Well Paramount is tied up with HD-DVD for a good while yet, Universal isnt however, so id expect some kinda news from Universal going Blu very soon, perhaps after CES.

I've tried to find out some info in regards to the agreement (if any exists) between the HD DVD camp and Universal and there isn't much out there. Bits and bobs about the HD DVD spec being a finished product which Uni favoured allowing the interactive stuff to be offered and who knows what else was going on in the early days.
If anyone has more info or links I would be grateful

Of course by staying HD DVD they will probably still reap profits from the exisiting user base and like Paramount they can join the Blu-ray party in a year and not have to mess with consumer anger when more and more disks have content that refuse to play on standalones.

Either way I think it would be a let down if the PS3 become the defacto standard for Blu-ray and well judging from current standalones the spec and pricing is so biased towards the console it's ridiculous

According to reports in Variety, New Line have decided to follow suit with their sister company Warner and become Blu-ray exclusive.

According to Warner, no payment was made...

Warner Home Entertainment President Kevin Tsujihara 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."

http://avzombie.com/blog/2008/01/05/...-drops-hd-dvd/


Terran

According to one unverified source, Paramount is extremely unhappy with the way things have panned out, and is looking for a means of getting out of its contract. There were also rumours of Weinstein looking to go neutral before this surprise announcement, so there may be movement there.

Given that Profile 1.1 was mandated for all new models since November (?), I don't imagine that there are all that many Profile 1.0 players left on the market - though I would certainly hope that people are not sold said players expecting them to support Bonus View or BD-Live if they don't.

I think Profile 2.0 is less of a concern: when it comes down to it, not all that many people are likely to be overwhelmingly concerned about connecting a dedicated player that sits under the living room TV to the Internet.

I agree on the pricing thing, though. Hopefully this latest announcement will encourage more CEs to get on board with more affordable players.

SONY's two newest BD players released just before the Nov 1st cut off are both Profile 1.0, that is pure cynical marketing and a slap in the face for those who would have seen the BDP300 especially as a genuine "cheap" player.
I think is sums SONY up as a company and indicates at least that for them it's the PS3 or nothing for their dreams of producing the marketing leader in a next gen home entertainment hub, that is why they over engineered the PS3, absorbed hundreds of millions in subsidies for a games console being sold as a movie player and the huge amounts it cost to buy MGM and other studios.

Alas it seem now to be paying off, I suspect it took them a lot longer and a lot more cash to drive the first nail into the HD DVD coffin but it's done





I agree Profile 2.0 is perhaps less of an issue than 1.1 but then again the PS3 and 360 both have thriving net communities and I think that sort of product will eventually be a cornerstone of the pre-recorded media viewing.
Not only that but it does make updating firmware a doddle and well the web-features of the HD DVD disks I own are a nice bonus but perhaps not a killer app as of yet.
Perhaps HD DVD was ahead of it's time

Damn, and I've just bought an HD-DVD player because Blu-ray players are STILL far too expensive!

Well either return it if you can or take advantage of the hundreds of movies you can buy from all over the world far cheaper then highstreet prices and the many many more than Warner will be offering until May and Uni/Para will be offering all year (unless we have another surprise ).

For me I have enough HD DVD's on the shelf that it would be stupid to offload and then buy a lot of them again on Blu-ray or not as many are still exclusive to HD DVD not to mention I don't want a PS3 and the Profile 1.1 players are still not cheap.

I suppose it depends how much you have spent already, the HD DVD is still an excellent upscaler and plenty of content out there and more coming. It may simple be what Warner movies did you expect to own in the second half of the year that you can't now

I'll stick with HD-DVD for now - I'm planning to get a PS3 later in the year once the prices drop to a more reasonable level!

I'm also not so sure about cynical marketing; I think it had more to do with keeping prices at a level that early adopters would accept. And one rather expects that early adopters prepared to part with hundreds of pounds for a player would know what they're buying. Besides, Sony isn't the only game in town: Panny managed to produce a 1.1 player shortly after the grace period cut-off date, and in light of recent activity, we can expect more of this from other CEs.


In those particular cases I'd agree, though the chances are that the PS3 is likely to get Profile 2.0 anyway. I'd be highly surprised if it didn't. As for the 360, whether it continues to play new tangible HD media at all would appear to be contingent upon Microsoft allowing BD-J on their system and selling the appropriate add-on hardware.


Some BD players do have net connections for updating firmware, just not for BD-Live.


