Looks like this HD format war is over. Warner goes Blu (January 4, 2008 – Burbank, CA) – In response to consumer demand, Warner Bros. Entertainment will release its high-definition DVD titles exclusively in the Blu-ray disc format beginning later this year, it was announced today by Barry Meyer, Chairman & CEO, Warner Bros. and Kevin Tsujihara, President, Warner Bros. Home Entertainment Group. “Warner Bros.’ move to exclusively release in the Blu-ray disc format is a strategic decision focused on the long term and the most direct way to give consumers what they want,” said Meyer. “The window of opportunity for high-definition DVD could be missed if format confusion continues to linger. We believe that exclusively distributing in Blu-ray will further the potential for mass market success and ultimately benefit retailers, producers, and most importantly, consumers.” Warner Home Video will continue to release its titles in standard DVD format and Blu-ray. After a short window following their standard DVD and Blu-ray releases, all new titles will continue to be released in HD DVD until the end of May 2008. “Warner Bros. has produced in both high-definition formats in an effort to provide consumer choice, foster mainstream adoption and drive down hardware prices,” said Jeff Bewkes, President and Chief Executive Officer, Time Warner Inc., the parent company of Warner Bros. Entertainment. “Today’s decision by Warner Bros. to distribute in a single format comes at the right time and is the best decision both for consumers and Time Warner.” “A two-format landscape has led to consumer confusion and indifference toward high definition, which has kept the technology from reaching mass adoption and becoming the important revenue stream that it can be for the industry,” said Tsujihara. “Consumers have clearly chosen Blu-ray, and we believe that recognizing this preference is the right step in making this great home entertainment experience accessible to the widest possible audience. Warner Bros. has worked very closely with the Toshiba Corporation in promoting high definition media and we have enormous respect for their efforts. We look forward to working with them on other projects in the future.”
It's only for us nerds who already chose a side and didn't want to be left out in the cold in 2 years once someone eventually "won". Otherwise, it doesn't mean much to the average person who doesn't have a new format player at this time, it'll make your choice simple in the next 18 months.
Ending this stupid "war" will be a very good thing. The number of people refusing to buy either type of player out of fear of pumping $400 into the wrong one is not slight. I received a BluRay player for Xmas, otherwise, I'd still be sitting on the sidelines waiting. Evan
i was hoping warner would go hd i love the IME features that work really well on hd-dvd but still a bit problematic on blu-ray. and i use the 360 add-on for my hd-dvd player and i am the only person i know personally that has a blu-ray player that isnt a ps3. i love hd movies and their decision wont affect me in terms of what movies i can purchase, but hopefully it will mean lower prices for the movies soon. it is a bit weird though how a video game console decided (essentially since isnt like over half of the blu-ray players out there ps3s?) a movie format. sony may ultimately make their money back in the long run luckily they didnt go completely bankrupt in the process of pushing BR.
dumb question as I am still sitting on the HD sidelines as far as dvd/blu rays are concerned... do you have to have a special player for the blu rays or do all dvd players play them at a lower quality? Exactly how do they work?
umm...you have to have a bluray player to play bluray movies. you cannot just pop them in a dvd player.
Even so...I still feel like the following needs to be said: ***** YOU, WARNER!!!! Think of all the people (no...not me...I've had a 360 HD DVD add-on drive since it came out) that just bought HD DVD players thinking Warner was on board and then they do this on Jan. 4th right after the holidays. Consumers are the ones getting duped here by Warner. Why didn't they come out with this announcement back in November? Oh...they wanted to wait on the holiday sales reports even though any idiot could tell you Blu Ray took off well before that. Sure.
You have to purchase a bluray or HD-DVD player. They use a shorter wavelength blue laser technology and DVD players operate with a red laser. The smaller wavelengths allow the discs to hold much more information. Double Layer DVDs top out at around 9 gigs while Blu-ray discs go up to 50. That much room allows studios to put higher quality prints on the discs. Awesome news. WB puts out great movies. Hopefully some day Universal will be releasing blu-ray too.
Thanks.. see that's why yall rock.. now I know when I buy to go ahead and get blu ray instead of doing hd-dvd! I am typically behind the curve so I end up paying less for technology
Yawn! As long as all movies are on Blu-ray when we get our player in 2 years. I couldn't care less if HD-DVD is still around by then.
Except for those of us who bought $100 HD-DVD players and will get to buy really cheap HD-DVDs in a couple of months when the Blu Ray win is inevitable.
A couple of side questions for you videophiles: -If the 'war' keeps going on for a couple of years, will we see a dual format player? I know that there are different lasers, but you could easily have two in a player, one on each side of the motor. I would condsider a knock-off from Hong Kong. -PS3 question- is it good for playing blu-ray? Can you use a remote? Does it play regular DVDs, and if so, does it upconvert?
