|
|
Posted by caliman.john on 01/09/08 01:32
Second Interview with Max Everett, owner of several electronics stores
in Oklahoma and Kansas.
Q: Thank you, Mr. Everett, for letting us interview you again.
A: Thanks for having me
Q: As you may know, there is yet another rumor that Paramount and
Dreamworks may be switching sides in the coming days. Can you give us
some updated insight on what will happen afterwards?
A: I have been expecting this move, because once contracts are up with
Paramount and the HD-DVD Group, rumored to be in Feb sometime, I
thought they would either go format-neutral or over to blu ray
completely. What I didn't know about was this so-called escape clause
in contracts. Even if this happens within 24 hours, it's not going to
have much (if any) more effect on the HD-DVD format, because it's less
than one month from what was originally going to happen anyway. As
Schwarzenegger said, judgment day can be postponed, but it can't be
stopped.
Q: Do you still believe that HD-DVD could last four or five months or
longer, with this recent news?
A: Of course, it will last at least that.
Q: There are also rumors that Universal will soon follow Warner and
Paramount. What impact will this have on the market? What impact will
it have on you, personally, and with your electronics stores?
A: If Universal goes over to blu ray disk, obviously, the format war
will be officially over. In our stores, we've already instructed our
managers to put warning signs on the HD-DVD section, in the case that
the Paramount deal becomes official. These warning signs will
basically give everyone the information regarding what's happening in
the format war and that if our customers buy an HD-DVD player, they're
buying it at their own risk.
Q: Why would some one buy a player that they can't bring back if it
doesn't work?
A: Our stores have a two week no questions asked guarantee on most
items, but we will not accept returns on this specific item because
some one buys it, later on finds out he or she doesn't want it and
would rather have a blu ray player. In the case of non-working
players, all will have a manufactures warranty, which the customer
would have to send to the factory themselves. So, we're not going to
sell the systems as-is, with no way to return a defective product.
Toshiba will still replace or repair those players, no problems.
Q: Are we soon going to see HD-DVD movies on clearance all over North
America?
A: I've looked on ebay, and many HD-DVD movies online have actually
went down in the last few days alone. As far as locally or in retail
outlets, I don't know yet. Well, I should correct that. HD-DVDs will
be cleared out, no doubt about it, if they can't sell off their movies
with regular prices. We may see more buy one, get one deals, or even
$9.99 deals.
Q: Some people have said that a person from Oklahoma wouldn't really
know a lot regarding numbers, technology, and the internet, in
response of some of what you've said in your first interview. Do you
have a reply?
A: I apologize if I've made it sound like our people, from Oklahoma
and Kansas, are in some type of Mongolian-esque country, with no
electricity or Internet. We have Internet here, or I wouldn't have
been able to surf ebay recently myself.
Q: Some other people are taking the exact opposite approach to you
owning stores in Kansas and Oklahoma, who may believe that if the
Internet isn't as popular there, that you may be out of touch with the
mainstream.
A: Both Kansas and Oklahoma are part of the United States, just the
same as many other states, and I can not apologize for this. I'd also
like to think that just because people here like to go in to real,
physical retail stores and buy stuff, instead of doing all of their
shopping online, we need the same recognition. We don't have these
huge gaming LAN parties, which you see on tech tv and such, and as far
as I know, there are no huge electronics shows here, like CES. These
two states have many good, honest, hard-working people.
Q: Will combo format players help cushion the fall of HD-DVD?
A: The concept of combo players is a really great concept, especially
considering that over 1000 HD-DVDs have been released Internationally.
Many people may have 10, 20, 50, or even 100 or more HD-DVD movies,
which could have cost between $19 and $35 per disc. For some, that'll
be just too much money to lose. With that being said, I can't
personally recommend combo players, due to the prices of them. Chances
are, if you've bought an HD-DVD player, you've done so based on price.
Why not just keep your hd dvd player, maybe even buy a spare when they
come on clearance sales?
Q: Other than price, why wouldn't you want to buy a combo player?
A: I'm skeptical about combo players. How long will the concept of
combo players last in the retail marketplace? Will there be a few
released, and then a year or two from now, they'll be nowhere to be
found? Those are question you have to ask, and I really don't see
combo players lasting in the marketplace myself.
Q: Let's just make this clear. Are you for or against any of the HD
formats?
