Where are my Blu-Ray movies??

[Kayembee]

I am old enough to have seen, as an adult, the advent of home
video in all its forms: VHS and Betamax videotape, laserdiscs,
DVDs and now Blu-Ray.

I have a question: what the hell is taking so long for Blu-Ray
releases?!? It must be almost three years now, since Blu-Ray hit
the market, yet I swear there's no more than 2-300 movies out on
Blu-Ray. I think even VHS and Beta, which had to create the first
consumer market for owning/renting movies, went faster than this,
and DVD releases, without even having the competition of a format
war, began releasing old movies on DVD by the truckload within a
year or two after DVDs hit the market.

So, what's the delay? Yes, every NEW movie seems to have a
Blu-Ray release along with the DVD, but what about older films?
What's taking so long?? Why aren't there thousands of older films
out on Blu-Ray now, instead of a few hundred?

Here's an example of what I mean: I watched a broadcast in
high-def of George Pal's THE TIME MACHINE (an old favorite of
mine - it's said, "The Golden Age of science fiction, is twelve",
and that's how old I was when it came out ) maybe 2-3 years
ago. It was a _beautiful_ copy, a perfect copy, created from what
had to be a perfect master.... yet like many another older film I
could name, it's not for sale in high-def, and no such release
has even been announced, far as I know.

Granted, some older films may need restoration before Blu-Ray
release, but even more need nothing but a transfer - so where are
they? What's taking so long? I got a Blu-Ray player for
Christmas, I got money for Blu-Rays burning a hole in my pocket,
but where are the damn films!? Do the owners just not WANT to
make money off these movies? Are they politely waiting for
pirates to get first crack at the market? Because they will. I
could have a pirate copy of STAR WARS in HD _now_ - a few hours
to download - but I can't actually obtain the thing legitimately.
Like THE TIME MACHINE, it's getting broadcast so the pirates can
get a master to copy, but I can't get it legally.

And that's my question: why are so many movies not available in HD,
except to pirates?

-Kayembee

[videopoo]

Huh?? Did you just arrive on this planet?? There are several thousand different BD titles:

http://www.blu-ray.com/movies/movies.php?genre=Adventure

[jntaylor63]

Don't expect a "flood" of older movies to rush to the blu-ray format due to many reasons:

1.) How well has the movie "sold" in past formats and on its own in its theater release? It did not take long to get Kill Bill Vol. 1&2 in HD. And sadly, I don't think Showgirls will ever be out on Blu-Ray

2.) It should take some time to get an older film prep'ed for Blu-Ray. The movies need to be cleaned up and the audio remastered in HD to make it worth the upgrade. There are plenty of Blu-Rays out now that the studios did the exact opposite and they are not worth it.

3.) The Studios and/or the director and or the content owner have their own say. Look at Indiana Jones. We have Number 4 on Blu-ray but not 1, 2 or 3. And why is Star Wars not out given the fan base. It is up to Mr. Lucas to make the call.

4.) Market for Blu-Ray. Its building up and prices are dropping, but too many people are just too happy with DVD.

[Bwizzy]

I recently acquired some old movies on BD and I couldn't even tell they were in HD. I was watching Kickboxer and then later Out for Justice. I told my significant other "Its great that they're putting old movies on BD" and she said, "This is a HD movie?". All I could do is laugh.

[jntaylor63]

Too true, Bwizzy.

I recommend that people here visit http://www.cinemasquid.com/home and look at the blu-ray reviews before they upgrade from their DVD copy. Not only is the review on the movie content and extras, but the quality of the Video and Audio itself.

For me, if the quality on the video isn't "Very Good" or "Excellent", I will just keep the DVD. (HD Audio is nice but not a deal breaker.)

[edDV]

Don't expect a "flood" of older movies to rush to the blu-ray format due to many reasons:

1.) How well has the movie "sold" in past formats and on its own in its theater release? It did not take long to get Kill Bill Vol. 1&2 in HD.

It helped that Kill Bill was shot with 24p HD video cameras and was editied digitally. They already had the Blu-Ray ready file done. Just needed to add menus.

[MOVIEGEEK]

3.) The Studios and/or the director and or the content owner have their own say. Look at Indiana Jones. We have Number 4 on Blu-ray but not 1, 2 or 3. And why is Star Wars not out given the fan base. It is up to Mr. Lucas to make the call.

I will be in a retirement home before Lucas releases Star Wars on Blu-ray.
I-III were shot with a digital camera so they look great on DVD, IV-VI were cleaned up by THX so they also look good.
BTW: www.hidefdigest.com and www.blu-ray.com are also good sites for reviews.

[greymalkin]

I've seen the HD Start Wars episode 4 and even compressed to an 8.5gb package it looks pretty sweet.

Really though, if you want the industry to tailor their bluray production to your movie tastes you'd better have unlimited funds.

[maca]

Great as Blu-ray is, it doesn't represent the quantum leap in quality which the other formats brought, so companies are reluctant to re-transfer their older content, reflecting the public's reluctance to leap whole hog into Blu-ray. Most people with large dvd collections pop their movies into an up-converting player, and think they look pretty damn good. Not quite HD, but close enough not to buy the movie again.

I'll tell you what surprises me: that companies haven't used the larger storage capacity of Blu-Ray to get rid of some of their SD dvd content in "quantity not quality" packages. A company with library dvd titles that are no longer moving, like an Anchor Bay, could put several movies on one Blu-ray, keeping the films themselves in SD quality. The entire "Blind Dead" collection in SD quality on one Blu-Ray disc for one low price, for example. I really thought blu-ray would bring more archiving of library content without necessarily having an upgrade in actual quality. But I haven't seen anybody doing this.

[edDV]

They can't without authorization. The company's with rights must think they will get more revenue by holding back.

But that said, I see insert adverts on Videohelp for the full Borne Identity Series on BluRay ...buy now!

Google has found us.