Close Encounters of the Third Kind - Page 4

Love the movie! It goes without saying I'm happy to hear it'll soon be available on Blu!

Yet another nail in HD DVD's incredibly oversized coffin.

Universal - Spielberg = nothing

Alright Alright.... I really want the Bourne movies!

Universal minus Spielberg isn't "nothing", but it's true that much of their catalog strength lies in Spielberg's work. If he's still holding a grudge (that little snafu from the HD DVD PRG earlier this year makes it a very real possibility), he can probably tie up his movies that are ostensibly under Universal's umbrella indefinitely in the same way he held most of his films from DVD for years.

The fact that he was willing to do special features for the Blu-ray disc is an encouraging sign that he's not allergic to high definition, which should make all movie fans (red or blue) happy.

and Hard Target.

shoot, I want many Uni titles too.
Eternal Sunshine, The Frighteners etc...

but I don't think I want to buy another player just for that.
I already have my oppo and BD player splitting my one HDMI port. I really don't want a third player just to watch some films from one studio which very well may eventually go neutral.

Those are just three of many Universal films I'd love to own on BD. I'll wait, they'll come around.

Universal without Spielberg isn't nothing but it's pretty hard to imagine Universal without Jurassic Park, E.T., Jaws, etc.

Alex,

I know you care about the truth, so I hope you will read this (since you don't have PM enabled). I don't know how many times I have corrected this at this point. The DVD of The Polar Express uses seamless branching so that the tickets have the same language as is selected for the audio. It is a pretty cool feature. But the HD DVD doesn't have it. I checked both the DVD and the HD DVD myself, but this one keeps getting mentioned as a case where HD DVD had seamless branching. I don't know of a single HD DVD that has used seamless branching at this point, including that title.

--Darin

Sell a million Copies? The two Pirates movies combined couldn't pull that off, so there is no way in hell a boring catalog title will do that well. I think you folks are making a big deal out of a title that will sell no more than Badder Santa.

Jealousy. Desperation. Sour grapes. Take your pick.

HD-DVD is getting no news so they are coming over here to crap on all the positive news for Blu-Ray. Typical. I wish the mods would put a stop to it though.

From what I "remember" in the insiders thread when seamless branching came up amir acted like he did not know what it was. I hardly think he does not know what it is, but that HD DVD (HDi) could not do that? FWIW

How can a format not have seamless branching, especially with DVD in it's title?

Hey, they get to hear about how the barbecue's runnin !
What more could you ask for and expect ?

First of all, he was using the the whole million copy thing to point out how ridiculous the $700 million dollar statement was.

And to refer to Close Encounters as a "boring catalog title," well ... this from the man who was looking forward to buying Meet the Fockers.

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showt...3#post10539453

told ya all. hd-dvd boys can't take the great news for blu-ray. 100% jealousy.

LOL... I do love post history. He also cant wait for Legend!

Nothing to be jealous about. It's a great title, and it'll look great I'm sure. HD DVD has a lot of great exclusives too!

If this one is released on HD DVD in Europe I'll be importing it.

Seamless branching is a feature of HD DVD. It can just be difficult to do under various conditions (and they didn't help themselves with their chosen spin rate). I'm sure with time they will do it, but so far I haven't seen any HD DVD titles which use it. Amir said they might use it for something we wouldn't even notice. Sounds like little to no benefit to us (where getting to choose between multiple versions is a user feature), so I hope they don't let that affect their image or sound quality, if they really do that.

Pretty much agreeing with at least one other person, I don't think the important factor as far as the war here is having CEofTK as a Blu-ray release, but the possible implications to Universal where Ken Graffeo supposedly claimed that Spielberg wouldn't let his titles be released until we were to mass market and staying exclusive to HD DVD would likely tie Universal's hands as far as releasing Spielberg titles for a while, if what Ken Graffeo said is true as far as his titles and HD DVD. Of course, if what Ken Graffeo said isn't true, then Universal hasn't given a valid answer for not releasing any of his movies on HD DVD.

--Darin

I can't imagine a scenario where Universal would (even if it was legally possible) release a SS movie on HD-DVD without his OK.
SS has WAY too much Hollywood power for Universal to say "Go fa*ck yourself, Mr. Spielberg."

Well, they DID just hear today that the combo only HDdvd release of Star Trek:TOS Season 1 will ONLY have a list price of $217.99....!
For ONE season! Combo only.

Hiya oink!

Spielberg has a sh*tload of power. Could Universal release his films without his approval...? Maybe but he might very well have something in his contract about home video release approval. Even if not, seeing how they "apologized" and retracted the announcement earlier, I don't think they would have the stones.

http://www.cbc.ca/money/story/2005/0...l20050927.html


"DreamWorks has ended talks on what could have been a $1 billion US acquisition deal by NBC Universal, amid disagreements about price and creative control, DreamWorks cofounder David Geffen said Tuesday.

DreamWorks SKG, which includes founders Steven Spielberg and Jeffrey Katzenberg, had granted NBC Universal an exclusive two-month negotiating period.

Both sides had previously expressed optimism about the deal, which fell apart Monday. The negotiating period was set to expire Friday.

"We had come to terms with them on price, and there were a million things that needed to be settled," said Geffen, who led the talks for DreamWorks.

"At the very end, they tried to readjust the price, albeit for less than 10 per cent," he said. "People had more time to rethink the thing."

(Yeah, Spielberg can't wait to do some favors for Universal....)


Steven Spielberg said, "I am thrilled by today's announcement of the deal with Viacom/Paramount, who came recently to the table and were able to conclude and sign agreements quickly. Due to my very long history and my loyalty to Universal, I was saddened that after long negotiations and many compromises, we were unable to come to terms with Universal's parent company, GE. Nevertheless, I am truly looking forward to working with Tom Freston, Brad Grey and Gail Berman, as this is an exciting opportunity for each of us to embark on a new adventure together."


(That is diplomatic for, "Drop dead. We had a deal and I have also made you billions upon billions over the years and then you tried to play hardball after we had already agreed on a deal.")

and lo and behold, Spielberg's first big film is coming on BD. With full approval and a new interview done. That's not subtle at all in the industry.

To be fair, if Spielberg was totally gung ho for killing HD DVD and supporting BD he likely could have gotten Dreamworks releases to be done on only Blu-ray, instead of both. Of course, if Universal was to pull something on him by releasing his movies with him saying "No" and them being able to legally, he could then push for Dreamworks to drop HD DVD. A guy that powerful has ways.

--Darin

I don't think Spielberg has ANYTHING against HDdvd. I think he does against UNIVERSAL. Dreamworks releases are handled by paramount.

It's nice that Close Encounters is coming, but when are we going to get the REAL deal? "Closet Cases of the Nerd Kind" in HD?

DUDE!!!

I have that at home taped off of HBO when they used to show short films between features on a BETAMAX tape!!!!

Wow! Thanks for the memory!

Remember the singing mailboxes...?!?!?

"You're gonna build a mountain... in your living room..." done barbershop quartet style...?!?!?



edit: HOLY HELL!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3y1EXX4G7H4

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3gy3K5TBcAU

Wow, very cool. I personally dont care for the flick, although my parents loved it. I just turned 30, so maybe this was slightly before my time.

Will pick it up regardless, maybe it will interest me now that Im older.

I think he'll make Universal dangle as long as possible. The question now is whether he'll try to prevent his Dreamworks titles from being released on HD-DVD. If he does, I think we can safely assume that we'll never see his films on HD-DVD unless it ultimately ends up the winning format. And those odds are long enough as it is...