[efralope]

Looks like some of these titles might be related to the HD DVD indies project that amazon.com and Microsoft sponsored, but in either case Createspace is publishing a lot of these -


True Music: Palomar, She Wants Revenge, Black Before Red

HDNet World Report: Hurricanes and Healthcare

True Music: Salim Nourallah, Spector 45, The Deathray Davies, Max Stalling

True Music: The Academy Is, A Thorn For Every Heart, Northstar, Go Betty Go

Get Out! Lake Havasu

Off Court, On Fire 2003/04

HDNet World Report: Pakistan and Holland Disasters Key New Alternatives

Gilley's Behind The Bull featuring music of Jarrod Birmingham

Living Landscapes HD Bali

3 on 3 Hoop Fest

Dan Rather Reports: Coming Home

Dan Rather Reports: The Best Congress Money Can Buy

Dan Rather Reports: Survivors of the Storms

Living Landscapes HD Rocky Mountains

Living Landscapes HD Hawaii

Living Landscapes: Olympic Rainforest

Living Landscapes: HD Pacific Coast

Living Landscapes: Sacred Canyons of the American Southwest

Living Landscapes: Fall In New England

Living Landscapes: California Redwoods

Smart Travels: Milan and Lake Como

Art Mann Presents: Arizona Adventure

Smart Travels: Athens and Delphi

Smart Travels: Sicily

Smart Travels: Renaissance Europe

HDNet World Report: The Shuttle Returns To Service

Face 2 Face with Roy Firestone: Jeremy Roenick

Art Mann Presents: Playboy Golf

True Music w/Katie Daryl: Charlie Mars, Katy Rose

Bikini Destinations Wildside : Ft. Lauderdale

Get Out! Las Vegas Extreme

Get Out! Las Vegas Showgirls

Smart Travels Europe: French Riviera

Young Beautiful & Trying to Make it in Hollywood: Angela bares (nearly) all



These are just some, there must be at least a hundred or more that just appeared recently...


I was hoping for more nature shows to get out (I LOVED Relentless Enemies and was hoping for more of that stuff that I see often on PBS, Discovery, etc...)


HDNet has some great programs, hopefully some of them will make it out through this distribution...

 

[Digital Man5]

Looks like a lot of stuff from HDNet mostly, not that that's a bad thing, I just expecting more independent stuff I guess.

 

[hawkeye3.1]

Good news: this is finally happening.


Not so good news: they all seem to carry the following disclaimer.


"This disc may exhibit playback issues on first generation Toshiba HD DVD players such as the HD-XA1 and the HD-A1 with firmware updates later than 2.2/1.0A/2.0T."


I wish they had said "prior to" or "subsequent to" in place of "later than", because this wording is somewhat ambiguous. I believe they are saying any player with 2.2 or up will have the issue.


These are burn-on-demand HD DVD-R discs, correct? Hopefully Toshiba can undo whatever they did with F/W v2.2 that created this incompatibility. I think I have experienced this myself actually. I have a promo disc that stopped working on the A1 after one of the F/W upgrades. Just picked up an A35 and this disc plays fine on it.

 

[Brian81]

ALL of these appear to be from HDNET, with the exception of whoever does the 'Living Landscapes' releases. Number of titles that appeal to me: 0

 

[JGunth]

I just wanted to clarify some of the misconceptions about the 1000 Independents Projects program. I am an independent filmmaker in the process of getting my disc authored by the program. I'm hoping that it will be finalized within the next two weeks or so.


This is what I know about the program so far. The discs are made on demand. While the discs are labeled HD DVD, they are actually burned onto a DVD+R DL disc using a VC-1 encode. They are not being put onto an HD DVD-R disc. I am guessing the reason for this is still cost. The cheapest I have seen blank HD DVD-R discs for is about $14.00.


CreateSpace is also supposed to be having a Blu-ray disc service coming some time as well. Since the cheapest I have seen a blank Blu-ray-R is about $18, I do not expect this service to be anytime soon. I am saying this because of how this service works. Each disc sold on Amazon takes $6.95 out of my list price to pay for the cost of the DVD+R DL disc, case, and cover. Amazon and/or CreateSpace then take a percentage of the list price. The percentage varies on where the customer bought it at. Amazon takes more. If these discs were put on true HD media, the cost would be too high.


