Yeah but DVD still outsells blu-ray on the vast majority of releases, so when a big title manages to swing the other way it's a good thing for the future.
Yeah but DVD still outsells blu-ray on the vast majority of releases, so when a big title manages to swing the other way it's a good thing for the future.
Eh. Think there's a causation/correlation thing, here. Those most likely to buy a hard-copy of the previous season have probably already seen the previous season, which means they probably have access to HBO, which means they're probably higher-income and therefore more likely to have a Blu-Ray player.
Blu-Ray hasn't had any penetration in this household. Its an unnecessary entertainment cost when I can get the same story from a cheaper stream, digital copy, or a DVD - doesn't anyone else remember most of the features that are now on Blu-ray were on the first adopters of DVD videos as well? Only a few DVDs still seem to recall that bit of incentive being possible on DVD these days, its just another way to milk ya.
Blu-Ray to me only makes sense if you spend a ridiculous amount of your disposable net income on the best, biggest home entertainment system already anyways, its a perk of being a wealthy individual, IMHO.
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KalTorakOne way or another, they all end up inthe Undercity.Registered Userregular
I haven't made the blu-ray jump either; combination of low income and personal hunch that its lifespan will be short compared to DVD, with the onset of digital distribution. I'll just have to make do with standard def for now.
Blu-Ray hasn't had any penetration in this household. Its an unnecessary entertainment cost when I can get the same story from a cheaper stream, digital copy, or a DVD - doesn't anyone else remember most of the features that are now on Blu-ray were on the first adopters of DVD videos as well? Only a few DVDs still seem to recall that bit of incentive being possible on DVD these days, its just another way to milk ya.
Blu-Ray to me only makes sense if you spend a ridiculous amount of your disposable net income on the best, biggest home entertainment system already anyways, its a perk of being a wealthy individual, IMHO.
BD players can be had for like $50-$70 nowadays. In this case, GoT ran $35 on BD, compared to $30 on DVD. Like, I guess it's an "unnecessary" entertainment cost but if you're on any TV larger than about 32" (so we're talking it's a noticeable difference. And not that pricey.
You can get a 40" or larger 1080p TV for under $500 nowadays. For an item that you buy once every...maybe five years? more?...you don't need to be "wealthy" for that to be a modest portion of your disposable income. And Blu-Ray makes sense on such a TV.
Basically I look at blu-ray as having the definitive version anymore of a movie/TV show, in terms of audio and visual quality. We're several years away from having true lossless audio and the kind of visual fidelity offered on blu-ray over a digital distribution method.
And as mcdermott points out, you start getting into larger screen sizes and projection setups that quality increase makes a big difference. We have a 120" screen and 1080p projector with full 7.2 surround and I probably paid less overall than the cost of just your average brand-name (Sony/Samsung/Panasonic) 55" LCD or Plasma TV nowadays (approx. $1500-2000). And I don't think I've paid over 10 bucks for a single standalone blu-ray in my life.
It's not some top-hat and monocle hobby anymore if you shop smart and want quality components.
Regardless, it's nice GoT is selling well on BOTH formats.
See, to you $500 is nothing, not even considered "wealthy", to me that is rent and the like. When I have a cheaper option that still get to view the story by, I'm going to take it and as far as I am concerned I still get the same viewing experience. $50 Blu Ray player? I don't care, I can get a DVD player for less. Blu-Ray discs going for $25+? I don't care, I can get a DVD copy or a stream for a whole lot less. Does the story change depending on what format it is in? No, I still see the same Game of Thrones episodes you do. You don't need Blu-Ray even when you want to watch a show with modern digital conveniences (no rewind to return to renter, scene selection, optional subtitles, etc) that were the reason IMHO they replaced VHS.
Instead, if by some happy circumstance I end up with $500 in disposable income, saved up most likely, I'd rather spend that on other things than a different slightly bigger tv (the only reason we have one is it was a gift) and fewer movies with the higher BluRay prices (on average). I will probably end up being one of those kinds of people who still had a DVD player long after they stop making them, if they ever do, like grand parents who still have a VHS player collecting dust in the entertainment center that most likely their kids bought for them.
It may be the same story but it's a far different audio/visual experience for me and you.
That said I don't really care how people spend their money, I just commented that it's nice the blu-ray is selling better and that's good for the format, which I am a supporter and fan of.
