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Tofusensei
Joined: 15 Feb 2008
Posts: 353
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 Posted: Wed Mar 19, 2008 2:36 pm |
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Konno-san's going back to Japan. Let's hope the arrival of Hori-san will make some improvements in their business model!
-Tofu |
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Mirri
Joined: 12 Aug 2007
Posts: 14
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| Posted: Wed Mar 19, 2008 2:49 pm |
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| kakitamike wrote: | | While i felt the jump from vhs to dvd was a great benefit to the visual quality of animation in general, i don't notice any quality differences from dvd to hi def. I watched paprika and justice league on both formats and their was no noticeable difference to me. |
I don't know about Justice League, but I watched Paprika on Blu-ray and on DVD, and I noticed much less aliasing and artifacting on the Blu-Ray edition, but other than that, the main difference was that Blu-ray had prettier backgrounds and cleaner lines, which really doesn't make a difference unless you're watching on a relatively large screen. If I'm watching on my 26" HDTV, I think DVD is okay. However, if I were watching on a 60" HDTV, I'd definitely prefer Blu-Ray first. I feel so dirty saying that after supporting HD DVD. I never watched any anime DVDs on that 60" TV though, other than Paprika.
I definitely prefer to watch in high definition, but when the format becomes more mainstream I really expect the prices to be way higher than DVD. Just have to consider that Blu-Ray movies are usually $30-40, and normal DVD movies are usually $10-20, and Anime DVDs are $20-30, so I'd expect a price of $40-50 for anime Blu-Ray discs that aren't movies.
I've heard good things about Shigofumi, and because of Bandai Visual's announcement that it's licensed, I haven't downloaded any fansubs of it. If it gets good reviews, I might give it a shot. Even better a chance if it's on high definition media. |
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narutoismybrother
Joined: 10 Aug 2007
Posts: 198
Location: Connecticut
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| Posted: Wed Mar 19, 2008 2:55 pm |
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| Well as long as they don't stop releasing dvds it's all good. I honestly don't have the money to get a blu-ray player or a HD TV to go along with it. If they ever do decide to stop releasing dvds soon, that'll just cause havoc in the anime community. When I say havoc, I mean bootleg dvds and fansubs proliferating left and right. |
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teh*darkness
Joined: 16 Feb 2007
Posts: 588
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| Posted: Wed Mar 19, 2008 3:37 pm |
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| kakitamike wrote: | | While i felt the jump from vhs to dvd was a great benefit to the visual quality of animation in general, i don't notice any quality differences from dvd to hi def. I watched paprika and justice league on both formats and their was no noticeable difference to me. |
I just watched Appleseed: Ex Machina on Blu-Ray on my HDTV, right after rewatching the original Appleseed on DVD, and the difference is amazing. The video quality, the colors, textures, even the sub font is more tasteful. And all I have to do is watch anything from Pixar on Blu-Ray to attest to how much better Hi-Def is over DVD. I can barely watch any of my anime DVDs anymore, because upscaling them from 720x480 or 704x400 to 720p makes them look like crap, with horrible static and blocking everywhere... if you can't tell the difference, you either need to get your eyes checked, or make sure you have your player hooked into an HDTV. The difference is quite obvious if you aren't being pessimistic.
| Mirri wrote: | | I definitely prefer to watch in high definition, but when the format becomes more mainstream I really expect the prices to be way higher than DVD. Just have to consider that Blu-Ray movies are usually $30-40, and normal DVD movies are usually $10-20, and Anime DVDs are $20-30, so I'd expect a price of $40-50 for anime Blu-Ray discs that aren't movies. |
Whenever I've seen BD next to DVD new releases (BB or WalMart) there tends to be a $5-$10 difference, not a full $30 swing. If you're talking about 10 year old movies on DVD versus new releases on Blu-Ray, then yes, the margin would be that big. But you DON'T see $10 new releases on DVD (nothing from the big studios at least, maybe straight-to-DVD crap). And if a company can sell a BD anime movie for $30-$40 dollars with appx. 100-120 minutes of material, there's no reason they can't sell a 100-minute anime tv series BD at the same price (as long as you're not BVUSA). |
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Mohawk52
Joined: 16 Oct 2003
Posts: 3857
Location: Celebrating Lindsey Hawker murder suspect arrest, in Basingstoke, UK.
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| Posted: Wed Mar 19, 2008 3:49 pm |
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| Tofusensei wrote: | Konno-san's going back to Japan. Let's hope the arrival of Hori-san will make some improvements in their business model!
-Tofu |
If Hori-kun realises that BV US is called that for a reason and markets his products accordingly, immediately he will be a greater success than Konno-kun ever was, otherwise they're like trying to sell sand to Arabs. |
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Aresef
Joined: 22 Jun 2005
Posts: 174
Location: MD
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| Posted: Wed Mar 19, 2008 3:50 pm |
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| Here's hoping the lessons Konno-san learned at his con panels carry over to their new strategy. To succeed, BVUSA has to find crossover appeal. Certainly some of the shows they've got can have wider appeal, but not for $40 a disc. That just isn't cool. |
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Ojamajo LimePie
Joined: 09 Nov 2007
Posts: 53
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| Posted: Wed Mar 19, 2008 3:57 pm |
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Sounds like it's time to start saving up for that PS3, if BVUSA is going the Blu-Ray route. At least I've got plenty of time, since they've delayed their titles.  |
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Dargonxtc
Joined: 13 Apr 2006
Posts: 4153
Location: Nc5xd7+ スターダストの海洋
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| Posted: Wed Mar 19, 2008 4:03 pm |
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I'd be happy if they just switched to an 8 volume(24-26 episode), and a 4 volume(12-13 episode) release schedule.
