Breaking News!! Warner is soon to be Blu-Ray Exclusive! - Page 8  

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

It doesn't make a big difference in my plans. I posted only yesterday that I will buy a BR player that has the features that have been promised for less than $500. That will go forward.

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

Let's be honest here without the usual verbiage, Warner got paid off and that's the short of this story. Frankly, I'm glad the format war is almost over with, but I'm not going to ignore what really happened here.

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

So with this announcement what has Blu gained? Nothing. They always had access to the same Warner titles as HD-DVD except a select few. A better announcement for Blu would have been Paramount or better, Universal, going format neutral. Then they would have access to titles they previously did not. So why are so many Blu folks happy? Because they enjoy HD-DVD supporters misery more than improving their own position and having access to a larger (or complete) movie library.

Home theater buffs have access to more movies with better quality and OAR than ever before but some people aren't happy with that. They don't look at their own position and say "HT is great and I am happy with the incredible selection of movies I can watch in the proper presentation" but instead look around see people watching movies "incorrectly" or on the "wrong format" and get angry that such options exist and attempt to eliminate those options for other people. When such options are eliminated they take such joy in the result even though it has no impact for good or ill on their personal HT situation.

So freaking sad.

As far as Warner's announcement, I don't know which is worse; That they knew they were going format exclusive before Christmas (but not which one) or that they didn't and are prone to capricious, split-second decision making that will have long lasting repercussions.

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

http://wesleytech.com/

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

The announcement leads to a SINGLE format (many didn't really care which one), which will lead to greater adoption by consumers, leading to better studio support, giving us more movies to watch, etc. etc.

It's all very simple.

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

Well put.

As I said previously, some manufacturer needs to get on the ball to manufacture an affordable, bug-free dual/combo player or there's going to be a lot of unhappy people.

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

Public denial is one thing, but what really happened is another. Sooner or later, certain details will leak out and people can make up their own minds on this matter. IMO, it's not worth debating because the decision by Warner has been made and now we as consumers will have to deal with the consequences of that decision which hopefully means an end to the format war so we can enjoy the benefit of HDM even moreso than we had previously before today's announcement.

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

That postponement of Sunday's HD-DVD press event is a BIG deal.

I also find this statement interesting:

We believe the consumer continues to benefit from HD DVD’s commitment to quality and affordability – a bar that is critical for the mainstream success of any format. (Emphasis mine).

That last statement is the first of any wiggle room HD-DVD has allowed itself. Maybe I'm reading too much into it, but it's almost as though they are saying that HD-DVDs advantages could be useful in any future strategy for other formats, and we all know what that other format is.

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

Chuck,

If these things operated in a vacuum, then I would agree w/ you. But they do not.

There is no free lunch. Options do not come completely free. Options cost something. If the industry offers you the extra options you want, the cost will invariably be passed back to the consumer. And unfortunately for you, the vocal enthusiast/early adopter crowd holds enough influence over the industry's decisionmaking process for things to go the way they have. But really, the blame should spread everywhere because everyone generally wants more for less. The HT enthusiasts want more for less, and that usually means certain undesired/unneeded options will probably have to go because the content providers certainly do not want to assume the extra costs themselves, if they don't have to. And the average consumer who may desire those kinds of options end up accepting the compromise because he/she usually prefers to pay less instead of having those extra options.

It's not sad as much as just how things work.

Anyway, WB's annoucement will have a domino effect on how things go. That's where the gain is.

_Man_

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

You *might* be "reading too much into it", but then again, I had more or less the same thought myself when I originally read that.

_Man_

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

Chuck that's not it at all.

Look, I don't doubt some die-hard Blu-ray supporters (read fanboys) feel the way you describe. However, the reason why most of us are happy is because this news brings us one step closer to the end of this format war/competition.

As things stand right now, mainly HT enthusiasts (folks like you, me and the rest of the people in this forum) are the only ones that have adopted HD movies. We know how good these new formats are, and we know the amazing possibilities they bring. However, all of this is lost to the average consumer. Your average consumer is happy with getting DVDs.

