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Hastings’ hasty retreat from DVD

Reed Hastings says he wants to take home video into the future, but he actually seems determined to take home video back to the 1980’s and 90’s, when there was LaserDisc for the enthusiasts like me, and VHS for everybody else. Except now it’s DVD/Blu-ray and online video.

I keep waiting for something that explains the method behind Reed Hastings’ recent madness, and the announcement that Netflix will carry Dreamworks movies that HBO doesn’t want anyway, and not for another eighteen months, isn’t it. How the heck does Reed Hastings think his tactics will serve his strategy of getting customers to stay loyal to him, but without DVD?

Last week, Hastings said that he had “slid into arrogance based upon past success.” He then promptly proceeded to display even more arrogance by announcing a split and re-branding of the DVD side of the business that is truly annoying to his customers, adding insult to injury by calling it the lame and ironic name “Qwikster.”

Obviously, Hastings is Hell-bent on dumping DVD. Maybe it’s the vision thing that’s blinding him, or perhaps he was driven mad by the cost of red envelopes, postage, warehouses, and labor, versus delivering a movie over the Internet for a nickel. But in the process of creating separate balance sheets for physical vs. virtual video, Netflix stock has lost half its value, so what has Hastings saved?

As I have said before, I became a Netflix subscriber way back in January, 2004…

… and for a long time I had the 4-disc plan for $22/month. I was as big a booster of Reed Hastings as any amateur blogger, but I feel that we are all now, as customers, seeing the other side of the man. The side that movie studios and the California Board of Education saw long ago.

I love the idea of streaming video. I couldn’t wait to give Netflix Instant Watching, as it was originally called, a try as soon as I could, in February, 2007. Two years later I bought the first of my two Roku players, so I’m all for a future of online video — but not exclusively, not yet.

Ignoring the lack of title selection compared to DVD’s, due to legal/business reasons, streaming as it exists today has technical and feature limitations compared to discs. There continue to be no extras online, so it’s like a return to the days of VHS, when you could only play, pause, scan, and stop, but without the inconvenience of rewinding the tape. I realize that commentary tracks and “making of” videos aren’t usually worthy of more than a single playing, but to eliminate them completely is a step backwards. Second, for the Japanese Toho studio movies and the anime that my son watches, the few titles that are offered on Netflix Watch Instantly are dubbed. Eric insists on the original Japanese dialogue with subtitles, and I doubt Red Box kiosks carry these titles. Finally, although the picture quality can be quite good with streaming video, streaming 1.5 Mbps SD can’t compare to DVD MPEG-2 at up to 10 Mbps, and 3.0 Mbps HD is no match for Blu-ray with MPEG-4 or VC-1 at 35 Mbps, especially when shown on a video projector screen.

What this adds up to is a large number of streaming video customers who are perfectly happy watching mainstream movies and TV shows on a 42-inch flat panel TV, assuming their Internet service is good and there isn’t a too-restrictive service cap. (I’m spoiled, because I’m on Verizon FiOS.) The home theater enthusiasts who want the best quality and the extra features that first appeared with LaserDiscs, are headed back to being like we were in the LD years, buying discs. Having spent way too much money on the LD format, I’m not interested in building another movie library.

The porch Roku is play a Tekzilla installment as I type this. Netflix is a Tekzilla sponsor, and host Patrick Norton, who’s usually up-front and fearless in his outrage, is soft-peddling the increase in price and loss of service. Everybody would like to fall in love with Netflix again, but right now I’m looking at Amazon Instant Video, wishing it had a queue feature. If Reed Hastings has been talking to Jeff Bezos about a possible sale to Amazon, or if he’s even been thinking of it, he’s certainly made Netflix a lot more affordable for acquisition.

Neil Sedaka’s Scopitone Calendar Girls

I love-ah, love-ah, love-ah everything about this fun, kitschy, and sexy music video! It’s from 1966, five years after Calendar Girl was on the charts. The 16mm film was made to be played on Scopitone machines. You’ll find some background on the short-lived Scopitone video jukeboxes at this link.

