All over but the crying?

[Caspian]

WARNER BROS. ENTERTAINMENT TO RELEASE ITS HIGH-DEFINITION DVD TITLES EXCLUSIVELY IN THE BLU-RAY DISC FORMAT BEGINNING LATER THIS YEAR

Decision Made in Response to Strong Consumer Preference for Format

http://www.businesswire.com/portal/s...75&newsLang=en

(January 4, 2008 - Burbank, CA) - In response to consumer demand, Warner Bros. Entertainment will release its high-definition DVD titles exclusively in the Blu-ray disc format beginning later this year, it was announced today by Barry Meyer, Chairman & CEO, Warner Bros. and Kevin Tsujihara, President, Warner Bros. Home Entertainment Group.

"Warner Bros.' move to exclusively release in the Blu-ray disc format is a strategic decision focused on the long term and the most direct way to give consumers what they want," said Meyer. "The window of opportunity for high-definition DVD could be missed if format confusion continues to linger. 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."

Warner Home Video will continue to release its titles in standard DVD format and Blu-ray. After a short window following their standard DVD and Blu-ray releases, all new titles will continue to be released in HD DVD until the end of May 2008.

"Warner Bros. has produced in both high-definition formats in an effort to provide consumer choice, foster mainstream adoption and drive down hardware prices," said Jeff Bewkes, President and Chief Executive Officer, Time Warner Inc., the parent company of Warner Bros. Entertainment. "Today's decision by Warner Bros. to distribute in a single format comes at the right time and is the best decision both for consumers and Time Warner."

"A two-format landscape has led to consumer confusion and indifference toward high definition, which has kept the technology from reaching mass adoption and becoming the important revenue stream that it can be for the industry," said Tsujihara. "Consumers have clearly chosen Blu-ray, and we believe that recognizing this preference is the right step in making this great home entertainment experience accessible to the widest possible audience. Warner Bros. has worked very closely with the Toshiba Corporation in promoting high definition media and we have enormous respect for their efforts. We look forward to working with them on other projects in the future."

Hopefully this means this retarded format war will be over soon.

[Omgwtfbbqkitten]

Re: All over but the crying?

The indifference towards HD doesn't come from a format war, it comes from a bad economy and the wrong price at the wrong time. It never mattered whether it was HD-DVD or Blu-Ray - both were unneccesary the time they were released.

And they still are unneccesary.

The industry just doesn't wish to admit that.

[Icemage]

Re: All over but the crying?

Format war over. Let the battle with DVD begin.

Should be interesting to see what this does to the console war between 360 and PS3. The Wii's not affected as much since it isn't HD-capable, but this is going to have a positive effect on Sony's presence for sure, since the PS3 is and remains the best Blu-ray player on the market.


Icemage

[Malacite]

Re: All over but the crying?

Unless Toshiba throws yet another hissy fit...

Face it, you lost this one. In fact, I'm amazed they even backed HD-DVD to begin with when they helped developed the PS3's CELL.

What the HELL were they thinking?! You can't have it both ways Toshiba. Time to pay the price.

BD: Beta's Revenge

[Theyaden]

Re: All over but the crying?

Oh dear does this mean on newer dvd players I'll have to re-buy my dvd's with Blue ray in order to still watch them. >< If they keep it backward compatable so it'll read the old format I don't care, but I've noticed the recient trend to make as little backward compatable as possible. (Vista with some XP programs. Xbox 360 to the older Xbox games)

[Caspian]

Re: All over but the crying?

Theyaden: All HD players HD-DVD and BD are backwards compatible. They also all up-convert regular dvd's.

Malacite: It wasn't so much that Toshiba was backing HD-DVD as much as it was that HD-DVD was their baby. It was their format from the start, MS just started championing it (conspiracy theorists say they're doing it to kill both formats and make d/l content the next thing, strengthened by the fact that MS said in a press release that they didn't think either were viable and that d/l content was what they were wanting).

Icemage: True about DVD vs. BD. Atleast a BD player plays both and there is likely to be a clear-cut winner in the HD format sometime this year. VHS hung around for quite a while before going the way of the dodo, assuming after all this BD really does take off, it will still be several years before dvd dies off.

