HD DVD imports
07-20-06, 08:59 AM
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HD DVD imports of BD-only titles playable in the US!
http://w.hdbeat.com/2006/07/19/studi...-easy-imports/
StudioCanal, not well known in the US but one of the largest distributors of movies in the world will be releasing films on HD DVD, and now we have confirmation from Microsoft's Amir M. that they will be encoded in VC-1 at 24p, theoretically removing any possible barrier for their being played on US HD DVD players. The main benefit of this of course being that StudioCanal holds the European release rights to many movies currently limited to Blu-ray only distributors like Fox here in the U.S. Unless region coding is adopted by HD DVD, it could be very simple for aficionados to obtain copies of their favorite movies simply by importing them, and perhaps put additional pressure on distributors here to go multiformat to avoid losing sales to importers.
We are not aware of any plans yet announced by StudioCanal to release movies on Blu-ray, and with their Vivendi Universal connection plus Blu-ray region coding that may not give US buyers access to Universal content anyway. Of course we have to wait until the titles are actually released and whether or not region coding for HD DVD is finalized, but this could provide a big boost to HD DVD supporters who don't want to be locked out of some of their favorite movies.
StudioCanal, not well known in the US but one of the largest distributors of movies in the world will be releasing films on HD DVD, and now we have confirmation from Microsoft's Amir M. that they will be encoded in VC-1 at 24p, theoretically removing any possible barrier for their being played on US HD DVD players. The main benefit of this of course being that StudioCanal holds the European release rights to many movies currently limited to Blu-ray only distributors like Fox here in the U.S. Unless region coding is adopted by HD DVD, it could be very simple for aficionados to obtain copies of their favorite movies simply by importing them, and perhaps put additional pressure on distributors here to go multiformat to avoid losing sales to importers.
We are not aware of any plans yet announced by StudioCanal to release movies on Blu-ray, and with their Vivendi Universal connection plus Blu-ray region coding that may not give US buyers access to Universal content anyway. Of course we have to wait until the titles are actually released and whether or not region coding for HD DVD is finalized, but this could provide a big boost to HD DVD supporters who don't want to be locked out of some of their favorite movies.
07-20-06, 09:20 AM
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Originally Posted by The Bus
I'd be very interested in seeing a list of these titles.
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/win...ovies.aspx#all
07-20-06, 09:35 AM
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Originally Posted by Mr. Cinema
I've never imported any titles on dvd, but if things work out, I'll be importing alot of HD DVDs.
Very different story with these HD DVD's.
07-20-06, 01:32 PM
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Originally Posted by The Bus
I'd be very interested in seeing a list of these titles.
Hopefully studios get smart and don't region-code catalog releases. That just helps everyone.
Hopefully studios get smart and don't region-code catalog releases. That just helps everyone.
There is money to be made and they are simply not jumping at the opportunity.
07-21-06, 03:10 PM
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Originally Posted by Fettastic
I hope against hope that it will have everything from the 3 disc set.
It was only in french though with no subs so I didnt buy it.
I too hope they have everything for this one!
07-21-06, 03:24 PM
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Originally Posted by RockStrongo
Wasnt there a bigger release in France? Like a 4 disc set or something?
It was only in french though with no subs so I didnt buy it.
I too hope they have everything for this one!
It was only in french though with no subs so I didnt buy it.
I too hope they have everything for this one!
I have the first French LE Set (3 Disc).
That was my first overseas film that got me started on the whole import thing.
Last edited by candyrocket786; 07-21-06 at 03:29 PM.
07-21-06, 04:57 PM
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digitalfreak, why would you get rid of all of your imports? While I know firsthand that it can be difficult to resell them (due to the small percentage of people who own region free players, and the prevalance of bootlegs masquerading as "imports"), many imports are superior to the region 1 versions, or have better packaging. I do wish I could play them in my HD player, though.
07-21-06, 05:25 PM
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Originally Posted by Ralph Jenkins
digitalfreak, why would you get rid of all of your imports? While I know firsthand that it can be difficult to resell them (due to the small percentage of people who own region free players, and the prevalance of bootlegs masquerading as "imports"), many imports are superior to the region 1 versions, or have better packaging. I do wish I could play them in my HD player, though.
But don't worry, they play fine in my Toshiba....now.
