Breaking News!! Warner is soon to be Blu-Ray Exclusive! - Page 16  

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

Hey if this lowers the price of movies and players I am all for the end! However I do own both and even though I think HDDVD is the better of the 2 it will be nice to see an end to this. I am not upset about the money because the formats are pretty equal and I still plan on using my A35 for up converting dvd's and enjoying my hddvds for years to come, I will just start buying more blurays. Think of it like this: When LCD technology dies for Televisions will the people who have these wonderful sets just throw them in the trash? NO they will continue to watch them for years to come. Stop taking it so personally and just enjoy the movies you already have

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

Which titles exactly are you suggesting? While I've not looked at every European HD-DVD disc, I've not found a single one that has an DTS-MA track. And while Paramount has done a handful of DTS-HD tracks (Top Gun, Tomb Raider and others), they were not Master Audio tracks. Add to that Paramount stripped the DTS tracks off of the Jack Ryan collection (that were on the DVDs) when they issued the HD-DVD discs.

I'm not going to counter what Ron has said. I have no inside information to mount an arguement. I expect that Fox did actually have discussions with the HD-DVD camp. But I fully believe they never really gave serious consideration to dropping Blu-Ray in favor of HD-DVD based on their own withdrawal from BD until BD+ was completed.

But given the technical limitations of the format as it exists today, I'm scratching my head in wonder at anyone who can argue that it is a superior format. Sure, things can always be tweaked to be improved, but to overcome some of the format limitations, would require standards modifications that could cause compatibility issues with existing players. The arguement that the HD-DVD group has finalized the 51gb 3 layer disc is tempered by the belief that most of the existing players won't be compatible with the discs. Getting over the current bit-budget of 35mb/s (28mb/s for Video) would require increasing the read rate off the disc. And then there's that pesky 30gb limit again.

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

Everything I've ever read from Fox has indicated an extremely bullish attitude about Blu-ray. Take the recent "Studio Presidents Look Ahead to 2008" article in the 12/30/07 - 01/05/08 edition of Home Media Magazine, for example. Here's Mike Dunn:





Full article: Studio Presidents Look Ahead to 2008

Now, I know there are some who want to pick apart Dunn's data for these statements. That's irrelevant to the issue at hand. Regardless of how exact his numbers are, the point here is that Dunn fully believes in them. Given the extreme recency of his comments, and the lack of published, credible news sources indicating otherwise, I see no reason to believe that Fox and Warner were involved in any sort of conspiracy plot to go HD-DVD exclusive.

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

HD DVDs Xploited Cinema

If you skip down and start at Basic Instinct, you'll see that many of the newer releases, especially those from Studio Canal, had DTS-MA tracks. Some of the more recent imports from other distributors tended to stick with DTS-HD/HR. I fully believe Blu was the technically superior format in terms of audio and video. Once BD50s became prevalent and newer codecs started being used, that became irrefutable in terms on concrete numbers. It's also the reason I'm happy BD pulled off the victory.

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

This is another reason I don't quite believe the claim that Warner would have "preferred" to go HD-DVD. If they're such a marketplace behemoth that they effectively end the format war by choosing Blu-ray, couldn't they have chosen HD-DVD and accomplished the same thing if that's what they really wanted (with or without Fox)? It sounds like Warner has the clout to swing this war either way. If they preferred HD-DVD, they were free to choose it.

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

I was not aware of these titles. Granted I limited my search to those issued in England, and not all of the EU.

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

Believe what you want to believe, this is a free country. But as far as what
Ron and the moderators have said in their posts, I tend to go with them as they have had dealings with the parties involved or alluded to and never have
they touted one format over the other like some other forums have. They are more in the know than most of us. I've got HD DVD and no matter what
Warners did, it still isn't going to deter me from enjoying what I have purchased so far.

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

Wow, I remember these same types of posts when Paramount went hd-dvd. It's never easy to lose support when you have spent money on products, but we all purchased players knowing full well that ours could be obsolete. It's just wrong to blame the studios. Warner wants to end the format war, as do all the studios, and get the general public to dip in. Their future profits depend on it. They chose the format with software wins for the last 64 weeks in a row. I don't blame them. Remember, this isn't Warner's screwing you over, we all took a risk.

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

It's unbelievable over there, isn't it? I haven't bought into either format but was planning to buy both this spring. As such I haven't experienced any of the HD-DVD vs Blu-ray flame wars until reading that thread. OMG. It's like the collective IQ of that forum has dropped 30 points overnight. Half the people seem to be posting on emotion alone.

Thank goodness for HTF. While I go to AVS for hardware information I've always considered HTF home. It's nice to know that a thread like that would never be tolerated here.


