Topic: Amazon DE

[Achim]

Neither one of us is going to change the other's opinion, but I wanted to make two comments:

Two years of propanga from paid "specialist" succeed to make people believed it was an improvment.

Jon may have forgotten, but I remember this. I think the "specialist" assigned to Invelos.com called "Ascended_Saiyan" or something like thatc he droned on and in in a dedicated thread, trying to convince people of the better PQ and the superiority of Blu-ray over HD DVD. I am sure James will remember...

Do I think that strategy was successful? Certainly not. At least at Invelos most people were put off by his behavior and were rooting for HD DVD

Now they make you believe a cable HD signal is better, but it isn't (easy to compare since my brother had a cable with an HD signal and a regular one) and it's the same with the movies.

If you don't see the difference between a SD signal and the HD signal then hi-def is obviously not for you. But I can tell you, the difference is there and it's tremendous. Saying Full HD isn't needed is your opinion and I value that. Saying HD (or then even Full-HD) is not better is a whole different beast.

HDTVs are much cheaper now and not only Sony is selling them in large quantities. The discussions of HD on TV and then Blu-ray are not the same.

[Jimmy]

I'm not putting words in your mouth, they are there for everyone to see!

Yes you do. Everything I've written is about the brain conditionning and the effect it creates on the viewers, it's really far from the idea of a brainless zombie...

Depending of the film there can be a vast difference in the quality of the viewing experience between the blu-ray and regular version of a movie

I'm sure some some movie looks better, but I just can't believe the majority does... At least the one I've watched didn't throw me out of my chair.

Hopefully this will drive the prices down on regular DVDs for the rest of us!  

This one sure count as a positive in my book

Jon may have forgotten, but I remember this. I think the "specialist" assigned to Invelos.com called "Ascended_Saiyan" or something like that

I remember this guy, he was the reason why I don't frequent the HD forum on DVDP. He was boring to read

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

Without decent content at affordable prices every media is doomed to fail.

A product can easilly survive even if the price are high. By exemple the video tape price were high, the majority of what I bought was in a price range between 65 and 100$. Wich was surely not afordable, but this format was dominant for at least 20 years

I think your mixing things up here.
The success of videotapes didn't come from the movies you might have bought for it but from the first-time chance to actually record movies from other sources (TV, other videotapes, videocameras). Similar to the audio-cassette (which almost no one bought pre-recorded) you had very cheap prices for blanks (that's why they were sold in masses) and extremely high prices for pre-recorded content (that combined with a very short life-span is the reason why only very few enthusiasts bought them).
And the reason why it lived for such a long time is as simple as: Lack of alternatives.
The combined forces of digital cameras and DVDs needed less than 5 years to completely wipe VHS off the market. They are still out there and can be bought, but talking about a niche-market: here you have one.

Blu-Ray will need longer to do the same to the DVD, simply because the technological progress isn't that revolutionary (compared to the DVD / VHS revolution). One might even ask if the Blu-Ray will ever really make it or go extinct together with the DVD because some other, new and really revolutionary content carrier shows up. The much more threatening enemy for physical media is already there: Downloads.

[Jimmy]

And the reason why it lived for such a long time is as simple as: Lack of alternatives.

CD-Film (I can't remember what was the real name of this format ) and the laser disc appeared while the VHS was still going strong, so there was an alternative. But I can agree that none of them was big public.

The much more threatening enemy for physical media is already there: Downloads.

I won't disagree on this but for a real collector Digital Download isn't an alternative, we need to have something in our hands and a file on a computer is boring. I supposed that it was about the legal download and not the other type you were talking about

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

I supposed that it was about the legal download and not the other type you were talking about

Of course.

