[darktruth]

Warner goes Blu-Ray Exclusive

(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."

Looks like sitting out on this war until it sorts itself out will be good. Paramount Pictures went HD-DVD exclusive last year, now this.

Unlikely possible solution: A joint HD-DVD AND Blu-Ray compatible player XD.

[Kiai]

A joint player? That'd be 'holy shit' expensive! This war will never end...

[Lynk Former]

meh @ bluray and hd-dvd... the best way to go is to let both formats die

[Kiai]

then a single format rises up from the grave combining both!

[Lynk Former]

They've tried to turn the whole Bluray vs HD-DVD thing into a videogame console war which is just plain stupid. Most people don't give a fuck about Bluray and/or HD-DVD in the first place despite possibly owning HDTVs. Right now the thing that everyone loves the most at the moment are DVDs and that's because it's out there, the consumer knows about it, understands the concept and is buying as much as they can for a cheap price.

[Kiai]

So what format do you prefer? (erects flame barrier)... *lols at erects*

[Lynk Former]

Neither.

[Hawkeye]

Truth be told... I'm with Lynk on this one.... mind you I hope Sony does win... They deserve a win, especally after Beta-Max

[Kiai]

Wait, Sony DESERVES a win?

Esplain... In detail.

[Analog]

As the owner of "coke bottle" glasses, I can barely tell the difference between normal analog signals and HD signals. The Blu-ray HD DVD stuff is just a little 'chocolate chip' on top of an anime "triple chocolate fudge quadruple scoop ice cream" TV series to me. :P

[Chimasterwang]

Just getting a new CRT TV might improve how my dvds look when i play them in my room, since i have an old TV that has a video player built in and its smaller than my 1024x768 computer screen i think XD

[Hawkeye]

-Ding-Ding- It seems we have a winner by K.O.

the New HD Media is Sony's Blue Ray

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7252172.stm

Toshiba drops out of HD DVD war

Following a review of its business, Toshiba said it would stop production of HD DVD players and recorders.

The HD DVD format has suffered as major US film studios backed the Blu-ray format, which is being developed by electronics firm Sony and partners.

Analysts said the move would allow Toshiba to focus on other products.

"It was an agonising decision for me, but I thought if we kept running this business it would have grave ramifications for the management of our company," Toshiba president Atsutoshi Nishida said.

"We made a quick decision, judging that there is no way of winning the competition," he said.

Tipping point

Toshiba said the tipping point came last month when Warner Bros' followed a number of other film studios in deciding to release its movies only in the Blu-ray format.

"It shows what a highly competitive market it is. When it comes to video, it is the person with the most content that wins," Gartner analyst Paul O'Donovan said.

Warner Bros' decision means an estimated three quarters of new film releases will be available on Blu-ray discs. Other major studios backing Blu-ray include 20th Century Fox, Walt Disney and MGM.

Last week, Wal-Mart, the world's largest retailer, announced it would sell high-definition discs only in the Blu-ray format at its 4,000 US stores.

Video rental firms Blockbusters and Netflix will also offer customers only Blu-ray.

Universal, Paramount and DreamWorks studios signed up to produce movies in HD DVD, but Toshiba's withdrawal is expected to significantly reduce the number of films available in the format.

Industry boost

The end of the battle is expected to give the industry a boost, as it removes uncertainty for consumers over which format to buy.

"The industry can now focus on getting the right product to the consumer, at the right price and in the volumes required," Paul O'Donovan said.

Toshiba will continue to supply retailers with HD DVD machines until the end of March this year.

After that, Toshiba will provide technical support to the estimated one million people worldwide who own HD DVD devices.

Microsoft offers an HD DVD drive with the Xbox 360 games console. The company told the BBC it did not believe the apparent end of the format would have an impact on Xbox sales.

"It is games that sell the consoles and the Xbox has the largest next-gen games library," a Microsoft spokesperson said.

Toshiba also makes HD DVD drives for PCs and laptop computers.

The HD DVD versus Blu-ray battle has been likened to the VHS versus Betamax war of the 1980s.

Well it looks like it might be a clear thing in deciding which media to play after I get my new HD TV

[Lynk Former]

*sigh* Yeah. With the loss of HD-DVD we're losing region free media that had more mandatory extras included than Bluray and also a more consumer friendly product.

Bluray may be the technically superior technology in terms of disc specs, but I always saw HD-DVD as being the friendlier of the two formats for the consumer... but of course the movie studios ultimately decided this one. From their point of view, Bluray is more beneficial since there's more space on Bluray discs, they don't have as many mandatory requirements to fulfill and the DRM is a lot more strict than what is found on HD-DVD.


Oh, and just a warning to those who think it's a good idea to buy a Bluray player at the moment. Don't. Not right now anyway, there are still a lot of revisions to be done before we finally see some REAL standardisation done for Bluray at the moment. Bnd if you are going to buy Bluray buy a PS3 since it's the only Bluray player with upgradeable firmware, so it's able to keep up with the software revisions.

[Chimasterwang]

Quick get a HD-DVD player so you can have something rare in the future! Jking XP
Remember the Cowboy Bebop episode with the nerdy person and Betamax XD
Yeah PS3 having Bluray player is alright maybe XP I still use my PS2 as a DVD player lol XD

[Maverick]

yes, I also thought the HD-DVD was better regartless the lower capacity. And they are still keeping the region lock? I thought it was proven useless already.

[Lynk Former]

Region coding is so stupid, especially with HD media which bypasses the old NTSC, PAL, etc standards, it's a by-product of ages long passed which should've died with VHS.

Australia and New Zealand are the only two countries in the world (at least that I'm aware of) to have passed law to prevent region locking in media players released down here. The idea is to give the consumer more of a choice in what they buy... this is something that the companies who support Bluray don't want the consumer to have. After all, they want to make as much money from us as they can.