As for this non-owners take on the Warner announcement, I hope it truly is the death blow it appears to be and I really don't care how it happened. It appears both sides are covered in mud and neither should be on their high-horse. I wish the fanboys could figure that out.

I'll be picking up a BD player of some sort this spring. Thanks to Warner for saving me the trouble of buying into both formats.

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

I couldn't agree more.

Re: Warner Brothers is now Blu-ray Exclusive

Yeah I just read about this. I went format Nuetral with a PS3 in Dec and Truth Be told had been buying more Blue just because There was more titles coming from Blue that I wanted. Still I'm somewhat depressed that the Format that the industry is choosing has for it's Best all around Player a Game machine. Admit it folks you feel the same way. There's still not a Bluray Standalone I'd buy after all this time. Still it's a good format. I too may wait on the Next Trek Hi Def set hoping that Paramount will release it on Blu and stop the madness with those Damn Combo Disks, I won't miss them.

Re: Warner Brothers is now Blu-ray Exclusive

Nope! I never thought I'd be this happy using a gaming maching as a movie player too (and it does so much more).

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

"The price of a high-definition player is not the primary consumer concern compared to what households will spend building a movie library"

Based on people I know,money is a factor to not investing in a HD player and software. I know a couple guys who have finally upgraded to HDTVs,will be paying for them for a long time and are waiting for a HD format to reach standard prices. The j6p types could care less.

My brother does have a PS3 but said that it caused some problems when he played a couple Blurays in them. Anyone else have this problem at first, and will firmware updates will cure this?

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

Let me first state that this following is only my opinion of what should happen and is what I am going to do. Reading the numbers over the past year it seems Home Theater enthusiusts, like many here, make up a good portion of the HDM sales. Whether it be players or discs. Of course there are exceptions ,but, hear me out. Since the average consumer couldn't even put HD DVD in the lead at $100 a player or less and the 360 add-on not helping it that much, I'm left to conclude that a majority of the HDM sales are us or others like us. I can only further conclude that by putting our collective force behind Bluray now will quicken the complete end to the format war. I'm not trying to piss anyone off, but, I believe this is the next logical step. I'm sure many will dispute this, but, it seems from my standpoint the best next move. Once there is one format I believe greater adoption will be seen of HDM. I'm sure many also will agree.

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

The trouble with your theory is that you are listing films from Spielberg from both Paramount (Indiana Jones) and Universal (ET, J.Park, ect). Do you not think that Universal has been working up a sweat trying to release those titles? Do you not think Toshiba has been pushing Universal to do so? Why, then, are there no titles released of any Spielberg movie, except Close Encounters, on blu-ray. I am afraid that your prediction will not come true. There is no doubt Universal has tried, and has had to apologize to Spielberg twice now just because his films were listed in hd-dvd advertising. That says much to me about how he personally feels.

Re: Warner Brothers is now Blu-ray Exclusive

I will never admit it. It is not only a game machine and I wish people would stop branding it that. Things have changed and stand-alone players are not the only way of delivering video content anymore. Things change. People are now looking to downscale the number of machines in their home. Look at some of the early reports of products at CES, machines that are multi-function. It seems to me alot of people are living in the past when they make this type of statement. If the ps3 is a game machine, and most of them are the blu-ray players that have sold, then how in the world did blu-ray beat hd-dvd in software sales for 64 weeks in a row (probably more)? It's all in the official software sales figures, folks. I purchased, as have many people, the Playstation 3 as a movie player, period. It is my blu-ray player. Who is to say it's not a blu-ray machine? I just don't get this arguement.

I will add this. I decided to buy a few PS3 games last week. I have not owned a game machine since the Super Nintendo (remember Yoshi's Island and Super Mario Brothers?). I can now say with confidence that I will definately devote time to gaming, and I can do it and play my high def movies on one machine! The other advantage which I feel people will begin to realize, is that pressing games on blu-ray discs with that much space available is going to allow for some very intense and longer games. I purchased Drake's Fortune and this game actually uses blu-ray technology and it beats into the ground anything Xbox has had to offer as far as quality and feeling like real-life.

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

I need to address David Boulet, and in advance I apologize for
pointing you out in this thread but you brought it on yourself.

From the beginning of this thread the Moderators and I tried to
tell you the deal of how all of this went down. It was important
that people like Cees and Robert Crawford participate in this thread
because all of us had been on top of this situation prior to its actual
announcement.

You refused to believe us, giving your own slant on the situation
based upon your assumptions and those of a pro Blu-ray site.

The HD-DVD camp is not putting their own personal spin on this.
Did you ever think that perhaps others might be going out of their
way to make you think that in order to further glorify their victory?

