exidor wrote:There are more people who don't care than there are people who do. That's a nice big market to tap.
Indeed, and if you know that the market for a specific title is made up of significantly more people who don't care than otherwise, and who therefore resent paying extra for improvements that they don't think they need, then plain common sense dictates that you cater for the majority view - even if you personally think that the minority one is correct.
After all, DVD/BD labels aren't charities (contrary to what someone - Nothing, probably - claimed a few years back, even BFI DVD Publishing is expected to pay its own way commercially), and if their decisions are hurting their bottom line, something had to be done to correct this, even if it involves making what appears to the likes of us to be a counterintuitive and even regressive decision.
David M. wrote:MichaelB wrote:Even I sometimes wonder why I paid the premium on a particular release.
Take In the Loop, for instance. Is there really any particular reason to watch it in 1080p, given that its pleasures are pretty much exclusively dialogue-based? I'd say "not enough to be worth paying extra".
That's another point; to a film/video lover like me, I won't discriminate on genre. But most people I speak to have this idea that high definition is all about bright colours and amazing special effects. Trying to explain that it's a better representation of what was shot is pretty futile.
It may be a better representation of what was shot, but in some cases this really doesn't make any significant difference to appreciation. Last night, I watched a couple of episodes of
The Thick of It in glorious SD wobblycam, and at no point did I think "you know, this really should have been broadcast in HD" (maybe it was originally: I don't know and I don't care). For one thing, I was too busy laughing to even notice whether the picture was in focus, never mind whether it was pin-sharp.
So would
In the Loop have been any funnier just because the Blu-ray lets you make out one or two additional flecks of spittle during one of Malcolm Tucker's venomous tirades? Of course not. I have a huge amount of respect for Armando Iannucci as perhaps the single most influential force in British comedy over the last two decades, but David Lean he ain't.