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

Re: BREAKING NEWS!! Warner Brothers is now Blu-ray Exclusive

And in the end RCA, the originator of CED, put a stake through its heart. RCA one day just came out and anounced they were de-supporting CED: no more discs, no more players, and no more spare parts! Effective that same day!

I think my point of annoyance is that the sudden ending of the format war will serve as a dis-incentive to the not-Toshiba/not-Sony hardware vendors to produce dual-format players. My interpretation of the Paramount deal was that it would prolong the format war for another year or two, giving a window of opportunity for hardware vendors to produce dual-format players. Apparently it's a bit of work to come up with a dual-format player, and now the market reasoning to do so has been pulled. I was just waiting until I saw a price/stability mark I liked in a dual-format player to get a BiRD player. I'm really not happy with a rat's-nest of cables and adaptors and switch boxes needed to hook up a pair of separate drives.

I wonder whether vendors who were set to announce dual-format players at CES will now pull their announcements.

Re: BREAKING NEWS!! Warner Brothers is now Blu-ray Exclusive

I think that HD will eventually replace SD but it will never have the affect that the studios were hoping for in the first place.

They were looking for HD as a way to increase sagging revenues but HD will never result in the boom that SD did because very few people are going to flip there entire collections.

Instead what they are going to see is money moving from SD to HD and the result will be the status quo in regards to revenue.

Certainly they could try to charge more but the public seems to be rejecting that and demanding pricing that is comparable to SD.

So in the end they will be replacing SD with an HD product that cost more to manufacture and making less. There is a poetic justice to all of that.

Re: BREAKING NEWS!! Warner Brothers is now Blu-ray Exclusive

I gotta give both David Boulet and Bill Hunt thier due. Regardless of how some of the opinions made me feel you two stuck to your guns. I think the war is over. The only thing that could change it is if another studio would go exclusive and that ain't happenin'. Still gonna love the HD player for what I have and the upconversion which is outstanding. I'm format independent, but, will be making only Bluray purchases from this point on. What I can't get on Bluray I'll buy on sd dvd. All things considered, this does take a load off my shoulders and has simplified my movie spending. Here's to the future and enjoying HDM not formats.

Re: BREAKING NEWS!! Warner Brothers is now Blu-ray Exclusive

You can read all the Press Releases you want. You can look at the "spin"
some websites have put on the details pertaining to this decision. Do you
honestly think anyone is going to admit there was a payoff? Have you been
reading some of the things the staff and I have posted here? Perhaps we
should be given the benefit of doubt that we have information that we are
willing to risk our reputation on to post here.

We are telling you that the studio was courted by both camps, there was a lot
of money thrown around, and in the end there was a payoff. Things like that
don't stay secret for long.

Can you blame the studio? No! I don't look down at a studio for doing this.
It was a smart business decision to hold out for the best deal possible. There
was no clear-cut winner. There were advantages to going with either format.
Up until the very last minute it could have gone either way. Why not negotiate
and grab the best incentive you can.

Re: BREAKING NEWS!! Warner Brothers is now Blu-ray Exclusive

I´m not sure that can we say that until Paramount-DW and Universal start to support Blu-ray, but the scale now shifted to the side of Blu.

While I agree with Ronald that some money probably (again) was involved, I believe that the main motive from Warner was to stop the format war. There´ll be just one format in one day and also Warner knows that. Did they choose the "right format"? That remains to be seeing of course, but Blu-ray has all the qualities to be that winner format. Time will tell.

Re: BREAKING NEWS!! Warner Brothers is now Blu-ray Exclusive

I have to ask. Are all these payoffs to adopt one format actually legal? Couldn't those types of incentives be a violation of anti-trust rules or something? At the least, they could be considered anti-competitive.

Re: BREAKING NEWS!! Warner Brothers is now Blu-ray Exclusive

We will find out in the coming weeks as the HD DVD group goes forward, but without a doubt it's one of the reasons why studios will deny receiving payoffs.

Re: BREAKING NEWS!! Warner Brothers is now Blu-ray Exclusive

It's more than "some" money.

Re: BREAKING NEWS!! Warner Brothers is now Blu-ray Exclusive

Btw. At least one good thing comes out of this: Less of these combo-releases!

Re: BREAKING NEWS!! Warner Brothers is now Blu-ray Exclusive

Yes it does...but so did HD-DVD.

One thing you must keep in mind is that neither format, at
this stage of the game, had an advantage over the other.

Blu-ray may have the storage capacity, but most all of us have
players that are not up to spec and are not "future proof" of
upcoming software capabilities.

HD-DVD players had it all right from day one as far as being
able to do web content and all the Special Feature enhancements.
They were also cheaper to replicate.

