Of High-Def Opportunities Lost …

As I perused the list of hits coming to the packaged media home entertainment market this fourth quarter, I couldn't help but think of what might have been had the industry coalesced behind just one high-definition disc format.

A buyer could get the high-definition version of both Sony Pictures Home Entertainment's Spider-Man 3, the top earner of the year, and Paramount/DreamWorks Home Entertainment's Shrek the Third (No. 2), on one format. Unfortunately, in reality these two top earners are available on two different formats — Spider-Man on Blu-ray and Shrek on HD DVD.

Box office titles Nos. 3 and 4, respectively, Paramount/DreamWorks' Transformers and Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment's Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End, would have been available on one format as well. Unfortunately, in the real world, Transformers is on HD DVD and At World's End on Blu-ray.

Warner Home Video's Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, No. 5 on the box office list, fortunately will be available in both formats, as will the entire “Harry Potter” series. My only wish is that I would know which version to buy, given that I only want to own only one player. In an ideal world, I wouldn't have to make that choice.

My point here is that any rational consumer would be fed up with the high-definition disc market, which asks them to buy two players just to watch all the movies that they can easily get on DVD.

Is that a fair decision to ask the consumer to make merely for the opportunity to see movies in a slightly better resolution?

The cable companies are already looking to jump into that void with day-and-date DVD releases that I'm sure will include high-definition video-on-demand.

It's sad that the industry couldn't agree on one high-definition format for the fourth quarter of 2007. It promises to be one of the best ever, with a wallop of a box office punch from a lineup of titles that proved that the blockbuster is far from dead.

It's just unfortunate that the fourth quarter of 2007 may prove to be a lost opportunity to jumpstart the high-definition disc.

Extra, Extra — Extras Are Important

I recently watched the DVD of Paramount Home Entertainment's Zodiac, the fictionalized account of the search for the infamous serial killer. I faithfully watched the film, giving it my undivided attention (which a film of that complexity demands) and, after watching it, looked eagerly for extras.

But there weren't many to speak of.

After watching such a dense feature based on historical events, I expected evidence files, interviews with the participants, various documentaries on the subject or an interview with the author whose book upon which the film is based.

But there was nada.

I suspect the extras will likely come on a later edition, but it's still frustrating being denied instant gratification. After I watch a film I really like, I want to see extras.

I don't want to pick on one title or studio. I know things are difficult in the DVD producing arena right now — what with two high-definition formats, exploding genres such as TV DVD and a brutal production schedule — but I don't want the industry to lose sight of the importance of extras.

I really do watch them, and so do my kids.

After I've finished a particularly engaging movie or one that sparks my interest on one level or another, I almost always look for more information on the menu. (I've watched the extras on Oliver Stone's JFK more often than I've watched the feature itself.) My kids (5 and 9) do the same thing. In fact, if she is waiting for the family to gather for a viewing, my 9-year-old will often try out the special features first, looking for games or making-of featurettes to whet her appetite for the main feature.

By the way, trailers, good sound, widescreen presentation and advertisements are NOT special features. They are expected. One recent DVD (Paramount's Demetri Martin. Person) made fun of this, noting “non-special features” such as plastic security stickers, UPC code, legal information and (most funny of all) atoms.

While the feature film may be the star of a DVD or high-definition disc, the special features are important supporting characters. As the industry is increasingly preoccupied with the new formats and digital delivery, here's hoping studios don't forget the extras.

Adult Goes to War

While pundits on both sides of the political aisle last week spun comments about possible U.S. troop reductions in Iraq, Hollywood continued to churn out content on the conflict.

Director Brian De Palma last month made the rounds at the Venice Film Festival with his new film, Redacted, which underscores the horrors armed conflict can wreak on communities caught in the crosshairs.

The film, which reportedly is based on the rape and murder of a 14-year-old Iraqi girl and the killing of her family members by U.S. soldiers, is scheduled to be released in 2008 simultaneously in theaters (Mark Cuban's Landmark Theatres), on DVD (from Magnolia) and on the Internet (HDNet).

Initial screenings in the United States caught the ire of conservative commentator Bill O'Reilly, who said De Palma's film did a disservice to the men and women of the U.S. Army in Iraq. He said the director of Scarface had a right to make the movie, and Cuban had a right to distribute it. He also said the consumer had a right not to watch.

Spoken like a free-market enthusiast.