Give us a little more credibility on our source(s). We aren't in
a position where we have to defend a choice format or our own
personal egos.

If you think about it, none of this is out of the realm of reality.
It's amazing what people dedicated to one ideal would do if
millions of dollars were suddenly waved in front of them.

Both sides are guilty! From day one there was cash and incentives
thrown around from BOTH sides. One of the initial Blu-ray studios
was actually sided with HD-DVD before an incentive deal was made.

It just strikes me odd that it has always been the HD-DVD camp that
has been blamed for accepting cash incentives, but truth be, BOTH
sides were doing it from the getgo. This is war, folks!

....and despite what one individual may think, nobody but nobody
had the foresight to see how all this would end. So forget the "we
told all of you this would happen" baloney, because up until the final
hour, Warner could have gone with either format.

As I stated previously, I don't hold any of these studios personally
responsible. It was business from day one. We just take offense
when a studio tries to pull the wool over the public's eye by saying
it was all for the good of the consumers.

...and just so nobody reads into this the wrong way, I'll stress again
that we are very excited for Blu-ray and he fact that we can move
forward with a unified format. We just want to bring some balance to
all the information that is floating about.

BTW, I personally congratulate all of you for remaining civil towards
each other. Where so many people on other sites are rubbing this victory
in the noses of HD-DVD supporters, everyone has been very respectful
to one another on this forum.

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

Same here. I have perhaps (give or take) 100 Blu-rays and never had any real issues (extras on "Good Night, Good Luck" didn´t work in the early days of PS3, haven´t tried it with the newer firmware). But like Jason says, I always download the latest firmware asap. It would be quite foolish to blame the PS3 if it has 1.5 firmware or something..

But not sure why we´re again talking about PS3? It´s a great HD-player, but it still has a very little to do Warner and their latest "move"..

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

I fully agree. If you support HD DVD, you´re probably at least slightly pissed. But were those people "pissed" after the Paramount/DW-news? Nope. And vice versa for Blu-ray fans..

We all (most of us) took the gamble, since we had this "two HD-formats"-problem from day one (which the studios created themselves, I might add). I have always supported Blu-ray and chosen films in that format if possible, but I also have HD DVD-player for those "exclusive titles". But I do understand that many people "chose" HD DVD. I assume that with e.g. Warner-titles, most people probably chose one format, even if they have both players. Again, they took the gamble in some ways (not that the players go anywhere from their homes, though).

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

This is the number one benefit for me of the ending of the HD format war.

At last consumers can go out and, if they are inclined to, buy into HD on disc with absolute confidence that the whole industry is unified behind one format.

This is the way it should have been from the start. I am so incredibly pleased that the doom & gloom merchants who were forecasting the format war to go on for several more years have been proved so utterly and completely wrong.

Warner has made a great decision. The consumer wins!

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

Just as an aside, I chose Blu-ray as my HD format. I didn't go format neutral because I thought it was important to choose one side and stick with it. It was a gamble I gladly took.

Why not go format neutral? Because I felt in the end it was diluting the whole "let the consumer drive the market" thing. If I bought into both formats, I thought it would send the message to the powers that be that having two formats on the market was ok. I have never felt that way, and I don't feel that way now. This stupid format war should never have happened in the first place, and I'm glad it seems to be almost over. Of course, it turns out my logic was a bit flawed, as it appears the "war" was never really in the hands of the consumer at all. Oh well.

I do however feel for the people who bought into HD DVD, taking the same gamble I did only for the other team. Trust me, I feel your pain. It's a format you obviously believed in, and I can't fault anyone for being bummed out it didn't quite go their way.

I just look forward to the day we can put this war behind us, and get on with what really motivates us to buy into either format in the first place; our love of movies.

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

The above post is something I really want to stress here. The HTF Staff feels that what happened on Friday could've been worse because such a decision might have been made a year or two from now which means many of us would've spent more money in a prolonged format war on the losing format. Personally, I don't give a rip which format won the war, I'm just glad that an outcome might be achieve in the foreseeable future without me or others investing too much money in the losing format.

Furthermore, I'm very happy now for those HTF members that haven't even bought any type of HD/BR player, but really wanted to, but were afraid of investing in the losing format. Now, very soon, those members can see and hear what I've been experiencing for over the last 17 months or so. To me, it's always been about the movies, first and foremost. Most of us got into this very expensive hobby because we love movies and we have a deep desire to replicate the movie theater experience at home. With Blu-ray possibly winning this war in the near future, that stated desire can be achieve even moreso by many of us here.

