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Hi-Def Media Lovefest: The war is over and we can all go home.

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A

avaya

Member
StoOgE said:
This is an interesting one, were they one of the studios warner mentioned as having their own choice (like HBO and New Line) or is the relationship just a matter of WB paying for the rights to release BBC stuff in the US (i.e. BBC has no choice).
Click to expand...

In the case of New Line and HBO, they have their choice as to when they make their announcement, they won't have a choice on which format to support - that comes from Time-Warner's executive branch.

I think NekoFever covered it, outside the UK/EU the BBC is distributed via Time-Warner under the lable BBC Warner (might be a subsidiary/JV) so I think outside it will follow the Time-Warner policy. In the UK/EU I think they will stay neutral till HD-DVD reaches a point where they really wouldn't care if there were protests.

A lot of big-budget BBC shows are co-productions, normally with HBO.

Planet Earth was a BBC, Discovery Channel and NHK co-production. I would imagine that in other markets like Japan it's up to NHK's distributor to make the call.
 
X

Xater

Member
YOu can only say what happens to the BBC in the UK. In germany their stuff may be licensed by a number of different distributers. Planet earth for example is Polyband.
 
P

Ponn

Banned
This was posted over at thedigitalbits.com...
So this is interesting. I'm sitting here working on our CES coverage, when a reader e-mails this over: USA Today's Ed Baig spoke with Microsoft CEO Bill Gates this week, and asked him about the format war in light of Warner's decision to go Blu-ray only. Here's the relevant part of the exchange...

"Q: Warner's announcement backing Blu-ray high-definition DVDs suggests the death of the HD DVD format, which Microsoft has supported. What's your reaction?

A: There has been a lot of back and forth. The announcement before that was Paramount putting exclusive support behind HD DVD. HD DVD did well over the holidays. The other trend we're seeing is that direct download over broadband — I think the greatest example of that is XBox Live — (is) becoming an important choice. Over time, that will be the dominant way that people get their movies."

I've got no particular comment on this, other than that I think it's interesting that Gates is already trying to shift the focus off HD-DVD and toward downloading via Xbox Live in light of Warner's decision. Make of that what you will.

On a related note, based on conversations with Microsoft officials at CES this week Next Generation is now reporting the following:

"The fate of HD-DVD is not critical to the success of the Xbox 360, according to senior Microsoft officials, who have noted that the company would consider supporting rival technology Blu-ray if it were victorious in the high-definition format war."
Click to expand...

Yea, sorry HD-DVD supporters but with friends like that who needs enemies. The body isn't even buried and MS is already pimping the digital downloads as replacement.
 
T

theBishop

Banned
Pristine_Condition said:
Variety says UNIVERSAL's HD DVD commitment has ended:



Full story here: http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117978760.html?categoryid=20&cs=1


This confirms something my CE friends who attended CES were telling me. They expected of the two left in the HD DVD corner, Universal would be the one to go first because they were already essentially free to do so. ...Won't be long now, I think.
Click to expand...

one of the insiders at Blu-Ray forums (max power or penton, i forget) was saying Paramount is essentially free to do what they want. Apparently, there were a few factors under which they could "escape". Warner leaving alone wasn't enough, but it sounds like there was another unknown factor and the two of them combined get Paramount out of the deal.
 
X

Xater

Member
A

avaya

Member
theBishop said:
one of the insiders at Blu-Ray forums (max power or penton, i forget) was saying Paramount is essentially free to do what they want. Apparently, there were a few factors under which they could "escape". Warner leaving alone wasn't enough, but it sounds like there was another unknown factor and the two of them combined get Paramount out of the deal.
Click to expand...

The other factor was the promise from Toshiba of bringing a BDA CE on board.

Xater said:
Yes they are. One of the bigger ones. That's actually news for me so it begins in Germany too. We have a bunch of distributors that release their titles for both formats, guess that's going to stop now.
Click to expand...

I think it also eliminates one of the importing options for HD-DVD.
 
V

VanMardigan

has calmed down a bit.
This guy came over yesterday and when he saw what I had playing (Heartbreak Kid HD DVD) said that he had a Ps3 and wanted to get an HD DVD player because there were movies he wanted that were only on HD DVD. He wanted to get an HD DVD standalone, since he "hated xbox". Obviously, I told him to wait a bit on that since it appeared that he would be able to get all the movies on Blu by the end of this year.

