[78-L] Video Formatting issues on the Feinstein DVD -

[Jeff Sultanof]

Mike,

Having just purchased an HD set and Blu-ray player that can also play SACD
and DVD-Audio, I agree wholeheartedly with your appraisal of the home video
market. I would like to add one thing: there is no question that if a
Blu-ray version of a program is available, I would buy it over the DVD, but
I've been quite surprised as to how well standard DVDs look played back over
my system. They look fabulous, so I can live with a DVD release if the
distributor did not want to spring for Blu-ray.

But there were quite a few DVD buyers who did spring for the widescreen TVs
and surround systems before Blu-ray was a reality. I was one of them. But
yes, the likelihood of a DVD buyer springing for these things now is pretty
slim. They'd be looking at Blu-ray and/or 3D.

Jeff Sultanof

On Wed, Oct 27, 2010 at 1:34 PM, Michael Biel <mbiel at mbiel.com> wrote:

> From: Steve Ramm <steveramm78l at hotmail.com>
> > Thanks for your comments Sammy. I guess what my concern was - and is - is
> > that the AVERAGE consumer with a standard TV - over 10 years old will but
> > the DVD and have problems. Trust me, Amazon or PBS Home Video are not
> going
> > to explain how to adjust the DVD player. And the buy is stuck with it.
> > PBS puts out hundreds of DVDs like this. So does Warners. And NONE have
> this
> > issue. So I was trying to help the company making them. It is NOT PBS
> Home
> > Video but Hudson East.
>
> This was exactly my point.  The idea that DVD buyers were the ones who
> had invested in new wide screen home theater set ups with surround sound
> was ludercris and ignorant.  It is the Blu-Ray buyers who MIGHT have.
> The DVD buyers are the ones who have been "left behind".  The DVD is the
> BUDGET item, now that no VHS cassettes have been made for five years.
> The AVERAGE customer buys DVDs.  Some would still buy VHS if they could.
>  The premium customer she described will buy Blu-Ray if it is available,
> and will condescend to DVDs if there is no Blu-Ray.
>
> Now my TV sets are not as ancient as is Steve's, but most are high
> quality 4x3 cathode ray sets around and less than ten years old. I have
> only one 16x9 flat screen set, a small 19-inch which is my secondary
> monitor sitting on top of my main monitor.  I use it for comparisons
> like I would for the discs in question, and for my second recorder when
> I am recording two things at once.  (I bought it because my earlier
> small set went POOF!)  But the set it is sitting on is a high quality
> 35-inch cathode ray 4x3 set, and so is Leah's.  My other two sets in my
> kitchen and video storage room are high quality 25-inch 4x3 cathode ray
> sets, and Leah's secondary set is still a 13-inch cathode ray 4x3 until
> it goes up in smoke like her prior one also did.  My computer monitor
> and Leah's two computer monitors are flat screen 16x9 because our
> computers are also newer.  We replace hardware only when we have to, and
> in this regard I don't think we are that unusual.
>
> Our investment has been in software. We each have well over a thousand
> DVDs each and thousands of videocassettes.  We have a few Blu-Rays and
> examples of the short-lived HD-DVD.  We also have many players and
> recorders, partially because we use them a lot and we need to make sure
> we have things that can play our recordings.  But our monitors only get
> replaced and upgraded when necessary.
>
> > THAT said, the Producer/Director (it is a SHE) is sending me a Press
> screener
> > that should work. She said that if it does and buyers get the commercial
> version
> > and it doesn't play, the company will replace Disc One with a press
> screener.
> > I should have my copy in next 2 days and will let you know.
>
> I am ASTONISHED that they sent REVIEWERS letterboxed discs when they
> decided that the sale discs would be anamorphic!  Actually, I DO like
> anamorphic discs better, but I do know how to handle and view them.  But
> do they have data that shows that REVIEWERS have not updated their
> equipment to a LESSER degree than their regular customers?????????  I
> would think that professional reviewers would be the first to upgrade.
>
> > Again, I was looking at this from the point of the normal nostalgia
> consumer
> > (not a teckie) who the program is aimed at.   Steve Ramm
>
> Again, I want to emphasize that I was VERY ENTHUSIASTIC in my original
> postings about this series that they windowboxed all the old 3x4 film
> and TV clips. (Steve, please tell them that.)  I have been disgusted
> with the usual PBS technique of cropping off the tops and bottoms of all
> old 3x4 images because of a misguided phobia  their programs MUST be
> totally widescreen and never have black bars at the sides.  The
> Vaudville and Broadway documentaries were RUINED by this, as have all
> the recent Burns series.  Luckily the original Feinstein series in 2003
> was prior to the PBS widescreen requirement even if inappropriate, and I
> praise very highly this current Feinstein series for being brave enough
> to buck the PBS phobia against blank side edges within their programs.
> Maybe other producers will now be brave -- or understand what the
> problem is.  Too bad the people responsible for the DVD didn't follow
> thru because they don't seem to understand their market.
>
> (By the way, the Europeans reading this must think we are crazy.  They
> switched over to 16x9 sets LONG before we did in the U.S. and have a
> system of automatic processing that will provide the proper shaped and
> sized picture every time.  Our system in the U.S. is totally screwed up,
> but they had solved the problems in Europe even before the first 16x9
> sets hit the U.S. stores.  The Europeans even had a system 25 years ago
> that could automatically start and stop your timer videorecorder at the
> proper times even if there is a last minute scheduling change in the
> broadcast!)
>
> Mike Biel  mbiel at mbiel.com
>
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