You can also expect these HD DVDs from CreateSpace to hold under 90 minutes of video. The actual length of the program will depend on how the filmmaker gave them the tape to author. The 90 minutes is if the project was mastered to tape in a 24p mode (either 1080 or 720). There is a 60 minute limit if the project was mastered to tape in a 30i mode.


Like I said, I am still in the process of getting my disc authored by this program. I should be getting my proof within the next few weeks and should be able to find out how the quality is. I don't want to discourage anybody here from buying these discs because they may not be 1080 24p. My disc is going to be 1080i because I bought a Sony camcorder that had a 24 cineframe mode. I later found out that it just approximates the look of 24 frames, but it's not really progressive. I couldn't do a pan or a tilt without the video looking jagged. I could have done 720p, but I decided that 1080i was the best. My disc is being authored according to this. So it is being mastered according to the director's decisions.


I do want to encourage everybody to support the truly independent films coming out of this program. I think it is a great program. If anybody has any questions, I will try to answer them the best that I can. I just wanted to clear up some of the confusion I have been reading about the 1000 Independents Project lately.


Jack

 

[Digital Man5]

What kills me is that I can get my HD-A1 to play DVD R discs(plus or minus), so what in the HELL is Amazon doing that is breaking this for first gen players? Toshiba *better* take care of us on this one.


If Toshiba can get it fixed via a firmware update, I'd love to get my hands on some of these films, including yours JGunth.

 

[SomethingMore]

If only Vincent could get A Better Place released on this program. Anyone want to start the "A Better Place 1080p Master" fund?

 

[Tom Roper]



Quote:
Originally Posted by JGunth /forum/post/12884444


I do want to encourage everybody to support the truly independent films coming out of this program. I think it is a great program. If anybody has any questions, I will try to answer them the best that I can. I just wanted to clear up some of the confusion I have been reading about the 1000 Independents Project lately.


Jack

I wish your project the best Jack. I have followed the 1000 HD DVD for Indies project. Is there a chance yours could be among the 1000 to qualify for the free authoring costs?


Are you also producing for SD DVD? It seems a struggle to me without it, so few players in the target market.

 

[SomethingMore]



Quote:
Originally Posted by JGunth /forum/post/12884444


I do want to encourage everybody to support the truly independent films coming out of this program. I think it is a great program. If anybody has any questions, I will try to answer them the best that I can. I just wanted to clear up some of the confusion I have been reading about the 1000 Independents Project lately.


Jack

Jack,


can you please let us know the title of your project? I'm already interested in placing an order.

 

[Adam Tyner]



Quote:
Originally Posted by JGunth /forum/post/12884444


I do want to encourage everybody to support the truly independent films coming out of this program.

Is there a list of the titles released as part of this project? I'd definitely be interested in giving some of them a look, but I haven't heard much about this since it was first announced.

 

[mtrot]

So, I guess I should keep my RCA at firmware 2.0!

 

[Digital Man5]

Though it's possible to roll back to a previous version, who is going to do it every time they want to watch an Indie film, you know? Don't get me wrong, there are a lot I'd love to watch, but I probably won't be buying any until Toshiba provides a firmware update for us first gen unit owners.

 

[TrevorS]



Quote:
Originally Posted by Digital Man5 /forum/post/12888186


Though it's possible to roll back to a previous version, who is going to do it every time they want to watch an Indie film, you know? Don't get me wrong, there are a lot I'd love to watch, but I probably won't be buying any until Toshiba provides a firmware update for us first gen unit owners.

I'd hate to have to back off my current 2.4 installation. As you say, hopefully Toshiba sorts out the issue and provides a 2.5 correction that results in no losses relative to 2.4.

 

[Digital Man5]

Yeah, I don't think anyone is going to realistically going back and forth through firmware updates just to play movies. I guess if maybe they put the firmware on the movies themselves it "could" work, but even then I doubt it.

 

[JGunth]

I did a search for titles at CreateSpace for HD DVD. I found titles like the Living Landscape releases and the HDNet titles. There's probably around 20 that are out right now. As far as I know there is not a comprehensive list of projects that have been accepted.