I wonder what he might think about Coming Home, a new feature-length, direct-to-DVD released this week. The fictional account follows Brian Parsons, an Army reservist who gets called back to Iraq, leaving behind his girlfriend, Sarah, and best friend, Jimmy, whom he entrusts to look after her.

The film features poignant moments and explosive battle scenes. It also contains 10 hardcore safe-sex scenes, hence the three-hour running time. Needless to say, delegating your girlfriend's loneliness to your buddy (especially a porn star) might not be the best decision.

Distributed by Wicked Pictures and directed by award-winner Brad Armstrong, who helped shape Jenna Jameson's career, Coming Home is not Courage Under Fire or even very good.

Then again, it's not misogynistic or horrific. It's just consensual sex.

The World's Not Yet High-Def

Looking ahead, it is becoming apparent that high-definition discs are not going to be the big business the studios predicted they would be in the fourth quarter. Indeed, the consensus in Hollywood now is that it will be the fourth quarter of 2008, rather than 2007, when HD media really, truly becomes a business.

Skeptics might point out that studio executives said the same thing last year, when the fourth quarter of 2006 was supposedly going to be the breakout time for next-generation optical discs. It wasn't. The truth is, no one really knows when HD media is going to catch on.

A recent Warner study found that indifference, not the much-ballyhooed format war, is the primary force keeping consumers away, and I can't say I blame them. I remember those split-screen demonstrations a few years ago, primarily on the Blu-ray Disc side, showing how much clearer the picture was in high-definition. At the time, I wondered what all the hoopla was about — sure, the HD picture was better, but the DVD looked fine to my eyes, unless I was about three inches from the massive HDTV screen.

And yet everyone was crowing about how the world was going HD and packaged media needed a seat at the table. Standard DVDs, everyone was saying, simply wouldn't cut it in an HDTV world, where even local news shows would be in high-definition.

Well, guess what, folks? We're not there yet. Until then, DVDs will be just fine with mainstream America. Heck, they might be fine forever — when DVD-Audio came out and John Thrasher, then with Tower Records and Video, expressed skepticism about having five speakers aimed at him. “I still only have two ears,” he said.

So here's what I think will happen: Just as with broadcast, we're going to have to be force-fed HD before we buy HD discs, en masse. For either Blu-ray Disc or HD DVD to succeed, studios will have to stop making DVD. It won't be like the death of VHS, which consumers slowly abandoned as they realized DVD had a lot more to offer. The truth is, HD media, at least in its present form (with interactivity still more of a concept than a reality, particularly on Blu-ray), isn't all that much better than DVD, at least not to the common eye.

And this lack of a discernable difference is fueling the indifference that's keeping consumers away.

Repackaging Blues

At Comic-Con last month, I asked 300 director Zack Snyder if the film will see another release soon, despite its coming to video that day. He said watch for the “crazy ultra wacky steroid edition.”

The thing is — I'm not sure if he was kidding.

For years studios have been spit-shining musty catalog titles and slipping them into something sexier, be it collectible o-ring packaging or tying related titles together in boxed sets. Not only are those sets beginning to look a little like the Castle Grayskull toy I had as a child, but also I'm not sure we need to see certain special editions and repackaged titles.

It begs the question: Aren't there worthier avenues for studios to spend resources on, such as unearthing new talent, rather than shoveling out something that might have been released just last year?

Of course, studios know what they're doing. For instance, consumers will eat up anything superhero related, so we should expect to see the likes of X-Men 0 and Spider-Man 3.25 (note: not actual titles … yet).

Here are a few releases I'm afraid we'll see:

The Bloated Epic Boxed Set: Includes an additional nine hours of footage for Alexander, a featurette on how Keira Knightley balanced archery lessons and dating famous people while filming King Arthur, and the deleted “good” scenes of Troy.

The Movies That Sucked the First Time But Now People Like Them For Some Reason Set: Remember how Caligula, Cruisin', Ishtar, Shanghai Surprise, Showgirls and Hollow Man were panned upon initial release? Studios hope you don't.

The America's Youth Is a Wasteland Collection: Recent sets have included film adaptations of classic novels paired with their respective Cliffs Notes. Why not go all the way and abridge the films to 22-minute episodes, starring ‘D'-list actors and lesser-known sibling actors? Heads up for the abridged Of Mice and Men set, starring Daniel Baldwin, Alexis Arquette, Chad Lowe, Shawn Wayans, and, why not, Michael Madsen. (Sorry Fox, I had to go there. We still love you.)

