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Lucasfilm Explains Lack Of TPM DVD
DanteKy writes "Hollywood.com has another article on the release of the VHS release of The Phantom Menace. Also, Lynne Hale, a spokeswoman for Lucasfilm 'explains' why there is no DVD just yet. The article also mentions that in some Asian locations, TPM will be released on VCD. I know it isn't DVD, but at least it is a start." I'm still waiting for Episodes IV, V and VI on DVD, as well. I'm beginning to wonder if we're going to have to wait until they're all finished before we see them at all.
man, you are so right! thanks for stating the truth. your comment will be moderated down in a few minutes, but people need to see it.
John Carmack should re-write The Phantom Menace. The film would run faster, and the latency between interesting scenes would be much lower.
Is watching a DVD actually feasible under Linux now? I have the (mistaken?) impression MPEG/2 decoding and display still need serious work (because all the hardware assistance has to come from proprietary bastards).
>You don't pay for it, but you still use it? That's being a leech. Do you also not pay the fare on buses and subways, since they're going where you want anyway? Do you shop-lift food on the expiry day on the grounds they would be thrown away soon?
VERY poor comparisons! Why? Because:
a) Using the subway denies others a seat, and costs maintenance fees. Not lite stealing software, which doesn't cost anyone anything if you weren't going to pay for it. Also, the subway is a mode of transit an average consumer (not business) is expected to pay for. Adobe doesn't _expect_ a home user to buy photoshop, so it doesn't factor into the equations.
b) The storekeep paid for the food. You are stealing MONEY from the storekeep. Copying software means you SPEND your own money and time to copy it. This is like saying copying software is like stealing cars. It isn't.
Abort, Retry, Fail to get your point?
Try these on for size: Software is like books. If you photocopy a book, the only people that can get hurt are those involved in the sale of the book. And that is only if you intended to purchase it, and they had it for sale. You don't hurt the person who owns the copy of said book. In fact, copying software is much more like plagarism (not good, but not like murdering and raping [piracy]) than even stealing. If you don't agree with me, then why would you even suggest a GPL product (gimp)? Read RMS comments on "piracy" and what it isn't before you talk about GPL software agian.
with lucasfilm's seeming defiance to DVD it's a wonder that they even released the movie soundtrack on compact disk, you would think with that outdated media mentality that the soundtrack would have been exclusive to fscking cassette tape! Bah!!
I don't see why all the films aren't released now on DVD with minimal or no extra features. Let's face it - we'd buy them. Then, when Mr Lucas has time, he can produce a new set of DVDs with all the extra features he wants. No doubt we'd buy them again. Heh, like this hasn't happened before! It seems so unusual these days when someone seems reluctant to milk the cash cow...
Just FYI, Easter goes back much farther than the christianity thing. not sure about the christ mass though. and i agree, its waaaaaaaaaaaaaay over-commercialised.
who the fsck cares? it was a crappy movie with the only thing to its credit beeing the nice graphics the story line sucked ass along with jar jar jamaican guy
Great format? Heh... wars not make one great!
/
Lucas and all the other overly greedy producers and chief rapers of talented individuals thank you for your mindless support of the status quo, the rest of us wish you would go elsewhere...
I thought that was why they started a big Christian holiday during Yule (which is not the right time of year for the birth of Jesus of Nazareth), so all the pagans could easily claim they've converted (wink wink, nudge nudge). All I can think of for Spring is the maypole fertility stuff. What did Easter displace?
What about Episode 4-6?
hell yeah, bitch!
I didn't think it was funny at all. kind of lame, actually.
Dude, how long does it take to duplicate 10,000 video tapes? using a stack of 100 VCRs recording at 4x speed still takes too long and costs more than asking a CD plant to burn 10,000 CDS at 80c each in bulk, and would be ready in 1 week, and take less room than tapes.
VCD aint that bad if its encoded correctly
He had the chance to destroy the VCD spec and guarantee the early release of cheaper DVD players, but he was too interested in licking the rim of Hemos's asshole to do anything about it. Alas, Rob now has an incurable case of Bear-Assed Tongue, due to the fact that Hemos's ass was sodomized by a Canadian logger, who also sexually assaulted bears in the wilderness of the North. Rob was diagnosed with Bear-Assed Tongue just last Monday, and is under strict orders not to felch Hemos for three entire months. He even has to wear one of those cones on his head like a sick dog, to keep him from sucking on his own asshole and the assholes of others. So that's why Slashdot has been a little "dry" lately, because the lack of ass-sucking from Rob and Hemos's life has depressed them both. Poor CmdrTaco, he misses tasty male diarrhea dribbling out the corner of his mouth as he sloshes down yet another Hemos's Ass Taco Salad. Please send your condolences to ass_sucking_whore@slashdot.org. Thank you, and goodnight.
He had the chance to destroy the VCD spec and guarantee the early release of cheaper DVD players, but he was too interested in licking the rim of Hemos's asshole to do anything about it. Alas, Rob now has an incurable case of Bear-Assed Tongue, due to the fact that Hemos's ass was sodomized by a Canadian logger, who also sexually assaulted bears in the wilderness of the North. Rob was diagnosed with Bear-Assed Tongue just last Monday, and is under strict orders not to felch Hemos for three entire months. He even has to wear one of those cones on his head like a sick dog, to keep him from sucking on his own asshole and the assholes of others. So that's why Slashdot has been a little "dry" lately, because the lack of ass-sucking from Rob and Hemos's life has depressed them both. Poor CmdrTaco, he misses tasty male diarrhea dribbling out the corner of his mouth as he sloshes down yet another Hemos's Ass Taco Salad. Please send your condolences to ass_sucking_whore@slashdot.org. Thank you, and God bless.
This isn't new. Lucas has been saying this all along. It is just a corporate line to cover up his insatiable lust for money. He wants to soak fans twice. Why does he need to do something special on the DVD? He already said previously there wont be a "special edition" phantom menace! Right now he could make a kick ass DVD (and video) just by releasing it with pan&scan/widescreen, the trailers, and the TV special(s, there might have been a few) all on the disc, without ANY addtional effort from him.
Lucas is just another genius who was doing pretty good until he ended up with too much money, which corrupted him and made him no longer car about quality or the consumer, but only about market share. Sort of like Bill Gates...
Of course DVD is going to be superceded at some point - As it's based on digital technology that is a GIVEN and it is pointing out the brutally obvious. But if we were always looking ahead at the next big advance as the one that's worthwhile then we'll never have anything (and computer enthusiasts often misunderstand technological limits and human limits: Decide to use blue lasers and space beams and then you have to get agreement between all of the consortiums..that generally takes years).
I'm very happy that DVD is finally hitting the consumer market in force as I'm sick of degraded crappo VHS decks. Additionally, probably the biggest potential selling point of DVD isn't the quality (most consumers couldn't even tell...quality has never been a mass market selling point), it's the incredible array of features on the average DVD deck: Blue lasers don't improve that.
VHS (or any tape based medium) is done as far as the consumer market is concerned: The mechanisms are too complex and costly (unlike DVD players which have already dropped below $200 US $, and they're just getting started! It's just a laser, a transport and a couple of VLSI chips and once the industry leaders recoup their investments it'll be a massive price war as they reduce to commodity components), the materials too expensive (any worthwhile VHS deck uses rare and highly machined heads that should really be replaced every couple of hundred of hours of play...you can't make that cheaper without destroying quality), and the medium too clumsy for mass distribution. Additionally with the analog recording you intrinsically have data decay and loss with plays and that is very bad for the rental market and for home consumers. Compare the hundreds of POS high degraded VHS tapes I've rented with the fact that not one DVD I've rented has had any quality loss or artifact.
So the conclusion is that analog tape recording is dead (including digital recording to analog tape), guaranteed (ex. SVHS, despite the higher quality, wasn't even the slightest blip on the radar...and it's been out for quite a few years). Additionally consumers favour features astronomically more than they favour quality, and DVD brings those features to the market today with today's technology at obtainable prices, along with an unbeaten consumer level quality in both audio and video realms. Perhaps in 8 years, when HDTV actually has any market hold whatsoever, DVD-2 will come out but it naturally will be backwards compatible as well.
Cheerio!
