What horriffic timing... (1 Viewer)

[Mick Wright]

I agree. I'm format neutral, but I can't believe some of the more insensitive posts I've read on this forum from Blu fanboys. My sister bought into HD-DVD so her son could have Transformers and Shrek (she couldn't afford to buy into both), and when I told her of Warner's move, she was crushed. I have a hard time taking the attitude that she's just a whiner who should have known better.

 

[Lee Jamilkowski]

Nice. :rolleyes



Everyone has points - the risk was there, and buyer beware. But Warners is in the wrong (too) for having waited, and if they were even reasonably sure of going one way or the other, should have been up front instead of this "we'll support both for now" bull.

 

[ColbyCo82]

I recieved an HD-DVD player for Christmas from my parents and was thrilled with it (Im a big WB and Paramount fan) until I heard this news. Im actually gald the news came when it did. I had all my reciepts and Best Buy took my player back and refunded my money no questions asked. I was lucky this news didnt come a month from now otherwise the return time would have lapsed. I would encourage others to try and return theirs if they can find the reciepts.

BTW, I didnt buy a Blu Ray with the refund...I think im going to wait a while and see what happens.

 

[Shane Martin]

it's a war people jumped into the middle of. If you weren't willing to deal with the risks, don't jump in!

 

[Paul Borges]

They gave no 'warning'. Or should we listen to every rumor as fact?

I'm sick of this constant 'it's the consumer's own fault' excuses here. It don't jive, just like the 'you shouldn't park outside if you don't want your car stolen' or the 'you shouldn't walk outside after midnight if you don't want to be mugged' or 'it's your fault for investing in Enron'. OK then, we shouldn't trust anything any company says. Fine, then I'm not trusting Warner will stay with BD. They'll probably switch again next full moon.

 

[Averry]

I agree there totally.


I bought a TOSHIBA product, and Warner Brothers is the sole reason for it's inevitable loss of value.

Toshiba was doing everything they could to keep my product's value. (It served their own purpose of course, but indeed it would trickle down)

Everything Warner had done up untill now was prefer HD-DVD. When it came to releases and features they favored HD-DVD.

Looking at my HD-DVD collection, 85% of them aren't available on Blu-Ray, so it sits fine with me. I did do research, and I wanted THESE movies so I got them.

 

[TravisR]

I feel your sister (and everyone else who is going to be left out in the cold) and I don't consider them whiners but I will say that if there's two formats, they knew that they could be on the losing end.

 

[John Hermes]

Even somebody doing "research" appears to have been strung along. Weasel Brothers. Only three weeks ago and during holiday shopping:

FIRST ONLINE Dec 13, 2007

Once again Warner Bros. has to comment on rumors or now on what looks like wishful thinking by Blu-ray fans.

Last week rumors started to flurish about Warner Bros. wanting to drop support of HD DVD and only release their movies in HD on Blu-ray beginning sometime next year.

Don Lindich writes on his blog that he got in touch with Jim Noonan, Warner Bros. Senior Vice President and General Manager, for clarification.

Once again Warner responded "We have made no decision to change our present policy which is to produce in both HD DVD and Blu-ray."

Recent figures showed that Warner's neutral standpoint in the HD format war had earned them a 36% market share of all HD discs sold (HD DVD and Blu-ray.) By far the biggest numbers by any HD studio.

Perhaps neutral IS the correct way to go.

 

[Paul_Scott]

uh...the way I understand it, it wasn't about 'momentum' or the lack thereof- it came down to a payoff in one form or another. If we all agree to acknowledge that Bd 'won' the war, can we at least agree to dispense with the foolish notion that it was won on merits?

BTW, they actually haven't won anything yet. They won the perception that they are the defacto new standard. That was the 'war'. This is now the peace- they need to win that as well. And as is easily seen in real life analogies, winning the peace is often harder than winning a war against a foe that was mightily outgunned from the start.

 

[Brian Kaz]

A payoff would have come from either side anyway. Everyone knows WB always favored HD DVD, so they must have sat back and looked at the big picture.

 

[Brent M]

I agree that it's pretty "bush league" for WB to announce this right after Christmas. It just leaves a bad taste in everyone's mouth.