I'm guessing my project has been accepted as part of the 1000. When I completed everything, I was told that the fees were being covered under the project. I don't know how many projects have been accepted. The way that they are doing this a title doesn't show up until the filmmaker approves the proof copy. I have been told that it takes them 4-6 weeks to author the disc once they get the material.


In terms of releasing my stuff on SD DVD, I am probably going to be doing that as well. I have struggled with this a lot as a filmmaker. So I will pull a Michael Bay here and state my opinion. HD DVD is my format of choice. I don't expect to sell as many HD DVDs as I would a regular DVD. What I am interested in is delivering my work with the best audio and picture quality available so it represents the way that it was meant to be shown. I shot it in HD. I want people to see it in HD on an HD DVD. I support HD DVD, so my project is only appearing on HD DVD at this time. Maybe I can get a few of my friends to buy HD DVD players to play my disc. It's not like the players aren't cheap enough now.


Plus I have found that I have been more successful overseas than I have been here at home in America. HD DVD lets me get those sales as well.


The SD DVD version will be coming some time later this year. Right now I am just more interested in fighting for a format that I believe in and presenting my work on that format. It's not logical, but I am an independent. I am used to fighting for projects that I believe in when nobody else is interested in it.

 

[Digital Man5]

I applaud you decision and look forward to checking out your work.

 

[tteich]



Quote:
Originally Posted by JGunth /forum/post/12884444


I just wanted to clarify some of the misconceptions about the 1000 Independents Projects program. I am an independent filmmaker in the process of getting my disc authored by the program. I'm hoping that it will be finalized within the next two weeks or so.


This is what I know about the program so far. The discs are made on demand. While the discs are labeled HD DVD, they are actually burned onto a DVD+R DL disc using a VC-1 encode. They are not being put onto an HD DVD-R disc. I am guessing the reason for this is still cost. The cheapest I have seen blank HD DVD-R discs for is about $14.00.


CreateSpace is also supposed to be having a Blu-ray disc service coming some time as well. Since the cheapest I have seen a blank Blu-ray-R is about $18, I do not expect this service to be anytime soon. I am saying this because of how this service works. Each disc sold on Amazon takes $6.95 out of my list price to pay for the cost of the DVD+R DL disc, case, and cover. Amazon and/or CreateSpace then take a percentage of the list price. The percentage varies on where the customer bought it at. Amazon takes more. If these discs were put on true HD media, the cost would be too high.


You can also expect these HD DVDs from CreateSpace to hold under 90 minutes of video. The actual length of the program will depend on how the filmmaker gave them the tape to author. The 90 minutes is if the project was mastered to tape in a 24p mode (either 1080 or 720). There is a 60 minute limit if the project was mastered to tape in a 30i mode.


Like I said, I am still in the process of getting my disc authored by this program. I should be getting my proof within the next few weeks and should be able to find out how the quality is. I don't want to discourage anybody here from buying these discs because they may not be 1080 24p. My disc is going to be 1080i because I bought a Sony camcorder that had a 24 cineframe mode. I later found out that it just approximates the look of 24 frames, but it's not really progressive. I couldn't do a pan or a tilt without the video looking jagged. I could have done 720p, but I decided that 1080i was the best. My disc is being authored according to this. So it is being mastered according to the director's decisions.


I do want to encourage everybody to support the truly independent films coming out of this program. I think it is a great program. If anybody has any questions, I will try to answer them the best that I can. I just wanted to clear up some of the confusion I have been reading about the 1000 Independents Project lately.


Jack

Jack, all the best for your project! Could you elaborate a bit on the testing procedure you're going to do? Is there a process established to test the finalized product on gen1, gen2, and gen3 HDDVD players? Or is this done/supported by the founders of the 1000indies program?


Further: I'm interested in the content of your particular project. For which title should we look in the 1000indies catalog? So feel free for doing a little advertising here

 

[85mics]

I think this is a great thing for indie filmmakers like Jack as well people who simply can't get enough of HD content. Does anyone know if these movies will be counted towards HD DVD's total releases on sites such as hddvdstats or engadgethd's weekly new release article? I think it would be great if one week it goes from something like "HD DVD 378 vs Blu-ray 420*" to "HD DVD 758 vs Blu-ray 430*" to "HD DVD 1401 vs Blu-ray 437*".

