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Breaking News!! Warner is soon to be Blu-Ray Exclusive!

#121
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1/4/08 at 3:12pm
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Re: Warner Brothers is now Blu-ray Exclusive

Quote:
Originally Posted by Paul_Scott
Jan 4 will now be known as Black Friday.

Make that Blu Friday!
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#122
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1/4/08 at 3:12pm
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Re: BREAKING NEWS!! Warner Brothers is now Blu-ray Exclusive

Okay...did a quick check on the new Panasonic and noticed when I went on Amazon and Best Buy that there's a "K" after it. Forgive me if this is a stupid question, but is that anything significant?

Disney/Buena Vista/Miramax: Please put Beautiful Girls on Blu-ray with bonus features and the original theatrical trailer in 1080p, and an anamorphic re-release with bonus features and the original theatrical trailer day-and-date on DVD. Thanks!

www.myspace.com/macphoen

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#123
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1/4/08 at 3:15pm
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Re: BREAKING NEWS!! Warner Brothers is now Blu-ray Exclusive

Quote:
Originally Posted by Ric Easton
I'm just wondering for folks that have both formats... Will you continue to buy HD-DVD if it is an exclusive title (Especially big sets like Star Trek or Battlestar Galactica), or will you wait until it some day comes out in Blu?
I was going to buy Zodiac next week. Not any more. Will rent and "wait for Blu-ray."
Felix E. Martinez
www.applesandorangesband.com
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#124
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1/4/08 at 3:16pm
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Re: BREAKING NEWS!! Warner Brothers is now Blu-ray Exclusive

David,

Based on your initial comments I doubt many were privy to the
details of the Warner deal.

For you to say that Warner made their decision a long time ago
is totally false. Totally.

Without going into specifics, BOTH formats came awfully close to
being chosen over the past few days. While I agree that Warner
was holding out for the best offer, there was no preconceived
notion of which format they were going to choose until the very end.
Ronald J Epstein
Home Theater Forum co-owner
Email me at: repstein@hometheaterforum.com 
To View My Massive DVD Collection Click Here
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#125
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1/4/08 at 3:16pm
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Re: BREAKING NEWS!! Warner Brothers is now Blu-ray Exclusive

Quote:
Originally Posted by ChrisCook
Okay...did a quick check on the new Panasonic and noticed when I went on Amazon and Best Buy that there's a "K" after it. Forgive me if this is a stupid question, but is that anything significant?
If it's anything like previous models, it just means that it comes in black (as opposed to "S" for silver paintjobs).
"Would I rather be feared or loved? Um...easy, both. I want people to be afraid of how much they love me."
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#126
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1/4/08 at 3:16pm
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Re: BREAKING NEWS!! Warner Brothers is now Blu-ray Exclusive

Quote:
Originally Posted by ChrisCook
Okay...did a quick check on the new Panasonic and noticed when I went on Amazon and Best Buy that there's a "K" after it. Forgive me if this is a stupid question, but is that anything significant?

I think it just specifies the color of the player, which is black.

Good choice on the Panasonic. I have one and sold my PS3. Loads just as fast and bitstreams all of the hi-def audio formats.
Middle Georgia Storm Chasers
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#127
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1/4/08 at 3:19pm
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Re: BREAKING NEWS!! Warner Brothers is now Blu-ray Exclusive

Quote:
Originally Posted by ChrisCook
Okay...did a quick check on the new Panasonic and noticed when I went on Amazon and Best Buy that there's a "K" after it. Forgive me if this is a stupid question, but is that anything significant?
I believe that's the color of the model (black).
Felix E. Martinez
www.applesandorangesband.com
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#128
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1/4/08 at 3:23pm
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Re: BREAKING NEWS!! Warner Brothers is now Blu-ray Exclusive

Quote:
I really wish that Warner had made this decision two months ago, though. Turning newly opened Christmas presents into door stops isn't very classy.

