What horriffic timing... (2 Viewers)

[JeremyR]

Warner couldn't have decided this before Christmas?

It sounds like they think this is somehow going to increase sales of HD formats. I have news for them.. at least this one consumer is going to just sit on his laurels for a while until Blu-ray standardizes things... if ever.

 

[John Hermes]

Many people, including me, agree with you. It doesn't exactly inspire confidence for HDM in general for average people who just bought new HD DVD players. Doing it less than two weeks after Christmas is pretty darn weak, in my opinion.

 

[Robert Crawford]

This decision could've been much worse if it was made a year or two from now. At least now, those that bought into the HD DVD format recently can cut their losses before investing even more money into possibly a losing format. I'd own three HD DVD players and almost 150 HD DVDs, but I'm glad the end appears to be near so I can curtail my investment in this format.





Crawdaddy

 

[JeremyR]

It could have been worse as more people would have been affected. However, the timing of 10 days after Christmas leaves a nasty taste in ones mouth who has HD-DVD. And I'm sure the Blu-ray owners would feel the same way if things had transpired the other way, and rightfully so. Is this the biggest f-u to the consumer in history? I don't have information on how big Betamax was established before it was canned. But I was under the impression we were fairly close to 1 million HDDVD players in homes. That is one giant f-u. Hence the reason why my spending is now going to be limited to Blockbuster online every month.

 

[Brian Kaz]

Everyone that bought into their chosen format should have known the risk involved. This past Christmas was the perfect time for studios/manufacturers to see if there would be any momentum shifts. There wasn't.

For the ones who already invested in the wrong side, anytime would be bad timing.

 

[Shane Martin]

They gave you a 3 month heads up and you knew another format existed so a war was going on. You take your risks, you accept your losses. I'd feel the same way about it if BR failed as well.

 

[Doug_H]

The huge number of people who bought HD-DVD this Christmas, most of whom have no idea there was a war. I still talk to people everyday who have no clue about what is going on. they simply wanted a good picture on their new HDTV.

These are the people who are going to be mad and with good reason. They finally bought into HD this year thinking things were now stable. They got screwed.

Those of us who live for home theater made an educated purchase and some of us lost. There should be no tears.

 

[Romier S]

Then that's thier own failing. They are absolutely uninformed consumers and they have no one to blame but themselves for not knowing/understanding the risks. It's been stated again and again...you take the risk, you deal with the consequences.

Frankly, the consequences are very few for the new Christmas buyer as they would have picked up a player dirt cheap and at the end of the day they have themselves a wonderful upconversion player that will play thier existing DVD library in fantastic quality and a ton of free movies out of the deal (anywhere between 7-12 in fact with the way Toshiba player deals were working out). Hardly much of a "risk" in the end as the investment was low and the player doesn't suddenly become a door stop.

 

[Adam_R]

That's a hefty investment. Yikes. Well, at least you can still enjoy the movies you already bought.

I have 1 HD-DVD player (360 add-on) and 7 movies. Only one was paid for. The other 6 were free with the player. It's all going on ebay.

 

[Bill Crosthwait]

I have mixed feelings on the whole format war. I tried to be format neutral for the past month but I have had serious problems with Blu Ray since day one. I purchased 6 Blu Ray movies and a Samsung BD-1400 player that when I got home and opened the Box a BD-1000 was in the box. To add insult to injury the Blu Ray Player was not playing any Blu Ray movies...plus the store that I purchase my Blu Ray player will not take it back because its a different "model" the one I purchased!!! I did purchase a PS3 on Christmas, but I feels weird having a game console as my main Blu Ray Player. I am not going to go out and shell out another $500 for format that is not finalized yet.

So I decided to side with HD DVD. I have already purchased over 30 HD DVDs and only had problems with 3 HD DVDs. But I enjoy HD picture and HD sound that I dont have with my PS3. Also another big factor for me is price (another baby on the way!)and HD DVD had it for me.

