hauntnut

This was reported on the IMDB website on 01/24/08...

Hewlett-Packard has signed a deal with Sony Pictures to turn out DVDs from the studio's library whenever customers request them, the Los Angeles Times reported today (Thursday). The deal will allow consumers to order movies that ordinarily would not be stocked by dealers because they are too obscure or too old. HP indicated that it expects to sign similar deals with other studios. "We're hoping this provides another option to make available products that wouldn't necessarily garner widespread retail shelf space," Jason Spivak, head of strategic development at Sony Home Entertainment, told the Times.Added Doug Warner, head of HP's digital content business, "If studios can sell more catalog than previously, they can generate more money."

God, wouldn't this be terrific if it also applied to high-def? If I could have whatever movie I wanted on Blu-Ray or HD-DVD, I'd be in heaven.

Adam Tyner

I'd go broke.

As far as I know, there's still a lot of tweaking and eyeballing that goes into encoding these movies for the next-gen formats, so it's probably not a workable solution in the short term. Going forward, though, once the encoding tools are more mature and can just zip along...? I'd absolutely be game.

Supermallet

I had heard about this before, it's a neat idea. But keep in mind that HP is specifically going to carry titles the studio deems too old/obscure for wide release, and given the low profit margin to be had in a venture like this, these titles will not receive any kind of clean up or restoration. If Blu-ray becomes the industry standard for home video (supplanting DVD), then I could see something like this being implemented for HD, but even if that were to come to pass, don't expect high quality encodes.

Gizmo

How long before Blu-ray discs are cheap enough and everyone has a Blu-ray burner in their computer? Years?

RoboDad

No mention of prices? I can't see these discs being anywhere near what most people would call affordable.

Supermallet

The article I read said the movie would be burned onto a DVD and mailed to the customer, actually, so I don't think HP is relying on people to download and burn the movie themselves. They will probably offer a few different options for delivery on the media.

Drexl

Yeah, this was talked about in the DVD forum a month or so ago, and we still don't know what titles will be available for this. We don't know if they will be titles that have never been released, are just OOP, or are just too obscure for Wal-Mart to carry.

Don't expect popular titles like LOTR to be available this way. They want to prepare a big marketing blitz and sell tons of copies of those. Considering that they'll have to produce hundreds of thousands, if not millions (later on), this kind of release could be cost-prohibitive for those titles anyway. It only makes sense for those with limited demand.

cmvolt

How long before HD-DVD discs are cheap enough and every early-adopter has a HD-DVD player collecting dust on their shelves? Months, days ??... or any minute now ??

PerryD

Another alternative I thought would work is if the studio themselves listed all of the titles that they are not going to release on DVD because of distribution costs, lack of percieved interest, etc. Then have people "vote" for what they would like by pre-ordering the movie, and if the movie reaches a threshold (maybe 2000 copies) within a month, then they begin the encode and ship the movie directly to you.

Shooba

This would be great for things like TV shows. We've seen releases stop after one or two seasons due to poor sales, and this would be a great way to make the material available to the hardcore fans.

Viper187

Definitely! I still want to finish the Renegade series. Not to mention my overwhelming need to get certain old movies (see sig). When will this service start being available?

PopcornTreeCt

I can just order a movie and they'll give it a 4K restoration? It's a great idea but we'll see how the execution goes.

Viper187

Why limit it to a month? Why not let people put in standing pre-orders for what they want and when there's a 1000 or so orders the studio would then run a pressing, ship to everyone, and maybe have a 100 or so copies leftover for people that come looking late. Hell, the rental market is liable to pickup 1000 copies of just about anything. Why not honor requests for DVD release if something gets interest?

What pisses me off is we're still waiting on the studios to come up with a viable option and actually put it to use. We can't just email Universal and ask how much they'd want to burn us a copy of Peter Benchley's "The Beast" or whatever unreleased title we're craving. What's even more annoying, IMO, is that there's plenty of movies like The Beast, Catch Me if You Can (1989), etc that keep airing on TV repeatedly; yet, the studios still don't find them worth putting on DVD, but they keep shoveling out plenty of shitty straight-to-video titles that won't sell half as many copies.