Format wars Blu-Ray vs HD

Justyntym

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Warner Bros. Picks Blu-Ray Over HD-DVD


January 04, 2008 7:54 PM EST
LOS ANGELES - Warner Bros. Entertainment said Friday it will release movie discs only in the Blu-ray format, becoming the latest studio to reject the rival HD DVD technology and further complicating the high-definition landscape for consumers.

Warner Bros., owned by Time Warner Inc., was the only remaining studio releasing high-definition DVDs in both formats.

It is the fifth studio to back Blu-ray, developed by Sony Corp. Only two support the HD DVD format, developed by Toshiba Corp.

Both formats deliver crisp, clear high-definition pictures and sound. But they are incompatible with each other, and neither plays on older DVD players, which means consumers seeking top-quality playback face a dilemma.

Warner said it decided to go with Blu-ray because consumers have shown a stronger preference for that format than HD DVD.

"The window of opportunity for high-definition DVD could be missed if format confusion continues to linger," Warner Bros. chairman and Chief Executive Barry Meyer said in a statement.

"We believe that exclusively distributing in Blu-ray will further the potential for mass market success and ultimately benefit retailers, producers and, most importantly, consumers," the statement said.

The company said sales of Blu-ray discs in the U.S. generated $169 million last year, while sales of discs in the HD DVD format totaled $103 million.

About 60 percent of Warner's sales of U.S. high-definition discs were Blu-ray titles and the other 40 percent were HD DVD, said Kevin Tsujihara, president of Warner Bros. Home Entertainment Group.

Outside the U.S., the divide was far wider, with Warner's Blu-ray discs outselling titles in HD DVD in Britain and Japan, among other markets, Tsujihara said.

Sales of set-top high-definition disc players in the fourth quarter of 2007 also factored into Warner's decision.

The company saw an acceleration in sales of Blu-ray players at the end of the quarter, particularly in December, Tsujihara said.

"We always viewed set-tops as the most significant indicator" of consumers' format preference, he said.

Still, one alarming trend Warner keyed on was that consumers didn't appear motivated by price reductions on high-definition disc players.

"When we saw that was not impacting sales in the level that it should have, and the consumer research that we did indicated that the consumers were holding back from buying either one of the two formats ... we thought it was the right time to act," Tsujihara said, noting that even sales of standard DVDs were affected because consumers appeared unsure over which format to go with.

"That was kind of the worst of all worlds for us," he said.

There are some differences between the formats. Blu-ray discs can hold more data - 50 gigabytes compared with HD DVD's 30 GB - but the technology's new manufacturing techniques boosted initial costs.

HD DVDs, on the other hand, are essentially DVDs on steroids, meaning movie studios can turn to existing assembly lines to produce them in mass.

Warner Home Video will continue to release new titles in HD DVD until the end of May.

Pali Capital analyst Rich Greenfield said in a Web posting Friday that he expects the HD DVD format to "die a quick death, versus a prolonged format war."

"While we still expect overall consumer spending on DVDs to decline at least 3 percent in 2008, the risk of an even worse 2008 DVD environment has most likely been avoided by Warner's early 2008 decision," Greenfield wrote.

The North American HD DVD Promotional Group Inc., a trade association that promotes the HD DVD format, did not have an immediate comment Friday.

Calls to representatives for Toshiba, Sony and the Blu-ray Disc Association were not immediately returned.

Studios and retailers have been choosing sides in the high-def format war in recent months.

Blu-ray got a big boost in June when Blockbuster Inc. announced it would stock only Blu-ray titles as it expands its high-definition offerings.

Target Inc., the nation's second-largest retailer, decided in July to sell only Blu-ray DVD players.

Among the other major studios that have decided to go with Blu-ray: The Walt Disney Co., Sony Corp.'s Sony Pictures, News Corp.'s Twentieth Century Fox and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.

Viacom's Paramount Pictures, which also owns DreamWorks SKG, dropped its support for Blu-ray and said it would start distributing films exclusively in the HD DVD format.

Universal Pictures, a unit of General Electric, also releases films only in HD DVD.

Time Warner shares slipped 42 cents, or 2.5 percent, to $15.91 Friday.

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I really hate to see this, all Sony needs is more reasons to charge more for a product that says SONY.....bla
 
Going to be interesting... Sony got blown out on the betamax/vhs war due to costs... Blu-ray is still outrageous pricey here in the midwest but you can by an HD DVD player for $299 certainly moves me in that direction..

Dont let them kid you, they will make dvd's in any format that will sell...
 
