TenduTV

Ballet's Greatest Hits is not going to be released on DVD in the US, only as a digital download. Also, in reference to the iTunes comments above, it's worth noting that if you get the HD version (meaning high-definition 1080p) it is actually superior in quality to a DVD. It has to do with the different codecs used - iTunes uses H.264 while DVDs use MPEG-2. The HD download version would be almost comparable to Blu-Ray. So in terms of overall image quality, the download is a better product.

It's also available for purchase/rental on iTunes, Google Play and YouTube. Amazon is US only, but iTunes works for people in United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Australia, South Africa, Israel, Armenia, Austria, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Gambia, Greece, Fiji, Finland, Hungary, Ireland, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Mozambique, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia, Sweden, and Swaziland.

The Royal Ballet Nutcracker is going to be broadcast theaters (mostly) on December 18th

Our friends at DancePulp just posted a behind the scenes look at the rehearsals for the upcoming BalletNext debut, which includes an interview with Mauro Bigonzetti. Their first performance will be at the Joyce on November 21. http://blip.tv/dancepulp/mauro-bigonzetti-la-follia-5677768 (Also - love the new forum format)

It's probably one of the most powerful and well executed camera reworks I've seen (disclaimer: we're going to be releasing it on iTunes), but it's not something I can see going over well in a morning screening. It's very intense.

Did you see The Co(te)lette Film? I'm not sure when it's screening.

For clarification - the court didn't make any law. Work for hire definitions existed long before the Graham case went to the courts (I think it came in with the 1976 law). I'll leave it to someone more versed in the specifics of moral rights, but I don't think they apply in the case of work for hire. Anyone looking for a really fun rights mess should look to the 35 year reversion clause that's coming into play right now (which also doesn't apply to work for hire situations).

Then you might have problems actually connecting most of the devices that we're talking about. In which case you might be better off with something in tablet form. The best answer for you might be to wait a few weeks or a month for this: Amazon Kindle Tablet

What is the make and model of the TV?

Apple stopped making iBooks in 2006. Do you mean Macbook? For the record: even though I talk about iTunes alot, the fact is all of our titles are available on Amazon as well. In fact, we have more on Amazon than iTunes. I just don't talk about Amazon as much because it represents a very small portion of our overall sales. To the original poster - you have a lot of options. Perhaps you can talk about some of the ways in which you would like to view the programming? At home, on the road, etc. The fact is you'll end up with more than one device eventually, even if you're only making a single purchase now.

Peggy brings up a great point that I hadn't considered: bandwidth costs. I have a wi-fi only iPad and download most iTunes purchases first to my computer and then sync to iPad. Our iTunes titles in standard definition are about 1.5 GB each and our HD titles are around 4GB, so if you have that kind of a cap, you might want to be more selective in choosing the time when you download because you'll burn your data cap pretty quickly. As a side note, when you purchase a title from iTunes in HD, you get both a SD and a HD version, and the SD version is what syncs to your iPhone/iPod. In re: Netflix streaming of ballet. I can't speak for others in the space, but we are specifically not releasing any of our titles onto Netflix streaming, nor do we plan on doing so (at least in the USA). Whenever possible, we also block DVD availability. The reason for this is that the economics and anticipated demand, even for a very successful title, are not strong enough to warrant enough economic consideration to make such a deal worthwhile. Also, there are a lot of recordings that were never cleared for digital, so making them available would be practically impossible. One other word of advice: There are a lot of TVs that have some sort of streaming capability already built in. Prices continue to drop, but if you have two identical TVs, one with streaming and one without, it may be far less expensive to buy the one without and then get a separate streaming device, or even a streaming capable blu-ray player.

There are a lot of great options. Just remember box on the market is an internet connection, software and a video out. Some boxes have added features, such as Blu-ray drives, hard drives, etc, but the basic components are all the same. The thing is, there are some nuanced differences. Question: what model TV are you thinking of attaching this to? You are going to want something with an HDMI connection, especially if you want to watch higher quality content off iTunes, like the wonderful performances that are currently available (shameless plug, yes, but... couldn't resist). The reason for this is more than just the video quality - as part of copy protection standards, can only connect HD content from one device to another via an HDMI connection. You're going to want other options to depend on other than YouTube. 1.) If you're looking for something to keep in the home and have a permanent connection - an AppleTV is a great attachment to your computer. Relatively inexpensive ($99) and very easy to use, it allows you to stream off your computer, stream direct to TV, and gives you access to iTunes, Netflix, YouTube and Vimeo. It's much more of a television experience. 2.) An iPad is also a great option, especially with this iPad to HDMI doc. Apple Store. Plus, you get to take it with you. 3.) A smart phone (eg. an iPhone or iPod) doesn't really have the processing power to power high quality big screen video. iTunes actually syncs SD, as opposed to HD versions. Also - we're soon going to be delivering via the Playstation 3 or XBox Live/Zune Marketplace. I would stay away from the GoogleTV devices, which you will likely find in ample quality and with low prices. They actually had negative sales in the last quarter, because no one bought them, and people that previously bought them returned them.

As Leigh said, it's variable. A couple of other examples that I've seen recently. 1.) Company commissions choreographer to create work. Company has exclusive rights to perform that work for a period of time, and non-exclusive rights to perform that work in perpetuity after that time. 2.) Two companies co-commission choreographer to create work. Each company has the exclusive right to perform that work in a particular territory for a period of time. As a side note @Tapfan - The word "hired" in this case isn't always exchangeable with the word "commissioned". For example, in the case of Martha Graham's works, it was determined that she had been hired by the Martha Graham school to perform tasks that included, among other things, creation of new choreography. Therefore, the school owned the works outright, as their creation was part of the job for which she had been hired to do. Conversely, there are some modern companies where the choreographer with whom the company is associated retains full ownership of the work, and actually licenses it back to their own company.

To put the documentary in a little bit of context - one of the factors that drove its creation was the discovery of the archival footage by the filmmaker, who one of her former students. The footage was literally in the bottom of her closet. When filmmakers/television broadcasters would film the POB during that time, she would ask for the outtakes, and those outtakes are the foundation of the documentary. Two other noteworthy elements of the doc that bear repeating. 1.) All of the outtakes were film only - the audio was laid down separately by the filmmaker, as only a dancer can do. 2.) There is one piece of film used in the documentary which is a treasure among treasures (although I think it was mentioned elsewhere in a discussion about the film): the Lumiere Brothers film of El Cid. Very few film historians even realized that piece of film existed, and you can't even find information about it on google.

I can't actually speak for the DVD, as we had nothing to do with it, but I'm hoping you might be able to satisfy some curiosities I have. For starters, what is the refresh rate on the TV?