Because VCDs only cost about $2US on the street in china.
probably because your warz friend COULD buy the stuff if he liked it. Lucas isn't giving us the option. When demand is high and supply is artifically restricted (to zero in this case), perverse incentives tend to govern behavior (theft is more easily justified, etc.)
Easter is an old name for one of the ancient european godesses of spring... easter was her holiday... since the celts weren't supid enough to fall into the christian cult, they tossed all the jesus crap in to get the celtic children believing in jesus before they realized what a load of crap it is.
It's out on VCD in Asia because VCD players outnumber VHS players there.
The site The Digital Bits is usually a good source of information about when movies will come out on DVD. They've been tracking various rumors about the Star Wars series and have mentioned a few times that Lucas is going to wait for all the movies to be released before distrbuting them on DVD. Look down the page in the "My Two Cents" section. Also on that site has an interesting write up on bootlegged DVDs here.
(garbage! this one doesn't believe in capitalism, plus knows nothng about george lucas... he is pure and straight billionaire... lucasfilms is closely held. Its his, as are all it's assets... he's not a nasdaq company like, say... andn.... which seems to be nearing an alltime low in just it's first month... maybe it's a good buy?)
(fag... right now, i'm obviously a troll... better waste those moderation points...)
not at all. it just wasn't funny. the bit is old.
>i pay for stuff, when its worth it. i can justify software pirating. i wouldnt pay for photoshop, so adobe loses no cash. its an old excuse, sure, but its the truth.
;-)
I have an even better excuse for you: It actually HELPS Adobe, your "stealing". They lose no money, because no one who wants it for the casual fun of editing their face onto a movie cell/whatever would pay the many hundreds of dollars for it. But other see you use use the software. They like it. They "steal" it too. Etc... Eventually someone in graphic arts who has never heard of it looks at a freinds copy of it. They like it. They "steal" it for home, and experience it. They are impressed. They tell the boss at work, and show him it. He's impressed. He _buys_ it for work. Why do you think Corel Draw/Adobe Pagemaker/Photoshop/etc... were so popular? All the people "stealing" it were bothering freinds to take a look at it. Sometimes this kind of thing can even propell a small piece of software into a magazine expose. Not on the "stealing", but on the use of the software. Look at MS Office 2000. Notice a lot of info on it in the home computing magazines? Notice how few people at home pay for it?
What about things like games that are used by people at home? Well, this does hurt the company. Not as much as the cost of the game because there's only a limited amount you can buy, whereas what you can "steal" is only limited by your bandwidth and time. But some of this money is recuperated by freinds who see these great games and buy them, and by people who enjoy a game so much, they want the real thing, not the hacked up version.
I look at it this way: Any app over $50 is asking for people at home to "steal" it. Any business application isn't going to be bought by anyone not in business. Games are made for home users, and really shouldn't be "stolen", but as long as they are over $50 (or for less fun games, over $25) they will be "stolen" - lots. This is the way it is, and most people realize it. Just ask the president of Corel or Microsoft...
Software can't be looked upon as most things we buy. I can "steal" Corel Draw, yet no one loses a copy of it. Perhaps money _may_ be lost, if I intended to buy it, but no single person cannot use it because of this. If I steal your car, well, now you have no car. Copying software is the same as copying a book - the person that has the book you are copying doesn't lose. Only those involved in the sale of the book lose, _if_ I intended to buy it (and it was still availiable for sale).
Hmmm. How long until I'm at -1, and have been flamed off the planet Earth...
Your post has left me dazed and confused.
Abort, Retry, or remove Brackets?
And?
And slashdot isn't about the movie industry, its about geek stuff. Lucas will release his films on DVD as soon as he can figure out a way to maximize the money he makes from it. Any other statements like "he's too busy writing the next script" is just spin-doctoring. That's the way the movie industry works, I know because I've worked in Hollywood for many years.
There is a big difference between using pressure tactics when advocating Linux vs. applying pressure on Lucas for personal reasons. If the Slashdot editors can't separate their personal fetishes from their professional goals, then they should quit and find editors who can.
Yes. I don't live there (Britan), but make trips there sometimes. The BBC (British Broadcasting Company) doesn't have commercials on its channels. They control 50% of the TV airwaves (They have two stations, ITV and "Channel 4" [granada?] are the others, which do commercials). So, to make their money, the BBC has made the government charge for citizens to watch TV. The 100 pounds ($175 or US) goes to the BBC to continue to make more shows that are too long for any other country to put them on their stations.
:-)
White TV detector vans go by neighbourhoods occasionally to check if you are paying fees or not (I s**t you not, my privacy loving American. In the UK you are VanEcked all the time). IIRC, you also need to get extra licenses (at a reduced fee) for extra televisions. No wonder I never saw more than one TV in any house in England, and no wonder the Pizza dishes started there first (Sky TV).
In fact, and also quite unbelieveable considering the UK's skyrocketing crimerate, the police there aren't armed.
May I suggest for people in England that want to watch VHS that they buy a video card with video in (no tuner) and an OLD VCR without a tuner? You might get around the authorities that way.
What always striked me as awesome was that a country 3 times larger in population than mine (Canada) and with way less land size broadcasting problems (they are what, 1/100 the size of Canada?) has only 4 TV stations. There are at least 10 different broadcasters in Canada by my guess.
Of course, at least you in the UK don't need to use flak vests in a heated protest... (joke)
BTW: My information is at least 1.5 years old. I suppose Tony Blair has switched up some stuff there by now.
Yep, got my TPM VCDs back in the first week of June. At HK$20 it was a little steep, but still,
that's only US$2.50.
hehehe.
Nope, sorry... I don't know who "Haven" is. Just the Chide Molesta here, trying to waste Mod points. ;) Please support the Anti-Karma-Whore movement, and e-mail me at "chide_molesta@hotmail.com".
Where Jar-Jar belongs.
We want answers!
>Unfortunately, I don't have any moderator points right now
I don't have any either. I refused to join the ranks of the insane a long time ago...
A well-coded VCD definately competes with VHS in terms of picture and sound quality. Plus, the optical disk will probably last longer than a magnetic tape.
The drawback of VCD: 4 disks for one 2 hour movie.
what's with the Troll crap hasn't anyone heard of sarcasm?
I NEED TPM FOR MY BUNGHOLE
BUUNNNGHOOOOOOOOOLIOOOOOOOIOOOOO
that's a tall order there, mr. clark! my ex told me i should tour and do a recital of the whole movie, with the music playing in the background. i think it would lose something in the interpretation though.
I agree. But on a ironic note, has Amazon actually made /any/ money yet? Last I heard they were still in the red (not that that's stopped their stock from soaring).
-blue
AHH!! Where is this place called one!?! And how do I get there?!?! By the way, what is an "episod"?
Slashdot needs a spell check and grammar checking function.
(insightful! :)
Hopefully the 'something special' will be a version where Jar Jar doesn't exist and all references to midi chlorians are removed. That would be good. I wouldn't mind waiting for 3 more years for that.
(flamebait... or shall I say, poor college student? :)
(insightful... I'm on a streak now, aren't i? :)
I've always been somewhat hopeful that Lucas's main motivation is to wait until the blue laser DVD players are in production & commonplace. Allowing companies to put ultra high definition video and still have room for a TON of extras. I think the blue laser DVDs holds something like 19GB per side. So over double the density of current DVDs.
Of course, one then sees pretty much every other company coming out with their movies w/ no features. Then coming out with a 'special edition' later on. So why can't Lucas do that?
Or does he fear some naming conflicts... eg "Star Wars: Special Edition: Special Edition: Collectors Edition"
Tom
Lucas understands there are certain people who have high standards for video releases. He knows those people will not buy the VHS copy; instead he is waiting to add extra stuff to the DVD for them. What is the problem here? We all plan to be alive in 6 years right? I have a huge list of DVD's to buy already. I don't mind the wait.
I own many different versions of Ep4-6 on VHS. It's not fun to waste a lot of money on many copies of the same movie.
This is actually a huge problem right now for DVD.
I don't except that theory. I liked Ep1 a lot and would buy it on DVD if I had the chance. I will not buy the VHS copy.
I won't subject myself to VHS "quality" I'm glad George is waiting to give his real fans something extra.
Check out some lists of what stuff was cut from the movie. Many (including myself) feel the movie would have been *much* better with these scenes included.
