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[Chiggs]

Nobody's really talking about the fact that HD-DVD titles won't be on the shelves at the same time as Blu-ray and DVD. I found that interesting.

 

[Raistlin]

He only denies receiving payoffs in the amount of 250 to 500 million. He says nothing about 620 million dollar ones.

:lol


Come one. The logic of their statements cannot be denied. The effectively announced this MONTHS ago. They stated that they would look at the Christmas sales data (HW and SW) ... and if it made sense to, move to one side.



Regardless of supposed payoffs, they were moving into this direction. If anything, I would guess that any money changing hands had more to do with covering possible 'penalties' for Warner's involvement as an HD-DVD IP holder. It's quite possible there were some contractual obligations that are now being broken.

 

[Suikoguy]

e-high five for one format future.
That includes everyone on the HD DVD side too.

Now maybe we can stop arguing about all this crap?

wtf@ digital distribution
wtf@x10 the irrational sony haters coming out of the woodwork too. :lol

I was secretly hoping that this would becoming the longest GAF thread, still possible though as it looks like Toshiba will never give up until retailers force them.

 

[Mifune]

:lol


Come one. The logic of their statements cannot be denied. The effectively announced this MONTHS ago. They stated that they would look at the Christmas sales data (HW and SW) ... and if it made sense to, move to one side.



Regardless of supposed payoffs, they were moving into this direction. If anything, I would guess that any money changing hands had more to do with covering possible 'penalties' for Warner's involvement as an HD-DVD IP holder. It's quite possible there were some contractual obligations that are now being broken.

I'm glad you laughed. That's what I was going for.

 

[Nicodimas]

Well heres wondering how sony is going to recoup the 620 million. I am guessing the players aren't going to be 50-100 bucks anytime soon. Which sucks for the HD industry as a whole.

 

[Christopher]

Well heres wondering how sony is going to recoup the 620 million. I am guessing the players aren't going to be 50-100 bucks anytime soon. Which sucks for the HD industry as a whole.

Kevin Tsujihara, President, Warner Bros. Home Entertainment Group says the studio took no pay-offs to exclusively back Blu-ray.

In a post-announcement conference call, Tsujihara flatly denied rumors that studio had accepted anywhere from 250M to $500M in exchange for dropping its HD DVD format support.

According to the exec, Warner's sole motivation in dropping its HD DVD format support was to ensure growth of the "category" and the long-term health of the industry.

"The packaged media business is a $42 billion dollar business worldwide at the retail level, and we [Warner] have the largest market share of anybody," said Tsujihara. "From our perspective, the most important piece of this whole puzzle is, "How do we get growth back into this category?" That far outweighed anything else."

This [decision] was one hundred percent around what makes the most sense for the consumer, the retailer and the industry. This was not a bidding war. This was all about what was best, strategically, for us."

Stay tuned for more news from the Tsujihara conference call shortly...

http://www.highdefdigest.com/news/show/Warner/Warner:_No_Payoff_for_Move_to_Blu-ray/1327

No payoff.

 

[Raistlin]

I was secretly hoping that this would becoming the longest GAF thread, still possible though as it looks like Toshiba will never give up until retailers force them.

I wouldn't bet on it.

Once Universal (and maybe Paramount) goes, they will move based on financials. If it doesn't make sense for them to continue, I'm betting they won't (they appear to be taking losses on HW).

This isn't Sega. This is a well-organized company, who's point is to make money. I really doubt their board of directors will okay blowing money on a sinking ship. I'm just hoping this realization happens soon.

 

[Chiggs]

Well heres wondering how sony is going to recoup the 620 million. I am guessing the players aren't going to be 50-100 bucks anytime soon. Which sucks for the HD industry as a whole.

1. You don't know if that figure is accurate.
2. The President of Warner Home Entertainment Group is denying it.
3. If it is accurate, you don't know if it was just Sony that made the payment.
4. This was rumored to happen for quite some time.

 

[el Diablo]

Well heres wondering how sony is going to recoup the 620 million. I am guessing the players aren't going to be 50-100 bucks anytime soon. Which sucks for the HD industry as a whole.

Royalty fees on EVERY SINGLE blu-ray disc sold.

 

[Raistlin]

Well heres wondering how sony is going to recoup the 620 million. I am guessing the players aren't going to be 50-100 bucks anytime soon. Which sucks for the HD industry as a whole.

The :lol continue.

For one, there is no evidence the 620 million thing is true (and if it was, it was from the BDA - not all from Sony).

Secondly, assuming HDM takes off respectively, it will become a multibillion dollar industry.

Thirdly, do you honestly think $50-$100 HDM players were going to happen soon? There is no way Toshiba could continue to dump money like they were ... but you were expecting even higher levels of it?

