**Official HTF HD Formats Ind./Retailer/Studio Support Thread-*SEE POST 3176, p. 106* - Page 7

Re: *** Official HTF HD Formats Industry/Retailer/Studio Support Thread

And after evaluating came to the conclusion to stop releasing on the better-selling format because it made good business sense.

Riiiiiiiight.

Re: *** Official HTF HD Formats Industry/Retailer/Studio Support Thread

Then Bill Hunt and his BS need to be called out. It's a constant stream every week of ridiculous anti HD DVD statements.

I'm not a SONY hater. The only reason I have HD DVD is it was cheaper and Blu Ray didn't have it together initially. And the argument is there that they still don't.

Re: *** Official HTF HD Formats Industry/Retailer/Studio Support Thread

He did Direct them, but he doesn't own them. Lucas does. That statement is talking about the films Spielberg directed for Dream Works, which Spielberg owns outright..

Doug

Re: *** Official HTF HD Formats Industry/Retailer/Studio Support Thread

Marek,

No. Anything in my post suggesting anything making me happy? Or even that I have "a position" I want to talk about?

Please, calm down and don't exaggerate the situation or the discussion.

Here's one of my positions: I don't think downloading movies is feasible at the moment, and I don't like it for my collector's purposes.



Brett,

It is if they currently LOSE on every disc sold. Are you sure they're not?


Cees

Re: *** Official HTF HD Formats Industry/Retailer/Studio Support Thread

EDIT: It's not even worth getting into.

Re: *** Official HTF HD Formats Industry/Retailer/Studio Support Thread

Agreed. I'm just going to stop buying HD media and stick with DVD. It looks pretty darn good upscaled on my Sony 50" A2000. Knowing how long Lucas and Spielberg waited with DVD before releasing their big films, the longer this war drags out the less likely that I'll be able to view my favorite movies in HD.

Re: *** Official HTF HD Formats Industry/Retailer/Studio Support Thread

If they are getting that kind of cash infusion, or honestly believe that HD-DVD will sell a lot of players this fall (figuring in the influence that them going one way would have), sure it makes good business sense. At this point, exclusivity deals probably pay better than releasing the software.

As to who pays... I wouldn't be shocked if it was mostly Toshiba, as opposed to ALL MICROSOFT TO KILL DISC-BASED MEDIA. Toshiba stands to reap big rewards if HD-DVD becomes the next standard - don't they own all the relevant patents, while BD's are distributed among the members of their consortium. If HD-DVD becomes the next standard, they're making a lot of money for the next ten years; if it doesn't, they're kind of screwed. It makes just as much sense for them to be throwing a lot of money around as it does for Microsoft.

Re: *** Official HTF HD Formats Industry/Retailer/Studio Support Thread

Yes Cees you did several times, mostly about BD+ is super unconsumer friendly and yes you are so strong for dual players, and to get all studios to neutral, yes that's what I had on my mind when I saw your post, and I am sorry if you don't like what I post........, I don't have to post here...

I am sorry Cees but we need ONE FORMAT, and I don't care if it is HD DVD or Blu-ray, but as soon as we get ONE, super mass adpotion can start, so for me and many people who wants to end this war is VERY VERY BAD move

and here is your Fox coming to netural..

Fox Set to Renew Blu-ray Commitment, Announce Future Release Plans
http://www.highdefdigest.com/news/sh...ease_Plans/875

Re: *** Official HTF HD Formats Industry/Retailer/Studio Support Thread

can anybody explain this ?

are they going to burn those ready to ship BD copies of Blades of Glory ?

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showp...1&postcount=78

Re: *** Official HTF HD Formats Industry/Retailer/Studio Support Thread

So Fox is planning to make an announcement later? That's like vaporware squared compared to what Paramount just did.

Re: *** Official HTF HD Formats Industry/Retailer/Studio Support Thread

Marek, you have every right to that opinion - but you know I don't agree. I (still) think two competing formats aren't so bad for the consumer. So we won't agree on that one point.
(I know we agree on some others. )


Cees

Re: *** Official HTF HD Formats Industry/Retailer/Studio Support Thread

HD-DVD now has a couple more exclusives in their camp and there are some who are crying foul? Bill didn't seem to have a problem with Blu-Ray having exclusives, but he doesn't like HD-DVD having them? Too bad. Business is business and he should grow up and accept that.

It's called a "format war" (emphasis on "war"). Toshiba wasn't going to roll over and die. Personally, I like the competition. I don't see this on having any real effect on the acceptance of HD media as I always thought (format war or not) that it'll be a niche market anyways.

Now I sit and wait for more films I like being available on EITHER format before I jump on board.