With 1966 belonging to the youth market, this film was obviously intended for an older audience — specifically, drunk men in bars! If I’d been one of them, I would have gone through a roll of quarters for this one selection. It’s both a throwback and very much of its time. The pinup girl calendar paintings by Gil Elvgren and other great artists were on the way out by then, and Playboy had taken over.

The virtues of the song are apparent, thanks to the way the film complements the recording. Sedaka is enjoying himself, and he’s suitably goofy compared to the charming girls. There are Sixties mod dresses, Vegas showgirl costumes, and bikinis. Every step and gesture is choreographed, the set is simple yet quite clever, and I like the way the girls are framed as they make each of their entrances. Note how everything changes to keep up visual interest, even the color of the piano. For such a limited production it’s a work of art. Most important of all, of course, are the four lovely ladies.

The Scopitone company went bankrupt only a few years later, so the chance there might be documents to be found somewhere is probably next to zilch. Debbie Reynolds lost money investing in Scopitone, and she reportedly doesn’t like to discuss the project. Neil Sedaka would probably be the best source for information, but if anybody has interviewed him about his Scopitone appearance I haven’t found it.

Follow-up: NPR did a feature on Scopitone five years ago.

Carry on, Hawtrey

The Beatles’ album Let it Be starts with John Lennon introducing I Dig a Pony with, “I dig a pygmy, by Charles Hawtrey and the Deaf Aids…”

[audio:https://s3.amazonaws.com/dogratcom/Audio/2011/Sep/CharlesHawtrey.mp3|titles=Charles Hawtrey and the Deaf Aids]

I assume “deaf aids” is wordplay on “hearing aids,” but have you ever wondered about the Charles Hawtrey reference? Hawtrey was an English comic actor, and in this video clip, from the movie Carry on, Constable, he’s the cross-dressing cop wearing glasses. At the end of the clip you’ll see Robin Ray, who played the TV studio floor manager in A Hard Day’s Night.

Hawtrey makes the BBC’s Paul O’Grady seem butch! Hawtrey and Kenneth Williams were regulars in the “Carry On” series of low-brow British comedy films. I’d known about the series for a long time, but I had never seen any of the installments until last night, when Turner Classic Movies showed four of them (Carry on, Teacher is particularly good fun). Williams was also gay, as if you couldn’t tell, but he had a more studied style of acting that bore a striking similarity to Jeremy Brett.

A ‘Cul de Sac’ in Hill Valley

Maybe you’ve heard that Marty McFly is auctioning replicas of his famous back-to-the-futuristic Nike sneakers, to benefit the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research.

Another fundraiser for the MJ Fox Foundation is Team Cul De Sac, named after the delightfully fanciful comic strip by Richard Thompson, who has Parkinson’s. A book is in the works, full of contributions from many different artists, including a painting by Bill Watterson, of the Cul de Sac character Petey.

When the book is published, the original art will be auctioned. Here’s a video preview.

Say Goodnight, Irene

Hurricane Irene promises to cause us a lot of trouble here. I’ve been trying to line up some roof repairs and tree removal, and after this weekend it will probably be months before I can get the work done, because contractors will be busy dealing with the storm’s aftermath. I just hope a tree doesn’t come down on the house.

I have a summer tradition of taking Eric to a Boston Red Sox game at Fenway Park, and I have tickets for Sunday afternoon’s game, but because of the storm it’s been moved to 5 tomorrow. With any luck it will be over before Irene arrives.

Update: It’s Saturday, there’s a rain delay for the first game of the day, and from the way it’s coming down I’d be surprised if the second game is played. Even if it is held, I don’t know if I’m going to risk driving to Boston.

Update: I went outside to make sure the storm drain was clear, and there’s no way I’m driving into Boston, because there’s no doubt that Irene is here. I’m listening to the radio to see what Major League Baseball is going to do. If they say play ball, then I’m out 250 bucks.