I'm not re-opening a debate about HD-DVD vs. Blu-Ray but rather
solidifying the fact that NEITHER format had an advantage over the
other at present time and that it wasn't clear-cut for Warner to say
one was better than the other.

If HD-DVD had been picked, it would have been just as good a choice.

This is the problem in a nutshell with anyone trying to tell you that
you needed to pick one format over the other.

I'm not trying to sound like a sore loser here. I supported both formats.

Re: BREAKING NEWS!! Warner Brothers is now Blu-ray Exclusive

I have no doubt that they would deny being paid off. These payouts just seem to be a 21st century variation on payola. I don't think it is quite right, but something had to be done to move to a single format.

The question is, how does the BDA ensure mass adoption of HD media? The financial stakes have got to be in the stratosphere with the enormous amounts of cash being handed out to buy loyalty. I mean, really, if the 620,000,000 figure is anywhere close to accurate then that is just a mind boggling amount of money to hand out to ensure loyalty. The consequences could be dire, especially to SONY, if the BDA fails to convince consumers to jump on the HD bandwagon.

I expect a concerted push to lower the cost of high def displays at an even faster rate than is occurring now, with that kind of cash being bandied about. A lot of people think BOGO sales are going to disappear. I don't. I think there is going to be even more of them, coupled with package deals for BD players and HDTVs. At the rate these guys are investing huge sums of cash, they cannot afford to have a massive market failure of HD media.

If the BDA had any brains, they would offer some sort of trade-in deal for anyone who had recently purchased a HD DVD player. If they are willing to bribe the studios then they shouldn't have a problem with offering a bribe to the only ones who really matter: consumers.

Re: BREAKING NEWS!! Warner Brothers is now Blu-ray Exclusive

Well at least until Universal figures out how to do BD/DVD combi's! And you can be sure they will if there's money to be made from it.

Re: BREAKING NEWS!! Warner Brothers is now Blu-ray Exclusive

Agreed. It's ridiculous to think that the format war is now "over", any more than it was when Paramount and Dreamworks shifted to HD-DVD. As long as there are two different formats competing for sales there will still be a "war" as we perceive it. Just because there are no longer any major studios supporting both formats doesn't mean that the two formats aren't still going to go head to head.

In fact, depending on how the HD-DVD guys react to this, the war might actually heat up!

Re: BREAKING NEWS!! Warner Brothers is now Blu-ray Exclusive

Agreed! Watching all of the extras included on the Adventures of Robin Hood disc (especially the two Warner cartoons)remains one of my most enjoyable high def experiences. And yes, can't wait for a Blu Casablanca!

Re: BREAKING NEWS!! Warner Brothers is now Blu-ray Exclusive

I wouldn't say that you are. However, from some of the sentiment expressed regarding HD DVD I get the feeling that you are a little disappointed that things didn't go the other way. That is just my feeling, though. It does not mean I am making an accurate interpretation of your true feelings.

Re: BREAKING NEWS!! Warner Brothers is now Blu-ray Exclusive

Warner said that it would continue to release titles on HD DVD through May of 2008, but that these releases would now follow their Blu-ray and standard-def counterparts by "a short window."

I don't think HD DVD will last until May. Even if Warner continues to release titles after "a short window", I'm wondering if brick and mortar stores will bother to stock them. It seems to me that this decision by Warner has given stores, who are short on space, and, perhaps, online retailers as well, a reason to stop carrying two competing formats. Again, it all boils down to financial considerations. It's going to be even less profitable now for stores to devote space to both formats.

Re: BREAKING NEWS!! Warner Brothers is now Blu-ray Exclusive

Come off it - Liverpool have got more chance of winning the premiership!!

Its not ridiculous especially when Warners are such a significant player as opposed to Paramount whose release slate has been somewhat pathetic,

Some of the HD-DVD zealots on the internet remind me of Comical Ali back in 2003 - the forces of Blu-ray are being "slaughtered"...

Re: BREAKING NEWS!! Warner Brothers is now Blu-ray Exclusive

I'm hardly an HD-DVD zealot. I pride myself on having neither format (yet) and, thus, having a rather independent, level-headed view.

Frankly I'd be surprised if anything with a name as silly as "Blu-Ray" takes off either, but that's just me! :-)

Re: BREAKING NEWS!! Warner Brothers is now Blu-ray Exclusive

The whole payoff thing was there with Paramount/Dreamworks and they denied it too.

I said at the time watch Sony go and make a play for Warner Bros. If that's what happened, I guess you can say the whole Toshiba/Paramount/Dreamworks thing just badly backfired.