07-27-06, 11:20 AM
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Here's some info and an interview re: the european launch.
http://www.avforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=367701
A few weeks ago we spoke over the phone with Olivier Van Wynendaele, assistant general marketing Toshiba Europe, about the companies’ launch of HD DVD in the UK. The phone call interview was supposed to be featured in our podcast, but unfortunately Olivier has a very strong French accent and that added to the low bandwidth signal of a telephone line, meant that it was very difficult to understand what was being said. We have tried on a few occasions to re-record the interview for the podcast and hope to do this soon. But so many interesting comments where made in the original interview and we wanted you, the forums members, to get hold of that information. So we have decided in the meantime to publish this interview in text form, it is an accurate transcript of the audio interview. We hope you enjoy it!
Phil Hinton (AVF) : When is Toshiba planning to release HD-DVD players in the UK?
Olivier VanWynendaele(Tosh): We are planning to launch Toshiba HD-DVD players in quarter 4 of this year. I can’t give any more specific at this time as our official launch date will be announced at IFA in Berlin in September.
AVF : Where will the players be available on launch?
Tosh: The players should be available at most electronic shops throughout the UK. Discussions are now underway with most UK retailers with those talks being held in the summer.
AVF: What kind of marketing are you planning?
Tosh: The first production models will be shown at the IFA show in Berlin for which we are investing quite a lot in with our partners like Microsoft and so on. We are hoping that in the middle of July, we will be making information about the models available on our website. We are then planning a number of demonstrations in stores, which is important for a customer to be able to touch and feel the models as well as see and hear the picture and sound. This will be done sometime between September and October. We’re also planning other promotions with our partners, mainly the studios, as well as on-line demonstration but I don’t wish to reveal too much information at this point in time. But there will be quite an important promotion program taking place. Of course, we’ll have an advertising campaign running from the launch of the machines.
AVF: Do you think the general public will understand the benefits of HD-DVD enough to upgrade from standard definition DVD?
Tosh: Well, DVD’s not too old a standard but we’ll start to target the people we call “early adopters” because their willing to get the latest technology and the latest up-to-date quality as soon as it’s available. Currently the market for televisions is changing with flat-panels and HD-Ready is becoming the norm, even so, there’s still few HD-Ready televisions in homes at this time. Also the widescreen issue is taking on rapidly, so you need to have an HD ready TV to enjoy HD-DVD obviously. This is why we’re targeting early adopters in the first place. Now we’re seeing within one year, people will be more and more used to HD via broadcasts and will be able to compare that in the shops with HD-DVD and other formats. So then, the mass market will then become a target at that time.
AVF: What HD-DVD player models will be available at launch and how much will they cost?
Tosh: I’d love to tell you that, but all the details will be announced at Berlin in September, so I can’t tell you right now.
AVF: So, can you tell us how much they differ from the US machines?
Tosh: Well, what I can say is that our European players will be based on our second generation chassis, so they will be quite different from the players already available in the US today. I can’t give too much detail but, a few of the drawbacks which were reported to us by users in the USA with our two players there will be solved and therefore additional features not available there will be added to the European players.
AVF: So, do you know how many players have been sold in the USA to date?
Tosh: Well the numbers don’t speak by themselves and I shall explain it to you. There have been several kinds of problems. Our problem has been supply and demand – we’ve not been able to ship the volume to meet the demand. So the potential number of players that can be sold has been small, but in the next month or so, units will be shipping in larger quantities and a more accurate figure will be available then.
AVF: Can you tell us when PC HD-DVD drives will be available?
Tosh: They should be available this summer, indeed within one month of IFS. However these drives will be available very soon in our Toshiba laptops.
AVF: Will this include re-writable HD-DVD’s?
Tosh They should be available about one month after the HD-DVD drives.
AVF: What benefits do you see in HD-DVD over Blu-Ray for computer users (PC & Mac) especially the copy protection used in both formats?
Tosh: The HD-DVD drives will include the AACS copy protection system, which is included in the home systems. It should be complete enough to allow a nice and enjoyable experience for all the new digital media for consumers and it will also provide a safety net for distribution for content providers. As far as Blu-Ray, we don’t know exactly what their plans are. We believe their plans also includes AACS as well as another copy protection called BD Plus and maybe that will be too much for consumers, but I don’t know. I may be getting ahead of myself but I don’t know what they plan to implement on their PC Drives.
