A Blue Christmas for Blu-ray (1 Viewer)

[Paul_Scott]

doubtful. About the only thing I expect out of CES is for one or more of the exclusive studios to take the opportunity to "reaffirm their commitment" to the ____ format. Of course 6-8 months later, when hard data is in about the effect of console and other hardware sales in Q4 of '06, then they could completely change their tune to "we are pleased to announce that we will begin offering content on both formats giving consumers a choice..." yadda yadda yadda.

meaningless.

The only boost at this point to either format I would expect would be another CE mfg on the HD DVD side (like Denon), or the announcment of a coming sub $500 Bd player on that side. Otherwise I doubt much has changed for any studio to make any drastic decisions at this point.
If Warner should ever publicly announce they are scaling back on their Bd releases, then I would take that as writing on the wall. Barring that, I don't think much will change.

Basically Warner is the one keeping this format war in place (ironically enough). At some point they may look at the sales of the 360 add-on and determine that it cancels out the PS3 advantage entirely and that they can now afford to give up Blu-ray and concentrate on a single, more cost effective format. Until then, while I appreciate the quality and selection they have offered for my format of choice, It's frustrating to know that without them being dual format, this "war" would look vastly different.

 

[MarekM]

without WARNER being dual, Fox, Disney and Sony will be much much more agressive with selection and NUMBER of titles..........

so without magic lamp, you can't tell if it could look vastly different or not.... or even maybe better for Blu-ray camp..

Marek

 

[Paul_Scott]

I don't know Marek. If Warner hadn't swung both ways, I don't think Fox or Disney would have been any more inclined to put out enormously popular A list titles, any more than they are doing now.
Their whole raison d etre for this was that the PS3 was going to make them all fabulously wealthy by smuggling a Bd player into tens of millions of homes. They pissed on the notion of HD DVD partly because they saw a much slower, more protracted adoption rate. They have no intention of kicking out very many A titles until we start seeing attach rates rise considerably. If Sony continues to have trouble getting the PS3s out thru next year, and owners don't seem that inclined to want very many movies, we'll see just what kind, and how many blockbuster catalog titles are kicked out for that format.

 

[Ed St. Clair]

Man, when I see this thread title,
I can ONLY think good thoughts!
Luv "Blue Christmas" by Elvis.
Bad news is not news for BD.
As they always say: Just wait till next month.
Butt, this time, next month is next year and that means CES is just around the corner & I can't see Sony taking this laying down much longer. I see Sony/BD w/5 or 6 standalones at CES (don't know when they would all be released) & I see Tosh/HD DVD sitting there with two (for heavens sake I don't know when both of those will be released either! Ah, the world of HiDef.)!

 

[ppltd]

And we might be seeing them on both formats by this time next year.

 

[Vader]

I think Bill hit the proverbial nail on the head here. I see everywhere (including here on HTF) how Blu Ray is gearing up for some awesome launch. Sorry, but this is not the second grade.... when you mess up, you can't simply say "That doesn't count: Do over!" Blu ray had it's launch, and it was a disaster (in all fairness, so was HD-DVDs, but at least Toshiba admitted it and called damage control what it was)....