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Rumor: Influential HD-DVD studio, Universal, going neutral - now denied, see post #22 (1 Viewer)

Shawn Perron

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Haha. :p

Well, the breaking of the contract was what the original story was about. I find it odd that Universal would bother to rebut anything without specifically denying doing such a thing.

On the flip side, no one has admitted such a contract even exists, but then again, no one has denied it exists either. It'll be interesting if we ever find out someday what incentives all these studios are getting for thier exclusivity. I highly doubt any of them are doing it for altruistic motives.
 

todd s

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Here is the true story....

Craig Kornblau (Universal):"But it's so simple. All I have to do is divine from what I know of you: are you the sort of man who would release movies on HD-DVD or his enemy's? Now, a clever man would put his movies on his format, because he would know that only a great fool would reach for what he was given. I am not a great fool, so I can clearly not choose the format in front of you. But you must have known I was not a great fool, you would have counted on it, so I can clearly choose to release movies on Blu-Ray."
News rep:You've made your decision then?"
Craig: "Not remotely. Because the original report came from Germany, as everyone knows, Germany is entirely peopled with criminals, and criminals are used to having people not trust them, as you are not trusted by me, so I can clearly not choose Blu-Ray.
News rep: " Truly, you have a dizzying intellect.
Craig: "IT HAS WORKED! YOU'VE GIVEN EVERYTHING AWAY! I KNOW WHAT FORMAT I AM SUPPORTING!"
News rep: "?????"


:D
 

Paul Arnette

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Craig Kornblau (Universal): "You only think I guessed wrong! That's what's so funny! I switched formats when your back was turned! Ha ha! You fool! You fell victim to one of the classic blunders! The most famous is never get involved in a format war in Asia, but only slightly less well-known is this: never go in against a movie excutive when death is on the line! Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha! Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha! Ha ha ha..."

;)
 

Chris S

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:laugh:
You guys crack me up!

And yea! Where is The Princess Bride? I'd buy that film again (third time?) in a second!
 

Tino

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And when the going gets tough......................
 

Bradley-E

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No, they would put Fox and Disney to shame. Universal's HD DVD commitment has been terrific. It would only make BLU RAY look better. I support both formats and have really been down on BLU RAY lately. After the big noise at CES in January it has been one delay or postponment after another. I feel like they've been blowing smoke up our butts lately. Personally, I do not see any movement of any studios until 2008 in my opinion. But I would say a Universal support would be welcome for BLU RAY which has been lacking lately.
 

Nick Laslett

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See, this is why HTF is some much better than AVS. No name calling, just really funny posts.

Never get involved in a format war in Asia, priceless.
 

Cees Alons

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Today Bill Hunt posted this message he personally received from Universal (as well as some preliminary info he received about the "problem titles") in his 'Daily':

"Rumors circulating that Universal has switched allegiances to support Blu-ray are totally false. We are committed to a line-up of incredible HD DVD titles worldwide this year and continue to be a vocal participant in the promotion of HD DVD. The reality is that HD DVD continues to offer better value for consumers with the lowest prices for hardware, the highest quality content and superior interactive experiences."

Even without the promotional part, that message seems pretty clear.
(... although .... reading the previous posts in this thread .... :laugh: )


Cees
 

Grant H

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I note how though this matter has been shot down, people are still clinging to the 20 million Wal-Mart HD DVD players.

Weird.

Universal has gotten some product out (though oddly the obscure catalogue titles I would have bought (The Thing, Dune) arrived early on and there's been little to interest me since), but now they're fixing much of said product, so I fail to see that as much better than Fox and Disney delaying releases. I'd rather wait a few months and not have to worry about replacing discs or having a specific player/firmware combination that will play them.

Not to sound too one-sided, the delayed Disney and Fox titles haven't been anything to get my panties bunched up about either. Everybody's going to be in really low gear until the holiday season. I accepted that long ago. The only exception is the Matrix Trilogy hitting HD DVD early. If things fall into place for BD, I hope WB will grace the format with those titles for Christmas. Those and Batman Begins are about the only really big titles that are big for me on the HD DVD side. Of course I want Serenity too.

One thing I will say for Warner, they do tend to release their big titles early instead of waiting for a huge player-base. They put out a lot of franchise stuff on DVD before the other studios dared to do so.
 

Jason Seaver

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I believe Warner owns patents for both DVD and HD-DVD, and they've got corporate ties to Toshiba. Warner and Sony have reasons to get the big names out there to make formats look attractive, while they're just extra income streams not necessarily worthy of major investment for the other studios.
 

Shawn Perron

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And yet this doesn't address the actual allegation that started the rumor. The original story wasn't that Universal was going to release Blu-Ray. The original allegation was that Universal had an HD-DVD exclusive contract and broke it recently. If you read it closely, it's a very cleverly worded statement that seems to zealously claim support for HD-DVD without actually denying the rumored contract breakage or implying that they will necessarily support HD-DVD longer then the end of the year.

I make no claims that Universal is in any way going nuetral, but he certainly didn't burn any bridges with that statement.
 

Robert George

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I suppose one could infer almost anything they wanted, depending on their agenda. The term in politics these days is, "spin".

The way I "spin" it is the President of Universal reaffirmed unwavering support of HD DVD, going so far as to point out the main strengths of HD DVD, and said they had no plans to support Blu-ray. I didn't see a lot of wiggle room in the statement.
 

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