AVF: Are Toshiba ever likely to make a universal HD-DVD/Blu-Ray player?
Tosh: We’ll keep this very short – no, we’re not planning to do so for obvious reasons – we’ve developed with NEC the HD-DVD format. This format was involved with the DVD Forum as the next generation DVD format and because of that, we don’t see why we should make combined players which play HD-DVD and Blu-Ray. We believe in our format, we believe it will be the definitive format, so we have no intentions of making a universal player.
AVF: Is region coding mandatory under HD-DVD?
Tosh: It has not been decided at this moment in time, the DVD forum will make the decision. The region coding is part of the HD-DVD specification and it can be activated, but it will all come down to the content provider. So, basically, it’s all down to the studios and content providers to use it. A discussion will take place at the end of the month with the DVD Forum and we should know by then what will happen.
AVF: So, how does the mechanism for region coding differ between HD-DVD and regular DVD?
Tosh: Well, if I can refer to the previous question, it is not yet known. Zones should be different from DVD and there may be fewer zones than standard definition DVD, but nothing is confirmed yet so I cannot say.
AVF: Do you think the availability and competition between HD-DVD and Blu-Ray will confuse buyers?
Tosh: Well, of course buyers will have to make the choice but as far as we’re concerned, HD-DVD is the natural progression from DVD and should be more familiar and understandable for both the consumer and retailer, so we believe in this format that it should ensure a smooth transition to high definition from standard DVD. Also, while the package includes high value specs and the price in Europe will be very much like the price in the USA, so for those reasons we quite firmly believe HD-DVD should be recognised by our core customers and other buyers possibly.
AVF: Why couldn’t the various developers and publishers of HD-DVD and Blu-Ray agree on one common format?
Tosh: Well, the position of Toshiba was to ensure the transition from DVD and we developed HD-DVD as the same disc structure as DVD. So, there was no question of us ever changing that point, because using the same disc structure as DVD enabled us to ensure full backwards compatibility with DVD and we were already producing a hybrid disc with DVD on one side and HD-DVD on the other and when mass produced, the yield can be very high. This benefits the cost significantly when compared to Blu-Ray discs. So far, Blu-Ray can’t do hybrid discs for instance, because of the disc structure and it costs far too much to mass produce them, so the main merit of Blu-Ray is capacity which potentially could be bigger than an HD-DVD but we proved that we were able to make it up to 45GB on a three layer disc which has two sides and will go up to 95GB and all those kinds of discs are able to be mass produced at an affordable price. So we could not decide to use a Blu-Ray structure and for whatever reason, Blu-Ray were not willing to use the HD-DVD structure, so it caused a fundamental point of difference between us, so discussions couldn’t go forward unfortunately.
AVF: You have 3 movie studios supporting HD-DVD. When will there be HD-DVD titles released from the other studios?
Tosh: Oh, we have more than three studios supporting us, you are of course referring to the US main studios, but we also have studios in Japan and Europe an so on, so there are more than three. Well, yes we don’t have the support of some studios obviously, there’s MGM, Fox and Disney as well as others who at the moment are not yet supporting us, but are certainly watching the market before the make any decisions. What I really want to say is that it might be a different story in Europe compared to the US situation. In Europe movies are distributed differently by local distributors for instance, Studio Canal which is one of the main European studios and they will be providing HD DVDs from the launch, so you will get movies which come from themselves as well as different US studios, studios which are only backing Blu Ray in the US. So it might not be such a big problem in Europe where we could see movies released here, which are only available in Blu Ray in the US.
AVF: Thanks Olivier for taking the time to talk to us
Olivier: Thank you.
http://www.avforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=367701
A few weeks ago we spoke over the phone with Olivier Van Wynendaele, assistant general marketing Toshiba Europe, about the companies’ launch of HD DVD in the UK. The phone call interview was supposed to be featured in our podcast, but unfortunately Olivier has a very strong French accent and that added to the low bandwidth signal of a telephone line, meant that it was very difficult to understand what was being said. We have tried on a few occasions to re-record the interview for the podcast and hope to do this soon. But so many interesting comments where made in the original interview and we wanted you, the forums members, to get hold of that information. So we have decided in the meantime to publish this interview in text form, it is an accurate transcript of the audio interview. We hope you enjoy it!
Phil Hinton (AVF) : When is Toshiba planning to release HD-DVD players in the UK?