Now, if we want to see a transition from SD DVD to a HD format (i.e. Blu-ray), then we need only one format. We need one format so that movie studios and player manufacturers can start working on promoting mass adoption of the HD format.

And that is why the format war needs to end now. That is why this is good news.

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

Your mistake is that you are stuck in the "two-sides" mentality. It isn't what "Blu" has gained, it is what the home theater enthusiast has gained. Despite what some think, a format war is not conducive to the success of HD media in the marketplace. While I don't believe HD will "replace" SD, it's success can only be helped by there being one format. This announcement is a huge step towards that finally becoming a reality.

Look, it has been heading in this direction for a long time. Software sales have always been widely in Blu-Ray's favor. The more the HD-DVD group digs in and prolongs the war, the worse it is for everyone. Was the HD-DVD camp waiting for every Blu-Ray studio to jump ship? That would've taken more payouts than they could ever recoup. It costs $$$ to get someone to sacrifice future sales. Paramount was basically paid for all the discs they won't be selling on Blu-Ray.

I could honestly care less if the HD-DVD evangelists are happy, sad, miserable, whatever... it's a storage medium and anyone who has blind devotion to a disc that stores data has serious issues, in my opinion. I get being sad if you could invest in only one format and you took a gamble and bet on HD-DVD. When I was 16, I did the same thing with video game consoles. I couldn't afford to buy them all and only had one for awhile. That one was the best, no matter what reality said... until I was able to get the other one.

And, yeah, it would be one thing if the better product lost out here, but, in my experience, that is not the case. Heck, on paper Blu-Ray has always beat out HD-DVD in everything except the cost to produce and web enabled features. Everything else, performance wise, is equal, save for IME, which has always been a part of the Blu-Ray spec which we knew was coming and is finally here. So, what gets lost? Buying ring tones and content withheld from discs so you can download it and feel some weird since of "interactivity". For those who saw web enabled content as the wave of the future, I can see where a feeling of victimization could set in.

And, technically, I've had issues with HD-DVD. I know many have not, but I am most important to me and I sure have. When I pop in a Blu-Ray disc, I don't worry about stuttering or lock ups. Never had one. I can't say the same thing about HD-DVD. When I pop in an HD-DVD disc, I wait for a little while (loading...), then watch the movie wondering when it's gonna hiccup, stutter, or stop. It's true, many don't, but enough do (for me).

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

While it's true Blu-Ray would've gotten these Warner Bros. movies anyway ... the implications here are far reaching.

It means eventually movies like Jurassic Park and Transformers and Shrek will now also be on Blu-Ray ... there's no way Universal and Paramount can stand alone.

The fallout of "Blu Friday" dramatically changes everything.

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

Yes but thats what they said about Universal when it was the lone HD DVD exclusive. Honestly I think HD DVD's days are numbered.

But it is interesting how close it came to going completely the other direction. If the rumors are true that Fox almost went HD DVD exclusive, and then backed out at the last second.

Doug

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

Brandon,
What they said is true. I don't think we'd have PiP and the other goodies on BR without HD DVD's continued innovations. HD might not have won but they pushed BR into becoming better than they were. What he is could easily be just that.

I think the cancellation of the announcement is pretty huge.

They won't be released that way from the factory. You'll have to pony up for a mod player and deal with the potential it might break due to firmware or more importantly BD+. Region Coding is just a fact of the format.

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

A stupid question perhaps, but is it possible for HD-DVD players to be made to play Blurays or where the technologies designed to be incompatible? I wonder if a future update would allow the HD players to switch to the dominant format. I guess such a failsafe was never considered since each side thought there format would be the dominant one.

I wonder if future Blu-ray machines will be made "backward compatible" with HD-DVD??

I wondered if the two sides were going to pair up with that last line in the cancellation of the press conference by HD-DVD.