But beyond that I think Warner Bros. honestly just wants this format war to end. Clearly they see it as being detrimental to getting some real HDM adoption going. Warner Bros. makes movies, they're not in this for format politics, they want a single format that's easier to accept for the mass public so that they can sell their movies on it.

Of the 52 weeks in 2007, HD-DVD software did not outsell Blu-Ray even for one week. Really do you think things like that were not noticed by Warner Bros.?

Warner Bros. titles that were released on both formats generally tended to sell better on Blu-Ray.

And they did give HD-DVD several key exclusives including Batman Begins and The Matrix Trilogy. People complain that Warner Bros. waited until after Christmas, but if they did this before Christmas then people would say "well WB never gave HD-DVD a chance, they killed the format before we got to see what $99 players + Transformers + Shrek 3 could do".

I think Warner Bros. watched sales of HD-DVD very closely as well as sales of the new Harry Potter on both formats before coming to this decision. I don't think HD-DVD really ever got the boost from the price cuts + Paramout/Dreamworks exclusivity that they were hyped too, and I think Warner Bros. had seen enough.

Re: Warner Brothers is now Blu-ray Exclusive

Make that Blu Friday.

Go Blu!

Chris

Re: BREAKING NEWS!! Warner Brothers is now Blu-ray Exclusive

As a Brit, this news is sickening. HD DVD is region free, Blu-Ray can be, but can also be region protected. If Blu Ray does become predominant, I would guess that about 0.000000000000000001 seconds later, the decision will be made that all new BR releases will be region encoded. And we'll be back to the good old days of the retailers in Europe in general and the UK in particular being free to charge whatever they can get away with. I.e. 45 dollars or more per disc. At the moment, because of the competition from imports, UK prices are quite reasonable. That is not going to last if our cosseted retailers get the region protection they've been baying for. So thanks, Warner, thanks very much.

Re: BREAKING NEWS!! Warner Brothers is now Blu-ray Exclusive

I'll always be perfectly honest with all of you.

My first love was HD-DVD. That format had a perfect launch.
When you bought a HD-DVD player you knew that you were
"future proofed" for all the things that technology would bring
including web content and picture-in-picture extras.

Blu-ray had a pathetic launch. Between players that were not
up-to-snuff and initial lackluster transfers, it was hard to see why
some individuals were getting up on a pedestal telling me I had
to choose that format. Even today, Blu-ray players are not up to
specs. The player I own will not be compatible with upcoming
software releases as far as extra content is concerned.

So, yes, for me I was personally a little more bias towards HD-DVD
at the start. However, when I finally obtained my first Blu-ray
player I was equally as happy as I was with HD-DVD. I saw first-hand
that both formats had their advantages and I found myself feeling
very neutral.

What I think put a sour taste in the mouths of many HD-DVD owners
was the constant bashing that was being done by some BR fanboys
and its supporting websites. It was very apparent to many of us that
news and statistics that were being reported were only telling half
the story. We were just as much privy to all the statistics coming
out of both camps, and many times found ourselves scratching our
heads as to why the whole truth was not being reported. A huge
example of this was a mere few weeks ago when Home Media Retail
broke a story that surveyed buyers of HD televisions had stated
that they would opt to purchase HD-DVD over Blu-ray. It was a
good day for HD-DVD and none of pro Blu-ray sites even bothered
to report it. Sometimes statistics were posted that weren't a true
representation of the entire spectrum. Even at present nobody is
able to grasp the concept that this war was won by anything other
than greed. It was all about money from day one.

Listen, there have been a lot of shady things posted from both
sides of the format camp, so don't think I'm just going after Blu-ray.
The bottom line is that if I have shown any sort of bias towards
HD-DVD in this entire war it's only because I don't like to be told
that I need to choose one format over the other when BOTH formats
are equally as good as the other. I think many people on this forum
have been totally sickened by some of the bashing and half-truths
that have been posted in an effort to discredit the other format.

Personally, I'm very happy for Blu-ray because it means I can
go forward with a little more security that I am buying into a
secure format. I and this forum will continue to be very supportive
of Blu-ray. Congrats!

Re: BREAKING NEWS!! Warner Brothers is now Blu-ray Exclusive

By the way, I think it's less likely now we'll see region coding for Blu-Ray discs, especially now that the US movie studios nowadays do major movie releases within one month worldwide (the limit is probably due to how fast they can produce 35 mm and 70 mm movie reels of the movie). With the likely switch to theatrical digital projection worldwide over the next 6-9 years, a true simultaneously worldwide theatrical movie release becomes very viable indeed, something that will actually discourage piracy because you can see a new movie release anywhere on Earth within one day of release.

Because of that, once the Blu-Ray home video version of the movie comes out everyone on Earth gets it within one day of home video release.