The people who would be bothered by being spoiled by a poster have already watched that season. It's aimed at those who have not, or only caught a few episodes, saying to them "Shocking, awesome, gory things happen in this show. You should catch up."
I disagree, pointing to people like my parents. Not everyone has all the premium cable channels, and not everyone torrents/streams TV shows and movies that aren't yet available on disc. Some people actually watch stuff on DVD for the first time. I could see that argument being made a month or two down the road, but in the immediate wake of the "I can finally legally/easily watch that show that people have been talking about" DVD release... you'd think they would not want to spoil a key plot point for those people.
The people who would be bothered by being spoiled by a poster have already watched that season. It's aimed at those who have not, or only caught a few episodes, saying to them "Shocking, awesome, gory things happen in this show. You should catch up."
I disagree, pointing to people like my parents. Not everyone has all the premium cable channels, and not everyone torrents/streams TV shows and movies that aren't yet available on disc. Some people actually watch stuff on DVD for the first time. I could see that argument being made a month or two down the road, but in the immediate wake of the "I can finally legally/easily watch that show that people have been talking about" DVD release... you'd think they would not want to spoil a key plot point for those people.
I am, however, curious as to how the guy who was spoiled encountered this particular spoilery image.
If I am enjoying a piece of media that others may or may not know the ending to, I avoid anything that might give me information about that media. I don't go to the channel's website unless I have to, and I certainly wouldn't be in this thread if I hadn't already read the books and/or watched the series.
If he encountered it in the bowels of HBO's website, then it's his fault. If some guy posted it unspoilered on his blog, it's that blogger's fault. But I don't think it was necessarily a bad idea for HBO to approve or use the image in general.
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Triwizard Drinking Tournament - '09 !Hufflepuff unofficial conscript, '10 !Gryffindor
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Yeah, this is not a poster that they're like, putting up in subway stations. Same as their "The North Remembers" poster, this is a poster targetted very much at internet fans who've read the books.
A trap is for fish: when you've got the fish, you can forget the trap. A snare is for rabbits: when you've got the rabbit, you can forget the snare. Words are for meaning: when you've got the meaning, you can forget the words.
Finished watching all the commentaries. They were all fun, except sadly Martin's on Episode 8. It was way too much "commentary for the blind" and not much else.
It is also, I believe, the only solo commentary. I've seen some good solo commentaries before but overall they are much better with a group. Group commentaries seem to not have the above problem nearly as often.
Also: Holy shit the acting in this series is great. I mean, I appreciated the acting before but getting to see facial expressions without the dialogue really highlights some of the subtleties.
Yeah, Martin's "describe what's on screen" commentary was kinda annoying at times, but there were still some interesting tidbits in there about what was changed in bringing the books to the screen. The bit about the "Butterfly Effect" of changing something seemingly small and insignificant in the TV series causing a huge divergence later between the show and the later books was interesting.
The funniest thing about the commentaries is how many of the commentators try to convey that the actor who plays Joffrey is actually a totally nice, great person and not, say, someone you want to see get slapped for 10 minutes on YouTube.
Blu-Ray hasn't had any penetration in this household. Its an unnecessary entertainment cost when I can get the same story from a cheaper stream, digital copy, or a DVD - doesn't anyone else remember most of the features that are now on Blu-ray were on the first adopters of DVD videos as well? Only a few DVDs still seem to recall that bit of incentive being possible on DVD these days, its just another way to milk ya.
Blu-Ray to me only makes sense if you spend a ridiculous amount of your disposable net income on the best, biggest home entertainment system already anyways, its a perk of being a wealthy individual, IMHO.
BD players can be had for like $50-$70 nowadays. In this case, GoT ran $35 on BD, compared to $30 on DVD. Like, I guess it's an "unnecessary" entertainment cost but if you're on any TV larger than about 32" (so we're talking it's a noticeable difference. And not that pricey.
You can get a 40" or larger 1080p TV for under $500 nowadays. For an item that you buy once every...maybe five years? more?...you don't need to be "wealthy" for that to be a modest portion of your disposable income. And Blu-Ray makes sense on such a TV.