There is some room for improvement, waiting till after the current movies are done is a good idea.
Methinks you'll have to avoid more than DVDs to keep from lining the pockets of the DVDCA's members. I do take your point, though; avoiding DVDs is an excellent message.
They sell for a lot less. I was in Beijing last Dec. and picked up a copy of TPM for 12 yuan ($1 = 8 yuan). Legitimate copies of movies cost only slightly more (Chinese ones). But you're right people over there can't afford to pay the prices we're used to. (In fact can we?). They're trying to change that with DVDs which can cost $8-10 (and that's for Chinese movies).
Finally - its been confirmed! This puts all the rumours to rest :P */sarcasm*
:) I even went to the Melbourne premier session - but in the months since its just lost any magic it had with me. They just don't feel the same to watch anymore. With Lucas crapping on about DVD's (and yet he's going to release it on VCD? Yeah, that's a secure medium! :/ ...lets face it (even though a part of me still loves the movies more for reminiscing than anything else) they're hardly the work of genius. They're more like an add for the next big toy chain. And on top of all this the DVD consortium stuffing around with its threats, etc. Star Wars DVDs? No thanks...I've had it this Lucas, the DVD consortium, etc.
To be honest I don't particularly care anymore. I used to be 'into' Star Wars - went to the original at the drive in and was hooked (even had the c3po bubble bath
*/rant*
I'm going to write a long message about this, because this ridiculous obsession with Star Wars by Rob and his cronies has been really irritating me for a long time.
>Often it seems that people loose sight of what Slashdot is.
And it seems that Rob and his contributors have also lost sight of what Slashdot is. Slashdot may have been started by Rob, but its true power is in its readers. When they try to mobilize the power of their readers for petty personal whims, they are abusing their power. And make no bones about it, they DO have power. Otherwise, why would Andover have poured cash all over them?
Slashdot has become something more than some geek's website where Rob rambles on about his favorite crap. It is a focal point for the Linux community. When Slashdot's focus is wasted on such childish personal issues, the whole Linux community suffers. We have enough trouble getting people to take our alternative approaches to computing seriously, we don't need the additional burden of a bad reputation as a group of people obsessed with stupid children's movies.
>Slashdot is a webpage started by Rob Malda so he can talk about things he
>thught were interesting to the geek community. Since then he has selected
>other people to post, and Slashdot has gotten help with the money side of the
>whole thing. Even though all of this, though, it is still his page, and he has
>the right to post whatever he wants and allow anyone who wants to to post too.
And in this process, Rob has accumulated considerable amounts of power and money. We of the Linux community have given him that power (AND money) by our readership and page hits. With that power comes a responsibility to their audience. When the Wall Street Journal and other "serious journalists" start writing about Slashdot as a new wave of journalism, they better take a big step back and decide just what that responsibility is.
The balance of power here is really screwed. Rob wrote tons of moderation for user's comments, but there is nothing users can do when they're being force fed a diet of star wars hype. Maybe he needs to consider allowing users to moderate the Slashdot writers. As it stands, we can only write our objections, just to see them unfairly moderated below the level where anyone will ever see them. Just like this message and the other two I wrote. And these are all legitimate gripes, intelligently expressed (IMHO) yet they get reduced to invisibility just like trolls and flames.
>If this were the only source for news, then you would might have a reason to
>worry about biases and such, but it's not, you're not (directly) paying for
>it, and you have no reason to call them on ethics. They're not journalists,
>just people talking about what they find interesting.
I think YOU misunderstand the role of Slashdot. This is the only viable focal point for the Linux community that I know of. They ARE journalists because they are performing the ROLE of journalists, even if they're unaware of it or not taking it seriously. This is a central problem of the whole tech arena. Too much focus on technology ONLY, too little experience of the real world, too little knowledge of the humanities. Young inexperienced kids who don't really know much about the wider world they live in, trying to change the world. Geeks with a touch of megalomania because of their seemingly-omnipotent computer skills, which deludes them into believing they have godlike skills in ALL areas. Its a recipie for disaster. There's a very important book called "Computer Power and Human Reason" (by Joseph Wiezenbaum, inventor of ELIZA, ISBN: 0716704633) that goes into this problem at length. Every geek should read it.
>I for one think this story could be important as it might be a clue as to why
>others are taking a while to adopt DVD and other technologies.
Except in this case, it isn't, its just emmet whining that he can't buy a certain DVD. Slashdot has a duty to the linux community that it so successfully concentrated. That duty does not include a duty to furnish emmet's shelf with his favorite DVDs.
>For example, if piracy turned out to be a large issue, then it would have been
>provoked discussion on piracy issues. Because piracy was not a large issue
>here, it was equally important because it showed just that.
I read every message in this thread (in flat mode) and there is nothing in this thread that indicates that piracy is or is not a problem. Lots of meandering comments by people who can only guess at the truth of the situation, but I think only MY comment hits the mark, Lucas will only release the DVD if and when he's convinced that its the strategy that will maximize his revenues. Trust me, I worked in Hollywood long enough to know the score.
In closing, I would just like to say that as it is now the time when the Linux community is growing up, it is also time for Rob and all the Slashdot crew to grow up. Time to focus on what is really important to the community. Creating complex moderation systems isn't going to solve the core problems of the linux community. A careful, considerate approach to using the power of the Slashdot community is required. Please please, everyone of the Slashdot editorial crew, take a step back and consider what you are writing, and your motivations BEFORE posting stories. And maybe you might consider reading some books about Journalism sometime. There is more to life than coding. Sometimes you have to take a step back and consider the REAL WORLD that you are coding for. To create a huge journalism computer system without any knowledge of journalism is just begging for problems.
One thing Lucas excels in is squeezing every drop of profit out of an idea. Why would he take a different approach to releasing video versions of his movies?
Go get the collectors edition of "A Bug's Life" or the Criterion edition of "Brazil". That is the quality of disc that people want from Lucas. It's a hell of a lot more work than just duplicating the movie.
I really just check in to make sure I catch all the tiny important things that other places might miss.
I agree that there is some serious lack of maturity in a lot of areas/writers here. Keeping the original flavor of a site forever doesn't seem logical. Growing is important.
I think I've seen a bit too much moderating down. Makes me feel like a 9 year old is in charge that can't deal with criticism and doesn't understand how to look you in the eye.
Maybe this last Star War piece broke the limit. I can take /. off my favorites list and give another place a chance.
Anyone have /. alternative sites to recommend. I really don't need lots of Linux news.
This sort of article is an abuse of Slashdot and its audience by the owners and operators of Slashdot. A few of them are obsessed with the movie, and want to use the "power of Slashdot" to put pressure on LucasFilms to release the film on DVD. The "slashdot effect" has gone to their heads. Shame on you. You guys need a basic class in Journalistic Ethics. And if any of the moderators have any sense of ethics, they'll moderate this up so that others can read it.
Haven were you in on that?
I got a story for you, "George Lucas takes a shit, post on Slashdot at eleven". Then we can have 373 posts on whether this event warrants release on DVD (though the spycam in his bathroom means that many of you already have illegal bootleg copies of this blessed event).
Get a life! Please!
Hey, you think your house is cool?
Once something gets into the home market (even in a relatively small way), standards don't change, and the format lasts... and lasts... and lasts... :-| Look at history:
:-) If history repeats itself, any changes to DVD will not be welcomed by anyone. DVD is a set standard, and has fallen well below the casual interest cost. DVD has been around for enough years (5 or so) that it isn't possible for a VHS/BETA war now. If a new format is released, regular DVD will be availiable for a long time after. Probably about as long as Records were availiable while CDs were out.
:-)
- Laserdiscs. The only major changes made to this standard after the introduction of the first home laserdisc player in 1979 or so were to add dolby digital to the NTSC standard discs. These discs could still be played on players not "upgraded" to dolby digital, just in mono. CX noise reduction was also added. This didn't make a hill of beans of difference to older players. CLV and CAV were (my guess) supported by all home players. I know my 1985 Pioneer LDV-6000 does both. I still haven't rented anything that it won't play (although a few such discs probably do exist, but that's life).
- Audiocasette. You can still buy them at the local CD store. Maybe not of old music without ordering, but they are still widely availiable. 8 tracks have disappeared, but they enjoyed a healthy couple of decades, and they didn't disappear until cassette players were cheap. And neither format changed to the point where new tapes wouldn't play on play on old players.