The Storm After the Calm

Just when we thought the studios in the high-definition disc battle had picked sides, Paramount Home Entertainment and its DreamWorks unit gave up the role of Switzerland (supporting both formats) and allied itself exclusively with HD DVD.

Since then, the Blu-ray Disc vs. HD DVD war has intensified, with both sides making Amazon.com a leading battleground (see story, page 10). Also, the Chinese announced a new low-priced HD DVD player; Blu-ray supporter 20th Century Fox announced the details of two big titles coming to Blu-ray, Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer and Live Free or Die Hard; and Sony Pictures Home Entertainment hailed a quarter million in sales of its Blu-ray titles in Europe.

It's like watching a very fast-paced tennis game.

The battle has gotten so intense that Home Theater Forum's Ron Epstein posted a letter to video geekdom on his site asking everyone to calm down.

“Let's all try to funnel our energy into making the Internet a place where those consumers can come for factual information instead of constant name-calling,” he wrote.

The constant back-and-forth has resulted in numerous hastily worded petitions to the studios — many of which have garnered little support, but lots of attention.

Meanwhile, Warner Home Video data shows that the format war is the least of our problems. The biggest reason folks don't want to buy either high-definition format is because they think they don't need it. Nearly half think DVD is good enough.

Here's hoping that the studio and hardware supporters of both formats remember that, and, instead of launching all their firepower at the competition, project the message that high-definition discs — no matter what format — offer the greatest viewing experience in the home.

Offering consistently well-produced products in the high-definition medium also is a must. As consumers buy their new HDTVs this holiday season, the industry needs to be there to provide them with attractive product.

DVD Continues to Spin on Top

The future of DVD is looking brighter than ever. The two mediums that vie to be its successor, electronic delivery and high-definition discs, have entered ever-more murky waters.

Google Video, launched with fanfare less than two years ago, has shuttered, with executives refocusing their efforts on ad-supported video, rather than customers paying to watch. The market for pay video on the Internet is so minimal that Blockbuster Inc. acquired digital delivery service Movielink for a mere $6.6 million.

Why do so many folks still say that online delivery of content is the wave of the future? If so, it's a future that I've been waiting for since I joined this magazine (then Video Store Magazine) more than a dozen years ago.

Pardon me for being skeptical, but digital delivery, to quote Jerry Maguire, has yet to “show me the money!”

On the packaged-media front, DVD has not yet found its true successor.

Last week's announcement by Paramount Home Entertainment and DreamWorks Animation did nothing to further the cause of high-definition discs. If anything, it leaves the market more confused.

Rumors of payments and replication problems aside, the consumer reaction can be only confusion. No matter what some say, the high-def grudge match is not a plus for consumers. If you want Shrek 3 in high-def, you've got to have an HD DVD player. If you want Spider-man 3, you've got to buy Blu-ray hardware.

Ultimately, consumers will just buy the DVD (or the HD DVD/DVD combo, even if they only ever use the DVD side).

The format war may lower prices more quickly, but it also leaves consumers on the sidelines for some time, waiting to see which format will win.

Of course, as I have, one can always buy players for both formats. But when DVDs look so good on upconverting players, why would a mainstream consumer bother?

Until high-definition extras become truly compelling — and I've yet to see that happen despite many advances — the format war will only serve to keep folks buying DVDs.

Is Microsoft fueling the format war?

Is Microsoft the big bad puppeteer behind the next-generation format war? An interesting theory has emerged about why, more than a year after the launch of two rival high-definition disc formats, underdog HD DVD is still in the market.

Here's how it goes: Conventional wisdom holds that Blu-ray Disc should have won by now. The format, developed by Sony, enjoys the majority of both studio and consumer electronics support. Granted, it might have been rushed to market, before copy-protection and interactivity were fully ripe, but it's definitely a next-generation format, not a tweener, the way HD DVD is. Heck, the early specs for HD DVD even called for a red laser, not a blue, making it an even closer cousin to standard DVD.

But I digress. HD DVD is exclusively supported by just one major studio, Universal Studios Home Entertainment, with Toshiba the only significant manufacturer of HD DVD players.