 

[xS1TH L0RDx]

well, i just got back from trading in all my warner reds, got a 175 bucks so i picked up departed, shoot em up, and casino royale on blu. fixin to get on amazon and check out prices for oceans and die hard box sets; best buy and circuit city were out of both.

 

[bishoptl]

If Nico wants to wallow in his own tears, so be it. Dreamcast is dead and buried, lost the war just like the confederacy and Crystal Pepsi.

Move on or get left behind.

 

[Raistlin]

well, i just got back from trading in all my warner reds, got a 175 bucks so i picked up departed, shoot em up, and casino royale on blu. fixin to get on amazon and check out prices for oceans and die hard box sets; best buy and circuit city were out of both.

Random post ... finally got around to watching Casino Royal last week.


If your TV is up to snuff ... wait until you see the Venice scenes 0_o. My god the detail!!!

 

[Mifune]

The :lol continue.

You know I was joking, right?

 

[Raistlin]

You know I was joking, right?

At first, my buzz prevented it ... but yeah, I know :lol

 

[Chiggs]

well, i just got back from trading in all my warner reds, got a 175 bucks so i picked up departed, shoot em up, and casino royale on blu. fixin to get on amazon and check out prices for oceans and die hard box sets; best buy and circuit city were out of both.

You were smart to dump those off immediately. I'm not sure how many reds you had, but $175 doesn't sound too bad.

 

[el Diablo]

Lol just now thought of another person who must be steaming at this point. Boy, how annoyed must Michael Bay be at this point?

 

[George Claw M.D.]

Holy shit! I work graveyard shift, and I just woke up.

Well, I'm glad this stupid format war should be pretty much over, now. I also read Toshiba's official response, and apparently they were completely blindsided. I wonder what Warner is doing at HD DVD's CES conference.

Anyway, my heart goes out to all the HD DVD supporters. I know a lot of people are heavily invested in HD DVD media, some with claimed collections of hundreds of movies. While some will, and have, taken this opportunity to gloat, I offer my condolences to you early HDM adopters, who have spent a ton of money, paving the way for HDM, yet got shafted by this format war in the end. FYI, I was part of the Betamax camp.

Now, to celebrate, Amazon, here I come!

 

[kaching]

Nobody's really talking about the fact that HD-DVD titles won't be on the shelves at the same time as Blu-ray and DVD. I found that interesting.

Seems like they've got some remaining obligations to the HD-DVD format through May and this is the firmest way they can commit to BD in the meantime.

 

[xS1TH L0RDx]

You were smart to dump those off immediately. I'm not sure how many reds you had, but $175 doesn't sound too bad.

i had quite a few, i definitely took a bit of a hit, but you're right, 175 is better than what i expected. in addition to departed, shoot 'em up, and casino, i JUST placed an order on amazon for the ocean's box set, goodfellas, and pirates 3.

while searching for ocean's at circuit city my girlfriend and i stopped in amazement at spidey 3 in it's 1080p glory. Wow, such a big difference between 1080 and 720...i think i've finally started to convince her the bravia i've had my eye on is worth it.

i am going to follow in Van's footsteps and hold on to my uni and paramount reds until they make the jump... hopefully that's sooner rather than later.


oh, and in light of today's news, i'm curious as to what michael bay's thoughts are. :lol

 

[Eel O'Brian]

Personally, I'd hold onto any Warner HD DVDs anyone is thinking about selling for just a bit longer and see what starts shaking out. The Shooter Blu Ray, a Paramount title, is going for as high as $60 on ebay right now. And it's not like HD DVD player production is going to immediately cease.

 

[Sylar]

I Have: Blade Runner, Oceans Thirteen, Scanner Darkly Warner HD-DVDS!

 

[Pristine_Condition]

Kevin Tsujihara, President, Warner Bros. Home Entertainment Group says the studio took no pay-offs to exclusively back Blu-ray.

In a post-announcement conference call, Tsujihara flatly denied rumors that studio had accepted anywhere from 250M to $500M in exchange for dropping its HD DVD format support.

According to the exec, Warner's sole motivation in dropping its HD DVD format support was to ensure growth of the "category" and the long-term health of the industry.

"The packaged media business is a $42 billion dollar business worldwide at the retail level, and we [Warner] have the largest market share of anybody," said Tsujihara. "From our perspective, the most important piece of this whole puzzle is, "How do we get growth back into this category?" That far outweighed anything else."

This [decision] was one hundred percent around what makes the most sense for the consumer, the retailer and the industry. This was not a bidding war. This was all about what was best, strategically, for us."

