Home Theater Forum › Home Theater Forum › Blu-ray, DVD, Streaming Video and Digital Downloads › Blu-ray › Breaking News!! Warner is soon to be Blu-Ray Exclusive!
New Posts  All Forums:Forum Nav:

Breaking News!! Warner is soon to be Blu-Ray Exclusive! - Page 20  

post #571 of 1635
1/6/08 at 3:17pm

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

Doug I thought SONY gave up on Beta last year. Tapes, machines, the whole bit, gone now. I think they had a market in other countries besides the US that still used it, so they filled the demand. Course i hear you can still buy NEW records in some places too.
post #572 of 1635
1/6/08 at 3:20pm

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

Quote:
Originally Posted by Shane Martin
LD had 10,000+ titles and lasted over 10 years. Hardly a niche that sucked for the enthusiast. AFTER ALL, this IS an enthusiast site last I looked.

LD lasted over 20 years, bought my first machine in '83. The movie Airport '77 has a prototype being used it it. MCA/Universal was a big backer/developer it the technology.
post #573 of 1635
1/6/08 at 3:36pm

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

Laserdisc was an awesome format for its time. Starting in the 70's as Disco Vision yes that is right Disco Vision then being renamed Laserdisc in the early 80's. the format survived for 20 plus years and was the best way to view films at home in the original aspect ratio. I still liked James Camerons quote from The Abyss set it went something like this "Laserdisc is not perfect but is way better that crapvision VHS".

I think that HD Media will not be a niche just because of how strong it is being pushed by the makers of the formats. Everybody knows about the formats but are not educated. laserdisc is another story as a lot of people never knew it existed unless you were a HT enthusiast like the bunch of us.

The competition should be about over so I do hope that as was spoken earlier in this thread that we can get back to enjoying what we are here for. That is enjoying the movies in the best way possible with the best picture and sound available to us the consumers and the ones who just plain love movies

Later Everyone
Brian
post #574 of 1635
1/6/08 at 3:38pm

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

First I am long time lurker of this forum and enjoy all it provides.

I went red a few months ago to test the water of this format and love it. Im I mad WB did this sure. I am also a Miami Dolphins fan and I was a foul mood on 14 of the last 16 Monday's. The Sun will come up tomorrow and to quote Buffy "Ill deal and move on"

Finally I like to thank the people who run this forum, reading the 20 pages in this thread was a lot better then some of the other CE forums on the net.


Chris
post #575 of 1635
1/6/08 at 3:50pm

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

Quote:
Originally Posted by woonkie
Hey if this lowers the price of movies and players I am all for the end!

Quote:
Originally Posted by Douglas Monce
I think the fall out of blu-ray winning is that HD optical media is now going to be a niche format. BOGO free sales are a thing of the past. The price of a movie is going to creep back up to around $30 or more.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Ronald Epstein
That format war was the best thing that ever happened to us.
If not for the competition, there would be no sub $200 HD-DVD
players and no sub $400 Blu-ray players.

That's right! No BOGO sales, either. Those BOGO sales were
designed to spike weekly sales numbers in an effort to show
increased buying activity towards a particular format.

My personal speculation is that it's all over!

Quote:
Originally Posted by Brian-W
I don't see BOGO sales going away. The simple fact that since launch, most titles haven't been 'flying' off the shelves at existing prices (sans BOGO). As time passes on, the launch titles as well as titles released since get 'stale' (for lack of a better term), and retailers need a way to move them.

First off, I am thrilled with myself that I have finally been able to catch up with this thread! Every time I would get close to the last post, it would take off again!

The above topic is what intrigues me the most about the recent news of the Warners' decision.

My knee jerk reaction was that prices probably would start to creep up like we have seen on 2-disc SEs (since the advent of separate 1-disc and 2-disc releases of high profile films). But now I'm thinking if studios do, indeed, want to have a "second bite at the apple" by getting people to upgrade their software from DVD to BD (like they did from VHS to DVD) then they will have to make the software prices reasonable. If not, I would think BD would be doomed to the same niche format status LD achieved.

I am heartened by a $10 mail-in rebate currently being offered to those who upgrade their copies of The Rock, Con Air & Crimson Tide from DVD to BD. But, then again, I suppose that rebate program was planned well in advance of the Warners' announcement. But, still, to me that sort of a promotion is an indication that studios are willing to do what's necessary to attract customers to the new technology.

