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HD DVD/Blu-Ray

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Well that's how it always works. The same thing happened with Betamax/VHS and DivX/DVD. Certain studios go with certain formats.

 

DIVX was always a joke; hardly was a serious format. Beta / VHS was split out amount regions more than anything in the midst of the warz.

 

If MS was "bankrolling" the HD DVD, they did an awful, half-assed job of it.

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Well that's how it always works. The same thing happened with Betamax/VHS and DivX/DVD. Certain studios go with certain formats.

 

DIVX was always a joke; hardly was a serious format. Beta / VHS was split out amount regions more than anything in the midst of the warz.

 

If MS was "bankrolling" the HD DVD, they did an awful, half-assed job of it.

It was mostly Toshiba.

 

But Fox was on Divx's side. I believe Disney was too.

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The benefit of a combo player is A) They will go down in price if HD-DVD dies B) You'll be able to get the movies that were put out in HD-DVD first cheaper and not have to spend money to get them when they're rereleased on BluRay.

 

 

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Well that's how it always works. The same thing happened with Betamax/VHS and DivX/DVD. Certain studios go with certain formats.

 

DIVX was always a joke; hardly was a serious format. Beta / VHS was split out amount regions more than anything in the midst of the warz.

I still have an old advertisement fresh in my mind from Circuit City I believe, encouraging customers to seek out a dvd player that supported Divx technology. Looking back, not only was it a generally abhorrent idea, but on-demand would have rendered it obsolete anyway.

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1080p is supported by 2nd gen and later HD-DVD players although every movie that has been made on HD-DVD was encoded at 1080p from the start. The catch on that Combo Samsung player is that Samsung was originally in the Blu Ray camp (and still makes stand alone blu ray players), so I dont think Sony and the Blu Ray people would be too thrilled with the combo player if it put HD-DVD on the same level with Blu Ray in the combo player. Theres probably a technical reason why the combo player doesnt support HD-DVD at 1080p, but I honestly figure its not the main reason why 1080p for HD-DVD isn't supported.

 

Samsung is actually one of the companies that started Blu-Ray. I was reading about this, and was sort of surprised to find that the Blu-Ray actually isn't a "Sony format" per se the way the PSP movies or MiniDisc or whatever was, they just happened to be the larger of the backers, and started using the "blue lasers" before the others in their own formats. Samsung is one of the "blu ray people"

 

It was apparently started by Hitachi, LG, Panasonic, Pioneer, Philips, Samsung, Sharp, Thomson multimedia, and of course Sony. That's a pretty huge part of the electronics industry, whereas HD-DVD was essentially Toshiba and NEC to start with.

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Paramount is poised to drop its support of HD-DVD following Warner Brothers' recent backing of Sony's Blu-ray technology, in a move that could sound the death knell of HD-DVD and bring the home entertainment format war to a definitive end.

 

Paramount and DreamWorks Animation, which makes the Shrek films, came out in support of HD-DVD last summer, joining General Electric's Universal Studios as the main backers of the Toshiba format.

 

However, Paramount, which is owned by Viacom, is understood to have a clause in its contract with the HD-DVD camp that would allow it to switch sides in the event of Warner backing Blu-ray, according to people familiar with the situation.

 

Paramount is set to have a bumper 2008 with several likely blockbusters, including the latest instalment in the Indiana Jones franchise, slated for release.

 

Paramount joining the Blu-ray camp would leave HD-DVD likely to suffer the same fate as Sony's now obsolete Betamax video technology, which lost out to VHS in a similar format war in the 1980s.

 

Warner's decision last week to throw its weight behind Blu-ray saw it join Walt Disney, 20th Century Fox and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer as backers of the Sony format.

 

The Warner move gives Blu-ray about 70 per cent of Hollywood's output, although the format's grip on film content will increase further when Paramount comes aboard.

 

It is unclear whether DreamWorks Animation has the same get-out clause in its contract with the HD-DVD camp. However, Paramount and DreamWorks have a close relationship, with Paramount distributing DreamWorks Animation films.

 

The two companies also signed their HD-DVD contracts at the same time.

 

Meanwhile, Universal has declined to comment on its next- generation DVD plans following the Warner move.

 

Sir Howard Stringer, chief executive of Sony, yesterday held out an olive branch to its rival in the next-generation DVD format wars following Warner's decision to back Blu-ray.

 

Sir Howard said the company would be "open to dialogue" with the rival high-definition HD-DVD camp to "grow the market". The move came as new figures showed that Blu-ray had opened up a decisive lead over the rival home entertainment format.

 

Sir Howard said: "We are not going to push people around. We'll talk to anyone . . . we have a lot of work to do to grow the market. We'll be systematic and open to dialogue at all times."

 

He added that Sony still had "a lot of work" to do to get Blu-ray "widely accepted" among American consumers.

 

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/ea637496-bd8d-11...?nclick_check=1

 

 

How many "death blows" will it take for Blu-ray to finally win the format war against HD DVD? I've been hearing that phrase (and writing about it) since July 2007. Well here comes another one. Following in the footsteps of Warner Brothers' abandonment of the HD DVD format, reports are surfacing that Paramount is headed to Blu-ray as well.

 

This is huge news not just because it would leave just one major studio (Universal, plus the mini-major DreamWorks) producing HD DVD content. It would mark the first time in the high-def war that a studio has abandoned one exclusive format and switched to another. Warner was producing both HD DVD and Blu-ray discs and merely dropped the HD DVD ones. Paramount will have to switch entirely to Blu-ray, which it has not been producing up to now.

