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BOOST FOR BLU-RAY! Warner Bros Will Release High-Def Titles Exclusively In That Format
Deadline Hollywood Daily ^ | 1/4/08 | Nikki Finke

Posted on 01/04/2008 1:20:53 PM PST by Yossarian

BOOST FOR BLU-RAY! Warner Bros Will Release High-Def Titles Exclusively In That Format

This is a huge development in the Blu-ray versus HD-DVD format war currently raging on. Warner Bros, which had been producing its high-def DVD titles in both formats, will start the Blu-ray exclusive later this year. The decision was made in response to stroing consumer preference for the Blu-Ray format, according to WB's announcement. I'd been hearing rumors for months that Warner Bros had been offered in the neighborhood of $250 million to go exclusively with HD-DVD. Less lavish but still big payments already had been offered and accepted by both Paramount and DreamWorks Animation to go HD-DVD exclusive. And yet director Michael Bay, whose Transformers was a big lure for the HD-DVD side, still has been publicly questioning the wisdom of choosing that format over Blu-ray. This Christmas, consumers were lobbied hard by both sides as dirt-cheap Toshiba HD-DVD players were advertised heavily by Wal-Mart while the higher priced Blu-ray players were also discounted by electronics retailers though not nearly as much.

Here's the Warner Bros news release:

(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.”



TOPICS: Business/Economy; Culture/Society; Technical
KEYWORDS: bluray; hddvd; hitech; hollywood; warnerbros
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Well, this looks like a body blow to HD DVD. I think both Sony and Toshiba & Microsoft are greedy twits, so in many respects I don't have a dog in this race. But it is still nice to see Toshiba get nailed, as they're the scum that in the late 80s sold to the Soviets classified prop milling technology used to keep US Subs silent.

Another nice side effect - the Chinese standardized on a variant of HD DVD, so they get hurt as well. (Mind you, it was a modified version of HD DVD, to keep their mainland citizensprisoners free from the corrupting influence of freedom of speech....)

Actually, it's high time for the format war to end. I almost bought an HD DVD player this Christmas, since it came in under $200. (It would at least make a good upconverting DVD player.) Maybe by next year Blu-Ray will reach that point too.

1 posted on 01/04/2008 1:21:01 PM PST by Yossarian
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To: Yossarian

That should just about do it for HD-DVD. This would seem to be a tipping point for Blu-Ray.


2 posted on 01/04/2008 1:22:20 PM PST by Petronski (Willard Myth Romney: 51% negatives)
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To: Yossarian
Maybe by next year Blu-Ray will reach that point too.

I think that will be too late. I don't think BLU-Ray is going to win out.

3 posted on 01/04/2008 1:24:30 PM PST by frogjerk
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To: Petronski

I won’t buy either for now. For me, the picture quality doesn’t justify the $10 extra in price.

My upconverting DVD player to 1080i does a pretty nice job on my HDTV.


4 posted on 01/04/2008 1:24:52 PM PST by Slapshot68
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To: Yossarian

I wonder what kind of coin Sony gave them to do this? This simply puts moves HD on disc another year further away from consumers as the bluRay players are 3-4 times more expensive than HD-DVD players.

Honestly, I don’t have a dog in this fight, I would just like one to win out, and for a player to be prices < $100. That was the tipping point for EVERYONE to switch over to DVD.


5 posted on 01/04/2008 1:27:15 PM PST by SengirV
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To: Yossarian

Blu-Ray better lower its prices. I just bought a HD-DVD player, and I really don’t feel like forking out another wad of cash for a Blu-Ray player.


6 posted on 01/04/2008 1:28:48 PM PST by murron
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To: Yossarian

HD-DVD was DOA before the battle began.. MS through its weight behind it at the last minute to revive it in an attempt to harm Sony who they are direct competition with in the gaming market.

Sony’s won the war... the only good news for HD-DVD in the last year plus was when they got a studio to move to their exclusive format, but turns out they only did so after getting a bribe from Toshiba of over $100 million dollars.

Sony’s strategy to put a BD in ever PS3 did drive up the price and harm them in the first year of release of their new gaming system, but it also ensured them victory in the larger more lucrative war on HD format.

Now, the PS3 is beginning to hit its stride, and BD is clearly the victor in the format war... It will take a while for HD-DVD to completely die, but buying an HD-DVD player now is guaranteeing you a doorstop in 1-2 years tops.


7 posted on 01/04/2008 1:29:06 PM PST by HamiltonJay
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To: HamiltonJay

I have the HD-DVD add on for the Xbox 360, so this is disappointing.


8 posted on 01/04/2008 1:34:51 PM PST by Callahan
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To: Las Vegas Dave

A ping for your HD list....


9 posted on 01/04/2008 1:42:33 PM PST by Yossarian (Everyday, somewhere on the globe, somebody is pushing the frontier of stupidity...)
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To: Yossarian
I'm pulling for Blu-Ray.

I have a Sony HDR-CX7 HD camcorder and do some video editing with Sony's Vegas 8.0. It turns out to be time consuming but otherwise quite easy to generate 1080i video that looks great on a PS3. Right now it is the only practical way that I know of to generate HD "home movies".

10 posted on 01/04/2008 1:42:55 PM PST by InterceptPoint
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To: InterceptPoint

Actually, I think the crown for the “Easiest HD delivery system” goes to HD DVD, since you can burn a regular DVD that has the HD DVD file system.

