Home Media Expo welcomes Home Theater Forum
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Studios, tech companies meet early adopters at convention
By Cindy Spielvogel -- Video Business, 7/16/2007
JULY 16 | LAS VEGAS—Ron Epstein works for the post office and Parker Clack is a nurse. But at Home Media Expo, they are better known as the co-owners of the Home Theater Forum, the consumer-enthusiast members of which are getting the royal treatment at the show this week, with special studio and talent briefings and parties.
Home Theater Forum is the largest home theater and DVD Internet discussion group, according to Epstein, with 76,000 registered members. Normally, they meet in cyberspace. But this week, about 70 members have come to the convention as consumers to meet with studios and technology companies and preview second-generation high-definition players and interactive features. Writers from Web sites TVShowsonDVD.com and TheDigitalBits.com also are included in the Home Theater Forum group at the show.
The attendees paid for their own airfare and lodging but are treated to press registration by EMA.
“It’s a learning experience, where we get to meet face to face,” Epstein said.
EMA VP of public affairs Sean Bersell said the association invited power users and early adopter groups to the convention this year because they can help the industry understand where home entertainment might be headed.
“You talk to retailers and exhibitors and everything, and the one thing everyone really thirsts for knowledge on is consumers and consumer behavior,” Bersell said. “In many cases, heavy early adopters can really show us where people are going to be in consumption of technology in five years.”
Bringing in the consumer is a new approach for the EMA show, but it’s not new for Home Theater Forum and the studios. Over the last several years, about 60 HTF members have been going out to the studios to meet with the home entertainment divisions during weeklong outings including presentations and Q&As.
At this week’s show, the consumer group will get special briefings from Warner Home Video, THX, Universal Studios Home Entertainment and the HD DVD Promotional Group, among others, to which an EMA spokesman said retailers also are welcome(see Today's Events, page 32). Blu-ray Disc supporters 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment, Sony Pictures Home Entertainment, Lionsgate and Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment are holding a "10th Anniversary Party" for Home Theater Forum and Digital Bits that is by invitation only.
Epstein said he thinks interactivity will be the next big thing in high-definition, and fellow Home Theater Forum members agreed with him that it would be much better to have a single high-def format.
“I think money will be the deciding factor,” said Raul Marquez, an Home Theater Forum member who is a surgeon in his day job. Marquez said he just got the Xbox 360 with the HD DVD add-on.
Gord Lacey, editor of TVShowsonDVD.com noted that more TV shows are on Blu-ray than on HD DVD. But with fewer than 10 total high-def TV releases available and TV shows generally selling fewer copies than movies, he said TV hasn’t yet been embraced by the high-def formats. With high-def only a small part of the home entertainment business, high-def TV discs are “a fraction of a fraction,” Lacey said.