- Records. They survived until 15 years or so after CD was released. That's at least 60 total selling years. And still, records are avaliable for a (dwindling) portion of music. All the changes (except speed) were backwards compatible, although a gramaphone needle will quickly wear out a stereo LP. And, (my guess, I'm no expert) I bet old gramaphones could be regeard and needles changed to play new LPs properly.
- Videocassette. Yeah, a very few non BETA/VHS players made it into the home market. They didn't last long enough to matter at all, and the cost was always too much for casual interest. BETA and VHS were release at nearly the same time, so it was understandable that one format would die. Otherwise, buy a VHS tape today, and play it in an original RCA VHS VCR, and you'll be A-OK.
- SVHS. Never really could buy anything from a store in this format so it doesn't count. Hi-8, DV, DAT, MiniDisc, Digital VHS [well you say it exists, I dunno] etc... fall into this category too. Sure you can record your own stuff, but that's your personal stuff. You probably won't lend it to your neighbour (and if you did I bet he won't be able to play it!).
Did I miss anything?
Just my opinion...
It's the same means to a different end, as far as I'm concerned.
- A.P.
--
"One World, one Web, one Program" - Microsoft promotional ad
"Remember when the U.S. had a drug problem, and then we declared a War On Drugs, and now you can't buy drugs anymore?"
How about a URL to one of these lists then?
I wish Lucas would see it in his heart to release the Star Wars Trilogy plus One on DVD...
No extras
Just the straight film
He could then call it "Star Wars: Whiners Edition"
For one thing, people would by a VCD because they have a conscience and would like to own a legal copy. Secondly, VCD is a widely used format in many parts of the world, especially Asia. It's almost as mainstream as VHS, whereas DVD is still years away from catching on.
------------------
Loban Amaan Rahman ==> Anagram of ==> Aha! An Abnormal Man!
"George would love to do something special with the DVD release, but he won't do it until he has time to concentrate on it."
Ah, so then the videotapes won't be anything special, they'll just be quick dumps of the movie to tape, right?
Okay, so I'm not missing anything by skipping the videotape release and getting a pirate DVD of the movie, then.
The fans and film-buffs will go for the better VCD.
I compared an official legal VCD on my system with a laserdisc of the exact same title, and there simply is no comparison in video quality, and Laserdisc has far better audio. Usually DVDs are better than their Laserdisc counterpart too.
The only reason VCD can be considered at an advantage is its copiability.
RCA, Panasonic and such have Digital VHS decks NOW. They cost 1000$, but keep in mind that some analog VHS decks also go that high. The digital decks have firewire connections too. If you know anyone that gets Home Theater magazine, scan the index once in a while. Even Radioshack will let you order one.
Ditital Beta has been around for a while I hear.
As with most technology, do you expect it to stay expensive?
It's already run on Slashdot that none of the movies would be released on DVD until ALL of them were out. Lucas said it after TPM came out. Then he's going to release all of them on DVD.
:-/
Besides, I really don't care if I _ever_ see TPM on DVD. Jar Jar Binks was bad enough in the theatre. Like I really want to see him in my home..
Robbie
-- Comtrends!
The SUSE ad in the Slashdot banner says that the distro is out on DVD now. This raises a host of interesting questions and maybe opportunities.
First of all, does this mean that there is no major licensing/royalty issue with the underlying format as long as the content is not encrypted?
And does this also mean that we can stamp out our own DVDs commercially at reasonable cost if we have appropriate content, eg. maybe our own computer-generated films or reporting footage?
Does anyone know what the cost of pressing and the minimum size of production run is for DVD? And which production facility did SUSE use?
"The question of whether machines can think is no more interesting than [] whether submarines can swim" - Dijkstra
It wasn't so much so that the pegans could say they were converted, but rather for the missionaries to claim that the "heathen" celebration was really a Christian celebration. The Christmas tree comes directly from the pegan tradition.
This will not happen for marketing reasons, but manufacturers could offer an inexpensive blue laser upgrade to players. I don't imagine a blue laser would play a red laser disc, so that would complicate things a bit (a need for dual or triple laser players), but most models are dual laser now, so I'd guess a blue laser upgrade could be offered quite profitably for $100-$150. I'd be willing to pay that for the immense increase in capacity/quality that would offer.
Not everyone devotes their lives to IRC and the pirating of everything in sight with their elite budz in #elitew4r3z or whatever. Many people actually pay for what they want. Perhaps it is a bit of a foreign concept, but it actually does happen.
Aside from the convenience of slightly smaller media and no rewind, why would anybody use such a crappy format?
Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from a rigged demo
--Andy Finkel (J. Klass?)
He got a copy of TPM and edited out Jar Jar where possible.
I haven't seen it, but apparently the movie is *MUCH* improved. . .
Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from a rigged demo
--Andy Finkel (J. Klass?)
Well, it was supposed to be all of those things, but instead it turned out to be the most diappointing movie of all time.
Who cares about whether it was a crappy movie? That's hardly relevant - after all, by that same measuring stick, the original trilogy was just about as crappy!
Hardly. Even the wost of the earlier films, Return of the Jedi, was many times better than TPM.
Maybe, if it comes on cable some night, and I have nothing else to do, and my computer is broken, I'll watch it again, but until then I'll stick with the originals.
Well, in addition to the pagan festivals for the winter solistice (the ever-green tree) (and the Roman Saturnalia (presents)) and spring (the bunny), they "replaced" the old Jewish holidays Hanukkah and Pesach.
Christianity is/was like Microsoft - it adopts and alters instead of inventing, then seeks to become dominant through any means necessary... :-)
You don't pay for it, but you still use it? That's being a leech. Do you also not pay the fare on buses and subways, since they're going where you want anyway? Do you shop-lift food on the expiry day on the grounds they would be thrown away soon?
If you don't want to pay for the benefit, you don't get the benefit. Use Gimp instead of Photoshop, since that's free.
Ahh... no matter how much we hate moderation around here, i need to preface this with this:
I hate the slashdot mentality.
Just because you can get something for free doesn't mean that's what you should do. You trully just don't care about quality if a VHS copy made from even a Hi-8 deck in the theatre is a comparable experience to the theatre, a DVD or even a VHS version.
Just like x86's better than Alpha or Power PC, or IDE's better than SCSI, or anything else... It's the lowest common denominator factor. Yes it's cheaper. But is it nearly as good? no! but you'll settle for it anyways, because of the percieved value of the dollar.... dollars come and go you know... no like star wars is spiritual... TPM was aweful in my opinion... but still.
You're sick. That's the entire reason I disagree with opensource... NOt creating anything new, just reinventing the old for cheaper. Yay!
Good night. I'm drunk... And I'll stop now. But moderators, do your jobs... i expect this to be a -1 flamebait or offtopic by the tiem i wake up....
Here's why I think Lucas isn't releasing a DVD yet... He can make more money this way. He's going for market saturation on the VHS front, then waiting until a critical mass of the market has a DVD player, then he can sell these poor saps a SECOND COPY OF THE FILM on the new format. He'll clearly get a lot more second buys than if he sold it on DVD right now. The man's knows how to make money... reminds me of a whiney geek up in Redmond. I'm going to buy stock in Lucasfilm while I bitch and moan about the lack of a DVD.
Actually, I read somewhere that it wasn't really his own money. The movie was paid for before production ever even began by the Pepsi/Pizza Hut/Taco Bell/KFC endorsements.
He's not a great man. Delaying DVD releases is just plain evil
Screw this shit, I've had it/I ain't no mister cool./I'm a pig, I'm a dog/Excuse me if I drool./stm
why must almost everything be hyped to the point
of where it becomes stale ?
If they plan a VCD reliase in asia, there obviously not to worried about Piracy.....
:-(
Ok, I hope this comes up in Meta-Moderation, because this is most definately NOT flamebait, it's completely true... since China (and maybe others, I'm not sure) doesn't usually bother to recognize international copyrights, movie piracy is a HUGE problem there. There are even "legitimate" businesses whose sole purpose is the piracy of VCDs. They get a copy, make a billion copies, and sell them, either on the streets or in stores, and nobody does anything about it. This comment (the one I'm replying to) should be moderated up to insightful, not down to flamebait. Unfortunately, I don't have any moderator points right now
"Software is like sex- the best is for free"
-Linus Torvalds
And that includes Phantom Menace. I'd happily buy the trilogy on DVD. But if Lucasfilm wants my home video dollars, they'll just have to catch up with the 21st century.