 

According to the Financial Times, Paramount has a clause in its contract with the HD DVD camp allowing it to switch to Blu-ray in the event that Warner was to do so. And exercising that clause is what's about to happen. It's also theorized that DreamWorks will follow Paramount, since the studios are closely tied together.

 

Nothing's been announced yet, but this should be wrapped up in fairly short order. Stay tuned.

 

http://tech.yahoo.com/blogs/null/64393

 

 

The Financial Times is reporting that Paramount is preparing to use a get out clause in its HD DVD exclusivity deal, and go back to Blu-ray, about 4 months after ending its dual-format release schedule. The move would be a result of Warner's switch to Blu-ray, using a "get out" clause in Paramount's promotional agreement with the HD DVD camp. No details on what it might take to rip up the contract and make Michael Bay very, very happy, but if the rumor proves true this could make the slow death he predicted for HD DVD a very, very fast one.

 

http://www.engadgethd.com/2008/01/07/param...he-hd-dvd-door/

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Digital distribution is great.. but I don't think it will be the future for a while to come. A lot of consumers (including myself) like to own hardcopies of their media.

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Yeah, I'd rather have a hard copy of my movies. And if the server is down, I can't watch my movie.

 

AND non of this will be compressed? 80 Mbps?? They can't transfer that much data without it taking about 2 days to download or something.

 

Sounds too good to be true to me.

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digital distribution will happen but its going to be a hard sell to be "mainstream" to the point where disc media will be.

 

the fact is, there are too many different digital stuff competing... i mean there's itunes, xbox live marketplace, tivo, cable and ondemand, Netflix has their own set top box coming out, and those are just the ones off the top of my head. It's too crowded a market, and ALL of them are tied up and incompatible with everyone else. iTunes you need the damn apple tv box to watch content on tv and the quality sucks, tivo has its own box, xbox has its own, etc etc. Not to mention very few of these systems actually let you OWN movies. Poeple may not need physical media but I submit they need something to "own", even if it is just "Casino_Royale_full_movie.avi".

Blu/HD-dvd was a 2 side format war and it drove technophiles nuts. imagine a 10-sided war and add in the "general consumer" - there's no way it takes off in anything more than a (strong) niche.

 

Ironically the best digital distribution method in terms of working in an easy way is still pirated movies - downloading and burning (or connecting computer to TV) is still a pain, but there are no DRM issues to worry about, no incompatibility or lock, you have the file and its not gonna expire, and given enough file size and enough space on media, all you need is a computer and a tv.

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HBO following WB

 

As expected, HBO Home Video has fallen in line with parent Warner, confirming that it too will drop HD DVD support in favor of Blu-ray.

HBO Home Video president Henry McGee told the Hollywood Reporter today that the company will be "following the same policy as Warner Home Video" and will no longer release titles on HD DVD.

Distributed under the Warner umbrella along with New Line Home Entertainment and BBC Home Video, HBO had been format-neutral, releasing titles in both Blu-ray and HD DVD. Following New Line's move to Blu-ray, HBO now becomes the third Warner company to abandon HD DVD, leaving only the BBC (which Warner distributes domestically) to declare its future format intentions.

McGee offered no further details on the HBO Video's plans to transition to sole Blu-ray support, or the fate of its current HD DVD releases, which include two box set releases of the top-selling 'The Sopranos.'

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Yeah, I'd rather have a hard copy of my movies. And if the server is down, I can't watch my movie.

 

AND non of this will be compressed? 80 Mbps?? They can't transfer that much data without it taking about 2 days to download or something.

 

Sounds too good to be true to me.

Its done by satellite and you can get some pretty good speeds via satellite. It shouldnt take as long as you think.

 

As far as digital distribution vs hard copy, I almost completely stopped buying movies and switched to blockbuster online for them although I still buy TV boxed sets and the occasional cant miss movie. Spending $15 for one movie I might watch a handful of times is stupid. With this you pay the monthly fee and you can rent it or own it, but its still a better deal. This is definitely at least a blockbuster online/netflix killer. But I think it also hurts BD because of the price to own a BD disc is still close to $30 for new stuff (vs what I gather to be in that neighborhood per month for probably at least several movies via this service..do the math)

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Rumor has it that Circuit City is clearancing the A3's to $100 and they'll stop selling HD-DVD apparently within a short time frame. I imagine the discs would go on clearance as well.

 

It shouldnt be too long before Best Buy does the same and then Id say its all but over for HD-DVD.

 

 

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All I have to say is that whenever this war is won - the fucking price of the media had better come down to reasonable levels. I'm on board in theory, but I've since decided that there's no way I'm going to pay $39 for a single movie.

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New release Blu's go for around 25 bucks, and I own about 20 movies and havent paid more than $27 for any one. Amazon, Ebay, and the like are your friends when it comes to Blu.

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Sorry, I should note that I would be paying bullshit Canadian markup on said discs.

 

You are correct though, I should be using Amazon.com (ships DVDs to Canada but not videogames o_O) and save tons off of what stores are charging in person.

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Sorry, I should note that I would be paying bullshit Canadian markup on said discs.

 

You are correct though, I should be using Amazon.com (ships DVDs to Canada but not videogames o_O) and save tons off of what stores are charging in person.

Yeah dude, definately buy DVDs off the American Amazon site. They're always way cheaper than the Canadian version, plus the exchange rate works in our favour sometimes, plus you don't pay GST on it.

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True enough. I know that Columbia house offers Blu Ray as well.. but only AFTER you become a member... anyone know what their prices are like?

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