Re: *** Official HTF HD Formats Industry/Retailer/Studio Support Thread

Yep. The war is over. The winner - DVD and standard definition.

Thanks a lot to the fools at Sony, Microsoft, Toshiba, Disney, Universal, Fox, and Paramount. The only studio I reserve my wrath for is Warner, the only "true" neutral studio - for the time being.

And it looks like Fox is about to counterstrike: http://www.highdefdigest.com/news/sh...ease_Plans/875

Re: *** Official HTF HD Formats Industry/Retailer/Studio Support Thread

I just want to say I'm disappointed. I was hoping one side or the other would win - I didn't care which. Now it looks like it's going to go on further.

Re: *** Official HTF HD Formats Industry/Retailer/Studio Support Thread

Exactly.

Its fine to have an agenda (upon further consideration that's the wrong choice of words, forgive me) preference, just don't insult my intelligence by claiming you don't have one. If I lived outside the US, I'm sure I'd be mighty put out by Region Coding, etc. too.

Re: *** Official HTF HD Formats Industry/Retailer/Studio Support Thread

You know i bought an HD player, and have no hate for that format. However i didnt like the build of the Tosh HD DVD player. The build sucked, and the thing skipped on DVDs. So i bought the Sony Blu-ray. I know alot of you guys hate Sony, but my Sony7700 DVD player is still a killer after almost 10 years!
I want a player that doesnt look like it came from my DADs AV rack from the 70s. I want a player that is built like a brick s**t house! Toshiba doesn't have that. Their DVD players suck (IMO) for the most part too! If Pioneer, Denon, heck even Panasonic, sold an HD player id buy one...now, today!
Dont even get me started of what i think of LG!
And remember i own a Tosh plasma, that i love. So i dont hate Toshiba!

Re: *** Official HTF HD Formats Industry/Retailer/Studio Support Thread

The short-term winner of all this, from the perspective of my pocketbook, is Netflix. Its time to re-activate my account. Anything short of a must-own is a rental for the forseeable future. What a complete clusterf*ck.

Re: *** Official HTF HD Formats Industry/Retailer/Studio Support Thread

I think it stinks that Paramount has gone hd-dvd only. I am not one of the "anti-hd dvd" people, but many have invested in blu-ray, and so the format war goes on longer. For any blu-ray fans, here is the phone number at Paramount, ask for the home video department and tell them (in a nice way) that we want both formats released until one is the winner. IWe have purchased many movies from Paramount on VHS, laserdisc, dvd, and now they slap us in the face for choosing one of the two formats.

Paramount phone number: (323) 956-5000

the more we call, the more they will see that many people who have already purchased their players on the blu-ray format are upset.

Re: *** Official HTF HD Formats Industry/Retailer/Studio Support Thread

I just want to add that as much as HTF officially hates format war discussions, I love them. We're in the midst of history in the making, and I am glad that HTF did not completely ban these discussions when they reacted (IMO over-reacted) a couple weeks ago. These discussions take me all the way back to the days of Apple vs Commodore. Thanks HTF!

Re: *** Official HTF HD Formats Industry/Retailer/Studio Support Thread

Hmmm....that's odd. My Toshiba XA2 is every bit as solid and goodlooking as anything Sony ever made. And I can say that because I have a ton of Sony electronics at home.

I just ain't sold on Blu-ray as a "future" concept when I can have high definition in full glory "right now" with HD DVD.

But whichever way things fall, I'm cool with it. I'll buy a Blu-ray setup if it comes to that.

But Paramount's dedication to HD DVD -- plus its solid reasons for doing so -- warms the cockles of my heart.

Re: *** Official HTF HD Formats Industry/Retailer/Studio Support Thread

I guess that's true. I'm not a fan of watching car accidents, though. This one has body parts all over the place. It's as if the home video industry watched Godard's Weekend and said, "Hey, that tracking shot that ends in the terrible accident? Let's do that to High Definition on home video!"

Re: *** Official HTF HD Formats Industry/Retailer/Studio Support Thread

Thanks for giving me a much-needed laugh today.

Re: *** Official HTF HD Formats Industry/Retailer/Studio Support Thread

I'm sure all the lawyers for the parties involved vetted this move to make sure no anti-trust laws are being violated.

Has anyone holding the position that Microsoft is behind this in an effort to sabotage physical media in favor of downloading done any research into what fees if any they receive for the use of their VCI encoding used on almost all HD DVD releases? Perhaps they see this as a revenue stream?