I can't get half the blu rays in existence to work on my player or my laptop and its irritating, they work fine in my PS3 but sometimes I have to download an update to watch them
All this DRM nonsense makes me hate the format so much. I have extremely fast internet, if I wanted to pirate I'd have it in less time than it takes me to open the case and put it in the player, not sure why they apparently keep altering the DRM on blu rays to need continuous updates
Yeah, Martin's "describe what's on screen" commentary was kinda annoying at times, but there were still some interesting tidbits in there about what was changed in bringing the books to the screen. The bit about the "Butterfly Effect" of changing something seemingly small and insignificant in the TV series causing a huge divergence later between the show and the later books was interesting.
The funniest thing about the commentaries is how many of the commentators try to convey that the actor who plays Joffrey is actually a totally nice, great person and not, say, someone you want to see get slapped for 10 minutes on YouTube.
What's that? All I heard was Joffrey getting slapped.
You did know that this was going to be the response, right?
The funniest thing about the commentaries is how many of the commentators try to convey that the actor who plays Joffrey is actually a totally nice, great person and not, say, someone you want to see get slapped for 10 minutes on YouTube.
It's nice that they'd do that. Helps to stop the actor getting typecast.
A trap is for fish: when you've got the fish, you can forget the trap. A snare is for rabbits: when you've got the rabbit, you can forget the snare. Words are for meaning: when you've got the meaning, you can forget the words.
The funniest thing about the commentaries is how many of the commentators try to convey that the actor who plays Joffrey is actually a totally nice, great person and not, say, someone you want to see get slapped for 10 minutes on YouTube.
It's nice that they'd do that. Helps to stop the actor getting typecast.
It...does? I imagine him portraying other types of characters would way more than what you'd expect anyone to say about anyone else 99% of the time. It be way awesome if they confirmed he was really an ass :P
This show actually got me to buy a BR player and 5.1 sound system, as Allforce said, if you look for the deals you can get a great setup for very little. The BR player cost $80 on sale and the 5.1 was $290 on sale(down from $600), so for under $450 total I now have a setup that I will be using for the next 10+ years unless I feel the urge to get something else. This goes along with the TV I bought almost 5 years ago now which was $1400 at that time, same TV is now $500.
To me, the difference in quality between DVD and BR is huge. My fiance was always bugging me about how I would always DVR shows in HD and download shows that aren't on TV here in 720p but since I showed her the difference between an SD and HD show she fully agrees with me now. We watched seasons 1 and 2 of Fringe that I downloaded in HD and I hastily got season 3 in SD and her first thought when we went to watch it this weekend was "ugh, why does it look like shit?". We are now waiting for the BR to get here to continue the show.
Because if you're going to attempt to squeeze that big black monster into your slot you will need to be able to take at least 12 inches or else you're going to have a bad time...
Finished watching all the commentaries. They were all fun, except sadly Martin's on Episode 8. It was way too much "commentary for the blind" and not much else.
The one with the Stark kids didn't make you want to stab pencils into your ears?
So I'm one of those people who never saw Game of Thrones, because I don't subscribe to HBO. However, all the rave reviews of the show did prompt me to purchase and read all the books... well that and I started taking the bus to work. :P
So hearing about the Blu-Ray coming out (at last!) brought me great elations... my wife and I picked it up this weekend and watched the first two episodes. I big part of the fun for me is that she has not read the books, so I get to explain things that the show doesn't adequately get across (in my opinion). I also really like seeing how they choose to cast characters that I've already built-up in my head. For the most part, I think HBO did an excellent job.
The bad part, of course, is that I know how the story goes, and I have to remind myself not to get annoyed when they make changes. For example, I cannot quite understand why they (I'll spoil this just in case as it's story-related):
...showed Cersei and Jaime at the beginning, talking about Jon Arryn's death and wondering if he may have told anyone.
To me, that seemed to throw askew the entire pacing of the storytelling, which in the book was very deliberate in it's lead up to the 'big reveal'. It's not a huge deal I guess, but it really felt like unnecessary spoon-feeding. Maybe if I go back and watch the episode with commentary, someone will explain why that change was made.
When showing it to my brother, I quizzed him between episodes on the major characters and their alliances/family ties. After the first 3 or so he got into the swing of things, and could follow everything ok. Of course, this strategy only works for nerds.
Don't get me wrong, I believe a certain amount of 'spoon feeding' is necessary since the shows have considerably less time to get the story out there than do the books. I was merely questioning that particular bit of spoon feeding which I thought gave everything away far too early.
My wife expressed that she's confused about several things in the show, but on the point of that particular mystery, she's already guessed everything.
