Stage6 high-def site is going dark
It’s curtains for DivX’s showcase site for high-definition video, Stage6. The last day is Thursday. DivX already has unplugged the popular site’s upload functionality, so this looks like it’s for real.
The site was basically a YouTube for people shooting in high-def. Which could be just about anyone, given the low cost of HD gear these days. It also included other typical YouTube-type fare, which as trailers, anime and music videos.
The latest traffic figures show something like 17 million users a month.
So why kill the site?
Tom (aka Spinner) of DivX wrote on the online video site: “The short answer is that the continued operation of Stage6 is a very expensive enterprise that requires an enormous amount of attention and resources that we are not in a position to continue to provide. There are a lot of other details involved, but at the end of the day it’s really as simple as that.”
The well-connected blog Tech Crunch talks about those details, saying the shutdown came after “a ridiculous battle of egos at the DivX board level” that caused the show-runners to quit. It’s a complicated story concerning a deal to sell the video service; you can read about the boardroom battles on that blog. DivX had no comment on the report.
Stage6 was launched after DivX went public in late October 2006, and went into beta the next summer. Since then, wanna-be filmmakers and real ones have packed the site with content.
Meanwhile, DivX stock took a pounding after Monday’s announcement.
The video content reportedly is being sent to other unspecified content sites.
I’d recomend taking a quick look at the site before tomorrow — this is what we’ll all expect to see from video-sharing services in the future. Right now, the shutdown is a real loss to the cause.
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Blu-ray vs. downloads: war that wasn’t
Media thrives on conflict. Hard to write a good story without the old push-pull. So when the video industry entered into its second civil war — HD DVD vs. Blu-ray — the consumer press and the trades had plenty of drama and metaphors to work with. Until last week, when Blu-ray accepted HD DVD’s surrender at Toshiba headquarters in Japan.
The media and tech bloggers wasted no time in bringing on the next threat to Blu-ray: downloading and streaming of movies and TV shows via the Internet. Perhaps the Blu-ray victory was hollow, some speculated.
Good story line, but way premature. Anyone with experience in watching movies and shows over the Net knows this remains early adopter territory.
A lot of progress in terms of consumer convenience has been made in the year since this blog launched, but we’re still (mostly) a forgiving core audience of teens, college students and tech hounds.
Two voices of reason popped up:
David Pogue, the talented home tech writer for the New York Times, tackled the subject of digital downloads on Thursday: “The Internet movie download era is more distant than pundits think, for four colossal reasons.” — limited broadband penetration; lack of extra features such as director’s commentaries, deleted scenes; audio and video quality; and the cluelessness of Hollywood.
Here’s Pogue:
“Today’s movie-download services bear the greasy policy fingerprints of the movie studio executives — and when it comes to the new age of digital movies, these people are not, ahem, known for their vision.
“For example, no matter which movie-download service you choose, you’ll find yourself facing the same confusing, ridiculous time limits for viewing. You have to start watching the movie you’ve rented within 30 days, and once you start, you have to finish it within 24 hours.
“Where’s the logic? They’ve got your money, so why should they care if you start watching on the 30th day or the 31st?”
He goes on to review the leading download/streaming services, such as Apple TV and Vudu.
The conclusion: “When competing with the humble DVD, Internet movie boxes do poorly on price, selection and viewing flexibility (that is, how much time you have to watch). Their sole DVD-smashing feature is the convenience; you get the movie right now.”
Duncan Riley of TechCrunch listed his reasons online video downloads are not about to kill Blu-ray:
- “Substantial generations have grown up with physical media, and this isn’t about to change tomorrow. … Like music, that is going to take at least 5-10 years.”
- “There are still people who prefer consuming video on their TV sets. … Until such time that Net or network-enabled devices become mainstream, TV and physical media will retain the upper hand.”
- “The days of cheap unlimited internet access in the United States may well be coming to an end as more and more download video and use P2P services. The low cost of bandwidth itself was a historical quirk that came about due to the first dot com bubble.”
I think Blu-rays should have a good decade of life left in them, with increasing consumer acceptance — unless the various compatibility issues between player makers and disc makers don’t get sorted out. (HD DVD had its issues, but it was clearly more “market ready” than Blu-ray.)
Watching movies on computers will always be a secondary pastime, so the providers of online video content had best use that decade to figure out how to get the Internet directly plugged into those TVs — with minimal hassle and maximum A/V quality.
