I went to my local rental stores today and most of the shelves for the high-def DVDs are covered with Blu-Ray.
Yes they did. Microsoft is the one behind all these free HD DVD rebates out there. When you call the number they provide on the free HD DVD rebate form, your call gets directed to microsoft customer service. The conspiracy theory is that MS is trying their best to confuse the market so there is no clear winner in the high def war. Hence what they really support will win out (cough net download cough).
wow thats a good news..by getting into blue ray disc...the picture will be much more clear and the sound also...hip hip hurray
money might've been exchanged, but not 500 million. if there was a significant amount of cashed involved, i don't think they can keep this under the table for long. i'm sure the bda group gave them incentives to pick a side like how the hd-dvd group gave the other studios money. i'm curious, if the bda gave them anything over 100 million, how do they keep this off their books? that's a significant amount of cash to hide.
like i said earlier, i don't really care about the hd war. this explains why i don't know much preceding the warner announcement. i didn't even know the warner deal was that big of a deal until i saw the 100+ thread on the avs forum. i didn't read every post, just skimmed through a few pages. i remember paramount signed an exclusive deal with hd dvd last year. im not sure what was said after the announcement, but everyone found out soon after it was just a 1-1.5 year deal for 150 million. if the bda bought off warner or fox (the two companies who had a deal in place with hd-dvd) i'm sure it will be leaked soon. the president of warner released a press statement denying any money hats was involved in their decision to exclusive back blu. whether that is completely true or just a half truth, we don't know. if there is a significant amount of money involved, we'll find out within the next few days. what would've happened to the bda if warner + fox went with hd-dvd? would disney, sony, and whoever else is in their camp fold or would the hd wars be in a stale mate?
Would it really be that hard to believe that no money was exchanged? As I said earlier, I'm not saying money wasn't exchanged (especially given some circumstances), but I don't necessarily see it as a requirement for this type of situation, unlike the Paramount/DW deal made last year. I find it just as likely that this was just FUD from HD DVD supporters, similar to how it got it out that BDA wouldn't allow p*rn on the format or how Blu-ray discs cost so much more than HD DVD discs (both of which are apparently not true at all, but I wonder how they started?). Probably would have been a stalemate. Disney and Sony are deeply rooted in the Blu-ray format (Sony for obvious reasons, Disney helped create some of the specifications and they also heavily promote the format). To be honest, I don't even think the talk about Fox going HD DVD are all that credible. Unless they were just wasting their time, it doesn't really make sense for Fox, especially since they helped create some of the specifications for Blu-ray (particularly the specifications they really care for, like BD+ and region coding). I don't know enough about the situation to say for sure, but it just seemed like stuff to keep HD DVD supporters hopeful. Probably not unlike the rumors of Universal going neutral almost a year ago (Blu-ray supporters were hoping the war would be over...next thing they new, things appeared as though the war might last a lot longer). I guess anything is possible if the money is right though, but it would have been funny seeing Fox support a format they were talking a lot trash about less than a year ago. I wouldn't be surprised if we didn't found out for sure if a payout was made, and if so, for how much.
warner was initially hd-dvd exclusive. they later decided to go format neutral. now their with blu. i guess it shows you anything is possible. i noticed the hd-dvd/ms supporters are now talking about how digital distribution is the future and will replace blu soon. seriously, how is that even feasible in the next few years? has apple + itunes destroyed the cd market yet? there are many people who want a physical copy of their movies. how would they lend their copy to a friend if it was downloaded to their hard drive? how are they going to show off their collection? hard drives typically last between 6-8 years. what happens if you get a virus on your hd or your hd prematurely fails? how is streaming hd content going to replace blu? first of all, our current internet speeds aren't even fast enough, unless you want to wait a few hours to watch the movie. when our internet speeds reach 15-20mb, maybe it might work, but how will the studios protect their content? if the studios are this mixed between hd-dvd and blu ray, what makes you think their going to combine forces and set a standard for digital distribution? seriously, give me some good reasons, not the typical fanboy fud please.
I've heard people talking about that and I don't get that. If I want a movie I want the dvd. I want all the extras, directors commentary, etc that come with it. If you download a movie like that I'm assuming all you get is just the movie.
I can't see digital distribution for HD movies being feasible anytime soon. Songs are generally about 5-10 MB each and with a 100+GB hard drive people can afford to create a library of songs on their computers. People can't do that with movies that are 10-50GB.
I'm considering just selling off my 360 and games and picking up a PS3 at some point in the near future. I see no need to have 2 gaming systems, and I see no point in buying a stand alone bluray player when the PS3 is a good player and doesn't cost much more.
