What is the problem w/ Warner and Blu-Ray?? (1 Viewer)

Why do they release some movies(Superman, Superman 2, Returns, Lethal Weapon1 &2) on both formats, yet other movies on only HD-DVD? I'm still waiting for Batman Begins, why wasn't it released at the same time like Superman? And why was the Matrix only released on hd dvd so far? What is the hold up w/ some of these titles?

A better title would be:
"What is the problem w/Blu-Ray??"
Warner is comented to both formats. Just BD is holding them up to point WB can want no longer and is only releases titles on the format that works for them at this time.

How is blu ray holding them up?

Extras. The bluray players and/or software development tools do not currently support Warner's "In Movie Experience". So, warner has three choices.

It can release a bareboned bluray disc, at the same premium price as the HD-DVD version, essentially ripping BD-owners off.
It can release a bareboned bluray disc at a slightly lower price and run the risk of encouraging bluray player sales, "because bluray discs are cheaper"

--or--

it can release fully featured discs when they are ready.

warner's blood diamond plans

BD-J seems to be the holdup on Batman Begins, The Matrix and a few others with IME.

As for the non-IME titles. Don't know. HD-DVD owners seem generally disinterested in Warners classic films (hence the ultra low sales of titles like Casablanca, Forbidden Planet, etc) so Warner may feel the demand for Classics on Blu-ray would be just as low as it is on HD-DVD so they don't even bother to release them.

I think to be honest, Warner prefers HD-DVD, not one single thing that has occured differently between their titles that were released on both formats has went better for Blu-Ray(save maybe PCM on Departed, which vs TrueHD is debatable)

up until the last minute they weren't even supporting blu-ray

honestly I wish the studios would pick a side, like Universal or Fox

I sure hope they don't feel that way about classics :frowning:, Getaway, Dirty Dozen, etc. are all so awesome that words barely describe them

-Gary

Gary,

Agreed on the classics. We need more, but it really seems unlikely for the time being due to poor sales. I'm doing my part! Can't wait for Adventures of Robin Hood. Should be here any day now!

But as far as companies picking a side - Universal has definitely picked a side and I own a lot of their titles. But as much as Fox pretends to have picked a side, until they actually begin releasing titles again, they're on the fence in my mind. Product means you're down with the format. Promises are full of horse puckey. I wish all this willy-nilly nonsense would end already. Hell, even releasing those titles that are supposedly coming in Europe would be something to go on.

Cheers,

Jason

oh I agree about Fox, they are without a doubt the biggest joke

their prices, encodings, features, everything so far have been total BS, how or why they think that someone is going to pay 39.99$ retail for one of their titles that has no special features, DTS Master(that we can't even fully enjoy) and mpeg2 video at 18mpbs is totally beyond me

-Gary

That is a pretty ridiculous and unfounded comment to make about HD DVD owners. How little you know.

Tom, you would hate to even see the AVS forum on the mentioning of classics on HD-DVD, if Jim was talking about the crowd there, then sadly he would be right :frowning:

-Gary

You're taking his comment too personally, and too literally I might add.

Taken as a whole, HD market has shown little interest in classic titles. It isn't unfounded, the sales figures bear this out. Does this mean that every HD DVD fan feels this way? No. I'm pretty sure that wasn't what Jim was trying to say either. Also, it doesn't mean every BD fan feels that way either.

However, at least Warner gave HD DVD supporters the chance to buy titles like The Adventures of Robin Hood, Excalibur, etc. on HD DVD. Unfortunately, it appears they took those HD DVD results and chose for the BD fans. That is why Jim is saying that, as a whole, HD DVD fans have little interest in classic titles at this time.

I bought the aforementioned titles on HD DVD, and, frankly, I would buy them again on BD just to try and drum up more support in sales figures.