That first episode is pretty brutal in it's multitudes of characters they introduce. Like:
Okay, here at Winterfell, we've got Eddard (Ned, if you like), Catelyn (Cat), Robb, Jon, Theon, Bran, Rickon, Sansa, Arya... Hodor--King Robert arrived! He brought Cersei, Jaime, Tyrion, Joffrey, Myrcella, and Tommen--and Sandor Clegane... Benjen shows up too.
In some distant locale, let's meet Viserys and Daenerys, Illyrio, Jorah, and the Karl.
Don't get me wrong, I believe a certain amount of 'spoon feeding' is necessary since the shows have considerably less time to get the story out there than do the books. I was merely questioning that particular bit of spoon feeding which I thought gave everything away far too early.
My wife expressed that she's confused about several things in the show, but on the point of that particular mystery, she's already guessed everything.
What do you think they actually gave away though?
Contemplate this on the Tree of Woe
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reVerseAttack and Dethrone GodRegistered Userregular
Don't get me wrong, I believe a certain amount of 'spoon feeding' is necessary since the shows have considerably less time to get the story out there than do the books. I was merely questioning that particular bit of spoon feeding which I thought gave everything away far too early.
My wife expressed that she's confused about several things in the show, but on the point of that particular mystery, she's already guessed everything.
I think they did that bit of spoon feeding to give watchers who didn't know the books a bit of a hook into the Lannisters. This was the 1st episode keep in mind and they wanted you to be interested in the two of them right from the start
To me, that seemed to throw askew the entire pacing of the storytelling, which in the book was very deliberate in it's lead up to the 'big reveal'. It's not a huge deal I guess, but it really felt like unnecessary spoon-feeding. Maybe if I go back and watch the episode with commentary, someone will explain why that change was made.
I wouldn't jump to conclusions if I were you, have you read all of the books?
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With only a $5 price difference at most outlets (at release) and with Blu-Ray penetration being pretty high nowadays, that shouldn't be surprising.
Eh. Think there's a causation/correlation thing, here. Those most likely to buy a hard-copy of the previous season have probably already seen the previous season, which means they probably have access to HBO, which means they're probably higher-income and therefore more likely to have a Blu-Ray player.
Blu-Ray to me only makes sense if you spend a ridiculous amount of your disposable net income on the best, biggest home entertainment system already anyways, its a perk of being a wealthy individual, IMHO.
BD players can be had for like $50-$70 nowadays. In this case, GoT ran $35 on BD, compared to $30 on DVD. Like, I guess it's an "unnecessary" entertainment cost but if you're on any TV larger than about 32" (so we're talking it's a noticeable difference. And not that pricey.
You can get a 40" or larger 1080p TV for under $500 nowadays. For an item that you buy once every...maybe five years? more?...you don't need to be "wealthy" for that to be a modest portion of your disposable income. And Blu-Ray makes sense on such a TV.
And as mcdermott points out, you start getting into larger screen sizes and projection setups that quality increase makes a big difference. We have a 120" screen and 1080p projector with full 7.2 surround and I probably paid less overall than the cost of just your average brand-name (Sony/Samsung/Panasonic) 55" LCD or Plasma TV nowadays (approx. $1500-2000). And I don't think I've paid over 10 bucks for a single standalone blu-ray in my life.
It's not some top-hat and monocle hobby anymore if you shop smart and want quality components.
Regardless, it's nice GoT is selling well on BOTH formats.
Instead, if by some happy circumstance I end up with $500 in disposable income, saved up most likely, I'd rather spend that on other things than a different slightly bigger tv (the only reason we have one is it was a gift) and fewer movies with the higher BluRay prices (on average). I will probably end up being one of those kinds of people who still had a DVD player long after they stop making them, if they ever do, like grand parents who still have a VHS player collecting dust in the entertainment center that most likely their kids bought for them.
That said I don't really care how people spend their money, I just commented that it's nice the blu-ray is selling better and that's good for the format, which I am a supporter and fan of.
I disagree, pointing to people like my parents. Not everyone has all the premium cable channels, and not everyone torrents/streams TV shows and movies that aren't yet available on disc. Some people actually watch stuff on DVD for the first time. I could see that argument being made a month or two down the road, but in the immediate wake of the "I can finally legally/easily watch that show that people have been talking about" DVD release... you'd think they would not want to spoil a key plot point for those people.
