Fox announces Blu-ray titles.

http://www.bit-tech.net/news/2005/08/04/fox_blu_ray/

Fox announces Blu-ray titles

Some of the Fox films to be available on Blu-ray. Will the upgrade to
HD be worth the replacement cost?
Some of the Fox films to be available on Blu-ray. Will the upgrade to
HD be worth the replacement cost?

Twentieth Century Fox have pledged support for the Blu-Ray format, one
of two High Definition replacements for existing DVD Video. The news
will be warmly received by group of hardware manufacturers who formed
the standard, who include such industry heavyweights as Sony, Toshiba,
Dell, Philips Electronics, Samsung Electronics and Matsushita
Electric, maker of Panasonic products.

To receive support from a major studio like Fox is especially good for
Sony, who's PlayStation 3 console also uses the format, which can
store 25GB on a single layer and 50GB on dual-layer discs. Blu-ray's
rival, HD DVD, can hold a maximum of 30GB on a dual-layered disc;
conventional DVDs have a maximum dual-layered capacity of 9GB.

Fox have an expansive back-catalogue of feature films and television
series to draw from, encompassing a wide range of genres and subject
matter. The press release specifically listed the following titles as
examples:

Feature Films

* Alien I-IV
* Die Hard Trilogy
* X-Men I & II
* I, Robot
* There's Something About Mary
* Moulin Rouge
* Sound of Music

Of course, buying the boxset of your favourite TV shows is
increasingly popular these days, and Fox make some of the most popular
shows around. The following series will be released for Blu-ray:

* The Simpsons
* Family Guy
* 24
* The X-Files
* M*A*S*H

....and more will be announced in due course.

"Blu-ray is a superior high definition technology that is a full step
forward in the evolution of consumer packaged media," said Mike Dunn,
President Worldwide, Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment, "For
consumers, the release of our films on Blu-ray will provide in-home
entertainment beyond anything they have imagined. On the business
side, the advanced functionality, picture quality and data capacity at
a competitive manufacturing cost along with ‘room for growth’ as new
consumer usage options are developed, fully realizes the promise of a
next generation format and represents the future of home
entertainment."

Naturally, you will need an HD-ready TV to watch your new Blu-ray
films on, which currently means splashing out for an expensive Plasma
or LCD TV. One key element for the success of the existing DVD format
was that it delivered clearer pictures than VHS video, as well as the
obvious extra benefits of 5.1 surround sound, multiple audio channels
etc using your existing TV set.

No one would dispute that High Definition is the way to go. Indeed,
regular digital TV broadcasts in many countries are already available
in HD. However, the take up of stand-alone Blu-ray / HD DVD players,
and to a lesser extent Xbox 360 / PlayStation 3, is going to be
hampered by the fact that most people will have to invest many
hundreds or even thousands of pounds on a HD display on top of the
cost of these players / consoles.






"Arguing with anonymous strangers on the Internet is a sucker's game
because they almost always turn out to be -- or to be indistinguishable from
-- self-righteous sixteen-year-olds possessing infinite amounts of free time."
- Neil Stephenson, _Cryptonomicon_

 

How soon we forget Fox's bull-headed behavior just 7 years ago, when DVD
has just won the battle with the proprietary DIVX format, and Fox dragged
their heels until DVD reached critical mass.

Now ... they're pledging support for a format that has NO user base yet.


Wall Street Journal - September 1998

DVDs Catch On (but Don't Junk the VCR Yet)

By Bruce Orwall - Staff Reporter of The Wall Street Journal

[snip]

At Twentieth Century Fox, Patricia Wyatt, consumer-products president, says
that studio announced its entry into DVD last month because the format
appeared to be reaching a "critical mass." But Fox is being very cautious,
not wanting to drain business from videocassettes. "I think we need to look
carefully at the dynamic between the two formats," Ms. Wyatt says.

 

Fox hasn't "announced" any of these titles for BluRay. These are just
random examples of popular titles in their catalog that *could* be
released on BluRay, maybe, possibly, eventually.

 

They haven't even established the final design parameters for the discs and
players.

 

What I can't figure out is where these discs are going to be manufactured.
Who has invested in the new plants required? When will they be completed?

 

You have to wonder about who writes these articles. Are they not aware
that there are direct view CRT HD TVs and a slew of rear projection TV
technologies - CRT, DLP, LCD, LCOS - all of which can display HD? How
does this get past the editor or fact checker?

As for the older TV titles, unless they spend considerable $
remastering old TV shows - and only those that were shot and edited in
35 mm & where good quality 35 mm copies exist are candidates - the only
benefit in going to HD disks is squeezing an entire season on 1 or 2
disk. The only TV titles on HD-DVDs or BDs that I would spend a penny
more on are newer shows shot in HD. For the older TV shows, unless you
really want to get the entire season on 1 disk, why get a BD version?

Alan F

 

I think it's a reasonable guess to think that Fox, in pleding support
for BluRay, would try to release many of its cornerstone items in
prestige packaging to try to convince users to adopt BluRay.

In fact, I'd be surprised if a huge array of TV titles from Fox weren't
among the first to be launched, perhaps even at loss-leader pricing.
Imagine XFILES Complete series $99.95 or SIMPSONS Seasons 1-6 In
Special Homer Simpson Head $49.95 or FUTURAMA Complete Series $49.95.
That would make me buy a BR player right then and there.

-goro-

 

facts have no place in newgroups