That 150 mil. is probably more than all studios combined have made on HD DVD and BD disc sales to date, don't blame Paramount/DW for jumping on that. I'd be interested to know what kind of financial incentives were offered by the BD group to Fox, Lion's Gate, etc--maybe Bill Hunt can find out for us.

The Paramount press release points out that HD DVD is cheaper to get into and more complete as far as specs--both of which are valid arguments at this point in time. I suspect that Paramount/DW were made aware of even lower HD DVD player prices for the upcoming holiday season, presenting them with the possibility of a large enough installed base of players with a high enough attach rate (i.e. not game machines) to make revenues from HD releases actually significant rather than the drop in the bucket they are now.

Like it or not, the admission price for the consumer is going to determine whether HD optical disc is going to succeed. I sell HDTVs for a living at a major retailer and the vast majority of customers willing to spend $3.5k on a 52" Sammy LCD won't spend more than $129 for an SD dvd player, just as they won't buy anything better than a $299 HTIB for a sound system. A $199 HD player will sell to these folks, a $499 one won't, and these are the people who will determine whether HD optical disc succeeds or fails.

The download threat is frankly non-existent as far as these people are concerned. They want physical media they can hold in their hands, loan to friends, buy or sell used, keep forever in a collection on a shelf. It should be remembered that most people are still watching SD tvs, and most have a choice between buying or renting dvd or using pay-per-view or on-demand for watching SD movies, and the easy availability of PPV or On Demand hasn't hurt the dvd market one bit.

Re: *** Official HTF HD Formats Industry/Retailer/Studio Support Thread

Let's say the amount of cash that Paramount would have made on their BR sales is 150 million and 150million is the amount paid by Toshiba/MS/whomever.

In that case it's not a bad business decision. All HD DVD did was subsidize the amount that Paramount/Dreamworks won't be making off BR and they get it up front.

I don't see this as a bad business decision. Then again I'm not biased either way. To me it seems the biggest complainers are BR fans.

Re: *** Official HTF HD Formats Industry/Retailer/Studio Support Thread

I think the majority of people that are upset about this are indeed BD supporters, but their anger is mostly fueled out of the fact that this just prolongs a war, and the longer that war lasts, the harder it's going to be for HD physical media to survive. Now, it's too early to say that HD-DVD has damned us to that, but this move doesn't help.

Like I said earlier, I own both formats and still find this a disturbing move in that regards.

Re: *** Official HTF HD Formats Industry/Retailer/Studio Support Thread

So if I read all these posts correctly if the same studios were announcing they were going BluRay only the majority of posters would be happy?

I believe the higher manufacturing cost of BluRays and the fact that other studios would have to have that work done by Sony are very valid factor to consider.

I can't wait to see how Sony responds.

Re: *** Official HTF HD Formats Industry/Retailer/Studio Support Thread

Bill telling it straigt? Blu bias all over it. What else is new.

Re: *** Official HTF HD Formats Industry/Retailer/Studio Support Thread

I can't speak for anyone else, but if Universal and Weinstein Co. decided to go neutral I'd be okay with it, but if they pulled a Paramount and dropped HD-DVD I'd be equally as pissed on behalf of those who invested in the format only to have one of the major supporters pull the plug.

Re: *** Official HTF HD Formats Industry/Retailer/Studio Support Thread

I swear, I go out to lunch and all Hell breaks out loose!!!
Can we have a Pacman smiley so I can start eating my words?

Oh well, I'm not one to spin any facts... So congrats to HD DVD...
Just dont get it though... acknowledging a 2:1 sales ratio then claiming that hardware prices is the reason for going HD DVD exclusive. Do stuidos make money off hardware sales??? I just dont get it...

but enough about me...
I will sorely miss Transformers...
ok maybe not enough about me...

Re: *** Official HTF HD Formats Industry/Retailer/Studio Support Thread

I'm speechless............

I really did not see this coming. In fact, when I saw the first press release I was certain that it was a prank. I never expected ANY studio to drop a format, however, I did expect the ones who were sided with only one format to eventually go neutral. I am sorry for those who are BD only today. Of course, the dual format people are nullified in this case.

What's so shocking is how VIOLENT this decision appears to be. I mean, I'm sure that copies of
Blades of Glory
are likely already pressed and ready to ship, so why not simply release it? Perhaps there is more going on behind the scenes than we know and a major fallout between Paramount and the BDA erupted?

Anyway, my position form day one has been that ALL studios should be neutral. Now it seems that there's only one neutral studio left, but for how long? I think that if it had been WHV who had did this, many of us would not have been that surprised, but Paramount? This was completely out of left field. It will be interesting to see what New Lineand Criterion
ultimately decide to do (if anything at all) in the coming weeks.