Should WB and the BDA give HD DVD owners a "peace offering" to welcome them to Blu? (1 Viewer)

[ppltd]

As a dual format consumer, the move of Warner does little to affect my ability to view a High Def release, but you are right. For Warner to dismiss the rumors of a month and a half ago and let the average consumer be taken in over the Holiday season is pretty callus. Many hundreds of thousands of HD DVD players have been sold since the original rumors began, money that the consumer could have placed in something else had Warner been upfront with their plans. Does anyone actually believe that the highly anticipated Twister release rescheduling to May, the month the the Warner/HD DVD contracts run out, was coincidental?

As far as us early supporters, we (should only) get into these technologies with our eyes open and should know that any money spent has a good chance to be spent on the wrong side.

As a side note, with a collection of over 300 High Def titles (both formats), my enthusiasm of both HD and BD has taken a major downswing since about the time of the announcement from Paramount/Dreamworks. This type of fighting between the warring groups was getting old (at best) and my interests, for the first time in over 2 decades, has moved away from my film collection. the fighting has left such a bad taste in my mouth that I personally wish a pox on both of their houses.

At this point, I think both sides have lost and the likelihood of either format hitting the mainstream consumer is most assuredly not a sure thing. Welcome to the next LD.

 

[Romier S]

I think it's worth quoting that again since its the most sensible thing posted in this thread.

 

[Cees Alons]

Nope.


Cees

 

[Rhett_Y]

Why? Why does this person deserve anything? Seriously did this person not know what was going on? So we should also compansate all of the people who purchased beta? DAT? SACD/DVD-Audo? Hell why not laser disks why we are at it.

Please. They knew what was going on, they knew that their perspective choice might loose.

I think the "you owe it to us" stinks. However if they do give some sort of "deal" to come to blu-ray that would be nice. But I don't think one should "expect it".

Good lord.

 

[bigluigi]

I totally agree. I feel......well, I just feel real bad! Anyway, I still enjoy HD to much to give it up entirely but instead, I have taken a new tact. My new "toy" is a HD-DVR through one of the DBS satellite services. It has an internal 250GB hard drive (30 hrs of HD) and I added an external 500GB hard drive using the USB port for a total of 750GBs and 90 hrs of HD storage. The best part was the HD-DVR was "free" with a 18 month subscription.

We taped "The Sound of Music" on ABC HD the other night and my wife (it's her favorite movie) has already watched it 3 times on my 9' wide HT screen. She says she gets a "bigger kick" now watching it on the big screen than on the smaller 56" in the FR. Now....she finally agrees with "bigger screen...bigger wallop."
Just out of curiosity, I did compare the standard DVD version of this film upscaled through my HD-A2 with the HD taped broadcast on the big screen, and, of course, the HD version blew the DVD version right out of the water which may explain my wife's re-enjoyment of this classic film.

 

[Yumbo]

A BR player instant-rebate (worth the price of the HD player) is the most practical.

 

[DaViD Boulet]

Agreed. it's one of the reasons I started this thread.

 

[TravisR]

That's a great thing to me. Laserdisc generally had the OAR, nice extras (not just fluff featurettes) and was made for a movie fan. If high def doesn't catch on, it'll still give me all the above and an HD picture to boot.

 

[Sanjay Gupta]

I am not sure how that is neccessarily such a bad thing. I for one was more than satisfied with the titles available on laser disc and I personally had a collection of almost 4000 titles of which I probably still have about 1200 titles lying around. Why should we care whether HD becomes a mainstream format or not? For I am sure that the studios will continue to release titles in HD even if Blu-Ray ends up being limited to only a laser disc like niche market, which by the way I personally think is highly unlikely. I am also quite sure, that Blu-Ray will definately be a much larger market, even if just a niche one, than laser disc ever was. Actually if you look at the current worldwide install base of Blu-Ray, thanks to the PS3, it probably is already larger than what laser disc reached in it's entire lifecycle. With almost all new televisions being HD, I am sure the consumer will ultimately want HD software to watch on it. Almost every single person that buys a DVD player costing more than $150 - $200 is most definately going to just buy a Blu-Ray player instead and I am sure that although the major DVD player sales might lie int he sub $100 category, there are still large enough volumes for price categories above that.