Olivier VanWynendaele(Tosh): We are planning to launch Toshiba HD-DVD players in quarter 4 of this year. I can’t give any more specific at this time as our official launch date will be announced at IFA in Berlin in September.
AVF : Where will the players be available on launch?
Tosh: The players should be available at most electronic shops throughout the UK. Discussions are now underway with most UK retailers with those talks being held in the summer.
AVF: What kind of marketing are you planning?
Tosh: The first production models will be shown at the IFA show in Berlin for which we are investing quite a lot in with our partners like Microsoft and so on. We are hoping that in the middle of July, we will be making information about the models available on our website. We are then planning a number of demonstrations in stores, which is important for a customer to be able to touch and feel the models as well as see and hear the picture and sound. This will be done sometime between September and October. We’re also planning other promotions with our partners, mainly the studios, as well as on-line demonstration but I don’t wish to reveal too much information at this point in time. But there will be quite an important promotion program taking place. Of course, we’ll have an advertising campaign running from the launch of the machines.
AVF: Do you think the general public will understand the benefits of HD-DVD enough to upgrade from standard definition DVD?
Tosh: Well, DVD’s not too old a standard but we’ll start to target the people we call “early adopters” because their willing to get the latest technology and the latest up-to-date quality as soon as it’s available. Currently the market for televisions is changing with flat-panels and HD-Ready is becoming the norm, even so, there’s still few HD-Ready televisions in homes at this time. Also the widescreen issue is taking on rapidly, so you need to have an HD ready TV to enjoy HD-DVD obviously. This is why we’re targeting early adopters in the first place. Now we’re seeing within one year, people will be more and more used to HD via broadcasts and will be able to compare that in the shops with HD-DVD and other formats. So then, the mass market will then become a target at that time.
AVF: What HD-DVD player models will be available at launch and how much will they cost?
Tosh: I’d love to tell you that, but all the details will be announced at Berlin in September, so I can’t tell you right now.
AVF: So, can you tell us how much they differ from the US machines?
Tosh: Well, what I can say is that our European players will be based on our second generation chassis, so they will be quite different from the players already available in the US today. I can’t give too much detail but, a few of the drawbacks which were reported to us by users in the USA with our two players there will be solved and therefore additional features not available there will be added to the European players.
AVF: So, do you know how many players have been sold in the USA to date?
Tosh: Well the numbers don’t speak by themselves and I shall explain it to you. There have been several kinds of problems. Our problem has been supply and demand – we’ve not been able to ship the volume to meet the demand. So the potential number of players that can be sold has been small, but in the next month or so, units will be shipping in larger quantities and a more accurate figure will be available then.
AVF: Can you tell us when PC HD-DVD drives will be available?
Tosh: They should be available this summer, indeed within one month of IFS. However these drives will be available very soon in our Toshiba laptops.
AVF: Will this include re-writable HD-DVD’s?
Tosh They should be available about one month after the HD-DVD drives.
AVF: What benefits do you see in HD-DVD over Blu-Ray for computer users (PC & Mac) especially the copy protection used in both formats?
Tosh: The HD-DVD drives will include the AACS copy protection system, which is included in the home systems. It should be complete enough to allow a nice and enjoyable experience for all the new digital media for consumers and it will also provide a safety net for distribution for content providers. As far as Blu-Ray, we don’t know exactly what their plans are. We believe their plans also includes AACS as well as another copy protection called BD Plus and maybe that will be too much for consumers, but I don’t know. I may be getting ahead of myself but I don’t know what they plan to implement on their PC Drives.
AVF: Are Toshiba ever likely to make a universal HD-DVD/Blu-Ray player?
Tosh: We’ll keep this very short – no, we’re not planning to do so for obvious reasons – we’ve developed with NEC the HD-DVD format. This format was involved with the DVD Forum as the next generation DVD format and because of that, we don’t see why we should make combined players which play HD-DVD and Blu-Ray. We believe in our format, we believe it will be the definitive format, so we have no intentions of making a universal player.
AVF: Is region coding mandatory under HD-DVD?
Tosh: It has not been decided at this moment in time, the DVD forum will make the decision. The region coding is part of the HD-DVD specification and it can be activated, but it will all come down to the content provider. So, basically, it’s all down to the studios and content providers to use it. A discussion will take place at the end of the month with the DVD Forum and we should know by then what will happen.