I am, however, curious as to how the guy who was spoiled encountered this particular spoilery image.
If I am enjoying a piece of media that others may or may not know the ending to, I avoid anything that might give me information about that media. I don't go to the channel's website unless I have to, and I certainly wouldn't be in this thread if I hadn't already read the books and/or watched the series.
If he encountered it in the bowels of HBO's website, then it's his fault. If some guy posted it unspoilered on his blog, it's that blogger's fault. But I don't think it was necessarily a bad idea for HBO to approve or use the image in general.
Triwizard Drinking Tournament - '09 !Hufflepuff unofficial conscript, '10 !Gryffindor
Nerd blog at culturalgeekgirl.com
It is also, I believe, the only solo commentary. I've seen some good solo commentaries before but overall they are much better with a group. Group commentaries seem to not have the above problem nearly as often.
Also: Holy shit the acting in this series is great. I mean, I appreciated the acting before but getting to see facial expressions without the dialogue really highlights some of the subtleties.
Is it April 1st yet?
The funniest thing about the commentaries is how many of the commentators try to convey that the actor who plays Joffrey is actually a totally nice, great person and not, say, someone you want to see get slapped for 10 minutes on YouTube.
I can't get half the blu rays in existence to work on my player or my laptop and its irritating, they work fine in my PS3 but sometimes I have to download an update to watch them
All this DRM nonsense makes me hate the format so much. I have extremely fast internet, if I wanted to pirate I'd have it in less time than it takes me to open the case and put it in the player, not sure why they apparently keep altering the DRM on blu rays to need continuous updates
What's that? All I heard was Joffrey getting slapped.
Of course. I would have been greatly disappointed otherwise (especially since it hasn't appeared on this page yet).
Wow, that's amazing considering the other heavy-hitters HBOs had.
It's nice that they'd do that. Helps to stop the actor getting typecast.
Hodor noooo!
I guess its this generations "technicolor"
It...does? I imagine him portraying other types of characters would way more than what you'd expect anyone to say about anyone else 99% of the time. It be way awesome if they confirmed he was really an ass :P
To me, the difference in quality between DVD and BR is huge. My fiance was always bugging me about how I would always DVR shows in HD and download shows that aren't on TV here in 720p but since I showed her the difference between an SD and HD show she fully agrees with me now. We watched seasons 1 and 2 of Fringe that I downloaded in HD and I hastily got season 3 in SD and her first thought when we went to watch it this weekend was "ugh, why does it look like shit?". We are now waiting for the BR to get here to continue the show.
The one with the Stark kids didn't make you want to stab pencils into your ears?
So hearing about the Blu-Ray coming out (at last!) brought me great elations... my wife and I picked it up this weekend and watched the first two episodes. I big part of the fun for me is that she has not read the books, so I get to explain things that the show doesn't adequately get across (in my opinion). I also really like seeing how they choose to cast characters that I've already built-up in my head. For the most part, I think HBO did an excellent job.
The bad part, of course, is that I know how the story goes, and I have to remind myself not to get annoyed when they make changes. For example, I cannot quite understand why they (I'll spoil this just in case as it's story-related):
To me, that seemed to throw askew the entire pacing of the storytelling, which in the book was very deliberate in it's lead up to the 'big reveal'. It's not a huge deal I guess, but it really felt like unnecessary spoon-feeding. Maybe if I go back and watch the episode with commentary, someone will explain why that change was made.
Unrelated, why the hell does Sean Bean sound like he's out of breath and about to cry every time he opens his mouth?
They didn't do much of that, either. My husband could barely follow it.
They vocalized a few of the things that were said between lines in the book.
My wife expressed that she's confused about several things in the show, but on the point of that particular mystery, she's already guessed everything.
Okay, here at Winterfell, we've got Eddard (Ned, if you like), Catelyn (Cat), Robb, Jon, Theon, Bran, Rickon, Sansa, Arya... Hodor--King Robert arrived! He brought Cersei, Jaime, Tyrion, Joffrey, Myrcella, and Tommen--and Sandor Clegane... Benjen shows up too.
In some distant locale, let's meet Viserys and Daenerys, Illyrio, Jorah, and the Karl.
It's a lot of dudes to remember!
What do you think they actually gave away though?
Lannisters are evil.
I wouldn't jump to conclusions if I were you, have you read all of the books?