 

[Bob_L]

First of all, thanks, DaViD, for pointing me toward the new Panny Blu-ray player. I've got my eye on it. (Didn't realize it could be 2.0 compatible. Cool.)

Second, perhaps the real group that deserves some consolation is the early Blu-ray adopters who purchased profile 1.0 machines that will rapidly be obsolete with 1.1 and 2.0. Those are the folks who should receive some recognition/compensation from the BDA.

 

[loganhunter2002]

I'm not sure how I feel about trading in the Web Enabled version of my Harry Potter 4 for the less content version of it. It's like trading in my BMW for a Kia.

 

[Robert Crawford]

From what I'm hearing, catalog titles are not selling very well and if the HDM stays a niche market, the studios might decide not to invest in releasing many catalog titles onto HDM because such an investment in new transfers isn't worth it at those volumes. Sure, we'll get every new film on HDM, but that's not going to help those of us that crave to have classic films released onto HDM.

 

[Paul Arnette]

Hear, hear! While I don't think I'm entitled to any consideration, I certainly wouldn't turn down the opportunity to take advantage of some.

 

[Viper]

Why the hell are people so worried about the losing format or trading HD-DVD movies for BD anyway? If it's in 1080p and it plays, who gives a shit which player you have to stick it in!? A hi-def movie is a hi-def movie. Be happy the titles you like were even released in either format. I'm rather disappointed in the current selection on both sides, myself.

And while we're on the subject of Warner... what idiot over there thought it'd be better to release the early cut of Payback that's completely different from the theatrical without making the theatrical available either seperate or as a 2-disc set!? Kris Kristofferson isn't even in the "Striaght Up, Director's Cut." It's appauling.

 

[TravisR]

No idiot from Warner Bros thought that. It's a Paramount release.

 

[Dave Moritz]

It would be a good idea but could Sony actually afford to do it? This format war has cost Sony alot of money and even though the idea of a trade in program would be nice.


I would not be against that at all, and it would end the format war alot faster than it would have normally. And both Universal and Paramount could be free to instantly come out with Blu-ray titles. But I would like to know where you have seen indications that Sony is negotiating with Toshiba?

I guess it would explain Tohsiba pulling a virtual disapearing act at CES. As far as the press release and other activities that Toshiba had planned. There just seems to be so many twist and turns coming out of CES regarding the HD format war. If it true that Sony and Toshiba are talking this could get beyond interesting really fast, alot faster than any of us thought possible.

 

[DaViD Boulet]

True enough,

I think that the concern might be that if HD DVD really goes under this year (which it will), that 5-6 years out you'll be stuck paying as much to have your player repaired as it would cost to buy a new one, if/when your HD DVD hardware breaks. If/when your HD DVD hardware finally reaches its end, then you'll be stuck trying to find a working player to view those discs. Not that different from what I'm going through with my LD collection. I know it's been expensive keeping my laserdisc player going... it's been a few times that machine has had a visit to the repair-man... and the costs have added up to more than what I paid for it new.

This fate won't affect my DVD collection, because all future disc players will play my DVD discs (ie, no need to nurse along an aging DVD player from 2007 in the years ahead).

 

[Viper]

Well, the HD-DVD sticky here listed it as Warner. I guess it doesn't make much difference. Either way, there isn't jack the fans of the theatrical cut can do about it.

 

[Dave Moritz]

I plan on picking up another HD-DVD player ether at the end of this year or right at the beginning of 09'. Only because I want to be able to bitstream my audio from my HD-DVD's to my upcoming receiver. And once I do that I will pack up my 1st gen player and seal it up just incase my upgrade takes a shit. I do not think I will be replacing any of my HD-DVD's with the Blu-ray counterpart. A well done 1080p movie is a 1080p movie, I see no reason to spend money to replace a 1080p disc with another 1080p formatted disc.

This format war will ether go on for at least a year or it will crash and burn only because the two sides got together and negotiated an end to the war.

 

[Jari K]

You´ve a point there, but I guess there are many people who has bought EVERYTHING (what they can, of course) in HD DVD etc.

But like I´ve said before, we all took the gamble. In some degree, even if you had both formats (most people probably still bought their HD-titles mainly in "one format").