The only reason I entered the HD format fray at all was due to the "luck of the draw"--winning a Blu-ray player in an HTF contest. Since then I've purchased a few BD titles...almost exclusively in the used bin at local stores or in the very attractive BOGO sales on amazon and other retailers/e-tailers. If prices don't drop some...AND if the BOGO sales go away...I will probably be limiting my purchases to the used bin. But, then again, under that scenario, even "used" BD prices may still be out of my reach.
post #576 of 1635
1/6/08 at 3:59pm

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

The Sony BDPS300 just went from $299 to $369 thru CC online.
post #577 of 1635
1/6/08 at 4:09pm

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

Quote:
Originally Posted by Malcolm R
The success of iTunes came after the music labels refused to listen to their consumers and practically forced them out of the music-buying market. iTunes essentially revived the singles market after the music labels stupidly decided that consumers should have to buy a $20 CD to get the one song they really wanted. Consumers rebelled against that and now, after years of trying to stop the Napsters and their clones, the labels have finally supported a legitimate way to purchase singles again.

Plus there's a huge difference between listening to a downloaded song on your iPod vs. trying to download a film at the same quality that can be had via physical media. There are so many variables that need to be in place at nearly 100% saturation (such as fast computers, high speed Internet, the knowledge of how to get the movie from your computer to your television, etc.) before mass adoption of movie downloads can even be considered. There are millions of movie-buying customers who don't even have home Internet, let alone the computer upgrades and technical know-how needed to handle the immense file sizes and transfer the files to a playable format for their televisions.

Heck, I'm kind of medium-level HT and computer savvy, but I'm still using a computer I purchased in 1999 that nearly chokes loading HTF, let alone trying to download a film. Hoping to upgrade this year, but who knows? Then after that, I still need to get an HD-capable display of some sort, which may be at least another year away after the computer.


Yep, the true "end" to this war will be decided by the retailers. Whether they continue to give shelf-space to HD-DVD players and software for awhile longer, or whether they yank them almost immediately.
Malcolm, I mentioned iTunes because it is representative philosophical change in consumers attitudes. A larger and larger portion of the consumer market likes downloading. That’s why Apple is now in the top three of music retailers in the country. Regardless of the mentions from other forum members that “I still buy CDs” the reality is that fewer and fewer people do because they don't care if their music comes on physical media.

The same will happen with film but as I wrote it will take some time. By the way, don’t assume that the appliance that you use to download films will be a PC.
post #578 of 1635
1/6/08 at 4:25pm

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

Quote:
Originally Posted by Patrick_S
I mentioned iTunes because it is representative phylisophical change in consumers attitudes. A larger and larger portion of the consumer market likes downloading. That’s why Apple is now in the top three of music retailers in the country. Regardless of the mentions from other forum members that “I still buy CDs” the reality is that fewer and fewer people do because they don't care if their music comes on physical media.

The same will happen with film but as I wrote it will take some time. By the way, don’t assume that the appliance that you use to download films will be a PC.

Well, there are a lot musical illiterates who think someone else's art is just background Q music to be played while they are trying to sweat off the Christmas turkey. Music has been so commoditized that a large proportion of people don't have a clue as to the proper way of listening to it. Why would people care about good quality sounding music when it is little more than background noise?

Fewer and fewer don't care if their music comes on physical media? That statement should really be fewer and fewer people care whether their music sounds good. That is why they are downloading, cheap, over-compressed copies. It's just noise to counterpoint the activities in their lives. Ugh!!
post #579 of 1635
1/6/08 at 4:26pm

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

Quote:
Originally Posted by JonZ
The Sony BDPS300 just went from $299 to $369 thru CC online.
The Panny-BD30 was still $414.00 at Amazon.
post #580 of 1635
1/6/08 at 4:40pm

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

Quote:
Originally Posted by Shane Martin
Great! the less chance J6P and his ignorant demands won't screw the format up. I can see it now "Full screen BR titles"

LD had 10,000+ titles and lasted over 10 years. Hardly a niche that sucked for the enthusiast. AFTER ALL, this IS an enthusiast site last I looked.

They last laserdisc title available in the US was I believe Star Wars Episode 1. That was in 1999. Thats actually closer to 20 years.

Doug

Edit: Sorry the the last two titles released in North America were Paramount's Sleepy Hollow and Bringing Out the Dead in 2000
post #581 of 1635
1/6/08 at 4:41pm

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

Quote:
Originally Posted by Edwin-S
Well, there are a lot musical illiterates who think someone else's art is just background Q music to be played while they are trying to sweat off the Christmas turkey. Music has been so commoditized that a large proportion of people don't have a clue as to the proper way of listening to it. Why would people care about good quality sounding music when it is little more than background noise?