Harry
Yesterday, my Karma went down by exactly 5 points, on 5 of my last 7 posts.
I'm pretty sure someone just went in to my user info and blew all there mod points on me, for some reason.
"Suble Mind control? why do html buttons say submit?",
ReadThe ReflectionEngine, a cyberpunk style n
If they plan a VCD reliase in asia, there obviously not to worried about Piracy.....
"Suble Mind control? why do html buttons say submit?",
ReadThe ReflectionEngine, a cyberpunk style n
Everything seems to be available:
1. The encryption/decryption code for DVD's
2. The raw video footage in digital format
3. DVD writers
So some enterprising soul could build one. Or is it more complicated than that?
...the year of the gigantic non-events. Beginning with Star Wars: The Phantom Menace, leaving you with a big 'doh' feeling, going on with the millenium hype and panic, and subsequent non-event newyears eve and ohmigod, a few webpages with 19100 on them. How... exciting.
Maybe we didnt see much of Darth Maul in TPM because he escaped from Hollywood and put lithium in the worlds watersupply (except the medias who seems to have found a supply of mineral water containing high amounts of uppers).
Number one, whomever moderated this post as a Troll doesn't understand the moderation system. HomerJ brings up a good point: many people here have complained about the substance of TPM, so why are people hopping mad about not being able to buy it on DVD?
;)
I accept Lucasfilm's position that they want to make the DVD releases "special" by enhancing them with additional work. However, I don't understand why Lucas would require more than a supervisory role to get the job done. Think about what items would be on a "default" TPM DVD:
- the movie: only widescreen version, can't include a pan & scan version unless released as a dual-sided, dual-layer DVD based on the length of the movie, even without lots of extras
- theatrical trailers: which we've already downloaded as Quicktime videos, but it would be nice to see them on a larger screen
- cast & crew notes: which would be regurgitated from the immense amount of material already written about the movie
- other features: Dolby Digital soundtrack, which would have to be downmixed from the Dolby Digital EX soundtrack (info here), subtitles, alternate language soundtracks, perhaps.
- packaging: simple DVD carrier
What on this list would Lucas need to personally manage? Perhaps he would supervise a pan & scan mixing of the movie itself, but other than that, I don't see what the big deal is. If he wants to include more features than what I've listed, he could certainly create an enhanced version later; and by stating this upfront he probably wouldn't even impact the sales of the initial DVD significantly.
I think the reason they're not releasing it on DVD initially is to ensure that they've milked this cash cow as efficiently as possible. Think about it: many of us who would purchase the DVD but not the VHS version of the movie will probably rent it at least once. And the more voracious of us would probably not hold out until 2005 to purchase a copy of the movies for our libraries, so they would probably buy the VHS version anyway (widescreen, collectors version with all the goodies, of course - certainly more than $20). So what they're really saying is that they have such huge sales projections in the home video market that the 3% of the market with DVD players is not important to them. And another item to consider is that a third- or fourth-generation of DVD might be on the market in 2005, perhaps Lucas thinks he can make a better product, hence more money, later.
All of that being said, let me say that I enjoyed the overall story of the movie, the cinematics, and even some of the Jar-Jar slapstick. I would purchase the "default" DVD I decribed, perhaps for even more than the $20-$25 average price. However, I'm not going to lose sight of the fact that the major movie market is one that responds passively to its fan base (each individual either pays to see or own a copy of a movie or they don't, and the studios don't know any of us from Adam), and that fan feedback plays very little role in the process, except for those who participate in test screenings. The reason why many Slashdotters wants a DVD copy of the movie for their collections is due to its cultural significance, technical excellence, and Natalie Portman.
---- Politics: Kissing ass and pointing blames.
The problem with this idea is that 'the DVD industry' hasn't made a linux DVD player. In fact, 'the DVD industry' hasn't made a Windows player either. Various software companies, like Xing, have made Windows players - write them and tell them that you want a linux DVD player.
Writing a letter to Time Warner that you bought their latest DVD release and are using a tool they're against to view it isn't going to bring a DVD player to linux. Writing Xing and telling them that you can't spend $50 on their dvd player because you run Linux *is* a way.
If you don't want to pay for a player then I'd say you can prepare for a long wait unless the patent issues are resolved, because there are 70-something patents involved in writing a DVD player (and I happen to know of a company that plans on releasing a non-free, but fairly priced player for Linux some time in the near future).
Wow, another geek who doesn't like Star Trek. And all this time, I thought I was the only one. It's nice to know I'm not alone. Thank you for brightening my evening AC.
--- Don't ever trust a woman until she's dead- B.B. King
According to the guy I sit next to at work(Who is more into Star Wars than any healthy person should be) They are going to bring out all Star Wars epsiods at one.
-blue
I haven't seen the movie either, but I think the people who were disappointed in the movie are probably more vocal than those who enjoyed it. Also, cynicism is much more rampant now than it was when the first movie came out. I think some people just enjoy knocking something for the hell of it.
From the way Lucas made and marketed the film, it appears his primary audience was adolescents. The knocks about Jar-Jar coming from 30-50 year old adults seems misplaced, at least to me. They seem almost offended that Lucas tried to make TPM an event for today's kids, almost forgetting that's exactly what he did for them 20 years ago.
Hates people who have stupid little sigs
You nailed it on the head with:
/.ers and SW fans in general.
Now if it were coming out on DVD with all sorts of bonuses and commentary and so on, i would happily fork over 15, 20, even 30 bucks for it, and so would alot of other
Lucas is the master of hype. He is going to make sure that the release of the Star Wars saga on DVD is a spectacular event. I'm sure there will be content on there from even the first movie that no one has ever seen before. People will flock to the stores.
Hates people who have stupid little sigs
It is quite significant. To quote the DVD FAQ.
Any company making DVD products must license the patented technology from a Philips/Pioneer/Sony pool, a Hitachi/Matsushita/Mitsubishi/Time Warner/Toshiba/Victor pool, and from Thomson. Total royalties are about 6% (minimum $6) for a DVD-Video player, 6% (minimum $6) for a DVD-ROM drive, 5% (minimum $2) for a DVD decoder, and 10 cents for a DVD disc.
An MPEG-2 patent license may also be required, from MPEG LA (Licensing Adminstrator). Cost is about $4 for a DVD player or decoder card and 4 cents for each DVD disc, although there seems to be disagreement on whether content producers owe royalties for discs. Contact MPEG LA for more info: .
If they'd Open Sourced TPM, then we could edit out all the scenes with Jar-Jar Binks! ;-)
-- "To ask a question is to show ignorance; Not to ask a question means you'll remain ignorant."
From what I've seen of Lucas, especially during the pre-Ep1 hype, was that he's an amazing control freak. Sure, Star Wars is his creation entirely; he dreamed it all up. I can understand his pride in wanting to make sure it was done right.
But, as seen on 60 Minutes, he personally supervised EVERY minute detail: every costume, every design element, all the way down to the individual sounds of the podracer engines. The 60 Minutes piece actually showed him in the sound editing room, listening to barely-indistinguishable engine sounds. "No, it should be more like 'brrrrrrummmm', not 'barrrrummm'," he was seen meticulously instructing some poor hapless flunky.
Personally, I buy the "George wants to personally oversee the DVD" excuse. I imagine he's like that. He's going to wait until he's done micromanaging Episodes II & III before sitting in the DVD mastering lab, hectoring every tech in sight to make sure it measures up to his anal-retentive "vision".
-Sharv
Maybe.
"Futuaris nisi irrisus ridebis"
--Carlton in Eric Idle's The Road to Mars
"Futuaris nisi irrisus ridebis"
"Recta non toleranda futuaris nisi irrisus ridebis"
And if you want B5 in anamorphic widescreen on DVD, don't forget to sign the petition!
--
Paul Gillingwater
Paul Gillingwater
MBA, CISSP, CISM
Funny, but true: Lucas is only trying to make some money. The article says that Lucas funded the entire production himself and received no studio money. Everyone who paints Lucas as a money-hungry greedy little bastard is a bit wrong-headed on this point. How would you like to create a movie with a budget of at least $100M out of your own pocket?