I agree completely. Now I'll have to buy the last 2 Harry Potters on Blu-Ray to go with my HD-DVD collection of the first 5 movies or repurchase them on Blu-Ray. Nice

Shawn Siref
---------------------------------------------------
Equipment:
TV: Mitsubishi WD-73733 73-Inch Widescreen HDTV
Receiver: Denon AVR-2805 DD-EX/DTS-ES 7.1DVD Player: Denon DVD-2200HD DVD Player: Toshiba HD-A35Blu-Ray Player: Panasonic DMP-BD55Speakers: Klipsch Reference SeriesSubwoofe...

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#129
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1/4/08 at 3:23pm
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Re: BREAKING NEWS!! Warner Brothers is now Blu-ray Exclusive

Quote:
Originally Posted by Bryan X
I must admit I'm disapointed with the WB announcement. HD-DVD cannot survive this.

I bought an A3 for $149 w/ 10 free HD-DVDs back in November.

Fortunately I've only bought 7 additional titles on top of that, and I only averaged $17.00 per title. So I'm only out about $270. The movies I did buy I can still watch, and I'll still have a great upconverting player. Still it's a little frustrating.

I'm done with HDM in the near future. Blu-ray players will have to drop below $200 and most likely below $150 before I jump in again. It's not so much the money, but the whole thing has just left a sour taste in my mouth.

Congrats Blu-ray. RIP HD-DVD.



I can understand one being happy about Warner's decision. I sure would be if I owned a Blu-ray player or was neutral. But to say it was good timing? How is it good timing? Good timing would have been BEFORE the Christmas shopping season when many people bought into HD-DVD due to the dropping player prices.

Even if Warner had gone HD-DVD exclusive, I would never say that days after Christmas was 'good timing'.

That's the risk you took investing in either format; especially where you put all of your eggs in one basket. The timing is good from the perspective that it's a new year and help manufactuers at CES - greater consumer confidence.
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#130
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1/4/08 at 3:24pm
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Re: BREAKING NEWS!! Warner Brothers is now Blu-ray Exclusive

Quote:
Originally Posted by Paul_Scott
I'm dual format- but I'm not going to lay down my animosity until I see a multi page rant from Bill Hunt on why the Bd 'buying' Warners exclusive support was terrible for the consumer.
The worst thing about this news? People like Bill Hunt are vindicated.

What do you mean people like Bill Hunt are vindicated? If anything he was steering consumers towards a format that had a clear advantage with its CE and studio support from the beginning. With WB going exclusive, he was correct in his analysis.
DVD/HD DVD/Blu-ray Collection
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#131
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1/4/08 at 3:25pm
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Re: BREAKING NEWS!! Warner Brothers is now Blu-ray Exclusive

Does this mean "TotalHD" is dead??

I've owned a HD-DVD player for about 18 months now ... but I only purchased four HD-DVD titles. I use my player primarily to upscale SD-DVD's and to play rented HD-DVD titles. Of course, as a huge Classic Disney Animation fan I knew the day would come when I would inevitably have to "Go Blu". I thought all along that that day would probably come in Fall 2008. This announcement simply pushes my timetable up.

I hated, hated, hated, the format war and I'm glad it's over!!

Joseph
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#132
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1/4/08 at 3:26pm
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Re: BREAKING NEWS!! Warner Brothers is now Blu-ray Exclusive

Even though I am recently into HD-DVD, I had always planned to go neutral. But now, for some reason, I feel less inclined to do so any time soon. This is a seismic shock, but I'm still not convinced it will open the HDM floodgates.

And I admit to feeling a little sad about this. I have bought many pieces of Sony equipment over the years, but I have never really trusted Sony to bring new formats to market that are successful (I bit on MiniDisc but thankfully avoided UMD). I still don't trust them. After all, the introduction of Blu-Ray HAS been a mess (hopefully Blu diehards will at least admit that much).

I guess I just always liked the HD-DVD vibe better than Blu-Ray (still do). But eventually I will get into Blu. Just not any time soon.
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#133
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1/4/08 at 3:28pm
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Re: BREAKING NEWS!! Warner Brothers is now Blu-ray Exclusive

For what it's worth I held off temptation on buying an A3 last week. (damn you Blade Runner!)