Kitten: The format war certainly wasn't helping. Will BD take off and supplant DVD's? Can't know for sure right now. Its possible. Are we still years and years and years away from downloadable HD movies being commonplace? Damn straight.
When I bought my new receiver a year and a half ago, only two models of all brands could even through-put a 1080p signal. It was considered overkill and noone thought it was necessary. 3 months later it was the new big thing and nearly all HD broadcasts were in 1080i and 720p was considered the ugly stepchild.

I consider HD movies like HD tv. Its not necessary, but having seen it once, I never really wanna go back. Its just too damn gorgeous.


Btw, Icemage: Blade Runner Final Cut on BD = Too sexy.
and Amazon is doing a 2fer1 on like 90+ BD titles right now.

[jwalton]

Re: All over but the crying?

What the HELL were they thinking?!

It's called compromise. Neither Sony nor Toshiba were willing to budge an inch when they were in talks prior to the HD formats releasing. Toshiba was willing to go Blu-Ray if Sony went with HDi instead of BD-J for the software, but HDi is a Microsoft thing and Sony wouldn't budge. And it was stupid, because HDi is waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay further along than BD-J for interactivity features and ease of programming.

In the end, both Toshiba and Sony can get bent. I'll continue watching upscaled DVDs and wait for the next format.

[Feba]

Re: All over but the crying?

I honestly don't think HD-DVD or Blu-Ray could ever replace DVD, though.

I mean, to the average consumer, the benefits of DVD over VHS were many:

DVDs were smaller
DVDs were harder to damage
DVDs were much much higher quality
DVDs could have more dynamic content.

Now, with HD media, pretty much all you gain is "More stuff", which I don't think will be enough to get people to switch. If Blu-Ray becomes popular, it will likely be when a PS3 and Blu-Ray disks cost the same as a DVD player anyway, which is years away.

Really, I believe that either flash carts or digital distribution is going to be the next major shift in media.

[Pai Pai Master]

Re: All over but the crying?

BD will never replace DVD. It'll become the HD-alternative to DVD, and then to VoD.

But yes, HD-DVD is pretty much dead. Dual-format partners are no more, and Toshiba got the short end of the stick.

What matters to me is that Warner and other BD formats hurry up and release the films they've been holding back on. Give me my 1080p Lord of the Rings, Star Wars and Disney classics goodness.

The sooner Toshiba packs up their bags, the better for the industry.

[Icemage]

Re: All over but the crying?

I honestly don't think HD-DVD or Blu-Ray could ever replace DVD, though.
I mean, to the average consumer, the benefits of DVD over VHS were many:

DVDs were smaller
DVDs were harder to damage
DVDs were much much higher quality
DVDs could have more dynamic content.

Now, with HD media, pretty much all you gain is "More stuff", which I don't think will be enough to get people to switch. If Blu-Ray becomes popular, it will likely be when a PS3 and Blu-Ray disks cost the same as a DVD player anyway, which is years away.
Really, I believe that either flash carts or digital distribution is going to be the next major shift in media.

Actually three of the four reasons you stated are true for Blu-ray versus DVD.

- Blu-ray has the exact same size and form factor as DVD.

- Blu-ray discs are harder to damage, due to a mandatory hardcoating. I can personally attest to how good it is. None of my 55 movies or 17 PS3 games have anything even vaguely resembling a scratch, and there's no way that many discs being handled - even carefully - wouldn't have at least some minor blemishes by now if they were DVDs.

- Blu-ray discs have six times the resolution of a DVD. Granted, non-HDTV users can't see "that" much of a difference, but as more and more households get HDTVs, this becomes an increasingly powerful selling point.

- Blu-ray discs can have much more dynamic content than DVDs. My Spiderman 2.1 Blu-ray lets me pick which cut of the film to watch, and has zero pauses at "break" scenes, unlike the annoying pause you get with DVDs (even when it's tried on that format). There's also no irritating "layer change" pause on Blu-ray like there is on DVD.

