Hollywood annoys me, again.

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I love movies, all kinds of them. I love them enough that I buy a lot of DVDs, and now I buy blu-ray discs, too. But I hate that blu-ray often costs so much more than a regular DVD. And now Hollywood seems on the way to making things even worse.

It’s not bad enough that they are already including a very much unwanted (by me) digital copy disc in most blu-ray packages, basically charging me even more for something I don’t want. Now they’re offering only a single option for the Up blu-ray package, which is a 4-disc package including a digital copy and a regular DVD. WTF? And this is compared to the only DVD option, which is apparently a single-disc version.

Why is there no single-disc blu-ray option? Or even better, a two-disc version that includes all the extras, but not the other formats? Why must I pay a fortune for a package that includes two additional formats of the movie that I don’t want? It wouldn’t be so bad if I wasn’t paying for those extra discs, but I certainly am. The blu-ray package retails for $45.99, while the dvd retails for $29.99. Yes, those prices ARE absurd. Street price isn’t quite as bad, $31.99 and $16.99 respectively, at Amazon.com. But WHY do I have to pay $15 more to get the blu-ray version with all that extra crap? Why can’t I get a beautiful blu-ray for just $21.99, which is the more common $5 price premium over DVD?

People who buy blu-ray right now already pay more, so they’re apparently considered purchasers of “luxury” items, and they’re now being offered only the “luxury” package. The price differential between blu-ray and regular DVDs in the past had already put me off of buying quite a number of blu-ray discs, opting for the cheaper version instead. This kind of thing will only ensure that this continues. And that sucks, because I really enjoyed Up in the theater, and really wanted a nice high-def version for my library.

Please note: I recognize that for some people, such as those that have kids and who travel a lot, these extra discs really fit the bill, as they allow for a parent to watch the blu-ray, let the kids watch the DVD on their player, and allow for a traveler to use the digital copy. But I don’t want those, and should be offered a package that doesn’t include them.

Cranky Geek.

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I’m working on my first custom/user control in VB.NET 2008, after completing my first draft of a simple, but complete, app the other day. The control I’m working on is pretty simple, basically an edit box for numerical/currency/rate information that I’ll be using throughout my work apps. I’ve got the basic data entry stuff in there, and now need to figure out how to interface with the properties window properly, and how to save and load property settings set at dev time.

I’m getting the hang of this a bit more each day, but still don’t like a lot of it (and am so over trying to read the docs in the crappy help system). I am looking forward to some of the extra power and features that should be at my disposal down the line, though.

One thing I really hate is the way the whole system forces me into a particular folder structure, and then apparently doesn’t let me change the names of some things if I change my mind on it later (which I actually do a lot). I’m usually calling a project one thing when I start, then change it to something else later. So far, I’ve found no way to change the name of my project folder once I’ve saved the project. And I’m sure I’ve just overlooked it, but I don’t seem to be able to just copy one component file from one project to a folder for another project, as the environment seems to insist it isn’t there. (And if I try renaming folders manually, VS insists the files are missing.)

I’m sure I’ll learn more of this stuff later, but damn, I miss working in the logical, understandable VB6 editor. (I know the VS editor is supposedly a huge hit with developers, and apparently has legions of fans, but I get tired of it deciding that it knows better than me what I want.)

Disconnected.

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After my previous post about why streaming video shouldn’t be the future, and shouldn’t replace DVDs or Blu-ray discs, the great minds at Fox are now planning to remove extras from rental discs (via CNET), in the hopes that doing so will prompt people to buy the discs instead. So, now you won’t be able to rent the disc to see if the extras are worthwhile, and, instead, people for whom that might make a difference will just skip buying entirely. Brilliant.

Stream This.

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I read various tech blogs and listen to various tech podcasts, and when it comes up, the one thing most of those folks seem to agree on is that the future of the home video market is not in Blu-ray discs, but rather in streaming video over the Internet. I certainly hope they’re wrong, and here’s why: streaming loses too much of the content I might want.

Right now, streaming video does exactly that: it streams a video program (with an audio track) to your computer or TV. Fine. However, that’s all they’re streaming. You probably don’t even get the subtitle tracks that were produced for the movie you may be watching. And heaven forbid that you might actually want to see deleted scenes or a making-of, or any other type of extra. Not available.

Streaming video, to me, has a definite market in replacing cable television. (That is, if your ISP wasn’t going to cap your bandwidth, preventing you from watching all the streaming video you might want to watch. And capping is happening, and getting more common.) Cable TV provides you with just the movie or TV show, and maybe closed captioning. Streaming can do that just fine. Heck, these days you can even stream some high-def content moderately well, without having to pay extra to the cable company to get the HD channels.

If you want to watch the commentary tracks for a show, however, you’re out of luck with the streaming options available. No commentaries, no deleted scenes, no making-of features; no extras of any kind, in fact. Contrasted with the DVD or Blu-ray disc, if you’re a fan of extra content as I am, streaming sucks.

Don’t get me wrong, I don’t dislike streaming, and I do it myself. But for me, it’s for watching current content, for which there are no extras yet anyway, or it’s for content where I just want to see the show, and if I like it, may check out other avenues for any extras that might be associated with it. In other words, I use the streaming kind of like I use my cable subscription, although my cable currently has a lot more content available that I want to watch.

So, having rambled around the point a bit, I’ll re-iterate: I don’t want the future of home video to be streaming, unless they somehow add back in the extras we’ll lose in the current offerings, and ISP bandwidth capping doesn’t continue it’s current trend. And even then, I know I’d be constantly waiting for them to remove content that I might want to watch, for whatever reason studios and media companies do what they do, and then I might not be able to revisit the show I feel like watching. For now, and into the near future that I foresee, I’ll be sticking with my DVD and Blu-ray discs, and loving them for giving me the content I want—with extras.