I picked up a PS3 today and a slew of Blu-movies, spending 3 times what I would have last week, with not an ounce of hesitation. (unfortunately they didn't have Blade Runner...)

"Because he's the hero that Gotham deserves, but not the one it needs right now... and so we'll hunt him... because he can take it... because he's not a hero... he's a silent guardian, a watchful protector... a DARK KNIGHT."

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#134
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1/4/08 at 3:32pm
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Re: BREAKING NEWS!! Warner Brothers is now Blu-ray Exclusive

Ironic that I purchased the first 4 Harry Potters on HD DVD in the last BOGO- but yesterday I made a conscious decision to get the last film on Bd.
Why?
Because I dislike the combo format, and even more (much more actually) I hate having many of the bonus features compiled and put into an IME. I HATE IMEs!
An IME is like going to the movies and then having the guy in the seat next to you nudge you every ten minutes to show you a page from the 'Making of...' book he brought along with him.
When these formats first came on line, I thought "hey, that looks like a cool feature" but the more i see it now the more I dislike it. When I want to watch the movie, I want to watch the movie with no distractions. When I'm done with the movie and want to explore BTS and production material, then I don't want to have to spool thru the entire movie again to get it. An IME flies in the face of one of the major original selling factors of the entire optical disc format- random access.

I bought Harry Potter ATOOTP on Bd because the features are seperate and easily accessible. In this sense, profile 1.1 and 2.0 aren't doing me a damn bit of good.
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#135
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1/4/08 at 3:33pm
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Re: BREAKING NEWS!! Warner Brothers is now Blu-ray Exclusive

Quote:
The worst thing about this news? People like Bill Hunt are vindicated.
Quote:
There have been a lot of intellectually dishonest- or at the very least, irrational and emotional- arguments bandied about the last 18 months.

I think your statements above nailed some of my personal
feelings on the head.

I will be the first to ward off any personal attacks towards Bill
Hunt on this forum. He doesn't deserve them.

However, I have always made my feelings personally clear to Bill
that he should never have picked a side. There were two really
great formats that the adopters cozied up rather quickly to. For
anyone to tell you or I that we should have supported Blu-ray
only is quite ridiculous --- even moreso when Blu-ray wasn't even
up to final spec. I could understand the fight to pick one format
when the other was clearly a bad choice -- but that was never the
reality of the situation. What gives the right for any individual to
say that you need to pick Blu-ray over DVD?

Meanwhile (and unrelated to the above), there have been loads of
dishonest people I have met who went out of their way to misrepresent
a format that was not their choice. You all know the story of one guy who
attended a HD-DVD/Blu-ray debate in Vegas this past year and totally
distorted the facts, insulted our guests, and offered no apology in the
process. All of this was done in an effort to deliver dishonest information
and bolster support for his format of choice.

The amount of insults and misinformation I have seen posted on
boards across the Internet is staggering. We always knew the sales
numbers and latest polls from both sides, but some sites chose only
to give one-sided information without giving credit to the other. We
would often ask ourselves, "if this information is being reported about
FORMAT A, why isn't this information being reported about FORMAT B?"
Being bias towards a particular format doesn't help anyone effectively
report the entire story.

Never have people been so divided in opinions. There was no possible
way anyone could get on a pedestal and effectively unify people towards
one format.

I am just happy that we can all finally calm down and return to
treating each other with due respect.
Ronald J Epstein
Home Theater Forum co-owner
Email me at: repstein@hometheaterforum.com 
To View My Massive DVD Collection Click Here
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#136
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1/4/08 at 3:35pm
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Re: BREAKING NEWS!! Warner Brothers is now Blu-ray Exclusive

Quote:
Originally Posted by DaViD Boulet
Of course it's monitary gain. My point is that this decision is not comparable to Paramount's "blind" decision to just follow the cash of an exclusive contract (where the BDA weren't even involved until after it was signed). WB's decision, and how they handled it, was quite different.

