Disney's Maleficent:

[Walter-S_North_Carolina]

LINK:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1587310/

I am going to stick my neck out a little. I am predicting this title will become Disney's first UV supported title.

I am judging it will be the first major release to come to home video where the market pressure to adopt UV will be beyond being able to ignore.

As such, if I am correct, we can expect Q3-14 for Disney Studios to adopt DECE membership.

I must concede, this is purely speculation on my part, but I feel confident it will play out as I think. There will simply be too much industry normalization on the UV ecosystem by that point for Disney Studios to remain on the sideline.

[echopulse]

Re: Disney's Maleficent:

I still believe that Disney won't join DECE until UV has a mass consumer adoption rate. I think it could be 25 or 30 million accounts. This likely won't happen for at least another year, unless a certain large retailer of books adopts UV. We'll see in the next few weeks if they are one of the predicted retailers to add UV capability.

[MoWeb]

Re: Disney's Maleficent:

LINK:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1587310/

I am going to stick my neck out a little. I am predicting this title will become Disney's first UV supported title.

I am judging it will be the first major release to come to home video where the market pressure to adopt UV will be beyond being able to ignore.

As such, if I am correct, we can expect Q3-14 for Disney Studios to adopt DECE membership.

I must concede, this is purely speculation on my part, but I feel confident it will play out as I think. There will simply be too much industry normalization on the UV ecosystem by that point for Disney Studios to remain on the sideline.

Walter (not Walter White ) I really love your optimism but I seriously doubt we will see Disney join UV anytime soon within in the next year. Unless of course, as EP states, there is a "mass consumer adoption rate". This will most likely dictate a change in their current approach or acceptance.

[shadow316]

Re: Disney's Maleficent:

I have to say I don't think Walter is far off base here. If you look at the upcoming releases from major studios, they are all adopting the term DigitalHD to describe their included digital copies. Granted this is just a moniker, but also a sign that maybe things are finally coming together.

Disney also adopted VUDU and Amazon in the last year. Point being, Disney has already seen that they cannot pigeonhole themselves like they were with iTunes and antiquated WMV. Disney likes to set their own standards sure, but they really hate looking like they're being left behind.

[Walter-S_North_Carolina]

Re: Disney's Maleficent:

...by that time, I think it will be as if they were still trying to tout betamax distro when everyone else has elected VHS as the standard, including the store shelves being sized for VHS dimensions at the retail outlets.

Disney not joining DECE would make their brand tarnished. They will not let that happen.

[echopulse]

Re: Disney's Maleficent:

According to the NPD group, only %15 percent of the US population are even aware of Ultraviolet. And only a fraction of that 15% have accounts. The last figure we heard was 15 million, which might seam like a lot, but that is less than 5% of the total population. That is 13% of households. I think Disney will wait till it's around 25%, and that's almost 30 million.

[Speedaddict81]

Re: Disney's Maleficent:

According to the NPD group, only %15 percent of the US population are even aware of Ultraviolet. And only a fraction of that 15% have accounts. The last figure we heard was 15 million, which might seam like a lot, but that is less than 5% of the total population. That is 13% of households. I think Disney will wait till it's around 25%, and that's almost 30 million.

This could easily happen by the Home release of Maleficent, which should be about a year from now. As I watched the forums here, the number of new Vudu users from the recent Man of Steel release alone was astounding, even though the posts were fueled by the temporary inability to link Vudu and UV.

I think as you said in your first response, the adoption of UV by a major online 'book retailer' would give UV the boost it needs to make Disney get off their high horse and move to our side of the fence.

[BlakkMajik3000]

Re: Disney's Maleficent:

This could easily happen by the Home release of Maleficent, which should be about a year from now. As I watched the forums here, the number of new Vudu users from the recent Man of Steel release alone was astounding, even though the posts were fueled by the temporary inability to link Vudu and UV.

I think as you said in your first response, the adoption of UV by a major online 'book retailer' would give UV the boost it needs to make Disney get off their high horse and move to our side of the fence.

I am not holding my breath for anyone with hardware to sell to support UV anytime soon.

In all honesty, I think UV has the support it needs from a retail perspective. There are now several providers out there that allow access to UV libraries, but of course Vudu is the best.

Disney loves control. The only reason they supported Blu-Ray was because they got to set some of the technical specifications. Since all the other "big boys" said "we're doing it this way" and Disney didn't get the proper dictatorial powers they felt they deserved, they are trying to save face right now. I don't think there's a magic number they need to see to support UV. They just need to suck it up and say "we were wrong, we want to support UV" and they will be swiftly welcomed into DECE with no hard feelings. I have little hope this scenario will happen anytime soon.

But that's the pessimist in me. I would be absolutely ecstatic if I was wrong and this film marked the beginning of the UV era at Disney. At that point, MGM would also be pretty much forced to open the floodgates as well.

[shadow316]

Re: Disney's Maleficent:

Here is an example of what I was talking about. Disney adopting the DigitalHD moniker for a new release. This is their second major change in their packaged digital copy delivery in the last 12 months. Like I said, not confirmation, but certainly reason to be more optimistic than pessimistic.

[Speedaddict81]

Re: Disney's Maleficent:

Here is an example of what I was talking about. Disney adopting the DigitalHD moniker for a new release. This is their second major change in their packaged digital copy delivery in the last 12 months. Like I said, not confirmation, but certainly reason to be more optimistic than pessimistic.

[threadjack]
I still strongly dislike the ambiguity of the "DigitalHD" moniker. If it is a UV copy, say "Ultraviolet HD", if it is iTunes HD, say so, if it is both, give each the same real-estate on the front of the package in the content line. The consumer should not have to read the fine print on the back, and certainly not look at some website, to see what they are getting. The "DigitalHD" logo guarantees only one thing, 720p or better resolution of some form of digital playability.

[/threadjack]

The inclusion of new terminology, even faulty and/or misleading, does show Disney's willingness to try new things. Unfortunately, the launch of DigitalCopyPlus and the links in DMR to watch your digital copies may be the best we get from them. With that system they can retain the physical disc sales due to the fact that a pure EST purchase from a single vendor does not add a title to their "locker" and is still a crap-shoot for cross-platform playability and license longevity.

We almost need one of the three choices (considering iTunes, Amazon, and Vudu) to fold so we can see what recourse Disney gives to the people who selected that particular format (I hope for iTunes, as I have purchased nothing there).

[Walter-S_North_Carolina]

Re: Disney's Maleficent:

[threadjack]
We almost need one of the three choices (considering iTunes, Amazon, and Vudu) to fold so we can see what recourse Disney gives to the people who selected that particular format (I hope for iTunes, as I have purchased nothing there).

The bond rating for Apple Corp. was recently lowered. Analysts pointed to the vulnerability of iTunes since so much of Apple Corp.'s profit comes from the iTunes product offerings.

However, they are a long way from needing to cease operations.

[Walter-S_North_Carolina]

Re: Disney's Maleficent:

...Release date = 11/4/15 for physical media.


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The early images of the jacket show it as carrying the "Digital HD" logo.