This thread is quite educational. I always though "European flat" referred to Keira Knightly.

^

I agree though, it is interesting to hear all of these interpretations.

When selling HD DVDs or BDs I always include the format in the description and add:

[Note: HD DVDs will only play in an HD DVD player and won't work in a DVD player nor in a Blu-ray Disc player.]

or

[Note: Blu-ray Discs will only play in a Blu-ray Disc player and won't work in a DVD player nor in an HD DVD player.]


I've had occasional problems with "buyer remorse" with DVD sales and just knew that I was bound to get a buyer who didn't understand the difference between the high def formats and DVD unless I tried to head it off. So far, I have successfully sold 58 BDs and 17 HD DVDs without any issues with the buyers. It doesn't hurt buyers to see my warning; most know perfectly well what they are buying, of course.

However, if a buyer did have a problem with a purchase I would always do whatever I could to make them happy, starting with a full refund and then paying for return shipping. That's how I keep my 100% feedback at Half.com and Amazon Marketplace, despite more than 700 disc sales over the years. In my experience, fewer than ½% of sales had to come back due to defects or buyer remorse. So, I can afford to absorb the cost of those few problem sales.


P.S. Like Adam Tyner, I've never heard of "five and one" before. That's news to me.

I'm pretty sure I need to punch that person in the face.

That may be, but I hardly think that an arbitrarily established pronunciation guideline for a written designation invalidates other usage. I didn't learn the notation from Best Buy (etc.), I learned it from reading Widescreen Review, Home Theater, Sound and Vision, and information published by Dolby Labs and DTS. Unfortunately, I must have missed the diatribe in WR, since I have always used "five-point-one".

It isn't a matter of oversight, it is a matter of literacy. We are not referring to an arbitrary word, but rather a "brand", chosen to represent a family of products from various vendors. Anyone who has seen a Blu-ray ad in print, on television, or anywhere on the Internet has had ample opportunity to note the correct spelling for future reference. One who chooses to ignore such opportunity, even after being gently corrected, is deserving, in my never-to-be-confused-with-humble opinion, of any (virtual) pummeling they receive.

Imagine a poster visiting an automobile enthusiast forum, and asking questions about the latest Crisler or Cheverolay product. They would likely be flayed alive.

Unfortunately, it is somewhat disconcerting to have to say this, but we probably should make some allowances, considering the fact that this very forum has not one but BOTH acronyms misspelled, right in the forum description:

Eh, capitalizations don't qualify as misspellings. And dashes... eh don't really count as misspellings in my book either.

Not spelled incorrectly, but still improper.
I made a request to have that changed early this morning.
The IB folks must be quite busy today.
Hopefully it'll be fixed soon.

You'd punch Stephen Hawking?

To be fair, Crisler and Cheverolay have been around in the popular consciousness a little longer than BlooRey.

Wow. I never knew that.

That's how I say it too. Although I usually say "two thirty nine to one" as well.

Depending on what you have yes I may want some.

I've sold some on Half.com and haven't had that problem yet.

No offense to anyone on the board but from my first player in December 98 the guy at the shop called it 5 point 1. 10 years later this is the first I ever heard it called 5 and 1.

Depending on how I feel I may type

HDDVD
HD-DVD
Bluray or
Blu-ray

I don't so it to piss anybody off. This isn't literature, it's a discussion.

I prefer BR to BD but what the hell? More people use BD

Well, excuuuuuuuuuuuuuse me!

Yeah, it was when the terminology moved from the theatrical exhibition market to the home equipment market that efforts to maintain the "five-and-one" pronunciation very quickly became futile.

When the "competition" first started, I thought HD-DVD had an advantage due to its name. I soon learned it was not an advantage, because no one knew (outside of people who get into such things) what exactly it was. It seemed far easier to explain that blu-rays and DVDs would play in a blu-ray player, but blu-rays would not play in a DVD player, than to explain that HD-DVDs would not play in a DVD player. "Even though I have a HDTV?"

Now THAT is funny!

Yeah, I've never heard of it called "5 and 1" either. You know why?

Because it's called 5.1.

Here's a chap (Ioan Allen) from a little placed called Dolby Labs which he joined in 1969. He calls it 5.1 (look at 3:10 approx).



"5 and 1"...

Laugh at me all you want and cite all the industry professionals I've already cited, myself. It doesn't change the fact that "five-and-one" was the original intended pronunciation.

Mr. Allen, just like you and I, is simply using the terminology everyone is familiar with.

Am I defending calling it "five-and-one"? No.

Am I recommending calling it "five-and-one"? No.

Am I making it up that it was originally called "five-and-one"? No.

Anything else?

Ahh it's 5-and-1, half a dozen of the other anyway.

Ok if you say so.

Does it really matter in the bigger scheme of things? Really?

"I say, dear boy, if the Earth were round, I'd fall off of it when I walk across the street! Preposterous!"

Not a whit. I'm just a little bemused at the folks like yourself who'd rather laugh at the credibility of my simple statement of fact than either do an ounce of research (go read some back issues of Widescreen Review- it's there in "black-point-white") or just take me at my word. If you can imagine any motive for me to invent such a thing, I'd love to hear it.

I have no idea who you are.

I am not laughing at you.

I am not laughing at the credibility of the statement.

I have no idea what your motives are or whether or not you invented anything.

Does it really matter to ones enjoyment of a film what the technical terms are?

I am laughing however at how this thread and much of the content in this forum never seems to actually stay on topic. It just wanders off into oblivion.

What does the pronunciation of a technical term have to do with the failure of a media format?

Five to one, baby
One in five
-Jim Morrison

Then can you help me understand your last post?

As far as I know, only what I said in my first post mentioning it. I'm not the one who selectively quoted me and went off in another direction.

We're in the pipe, five-by-five?

I always made sure to put such a disclaimer in my Divx auctions on eBay back in the day.

I bought a few closeout HD-DVDs, but I don't think I'd do it again. (I use a home theater PC with an LG dual format drive.)