I know that some folks here felt that the situation would've resolved itself in terms of blu winning even if Warner remained neutral, but I don't think there's any way that would've happened. Before the Warner announcement, a stalemate was the most likely outcome.
 
I

Ignatz Mouse

Banned
1) Color me 100% not surprised by Gates' comments. MS was in this to fragment the market, and that's played out as long as it was going to. Just as so many of us have been saying (and getting mocked for) digital distribution has been their ultimate goal. Playing spoiler in the physical media war was their way of slowing down the physical adoption (or, if HD-DVD actually pulled an upset, gave them a stake in the winning format).

2) I sure hope Universal does go neutral soon, and also that they release a lof of the stuff that's come out already on HD-DVD. I've wanted Uni's releases, especially the catalog, for a long time now.
 
T

theBishop

Banned
avaya said:
The other factor was the promise from Toshiba of bringing a BDA CE on board.
Click to expand...

Is that right? Ouch. For me, the lack of hardware support really proved HD-DVD's inevitable demise. Chiding Blu-Ray as "Sony's Format" when Toshiba is the only one making HD-DVD players (sorry venture...) was looking increasingly ridiculous.
 
X

Xater

Member
avaya said:
I think it also eliminates one of the importing options for HD-DVD.
Click to expand...

Exactly. Some of the more interesting imports were the Resident Evil Extinction or both Fantastic Four movies. They co-financed those.

My guess is Concorde and Universum will follow. Kinowelt will take some time because they are just about to release the Ultimate Edition of T2 on HD-DVD.
 
T

theBishop

Banned
VanMardigan said:
I know that some folks here felt that the situation would've resolved itself in terms of blu winning even if Warner remained neutral, but I don't think there's any way that would've happened. Before the Warner announcement, a stalemate was the most likely outcome.
Click to expand...

You're right in a way. Obviously everyone has to come over to Blu-Ray eventually to break a stalemate. But a combination of factors unrelated to studio support could've ended it.

- Apple incorporating Blu-ray into their hardware lines
- Retailers phasing HD-DVD off the shelves from poor sales
- Blockbuster dropping HD-DVD rentals entirely
- Continued innovations in Blu-Ray CE (camcorders, portables, etc)
- BD-RW drives widely available

to name a few. all these things were moving in Blu-Ray's direction.
 
O

Oni Jazar

Member
My wants are very simple.

All I ask for is:

Star Wars Original Trillogy
Indiana Jones Trillogy
Back To The Future Trillogy
Lord of the Rings Trillogy
Aliens Quadrillogy
and
The Lion King

in High Definition for this year. Is that really too much to ask for?

;)
 
S

StoOgE

First tragedy, then farce.
Oni Jazar said:
My wants are very simple.

All I ask for is:

Star Wars Original Trillogy
Indiana Jones Trillogy
Back To The Future Trillogy
Lord of the Rings Trillogy
Aliens Quadrillogy
and
The Lion King

in High Definition for this year. Is that really too much to ask for?

;)
Click to expand...

completely reasonable. :lol
 
T

Timbuktu

Member
Oni Jazar said:
My wants are very simple.

All I ask for is:

Star Wars Original Trillogy
Indiana Jones Trillogy
Back To The Future Trillogy
Lord of the Rings Trillogy
Aliens Quadrillogy
and
The Lion King

in High Definition for this year. Is that really too much to ask for?

;)
Click to expand...

I doubt we'll see The Lion King for a few years. I also want The Matrix in blu-ray and not in a trilogy pack.
 
F

Flek

Banned
Xater said:
See m last post. They have the T2 Ultimate edition ready for march. UFA or Concorde are next. :D
Click to expand...

mhew :/ they could cancel it :lol Seriously there is one tiny ass german publisher i would love to see going blu..rapideyemovies...but iam afraid they dont have the money for this :lol
 
C

Ceb

Member
_leech_ said:
http://www.highdefdigest.com/news/show/Fox/Disc_Announcements/Fox_Preps_Predator_Blu-ray/1355

:D :D :D
Click to expand...

Predator comes out next week in the EU, IIRC. Aren't a lot of Fox's titles region-free?

Also, Weinstein Company bypassed:

65746.jpg
 
D

djkimothy

Member
Ceb said:
Predator comes out next week in the EU, IIRC. Aren't a lot of Fox's titles region-free?

