Universal at CES (1 Viewer)

[Peter-PP]

Here is more from Paramount as well.

From Home Media Magazine
Universal and Paramount Not Ditching HD DVD

Universal and Paramount Not Ditching HD DVD
Author: THOMAS K. ARNOLD
[email protected]
Posted: January 10, 2008
Email this Story to a HD DVD Friend

The format war might not be over for a long time. Despite rampant reports in the press and blogosphere that Universal Studios Home Entertainment and Paramount Home Entertainment are about to drop their support for HD DVD and join the other majors in going Blu-ray, executives with both deny any such move is imminent.

A high-ranking Paramount source said the studio has no plans of ditching HD DVD anytime in the foreseeable future. And Ken Graffeo, EVP of HD strategic marketing for Universal Studios Home Entertainment, said the same holds true for his studio.

“Contrary to unsubstantiated rumors from unnamed sources, Universal’s current plan is to continue to support the HD DVD format,” said Graffeo, also co-president of the HD DVD Promotional Group, in an official statement sent to members of the press by the group’s public relations firm.

http://www.homemediamagazine.com/new...ticle_ID=11870

 

[Averry]

I'm getting really impatient for more announcements.


I think we all want to what more titles they are planning to release in the extended support of HD-DVD. The HD-DVD slate is barren, and you can bet on the fact that they were going to competitively release more catalog titles.


Also, whether or no Blu support is coming, is something we all want to know.



By the way, I have considered the Jurassic Park original logo in a Blu case, and it doesn't look too ugly in my head. Red would have been nice, but I think I may be able to settle for Blu. It was MY childhood movie, but I can't stand upconversion.

 

[Dave Moritz]

I can not wait for Jurassic Park ether, its one of my must have HD titles. Even upconverted the video quality of the DVD's is not all that great anymore, dam HD video. I guess I am spoiled now because of HD. I would prefer this title being released on Blu-ray as I would not want to buy it on HD-DVD with no lossless and then it end up being released later on Blu-ray with lossless.

 

[Averry]

I'm positive that it would definately get a TrueHD track.

The DVD was sort of bare for special features, so wouldn't expect that to get in the way.

 

[Patrick Sun]

Re: Jurassic Park - I'd settle for them to port over the audio track from the dts LD. I about blew up my house with the amount of bass from the dinosaurs walking and stomping around while playing the dts LD many years ago. My neighbor called me because she even felt the vibrations coming from my modest speaker/sunosub setup in her own home (where our houses are at about 15 feet apart).

 

[Adam Gregorich]

From what I hear JP needs some remastering before it's ready for HDM.

I am sure that Universal and the BDA are talking. I am also sure that Universal and Toshiba are talking (same applies to Paramount). With HDM such a small share of the home video market (Finding Nemo sold more copies in a single day than total BD discs since inception!) Paramount and Universal aren't giving anything up by sitting out a year. Toshiba has been very vocal about not being ready to throw in the towel. To stay in the game they need both Paramount and Universal. With the WB war chest still available it's very possible for them to keep Universal and Paramount for another year. Where will things end up? Lets just say it will be an interesting few weeks.

 

[troy evans]

The problem is, it doesn't matter wether Universal stays or goes. It also doesn't matter if HD DVD mounts a comeback. The only thing that can save HD DVD at this point is a total market domination. All because the press has run countless HD DVD DEAD stories on the news and in papers. People who know nothing else about the format know about this news. Those people will throw thier support behind Bluray after all the bad HD DVD press. As far as the ones who don't invest in either format what so ever, well, There you go. I think after everything else that HD DVD has come through, this blow is just to powerful. Before anyone says" HD DVD has had bad press in the past". You're right, but, it's never been this bad.

 

[Dave>h]

I disagree.

If they didn't know about HD DVD before what makes you think they care to read about its death?

As to whether they throw their support behind blu ray, very debatable. Especially when they run into their local Best buy and see that the cheapest, barebones Blu ray player (aside from the PS3) is still $300 and the majority of those announced at CES are 2 to 3 times that much.

In the current US climate (very weak consumer sentiment), discretionary purchases like Blu ray players are going to stop and the more expensive they are, the less likely people are to buy them.

Absolutely, the future looks bleak for HD DVD but saying everyone is going to run out and support Blu ray because of that is denying the economic climate that exists.

IMHO there still exists a chance for a cheap alternative.

I know I won't be running out to support Blu ray in its current iteration because it is too expensive (and I have disposable income and there are lots of Blu titles I would love to own) and the software is expensive. I am not sure what capacity or palate the average consumer has for expensive Blu Ray technology.

No studio support for HD DVD and no consumer appetite for expensive Blu Ray tech could be the death knell for both formats.

Dave

 

[nolesrule]

Even the sales drones the big box stores have started pushing Blu-ray over a "dead" HD DVD. That's more likely to direct the average person, who is going to want some advice before making the purchase, than just walking in and grabbing a player off the shelf.

 

[DaViD Boulet]

Lots of consumers were picking up $300 BD players this Christmas (actually out-sold the more affordable HD DVD hardware). I'm sure that the $200 price point is more attractive, but even at $300 there seem to be lots of folks ready to take the plunge.


Indeed they have nothing to lose by taking some time to work out the best strategy (and deal) that they can consider.