Let's just say that I'd have to umpire a lot of Little League baseball games to make my bank account healthy again...
awkwardone
www.tealeaves.org "All you need is love." -
Supposedly the reason for no DVD version is that Lucas doesn't have the time to "DO" it?
What has to be done, other than duplication?
When I purchase a movie for home use, what I want is an exact copy of the same movie that was shown in theatres. The finished artwork.
Why does the content depend on the media? Other than to try and boost the price?
*Applauds the bean-counters in their ivory towers*
And so it continues... they will release the films in the cinema. It being a cult showing, everyone will go to see it, fan or not.
The fans, film-buffs, and general public will buy the VHS when they release it.
The fans and film-buffs will go for the better VCD.
The fans will go for the DVD when they release the films one by one at the end of the I, II, III, IV, V, VI sequence.
Remind anyone of the Vinyl/Compact Cassette/CD fiasco of the late seventies and early eighties??? Yay, I had three formats of Brothers in Arms!
Me, I'll wait.
George is still working on each of the already released eps to "perfect" them.
I hope that doesn't translate as "insert Jar Jar Binks into the storyline"
some of us actually liked them the way they were. Am i the only one who thought that the "special editions" were... not so much bad, as a pointless exercise. The additions gave little either atmospherically or structurally, and weren't as far ahead technically from the current competition as star wars was back when it was first released.
i say release them, fans want them for what they are. if lucas wants to do a super-duper-300-dvd set in 2005, let him. we'll probably buy that too.
Fross
Well it seems to me that it was marketed more toward even younger kids than the adolescents you are referring to and the overall "feel" of the picture suffered because of it.
Yes, Star Wars is his baby. Yes, he has special plans for releasing it in digital form. No, those plans don't have anything to do with DVD.
Anyone who has actually paid close attention to what he's doing with filming directly on digital media and what Lucasfilm has been doing in the area of increasing the quality of home video would have a good idea of where he's going.
Imagine if you had blue (or even UV) lasers that could cram nine or even sixteen times as much data onto each layer of a DVD, and a dozen or more layers per side, so that you could have an HDTV quality picture with THX quality sound on a DVD-size disc. And you could probably even have multiple camera angles for each and every scene.
I can't say that this is exactly what he has in mind, but he's exceptionally well plugged in to where digital media is going, and helping to drive a lot of the technology.
He's got extremely high standards, and if he's going to release an audio/videophile version of his movies, you can be damn sure that it's not going to be a crappy DVD.
Brad Knowles
http://daily.daemonnews.org/ -- if you're not
It will feature a special THX(TM) Anti-Gungan Feature that will allow you to eliminate Jar Jar entirely from Episode 1 each time you watch
I'd pay for that! In a heartbeat..
-rt-
** Evil Canadians are taking over the world. Learn about the conspiracy
"Right now he's writing the script for 'Episode II,' then we go right into principal photography this summer in Australia. And after that, he'll be working on 'Episode III,' so it could be some time before he's able to devote the time needed to work on the DVD," Hale said.
What's the big deal? Why does it take so much effort just to put out a DVD release?
Is he afraid it will be pirated (which would be a silly reason not to release) or is he just trying to get people to buy two copies?
That which does not kill me only makes me whinier
It would be easier for them to say that the entire trilogy is out and you have X number of days to buy it before they stop shipping it.
Better to do the marketing all at once, saves money.
I worked in a video store last year, and the word leaking out from the distributor was that Lucasfilm had decided not to make any Star Wars DVDs until all the prequels are out of the way.
The reasoning was that they could get a lot more money out of the consumers. What else did you expect?
The excuse:
"George would love to do something special with the DVD release, but he won't do it until he has time to concentrate on it," said Lynne Hale, a spokeswoman for Lucasfilms Ltd. "Right now he's writing the script for 'Episode II,' then we go right into principal photography this summer in Australia. And after that, he'll be working on 'Episode III,' so it could be some time before he's able to devote the time needed to work on the DVD," Hale said.
Bull-crap! Too much time to work on the DVD my ass. Does EVERYTHING have to be a gigantical special effect for this man!? I mean, sure, DVD stuff is really nifty, but it does NOT have to be produced with hard work by Lucas! Someone else can handle it. We just wanna see the frikkin movie on DVD for !@#$^& sake!
And...feh...that's that, dammit.
yeah
>i pay for stuff, when its worth it. i can justify software pirating. i wouldnt pay for photoshop, so adobe loses no cash. its an old excuse, sure, but its the truth. Perhaps if you're using it you should send what you think its worth ... if not to Adobe, to a free software fund.
The real reason Lucas snubbed DVD is that DVD didn't use his precious THX standard and instead went to Dolby's new AC3 sound standard it helps if you know what you are talking about before you make stupid comments about it.
thx is just a certification for high end audio gear saying that it can do timbre matching, it has real low distortion, and a slew of other stuff.
the 3 digital formats at home right now are ac-3, and dts. another one in the theatre is sony sdds.
please inform yourself before you speak loudly.
'Mullethead. A hairstyle that's a way of life'
I love the idea and will do it for every movie I currently have and for any new ones I buy, a simple script'll do the trick nicely! -BK
Right on. Star Wars' popularity has nothing to do with the merits of the movie, but instead with the merits of the event. On a deeper note why is Star Wars an event?
Because it means something to the geeks who write this now. It has meaning as a reminder of the memory of the original Star Wars movies. You remember the fantasies you created in your mind, the challenge of figuring all of Yoda's subtleties out, the amazement at the special effects, the simplicity of the story that allowed you to understand it, and the millions of pieces of merchandise that your parents bought for you.
Why does this remembrance have such an influence on the geek community?
Because fundamentally geeks are big kids. They live among other things to satisfy their curiosity, they can be so obsessed by their ideas that they lose track of their lives, they don't mind staying up till 1:30 to write of Slashdot. They live their lives balancing adult life and child desires, and when they can remember when life was without this stress they enjoy it greatly. And all to often obsess over it. Star Wars is no more of a cultural icon then Rocky Horror Picture Show, yet both have devout followings. For the same reasons.
Is Star Wars valid for Slashdot? The answer lies in the basic identity of Slashdot, is it a cultural center on the internet, or a technical discussion board? If it is the first, it fits perfectly if only the second it should not have been posted here.
Nate
P.S. TPM was not *that* bad, even with Jar Jar.
"The poet presents his thoughts festively, on the carriage of rhythm; usually because they could not walk" Nietzsche
i pay for stuff, when its worth it. i can justify software pirating. i wouldnt pay for photoshop, so adobe loses no cash. its an old excuse, sure, but its the truth.
same with movies. i couldnt buy ep1 on vcd 9 months ago, but i wanted it. so i got it.
and whatever the reason, everyone and their brother has a copy of it, and SOMEONE at lucasfilm should know that. the collectors might get it, but all in all hes gonna pass the majority of us over. and in the process hes losing some devoted fans who have waited 20+ years by making them wait longer, and trying to pass off a second rate format in the meanwhile
the point is, whether or not your an ewreet w4rez haxxor/p1rate, if you own a dvd player, you want dvds. and since alot of people have the vcd for whatever reason, its all the worse
He is not trying to milk you for an extra buck
Of course not, and plastic light sabers plus thousands of other toys are for the childrens happiness.
The man is a billionaire. He doesn't need an extra buck.
Well maybe on paper. This means if isn't constantly trying to make an extra buck, his financial status could change.
He fancies himself as an artist
He is a businessman first. Now don't get me wrong, I'm not saying he is all that bad. But if you actually believe everything you just said, well...
I hope we are through with these TPM DVD stories for a while.
Amen.
Star Wars episodes 1, 2, & 3 were released REPEATEDLY in various formats, about once a year or so going back as far back as I can recall. They sold by the bucketload each time because of Fox FUD that they were never going to appear again and other nonsense such as special editions, digital remastering etc.
Are you saying that Fox are going to miss out on potentially 3 or 4 reissues of Star Wars between now and episode 3 and that they'll make more money this way? Of course they won't.
This is why it is highly implausible that Star Wars won't be on DVD until then. More likely, the story is bullshit from Fox and Lucasarts to build up demand for when it does appear, probably somewhere near episode 2.