Also, Weinstein Company bypassed:

65746.jpg
Click to expand...
I kinda enjoyed that film, very silent Hill like and had a good lead up. But the climax was what killed it for me.... :/
 
X

Xater

Member
Flek said:
mhew :/ they could cancel it :lol Seriously there is one tiny ass german publisher i would love to see going blu..rapideyemovies...but iam afraid they dont have the money for this :lol
Click to expand...

I agree with you on rapideyemovies. Would be pretty sweet. But to com back to Kinowelt maybe they will at least now get the T2 Ultimate faster done for Blu-ray. I want this disc. :lol
 
X

Xater

Member
Rabid Wolverine said:
Actually a few Fox region B discs have been all region.

America has yet to see a region free release.
Click to expand...

I just checked seem slike you are right. I never look at the Euro codefree list so my mistake and I know tha tnothing that Fox released in Region A was ever codefree. They could at least do that for their catalog titles...

1408 is also released in Germany on BD by Senator. I am pretty sure it will be codefree.
 
P

plagiarize

Banned
NekoFever said:
The BBC is distributed in the US by Warner, as outside the UK they're a commercial enterprise like everyone else. In the UK, they're a public organisation that has an obligation to support any format that's commercially viable (I forget the exact wording), so they'll probably support HD DVD here as long as people are buying it.

A few more of their shows are out on both HD formats here. None of the really big ones that I'd want (Torchwood, Doctor Who, etc) but the first season of Robin Hood is out (BD and HD), as are a few of their miniseries' like Bleak House (BD and HD). They don't promote them at all so I don't know how they expect them to sell or people to find out when they're out, though.
Click to expand...
Doctor Who isn't shot in HD yet. that includes the season about to air. mainly because it has many more effects than torchwood and HD cgi is much more expensive than SD cgi.

apparently. people think it's going to make the shift in the year off with one or more of the specials being made in HD leading into an HD season 5.

torchwood was shot and made in HD and i haven't seen it that way. me wants. i will pay stupid import costs for it on whatever HD format.
 
P

Ponn

Banned
Oni Jazar said:
My wants are very simple.

All I ask for is:

Star Wars Original Trillogy
Indiana Jones Trillogy
Back To The Future Trillogy
Lord of the Rings Trillogy
Aliens Quadrillogy
and
The Lion King

in High Definition for this year. Is that really too much to ask for?

;)
Click to expand...

You forgot The Last Dragon.

Gotta get the glow. In High Def.
 
N

nubbe

Member
Ceb said:
In what way? Yeah, they bring over a lot of turds if that's what you mean, but they're good people.
Click to expand...
Good people? They might be fun to take a bear with but their work on encodes, subtitles extras and such are some of the worst work I have seen on several titles.
 
N

neojubei

Will drop pants for Sony.
Oni Jazar said:
My wants are very simple.

All I ask for is:

Star Wars Original Trillogy
Indiana Jones Trillogy
Back To The Future Trillogy
Lord of the Rings Trillogy
Aliens Quadrillogy
and
The Lion King

in High Definition for this year. Is that really too much to ask for?

;)
Click to expand...

do not forget the Incredibles on blu-ray too.:D
 
V

VanMardigan

has calmed down a bit.
theBishop said:
You're right in a way. Obviously everyone has to come over to Blu-Ray eventually to break a stalemate. But a combination of factors unrelated to studio support could've ended it.

- Apple incorporating Blu-ray into their hardware lines
- Retailers phasing HD-DVD off the shelves from poor sales
- Blockbuster dropping HD-DVD rentals entirely
- Continued innovations in Blu-Ray CE (camcorders, portables, etc)
- BD-RW drives widely available

to name a few. all these things were moving in Blu-Ray's direction.
Click to expand...

-Toshiba already incorporated HD DVD drives in EVERY laptop they sell, and I'm sure that would've expanded to other manufacturers like Asus that are on the PRG.

-HD DVD sales were far from "poor". In fact, they sold a ton of movies in the weeks leading up to CES. The ratio was pretty steady (and even inching back one notch on the YTD) DESPITE the good Ps3 holiday sales.

-Blockbuster chose to stock Transformers HD DVD in some stores that didn't originally stock both formats despite their agreement with Sony.
-Give you that
-Give you that

In short, I think the ratios would've pretty much stayed at 60/40 levels barring any major moves (and none other than Warner were announced at CES). There was still the $99 level for the Tosh players (and you saw how that produced instant sellout for Walmart), plus the growing awareness of both formats, and the growing sales of both formats. I think it's definitely tough to look back on that now, but there was no way this thing would be settled had Warner not chosen to go Blu. Hats off to them for making that decision. I don't envy them.
 