 

[loganhunter2002]

Maybe Toshiba will do some marketing on the Superbowl. That may lessen the blow a bit.

 

[Stephen_J_H]

This is one of the brightest things I've heard since the WB switch. Why wouldn't Uni, Paramount/DW and Toshiba want to go and assess their position before deciding whether or not to throw in the towel?

 

[DaViD Boulet]

More specifically, they are assessing *when and how* to throw in the towel. It's inevitible that the industry will be single-format-blu: that's no longer debated among the execs at these studios. But how to get there and make the most money doing it (or lose the least money) is very much in debate. By holding their cards, Universal and Paramount are keeping some leverage with the BDA.

Part of the catch is that if the BDA wants to be a tough negotiator, then only the first studio who signs will get a deal because the last HD DVD hold-out studio will be forced to change by market necessity without any additional incentive to be offered. So holding out now gives them leverage... but it's also a risk because the first to fold and accept terms with the BDA will force the other to do the same but without the BDA feeling the need to offer a reward.

 

[Blaine]

Blu-Ray's PLAYING time may have been originally based on MPEG2 and uncompressed LPCM, but that's NOTHING to do with the bandwidth and overall capacity of the disc.

It is a FACT that HD-DVD has a maximum throughput of 36.55mb/s, with 28mb/s maximum for video with 30gb maximum capacity for discs. Blu-Ray has a maximum throughput of 54mb/s with 40mb/s for video, and 50gb per disc. How can you argue that HD-DVD is superior?

The fact that the first titles were compressed by the studios using MPEG2 is immaterial to the capabilities of the format.

And the further arguement about "they got it right the first time" is not valid either. What did they get right the first time? That every player has an RJ45 ethernet port? I ask you - So what? The fact that all of the first gen players (frankly of both formats) were buggy and didn't work worth a crap until firmware updates were availalbe? Oh the horror.

On paper, the technical aspects of the formats give the advantage to Blu-Ray.

 

[Jari K]

This is what I was trying to say on the other thread (firmware-updates etc), but apparently only Blu-ray does firmware updates.. Both 1st gen Toshiba HD DVD and Panasonic Blu-ray were pretty bad players, when you compare them to the more recent models now. But first is always first in everything. I have the "flagship" Toshiba XE1 (Euro) and it´s pretty slow and quite basic player. PS3 has some fan noise. There´s no such a thing as "perfect player", not "perfect format". I have both.

I personally sleep better if the Blu-ray wins the war, but I can live with HD DVD also if it comes to that. It´s just plain ridiculous that some people can found Blu-ray-format that "inferior".. But it´s the name of the game in this war.

 

[Jari K]

(speculation)
But in the end, do they really "throw the towel"? I mean (perhaps, who knows, IF, etc) they´re just changing their format from one to the other and fans still keep buying their releases. I assume that only a handful of hardcore HD DVD-fans would abandon HD-titles altogether (most of those fans are smart enough to understand, that they were in this for the *films*) if these companies would switch to Blu-ray. And they would gain probably more new fans in return.

 

[Manus]

" On paper, the technical aspects of the formats give the advantage to Blu-Ray."

Unfortunately , on paper is where many of them have remained Bd can do 50gb , HD 51gb etc etc . For the average movie the disc content possibilities are very similar for both formats . Remember when they told us about multiple soundtracks on SD , you could put the movie music on there . Or multiple cuts of the film on the same disc ? How many discs from all those released ever gave us that ? Not too many .

Most people have moved on from playing the HD/BD numbers game as you cannot hear 0s and 1s or mbps's. The single greatest improvement to Bd would be to relax the Drm ( we are your best customers after all ) and once and for all do away with Region Coding and become the world's first truly global movie format . That headline alone will attract buffs from the world over .

~M~

 

[Edwin-S]

Well, I'm going to have disagree with the assessment that the first gen of Toshiba players were "bad". Yes, my A1 is a slow loader and it did have its quirks (and still does), however, in general, it has played all of the films that I have bought, except for one. On the other hand, the Samsung, from my reading on this forum, has been a bad player from day one.

 

[Robert Crawford]

As an owner of the first generation XA-1 and Samsung-1000 both of which were purchased during the early summer of 2006, I found both players had issues and were desperately in need of firmware updates to get the most out of the HDM I bought. The XA-1 would have more lockup problems while the 1000 would have problems with specific discs like those loaded with more Java material. The Sammy has been retired and the XA-1 will be sometime this month.





Crawdaddy

 

[DaViD Boulet]

Hardly.

Every single Blu-ray disc released from Sony, Disney, MGM, and Fox provides lossless audio (BD's bandwidth has plenty of room). Some even provide more than one lossless track for multiple-language lossless qualtiy.

Only about 27% of HD DVDs provide lossless because of space/bandwidth limitations. Warner and Paramount (the two studios who were at one time supportig both formats) didn't provide lossless audio on BD reliably because they didn't want the BD to have an advantage, so even when there was room (as there was on every BD) they wouldn't provide lossless if the HD DVD didn't have it.

This is why many of us have been frustrated with warner for "dumbing down" their BD encodes for HD DVD limitations. Hopefully with BD-exclusive authoring, WB's HDM qualtiy will improve to match that of the other BD-exclusive studios.