I wish to say thank you to everyone involved with the HD DVD Tour in Toronto. Thanks to John W who arranged it, and updated the attendance. Hi Def Paul and Manu for the use of the facility.
These events do not happen by themselves,they occur when people donate their time and effort.
I attended the 3pm session I found Amir very knowledgeable and informative. Kevin also provided some viewing pleasure and enlightened all of us on the features that are contained HD DVD, quite frankly I did not realize the amount of interactivity that is contained on the discs
It was also a pleasure to meet members of this form and to have some inter action and discussion in person.

Again a big thanks to everyone involved the event it was a great success.We should have more of these events.

Photos? :cool:

Did anyone get photos from the event? Id be interested in seeing them :)

I would like to echo the comments from James T. re the get together at Top Choice Electronics. I feel better about my decision to get my HD DVD. Came home to check my pj and its performance compared to the Ruby we saw. Glad to say it still looks great. I look forward to some of the upcoming HD DVD ;)

I agree! I was a great time and thanks to Amir and Kevin for coming up here and spending some time with us :)

Definately some good stuff coming up for HD DVD.

Definately some good stuff coming up for HD DVD.Care to share?

Care to share?
I think it's kind of against the rules to blab about all the unannounced stuff that the lucky attendants of the HD-DVD tour get to see.

I think it's kind of against the rules to blab about all the unannounced stuff that the lucky attendants of the HD-DVD tour get to see.


!!!

That just makes me even more curious!!!

Is it Gladiator! Saving Private Ryan! The triple layer HD DVD! LOTR EE!

My guess is all of the above :p

Back in the winter meets it was Matrix(from what I gathered), and now Matrix is just about here. So whatever is being shown now, there will be some real nice goodies waiting for us come this winter I'm sure.

And to echo what some people have said above, pics or it didn't happen. :p

Care to share?

Sorry, can't :p

The last 3 posts had this face :p (now 4 do)

Just imagine how many less posts I would have if I didn't post so many useless things :p

:p

Amir and Kevin talk the talk and walk the walk! The second session started at 6:00 p.m. and I ducked out at 9:50 p.m. since I had to face a 2 1/2 hour drive home. I shook Amir's hand to thank him and say goodbye (we were outside the theatre while Kevin was inside still going strong) while he was heading back in to take control since Kevin would apparently otherwise stay all night showing clips from various movies. :D

The session was very informative, practical and well organized. There can be no doubt MS is quarterbacking the HD DVD promotion! I would also say that MS is fortunate to have two employees who are so good with the general public and who have so much knowledge and enthusiasm for home theatre in general. Their responses to some tough questions seemed to me to be honest, straight forward and very professional without hype or bad mouthing. It was refreshing to get a down to earth appraisal of where this format "war" is presently and where it's going. Where HD DVD really has BD beat is in these grassroots presentations - it is no wonder there is such a loyal customer base (and growing) for HD DVD! It's the road warriors like Amir and Kevin who are willing to make the effort to meet face to face with the consumer and go head to head in a polite and articulate manner that has established HD DVD as a format to be reckoned with. Thanks to everyone for such a great evening.

Cheers,

Grant

FYI: See video Clips of Amir in "HD DVD Press Event" (the last speaker) and Kevin in "HD DVD Interactivity Demo" (http://www.thelookandsoundofperfect.com/). ;)

Phil

Frankly, this whole concept of "top secret", covert, mysterious upcoming content for HD DVD is laughably ridiculous in my opinion. It reminds me of some ten-year-olds and their secret clubs. Potential content on HD DVD is readily known by looking at the respective catalogs for each of the studios that support HD DVD.

Traveling around the country and giving presentations to small groups of people and then having them swear a "secrecy oath" is just so funny.

We all know that LOTR is coming as well as Gladiator and Shawshank Redemption and Harry Potter. Some of these have been finished and probably even pressed already. To show a clip of a Harry Potter movie and then say, "Now, you can't tell anybody about it because it's a big secret" appears to me to be rather pointless.

But, whatever.

The showed some announced, but not-yet-released material, but nothing we don't already know is coming. I Would have loved to have seen some un-announced titles, but I know that's expecting too much. The demos of the announced but not-yet-available titles were awesome. I would have paid top dollar for that last disc he showed, though so would many in attendance I suspect given the repeated howls of delight as it played. :)

Greg

I was very impressed I have to say with the demos of some of the interactive features that were shown. I've generally been one of the movie-only types, but the interactive stuff like saved clips, U-control and all this is actually really great I have to admit.

Greg

Frankly, this whole concept of "top secret", covert, mysterious upcoming content for HD DVD is laughably ridiculous in my opinion. It reminds me of some ten-year-olds and their secret clubs. Potential content on HD DVD is readily known by looking at the respective catalogs for each of the studios that support HD DVD.

Traveling around the country and giving presentations to small groups of people and then having them swear a "secrecy oath" is just so funny.

We all know that LOTR is coming as well as Gladiator and Shawshank Redemption and Harry Potter. Some of these have been finished and probably even pressed already. To show a clip of a Harry Potter movie and then say, "Now, you can't tell anybody about it because it's a big secret" appears to me to be rather pointless.

But, whatever.
Aww, it's not vwery fun when somebwody pisses in yourw cheewrios in the mowning is it?