Fewer and fewer don't care if their music comes on physical media? That statement should really be fewer and fewer people care whether their music sounds good. That is why they are downloading, cheap, over-compressed copies. It's just noise to counterpoint the activities in their lives. Ugh!!


Haha, I've said it before, but I'll say it again.

Instead of buying HD-DVD's, (or Blu-Ray for the time being), I'm going to increase my Vinyl collection.

I'm 19, and music is probably just as big, if not a bigger hobby of mine than movies.

As it turns out, LOTS of bands on smaller indie labels release limited pressings (like, 500-1000 copies limited). It's really neat, and I definately can dig the sound of analog. Throw on a little dolby pro logic II, and I get full warm sounding surround out of my theater system.


P.S.......I'd hope you'd still consider my music as art, lol. It might be quite beyone what you're used to, but I don't want to make any assumptions.
post #582 of 1635
1/6/08 at 4:48pm

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

Quote:
Originally Posted by Averry
Haha, I've said it before, but I'll say it again.

Instead of buying HD-DVD's, (or Blu-Ray for the time being), I'm going to increase my Vinyl collection.

Does that mean we're going to have constant bashing of Bill Hunt in the music forum now? Great!
post #583 of 1635
1/6/08 at 4:51pm

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

Quote:
Originally Posted by BrianB
Does that mean we're going to have constant bashing of Bill Hunt in the music forum now? Great!


I'll admit, that one's a bit over my head.


Please elaborate.
post #584 of 1635
1/6/08 at 4:55pm

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

I was tempted to put my A3 and movies up on Ebay and use the proceeds towards jumping into Blu-ray. But frankly, I think I'll hang on to my HD DVD player and movies for now.

I will get into Blu-ray, but not until I can by a player with final specs or one that is updateable. And while I respect those who buy the PS3, I don't want a gaming machine as my Blu-ray player. No rational reason, I just don't.

Although I'm not angry over the recent news (just a little disapointed), I would have felt a whole lot better if I hadn't just bought all the Harry Potters on HD DVD (with the last two coming in the mail the day before the announcement).

Quote:
Does that mean we're going to have constant bashing of Bill Hunt in the music forum now? Great!

Well, if there's one casualty in this war for me, it's Bill Hunt. I was a regular of that site before all of this. But I was really turned off by his posts and that site is now dead to me.
post #585 of 1635
1/6/08 at 5:25pm

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

Ya know, if Toshiba, Microsoft, Universal and Paramount/Dreamworks really wanted to poke a stick in the BDA's eye, Toshiba could lower the street price of the A3 to $99 and the remaining HD DVD studios could announce they are sticking with HD DVD exclusive and also announce they will price their HD DVD movies at the exact same prices as standard def DVD.

That's a move that would remind many folks that it's good to be format neutral!

Mark
post #586 of 1635
1/6/08 at 5:30pm

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

Quote:
They last laserdisc title available in the US was I believe Star Wars Episode 1

Even then it wasn't. Episode 1 was a Japanese release. I remember paying over $100 for it.
post #587 of 1635
1/6/08 at 5:35pm

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

Valiant posturing?

Toshiba Defiant After HD DVD Setback: Financial News - Yahoo! Finance
post #588 of 1635
1/6/08 at 5:39pm

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

Quote:
Originally Posted by Patrick Sun

I thinking they're doing their best to put up a brave front in the midst of a looming CES. There's really not much else they can really say right now.

If they make any bold moves or announcements, it will be after CES, I think. You don't just change a business strategy overnight.
post #589 of 1635
1/6/08 at 5:43pm

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

Quote:
Originally Posted by JonZ
The Sony BDPS300 just went from $299 to $369 thru CC online.

It cost me $499 in July, id rebuy it for $369.
post #590 of 1635
1/6/08 at 5:48pm

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

Quote:
Originally Posted by RickER
Doug I thought SONY gave up on Beta last year. Tapes, machines, the whole bit, gone now. I think they had a market in other countries besides the US that still used it, so they filled the demand. Course i hear you can still buy NEW records in some places too.

you can buy brand new ones here.
In fact Warner Brothers has also started pressing vinyl again.