Expect this to be one of the very last physical formats. It's all digital delivery after this, prob. sooner rather than later.

Blu-Ray off the PS3 is amazing to watch
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Finally!! I've been anxiously awaiting WB's decision! I'm glad they finally chose wisely!


BTW, Randy, I've seen Blu-Ray players as low as $299, also... In fact, Target has a Sony BR player on sale for $299 in KC...
 
I don't think downloading an HD movie would be any fun. Most renters still enjoy video stores or netflix - or else they'd be closing. Yeah, there are a few that know how and where to DL HD content, but it's too complicated for the vast majority... what? save a file? WHERE? ? ? ?
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Amazon and others have download movies, but they are a super big joke compared to Blu-Ray and home theater
http://www.amazon.com/Unbox-V....ZRECMH5

I'm in BLU with PS3 and loving it. If movies in HDDVD stay in HDDVD, forget them. I'll watch the upscaled regular DVD and they won't get my money. I choose Blu because it had more of the movies I wanted to buy, and it plays PS2 games with no lag, and plays PS3 demos free.

Nothing wrong with HDDVD, but seems like the course is being set. One big gun sees the damage of the standoff, and is doing something to saves it's own, and maybe everyone's butt.
 
Say buh-bye to HD-DVD!

Blockbuster Video, Warner Bros.,and Disney are all in with BR ... c'mon now ... that just ain't fair. Plus the fact that Microsoft neglected to make the XBox 360 HD-DVD compatible whereas Sony took BR into account with the PS3 gives a tremendous edge to BR. Even if adults were undecided which way to go, they in essence bought a BR player when they bought their kids a PS3. I'm sure knowing this, many adults went out a bought BRs just to see how they would show. That right there gave BR the upper-hand. Call Sony what you want, but you won't call them dumb.

I remember seeing a show about how the PS2 is what really brought DVDs to life, especially in Japan. The lack of that feature is what killed the graphically cleaner Dreamcast. The same will happen now. The PS3 being BR compatible and the XBox not being HD-DVD compatible PLUS the fact that Gates has already announced that the 360 will be Micosoft's final game console pretty much buries HD-DVD.

Paramount and Universal better switch over before they lose any more money.
 
of course sony took BR into account when they buolt the PS3....since sony is the one who INVENTED the BluRay, why wouldn't they? it's a GREAT way to make sure as many bluray players as possible get into homes right off the bat.

I forget who it is, but someone makes a player that supports both formats, as well as standard DVDs.
 
LOL HD dvd is here to stay guys.. 1 word.. P@RN blu-ray doesn't and HD-Dvd does..

On a side note, Im sorry but PS3 sales pretty pathetic.. I mean how much longer are they going to continue to actually make PS2 games?

PS3 sales are at 5.6 mil and xbox 360 is at 17.7 mil. Hell Xbox 360 sold 4.3 mil THIS LAST QUARTER alone. Not to bad for a system that is older than the PS3.
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LOL HD dvd is here to stay guys.. 1 word.. P@RN blu-ray doesn't and HD-Dvd does..

On a side note, Im sorry but PS3 sales pretty pathetic.. I mean how much longer are they going to continue to actually make PS2 games?

PS3 sales are at 5.6 mil and xbox 360 is at 17.7 mil. Hell Xbox 360 sold 4.3 mil THIS LAST QUARTER alone. Not to bad for a system that is older than the PS3.
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That's WHY the XBox is outselling it. There are more games for it than for the PS3 because of the time its been out. Also, many of Sony's exclusive may find there way to the XBox because the makers know there are more homes with 360s than with PS3s. This is the same reason the game of 2006 (Resident Evil 4) which was a Gamecube exclusive was later made for the PS2. Capcom saw all the reviews and knew the Gamecube was the weakest in sales of the 3, so they ported it to the BEST selling system to make more money on their product (PS2).

Once games like Final Fantasy, Grand Theft Auto 4, and the next Metal Gear come out you'll see a drastic increase in PS3 sales. This is assuming of course that Sony can hold on to its exclusives. But even if they can't, it'll still help the sales. The XBox sold so well this past quarter because of Halo 3.