Stay tuned for more news from the Tsujihara conference call shortly...

http://www.highdefdigest.com/news/show/Warner/Warner:_No_Payoff_for_Move_to_Blu-ray/1327

No payoff.

LOL @ the meltdown going on over at AVS...

When this was posted over there, some HD DVD zealot was suggesting that the FBI should basically raid Warner's offices and look into their books, because he couldn't believe that this was true!

:lol

I'm not a poster there, so I couldn't tell the poor moron that since Warner is a publically-traded company, hiding a supposed $650 million payment from the world would be practically impossible, due to SEC regulations...

:lol

AVS takes the cake.

 

[Mifune]

Personally, I'd hold onto any Warner HD DVDs anyone is thinking about selling for just a bit longer and see what starts shaking out. The Shooter Blu Ray, a Paramount title, is going for as high as $60 on ebay right now. And it's not like HD DVD player production is going to immediately cease.

The difference is Paramount stopped producing Blu-Ray discs, so The Shooter was hard to come by. Warner Bros is still producing HD-DVDs, and by the time they don't, nobody will care anymore anyhow.

 

[captive]

(neutral) Nicodimas
Support your local radical HD-DVD militia

:lol

 

[Eel O'Brian]

The difference is Paramount stopped producing Blu-Ray discs, so The Shooter was hard to come by. Warner Bros is still producing HD-DVDs, and by the time they don't, nobody will care anymore anyhow.

That's a big assumption on your part. Certain laserdiscs, and even the colossal D-VHS failures, still command pretty high prices from collectors. Like I said, HD DVD players will continue to be produced and purchased after May 2008.

 

[Nicodimas]

Well if no money did exchange hands I would argue Toshiba still has a chance for a contract. That is why I highly doubt money did not change hands. No contract mean warner could still switch sides.

I am of course grasping...but it would be fucking funny.

Basically they got 620 million, or 8-10 million of disk sells to make it worth it?

Guess disk and player prices wont be going down. I wonder if BoGo will still be happening? Competition would have been better. /sigh

 

[Snah]

well, i just got back from trading in all my warner reds, got a 175 bucks so i picked up departed, shoot em up, and casino royale on blu. fixin to get on amazon and check out prices for oceans and die hard box sets; best buy and circuit city were out of both.

Were you format neutral before the sell off, or did you just recently buy a Blu-Ray player?

 

[xS1TH L0RDx]

holy shit, off topic as hell, but first five mins of Shoot em up = HOLY FUCKING AWESOME

Eat your vegetables:lol :lol :lol

 

[RSTEIN]

I am so jonesing to jump into HD movies, and I guess it's Blu-ray FTW. However, I still find the cost of the HD movies to be mindblowingly expensive. I don't think I watch enough movies (or watch the same few multiple times) to justify the cost right now. Even at used stores around here they start at like $20.

 

[Christoff Yurievich]

holy fucking shit :lol :lol

I like this one better: Obey the Moderator - Optimus Rhyme

 

[xS1TH L0RDx]

Were you format neutral before the sell off, or did you just recently buy a Blu-Ray player?

i was neutral, got the 360 add on upon release and got a ps3 last.... march or april?

 

[Ajax]

Well if no money did exchange hands I would argue Toshiba still has a chance for a contract. That is why I highly doubt money did not change hands. No contract mean warner could still switch sides.

I am of course grasping...but it would be fucking funny.

Basically they got 620 million, or 8-10 million of disk sells to make it worth it?

Guess disk and player prices wont be going down. I wonder if BoGo will still be happening? Competition would have been better. /sigh

Grow up and stop acting like a 12yo fanboy. You don't even make sense anymore you're just ranting.

 

[HomerSimpson-Man]

holy shit, off topic as hell, but first five mins of Shoot em up = HOLY FUCKING AWESOME

Eat your vegetables:lol :lol :lol

Hell yes! Rented the DVD at blockbuster....now I have to get this on HD stat!

 

[djkimothy]

Guess disk and player prices wont be going down. I wonder if BoGo will still be happening? Competition would have been better. /sigh

Oh quit your whining. The REAL competition is between BD and DVD. The deals will still come and prices will come down as BD will eventually be DVDs successor.

 

[Nicodimas]

Grow up and stop acting like a 12yo fanboy. You don't even make sense anymore you're just ranting.

Maybe

But it makes complete sense and its pissing you off... Let see if HD<movies/player> goes down in price post may.

 

[Ceb]

holy shit, off topic as hell, but first five mins of Shoot em up = HOLY FUCKING AWESOME

Eat your vegetables:lol :lol :lol

So do you still have that issue with 720p content? I'm so surprised by some people complaining about that while most say the quality is impeccable (although I guess it's hard to compare if you've never seen the movies run in 1080p). Maybe the issue is TV dependant?