Yeah, that’s one reason I own Apple stock.
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Toshiba kills HD DVD format
Toshiba surrendered in the costly high-definition format war Tuesday, officially killing off the HD DVD platform.
Toshiba President Atsutoshi Nishida cited Warner Bros.’ decision to go Blu-ray exclusive: “That had tremendous impact,” he said. “If we had continued, that would have created problems for consumers, and we simply had no chance to win.”
Toshiba vowed to support current HD DVD players.
Nishida indicated the situation with U.S. film studios backing the format was unresolved, the AP reported early today.
HD DVD format off to an early grave
The HD DVD format won’t last the week, apparently. The Wall Street Journal’s web site broke the story and several other news organizations have advanced it.
Format creator Toshiba says no decision has been made to surrender, but spokeswoman Jodi Sally told the Hollywood Reporter that, “Given the market developments in the past month, Toshiba will continue to study the market impact and the value proposition for consumers, particularly in light of our recent price reductions on all HD DVD players.”
Toshiba subsidizes the price of HD DVD players, which have undercut Blu-ray machines at retail.
Wal-mart dumped HD DVD on Friday, days after Best Buy and Netflix left the format to die. The HD DVD collapse began in January, when Warner Bros. decided to go Blu-ray only — just days before CES.
In the end, the inboard Blu-ray player in Sony’s PlayStation 3 units proved the deciding factor. Outboard HD DVD players were available for the Xbox 360 machines, but they were cheap and nasty.
Quality was a more or less a tie between the warring formats, with HD DVD getting the nod in price and reliability.
Hulu test drive: streaming high definition
The NBC Universal-Fox site Hulu continues to impress. The video site just expanded its public beta to include high definition. I took a virtual walk around the HD Gallery to viddie the results.
The showcase features trailers from five new and upcoming films: “Alien vs. Predator: Requiem,” “Horton Hears a Who,” “Wanted,” “Charlie Wilson’s War” and “Hitman.” Unfortunately, with the possible exception of “Charlie Wilson,” these movies appear to suck. But we’re here to look at the pretty pictures …
The animated “Horton” had the best images, as is typical with CGI material displayed in high definition. On Hulu, the animation looked sharp and clear, but the visual experience clearly lagged behind a decent TV monitor running similar content in any format: HD DVD/Blu-ray, upconverted DVD and even DVD.
Still, for streaming video on a midpriced computer monitor (16×9), this was a visual treat, far better than I’ve seen to date. That’s in line with what Hulu has to say in its HD preview:
We’ve limited the bitrates on these HD streams to allow as many users as possible to sample high definition streaming. Even so, we think you’ll agree that the results are a huge step up from what we’re used to seeing on the web.
Given expectations, a few of the live action trailers seemed a bit flat and dingy — probably more a question of source material, or even the choice of shots in the trailer. “Alien” and “Hitman” looked drab at times, while “Charlie Wilson” and “Wanted” had some sparkle. There were no signs of artifacting or other video noise. The video stream never broke and the pause feature worked like a charm. (The photos on this post come from the HD and give a pretty good idea of the quality. I did brighten up the images a tad.)
The lossless audio is a major perk of high definition on DVD systems. On Hulu, even played through a decent PC system, the sound was nothing special. Except for that one moment of real clarity and presence, in which an announcer thanked the sponsor. I have no idea how the audio was streamed.
The Hulu HD comes out at 1280 x 720 resolution, using the H.264 video codec for compression. Viewers need broadband, the latest Adobe Flash Player 9 and a reasonably fast computer. The requirements can be found on the HD Gallery’s intro page. You’ll need to be in on the Hulu beta.
Meanwhile, NBC Uni has been busy on other fronts:
TechCrunch reports that NBC’s own site, NBC Direct, is turning to P2P distribution of its downloads. Apparently this is another move toward high definition.
NBC Universal also did the spin on an output deal with SanDisk for videos on the Fanfare service, which uses a portable hard drive to haul online video from PCs to TVs. Fanfare has an iTunes-style store for downloads that gave NBC the pricing control it failed to wrest from Steve Jobs. The deal includes content from NBC’s primetime sked as well as Sci-Fi Channel, Bravo and the like. Here’s the closing snark: Anyone have a Fanfare player? Hands? OK, how about an iPod …