SACD, DVD Audio, Vinyl Record, Audiophile equipment - Acoustic Sounds
Import and Domestic Vinyl, SACD, DVD Audio, Audiophile Hardware - musicdirect - (800) 449-8333
Amazon.com: Vinyl Store: Music: Rock, Dance & DJ, Rap & Hip-Hop, Alternative Rock, R&B, Reggae, Jazz, Punk Rock & More
Here are just a few of the twenty plus links I frequent all the time
post #591 of 1635
1/6/08 at 6:07pm

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

I personally think until everybody gets screaming-fast broadband like Verizon's FIOS, you can forget about downloading HD movies over the Internet. We're talking movies that are at least 15 GB in size, and could reach over 30 GB in size for a 1080p 48 fields/second format release.

I do think with new, lower-cost chipsets to support Blu-ray coming out in the next year or so, the price of stand-alone players will drastically drop. A good-quality Profile 2.0 player from a major manufacturer could drop to the US$250 range (or even less!) by the end of 2008.
post #592 of 1635
1/6/08 at 6:20pm

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

I only had 1 un-purchased Warner title to go...lol.

HD DVD is still RED hot. Could be cool BLU - just not yet.

ps. Could someone EDIT the thread title to "WB is SOON TO BE BR exclusive"? Let's not be hasty or inaccurate please.
post #593 of 1635
1/6/08 at 6:27pm

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

Quote:
Originally Posted by Ray Chuang
I personally think until everybody gets screaming-fast broadband like Verizon's FIOS, you can forget about downloading HD movies over the Internet. We're talking movies that are at least 15 GB in size, and could reach over 30 GB in size for a 1080p 48 fields/second format release.
Agreed. And screaming fast internet is just the beginning. Let's assume a downloaded HD version at 15GB (a little over half quality of a BD-25). Ten movies, you're already at 150GB. 20 movies: 300 GB. Either the average consumer is going to have to learn how to add internal drives (and trust me, though most of us can do it, the vast majority of the general public do not), or they'll have to buy expensive external drives. All this for a version of the movie which will not equal the quality of what's on an optical disc and might potentially be susceptible to viewing-rights revocation.

I know with the vast success of music downloading, everyone now believes that all media will die and downloading will be king. But think about it. The average MP3 is, what, 2MB? So you can download tens of thousands of songs for a 60GB iPod. That doesn't necessarily translate to a multi-GB sized HD file.

For better or worse, most people play music but aren't real concerned about quality, or else why would anyone listen to 128kbps MP3? Music for most people is something they have in the background while doing something else, so MP3s are fine for most purposes. Movies are completely different. Sure sometimes I put on my old favorite while I do something else--like watching Shawshank while working on my screenplay, it "gets me in the mood" and I have it memorized backwards and forwards. But for the most part, and especially for new releases, I need to pay attention when I first watch it, and quality does matter. That's why I believe downloadable HD will not soon overtake physical media.
post #594 of 1635
1/6/08 at 6:30pm

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

Quote:
Originally Posted by Patrick Sun

Interesting fact in that article...HD DVD players apparently accounted for 49.3 percent of all high def players sold as of 12/22/2007...and that did NOT include PS3 sales!

Does this mean that Toshiba wasn't even winning the stand alone player battle? If so things were much, much worse for Toshiba than I thought.
post #595 of 1635
1/6/08 at 6:46pm

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

Well one thing is for certain that WB news to go Blu-ray only must have hurt Toshiba alot more than we think. Why would Toshiba cancel there press conference at CES? This does not send a good signal to Universal or Paramount that Toshiba is not remaining defiant and trying to give people a reason to continue backing HD-DVD. Sony is going to be celebrating at CES and it will be interesting how much of an effect it will have on the remaining HD-DVD studios. Will Sony be able to pull off talks with Universal Pictures at CES and make another big announcement?

The big question is after CES is over what will Toshiba do next? I think it is quite clear that HD-DVD is on the ropes and is close to being absolutely defeted at this point. HD-DVD can continue on without WB but for how long? How long will they continue with such little studio support? I would say that even if Universal does not go neutral this month, its only a matter of 6 -7 months before Universal goes neutral. I would also go as far to say that retailers will most likely be happy for this format war could be over soon. As they will not have to have both formats taking up retail space. So I would go as far as saying if Universal was to go neutral that might actually cause retailers to cut HD-DVD from there inventories. Or at least cut it HD-DVD substantially from its retail shelves. It will be very interesting what news comes out of CES over the next few days. It will be even more interesting what Toshiba and Universal Pictures does in the next 6 -7 months.

