[DLeeWebb]

I'm wondering what everyone thinks about the news below. Does this signal anything important? Is it a good thing a bad thing?

Warner Bros. to release all HD discs in Blu-ray


By David B. Wilkerson, MarketWatch
Last Update: 6:01 PM ET Jan 4, 2008
CHICAGO (MarketWatch) -- Warner Bros. Entertainment said Friday that it will release all of its high-definition DVDs in the Blu-ray format beginning in June, in a move that signals a victory for Sony Corp., the manufacturer of Blu-ray discs.

High-def discs come in two formats -- Sony's (SNE: news, board) Blu-ray and HD-DVD, which is backed by Microsoft Corp. (MSFT: news, board) and Toshiba . Blu-ray has held a wide lead in disc sales for nearly two years, but HD-DVD continues to have a loyal following.

Since 2006, Warner Bros. has manufactured HD discs in both formats, but on Friday the Time Warner (TWX: news, board) unit indicated that consumer confusion had become a problem.

"The window of opportunity for high-definition DVD could be missed if format confusion continues to linger," said Barry Meyer, chairman of Warner Bros., 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."

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.

Warner Bros. was the last studio to manufacture high-def discs in both formats. Viacom's (VIA.B: news, board) (VIA: news, board) Paramount decided to go with HD-DVD exclusively last August.

As sales of HD television sets continue to climb steadily, the studios would like to make sure that there's a corresponding rise in purchases of HD players and discs. Overall, DVD sales are declining, partially due to options like digital-video recording and Internet streaming and downloads.

Time Warner shares fell 2.6% to close at $15.91 amid a broad sell-off in U.S. markets. Sony's U.S.-listed shares lost 3.6% to finish the session at $52.42, while the Tokyo-listed issue dropped 6.6%.


David B. Wilkerson is a reporter for MarketWatch in Chicago.

 

[nick20]

It's old, but good news.

I'd like to get a PS3 for my Birthday, since I game, and would love to get into HD movies. This is defiantly a great bonus!

 

[AlanY]

Yeah, there's already a thread on the first page about this news.

 

[krmathis]

Good news, for sure! Long live Blue-Ray...

 

[SR-71Panorama]

Quote:

Originally Posted by krmathis /img/forum/go_quote.gif Good news, for sure! Long live Blue-Ray...

x2

 

[raif]

It looks like Sony finally has won a format war after numerous failures(minidisc, betamax) Way to hang in there!

 

[kool bubba ice]

Quote:

Originally Posted by raif /img/forum/go_quote.gif It looks like Sony finally has won a format war after numerous failures(minidisc, betamax) Way to hang in there!

Not sure if this is true or not.. Buts there is a rumor (shocking) going around that Sony paid 500 million to make Warner go Blu exclusive.. As Warner was siding with HD DVD..

 

[TheAzhrei]

I think it's all still way too up in the air. I'll keep buying both and try to keep my formats divided evenly between the two. That way in the (distant?) future when one format does win out, I'll only need to replace half of my movies.

I think both sides have done a great job getting the word out to the public on the HD movie discs. Most of the people I know have never heard of SACD or DVD-A, but everybody knows there are High Definition movies and players. But, honestly, if my PS3 didn't come with Blu-ray and I hadn't got a good deal on the 360's HD-DVD drive, I would probably still just be upconverting standard DVD's in a cheap player.

I think this format war will be decided by the same factor that motivates companies in everything. How much money can they expect to make with one format or another. I can't comment with any authority on the idea that Sony fronted a half a billion dollars to bribe Warner to go with Blu-ray, but that doesn't make sense to me. Sony isn't doing spectacularly lately, and that would be quite a gamble on Warner having enough customers to make it worth the money.

I say we just sit back, grab something heavy, and hang on until the war is over.

 

[virometal]

Indeed, I foolishly wrote off HD-DVD last summer then Paramount switched. So I won't make the same mistake this time. That said, Red best conjure something extraordinary to counter this.

We shall see. I'd love to be a wall fly at the Toshiba executive suite in Las Vegas right now.

 

[AlanY]

Apparently an executive at the Philips press event at CES said Target is going Blu-ray only too:
Live coverage from the Philips press event - Engadget

 

[DLeeWebb]

More good news for Blu-Ray fans from CES?

Blu-Ray Triumphs at Gadget Show
Jan 7, 5:28 PM (ET)

By PETER SVENSSON

LAS VEGAS (AP) - The International Consumer Electronics Show is turning out to be a celebration party for Blu-ray, the high-definition format that Sony Corp. (SNE) backed, and a wake for a rival movie disc technology pushed by Toshiba Corp. Just two months ago, Sony CEO Howard Stringer said the fight between Blu-ray and Toshiba's HD DVD was at a "stalemate," and expressed a wish to travel back in time to avert it. The impasse was broken Friday by Warner Bros. Entertainment, the last major studio to put out movies in both formats. It announced it was ditching HD DVD, and from May on, would only publish on Blu-ray and traditional DVD. The decision puts a strong majority of the major studios, five versus two, in the Blu-ray camp.