 

[harSon]

Holy shit :lol I didn't even see this thread! I have both a Playstation 3 and an HD DVD players although my collection only contains the free movies that came with both. So I'm only out $70-80 from buying the HD DVD player. Spending over half a billion dollars is a bit much though imo :lol

 

[DarkJediKnight]

Hot Nekkid Chick - Check
Guns - Check
More Guns - Check
Baby - Check
Shooting guns with a baby in hand - Check
Carrots - Check
Killing people with Carrots - Check

Oh, also, Reference Video and Audio.
If you don't get this movie, you're not a (straight) MAN!! :lol

 

[Mmmkay]

And also Region locked. ;_;

 

[MechDX]

http://formatwarcentral.com/index.php/2008/01/04/warner-swayed-by-500-million-from-the-bda/

According to a trusted source that was close to the negotiations, Warner and FOX were working on a deal to go Exclusive to HD DVD as recent as last week. Our source tells us that Warner was only willing to go to HD DVD if FOX would go with them. Their thinking was if they just went to HD DVD by themselves, it would not end the format war. Early this week FOX was paid an undisclosed amount to remain exclusive to Blu-ray. With the FOX deal falling through, Warner had no choice but to accept the BDA’s $500 Million offer to go Blu-ray exclusive. We do wonder if FOX was just playing the HD DVD side, while having no intentions of ever switching.

IF TRUE and Fox never really ahd any intention of even considering switching its pretty dirty but a typical business move at the same time.

 

[xS1TH L0RDx]

So do you still have that issue with 720p content? I'm so surprised by some people complaining about that while most say the quality is impeccable (although I guess it's hard to compare if you've never seen the movies run in 1080p). Maybe the issue is TV dependant?

I do, unfortunately. It's a bummer, but i'll live with it because it's looking pretty good that I'm going to get a 1080p set, so I won't mind sucking it up until then. I have friends that have 720p sets like myself and they are amazed with their bd's, so (as much as i don't want to believe it) maybe my tv is janky. Still though, at the risk of coming off as a red fanboy, I've always thought my hd-dvd's looked a lot better.

If you can offer any insight, my tv's native res is 1366x768, my ps3 is set to 720p, and i'm running an hdmi cable. And I am up to date on my firmware.

Hopefully getting a bravia within the next 3 or 4 months

 

[Mifune]

http://formatwarcentral.com/index.ph...-from-the-bda/

That sounds like a load of horseshit.

 

[The Elite]

Hot Nekkid Chick - Check
Guns - Check
More Guns - Check
Baby - Check
Shooting guns with a baby in hand - Check
Carrots - Check
Killing people with Carrots - Check

Oh, also, Reference Video and Audio.
If you don't get this movie, you're not a (straight) MAN!! :lol

You're in TO right?

Where did you find this fucking movie?

 

[RaidenZR]

Well I just realized that maybe the Weinsteins might like to grow a pair and start announcing some high-def content for a start. Where the hell is Kill Bill? The current HD market is your target demographic for that shit.

 

[The Main Event]

http://www.highdefdigest.com/news/show/HBO/New_Line/Warner/Warner:_New_Line,_HBO_Not_Covered_By_Blu-ray_Announcement/1328

Though it's widely expected that Warner Bros. subsidiaries New Line and HBO will follow Warner Home Entertainment to Blu-ray exclusivity, for the moment they remain format-agnostic.

That's according to Warner Home Entertainment President Kevin Tsujihara, who said that the studio's announcement that it would drop HD DVD support does not extend to titles released by New Line, HBO or the BBC (which Warner distributes here in the US).

"They'll be making whatever decision they're going to make," said Tsujihara. "I assume they'll let people know very quickly, but they are not covered by this initial announcement."

Tsujihara's comments came in a post-announcement conference call with various members of the media, including High-Def Digest.

Stay tuned for more news from the Warner conference call...

Kinda surprised by this. But I'm guessing it won't take long before they make their official announcement.

Shoot 'em Up, Hairspray, Rush Hour 3 and Mr. Woodcock are still (were?) scheduled for HD DVD in March/April.

 

[djkimothy]

http://formatwarcentral.com/index.php/2008/01/04/warner-swayed-by-500-million-from-the-bda/



IF TRUE and Fox never really ahd any intention of even considering switching its pretty dirty but a typical business move at the same time.

LOL, that's something I would do in a strategy game like Risk or Civilization. Good one fox! :lol

 

[michaeld]

 

[Nicodimas]

^ here is hoping they do something radical and not that..

 

[Sylar]

I want Entourage to come to HD!