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

I think they are incompatible-different wavelength lasers and such.

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

Ok, I'm about 5 pages behind in the conversation here...but unless I read too much into it, this is very illuminating: WB's decision wasn't because Blu is technologically or cinematically superior, or even because the Blu business was clearly, decidedly better. Rather, they chose to go with the coalition that paid them the most?

Realistically, I expect both systems reproduce audio and video beyond my ability to discriminate between them. At the risk of asking foolishly, naive questions about a billion-dollar business decisions: Was WB's decision purely business? About who threw the most money at them and which format was perhaps closest to the tipping point of success? Or was there any consideration of which was a better delivery system for the movies themselves?

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

Wow........I mean WOW!!!!! That's what I get for staying away from the internet for a few hours.....I miss news of what will probably mark the end of the hi-def war......who knew?

To think, only a week and a half ago I was pissed off because I missed out on a cheap $99 Toshiba HD-DVD deal on Boxing Day. Boy, did I dodge a bullet right there or what? I feel much better now!

Now that we're now all pretty much on the same page now, let's all make peace and get on with the joy of watching movies again without having to pick sides.

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

I’ve been format neutral for sometime but I have always enjoyed HD DVD more because along with appreciating the excellent PQ and audio that both formats offered I like extras and HD DVD offered move innovative extras. Hopefully we will start to see more innovative extras on Blu-Ray discs but somehow I doubt it considering the lack of hardware standards Blu has had since it was launched.
In regards to hardware only the most Blu of Blu-ray fan boys could argue that the HD group has not been more consumer friendly when it comes to the players. I certainly hope the Blu-Ray group gets their act together and sets a hardware standard that includes network connectivity. In this day and age adding on board Ethernet cost just pennies a unit and not including it on the hardware standards is ridiculous and rather ironic considering Sony’s initial marketing pitches for Blu that stressed internet connectivity. Adding the connectivity would allow them to be more creative with their extras and would make it easier to update the firmware when needed.

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

It's funny how polarizing this event is. BD owners are obviously ecstatic, but most (like myself) are trying to be restrained and HDD owners are obviously disappointed. But I've read way too many "ah well it doesn't matter because HD media in general is going to be a niche format" kind of sour grapes mentality. To be fair, those same sour grapes would probably be coming out of BD owners' mouths if WB had gone HDD. They are:

1. Most people can't tell the difference between HDM and DVD
2. People are happy with DVD

Frankly, when I bought my DVD player in May 1997 (L.A. was one of the seven test cities for DVD), you could replace "HDM" with DVD and "DVD" with VHS and the same arguments were going around back then.

And you know what? In 1997, both points were true! Tons of people loved VHS. And on a normal 25"-32" direct view TV (which was the norm back then) very few of which had s-video and no component video, even I had a hard time telling the difference between VHS and DVD.

And don't forget that DVD had other hurdles to overcome: those dreaded black bars. 90% of the public didn't know why they existed, and most didn't like them cramping their already small 25" TV.

Another hurdle was the rental model. Back in 1997 no one thought the ownership model would work, people just rented. Well Hollywood dropped the rental model, lowered prices so that movies were affordable by all, and look what happened. Where there is a [corporate] will, there is a way.

And we know how that uphill battle turned out, don't we?

I'll fully admit HDM has a long way to go. But those who think it's just going away are fully underestimating the power of corporate advertising. Studios need to re-sell their product on a regular basis to stay in business. Disney has mastered it with their "vault" system. But right now, most of the catalog titles that people want are out on DVD, so really most of the sales of DVD are for new releases.

With a unified HDM, studios will now have a perfect opportunity to re-sell not just their new, hot, titles, but their catalog as well.

I will admit that on lesser TVs, the difference between HDM and DVD is minimal, just like DVDs and VHS were in 1997. My circa 2001 Panasonic 47" HDTV yielded very little difference when I played BD on it. But I just bought a new Sony KDS-60A3000 and the difference is very noticeable.

