BluRay Releases Broaden Appeal, but Slowly

By Christopher P. Jacobs
Staff Writer

The BluRay home video format has been available to the public for almost four years now, but despite relatively rapid growth, there is still much public confusion on its value or even its necessity. A mandate of Congress changed the U.S. television standards last year from the half-century old NTSC analog broadcast format to a higher-definition digital widescreen format. While cable and satellite TV services still carry numerous low-definition channels, and local broadcast stations still include much of their content in the old standard-definition format, all new television sets are designed to display various flavors of HDTV in various ways.

Set-top digital video recorders allow people to record high-definition programming to watch later, but hard disk space and memory are limited, and although some allow burning to DVDs, programs cannot be saved to separate tapes or discs in high-definition, due to copyright restrictions. BluRay technology makes it possible for people to buy prerecorded high-definition versions of movies and TV shows at a low cost, the same way they’ve collected DVDs over the past 10-15 years, and VHS or Beta videocassette tapes for the 15-20 years before that.

As I’ve noted in past columns, people who still have standard-definition TV sets have absolutely no need to invest in BluRay players or discs, as they will not look any different than standard DVDs unless shown on a high-definition TV. People who have HDTV sets smaller than 40 inches or with resolution of only 720p will see marginal if any improvement watching BluRay discs, compared with well-authored DVDs played through an upconverting DVD player.

However, those with large, full-1080p monitors and especially 1080p front-screen projectors, may quickly become addicted to watching BluRay versions of movies. The HDTV picture quality is comparable to what can now be seen in commercial movie theatres that have converted to the most typical 2k digital video projection systems (though not as sharp as the more expensive 4k and higher digital systems, which approach the quality of good old 35mm film prints on well-maintained equipment).

At this point in time, it still seems as if BluRay’s appeal is mainly to technophiles who love the latest gadgets and technology, rather than the mass buying public—largely males in their late teens and 20s through their 30s and 40s. The major studios so far are catering mainly to that niche market by releasing new hit movies to BluRay and not much else.

For the limited number of older catalog titles in their vaults that they decide to offer on BluRay, they’re currently concentrating on flashy action, spectacle, war, western, or special-effects movies, and a few selected big-budget hits and major Oscar-winners. Even those are primarily films from the past 20-30 years, titles the target audience may have seen or remember playing in theatres while growing up.

Over the past year, however, the BluRay format has attracted a slowly growing base of cinema enthusiasts who prefer international, independent, and classic films over many of the latest Hollywood hits, and would like to see them at home with theatre-like clarity. Companies like the Criterion Collection, Lionsgate, and Warner Home Video in the U.S., and Eureka’s Master of Cinema releases in Britain have gradually but steadily been releasing high-quality BluRay editions of films more likely to play at “arthouse” cinemas and revival theatres.

One year ago there were no silent films and only a couple of token “classics” from the golden era of Hollywood on BluRay, and now there is a nice if still limited sampling available. Other than a few selected high-profile titles, most of the “old” movies were from the early 1990s and maybe the 1980s. Now there are roughly 200 films from before 1980 currently on BluRay or announced for release by the end of 2010.

It’s instructive to break down the numbers of films by year of original release to recognize a strong bias against older films. Including region-free European releases, the decade of the 1970s has about a hundred titles represented on BluRay. The 1960s have a little over 50, and the 1950s have a little over 30. The 1940s, on the other hand, have only about 10 titles (some of those still forthcoming), the 1930s have 8 (with three of those not out until later this year), and the 1920s have just 6 films, with two now available, a third due next week (“Battleship Potemkin”), and three more promised by the end of the year. There are no films from the 1910s yet released to BluRay in high-definition (and yes, a well-preserved original 35mm film negative or print from the 1910s may look just as sharp on BluRay as a film from 2010 on BluRay).

Obviously films made before the widescreen revolution of the mid-1950s are currently the least likely to receive BluRay releases. This is likely due to the new “widescreen” 16x9 television format confusing mass-market buyers about the concept of what used to be called “fullscreen” movies no longer filling the full screen width unless they’re stretched out to “fat-screen” proportions or zoomed out so the top and bottom are cut off.

The best way to insure more classic, foreign, and independent films making their way to BluRay is for people to buy those that are already out. Since local stores rarely carry movies over 10 years old, you may need to check websites like http://www.blu-ray.com and browse their database for titles, statistics, and reviews.

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