2019 Subscription: INNOCENCE + EXPERIENCE LIVE, 2015 & 2018

[Aaron]

Any inside word on the 2020 gift yet, or when the announcement is coming? As usual I only have a few days left on my membership and I'm not sure if I want to take the plunge, especially with no live dates likely for a while.

I have zero inside knowledge, but there are supposed to be physical releases of both the JOSHUA TREE 2017 (and 2019?) tour and the eXPERIENCE + iNNOCENCE 2018 tour upcoming and, in this day of dying physical media sales, I'm expecting one or both of these to be turned into fan club exclusives (and, if I'm right, I desperately hope they include Blu-ray as an option, and don't cheapen out with a DVD-only release, like Coldplay did last year with their Butterfly package release).

Might want to check out this one...
https://www.u2songs.com/news/the_crystal_ball_2020_and_beyond

The EI tour should be announced for home video release early this year. And there's talk of a 4K version. They recently have shown it on 4K stations in the USA (a 75 minute edit.) 

Joshua Tree will be coming to theatres...told it's where they want to place it first.

Don't know what to expect for sure but I half expect this will be a non-music year. 

[George]

I have a feeling we might get something related to these tours as well. Actually, I'd like to see the JT Tour hit shops as a Blu-ray (and a streaming option of course) and have the Fan Club release the audio on CD.

Those are the fan club gifts I like the least, the audio versions of previously released videos.  I much prefer to just rip the DVD audio and get something new from the fan club.

Don't know what to expect for sure but I half expect this will be a non-music year.

Scratch that last comment of mine.  THESE are the gifts I like the least, the non-music ones.  I hope your Aaron-Tingle is wrong about this one.

[Aaron]

I have a feeling we might get something related to these tours as well. Actually, I'd like to see the JT Tour hit shops as a Blu-ray (and a streaming option of course) and have the Fan Club release the audio on CD.

Those are the fan club gifts I like the least, the audio versions of previously released videos.  I much prefer to just rip the DVD audio and get something new from the fan club.

Don't know what to expect for sure but I half expect this will be a non-music year.

Scratch that last comment of mine.  THESE are the gifts I like the least, the non-music ones.  I hope your Aaron-Tingle is wrong about this one.

Well it's a week later and still no announcement...sigh...

[Aaron]

https://www.u2songs.com/discography/fanclub

We added a new page in the discography - just dedicated to the fan club stuff. We finally moved it away from the albums page.  There's enough there now that it deserves its own space. 

[George]

And now we have the 2020 gift announced:



Some notes of note from the announcement:

• "This film captures the entire e+i show - running at two hours and twenty two minutes"
   --> this make it a first for a U2 release?
• "a unique celebration on DVD of the 2018 e+i tour shot on the closing night at Berlin's Mercedes-Benz Arena"
   --> so in the era of 4K, the're just going with 420p?  Is blu-ray still that much more expensive to produce?
• "The DVD is accompanied by a booklet of exclusive photos"
   --> meh, it's always nice, but I never really look at these things more than a couple of times.
• "This limited edition release is already in production for 2020 U2.com subscribers and during February we will mail all subscribers with details on physical dispatch times."
   --> sounds great, but really, I'll believe that when I see it.

Link to the announcement: https://www.u2.com/news/title/experience--innocence--live-in-berlin

My hopes:
 - there's some reconsideration and blu-ray is made available (extremely unlikely if they're already in production)
 - HD download is made available (I don't see that happening)
 - audio is made available for download (this is highly doable and in the realm of possibilty)

My fear:
 - this gets commercially released on blu-ray and this gift becomes nothing but a lo-res backup along with some photos

I'm looking forward to this one!

[morgan1098]

Yeah, if this ends up getting released on Blu-ray or 4K commercially, this is a beyond-useless fan club gift. It's funny how the announcement even compares it to the i+e release from a few years ago, which was available everywhere and on Blu-ray and also had the full show plus a ton of extras. I hate to say it, but it really does sound like the only thing that will make this a "fan club exclusive" is maybe a booklet of photos?

[Panama Jack]

The announcement makes the point that it's the entire show from beginning to end.

Maybe the public wide release of the e+i shows will be edited down and won't include the entire show. If that's the case, then this release wouldn't be completely pointless.

[God, Part II]

In a day where everything is broadcast in, at minimum, 720p, this trend back to DVD (Coldplay did it last year with their Butterfly Package) is nothing less than an embarrassment. I'll renew, because duh, it's still a U2 concert, but what a crushing disappointment tech-wise.

[morgan1098]

In a day where everything is broadcast in, at minimum, 720p, this trend back to DVD (Coldplay did it last year with their Butterfly Package) is nothing less than an embarrassment. I'll renew, because duh, it's still a U2 concert, but what a crushing disappointment tech-wise.

I feel the same way BUT I think DVD is the best way to spread the net wide. A 4K player will play a regular Blu Ray or a DVD, but it doesn't work in reverse. A DVD player won't play a Blu Ray or a 4K disc, so putting it on DVD works for everyone, except those who haven't upgraded from VHS.