Don't make the mistake of thinking that just because you have an HDTV, most households in America do to. The fact is most do not. Most will, though buy one in the next 5 years. Those new TVs will clearly reveal to the majority of the public the difference in PQ between HDM and DVD. Just like component video connections and early-generation HDTVs clarified the difference between DVD and VHS.

Yes HDM has an uphill battle. But no more so than DVD did, arguably less. People now are fine with the ownership model. People are now starting to buy more affordably priced HDTVs which will show the difference between HDM and DVD. And the concept of home theater is now something even the masses contemplate, whereas in the 90s it was something for the rich or obsessed (I fall in the latter category ).

And the most important reason HDM will succeed? Because the corporations need it to. The studios need to re-sell their property. The hardware manufacturers need to move product. The box stores need to sell merchandise with higher profit margins.

As soon as a unified format is official, we will all witness the full fury of the corporate advertising power and support behind the surviving HDM and mark my words (or bookmark this thread), HDM will become mainstream.

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

Dave,

I think it was probably a combination of both. That is, I am sure WB received some sort of monetary deal, but I also think they went with the camp they thought had the best chance.

F

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

if Blu-ray quickly ascends to >50% of the optical disc market, I agree. They would be foolish to abstain from publishing on Bd in that circumstance.

But what if Bd barely nudges past 10% this year and is still at under 25% by the end of 2009? or worse.
And since Bd, for various reasons (not merely the cost of a blank disc) costs more to publish on- would they really be losing that much?

I think the interesting thing to look for now is what lengths Sony is going to go to make Bd the true successive format to DVD and not just the go-to format for tech geeks and hardcore HT buffs.

All this money they've spent (on Warner, on the PS3 hardware losses, on software subsidies) is all money foolishly wasted if the format never grows beyond a niche.
Sony will have to start giving serious thought to some drastic actions to make sure this is achieved (like stop producing DVDs entirely for some big upcoming titles). This is something that Warner was not prepared to do on the HD DVD side, and no other studio is in a position to even consider (since none beyond Sony have any real stake in adoption of the formats).

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

Yes, but you have to remember that not everyone has an internet connection at home. And even if they have one, I doubt your average consumer would be interested in getting a router/whatever just to connect their player.

For example, I know no one in my family would be interested in that, except me of course.

F

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

As a fence-straddler, this is good news. I've seen three major impediments to HDM (is that the acronym of choice?) adoption:

- Format war! Most people are just confused by the whole mess and didn't think further.

- High cost of players. $600 for a "DVD" player is just crazy for the non-early adopter.

- High cost of media. A friend who's got 2 45" LCDs, is about to buy a $3500 55" Plasma, and has a $500k house won't go HD because he doesn't want to pay $30 for movies.

The format war is ostensibly over. Hopefully more manufacturers will sell players, more people will start buying, and prices will drop to under $300 for good players. And with greater sales, the $30 discs will drop closer to $20.

As for me, my decision to buy is past the block of format-war, and is now against the normal household budget issues. Cheaper players Xmas '08 might overcome that limiter.

Re: Warner Brothers is now Blu-ray Exclusive

so far this is the silliest post yet.

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

Well said, Carlo, though not every naysayer is strictly sour grape variety though -- and I will remain somewhat skeptical for now about how well HDM/Blu will do in replacing SD DVD.

But to add to your point. I seem to recall it was actually also Warner combined w/ Sony that led the charge for DVD on the software side last time. And now, things are sort of coming full circle again w/ Blu though not in quite the same fashion as last time.

Your point certainly synchs up well w/ Warner's PR anyway. And it's also the line I remember hearing (more or less) back in the early days of DVD...

_Man_

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

For 99 bucks? If you can´t afford losing 99 bucks, you have the wrong hobby..

Anyways, Microsoft will announce during the upcoming CES that every 360 will have a hd-dvd-player built in from now on. "Instantly" might be a word the will be using..
Taking bets against me. Anyone?