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Re: Blu-Ray or HD-DVD?
warner bros decide to not support hd dvd either, they are the 5th company to drop hd dvd
Blu-Ray only - Warner Bros., The Walt Disney Co., Sony Corp.'s Sony Pictures, News Corp.'s Twentieth Century Fox and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.
HD DVD only - Paramount Pictures, which also owns DreamWorks SKG, Universal Pictures,
this is like the beta vs VHS war all over again, I'm gonna wait till this blows over before i choose
here is an article about it
Warner Bros. Picks Blu-Ray Over HD-DVD
LOS ANGELES -- Warner Bros. Entertainment said Friday it will release movie discs only in the Blu-ray format, becoming the latest studio to reject the rival HD DVD technology and further complicating the high-definition landscape for consumers.
Warner Bros., owned by Time Warner Inc., was the only remaining studio releasing high-definition DVDs in both formats.
It is the fifth studio to back Blu-ray, developed by Sony Corp. Only two support the HD DVD format, developed by Toshiba Corp.
Both formats deliver crisp, clear high-definition pictures and sound. But they are incompatible with each other, and neither plays on older DVD players, which means consumers seeking top-quality playback face a dilemma.
Warner said it decided to go with Blu-ray because consumers have shown a stronger preference for that format than HD DVD.
"The window of opportunity for high-definition DVD could be missed if format confusion continues to linger," Warner Bros. chairman and Chief Executive Barry Meyer said in a statement.
"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," the statement said.
The company said sales of Blu-ray discs in the U.S. generated $169 million last year, while sales of discs in the HD DVD format totaled $103 million.
About 60 percent of Warner's sales of U.S. high-definition discs were Blu-ray titles and the other 40 percent were HD DVD, said Kevin Tsujihara, president of Warner Bros. Home Entertainment Group.
Outside the U.S., the divide was far wider, with Warner's Blu-ray discs outselling titles in HD DVD in Britain and Japan, among other markets, Tsujihara said.
Sales of set-top high-definition disc players in the fourth quarter of 2007 also factored into Warner's decision.
The company saw an acceleration in sales of Blu-ray players at the end of the quarter, particularly in December, Tsujihara said.
"We always viewed set-tops as the most significant indicator" of consumers' format preference, he said.
Still, one alarming trend Warner keyed on was that consumers didn't appear motivated by price reductions on high-definition disc players.
"When we saw that was not impacting sales in the level that it should have, and the consumer research that we did indicated that the consumers were holding back from buying either one of the two formats ... we thought it was the right time to act," Tsujihara said, noting that even sales of standard DVDs were affected because consumers appeared unsure over which format to go with.
"That was kind of the worst of all worlds for us," he said.
There are some differences between the formats. Blu-ray discs can hold more data -- 50 gigabytes compared with HD DVD's 30 GB -- but the technology's new manufacturing techniques boosted initial costs.
HD DVDs, on the other hand, are essentially DVDs on steroids, meaning movie studios can turn to existing assembly lines to produce them in mass.
Warner Home Video will continue to release new titles in HD DVD until the end of May.
Pali Capital analyst Rich Greenfield said in a Web posting Friday that he expects the HD DVD format to "die a quick death, versus a prolonged format war."
"While we still expect overall consumer spending on DVDs to decline at least 3 percent in 2008, the risk of an even worse 2008 DVD environment has most likely been avoided by Warner's early 2008 decision," Greenfield wrote.
The North American HD DVD Promotional Group Inc., a trade association that promotes the HD DVD format, did not have an immediate comment Friday.
Calls to representatives for Toshiba, Sony and the Blu-ray Disc Association were not immediately returned.
Studios and retailers have been choosing sides in the high-def format war in recent months.
Blu-ray got a big boost in June when Blockbuster Inc. announced it would stock only Blu-ray titles as it expands its high-definition offerings.
Target Inc., the nation's second-largest retailer, decided in July to sell only Blu-ray DVD players.
Among the other major studios that have decided to go with Blu-ray: The Walt Disney Co., Sony Corp.'s Sony Pictures, News Corp.'s Twentieth Century Fox and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.
Viacom's Paramount Pictures, which also owns DreamWorks SKG, dropped its support for Blu-ray and said it would start distributing films exclusively in the HD DVD format.
Universal Pictures, a unit of General Electric, also releases films only in HD DVD.
