I think that this is a retread of an old article. Is this new news...I don't think so.
13 responses Add your response
08-20-07: Rysa4This article refers to the press release in question as "this morning's shocking revelation," which, if you'll notice, is dated today. Plus, the article specifically mentions a reversal of policy for the format release of Blades of Glory. It also means that two of the biggest grossers this year will be released exclusively on HD DVD. Some of the HD DVDs are hybrids and can be played on both std. DVD players and HD DVD players. My Letters from Iwo Jima is this way and I've seen others. This would enable studios to support hi-def releases while having just one SKU per DVD title. Can Blu-ray do this too? If they can, so far they're not. |
This is indeed breaking news. So far this year, Blu-Ray is outselling HD-DVD 2 to 1 - so it was starting to look distinctly bad for HD-DVD; available content seemed to be more of a factor in sales than price. It may have cost $100 million to Paramount and $50 million to Dreamworks in promo deals to swing this - nevertheless a nice move from HD-DVD on the exclusive content side. (or are these high $$$ promotional deals just Blu-ray counter propaganda?). I don't know, but think about those 5 free discs with each player and you can imagine how a deal might get cut with a studio... Blu-Ray, it is your move now: figure how much this factor will change the race and act soon! May be it is time to role out a Blu-Ray promo deal with Universal...LOL! We have to laugh but some execs are probably ready to jump out a window after this latest announcement...whilst others may have just landed a big bonus! |
I bet HD sold it's soul with the 'exclusive' studio releases and is getting a much lower cut Seems HD knew it was behind and had to act desperate Maybe I'll have to get both players, damn and as for purchasing - I only own 5 discs including the 4 disc planet earth (stunning on BR) netflixs all the way for HD/BR |
Go check out the latest news on the format war on engadgethd.com Seems blu-ray is already fighting back. Fox and MGM have been BD exclusive for a long time but have released very little. With Fox I'd wait it until movies are actually out as they have made these announcements in the past and never met their release list. |
This is great news.... but I think this will just polarize the playing field and make people wait to buy (seeing who will win) and in the end STUPID dual players will come down in price. It's cheaper to make HD-DVD's and the equipment is more available.. hence the porn industry changing (Couple of producers that Sony won't let use their pressing facilities) their backing from Blueray to HD-DVD... |
This is all sort of like , opening chess moves of sorts. I still see HD-DVD making good moves while the Blu Ray side just spends a lot of money. I also still prefer HD-DVD hardware strongly. It just makes more sense. AS far as more shockers, when Walmart opens the Christmas season with 150 dollar HD-DVD players the whole thing is gonna move in one giant direction, as folks grab their HD-DVD players and movies as well- BlURay players are too expensive right now. |
And if there are millions of owners of Chinese HD DVD players, I would suspect some percentage of them would start screaming to the suppliers to put out more HD DVD titles. If the HD DVD customer base grows large enough, creating the demand, that should supersede questions of ownership, who pays royalties to whom, and studio alliances. After all, even Sony eventually threw in the towel and started making VHS machines in 1989. The requirement to make this scenario happen is that the Wal-mart HD DVD players have to work well and reliably. Again, HD DVD also has the advantage of making hybrid disks, so one SKU covers both the standard and hi-def markets. |