 

[eurotrance]



Quote:
Originally Posted by 85mics /forum/post/12901484


I think this is a great thing for indie filmmakers like Jack as well people who simply can't get enough of HD content. Does anyone know if these movies will be counted towards HD DVD's total releases on sites such as hddvdstats or engadgethd's weekly new release article? I think it would be great if one week it goes from something like "HD DVD 378 vs Blu-ray 420*" to "HD DVD 758 vs Blu-ray 430*" to "HD DVD 1401 vs Blu-ray 437*".

I seriously doubt it. Most of the media and especially engadget is in Sony's pocket. Besides, they're owned by Time Warner and since the switch they've been spreading the FUD very thick.

 

[JGunth]

This is how I understand the process from CreateSpace. Once the disc gets mastered to HD DVD, they will send me a proof copy to approve. I'm going to be testing it on my player. I have the 360 add on. I will probably be picking up a set top player within the next few months. Once I watch the disc, I will see if the menus, chapter points, and everything look the way that I want them to. I should be able to go into my CreateSpace account and approve the disc from there. Once I click approve, it should start appearing on Amazon and CreateSpace.


I'm sorry that I can't check the playability of all of the different players. I am also curious whether the discs will play on a computer through a regular DVD drive since they are DVD+R DL discs and not HD DVD-R discs. It would just take a program then that would read the VC-1 encode. I'm curious about this in terms of getting people without HD DVD players to buy the disc. And that is part of my reason for not having a joint DVD release at this time. I want the HD DVD sales. Does anybody have any thoughts or insight on this theory?


In terms of content, my video is going to be a collection of episodes from my TV show. I call it a TV show, but it has never actually appeared on TV. It's a comedy-variety type of show. I would describe it as a cross between "The Jack Benny Show" and "The Muppet Show".


It is called "The Gunthridge Show: Season One: Volume One". I tried to make each episode a little bit different to please a different segment of the population. My personal favorite is Episode 2: The Persistence of Memory. You can find it on Youtube and MySpace. The complete collection has a total run time of 50 mins and lists for $19.99.


I wanted to keep the list price under $20. I am looking at this as a consumer, as well. I do feel sort of bad at the price since it is only 50 minutes and does not include extras. Like I said before, I was limited to an hour with my 1080i footage with this program.


I'm guessing that it should count towards the Nielsen's when it is purchased on Amazon. I am going to be starting an online marketing campaign as soon as the disc gets released. My lofty idealistic goal is get the my disc to peak into the top 100 on Amazon. That is part of the reason that I am pricing the disc under $20. I'm also wanting people to buy it from Amazon and not from the shop at CreateSpace. I will be making more money from the sale of the disc on CreateSpace, but Amazon has the sales figures and rankings that people look at. And for the record, Amazon takes 45% of the list price as their profit. $6.95 is also taken out for the cost of the disc, case, and cover. Any profit I make will be going towards paying off a credit card and my student loans.


If everything gets paid off, that's fine. I am more interested in being an upstart. I learned that CreateSpace got my tape and everything the day of the Warner announcement. I was going to be doing all of this before to show my support for a format and the direction I think cinema should be going in. It is just kind of more important to me now. If I can get it to peak high enough, I'm hoping some people will notice. If nothing else, I figure it will piss off some people who think that I am sad and pathetic because I support a certain format.


Like I said before, I am a comedian. I like very old movies and became a comedian because of the Marx Brothers. I am planning on making the marketing campaign about the format war and making it totally absurd. I will deny taking money from Microsoft for being HD DVD exclusive. Microsoft and Amazon did cover the $500 set up fee. It did not buy my exclusivity, though. I want to put that out there right now before anybody starts accusing me. And if the Blu-ray people want to talk, I am willing to switch sides if they are willing to pay off the U.S. national deficit. They can then have a press conference proclaiming that the format war is over once again and they got the U.S. out of debt.


And that, folks, is how an independent is fighting the format war.