And while I agree that the "collector" will continue to buy physical media, because a download can never be "rare", I'm not sure that collectors are the mass market that the distributors are aiming at.
Many people I know would change from DVD (or Blu-Ray) to Downloads as soon as the currently existing problems are solved (DRM ( ), quality (HighDef content is very rare at the moment), price (legal downloads currently are more expensive than the DVD) and bandwidth (in many regions downloading still takes too much time))

I guess it's equivalent to the music market. While there are still many people that buy CDs, the download is gaining more and more (especially since more and more distributors don't use DRM anymore but simply integrate your E-Mail address into the data). And among the younger people (< 25) CDs are almost not present anymore.

[Jimmy]

I have bought some digital download for movie impossible to find in any other ways (by exemple Jack'n Jill 2), but I sure don't like the format or the time to get it. It is really long to download a one giga byte file with a phone modem (it takes more than two days and by chance the resume fonction is available since the connection is often cut at that speed).

It's probably the biggest obstacle for the DD viability (the file in this exemple wasn't even worthy of DVD quality criteria, but for 9.95 $US it isn't that surprising).

Wich will bring me to give one advantage for the Blu-Ray, there is less piracy for this format because the files are too big and incredibly long to download.

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

Helden Box (3 DVDs)

This box contains:
-The Patriot
- Glory
- The Messenger (Joan of Arc)

and is extremely nice in price: € 9,97

[Achim]

Wich will bring me to give one advantage for the Blu-Ray, there is less piracy for this format because the files are too big and incredibly long to download.

Digital downloads are not intended for modem connections... Heck, even ADSL has it's limits for streaming such contents, but at leats downloads can be done in a reasonable time.

[Kinoniki]

Two years of propanga from paid "specialist" succeed to make people believed it was an improvment.

Jon may have forgotten, but I remember this. I think the "specialist" assigned to Invelos.com called "Ascended_Saiyan" or something like thatc he droned on and in in a dedicated thread, trying to convince people of the better PQ and the superiority of Blu-ray over HD DVD. I am sure James will remember...

Do I think that strategy was successful? Certainly not. At least at Invelos most people were put off by his behavior and were rooting for HD DVD
[/quote]

Nah that was just a regular PS3 fanboy. No conspiracy there. But at least he provided some laughs. Much like this thread.

And HD DVD should have won, dammit! 

[Jimmy]

Glad to gave you some laugh... It's funny how an opinion is seen as ridiculous when it doesn't follow blindly what the media told you to think

Not that I really care about what a guy with a BR shoutout as a tagline can think about me...
Of course we aren't force to care about everyone, so it's fine with me...

Sometimes I miss the good old days...

Anyway I'm fucking tired of loosing my time talking about that. It isn't even something I care about since I will never watch one of those disc... Why would I watch them? Avatar or Karate Kid or soulless remakes aren't my type of cinema...  

Sorry again for this off-topic post Michael, it will be my last one on this subject

[Najemikon]

Jimmy, as I've said many times, Blu-Ray is actually at its absolute best on films that use proper photography, not heavily augmented CGI. I'll take Zulu over Avatar any day.

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

On Nov. 29th Amazon.de has the so called "Cyber Monday" and promises rebates up to 80%

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

Possibly only for today:



BluRay for 12,89 €

The DVD is normal priced with 12,95 €

[W0m6at]

I'm about to (next few days) put in an order from Amazon DE. Since they have flat rate shipping, I thought I'd check if there's any DVDs people recommend I throw into my order. I have three four conditions (apart from it looking like something I want to watch):

1) Must be in the original aspect ratio
2) Must include the original language audio as an option
3) Where the original language isn't English, include English subtitles
4) Under most circumstances (there are some rare exceptions) should be in its uncut form

To give an indication of my tastes, here's what I'm ordering:
Dr. Fu Man Chu Collection (5 DVDs)
Baron Münchhausen

My DVD collection on Invelos (need to prune out the dead wood soon).

I'd love to get even more Karel Zeman, but it seems what I can find breaks rules 2 & 3.

[kahless]

Only today (Dec 02, Amazon Advent calendar):



9,97 € (blu ray)