Re: Universal's Graffeo: HD DVD is here to stay!
At this point, Graffeo is merely trying to calm the fans and retailers in some degree. His message basically is, that until their new strategy is ready/etc, they´ll "keep releasing movies" and supporting the format. They know that the Warner´s (Blu-ray) "deal" won´t be effective until May, so they have some time to think this through (which is wise of course). If they still keep releasing movies (at least the "upcoming months"), it´s quite natural for them to say "We keep releasing movies". I doesn´t mean that "we don´t support Blu-ray in the future"..
The questions in the interview are very pro-HD DVD and in some cases the interviewer is almost trying to feed some answers to Graffeo´s mouth ("Sony claims that the PS3 has given Blu-ray the market lead -- is this just posturing so Blu-ray can tout higher sales numbers?"). Sure, this is nothing new, since there are many pro-Blu-ray sites and interviews out there, but just pointing that out.
You can also read between the lines that HD DVD and SD DVD walk hand-in-hand now when they´re marketing the format - and the prices of the players are low. Almost like: "You can still buy Toshiba-players" (=they also do great upconversion for SD DVD) and "you can still buy HD DVD-films" (=they have also SD DVD-version included), EVEN when you´re not fully ready for HD or ready to "fully choose the format":
**"Consumers right now are buying upconverting players -- they are outselling the next-gen players combined by 10 to 1 every month... So pricing is very important."
**"All of our new releases that Universal has made since last September have been combo discs [with standard DVD on one side]. We have no plans to change that, and our retail partners are saying if you want to go to the mass market, you don't want to limit consumers into only being able to play it on one device."
To me (at the moment at least) HD DVD is not really "fighting" in the strongest sense of the word, it´s buying time. Their final plans are not ready yet.
I still fully agree with mr. Graffeo on one thing:
**"Over the course of the upcoming years -- the next 5, 8, 10 years -- physical media is still going to be dominant. That's not to say you're not going to have digital, because it's going to come, but it won't reach the masses very quickly."
Physical media won´t die in any time soon! That´s at least the message that most of us here share..