The two choices were payoff with a future market for HD sales, and a payoff with a future market of stagnating HD sales.


I have to disagree with you hear David. Warner was the king maker. If Warner had chosen HD DVD we would now be talking about the end of blu-ray.

Doug
"I'm in great shape, for the shape I'm in."
Bob Hope in The Ghostbreakers
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#137
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1/4/08 at 3:36pm
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Re: BREAKING NEWS!! Warner Brothers is now Blu-ray Exclusive

Wow!

I was expecting an announcement but not this soon. I got into HD with the HD-A1 then followed up with the xbox add-on then followed by the PS3 so I have both formats covered. I have enjoyed and will continue to enjoy my HD-DVD collection for as long as my players work which will probably be for a long, long time (I still have a Laserdisc Player that works). I will obviously have to shift my purchasing more towards BR but I will still buy HD-DVD titles from Universal and Paramount for as long as they support that Format.

Congrats to BR. This CES should be interesting after this bombshell.

Later everyone
Brian
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#138
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1/4/08 at 3:38pm
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Re: BREAKING NEWS!! Warner Brothers is now Blu-ray Exclusive

Quote:
Originally Posted by DaViD Boulet
Nothing was final until the last minute. Of course. But this outcome and many of the details surrounding it have been known to others outside of this forum as well.

My point about Warner's decision not being merely a decision based on pay-off is that their decision is NOT like Paramount. Paramount made a decision based purely on pay-off which contrasted with their own sales statistics and long-term market strategy. On the other hand, because they could have had virtually the same "pay off" for exclusivity with either camp, Warner wanted to make the decision that makes the most long-term market sense, which is Blu-ray Disc given the way that the market trends have been going over the past year. They also wanted to make the most profit in a deal for exclusivity... a win win. What company wouldn't take advantage of such a great opportunity: getting paid vast sums to make a decision they would have wanted to make anyway to end the war and start to help ramp-up mass adoption as the format-confusion dust settles.

I think you are assuming way too much here. You don't have any idea what Paramounts sales figures told them.

Doug
"I'm in great shape, for the shape I'm in."
Bob Hope in The Ghostbreakers
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#139
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1/4/08 at 3:38pm
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Re: BREAKING NEWS!! Warner Brothers is now Blu-ray Exclusive

Quote:
Originally Posted by Ronald Epstein
Time to put away any animosities and be thankful we have
one format to move forward with.

Yesss!

Happy New Year and Bring on the titles
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#140
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1/4/08 at 3:38pm
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Re: BREAKING NEWS!! Warner Brothers is now Blu-ray Exclusive

Bill hunt must be very angry at them.
Only a few months ago, he said that a studio going neutral is one thing, but a studio going from neutral to exclusive is a terrible sin.

Also he must strongly disagree with the >$620,000,000 Sony is paying them for this decision (which I think is a normal business deal).


Cees
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#141
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1/4/08 at 3:39pm
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Re: BREAKING NEWS!! Warner Brothers is now Blu-ray Exclusive

Quote:
David,

Based on your initial comments I doubt many were privy to the
details of the Warner deal.

For you to say that Warner made their decision a long time ago
is totally false. Totally.

Without going into specifics, BOTH formats came awfully close to
being chosen over the past few days. While I agree that Warner
was holding out for the best offer, there was no preconceived
notion of which format they were going to choose until the very end.

Without a doubt that's exactly what they wanted the industry (BDA and MS/Toshiba) to see: Had there been certainty about which way they might have wanted to go, that would have made the courting much less lucritive.



My notion that they "knew" which way they wanted to go is my own inference based on the obvious choice to secure the format with the highest sales and best long-term growth potential based on wider industry support.
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#142
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1/4/08 at 3:41pm
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Re: Warner Brothers is now Blu-ray Exclusive

Quote:
Originally Posted by Ronald Epstein
If Jack Nicholson were here right now he would say, You want the truth?! You can't handle the truth!
More importantly, however, the "truth" doesn't matter. There were a complex of factors that went into this decision, but the fact is that the decision has been made and no amount of justification is going to change that. Your parents never had to explain their rationale for their actions; same here.