And as much as I would like to see them dub more anime, I don't think that is even an option for them at this point.
The weak dollar is a factor that is considered by every business at the moment. But considering the state of the industry right now, I really don't think that it is anywhere near the top of anyones list of problems that they need to deal with. And it's one that they really have no control over anyway. Once they get people to actually start buying anime again, then they can worry about exchange rates more. |
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GATSU
Joined: 03 Jan 2002
Posts: 8412
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| Posted: Wed Mar 19, 2008 4:17 pm |
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So who was it that said they wouldn't be releasing so many titles if they were doing so badly? Regardless of how I feel about the company, though, I'm getting tired of Beveridge doing his "opinions as fact" act in his news reports. Still an arm-chair commentator to the end, which is why no one takes him seriously anymore. Anyway, I also feel bad about Konno leaving, because he seemed like a decent guy who was just trying his best to balance consumer input with Japanese corporate bureaucracy.
As for upscaling, I'm not into that video geek wank-fest crap, since I want to like what I watch, not just let pretty colors dictate my viewing habits. People who are in the latter group are also probably stupid enough to pay $25 for a 3-d concert of a 70 minute Hannah Montana film they can get on video in a few months. They first tried pulling that "wave of the future" bullshit with CG, until the only kind of films we were getting with it were Anaconda and Inspector Gadget. Then they tried arguing DV was the next level, until people realized it was grainier, blurrier, and more lifeless than 35 MM. Now they're hoping you're stupid enough to buy into an overpriced dvd player, and drop all the dvds you already own, so they can pump money into more awful $100-$200 million pieces of shit like 10,000 B.C.
On an unrelated note, I'm surprised no one's made a comment about how screwed Synch Point is, since they have no licenses to speak of at the moment. |
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HitokiriShadow
 Subscriber
Joined: 09 May 2005
Posts: 4908
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| Posted: Wed Mar 19, 2008 4:43 pm |
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| Calculusman wrote: | | Does this mean they won't charge you either your first born child or your left leg and arm (whichever is worth more) for each disc now? |
No, it just means you'll be selling them for Blu-Ray discs rather than DVDs.
Thanks a lot, BV. You finally get titles I'm actually willing to buy from you and now they are delayed indefinitely and I'll be lucky if I even get them on DVD at all. Oh joy. |
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Mohawk52
Joined: 16 Oct 2003
Posts: 3857
Location: Celebrating Lindsey Hawker murder suspect arrest, in Basingstoke, UK.
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| Posted: Wed Mar 19, 2008 4:49 pm |
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| Well Tofu, this should keep your mates busy for a while then. |
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hikaru004
Joined: 15 Mar 2004
Posts: 1832
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| Posted: Wed Mar 19, 2008 5:02 pm |
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| Mohawk52 wrote: | | Tofusensei wrote: | Konno-san's going back to Japan. Let's hope the arrival of Hori-san will make some improvements in their business model!
-Tofu |
If Hori-kun realises that BV US is called that for a reason and markets his products accordingly, immediately he will be a greater success than Konno-kun ever was, otherwise they're like trying to sell sand to Arabs. |
But Konno is Hori's boss. That's why he is going back to Japan. He got a promotion. So don't expect big changes without Konno's approval imo. |
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DClark
Joined: 11 Aug 2007
Posts: 104
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| Posted: Wed Mar 19, 2008 5:23 pm |
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What I read in the boss note is that they're moving to Blu-Ray from their previous neutral Blu-Ray/HD DVD stance, and that based on the "Due to the recent quiet market, we will postpone standard single DVDs for TV series. We are assuming that the market does not prefer that format." wording they're either still ignorant of the general concensus that their prices are too high or they're going to concentrate on releasing DVDs in box set form instead of singles. |
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kokuryu
Joined: 07 Apr 2007
Posts: 910
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| Posted: Wed Mar 19, 2008 5:30 pm |
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| Still a quite healthy market for HD DVD's in the US, especially since the recent price cuts. And since HD DVDs don't have region encoding on them, you can buy all the international HD DVDs that you want. HD DVD production is only dead in the US, not elsewhere in the world. And the discs are not more than the regular DVDs either. I think they made a mistake by not supporting HD DVDs. Nobody can afford the BluRay equipment yet. BluRay may be the FUTURE format, but right now, HD DVD is the format of choice. |
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Mohawk52
Joined: 16 Oct 2003
Posts: 3857
Location: Celebrating Lindsey Hawker murder suspect arrest, in Basingstoke, UK.
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| Posted: Wed Mar 19, 2008 5:35 pm |
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| hikaru004 wrote: | | But Konno is Hori's boss. That's why he is going back to Japan. He got a promotion. So don't expect big changes without Konno's approval imo. |
Konno might have been promoted but him going back to Japan means he won't be managing the US division. As long as Hori makes a success out of it, meaning profits, Konno's boss isn't going to like Konno sticking his oar in and stirring that up. |
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