This is nothing new; I have an encylopedia from 1909 complaining then about the commercialisation of Christmas.
Yes you're probably right, I have not bought any VHS since I got my DVD player and will not be buying any more. It's a quality thing. This is the same reason I could not believe people brought TPM (the The Phantom Menace? I dont think so) VCD into work to watch about 2 weeks before it was released here (Northern Ireland). TPM is a cinema experience, it really is one of those films that's really going to suffer for being on a small screen.
You're sick. That's the entire reason I disagree with opensource... NOt creating anything new, just reinventing the old for cheaper. Yay!
Now you're just being silly, quite a lot of computer technlogy is developed in the free software community and replcated by the comercial software distributors.
Lets talk about Internet standards, lets talk about Perl (do they even have any thing this good?), Hell lets talk abut Unix which AFAIK was developed free and became proprietary later on (if I'm wrong about Unix no doubt someone will put me right).
its a fucking horrible piece of shit. I could pull a better movie out of my ass. What dumbass moderator gave that a score 4 anyhow. Archie has spoken.
Only the State obtains its revenue by coercion. - Murray Rothbard
Because you have a conscience?
Seriously, I used to know this guy who warezed stuff all the time, but at least he justified it by saying that he bought the product if he really liked it. You aren't even saying that.
For all intensive purposes, "whom" is no longer a word. That begs the question, "who cares"?
Then everything changed. Christmas was bought over by the market. It became a time for consumerism. A time to sell all the stuff, that couldn't be sold otherwise. Time for manufacturers, vendors and credit card companies to make merry.
Easter, so far, has avoided that amount of commercialisation. According to my Christian friends, Easter is a time for both sorrow and rejoicing for them.
A shrewd businessman has realised that there is great untapped potential there. So what does he do ?
Why, he releases Starwars Episode I : The Phantom Menace, probably the second most overhyped movie ever to hit the silverscreen ( the first being Blair B^HWitch Project ).
Therefore, the first/last spiritual casualty of the millenium (depending on whether this is the 20th century or the 21st) looks set to be Easter.
Has anyone heard of a boycott on "The Phantom Menace" until it's released on DVD? There is a lot of DVD fans out there that like Star Wars and I don't understand why they aren't organizing themselves to make something happen. I know I'd be up for it!
Too Many Secrets!!!!
The real reason Lucas snubbed DVD is that DVD didn't use his precious THX standard and instead went to Dolby's new AC3 sound standard. He's had a hissy fit about that since day one of DVD. Lucas Films is currently one of the last (if not THE last) film companies to start producing DVD's. If this was just about the Star Wars movies and money making, then where's the Indiana Jones movies? After Last Crusade there were no more plans to make any more...so why not release them?
He's just being a baby about his sound standard now being obsolete.
Phoenix
BTW: Wasn't THX just Dolby Pro Logic with Lucas's stamp of aproval on everything...including the smegging cables?
-- Wiccan Army, 13th Airborne Division "We will not fly silently into the night"
I remember seeing an interview with Lucas shortly after TPM came out. I distinctly remember him stating that we wouldn't see DVDs of the movies until after Episode 3 hit the market.
George is still working on each of the already released eps to "perfect" them. Once all 6 movies are released, THEN he was going to release them on whatever the current standard for digital media would be at that time (so some time after Episode 3 hits the stores as a VHS release, 2006 or something like that...).
Chas - The one, the only.
THANK GOD!!!
Chas - The one, the only.
THANK GOD!!!
Well, it was supposed to be all of those things, but instead it turned out to be the most diappointing movie of all time.
Who cares about whether it was a crappy movie? That's hardly relevant - after all, by that same measuring stick, the original trilogy was just about as crappy!
Hardly. Even the wost of the earlier films, Return of the Jedi, was many times better than TPM.
Wrong on two counts.
(i) Return of the Jedi wasn't the weakest film, The Empire Strikes Back was the weakest. ROTJ rocks.
(ii) The Phantom Menace didn't suck, Jar-Jar notwithstanding. In fact Jar-Jar wasn't even the most annoying thing in the film, it was the patronising arrogant boob version of Obi-Wan played by Ewan MacGregor.
Consciousness is not what it thinks it is
Thought exists only as an abstraction
The Star Wars DVD saga is really bothering me, not because I keep reading about it but because Lucas doesn't see fit to release the freakin things on DVD. I think they would look really pretty if they were set up similar to Star Wars: Behind the Magic; good interface, some littles goodies that make it worthwhile, and a little bit of behind the scenes stuff. I would settle for the SEs released on DVD, they would make enough money for him to make four TPMs. I understand him wanting to make them look good but we've been waiting for years to get just the original trilogy on DVD.
I'm a loner Dottie, a Rebel.
I hate the slashdot mentality. Just because you can get something for free doesn't mean that's what you should do.
:)
There is a small but vocal minority on Slashdot who believe intellectual property is wrong, and that all forms of media should be freely copyable. I feel you are being unfair in generallizing their behavior to cover the entire Slashdot readership. I certainly agree with your assertion that no charge != better.
Near as I can tell, most (not all) of these people are trying to justify their pirate copies of Quake II and The Matrix after the fact. I guess they must have a pretty guilty conscience, since they seem to need to keep justifying it, over and over and over again.
The rest have a legitimate belief that IP is wrong. They are entitled to their opinion, but personally, I think their logic is flawed. In any event, they are not the ones who post comments like "Heh, heh, I've had it on CD since it came out. I'm so 1337!"
but you'll settle for it anyways, because of the percieved value of the dollar.
Well, in many cases, you have to look beyond just price or just performance to the price-performance ratio. True, brand XYZ may be twice as fast as brand ABC, but if XYZ costs three times as much, you are often better off buying two of ABC for less then one XYZ will cost. Not that this really has anything to do with pirate video.
That's the entire reason I disagree with opensource... NOt creating anything new, just reinventing the old for cheaper.
Hmmmm. Seems like an obvious troll, but since I'm already here: "reinventing the old for cheaper" is hardly what Open Source Software is about.
dragonhawk@iname.microsoft.com
I do not like Microsoft. Remove them from my email address.
Yeah, he's rich, so he's cool for risking more money than the not-rich can.
Ummm. Okay.
If I have $5k, and risk $2k on something, does that make me as cool as Lucas? I mean, that's about the ratio. He just has a lot more to start with.
And it's not like TPM could have failed, from a cash POV. It did fail, imho, as a decent SW movie, but he still made shitloads. Moronic SW fans watched back to back for 24h, to prove some stupid point, like that they could give Lucas a lot of money.
So wow, he spent maybe a third of his own money on a sure investment, that makes him so cool.
Wow! I just paid the phone bill, *out of my own pocket*, wow, I'm an investment genius.
Nonsense- this whole "time" issue is ridiculous- Lucas had more than enough "time" to spend on tons of other promotional projects- and the DVD release need not even be done by Lucas himself, nor need it include tons fo extra media. They're just covering their asses, plain and simple.
Why would you boycott DVD's in the first place?
The DVD industry obviously thinks that the people who use Linux are a bunch of pirates, because they're the ones that created DeCSS.
What you should do is after buying a DVD -- and I'm dead serious about this -- is write a nice little letter to the movie company that released it saying something to the effect of...
"Hello, my name is XXXX, and I'm a Linux user. As such, I have been unable to play DVDs on my computer system, so I have not purchased any DVDs until now. Now that DeCSS is released and in the general public, I can finally play DVD movies, and have purchased your movie "...". I plan on watching this on my Linux computer system using DeCSS. I understand your worries about DVD pirating, but you must realize that our intentions are to allow us to view your movies, and in effect to be your customers, to put food on your dinner table. I thank you for your concern with our movement, but feel it is misguided, and you do not realize our true intentions, creating something which the DVD industry has overlooked -- DVD players on "non-mainstream" operating systems. I thank you for your time, and for your movie."
Do this for every movie you purchase. It's a protest, it's a public declaration that you're using a product they fear and wish to abolish, but at the same time, it's a letter telling them that you're supporting their product ONLY because someone filled the gap they created -- the lack of linux DVD players. It's definately worth a shot.