I personally am disappointed because I was (and continue to be) a big HD-DVD backer. I held out hope that they would eventually win out. This is a major swing, and I can see BD overtaking HD-DVD. I'm glad because it means we will have a unified format for the future, though I am left with a couple dozen HD-DVDs that will become obsolete.
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#143
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1/4/08 at 3:41pm
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Re: BREAKING NEWS!! Warner Brothers is now Blu-ray Exclusive

Quote:
I think you are assuming way too much here. You don't have any idea what Paramounts sales figures told them.

You're right. We only know what Neilson's sales figures indicated, along with first-hand information from their mastering/authoring department about how excited they were to start to take advantage of BD potential.



In any case...

we need not debate studio decisions of the past. More energy could be put into seeing what happens with Paramount and Universal moving forward.
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#144
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1/4/08 at 3:41pm
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Re: BREAKING NEWS!! Warner Brothers is now Blu-ray Exclusive

David,

Sorry, but comparing your "notion" to Ron's "knowledge" in this matter is worse than apples and oranges. Or even raisins and oranges....


Cees
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#145
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1/4/08 at 3:44pm
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Re: BREAKING NEWS!! Warner Brothers is now Blu-ray Exclusive

Now all the BR hardware and software manufacturers have to do is drop their prices, and I'm there!
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#146
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1/4/08 at 3:45pm
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Re: BREAKING NEWS!! Warner Brothers is now Blu-ray Exclusive

Quote:
My notion that they "knew" which way they wanted to go is my own inference based on the obvious choice to secure the format with the highest sales and best long-term growth potential based on wider industry support.

I think you are being rather naive here and it makes it awfully
apparent to me that you have no clue of what transpired these
past few days.
Ronald J Epstein
Home Theater Forum co-owner
Email me at: repstein@hometheaterforum.com 
To View My Massive DVD Collection Click Here
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#147
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1/4/08 at 3:46pm
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Re: BREAKING NEWS!! Warner Brothers is now Blu-ray Exclusive

not intending to argue, just express that Warner knew what they were doing and were playing a pro-active role in the outcome, unlike Paramount which just reacted.

I'll back out of this conversation about Warner...
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#148
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1/4/08 at 3:46pm
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Re: BREAKING NEWS!! Warner Brothers is now Blu-ray Exclusive

Quote:
Originally Posted by Cees Alons
Bill hunt must be very angry at them.
Only a few months ago, he said that a studio going neutral is one thing, but a studio going from neutral to exclusive is a terrible sin.

Also he must strongly disagree with the >$620,000,000 Sony is paying them for this decision (which I think is a normal business deal).

That's the second time you've posted that number. Link?

high resolution ipod featuring dlp hd programming is the best, almost as good as playstation 2 with wega windows media on a super cd! ps2 and tivo do dolby tv with broadband hdtv!

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#149
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1/4/08 at 3:48pm
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Re: BREAKING NEWS!! Warner Brothers is now Blu-ray Exclusive

Quote:
Originally Posted by DaViD Boulet
You're right. We only know what Neilson's sales figures indicated, along with first-hand information from their mastering/authoring department about how excited they were to start to take advantage of BD potential.



In any case...

we need not debate studio decisions of the past. More energy could be put into seeing what happens with Paramount and Universal moving forward.

Just because more BD were selling than HD DVDs doesn't mean that Paramount was making more money with BD. In fact it may have been the other way around.

Doug
"I'm in great shape, for the shape I'm in."
Bob Hope in The Ghostbreakers
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#150
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1/4/08 at 3:50pm
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Re: BREAKING NEWS!! Warner Brothers is now Blu-ray Exclusive

Quote:
He doesn't deserve them.

out of respect for you Ron and the heirarchy here at HTF (who have navigated the war torn waters so far with laudable even handidness) I won't continue to beat that drum. Let me just say I disagree with you on that one point referenced above.
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