted by vinnie97

Wow, still 245 titles with no Blu-ray release dates. Talk about a trickle. I wonder if they'd be coming more expediently if it wasn't for the economic downturn.

Could be, it sure isn't helping, although Blu-ray seems to be doing fine, according to the analyzing folks in the Nielson thread. However catalog sales may be disappointing so far for the studios.

A lot of people expected Universal and WB to release all their HD DVD exclusives within a year or two years at the most, but I never felt Universal (in particular) would give any priority to releasing an HD DVD exclusive on Blu-ray just because it's exclusive to HD DVD. I think they are 100% commited to focusing solely on timing and profits rather than the wants of a selected few. After all, it's business, and besides there's a lot of good candidates in their vaults that warrant equal consideration for future release.

The main problem is catalog release volume. The studios just aren't releasing nearly the quantity of catalog titles that DVD did/does. Maybe 15% as much, so that will leave a lot of people clamoring for this and that. Even as much as DVD put out, they are only just getting around to African Queen, for example.

[vinnie97]

All logical points...and maybe for those HD DVDs that felt more like they were released to meet a quota as established by the PRG/Toshiba, Universal is less likely to just port them over until doing a more thorough cleanup of the source material.

[bruceames]

Usually that would include grain/detail removal, but I guess most people prefer it that way. I'm not one of them.

Maybe Universal had a quota, but they were the only studio really to release the broadest selection of movies and not just cater primarily to young males. If I recall correctly, they had the highest or nearly the highest average IMDB score for all HDM studios back late in 2007 (according to the HD DVD and Blu-ray statistics websites)

Another point is that Universal has already "caught up" on nearly all the popular or action movies that were released on HD DVD. The pickings get increasingly slim (they want to focus more on the action fare or movies with lots of special effects, since it brings out the best in HD) and eventually you get down to "Evening", "The Jerk", or one of the lesser known chick flicks. So unless Universal seriously steps up their overall BD catalog release pace, the catch up pace will be slowing down over time. Let's see what happens in the second half of this year, since perhaps the slowdown is partly attributable to comparing seasonal fluctuations.

[Nut Bunnies]

There is something to point out in that not every HD-DVD "exclusive" should be rereleased on Blu. I don't think anyone was clamoring for The War or Mobsters.

[MondayC]

Originally Posted by Nut Bunnies

There is something to point out in that not every HD-DVD "exclusive" should be rereleased on Blu. I don't think anyone was clamoring for The War or Mobsters.

On maybe 1/4th the Universal titles remaining, I won't even pay $5 for the , much less $15-20 for the .

[bruceames]

Originally Posted by Nut Bunnies

There is something to point out in that not every HD-DVD "exclusive" should be rereleased on Blu. I don't think anyone was clamoring for The War or Mobsters.

I think Universal was choosing titles HD DVD based on what they'd choose for a developed format like DVD. A lot of those movies just aren't ready for a format with a 10% marketshare, much less the tiny 0.5-1.0% HD DVD had. Early adopters tend to want action movies (although they'll want a sprinkling of wifey stuff for obvious reasons ), so if all these eventually come to Blu-ray, it probably won't be for many years, when enough people own the format that wants to see them in HD.