Home Entertainment

By Guy Finley, Executive Director, MESA
From M&E Journal Fall 2015

If content is truly king there would be no format wars.

The history of home entertainment is an ongoing story of protracted battles between hardware manufacturers, each with their own technology and customer driven agenda, backed by licensees armed with their own patents, who ultimately are making the big bet that their engineering feat is better than everyone else’s – and that consumers will see (and hear) the difference.

And like every war it’s about building alliances – bringing together various stakeholders with a promise that they will get their share of the spoils if their side wins. Unfortunately, the content industry rarely wins.
Was Beta vs. VHS good for home entertainment – with its multiple SKUs, packaging, manufacturing, authoring, QC? Did it sell any more videocassettes because the consumer was confused about which to buy? What was the cost to Hollywood in redundant supply chain systems?

We also know the result of the Blu-ray vs. HD DVD debacle – an accelerated decline for physical media. The two sides fought it out, unaware that a new upstart called ‘digital’ was creating an ultra-tight window for market introduction and that the DVD itself would be its own enemy. And of course there is digital/ mobile/etc. How many billions of dollars are being wasted due to lack of production and delivery standards by the e-retailers?

Ultimately, what is it costing Hollywood to reinvent itself?

If content is truly king, couldn’t the king just say NO? Couldn’t the monarch proclaim he would sit out the battle and even accelerate armistice by saying to the hardware guys: “what’s in this for me?”

I bring this all up because the content industry (creators/holders and their supply chain partners) is in the middle of another war – HDR (high dynamic range) – and if we take to heart the ultimate power of content here, we can help the industry get it right; we can accelerate adoption and create production efficiencies, while protecting the original creative intent of our authors and creatives.

On the hardware side there’s been across-the-board HDR support with Samsung, Sharp, TCL, Sony, LG, Panasonic and Vizio, all either announcing or releasing sets capable of handling HDR. And the Blu-ray Disc Association’s (BDA) finalization of specifications for Ultra HD Blu-ray could prove to be the biggest benefit yet for HDR.

The stakes are high with this one. HDR, which delivers a true spectacle of better blacks and whites, really looks better on almost any screen size. Unlike 4K UHD, which everyone knows has been a bit of a stretch in terms of a “true” HD upgrade, HDR will deliver something that retailers can truly sell, consumers will easily appreciate, and content creators will value and embrace. Look at a 4K UHD set and you’ll see a great looking, regular TV. Look at an HDR monitor and you’ll see something special. No doubt HDR will be the next magic bullet that will send consumers back to the store. For Hollywood, hopefully it will breathe a longer life into physical media (through discs and/or drives) and offer us a premium digital delivery alternative. But, in the process this will cost Hollywood studios and TV networks billions of dollars in infrastructure development and upgrades.

Granted many industry trade groups are working toward standardizing what is required of HDR, and what consumers should expect from the technology. The UHD Alliance, the International Telecommunication Union, the Advanced Television Systems Committee, and the Society of Motion Picture & Television Engineers are among those weighing in on HDR, and the standards that may be needed for it. But while standards are being agreed on, there’s a bevy of both non-proprietary and company-specific HDR technologies being introduced. Dolby, Philips and Technicolor have all debuted different HDR offerings. Samsung, Sony and Panasonic are among the TV manufacturers that have debuted unique versions of HDR. In short, the HDR gold rush has become very crowded and very diverse, very quickly.

Assuming, based on our industry’s history, that there will be multiple formats at least in the early years of HDR then what does that mean for compression, authoring and QC? What about menus, titles, subtitles and extras? And, further upstream in the content creation process, what does this all mean to the director and his DP? Who will protect the original creative intent (OCI) of the movie’s creator?

Of course, MESA members will help figure it all out. We always have and always will.

However, we need to work more tightly together to build a more integrated, flexible and enduring HDR production chain. Why waste time and the studios’ money – once again?

And while we’re at it – let’s collectively flex a bit of muscle here. Without Hollywood’s content and our technology there will be no HDR. This is going to cost money. And who’s going to pay for it?

At first glance, the hardware manufacturers have all the upside here. Will they drive consumers to another “holy grail” entertainment experience without our aligning and defining the most effective systems to enable the efficient delivery of assets through the entire content distribution chain?

Will the King fight yet another war without first having his castle and dominion in order? Or did Shakespeare say it best, through a morose and finishing Lear, “When we are born we cry that we are come to this great stage of fools.”

Guy Finley is Executive Director of MESA and the 2nd Screen Society.