The biggest question is will HD-DVD make it through 2008 or will it self destruct by the end of summer? One thing is for certain is that 2008 is going to be very interesting.
post #596 of 1635
1/6/08 at 6:50pm

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

Quote:
Originally Posted by ChristopherDM
I went red a few months ago to test the water of this format and love it. Im I mad WB did this sure. I am also a Miami Dolphins fan and I was a foul mood on 14 of the last 16 Monday's. The Sun will come up tomorrow and to quote Buffy "Ill deal and move on"
You and me both, brother. Ugh.

(Actually, in a perverse way, the anticipation of "will they actually win one today?" in the latter half of the season made this season more fun to watch than their previous five trips to inevitable also-ran-dom.)
post #597 of 1635
1/6/08 at 7:02pm

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

Well sucks to just get Potter, Blade Runner and Bourne, but as everyone says, those players didn't just stop working. I still enjoy the few DVD-A/SACDs I have for example.

But I really was hoping for the "war" to drag on to be honest. I don't think it was hurting nearly as much as people think. To me it was having the impact Ron mentioned at the start of this thread, improving prices and product.

And when you look at video inputs on TVs and switchers nowadays it's really getting to a point where dual ownership is somewhat practical. Say in 2 years you can have $300 in 2 stand-alones and watch any film you want in HD, what's the problem with that?

I hope Toshiba can hold out for the next year at least. I'd still like to see the format pushed forward simply by the improvements that competition is creating. That's really the American way isn't it?


Ultimately isn't this a little like having DTS "win" over DD or 35mm "win" over 70mm or any other technology battle? Luckily these techs keep going and keep pushing each other, giving us great options for whatever situation.
post #598 of 1635
1/6/08 at 7:38pm

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

Quote:
Originally Posted by Dave Moritz
Well one thing is for certain that WB news to go Blu-ray only must have hurt Toshiba alot more than we think. Why would Toshiba cancel there press conference at CES?
If I recall correctly, it was stated somewhere upthread that one of the main reasons for the press conference was to announce that WB and Fox were going exclusively to HD-DVD. Once they changed their minds and went with Blu-Ray the Toshiba press conference had no reason to take place.

---------------
post #599 of 1635
1/6/08 at 7:42pm

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

Quote:
But I really was hoping for the "war" to drag on to be honest. I don't think it was hurting nearly as much as people think. To me it was having the impact Ron mentioned at the start of this thread, improving prices and product.

It did have those affects. No argument.

It also caused many of the would-be HD adoptors to sit on the fence and wait. And it also created confusion among non-enthusiasts who aren't educated about the details of the format war, and didn't have the time or energy to try to figure out all the details to invest in one or ther other. What really got WB to take notice was that many of these same "core" disc-buyers *stopped* buying standard-def DVDs while they waited.

The problem with the format war? If you wait too long you miss you window of opportunity to really get momentum with adoption, and (at least WB thinks that) in order for an HD disc format to become mass-marketable and really make some money, you need a single format for consumers to jump in. That window was getting closer and closer to being closed. And there were indications to Warner that the window of opportunity for disc-based HD media being strongly established was in jeapordy. Microsoft refusing to budge on demanding exclusive rights to WB films via downloading, as part of their exclusive HD DVD contract offer they received a week or two before their Blu-announcement (hint, Microsoft's agenda wasn't about HD DVD winning), probably helped motivate WB to put an end to the format war ASAP and secure a strong, single-format disc-based solution while there was still time; MS wouldn't have been so bold in their negotiations had they not had reason to suspect that the stagnation of the format war was getting close to effectively negating either format of long-term viability.
post #600 of 1635
1/6/08 at 7:44pm

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

Quote:
Originally Posted by ScottHM
If I recall correctly, it was stated somewhere upthread that one of the main reasons for the press conference was to announce that WB and Fox were going exclusively to HD-DVD. Once they changed their minds and went with Blu-Ray the Toshiba press conference had no reason to take place.

There was also some speculation that new hardware and the pending 51Gb disc would be presented which would have given some reason to continue with the press conference. But I completely understand their wanting to reevaluate the entire situation before getting up in front of the media.
New Posts  All Forums:Forum Nav:
  Return Home
  Back to Forum: Blu-ray
This thread is locked  
Home Theater Forum › Home Theater Forum › Blu-ray, DVD, Streaming Video and Digital Downloads › Blu-ray › Breaking News!! Warner is soon to be Blu-Ray Exclusive!