So why hasn't the white flag gone up? Most likely, because Microsoft also is in the HD DVD camp, and Microsoft might just have a vested interest in keeping the format war alive. As long as there are two competing formats, you see, there is little chance of mass consumer adoption of either one. The format war may increase awareness of next-generation discs and drive down player prices, but I have a hunch that's not enough to sway significant numbers of potential consumers from plunking down their hard-earned cash to buy a player that might one day soon be obsolete.

Consumers are waiting until one format emerges as the clear winner, and that's precisely what Microsoft wants them to do — wait, and wait, and wait, all the while giving electronic delivery more of a chance to catch on. And it just so happens that Microsoft wants to be a very big player in the electronic delivery arena, having already rolled its dice with Xbox Live. Microsoft doesn't really want to see either packaged-media format succeed, so it's backing the underdog in the hopes of holding off what many see as the inevitable for as long as it can.

This is all just theory, of course. For the record, Microsoft likes HD DVD's managed-copy capabilities for its Windows Media Center and Viiv programs. So does fellow computer giant Intel.

But still, you have to wonder.

Theaters: Evidence of a Growing Pie

This month I saw something I hadn't in a long time. Folks were lining up hours ahead of time to see a film — in this case The Bourne Ultimatum.

For a while now, pundits have been predicting the end of the moviegoing experience in the face of online alternatives, such as YouTube, and the growth of home theaters spawned by DVD. Yes, home video is a competitor to theaters. Why do you think movie houses are starting to look like living rooms (see last week's cover story)?

Nevertheless, while theaters see themselves in competition with their home video counterparts, I am delighted to see them coming back. I'm happy folks were excited enough about the movie business to stand in line for more than two hours.

Each week, formula tentpole movies that seemed destined to disappoint have turned out to be blockbusters in the old sense of the term — with lines around the block. I myself have seen more movies in the theater this summer than I saw in all of 2006.

I don't know how 2007 will finish up compared to previous-year theatrical takes. But in my opinion, the theatrical business has produced a truly good slate of titles this summer. Like the sequels the business is so vilified for churning out, Hollywood has once again shown the formula still works.

It's now left to our business to produce the truly blockbuster fourth quarter home entertainment executives have been anticipating since the theatrical business started to come back.

If history repeats, the packaged media business will show a jump in revenue, and interest as well, even with the increase in avenues to see movies online and via cable at the same time they appear on disc.

Instead of fighting over the entertainment pie, we may once again settle into growing the entire business — as the industry did when television came along and when the VCR threatened the established delivery pipeline.

Audiences flocking to movie theaters also shows that Americans — while sometimes distracted by the online version of “America's Funniest Home Videos” in the form of user-generated content — still yearn to see a good, well-produced story.

The Buzz That Wasn't

Another Entertainment Merchants Association (EMA) confab has come and gone. And with the exception that it was held at The Venetian in Las Vegas, its impact and relevance are a matter of conjecture.

While I've never warmed to the suite concept (who wants to peek beyond a partially ajar door?), the absence of the adult entertainment floor (especially in Vegas) was a noticeable omission.

Considering the show was for software retailers and a sizable percentage of independent attendees survive on the rental and sale of adult content, the lack of adult exhibitors and accompanying “talent” killed a likely buzz.

Case in point: The Peach DVD party at Tao Beach was a laborious evening until a $1,000 bikini contest made it interesting.

An EMA official said retailers involved in adult should come to the AVN confab in January. True, but when the VSDA in 2003 held a mini-confab in Atlantic City, N.J., the 50% adult exhibitor mix generated retail attendee interest from Florida to Maine. “Thank God for porn,” was a rallying cry uttered by more than one retailer at the show.

If there was a flashpoint at this year's EMA, it was decidedly not adult themed. But its impact might have been ecstasy to those who paid attention.

Toshiba Corp. offered its HD-A2 HD DVD player for a special show price of $99, including three HD DVD titles. Considering that the retail price of the movies practically paid for the player, this was a great deal.

Indeed, it was Wal-Mart that opened the floodgate to consumer demand for DVD in 2003 when it offered a $39 DVD player the day after Thanksgiving.

One naysayer told me the $99 player underscored the format's desperation and was limited to 720p resolution compared to 1080p. So what, I say.

I've watched HD DVDs on HD-A2 and HD-XA2 players in both 720p and 1080i resolution with no reservation. While I'm not an early adopter or high-def aficionado, I am fiscally challenged. I'll take a deal when I find one.