Just my $0.02.

Re: BREAKING NEWS!! Warner Brothers is now Blu-ray Exclusive

Sorry, but the format war never was in the consumer's hands. Every studio on both sides, as well as just about every editorial written since CES2006, made it clear that the consumer was sitting the format war out. When the entire sales of both formats since launch are one-quarter the first week of sales for a big title, consumers aren't choosing anything. Payoff or not, Warner wanted to put an end to this by effectively telling the public that it's OK to jump in now. If the rumblings about Universal going neutral/Blu are correct, combined with Dreamwork's all-but-announced move to Universal, then Paramount will not be far behind. Ken Graffeo already stated he won't be making the Spielberg announcement mistake a 3rd time.

Re: BREAKING NEWS!! Warner Brothers is now Blu-ray Exclusive

Not exactly- players were discontinued in April 1984, but they said they would keep putting out movies as long as there was a demand for them, which turned out to be until mid-1986. I don't know how long spare parts were produced, but today you can still find most of the basic ones as there's a lot of unsold stock still around. Someone's figured out how to rebuild worn styluses too. (It'll be REALLY funny if HD-DVD turns out to be a shorter-lived format than CED!)

I don't have a player for either HD format yet, but I have bought a few HD-DVD combo discs which I can watch now. Granted I got some rare good deals on them (most were picked up during Tower's going out of business sale last year), they are overpriced but were a nice idea. I bought the new Harry Potter HD combo disc the day it came out, if it hadn't been available that way I wouldn't have bought it at all until I had an HD player.

Re: BREAKING NEWS!! Warner Brothers is now Blu-ray Exclusive

I don't think this is a death blow to HD DVD as I have been listing for the fat lady to sing and I still dont hear nothing! LOL

I see into the future and all studios abandon HD DVD so toshiba's last efford is an HD DVD RECORDER, theres little hope but storing 6 or more movies in hd quality on a 51 gb disc for $5 seems to catch on because lets face it Tivo boxes can only hold about 30 to 40 hours of movies and its just not enough. Eithernet jack allows direct download from miscosoft xbox live. Do you think Microsoft and Toshiba know this?

Re: BREAKING NEWS!! Warner Brothers is now Blu-ray Exclusive

I don't think anyone here has stated that the format will die... I think most are of the opinion that it'll remain niche. I have no real problems with a niche product, in fact one positive might be that it MAY ensure better quality with movie presentation since the target consumer are more discerning film fans... and another positive is that it will probably greatly reduce the amount of double-dipping.

However, I wouldn't necessarily expect Blu-Ray to have all day/date releases with DVD. Right now HD-DVD/Blu-Ray are niche and we aren't seeing day/date releases as it is. Sony has a huge stake in Blu-Ray and controls a movie studio - yet not every DVD release in the last year has been given the Blu-Ray treatment. Hard to imagine the studios, after unsuccessfully dumping a lot of money into trying to make the format mainstream, wanting to put more money into a niche market to get back the minimal amount of sales from that market.

Re: BREAKING NEWS!! Warner Brothers is now Blu-ray Exclusive

Wow, this is the biggest news yet in this techno geek "soap opera". Now if this leads to a single unified HDM format with a heathy adoption rate and opens the floodgates to wide assortment of catalog titles then great. Though unlike many here I wouldn't exactly call this war over until Universal and Paramount go neutral or BD exclusive. With so much $$$ possibly at stake I just don't see Toshiba and MS throwing in the towel until the bitter end. The next 3-6 months will be interesting.


Personally I'm a bit numb as this descision doesn't have any real immediate effect on me, even though I'm "format-free" I've always purchased Warner titles on BD when given the choice so nothing will be changed in my buying habits. But while I've always preferred BD I am a bit sad that my less than a year old $500 XA2 may very soon turn into a Betamax player, but that's the choice I made and the risk that I took.

Re: BREAKING NEWS!! Warner Brothers is now Blu-ray Exclusive

You're absolutely correct about this. I'm not a big "sound quality enthusiast", but without even trying to notice (hey, I was in it for the picture!), I couldn't help but to notice how GREAT the sound can be in high def. It just blows me away how good it can sound, and although I wouldn't have thought it would make that much of a difference, it does considerably improve the experience.


Some here have questioned when Criterion will jump on board, but I wonder how long it will be before companies like Blue Underground will jump on board also. The Digital Bits seems to think that Universal will jump on board by 4th quarter this year...hopefully they're correct--I want my Vertigo & Psycho in Blu ASAP!

Re: BREAKING NEWS!! Warner Brothers is now Blu-ray Exclusive

If something called a "Wii" can be a hit, there's nothing wrong with "Blu-ray"