I've said my piece on Friday's developments. Frankly, I can careless whether you believe Ron, Cees, Bill Hunt or myself on what transpired because it really doesn't matter now. We all have our own opinions with some of our opinions being informed ones and we can make up our own minds as to what went down between the corporate parties. At this time, my concern is for the consumers and the membership of this forum. Over the last two years, too much emotional investment has taken place in this format war for much too long by so many people that were once on the same page about enjoying the HT experience to the utmost. Hopefully, we can get back to that and move forward by adjusting our focus on enjoying even more films in high definition with advanced audio codecs. IMO, that's what is really important here.






Crawdaddy

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

I for one was pulling for the underdog (HDDVD) in all this as I always do. I have 2 HD-DVD players (A1, 360 add on) and 1 Blue-Ray player (PS3). Both sides as stated above are guilty, they are big companies that care more about cash than the consumer and to say that Sony is everything good in the world and that Toshiba is everything that is evil in this war or the opposite is ridiculous. I do not care which format someone picks just stop being biased to the point that you blind yourself and the people reading. I was leaning toward HD-DVD but never said Toshiba was innocent of any wrong doing. Sony is just as guilty as anyone.

Lets just move on and enjoy our HDM.

P.S. Until Toshiba or its 2 studio supporters throw in the towel the competition is not over so unless they do or they pull a big rabbit out of their hat this battle will continue. With Warner switching it should be shortened.

Later Everyone
Brian

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

With Warner, the Blu-ray group will control at least 75% of the home video market. IMO, it's all over except the shouting. Just take a look at the below linked data from Video Business. Even moreso, look at the prior years so you can see the trend of which studios control what percentage of the home video market.

2007 Q3 Market Research - Video Business

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

FWIW, I'm not "pissed" at Warner. On the contrary, all indications are that Warner really preferred to go HD DVD but just didn't want to do it alone. I understand and respect their reasoning.

No, if the stories are true (and I believe they are), then the real "bad guy" in all of this is Fox. It is looking more and more plausible that Fox played both ends against the middle and ended up turning their back on Warner at the 11th hour.

But, whatever! What is done is done! While it is fun to discuss it to death , that doesn't change diddly. The next generation format winner is going to be Blu-ray and I call for Toshiba, Universal and Paramount/Dreamworks to move as quickly as possible to convert to the Blu-ray camp! I encourage all of them (including Warner) to offer the HD DVD consumer some sort of financial incentive or trade-in program to ease the move to Blu. It is time for Toshiba to make a dual format player and offer that player to their current HD DVD customers at a substantial discount. Or, at the very least, make a Blu-ray player and do the same.

Now... to say something nice about Blu-ray... Something that has been on my mind since I handled my very first Blu-ray disc...

Blu-ray discs actually FEEL (physically) more "next generation". That hard coating they put on the discs results in a disc with edges that are rounded and very smooth. It is a very different than the feel of either DVD or HD DVD. It is quite easy to tell the difference, even with your eyes closed. It makes the disc feel more "expensive".

Mark

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

lol. I thought that at the end of the day, we were in it for the films, not formats.. Sadly, there are people taking these issues way to personal.

What we need to understand here is, that this is business for the companies. The cold fact is, that e.g. Paramount can switch back to Blu-ray as "easily" as it moved to the HD DVD-camp. For Universal it´s probably a bit harder decision, but if it comes to that, they can also start supporting Blu-ray. They all want to make money and sell their releases. E.g. Warner don´t necessarily "lose" that much by switching sides. They can lose some hardcore HD DVD-fans (who´ll "go back to SD DVD" or something), but gain many Blu-ray-fans in return. Whatever is the wisest business move for them.

It´s business for Warner, not some personal "I love Blu-ray" or "I love HD DVD"-type of thing. Since both formats are almost equal (yes, they´re), they can still maintain the good quality and keep all the interactive extras with Blu-ray also. And perhaps gain some extra copy protection and some capacity..

Was this really such a surprising decision?

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

Everyone here knew that, inevitably, BD and HD-DVD were not going to co-exist together in the long term.

Everyone knew it is business.

Everyone made their choice.

I was speaking to my cousin (who was a HD-DVD adopter), and sure, he's a little cheesed, but he's quite reasonable about the whole thing. Upbeat, not really, but at least he's not snapping about who wronged who.

We all knew this was going to be a bumpy road to HD movies on disc, and, as Crawdaddy stated in his post that only one person made his choice. Everyone else did the same.

However, I will say on thing: days like Jan 4 remind me why I am staying the heck out of this format war until I am satisfied with the result. Currently, that result is a region free Blu-ray player, or a hack for the PS3. The first DVD player I bought (back in approximately 98 or 99 when I was 14 or 15) was multiregional, and I'm damn well not changing my stance on that.