![]() In the UK, the difference was smaller: The streaming release was January 28th, the disc release February 5th. In the US, Blade Runner 2049 was released on streaming platforms strategically at Christmas but if you wanted the disc you had to wait three weeks longer, until January 18th. But it's beginning to look like they're sabotaging the format in various ways.įor one, Ultra HD Blu-rays are not released 'day and date' with streaming editions but weeks later. Sure, studios continue to issue new movies as well as back catalog on UHD BD. While the number of titles released by 2017 was more than double that of 2016, at the beginning of 2018 we're seeing ominous signs. And if movies studios were willing to sell 4K titles for under $20, surely that must be good news for Ultra HD Blu-ray as well. Nobody could justifiably claim any longer that 4K was an elite, niche format. All except that one studio that sits on the fence when the others jump in.Īpple's announcement was a big boost for Dolby Vision, for HDR in general, and even for 4K. Apple insisted that 4K movies should cost no more than HD movies, so maximum $19.99 each. Apple used both HDR10 and Dolby Vision from the beginning. In September, Apple introduced its fifth-generation TV peripheral, the Apple TV 4K box, along with 4K HDR content on iTunes. ![]() This was attributed to supposed difficulties with the authoring of the then still brand new Dolby Vision Ultra HD Blu-rays. Their first two discs, it turned out after some digging, did not come with Dolby Vision, whereas the online versions did. The studio announced two big titles: 'Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales' and 'Guardians of the Galaxy vol.2'. Shortly after, Disney finally jumped on the bandwagon. It was no surprise therefore when Fox was the first studio to endorse Samsung's HDR10+ format. While Fox uses Dolby Atmos and Dolby Vision for theatrical (Dolby Cinema) releases, for home video they refuse to use these standards, preferring license-free standards for object-based audio and HDR video instead. It had taken about a year for the developers of authoring tools Sony DADC and Scenarist to add support for the premium HDR video format but all of the present majors adopted it and began releasing titles. First, around the middle of the year, the first players and discs with Dolby Vision became available. Ultra HD Blu-ray got two big shots in the arm in 2017. Four times as much, according to the official source – the BDA. While no numbers are known about how sales at each price level fared, the disc format was off to a prosperous start, selling considerably more than Blu-ray Disc in its first year. As is typical with new premium formats, the pricing varied from just about the same as the previous format, i.e. Except for the most notorious hold-out Disney, all major studios pretty quickly jumped aboard and released more than a hundred titles in the first year, 2016. How so?Įxactly two years ago, after a gestation period of about three years, Ultra HD Blu-ray saw the light and was introduced with modest fanfare. That the balance has now shifted in favor of online distribution and Hollywood's love affair with physical media is over is perhaps nowhere more visible than with 4K movies. It's hard to pin an exact year on it but Hollywood's embracing of "digital" distribution came well after the establishment of DVD and Blu-ray Disc. ![]() The studios may have fought even harder against online distribution of movies, perhaps understandably, although (with the file size of video far greater than that of audio, especially for full-length films) it took the movie industry less time to adapt than the music industry. The studios spent years fighting videotape before they embraced it and went on to grow it to such a level that it exceeded their theatrical business. Hollywood historically has a notoriously difficult relationship with new media. They'd rather have you buy something else.
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