Asked Monday at the show if the Warner announcement decides the format war, Stringer said: "I never put up banners that say 'Mission Accomplished.'" But his cheerful delivery belied his words. By contrast, the main media event scheduled for the show by the North American HD DVD Promotional Group, which includes Intel Corp. (INTC) and Microsoft Corp. (MSFT), was canceled because of Warner's defection. "We are currently discussing the potential impact of this announcement with the other HD DVD partner companies and evaluating next steps," the group said in a statement.
The shift in the format struggle isn't a reason to run out and buy Blu-ray players, however: today's players can't take advantage of the features planned for future Blu-ray discs. On Monday, Panasonic parent Matsu****a Electric Industrial Co. demonstrated prototypes that can handle the new interactive features coming to Blu-ray.

This spring, Panasonic plans to introduce a player for the so-called BD-Live standard. It will be able to connect to the Internet to download movie trailers, and will be able to play simple games. At the Blu-ray booth at CES, a prototype Panasonic player was showing an "Alien vs. Predator" movie in which the viewer can get involved by bringing up an on-screen gun, controlled by the remote, and shooting at monsters to score points. In November, Panasonic launched the first player to include picture-in-picture capability, which allows viewers to watch the director or actor providing commentary in a small window while the movie plays full-screen. Sony's PlayStation 3 game console - which can play Blu-ray discs - gained the same capability in December via a software update. HD DVD players have had most of these capabilities. Starting with the first ones sold, in 2006, Toshiba's players have had picture-in-picture capabilities and have been able to connect to the Internet to download trailers. The HD DVD of "Evan Almighty" even allows the viewer to go to an online store to buy merchandise related to the movie. Kevin Tsujihara, president of Warner Bros. Home Entertainment Group, acknowledged in an interview that the HD DVD format had some advantages.

"The interactivity is more advanced on the HD DVD side, but I'm confident that we're going to get there" with Blu-ray, he said. HD DVD discs were also cheaper to produce, being more similar to traditional DVDs than Blu-ray discs. "There were cost advantages on the HD DVD side," Tsujihara said. However, "even with that price advantage, you weren't seeing the consumer move toward that format." Warner's Blu-ray discs outsold their HD DVD rivals by three to two in the holiday season, not counting "Planet Earth" titles, which had an unusual following among owners of HD DVD players, Tsujihara said. The fight between Blu-ray and HD DVD is reminiscent of the struggle between Betamax and VHS to dominate video tapes. In that case, the results were the opposite: Sony's more costly higher-quality Betamax lost out to the cheap and convenient VHS.

Rob Bohl of Highland Park, N.J., bought an HD DVD player in December for $179.98, without considering a Blu-ray player instead. He had forgotten about the other format. "I wish I had been more careful and waited," he said. He feels a bit "burned" by the experience, but it's probably not enough to keep him out of the market. "The fact is: when I get my tax refund, they'll probably have a cheap player, and I'll probably wind up getting one," Bohl said. The thought that does give him pause, he said, is that the whole upgrade to high-definition discs might be a waste of time, because of the increasing availability of movies to download off the Internet. Microsoft Corp.'s Xbox 360 game console can already download and show high-definition movies, and Vudu Inc.'s Internet video set-top box started providing HD content in December.

 

[Redo]

Such a shame, BluRay is a mess for standards. There's far too many mpeg2 BD25 titles, simple unacceptable. That means there's only 3x more storage with something 6x greater in resolution over DVD using the same ancient codec.

HD-DVD is cheaper, easier to produce, easier to code extras, a completely standardized format, region free, and the players were all great quality. Especially once they hit their second gen units. Not to mention they had a 45 and 51gb HD-DVD disc finalized in the standard if needed.

BluRay has no business competing with HD-DVD, at least not with how BluRay has handled itself.

 

[Austin 3:16]

This is nothing more than DVD-A vs. SACD all over again.

 

[Redo]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Austin 3:16 /img/forum/go_quote.gif This is nothing more than DVD-A vs. SACD all over again.

Except DVD-A and SACD never had a chance to begin with. HD formats are a completely different matter.

 

[zotjen]

Quote:

Apparently an executive at the Philips press event at CES said Target is going Blu-ray only too

I find this hard to believe since this wouldn't bode well with the studios using HD-DVD. They could then threaten Target to not let them carry their regular DVDs.

If it wasn't for the PS3, which has had mediocre sales at best, Blu-Ray would already be history. Sony knew the only way they could win the format war was to incorporate BR into the PS3 even though it meant a higher price which turned off a lot of customers.

Even if Blu-Ray does prevail, it doesn't mean millions of people are going to run out and buy players.