C

Christoff Yurievich

Member
So I went to Best Buy with $75 in gift cards yesterday to pick up 20 Million Miles to Earth, 3:10 to Yuma, Con Air, and The Rock. I also took with me the $20 coupon for buying 3 blu-ray movies. I ended up getting a cashier from the Geek Squad because the only other cashier was having problems with his guest. The GS guy didn't really know what he was doing and was distracted from ringing me up 4 times. Because of this, I walked out with those four movies having only paid for three of them. I didn't even notice until I got home and checked the receipt.

Haven't had a chance to watch any of the movies but will check out The Rock later today. Those damn swooshes are back! I might just print my own covers out (using the Criterion release as a base) because they ugly.
 
D

distantmantra

Member
plagiarize said:
torchwood was shot and made in HD and i haven't seen it that way. me wants. i will pay stupid import costs for it on whatever HD format.
Click to expand...

Torchwood airs in HD on HDNet apparently. There's a commercial for it whenever I go see something at a Landmark Theatre.
 
J

jjasper

Member
I posted this in the other thread cause they were talking about Lost but I will put it here too. In this pic:

dsc_1233.jpg


There are 2 Lost boxes. One of which is clearly season 3 and the other one looks like it has Season 2's orange coloring (or just appears that way because of camera flashes)
 
R

Riddick

Member
VanMardigan said:
HD DVD sales were far from "poor". In fact, they sold a ton of movies in the weeks leading up to CES. The ratio was pretty steady (and even inching back one notch on the YTD) DESPITE the good Ps3 holiday sales.
Click to expand...

The world is not just USA. Worldwide HDDVD was selling poor.
 
B

bill0527

Member
Since last week's Warner announcement, one of my locally owned video franchises started carrying Blu-Ray movies starting this past Monday.

This is awesome for me because my 2 local Blockbusters have to be the worst stores in the entire franchise and they don't carry any hi-def movies of either format. This video store will be the first in town to carry Blu-Ray movies and it will be my only option to rent unless I go the online route.

They've only got a limited selection right now - about 15 movies since they just started this week and most everything was rented out last night by the time I got there thanks to $0.99 Wednesday rentals (includes Blu-Ray). I rented Superbad and thought it was hilarious, even though I'm way outside the target demo for that movie. Hopefully 3:10 to Yuma will be back in tonight so I can watch it.

No real point to this post I guess.. other than, check your local video stores if they haven't rented any Blu-Rays previously.
 
V

VanMardigan

has calmed down a bit.
Riddick said:
The world is not just USA. Worldwide HDDVD was selling poor.
Click to expand...

The US is (was) the key battleground. Both formats are pretty stagnant worldwide. Having Blu Ray as the single format will hopefully change that. HD DVD sales were growing anyway, regardless of region. There wasn't a region that I'm aware of that had declining sales of HD DVD, even if Blu Ray had a higher percentage of software sales.
 
C

Christoff Yurievich

Member
jjasper said:
I posted this in the other thread cause they were talking about Lost but I will put it here too. In this pic:

dsc_1233.jpg


There are 2 Lost boxes. One of which is clearly season 3 and the other one looks like it has Season 2's orange coloring (or just appears that way because of camera flashes)
Click to expand...
it could also be because there are two different Lost S3 packages. One is a box with the normal Blu-Ray case inside of it and the other is just the Blu-Ray case. However, the art does look significantly different between the two boxes in that picture so maybe it is S2.
 
J

jeremy_ricci

Banned
VanMardigan said:
The US is (was) the key battleground. Both formats are pretty stagnant worldwide. Having Blu Ray as the single format will hopefully change that. HD DVD sales were growing anyway, regardless of region. There wasn't a region that I'm aware of that had declining sales of HD DVD, even if Blu Ray had a higher percentage of software sales.
Click to expand...

Pretty sure in Japan that Blu-Ray was dominating something like 80-20? I can't imagine EU regions were any different.

Also, Gates has his pipe dream for DD, but he'll be squandered long before he can get started. Cable services will crush his dreams for coming into DD, and his investment into HD DVD will be for nothing.
 
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