That makes a lot more sense than Fox switching. WB was exclusive years ago before either format launched, but an exec persuaded them to back both formats (again, prior to either format launching IIRC). Since both formats have launched, I think they haven't really trashed either format, although it has been obvious that they preferred HD DVD. Nevertheless, they've been making comments about going exclusive based on the consumer's decisions for a while now. Also, I believe that exec that convinced them to support Blu-ray just became the CEO a couple of days ago. Coincidence?
ha..that's interesting! i've read that hd-dvd supporters are disgruntled about the paramount deal. something to the affects of they only did it for the short term financial gain and they actually prefer blu? they also said that paramount has provided very little support after the exclusive deal and their just doing the bare minimum to get by. that's horrible, considering they did sign a exclusive deal. i would be pretty pissed if i was hd-dvd supporter. i would think that signing a exclusive deal meant more movies were coming out to my format, not less. dreamworks is with paramount right? i read that steven spielberg is a blu supporter and although his studio is on the hd-dvd side, he is still able to release his movies on blu? that's kinda weird to me. this hd war is very interesting, between the studios and movie directors (spielberg and bay are the most vocal ones). maybe i should of kept up with this war instead of ignoring it.
keep the 360 and buy the ps3 in the future. they both have good games. more games are multiplatform than ever before, but they both still have very good exclusives. if you own both, you have the option of buying the superior version when it comes to multiplatform games or the option to purchase the cheaper version if their identical.
I haven't really researched this, but their support seems more than fine to me. Certainly comparable to the other studios. It seemed like this deal was made primarily so HD DVD could have two major blockbusters released in Q4 (Shrek and Transformers), and they got that (and plenty more). I'm pretty sure they've been putting a good amount of effort in these releases too (great picture quality, good extras/features, etc.). They haven't been exclusive for long, but their output seems OK to me given the situation they're in (at least at a glance). Not sure why people would be complaining. FWIW, I'm of the opinion that Paramount felt that the format war might last a while, and they decided to take the profits from this deal (plus the profits from selling movies on HD DVD), and then get even more profits when they re-released those movies on Blu-ray with a bigger install base (assuming that's how the war played out of course). It was a good business decision for sure, definitely getting them a lot more profits than they would have w/o the deal. I don't like that this possibly prolonged the war, and possibly hurt the chances of either format taking off though. He can't release his movies on Blu-ray w/o the permission of the studio, although conversely the studios can't release his movies exclusively on HD DVD either apparently (unless he changes his viewpoint). The only Spielberg movie released on either format was Close Encounters of the Third Kind, which Sony owned the rights to I believe (and they had Spielberg's permission of course). I want to say most of his other movies are distributed by HD DVD studios though (Universal and Paramount/DW). I want to say some other directors have had similar requests (which are being honored I guess?), although this obviously doesn't include Michael Bay. There are some interesting moments, but the the constant rumors and FUD are pretty annoying. Just as bad as the console war, and probably much worse actually. I try to avoid that stuff for the most part actually, although it keeps me from knowing a lot more about what's going on.
Surprise, surprise. Toshiba has a rebuttal article out now that says HD DVD is not dead. lol. http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080107/tc_nm/toshiba_bluray_dc_1 Toshiba says HD DVD has not lost out to Blu-ray By Franklin Paul and Mayumi Negishi Mon Jan 7, 3:59 AM ET LAS VEGAS (Reuters) - Toshiba Corp (6502.T) said on Sunday its HD DVD high-definition video format is not dead despite being dealt a big setback by Warner Bros studio's decision to exclusively back Sony Corp's (6758.T) rival Blu-ray technology. Akiyo Ozaka, president of Toshiba America Consumer Products, told a briefing at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas that HD DVD "has not lost." Ozaka declined to comment on Toshiba's next steps, which he said Toshiba's HD DVD partners would have to discuss, after Time Warner Inc's (TWX.N) Warner Bros, one of the world's largest film studios, said it would back Blu-ray, an optical disk format for storing high-definition video. Toshiba's remarks were the latest salvo in a long-running battle over which format will dominate the next generation of technology for delivering high-definition movies to consumers. The winner is expected to inherit a multibillion-dollar industry, although consumers so far have been confused by the standards war. Some analysts say they have also failed to see the attraction of high-definition. Toshiba, the main backer of the HD DVD format, defended the technology on Sunday after the HD DVD consortium, a group of companies of which it is a part, cancelled plans to hold its own press conference at the Las Vegas trade show, the industry's largest U.S. gathering. "We were very disappointed with Warner Brothers' announcement," Ozaka said. "Sales of HD DVD were very good last year, especially in October to December." That was in contrast to the mood among Blu-ray technology promoters, who held their own reception at CES and congratulated themselves on the Warner decision. The rivalry has been compared to the video-cassette-recorder format war of the late 1970s and early 1980s which ultimately Sony's Betamax lost and JVC's VHS won. "To have one of the studios in its fold defect to the Blu-ray camp is a difficult challenge to overcome," said Ross Rubin, director of consumer technology analysis at NPD Group, adding that "studio support is really critical to the format." Ozaka said North American sales of HD DVD players, including movie drives in Microsoft's Xbox 360, totaled 1 million in the last year helped by downloads of high-definition video onto personal computers equipped with the technology. The technology debuted broadly in the United States in 2006 but has not become a big hit with consumers yet. Toshiba marketing executive Jodi Sally told the audience HD DVD remained the best technology, but acknowledged the Warner Bros announcement on Friday took her by surprise. "It's difficult for me to believe when all the pundits declare that HD DVD is dead," Sally said. "Clearly, the events of the last few days have led many of you to that conclusion. We have been declared dead before. The reality is we ended 2007 with a majority of the year-to-date market share." (For more from the Consumer Electronics Show, please visit the MediaFile blog: http://blogs.reuters.com/mediafile/) (Writing by Philipp Gollner, additional reporting by Nicole Maestri, editing by Phil Berlowitz and Tomasz Janowski)
