Our Policies

We cover fine-art titles that could not be appealingly made, at least to our taste, before the advent of HDVD. Everything we seek has a visual beauty that could not be captured with prior technology. But we exclude most entertainment to focus on the finest.

• The main category we cover consists of works written in a score or script. Generally, we review if the score or script is in the public domain or if the owners of the work have allowed or would allow publication of at least two competing versions by different artists:
  • Of course, we cover opera, operetta, classical ballet, and classical concert music.
  • Musicals are out because they are by long-standing convention considered to be of popular rather than fine-art content. We greatly respect the Blu-ray Phantom of the Opera movie, but we concluded that it's a musical and not an operetta. Also, we think the owners of the Phantom are not about to license the property to someone else to make a competing HDVD.
  • Jazz and pop music are out out because the performances tend to be highly individualistic rather than guided by the instructions of a composer.
  • What about cross-over music? We reported on The Tribute to Pavarotti out of respect for Pavarotti and because the program includes some opera music. We love Andrea Bocelli's Vivere--Live in Tuscany HDVD. It does have a bassoon in the orchestra and Lang Lang plays an Hungarian Rhapsody (that would make Liberace blush). But Bocelli himself defines his show as a pops concert, so it doesn't belong on our website.
  • What about modern dance? Amelia belongs here, but nobody but Lock will likely ever try to do it. We cover modern dance--including folk dance--so long as it's based on directed choreography.
• Another category would be legitimate theater. On January 31, 2009, Cineplex Entertainment showed in theaters a HDVD of Bernard Shaw's Caesar and Cleopatra. But so far, no one has published a theater play in HDVD for home theater use. Surely the theater producers will catch on soon. In the meantime, if someone would bring out Roman Polanski's Macbeth in Blu-ray, we would report it, because it's the Shakespeare play.
• There are other movies that would qualify for our website if they were issued in HDVD. The one example of this so far is the Axiom La Bohème which we have posted.
  • The Ingmar Bergman Magic Flute is probably the most popular opera movie of all time. If someone would reissue it in HDVD, we think it would have legs again. It's really a movie based on the Mozart opera. Schikaneder walks the plank. But most of the music is treated with the great respect, and the result is enchanting.
  • Two other lost cities of Atlantis are the Kenneth Branagh 1996 Hamlet and his 2006 Magic Flute. Will some kind soul bring them out in HDVD?
• Finally, a category with tremendous potential for us will be documentaries about painting and sculpture. There was a television series with engaging lectures about the works of famous painters. I remember how grateful I was to learn how to pronounce ``Leger'' in French (not like the English ``ledger''). That series sank beneath the waves. If you didn't already know how beautiful the paintings were, the NTSC picture didn't get it across. But with 1080p, plastic art documentaries should be compelling.

Webmaster Henry C. McFadyen, Jr. writes everything on the site except where friends add content. ``What's Available Now'' will have two types of information for each title. First will come basic factual information from the webmaster. Next (in italics) comes one or more "thumbnail" discussions, written by the webmaster or friends, with subjective comments.

The webmaster and friends can also write full reviews or provide other informaton which will be linked from the factual information for a title.

We will not release information about a friend to anybody except with express permission. We will never divulge our list of friends by sale or otherwise. Except for email, all information about a friend (and the business) is on a computer that is not connected to the Internet.

Last revised January 10, 2010.