But don't come and take it out on us here you petulant little child. Piss off. :rolleyes:

Frankly, this whole concept of "top secret", covert, mysterious upcoming content for HD DVD is laughably ridiculous in my opinion. It reminds me of some ten-year-olds and their secret clubs. Potential content on HD DVD is readily known by looking at the respective catalogs for each of the studios that support HD DVD.

Traveling around the country and giving presentations to small groups of people and then having them swear a "secrecy oath" is just so funny.

We all know that LOTR is coming as well as Gladiator and Shawshank Redemption and Harry Potter. Some of these have been finished and probably even pressed already. To show a clip of a Harry Potter movie and then say, "Now, you can't tell anybody about it because it's a big secret" appears to me to be rather pointless.

But, whatever.

I find coming into a thread and calling other people childish and laughable is......frankly, childish and laughable.

These events are meant to build interest in the HD DVD and it's nice to be able to tell people that good stuff is coming without betraying the confidence of the people who flew across the country (and in Kevin's case, across the globe since he flew in from Japan for the event) just to talk with us and show us some cool stuff.

You're welcome to start petitioning for them to come to Utah, if you don't think it's too childish and ridiculous to host a meet there.

A big thanks again to Amir and Kevin for being so gracious with their time, I'm sure everyone there enjoyed it :)

Frankly, this whole concept of "top secret", covert, mysterious upcoming content for HD DVD is laughably ridiculous in my opinion. It reminds me of some ten-year-olds and their secret clubs. Potential content on HD DVD is readily known by looking at the respective catalogs for each of the studios that support HD DVD.

Traveling around the country and giving presentations to small groups of people and then having them swear a "secrecy oath" is just so funny.

We all know that LOTR is coming as well as Gladiator and Shawshank Redemption and Harry Potter. Some of these have been finished and probably even pressed already. To show a clip of a Harry Potter movie and then say, "Now, you can't tell anybody about it because it's a big secret" appears to me to be rather pointless.

But, whatever.

You do a disservice to the other BD supporters who have shown enough class to let the people who attended this meet thank those who made it a success without adding condecending comments. Let me tell you that Amir and Kevin were a class act. You should attend one of these meets you might learn something.

Cheers,

Grant

P.S. We were simply asked not to discuss on this forum the clips of future releases that we were shown, which is fair enough.

I had a great time, as I posted in the other thread... I just am itching to know if they showed anything different at the 6pm one than they did at the 3pm. I'm hoping they didn't. :) Thanks again Kevin and Amir, great presentation.

But, whatever.Yeah, whatever dude. :rolleyes:
I guess it was inevitable that some dork could see a negative side to HD enthusiasm.
We're not supposed to talk about the HD DVD blood oath of secrecy but being so clever you've blown it wide open.

Think about it, they're showing check discs of unannounced releases.
It's lucky that the studios let them show them and trust the attendees not to blab on the internet.

Afterall we can't all have unrestricted pipelines to inside sources like beatboy ;)

Photos? :cool:

Pics were posted in another thread above:

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=10421611&&#post10421611

Greg

I think it’s great having this tour and promoting high definition. I’m an avid HD fan, myself, having purchased over 80 titles to date. Just getting ready to watch Planet Earth. :)

Maybe I came across a little . . . blunt . . . earlier. I didn’t mean to say this wasn’t a great event. My point was that it seems rather odd to have this tour to “promote” HD and then swear everyone to secrecy – especially since most content is already fairly well known. I’d think some enthusiastic talk about what was shown would promote the product more.

Sorry if that came across as offensive.

Apology accepted :D
The attendees cannot talk about the unreleased movies they are shown because in many cases they have not been announced.
The studios are very protective of this info and if attendees started posting about how great The Two Towers looked for example, that would be the end of it.

I went to the first meeting in September and it's a bit hard not share what you've seen because it's cool.
I think all parties should be commended for their ability to keep mum.
Quite a rare commodity these days.

As cool as this sounded (*cough cough* DETROIT STOP), this one quote kind of stuck out for me:

There can be no doubt MS is quarterbacking the HD DVD promotion!

Would have been nice if they pushed the add-on a little harder with their "elite" system... :(

Really, even if it was just a pack-in coupon for $50 or $100 off, offering it in black, whatever.

Thank you all for the kind words. It is much appreciated and what keeps going.

As FYI, we are working on doing Boston and Portland, OR next. If folks have interested in other places, better start a thread to see who all wants to come! I can only squeeze things in between my regular business and the schedule is starting to get really tough through the summer...

As to the rules, if you attend the session, you will understand the need for it :).

I know you guys can't discuss titles (I was at the event at CES) but did you get the cool t-shirts, and notepads?

As FYI, we are working on doing Boston and Portland, OR next. If folks have interested in other places, better start a thread to see who all wants to come!

Is there a thread for this yet? I would officially like to request a mid-atlantic stop (Philly / Baltimore / DC area).

What is the minimum or maximum amount of HD DVD owners attending to have one of these demonstrations?

What is the minimum or maximum amount of HD DVD owners attending to have one of these demonstrations?
We prefer to have at least 20, with 25+ being desirable. It costs us a lot to make these trip just in dollars alone. So we like to make sure that there is enough benefit to counter the cost (and here, I am counting our time as free :)).

Best process to get started is to create a new thread like the Toronoto folks did to see how much interest there is. And more importantly, find a host for it. We do not run these like marketing events. As such, we shy away from renting space, etc. for it. Think of it as a "fireside chat" :)