A: I've remained format neutral from the start. It's just a shame that
a lot of our customers that bought hd dvd players, because they could
not afford blu ray or ps3 systems, they're going to be forced to buy
blu ray eventually. The good thing about the blu ray players are that
once you save up the money to buy one, the movies are really about the
same price as hd dvd movies. Since blu ray/hd dvd movies have an appx
sales ratio of 60/40, that also means there are more blu ray movies in
the market. What that means for blu ray people in general is that blu
ray movies will be cheaper eventually.
Q: How hard will it be to convert the other 40%, which are HD-DVD
users, to blu-ray?
A: Just to be clear, standard def DVDs are still the largest part of
the video market. The HD market is less than 10% of video formats.
Their hd dvd players will still support the hd dvds that they already
have, as well as what clearance hd dvds they can find, but more
importantly, they are great upconverting dvd players. There are
thousands upon thousands of standard definition dvds out there.
Some of those hd dvd owners will have to have the other format, and it
won't be hard for them to choose blu ray. There are many many HDTVs
that look absolutely horrid on standard definition but great on hi-def
stuff. If you have one of these televisions and care about picture
quality, you'll probably switch to blu ray easily.
Previously, I've stated that you also have hi-def satellite
programming and tivos and such. Some people may not want blu ray just
yet. According to Microsoft and Apple, every one wants to get rid of
physical media and do it all through download on demand or iptv.
Q: But do you see download on demand or iptv services becoming
standard? If so, how about a predicted timeline?
A: I think Microsoft and Apple are, in some ways, out of touch with
reality. It's not that we all want IPTV. It's that we'll be forced to
get it in the future, if we want pay television. Download on demand
services are already available on the 360 and various other PC
formats, although they are niche markets.
Q: Why do you believe IPTV will be forced?
A: IPTV will be more easily tracked, and it could all but stop
satellite piracy, with just a click of a mouse button. Because of
this, almost all satellite services, as far as non-commercial, will be
gone eventually. IPTV will replace both cable and satellites. Now,
there is still a satellite service that's trying to bring IPTV
technology over C-Band satellite, via company called National
Programming Service, but even if it does get off of the ground, it'll
be a niche market at best, a failure at worst.
Q: You still didn't give a timeline for this IPTV format. Care to
elaborate? Does this mean new satellites won't be launched in the
future, etc?
A: I don't have a timeline for the transition to IPTV format. Look,
there are many different technologies that we hear about in the
industry, many of which are far fetched, and some which seem great
that never even happen. IPTV is something that has been tried and
tested already, most in condos, which may not have access to small
satellite dishes, in various states in the United States. Now, IPTV is
in Europe. It's a tried and tested technology that seems to work. The
question about IPTV that I'd personally ask about is video quality,
but as you may know, small satellites don't have the best video
quality either.
It's not going to effect satellite launches and such, because that's
where the channels are going to be broadcast from commercially still,
unless they do eventually quit broadcasting from satellites and do it
from the internet.
Q: Let's talk about Microsoft now. What are some of the positives and
negatives Microsoft is going to face, with HD-DVD going out?
A: Microsoft helped to create the hd dvd format, but they relied on
both formats to make money. For one, they helped create the vc-1 codec
and made licensing fees on both hd dvds and blu ray discs from these
video codecs. When all studios switch to blu ray, that isn't going to
effect microsoft that much, unless most or all of the studios switch
to AVC. However, they also created HDi, for hd dvd, but blu ray
decided to adopt blu ray java instead, meaning that they're going to
lose a lot of licensing fees because no studios are going to be using
HDi.
I believe Toshiba wanted to make their own version of the xbox 360, to
include a built in hd dvd player, but microsoft didn't want that, and
the reason being, in my opinion, is that microsoft was able to get
disney, mgm, and various other blu ray exclusive movies on their
download on demand video rental service on xbox live. That was their
incentives or payoff for not allowing hd-dvd players in their systems.
A lot of blu ray fans have blamed microsoft for monopolizing the so-
called format wars, while a lot of hd dvd people will blame microsoft
for the fall of hd dvd. Can you blame microsoft from wanting to make
money off of both sides though?
Q: Is there anything else you'd like to say?
A: Sony has had a lot of bad luck, creating new technologies, with
betamax, minidisc, umd movies, and various other formats. If anything,
we should be happy for them that they have finally helped to create a
technology that just may be around for another five years or more.
Congrats, Sony!
Navigation:
[Reply to this message]
|