Fflewduur wrote:2099net wrote:I can't explain Disney's general lack of commitment to DVD at this time - they are, to use a popular phrase in HiDef forums "leaving money on the table" by not releasing and marketing their DVD more agressively.
If Disney are gambling on Blu-Ray, I think they're making a big mistake. Most Disney films ultimately end up being watched by children in their bedrooms. Are all children going to get a new HD TV set and Blu-Ray player in their bedrooms in the next few years? I think not. They'll still want DVD (or at a pinch combo discs similar to HD DVD's combos and twin format discs).
I’m not sure I understand what you mean by “general lack of commitment to DVD.” I don’t see any shortage of releases myself. They may not be the films you want, or they may not be fitted out with all the features you desire, but if you’re buying decision about a film is based on whether or not it’s got enough extras, you probably didn’t like the film enough to need to buy it anyway. I’m not always thrilled with what I find in the case, but I can also remember when the only way you could see a Disney film was to wait for it to come back around in the theatres; I’m glad to be able to own the films in a non-degrading format, period.
You only have to look at the general state of this site at the moment to see what I mean about lack of commitment. There's no dispute that there's fewer DVD releases now than there ever has been in the past (since about the year 2000).
Not only are Disney generally presenting lackluster DVDs of current films - look at the single disc Cars and Ratatouille for examples, but they seem reluctant to go back and double-dip on what would undoubtably be popular titles.
Where's the 2 disc Lilo and Stitch for example? It's been out overseas for over a year and is possibly the last of their great feature packed animated twin DVD sets. Not only are Disney US still sitting on it, but they've missed two prime examples of synergistic marketing when Lilo and Stitch 2 and Leroy and Stitch were released.
Not to mention how many great, vintage live action films they could release again, this time in widescreen (if applicable) or with boosted special features. Where's the definitive Honey I Shrunk the Kids? Or George of the Jungle? Or Mighty Ducks films? Or... I could go on.
Disney is content to let the old releases sit on shelves, constantly being devalued.
I know some companies - Anchor Bay and Sony/Columbia have a bad reputation for double and triple dips, but the simple fact of the matter is given a wide enough break between releases, double dipping can be welcome - especially when the market and technology has changed. Thus we'd be more likely to get widescreen transfers and a higher quality transfer/encoding.
I don’t think anyone has to worry about Disney leaving money on the table, either. I can remember back in the dark days of the early 80s when the entire company was about to be split up and sold off piecemeal---I can’t tell you how worried I was that Walt Disney World wouldn’t really BE Disney anymore---but today the Disney name sits atop one of the biggest multi-media/entertainment/broadcasting conglomerates in the world. And one of the ways they’ve done their incredibly successful business is to artifically enhance demand for certain of their products by restricting supply. This is the company that invented “the vault,” isn’t it? I think Disney will probably keep its own business counsel and let those folks on the HiDef forums have their fun echoing <a href="
http://www.screendigest.com/press/relea ... .html">the thoughts of others verbatim</a>. (Especially since, if the VHS-Betamax battle teaches us anything, new media will not penetrate the market deeply enough to become viable on a mass level until there is a single format; choosing to support only one format exclusively may cost a few dollars in sales in the short term, but it’s more likely to stabilize and broaden the market, encouraging wider adoption, and making for greater potential sales in the long-term.)
Well, I'm not talking about re-releasing all their animated classics (and we all know the Platinum schedule) but other well liked and beloved films. Do you really think keeping barebones and crappily transferred and encoded (compared to what can be done today) copies of Cool Runnings or Hocus Pocus is building unprecidented demand for a re-release?
I’m also not sure what you mean by “gambling” with Blu-Ray. When I look strictly at animated releases I think they're doing an excellent job of protecting their gold-standard catalog until BD has a higher adoption rate: let’s not forget that hi-def media sales in both formats are doing, what, 5% of the business DVD is currently doing? I count three animated Disney BDs in release: Chicken Little, The Wild, and Dinosaur. None of them did blockbuster box-office or received overwhelmingly enthusiastic reviews. Two of them are recent titles (certainly in context of a catalog reaching back 6+ decades); one them (The Wild) wasn't actually produced by Disney Feature Animation. All are CG. I see titles chosen that limit the company's exposure in an unsettled market, but that can still highlight the picture quality and sound quality that are hi-def media’s selling points.
Well, again I'm not expecting all their classics to be thrown out now. That would be silly and totally illogical. In fact, I am actually wondering if Disney is having second thoughts about releasing Sleeping Beauty next year (expecially as there's still next to no word on profile 1.1 players about 5 weeks before the deadline for them being introduced).
But the fact still stands. Even in 5 years time how many secondary television sets and players are likely to be High Definition? There's a lot of demands on the main communal televison in a family - that's fine for Buena Vista's live action stuff - especially the stuff by Touchstone and Hollywood Pictures. But, not so good for Disney's children's films.
So basically what I'm saying is... is it wise to hold back on a Hunchback of Notre Dame re-release (for example) because you're saving stuff for the future Blu-Ray release when - when the times comes - a percentage of the buyers are still likely to opt for the DVD "so little Johnny can play it in his bedroom".