I was banking on this format war to last a couple years, not three weeks since I decided to jump into HDM wagon. I should have listened to my wife and waited with SDVD.

 

[Dan Hitchman]

As mentioned in this thread already, WB was already hinting at their move a few months ago.

Shoot 'Em Up was optimized for Blu-ray, a WB company first. That should have also told you something too.

Dan

 

[Averry]

I'm pretty sure that was a recent thing about Shoot Em' Up.


There were indeed rumblings about this, but it was impossible to decipher from complete spin.

That of course also plays into how terrble this was. You're saying they WERE planning before Christmas, but waited anyways.

 

[FrancisP]

Warner also released statements saying they supported blu-ray and hd-dvd.
There's no doubt in my mind they were negotiating to screw on set of consumers even as they were denying it.

 

[John Hermes]

Yes, just a couple weeks ago, Warner was denying the rumor that they were set to go Blu-ray imminently. I am not concerned about myself. I have been in this HDM thing for a while and knew the score. I have a couple players and about 50 HD DVDs. I feel bad for the people who got shafted ten days after they bought players and movies for themselves, friends, and family for Christmas. Not everyone is as aware as we are on these forums, and I don't expect them to be. This is a big hobby for me, but not for the average person. I would feel bad if the same thing happened to Blu-ray owners. If you want to promote an already perilous medium to the masses, this isn't the way to do it. It is a hard sell now. This will leave a sour HDM taste in people's mouths. Hell, Warner's timing leaves a sour taste in my mouth. Plus, unless BR (and HD to a certain extent) starts putting something out besides these endless, seen-one-seen-them-all CGI/action films, purchases will be few and far between for me.

 

[Douglas Monce]

This was going to happen one way or the other. It almost went completely the other way with Warner and Fox going exclusively HD DVD. Anyone who thinks this wasn't inevitable one way or the other from the start was fooling themselves.

Doug

 

[Shane Martin]

Again no tears. It serves them right for making an uninformed purchase.

 

[Dave H]

To me the biggest telling tale of Warner/NL going Blu (other than the higher BD encode) was when NO announcement dates were mentioned for NL HD DVD titles. They said because of Regional coding, but they still never even gave a future date.

The same thing happened when Star Trek Season I was announced on HD DVD - no BD announcement and then shortly later, Paramount announced HD DVD exclusitivity.

 

[Dave H]

Agreed. I never bought into the "politically correct" idea that these formats would peacefully co-exist for many years.

 

[LarryH]

This is hooey! People shouldn't have to research every CE purchase to find out the background of its development! I hope this ends up in the courts with everybody suing everybody else. This is a huge black eye for the CE industry and it needs to be castigated to the point of avoiding another stupid refusal to settle on a standard. This has been a disaster from the get go. I really look forward to seeing some definitive analysis of how all this went wrong.

Just because we knew what we were getting into doesn't mean every consumer should make a career of keeping up with this garbage. By the way, being format neutral, I am willing to cast a pox on all their houses.

 

[Rhett_Y]

I think it is funny. You have one side that is pissed about one studio going xxx only. When a few months back that same side was giving themselves high fives because a couple of other companies went yyy only.

I am soooo glad I stayed out of it until now. But I agree with what has been said. You knew the risks when you purchased your chosen player and media. Shame on you for crying foul now. It doesn't matter when the company announces they are going with company "A" only. It really doesn't. They could of said it two months ago they could of said two years from now. Those same people would of been crying foul either way.

If you are so mad at the company's for having this "war" then why in the hell did you get involved and show support with your hard earned money?

No crying, no name calling it is what it is. It is done. If you don't like it, I wouldn't support it with my money. Bottom line. You, the consumer and forum reader, an educated forum reader at that, knew what was going on from day one. Those are the risks.

Be glad that hopefully there is an end to this whole freaking thing.

Trust me blu-ray folks would be just as "bent" as the hd-dvd camp if the pendulum had swung the other way.