From what I have been reading, Fox stopped pressing when the discovery was made that the copy protection was being broken. Now that blu-ray's 2nd layer of copy protection has been approved, I have a feeling within days we will have a new announcement of titles from Fox. In Home Media Magazine, Fox home-vod president Mike Dunn has repeatedly stated in stories about the 2nd layer that this is what Fox has been waiting for to protect their library.

Much more reasonable the way you stated it, as apposed to the asinine comment that HD DVD owners don't have any interest in Warner classics. As far as taking it literally, I can only respond to what was written.

Actually, part of my jumping to HD DVD last summer was Warner's love and care for those classics and how they had excellent SDs of Casablanca, Adventures Of Robin Hood, Singin' In The Rain, My Fair Lady, Dial M For Murder and many more. Warner has always struck a good balance of new releases with classics. Seeing Casablanca & Robin Hood in HD DVD projected is quite a treat.

Too bad about them not selling great. :frowning: I bought em on sd and are buying them on HD DVD. My only thought to Warner is to give us more.

-Gary,
I think to be honest, you should offer proof "WB prefers HD-DVD".
Like what title has WB released on HD DVD, that it has no plans to release on BD?
And, what feature did WB release on HD DVD, that WB refused to release on BD?
Something along those lines would go a lot further than just saying: "I think to be honest". Cause I think: "to be honest", one must mention the titles that WB had planned to release on HD DVD, yet because its waiting for BD to get its act together, has not. Which has been totally unfair to fans of HD DVD, while catering to BD's constant: "wait till next month". Just to be prefectly honest about it.

And talk about being "prefectly honest"; not one BD player could play any of this stuff anyway!

Here is what Don Eklund, Executive Vice President of Advanced Technologies at Sony said when asked:
Q: Like BD-Java authoring?
A: "Yes. So they have an expectation like, "Okay, but June of next year (EDitEDbyED: last month), we can go add that." We knew that was the kiss of death. We knew that the minute we said that to any studio, they would not waste their time putting such content on the disc.

That's because of two issues. One, if the function won't play in many players, why spend the money to produce it? Two, if a consumer looks at the back of a Blu-ray disc that says it has all these features, then takes it home and puts it in their player and can't access the features, they'll likely complain or return it. Why have that grief? So [on Blu-ray] the studios are just putting all those features aside until later.
It is very strange, from that point of view. Not mandating a little bit of code and not building the platform right from day one comes back to haunt you later. You add things piecemeal, and it creates all these problems."

Now how is that WB's fault, honestly???

Exactly Paul.

Understood, Thomas. But sometimes our fingers and brains aren't alway in-sync, and we don't type what we mean. It is happened to me on more than one occassion. You are correct in that only Jim can tell us what he really meant (add it looks like he just did while I was posting this), but he seems like a good guy so I thought I would give him the benefit of the doubt for now.

That said, it would probably be best if everyone took it down a notch. Afterall, it is only entertainment. And damn good entertainment at that sometimes, as I really enjoyed watching a classic (Rio Bravo) on Blu-ray Disc last night. Hint, hint, Warner Bros.

Thanks Paul. I'm rather blunt at times and I'm also not shy about criticizing anything HD/BD around here if it doesn't smell right to me whether it be the bait and switch tactics of a few BDA studio's or the shitty sales of classics on HD-DVD.

The only agenda I have is that I want desirable titles available on both HD formats and I mostly call it the way I see it which probably pisses off a lot of the staunch Blu-ray only supporters as much as the staunch HD-DVD supporters.

Anyhow how bout that Rio Bravo? Can't wait for those Blade Runner and Kubrick set announcements!

I don't think the classics are on HD DVD are selling at any less of a rate than they do on standard DVD. It's just that the market is much smaller. In other words if you compare the the sales numbers of Casablanca on DVD and HD DVD, it probably had around the same market percentage relative to the size of the over all market.

I don't think anything else could be expected. Casablanca isn't going to sell the same number of discs as Pirates no matter what format it's on.

Doug

So will they stop releasing again when the second layer of copy protection is broken? I give it a month.

Doug