When DVD was gaining a foothold, children's VHS tapes quickly became the best sellers for the format for exactly the same reason.
Code: Select all
Bil. Units/ VHS DVD
Year
---------------------------
1996 | 10 0
1997 | 9 0
1998 | 9 0
1999 | 8 1
2000 | 7.5 2
2001 | 7 4
2002 | 7 7
As you can see 6 years after the launch of optional media (1996 refers to Japan only) VHS sold as many units as DVD. And DVD had a much more immediate advantage over VHS than the high-def formats do today (DVD not only offered better picture and sound, but convenience and was easier to store). With the High-Def formats today, you get better picture and sound, but you also need to buy new equipment.
Live-action titles are a little more complicated and I honestly can’t understand why some of them have been released (Jay & Silent Bob Strike Back, for example), but I think you can make similar arguments for most of them: they’re generally titles that don’t mean the world to the company or the company name, they have more or less made or lost what money they will without moving to another format, and they have some angle to appeal to the high-def viewer: Hitchhiker’s Guide has sci-fi spectacle; Remember the Titans & Invincible are foobtall movies and sports fans love’em some HDTV. And then there are the Pirates films, one of the highest-grossing and most spectacular franchises (and I mean that in the sense of being full of spectacle) of all time---to keep those films out of hi-def release would truly be leaving money on the table.
I can understand Jay and Silent Bob's release - its the perfect demographic for the typical male PS3 owner.
I think Disney is smarting from thier decision to release the Pirate films. I commend them for doing so. But sales are hardly "on fire" I don't know the current sales, but I doubt either has - to date - sold more the 250,000 copies in the US.
And from what I can tell, Disney is in no hurry to coerce their fans into rebuying old catalog for the sake of upgrading into new media: there's only one BD back title yet announced for all of 2008, Sleeping Beauty, and it will be a day & date release alongside the Platinum Edition DVD---a title not hugely popular with the kiddies, in a line aimed as much (or more) at adult collectors as their children. They’ll continue day & date BD releases alongside DVD for new releases, which I can’t see cannibalizing their DVD sales. Cars will be the first animated back title on BD to do <i>serious</i> business for Disney, I think; I wouldn’t be surprised if it eventually outsells The Wild, Chicken Little, and Dinosaur combined.
Oh I'm sure it will. There's not only more players, but those other films are (wrongly) dismissed by the public as "old films" now, just because they've been available on Blu-Ray for a number of months. People have a pack mentality, and that includes rushing out to buy the latest "hot" releases in preference to "older" releases.
And I’m not sure I get the argument about kids owning HDTVs and Blu-Ray players. Kids come in all ages. Kids grow up. Mickey Mouse is pushing 80, which means the first kids to be Mickey Mouse fans are collecting Social Security or have passed on---but a lot of them eventually had children, and grandchildren, and great-grandchildren. Where do you think little Disney fans come from? I started collecting select Disney animation before I had kids, when I was still sure I’d never have kids. I have kids now. I also have a lot of grey in my beard. And I’m still the same person I was when I first fell in love with Mickey Mouse watching B&W reruns of the original Mickey Mouse Club in syndication after school; I’m the same person I was when I took my first trip to Walt Disney World in 1974, gawking at that hairy ol’ pirate leg hangin’ down over my head. I know my kids don’t care if the movies are in high definition. But I do.
Its not a question of caring about HD. Its a question of money. Lord knows, we had an actual bank run in the UK the last week. A honest to goodness "It's a Wonderful Life" bank run - the first in over 60 years. Thousands of people are having their homes reposessed. Banks aren't lending money to each other and as a result loans and other money are less likely to be rewarded. Barcleycard has reduced the credit limit on hundreds of thousands of its customers.
Money for a significant proportion of people is going to be tight this christmas and most likely most if not all of next year. All this has to be taken into account.
Despite what
we do and want, the majority of Disney DVDs are bought by parents as nothing more than video babysitters. Its wrong, but it happens. So are people going to pay an extra $10 or whatever for a HD release which will only play in their living room or less money on a disc which will play on all their players and TVs and will "look good enough" upscaled when on their main TV and player?
Oh, and for the record: my kids can have a TV in the bedroom when they earn the money to go buy one.
I got mine a year before I started work - but I had to pay for my VHS. Sadly, when I was at school, most kids had TVs and VHS in their bedrooms when they were about 8 or 9. I think we are the exceptions.
Well if you click on my link in my sig you'll see I have several combo discs. I can honestly say I only had an issue with Children of Men (which was quickly sorted out with a replacement - and I'm from the UK so I was half a world away and it was no trouble). I don't have any problem with combos - its new technology. It may need refining (and they are working on single-sided hybrid discs which may come out soon - but only with a DVD5 layer meaning special features of films longer than 90 minutes are likely to be on the old combo format still).
But you may as well say people had issues with the PotC2 disc which took over 8 minutes to boot and get to the game on their Blu-Ray stand alone players (and then reportedly still crashed even after firmware updates).[/code]