ALSO... and this is a big question for a global fan club, but aren't DVDs still region-coded? If you live in Asia vs. Europe isn't there still a question of Region 1 vs. Region 2, etc? Blu-rays are generally region-free. Are they really going to manufacture DVDs for different regions? The Fan Club has enough trouble getting stuff sent on time; I can't imagine the potential screw-ups that could come with manufacturing DVDs for different regions.

My big question is whether this concert will get a full commercial release. If so, I think I'd rather wait to buy it on Blu ray and not have the "exclusive 24-page booklet."

[George]

I feel the same way BUT I think DVD is the best way to spread the net wide. A 4K player will play a regular Blu Ray or a DVD, but it doesn't work in reverse. A DVD player won't play a Blu Ray or a 4K disc, so putting it on DVD works for everyone, except those who haven't upgraded from VHS.

The way around this is to offer the option of 1080 Blu Ray, DVD, or some lossy download.  4K is a nice idea, and even though it was filmed in 4K, I don't think not offering 4K is a big deal.  The choice of BR or DVD should be there.

ALSO... and this is a big question for a global fan club, but aren't DVDs still region-coded?

Many DVDs are region-free (region 0, I believe) just to avoid these problems.  I imagine that the product will be the same.

[sawheaton]

ALSO... and this is a big question for a global fan club, but aren't DVDs still region-coded?

Many DVDs are region-free (region 0, I believe) just to avoid these problems.  I imagine that the product will be the same.
[/quote]
They will still have to make at least two versions. PAL for Europe and NTSC for the USA and most other parts of the world.

[morgan1098]

ALSO... and this is a big question for a global fan club, but aren't DVDs still region-coded?

Many DVDs are region-free (region 0, I believe) just to avoid these problems.  I imagine that the product will be the same.

They will still have to make at least two versions. PAL for Europe and NTSC for the USA and most other parts of the world.
[/quote]

Right! There's certainly never been a gift like this before that would possibly require different versions for different countries.

As this article notes, the only way around the PAL/NTSC issue is if you have a very new (2019 or later) TV that no longer uses analog inputs. But if you have one of those, will you still be using a DVD player?
https://www.howtogeek.com/428987/whats-the-difference-between-ntsc-and-pal/

I don't mean to complain too much. I'm glad we're getting a full show and I'm glad I have the ability to play a DVD. I am curious about how the PAL/NTSC issue might play out though. It's uncharted territory for the Fan Club.

[Aaron]

A couple of things to consider...

Commercial release these days does not necessarily mean Bluray / Disc.  They could be planning a commercial release that would be purely digital even for the 4K, or even through a commercial streaming service like Netflix. In which case a DVD from the fan club might be the only physical version. I'll take any physical version over none. I like the booklets, and the photos and the credits.

And I was told plans for commercial release would be announced in March (if it was going to happen.) That was before this fan club disc was announced. But the fan club announcement says they will be letting us know about dispatch in February. That suggests to me that these fan club gifts would be well ahead of any commercial release anyway.

https://twitter.com/markpeterboro/status/1222463197560672256

If you look at the poll above, done in response to the gift, 18% of respondents said they have a DVD player only, 49% said they have DVD and bluray, 15% said they can play DVD, bluray and 4K, and 18% said they can't play any sort of disc on their main television. That means that almost 18% are never going to get any use out of this gift.  There's sure to be lots of copies around on auction at that rate. But if you sent it out on a quality other than DVD you'd double that and be sending 35% of the fan club a disc they cannot use. That's getting a little high. It's a small poll, but I'm sure there is information out there available to the band about sales, and formats, even from their own past sales.  One of the biggest complaints they would get each time they have done a vinyl gift is that about half the fan club cannot even play them as they don't own a functioning record player (about 90% can play a cd.) So had they done a 4K disc that only about 15% could play, they'd have a deluge of complaints...

I likely won't watch this one over and over again. I watched Paris maybe twice. But I do listen to the music from it all the time. At least DVD will give me a disc that is easy to rip.  I'm not heartbroken over this one...

[morgan1098]

I have a new theory. IF it's true that the Fan Club will be announcing a release date in February and shipping maybe in March, that would be the fastest turnaround from gift announcement to shipping in Fan Club history. Like, by months and months.

My theory is that these DVDs have already been manufactured for a commercial release. At the last minute, they decided to hold them back and use them as fan club gifts instead. As others have said, the market for commercial DVDs and Blu-rays, especially for music, is shrinking. It would be very easy to print up some "outer sleeves" or slipcovers with unique Fan Club branding and the photo booklet. I wouldn't be surprised if these have "Fan Club" art on the outside but inside are shrink-wrapped DVDs that were originally intended for commercial release.

[George]

Aaron, I agree with you mostly on this, except that instead of going for a one-size-fits-most model and going DVD only, they should be offering a choice between getting either a DVD, a regular Blu-Ray, a 4K Blu-Ray, or a download code.  The production cost would increase slightly, but there would be no grumbling about format whatsoever.  Well, except for those who must have each version and then "have to" subscribe multiple times, but I'd wager that's the 1%.