Now then, I didn't know about the triple-X rated films. But with only 2 film companies backing HD-DVD I still see a dim future for that format. These companies (including the XXX industry) are all about making money. If there are more BR players in homes than HD-DVD players, how long do you think they're going to sit idly by watching their competitors make all the dough or watch themselves not making as much as possible? Remember that little movie called Titanic? The morons at Paramount thought DVDs were going to be a phase like laser discs and didn't bother putting it on DVD upon its video release. Do you have ANY idea how much money they lost by doing that? I worked at Blockbuster at that time and plenty of customers said they wouldn't by it until it came out on DVD (myself included). Well guess what, a few months later it was on DVD but by that time the fanfare had dropped. There was even talk about them releasing the director's cut in theaters which was nearly 6 hours long. This was to be done to get some of the lost revenue back from the lack of not having a DVD format. Of course this never happened and Paramount didn't make anywhere NEAR as much as they would have if they would have followed suit earlier. Do you think they're going to make the same mistake again?

Evidently WB picked up on the hottest format and ditched their line of the other. I'll give Paramount and Universal up until the end of '08 before they hop on the BR bandwagon. Remember, people love to rent movies. And with the largest movie rental company choosing to go with BR, the HD-DVD katz are going to be hard-pressed to cop a rental.

Besides, who needs to buy XXX movies when you have the internet?
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I wont buy either till that rediculas prise tag drops.

Beta and VHS machines were a thousand bucks when they came out.

DVD's were like 70 bucks.

Now a VHS machine is 29 bucks at Walmart,and you can get 2 dvd's for 10 bucks.

I'm a poor boy,so I'll have to wait till all the hoopla dies down a bit,then shop on EPay for one.

RSD.
 
Part of the reason for slow sales of the PS3 is the fact that they were so scarce for a while. the reason for that? Sony couldnt produce the blu-ray players that went in them fast enough to keep up with the demand. believe me....christmas time I picked up 12 PS3s from wal-mart for list price, and sold all of them but one on ebay. the lowest winning bid I saw on the 11 i auctioned was $1285.

Now, I may have been price gouging a little bit there, but hey, if you're stupid enough to pay 1285 for a system that costs less than half that so your kid can have it for christmas, *I* am not the one with the problem.
 
Finally!! I've been anxiously awaiting WB's decision! I'm glad they finally chose wisely!


BTW, Randy, I've seen Blu-Ray players as low as $299, also... In fact, Target has a Sony BR player on sale for $299 in KC...
Good deal, I hate format wars myself... I am one of those "on the fence" until it settles out a bit.
 
LOL HD dvd is here to stay guys.. 1 word.. P@RN blu-ray doesn't and HD-Dvd does..

On a side note, Im sorry but PS3 sales pretty pathetic.. I mean how much longer are they going to continue to actually make PS2 games?

PS3 sales are at 5.6 mil and xbox 360 is at 17.7 mil. Hell Xbox 360 sold 4.3 mil THIS LAST QUARTER alone. Not to bad for a system that is older than the PS3.
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actually i beg to differ when i was in one of my local "video stores" they now cary blue ray adult which i what i initally thought was going to be the downfall of blue ray but seems they decided to make the financially smart decision to make money off a market that isn't going away anytime soon and by the way i have the ps3 for blue ray and the hd add on drive for the 360 and they both are awsome quality the only reason i like hd better is because they make the hd and on the opisite side of the disk a regualar def which it nice if you want to take it over to anyone else who has reg def and they don't have previews built in but other than that blue ray is a lil cheaper usually which is nice but i just like the blue ray on screen controlls a lil better
 
for those viewing and deciding:

Remember: none of these formats do a THING for you unless you have an HD screen to view it on.
 
LOL HD dvd is here to stay guys.. 1 word.. P@RN blu-ray doesn't and HD-Dvd does..

On a side note, Im sorry but PS3 sales pretty pathetic.. I mean how much longer are they going to continue to actually make PS2 games?

PS3 sales are at 5.6 mil and xbox 360 is at 17.7 mil. Hell Xbox 360 sold 4.3 mil THIS LAST QUARTER alone. Not to bad for a system that is older than the PS3.
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well if your going to throw number out there...tell me how many xbox HD adapters sold in the 4th quarter vs playstation 3. The number of x-boxs sold is irrelevant as the 360 doesn't do HD with the extra 179$ HD drive.

The smartest thing I've seen done recently is by HD, which started putting HD and regualr formats on the same disc  
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. Now if Blu-ray started doing that too...ew, that might just about do it.
 
and a 1080p HD to boot from what I hear.. I have the 720p/1080i and I don't see a big difference at all.. Not like the vhs to dvd change for sure..
are you kidding me i can see a huge difference watching regulare movies and tv look like crap now im spoiled now i won't even buy rob zombies new halloween because it didn't come out on high def yet
 
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