OK, so Lucas has an excuse -- but what about Straczynski? His CBS deal with Chris Carter is off, so maybe he can persuade WB to cut a deal for those anamorphic Dolby 5.1 DVD versions of the episodes of Babylon 5 we're still waiting for.... thanks for listening!
--
Paul Gillingwater
Paul Gillingwater
MBA, CISSP, CISM
I don't buy the idea that making a DVD version requires all that much time. It seems like he would want to focus on "Special Features" on the DVD.
But who ever uses those things?
If it came down to DVD titles being released simaltaneous with VHS and without special features or DVD with special features a few months (in this case YEARS) late, I would take a DVD w/o special features 90% of the time!
I've NEVER looked at "cast & crew" info for my DVD movies, and only a few times have I seen the "making of" parts, and I still would have bought the DVD without those features. To me, a DVD means a movie that won't degrade over time with awesome picture and sound. Case in point: Saving Private Ryan, DTS edition. Every DVD should be made this way. Emphasis on quality, the menus are simply and well-desgined. If Lucas is going to spend his time making stupid animated menus, forget it.
Unless the DVD Control Association suddenly becomes clueful and opens up the technology, I have no intention of lining their pockets in any way by purchasing a DVD player. I just have a thing about buying things from people who sue open source developers ;) -V
Hosting for Creators: http://rpg-works.net
Fox has and always had a long term plan to drip feed Star Wars releases and DVD is no different. Fans don't come into this except as the saps who are regularly milked to boost the revenues by the latest release.
They have no intention of sitting on a gold mine. No, they will to build up demand by denying that the DVDs will appear anytime soon and then suddenly release them for a limited time so that purchasers frantically snap them up for fear "they'll be gone forever", to quote from a previous marketing campaign. Probably this will be tied in with Episode 2 in some way, such as appearing a few months beforehand to drum up interest in the new movie. Of course, they won't admit this was their original intention - when it happens they'll pretend they caved-in to demand from "the fans".
Expect to see DVD releases in standard, collectors and special edition formats ad nauseum. The "standard" edition will the first - be a pricey DVD with near-zero extras followed by collector's editions with an even bigger pricetag later.
Lucas might try to worm out from his earlier lies by saying the DVD format is now too mainstream to ignore, or that he's listened to the fans and has changed his mind. This is all bollocks of course.
I might be completely wrong in all this, but if no DVD appears in five years, then I'll be happy to retract my opinions.
I'm not sure if you are being sarcastic...
Boycotts just don't work like this.
Do you really think you are lining their pockets? What fraction of the cost of the player do you think they are getting?
I really don't think it is as high as 10$ a player, possibly as little as 1$ or lower. This is just guessing, but licencing costs for technology aren't as high as you think.
The present version of DVD will be supersceded in a couple years anyhow, this is well known now that blue lasers can be made with good reliability. DVDs presently still use higher frequency red lasers AFAIK. Then there's digital VHS available NOW that can record HDTV bit for bit with no loss, the present DVD standard can't display at the higher resolutions without obvious artifacts, and the recordable DVD cant record any better.
There you have it. Now I hope you people stop whining and get off the man's back. He is not trying to milk you for an extra buck. The man is a billionaire. He doesn't need an extra buck. He fancies himself as an artist, and whether you agree with his assessment, Star Wars is his baby and he wants to show it in the best light possible. DVD allows for such creative license so let him exercise it.
I hope we are through with these TPM DVD stories for a while.
Hates people who have stupid little sigs
Why release ep1 on vcd ? I've had ep1 on vcd(illegal) since about a week after it hit theatres, and its a damn good copy. i even copied it to VHS for a friend. So why the hell would i shell out 15-20 bucks on something ive had for free for months ?
/.ers and SW fans in general.
Any kid with a decent connection, some time, and a cd burner already has this or can get it if he/she/chooses.
Now if it were coming out on DVD with all sorts of bonuses and commentary and so on, i would happily fork over 15, 20, even 30 bucks for it, and so would alot of other
Lucas fucked up in '99 with Jar Jar
Now he's topping himself in 2000
by charging us for something we got for free 9 months ago
Does this article really give us any more information about why the DVD isn't being released, or is it really just a load of horse poopoo?
Personally, what does Lucas have to do with the Phantom Menace to release it on DVD? Does it need some fancy interface that he needs to be personally involved in? Does he have to do yet another cheesy interview with Leonard Maltin (yes, I realize that the videos may have needed something more humorous, but honestly, I can only laugh at the fakeness of the interviews for so long)? Does he need to add more footage to it (how so?). Does something need to be done to make it fully digital? Hell, it was already filmed digitally. They released digital copies in the theatres. You can push that straight to DVD. Slap some nice GUI on it that Lucas' companies have been producing for years in their games.
Slashdotters are suckers if they think that Lucas doesn't have the time to devote to a DVD. He doesn't need to. And if, for some reason he has something really special in mind, well hell, release a regular DVD, and then release a Special Edition DVD a few years later when you get some free time. It worked once before, and I personally won't mind paying some more for it. I'm stupid like that. I'm a consumer.
Lucas doesn't need time to make a DVD, and neither does LucasFilm. This article does nothing except give us another worthless quote and absolutely no answers at all.
/* not flamebait, just an observation */
When Episode 1 was released, the VAST majority of Slashdot thought it was a horrible movie. Everything from Jar Jar sucks, Anakin had a big melon head, Darth Maul didn't have enough screne time, etc. I've personally haven't watched it, so I don't have an opinion one way or another.
So why the big deal about no DVD? If the majority of Slashdot didn't reall care for the movie, why go out in droves to buy a Slashdot-proclaimed bad movie? Is it JUST because it's Star Wars?
I know if I went and saw a movie, ANY movie, and thought it was bad, I wouldn't run out and get it on DVD. Is it to play the "Jar Jar Drinking Game" at home? The one where everytime Jar jar is annoying you take a shot? I would think that most wouldn't really care, considering they wouldn't have bought it anyways. That is, unless they make a habit of buying moives they don't like.
a hidden room deep within the labyrinth of lucasfilm...
lucasfilm stooge #1: the star wars fans will continue to gain support in the marketing division...
lucasfilm stooge #2: the marketing division will no longer be of any concern to us. i've just received word that mr. lucas has dissolved the department permanently. the last remnants of the old lucasfilm have been swept away!
lucasfilm stooge #1: what?! that's impossible! how will lucas maintain a presence in retail outlets?
lucasfilm stooge #2: mr. lucas himself now has direct control over the retail outlets. fear will keep the merchants in line. fear of this studio!
lucasfilm stooge #1: and what of the open source pirates? if they've obtained illegal copies of tpm, it is possible, however unlikely that they may find a distributor... and exploit it!
open source man: the copies you refer to will soon be back in our hands!
homosexual lucasfilm stooge: any attack against this studio would be a useless gesture, no matter what illegal copies they've obtained! this studio is now the ultimate power in hollywood! i suggest we use it!
open source man: don't be too proud of this merchandising terror you've constructed! the ability to addict children to film merchandising is insignificant next to the alluring power of natalie portman!
homosexual lucasfilm stooge: don't try to frighten us with your lustful heterosexual ways, open source man! your sad devotion to that young actress has not helped you conjure up the illegal tpm copies, nor given you clairvoyance enough to find....
open source man holds up a picture of natalie portman to the homosexual stooge.
open source man: i find your lack of heterosexuality disturbing!
lucasfilm stooge #2: enough of this! open source, release him! this bickering is pointless! now open source man will provide us with the pirate sites! we will then crush the hackers with one swift stroke!
thank you.
the fat-time online serial!! feel the power of this force!!
George Lucas is working hard on Episode II: Jar Jar's Revenge. He's taking extra special care this time to make sure an otherwise cool movie would be ruined by one annoying computer generated character that he can sell toys of to little kids.
In the mean time, Lucasfilms is working on the special DVD release to be released with Generation Pi DVD players. It will feature a special THX(TM) Anti-Gungan Feature that will allow you to eliminate Jar Jar entirely from Episode 1 each time you watch it on your Home DVD Generation Pi with DIVX Enhanced Features Player. To do this you have to insert a five dollar bill each time you watch the film, or else Jar Jar returns to annoy you.
So go easy on Lucas, okay? He's only trying to make a buck.
"You ever have that feeling where you're not sure if you're dreaming or awake?"
"You spoony bard!" -Tellah