AVF: So, how does the mechanism for region coding differ between HD-DVD and regular DVD?
Tosh: Well, if I can refer to the previous question, it is not yet known. Zones should be different from DVD and there may be fewer zones than standard definition DVD, but nothing is confirmed yet so I cannot say.
AVF: Do you think the availability and competition between HD-DVD and Blu-Ray will confuse buyers?
Tosh: Well, of course buyers will have to make the choice but as far as we’re concerned, HD-DVD is the natural progression from DVD and should be more familiar and understandable for both the consumer and retailer, so we believe in this format that it should ensure a smooth transition to high definition from standard DVD. Also, while the package includes high value specs and the price in Europe will be very much like the price in the USA, so for those reasons we quite firmly believe HD-DVD should be recognised by our core customers and other buyers possibly.
AVF: Why couldn’t the various developers and publishers of HD-DVD and Blu-Ray agree on one common format?
Tosh: Well, the position of Toshiba was to ensure the transition from DVD and we developed HD-DVD as the same disc structure as DVD. So, there was no question of us ever changing that point, because using the same disc structure as DVD enabled us to ensure full backwards compatibility with DVD and we were already producing a hybrid disc with DVD on one side and HD-DVD on the other and when mass produced, the yield can be very high. This benefits the cost significantly when compared to Blu-Ray discs. So far, Blu-Ray can’t do hybrid discs for instance, because of the disc structure and it costs far too much to mass produce them, so the main merit of Blu-Ray is capacity which potentially could be bigger than an HD-DVD but we proved that we were able to make it up to 45GB on a three layer disc which has two sides and will go up to 95GB and all those kinds of discs are able to be mass produced at an affordable price. So we could not decide to use a Blu-Ray structure and for whatever reason, Blu-Ray were not willing to use the HD-DVD structure, so it caused a fundamental point of difference between us, so discussions couldn’t go forward unfortunately.
AVF: You have 3 movie studios supporting HD-DVD. When will there be HD-DVD titles released from the other studios?
Tosh: Oh, we have more than three studios supporting us, you are of course referring to the US main studios, but we also have studios in Japan and Europe an so on, so there are more than three. Well, yes we don’t have the support of some studios obviously, there’s MGM, Fox and Disney as well as others who at the moment are not yet supporting us, but are certainly watching the market before the make any decisions. What I really want to say is that it might be a different story in Europe compared to the US situation. In Europe movies are distributed differently by local distributors for instance, Studio Canal which is one of the main European studios and they will be providing HD DVDs from the launch, so you will get movies which come from themselves as well as different US studios, studios which are only backing Blu Ray in the US. So it might not be such a big problem in Europe where we could see movies released here, which are only available in Blu Ray in the US.
AVF: Thanks Olivier for taking the time to talk to us
Olivier: Thank you.
07-27-06, 02:01 PM
#24
DVD Talk Godfather
It's just too bad this launch is not until Nov.
Also, I think dual DVD/HD-DVD discs are not of any value unless they are the same price as an HD-DVD disc. Who wants to pay $10 more for an HD-DVD or $20 more for a DVD that has another format? Nobody.
Also, I think dual DVD/HD-DVD discs are not of any value unless they are the same price as an HD-DVD disc. Who wants to pay $10 more for an HD-DVD or $20 more for a DVD that has another format? Nobody.
07-27-06, 02:06 PM
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The mods may want to change the title of this thread from "HD DVD imports of BD-only titles playable in the US" to "HD DVD imports of BD-only titles might be playable in the US"
In two of Freaks posts he quotes industry people as saying it has not been decided whether or not to use region coding, and in the interview it sounds like region coding is very much a possibility. So the thread title as currently written is a bit misleading.
This would be huge if they decided to go without the region coding, but I wonder how many people besides folks like us that frequent places like DVDTalk and AVS will take advantage of it.
I'm sure both formats will have a region free player eventually, but I don't think one is currently on the horizon for either side.
In two of Freaks posts he quotes industry people as saying it has not been decided whether or not to use region coding, and in the interview it sounds like region coding is very much a possibility. So the thread title as currently written is a bit misleading.
This would be huge if they decided to go without the region coding, but I wonder how many people besides folks like us that frequent places like DVDTalk and AVS will take advantage of it.
I'm sure both formats will have a region free player eventually, but I don't think one is currently on the horizon for either side.