Time Warner shares slipped 42 cents, or 2.5 percent, to $15.91 Friday.
- Communist China
- Rep: 130
- monkeychow
- Rep: 661
Re: Blu-Ray or HD-DVD?
I'm still waiting for LaserDisc to make a comeback.
All 420 lines of resolution huh? 
Although I'll grant you it didnt get the compression artifact issues we get these days.
- Gunslinger
- Rep: 88
Re: Blu-Ray or HD-DVD?
Laserdisc was the shit "back in the day". I hated all you bastards who were getting this cool format when I watching shit-quality vhs's!! 
- monkeychow
- Rep: 661
Re: Blu-Ray or HD-DVD?
Laserdisc was the shit "back in the day". I hated all you bastards who were getting this cool format when I watching shit-quality vhs's!!
Yeah me too. I never owned a laserdisc player cos they were pricey here. Some friends of my parents got one in the end...but they mostly had opera stuff and so that didn't have the appeal.
The day i realised I was a huge nerd was seeing Aliens on laserdisc and CRT projector set-up one day....I knew I had to have those toys 
Its kinda like the first time you see the opposite sex nude...and suddenly you know why your alive
LMAO
- tejastech08
- Rep: 194
Re: Blu-Ray or HD-DVD?
Right now Blu-Ray is winning the war. Blockbuster isn't even carrying HD-Dvd any longer. As far as video quality they are both excellent and it would be hard to say which is better athough (strictly an opinion here) I think the blu-rays can produce a bit more "depth" in the picture quality. From a technical standpoint the Blu- Ray is superior as it can hold 15x the info that a HD-DVD can. That doesn't mean that it will come out the victor. Betamax was superior to the VHS yet VHS won. MD was superior to the CD, CD won.
15 times? Who the fuck told you that? A dual layer Blu-ray is 50 gigs. A dual layer HD DVD is 30 gigs. Since when is 50 divided by 30 equal to 15? 1.67 is more like it.
Both formats are very good. Blu-ray is loaded with DRM moreso than HD DVD, which is similar to DVD and very easy to crack. Some Blu-ray titles with BD+ encryption were not playable on certain Blu-ray players. Regardless, Blu-ray will win the war. They got Warner to drop HD DVD so the end is pretty near in my opinion. The biggest problem for Blu-ray is that upconverted DVD over HDMI looks very good and most consumers can't even tell a difference. There is a huge difference if you watch Blu-ray or HD DVD and compare it with regular, 480p DVD without upconversion.
The PS3 was a trojan horse that basically defeated HD DVD before it was ever able to get going. As for "bought allegiance," Warner was paid $500 million and Fox was paid a shitload as well to NOT go with HD DVD. This all occurred at the last second after Warner and Fox had verbally agreed to go HD DVD exclusive but Fox backed out and Warner was forced to make the decision that would end the war quickest. Even Blu-ray insiders have confirmed it. Sony's CEO even said to take Warner's announcement at face value. Bought allegiances have been going on all along in this war so HD DVD is not the only one guilty of it. I suspect Disney was bought by Blu-ray and Universal was bought by HD DVD back when the war started. Fox wanted stronger DRM than DVD so they went with Blu-ray for that reason. Warner has always favored HD DVD even though they released on both formats until their decision to drop HD DVD.
It sounds to me like Fox probably played everyone involved in order to get more money. Warner wanted to go HD DVD exclusive, but wanted another studio to go with them so they convinced Fox. But then Fox was paid a bunch by the BDA to stick with Blu-ray. At that point, if Warner went HD DVD exclusive it would create a true stalemate: 3 studios vs. 3 studios. So they did what they had to do to end the war in the quickest fashion, which was go exclusive with Blu-ray. Both HD DVD and Blu-ray put something in the range of $400-500 million in incentives on the table for Warner so it wasn't necessarily the money that made them go to Blu-ray. But they definitely got paid. If you're going to go with that format anyway, why not make some money off it? Fox never intended to go with HD DVD. They want more DRM than DVD and HD DVD doesn't really provide that so I really do think they played everyone involved in order to get more money. They agreed with Warner and HD DVD, and they got what they wanted from Blu-ray: a big payoff. Then they back out on Warner and HD DVD, leaving Warner to make a tough decision but an effective decision. The war should be over pretty damn soon.