I've got Blu-ray discs with games on them, fully interactive extras, and other neat goodies like camera-angle shifting at concerts (Nine Inch Nails: Beside You In Time).


Icemage

[Feba]

Re: All over but the crying?

Icemage: Of course they're the same size. DVDs are teeny compared to VHS. Blu-Ray has absolutely no advantage over DVD in the size factor as far as watching movies goes. The hard coating part is interesting, but it's a much smaller improvement than going from an easy to tear or damage strip to a disk. Yes, Blu-Ray is in HD, but DVD was a much larger improvement than VHS than HD over DVD. VHS to DVD practically eliminated scratchiness in the picture, sound problems, off colors. DVD to BluRay just moves from "Very good" to "Even better". Most people will not notice a large difference between HD and SDTV unless they're watching them side-by-side or looking at something where resolution will make a large difference (scenes with a lot of plant closeups or small text, for example). A significant amount of people with HDTVs probably don't even have their equipment set up properly to display HD signals. As for content, I'm not sure what you're talking about. I've never had annoying pauses while watching DVDs unless I'm using something like those "push a hidden button in the middle of the scene" things. I picked up the Simpsons Movie recently, and if you listen to the commentary it pauses and continues their discussion at some points, with no noticeable pause. I've also had commentaries on some show DVDs that have the commentary continue on after the credits without any problems. Blu-Ray might be a little bit smoother in it's transitions than DVDs, but again, it's not the huge leap in ability that DVD was over VHS.

As to your last bit, I'm not really sure why that matters-- DVD has the exact same stuff.

[ItazuraNhomango]

Re: All over but the crying?

Marketing will win.

US population will be force to upgrade to "HD" TV, and marketing will be there to convince us to let of of grandpa's generation of optical storage technology and upgrade our "disc player" along with the TV.

* * *

I'd toss the TV when they stop broadcasting "SD signals" (even though I already ignore them for the most part), but I think my sister still wants to play FFXI on PS2. >_> Plus, I may want to play Tekken or Soul Caliber now and then--if I can ever pry her away from the TV...

HD TV can come home with me when the stores start giving them away with every purchase of toaster ovens. =b

[Feba]

Re: All over but the crying?

Ita: Last I checked, there are no plans to stop broadcasting in SD anytime soon, we're switching from analog broadcast to digital. Although that's not to say that marketing has nothing to do with it; the friendly local cable monopoly has already started talking about how your antenna won't work anymore, but cable will.

I really don't think marketing is going to have much luck getting many people but the Bragging Assholes and A/Vphiles to switch though. The sort of people that wouldn't know about what they're replacing would be the kind that don't really care-- my grandparents only got a VCR a few years ago, for example, and that's mostly for watching home recorded video and such.

[ItazuraNhomango]

Re: All over but the crying?

Last I checked, there are no plans to stop broadcasting in SD anytime soon, we're switching from analog broadcast to digital. Although that's not to say that marketing has nothing to do with it; the friendly local cable monopoly has already started talking about how your antenna won't work anymore, but cable will.

Ah, I see. (Guess how much I cared about it that I didn't even bother to look that up? lol.)

Well, it'd still render my TV incapable of receiving off the air signal. Oh no I won't be able to watch local news showing helicopters chasing car chases! Gotta run off and buy new TV! Now!

Not.

Sticking to plan: Will get a DTV when they come free with toaster ovens.

[jwalton]

Re: All over but the crying?

Feba has the right idea on why the average consumer will not switch to HD media. We're talking about a consumer base that is for the most part, dumb. Even with all the information there is available to the public, when some of them do finally bring home an HDTV, they watch standard definition television through their cable provider and hook up their game systems and multimedia devices using composite cables.

Most of them don't even know who's campaigning to be the next president of the United States, much less what Blu-Ray or HD-DVD is. Retailers have to deal with moron customers as it is right now with people trying to return HD discs with the complaint that they don't work in their DVD players. The fact that the HD media discs are the same size as a DVD disc is actually a problem, because people are dumb. The assumption they have is that they should just work.