 

[Duane Robinson]

Similar to how Paramount announce their HD-DVD exclusivity and cancelled titles that were already produced? Honestly, I have no sympathy for anyone who gets into a format war uninformed as an early adopter and then feels slighted. That's the risk you take. The DVD version of all these movies were available so it's not like there was no other choice.

I bought the Xbox 360 add-on and after having two Xboxes red-ring I decided to get the Toshiba when it was on sale for $99. I also have a PS3 which I mainly bought for it's bluray playback capacity. Either way this thing went I would have lost money. But that was my choice to make since I knew the risk of jumping in and did my research.

If people want to spend their money and choose one of two competing formats with their own exclusives and not be aware that they are going to miss out on films from a particular studio or of what could happen if one format loses when there are perfectly fine DVD versions of those films then that's their choice to make. Hell, I remember spending over $500 on a DIVX dvd player from Circuit City sometime in 1998 only to see that format perish, gladly.

 

[John Hermes]

Paramount didn't make a change ten days after Christmas gifts were given out, despite saying two weeks before Christmas they had no plans to go exclusive. The average person (not the enthusiast, who spends his day checking out all the little ins and outs of the hi-def world), the one who will make or break this HDM thing in the end, was sold a load of baloney, by Warner Brothers, in my opinion.

 

[FrancisP]

Paramount didn't issue a statement supporting blu-ray and then jerk the rug out. We need to look at how things went with Warner. A Warner executive
talks about going exclusive. Instead of saying "we are considering going exclusive and we will be talking with Toshiba and Sony" they said essentially we will be there for hd-dvd and blu-ray and disavowing everything the Warner executive said. While people were spending their hard-earned money on Warner hd-dvds, they were talking to screw somebody. With no warning, they are going bluray only. Warner gets the award for the greatest con job of the year. Getting a big check from Sony and fraudulently obtaining cash from conned customers.

 

[Duane Robinson]

The movies those people bought won't suddenly stop working now that Warner has gone exclusive with Blu-ray. Right now I have 2 HD-DVD players and if that format fails, I'll be a little disappointed that I could have used that money on more Blu-ray movies but it won't stop me from continuing to enjoy them for as long as my hardware keeps working.

Warner didn't force these people to buy an HD-DVD player, they chose to. What about all the people on here who bought D-VHS players for way more than the cost of an HD-DVD player and now have a piece of hardware with no new software for it. HD discs haven't been out for too long so if these people weren't willing to take the risks apparent with early adoption, they should have bought some other present for their loved ones.

 

[John Hermes]

Most people have never even heard of D-VHS. It's not like they were ever on sale at Wal-mart or something. It's a very esoteric system. No, Warner didn't force people to buy an HD DVD player. What they did do was misrepresent their intentions right before a time of year when people buy gifts. Why say two weeks before Christmas they have no intention of going exclusive Blu-ray anytime soon? Why not just say nothing instead of giving people some false sense of security? That's why people are pissed off here.

 

[Duane Robinson]

I understand how single format owners feel. Because trust me, if HD-DVD fails and it becomes strictly a Blu-ray world I'll be pretty angry that I spent money I could have spent on more movies on additional hardware because the studios and CE manufacturers couldn't get their crap together and come out with a unified format in the first place. However, I knew the risk jumping in so early in the game when the situation is usually so turbulent for any new product launch, especially when there are two competing formats.

 

[Jonathan Kaye]

So when would have been a good time to announce it?

If they'd have annoucned it before Christmas, they'd have been flamed for doing so when people had already bought Christmas gifts.

If they'd announce it any earlier, they'd have been flamed for doing so after people had bought reduced-price hardware in November.

If they'd announced it after Paramount went exclusive, they'd have been flamed the same way Paramount were flamed.

HD DVD hardware and software bought before Christmas still works, and will continue to do so, and people can take them back for a refund if they're now unhappy with their purchase.

Warner is still releasing HD DVD software until May or so, so at least they haven't pulled the plug straightaway (unlike Paramount, who pulled titles that were ready to ship - and had even shipped in some cases! - that people had pre-ordered).