The player has to spin the disk twice (? 3X ?) as fast as normal to get the needed bandwidth off the disk, but there is no such requirement on the DVD writer.

Are you familiar with any similar system for Blu-Ray? That would be convenient.


11 posted on 01/04/2008 1:47:43 PM PST by Yossarian (Everyday, somewhere on the globe, somebody is pushing the frontier of stupidity...)
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To: Yossarian
Our local Best Buy stores were show lots more Blue Ray systems than HD DVD systems this Christmas season. And from what little I could tell, the Blue Ray really is better.

Just waiting now for the Blue Ray prices to drop a bit more.

12 posted on 01/04/2008 1:48:32 PM PST by drc43 (Defeat is slipping from our grasp... Nancy Pelosi)
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To: Callahan

Well look at it this way, you are only out the price of that add on.. which generally has been far less than the price folks have paid for stand alone players.

HD-DVD never stood a chance, MS being MS just had to try to breath life back into it to hurt Sony, it was an incredibly stupid move that harmed Toshiba to no end, but what does MS care?


13 posted on 01/04/2008 2:01:51 PM PST by HamiltonJay
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To: Yossarian
Amazon's best offer over the holidays was 12 free HD-DVD's with the purchase of certain HD-DVD players.

Right now, Best Buy has get 10 Blu-Ray disks with purchase of certain players (computers and dual format players are excluded).

14 posted on 01/04/2008 2:03:48 PM PST by I Drive Too Fast
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To: Yossarian
Every studio that has gone HD-DVD did it because they got paid off. Every studio that went Blu-Ray did it because they liked it better or believed in it more. Eventually, the artificially-supported one is going to lose.

I almost bought an HD DVD player this Christmas, since it came in under $200. (It would at least make a good upconverting DVD player.) Maybe by next year Blu-Ray will reach that point too.

It's above $200, but you can buy a PS3 for $400 and get Blu-Ray, an upsampling DVD player and a media center that plays music and video files from the hard drive, an attached hard drive, flash card, USB stick, or from your computer over the wireless network.

Oh, and you get a kick-ass game console too.

15 posted on 01/04/2008 2:05:07 PM PST by antiRepublicrat
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To: frogjerk
With Neilsen sales figures at 4 to 1 Bluray over HD DVD and this Warner move... HDDVD and DVD are both dead... DVD will be with us for awhile... but Toshiba will fold the tent and microsatan will push for downladed media only. HD DVD is DEAD!

LLS

16 posted on 01/04/2008 2:08:03 PM PST by LibLieSlayer (Support America, Kill terrorists, Destroy dims and vote Fred!)
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To: SengirV

Go Blu-Ray.

The main reason is that HD-DVD technology is really “DVD-plus.” It’s an incremental improvement to the basic DVD meant to make it cheap to produce HD-DVDs with minimal alteration to the current DVD production technology.

Blu-Ray was designed to be truly next-generation. It’s more expensive to implement, but it’s just superior technology.


17 posted on 01/04/2008 2:10:50 PM PST by antiRepublicrat
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To: I Drive Too Fast
Amazon's best offer over the holidays was 12 free HD-DVD's with the purchase of certain HD-DVD players.

Damn, I only got five when I bought my PS3. Blazing Saddles in HD, even funnier.

18 posted on 01/04/2008 2:13:19 PM PST by antiRepublicrat
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To: antiRepublicrat
It's above $200, but you can buy a PS3 for $400 and get Blu-Ray, an upsampling DVD player and a media center that plays music and video files from the hard drive, an attached hard drive, flash card, USB stick, or from your computer over the wireless network.

Oh, and you get a kick-ass game console too.

$400 is way, WAY to much. I just want a movie player, thanks. Cost is a big reason - maybe the sole reason - why Blu-Ray didn't wipe out HD-DVD from the beginning.

I already have a little intel core duo Mac Mini plugged in to provide the rest of those functions (I'm not a hard-core game player).

There's another think I'll miss about HD-DVD: No concept of region-limiting disks. I can see where this helps for piracy concerns, but as someone who likes to learn other languages, it can be great to watch a, say, German DVD, but with English subtitles. It really helps scrape the rust off my German, and inspires me to study more.

19 posted on 01/04/2008 2:13:25 PM PST by Yossarian (Everyday, somewhere on the globe, somebody is pushing the frontier of stupidity...)
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To: Yossarian
Actually, I think the crown for the “Easiest HD delivery system” goes to HD DVD, since you can burn a regular DVD that has the HD DVD file system.

The player has to spin the disk twice (? 3X ?) as fast as normal to get the needed bandwidth off the disk, but there is no such requirement on the DVD writer.

Are you familiar with any similar system for Blu-Ray? That would be convenient.

Yes you can do that with Blu-Ray.

I do it two ways. The easiest way is to burn to Blu-Ray format directly from Vegas 8.0 to a standard DVD. This will give you the file structure of a Blu-Ray disk but will not play directly in a Blu-Ray player. It will play in a PS3 via the file that is in the Stream Folder. That works great because you can copy the file to the PS3 and it will play just fine.

The second way is to render the file out of Vegas and then use the latest Nero software to burn a real Blu-Ray disk with menus if you like to an old fashioned DVD. This will play in a PS3 and I believe that it will play in standard Blu-Players - but don't hold me to that.

20 posted on 01/04/2008 2:21:12 PM PST by InterceptPoint
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