I think it'd be a while before web-enabled features become a killer app, myself, though ICBW. Time will tell on that one.


I think it had some immediate advantages over BD, but I think that BD has more long-term potential as a format that can successfully compete with DVD and movie downloads in the longer term, at least in part due to the things that many HD DVD fans claimed were either unnecessary or indeed a liability: specifically, BD-J and capacity. While BD-J is more complicated to code for than HDi, in the long run developers will be able to do more with it, and the minor performance hit from running Java isn't going to matter in the grand scheme of things. The extra capacity will help ensure that it retains its appeal for quite some time after Internet downloads become a serious option for consumers.

With WB now in the Blu-ray side, does this mark the end of HD-DVD?

It may well mark the beginning of the end, as may the story disseminated by the FT and repeated on various other sites and blogs, though denied by Viacom, that Paramount may use an escape-clause in its contract to get out of its commitment to HD DVD. As we've seen with other format wars, though, formats don't usually die overnight.

I can't see the problem with Paramount, they got more out of the HD DVD camp than all the HD lost revenue for not supporting Blu and even if they stay with HD DVD for the remainder of the contract they will sell media and then they can blitz the Blu market when it is a year more mature.

Unless Para think that Blu won't be as viable in a year either and want to milk it now.

Barring another shock (and it was) I expect to be able to buy HD DVD players throughout 2008 and media from two major US studios and partial support from one other with mini distribution from other studios and overseas markets.

True enough, though if they can escape from their current contract without penalty (FT seems to suggest that there's an escape clause in it), they could go neutral and milk both markets. It's not as if we're talking about them having to give the money back. It's an escape clause that's under discussion, not a breach of contract.

Alternatively, if BD adoption during 2008 picks up to the extent that disc prices start to fall, Para could lose potential profit by holding out. Maybe.

I agree that you probably will be able to continue buying Paramount and Universal HD DVDs through 2008, even if they didn't release any new titles for the format - unless they decide that HD DVD is so badly in the doldrums that it's best to cut their losses and run. I'd be happy to see them go neutral, though that's looking less likely given that neutrality didn't seem to work out for either Warner or Paramount.

I think they'll cut and run. We've reached the tipping point now where Blu Ray has enough support that it's become obvious it's going to win. Any money the HD-DVD camp spend now on the format is wasted. Financially, it makes sense to drop it as quckly as possible. Even Toshiba's board must recognise that now and they'll already be making plans to back out of the format gracefully to minimise the financial damage. They won't yet admit it in public though.

One thing though, if the speculation about Microsoft is correct (that they exacerbated the format war so their downloads will take over in time) then there's no way they'd put a Blu Ray drive as an option for the Xbox.

Maybe
You could see that by releasing titles now to a smaller market (even as the dominant one) the titles will sell far fewer copies than if they waited a year and wouldn't lose as much once they had the shine took off them and become BOGOF's.
Unless of course that BD marketing ploy that worked so well ceases to exist if they consider the war is basically over and no need to make sure of retail sales victories


You could almost wish for a decisive action or announcement

I think the only practical thing Toshiba can do is announce a full spec dual format player at a very attractive price and have out the door well before the end of the year. A trade in for hardware may work but the problem for that is the huge volume of standalones that have been bought, it has in a way be too successful

It's highly unlikely they could convince Disney or Fox to go red after all they couldn't before and it seems that fact sealed the deal for Warner to go Blue regardless of the incentives speculated upon. So either explore the use of HD DVD drives in the PC world or as licensed tech for dual players or sell the whole technology to the Chinese who would probably consider owning the technology better than licensing it for the adopted CH HD DVD format.

Indeed. Another thing to consider is that if Paramount hits teething problems with their software, in particular with new functionality made available by FSP or BD-Live, it's best to sort out the kinks now while the number of sales (and therefore, of recalls) is likely to be small. That could be an argument either way, of course.

As mentioned by Nomen Luni, the Financial Times is reporting that Paramount is poised to drop its support of HD DVD which would effectively bring an end to the format war.

The Times is also reporting that "as many as 20 companies currently part of the HD-DVD Promotion Group could be preparing to remove their names from the alliance’s 130-strong membership list."

FT Link

Times Link

I'm looking at adding an American 80gb PS3 to sit beside my E1. Its $500 from Amazon, includes the game "Motorstorm" and a mail-in offer for a selection of 5 BD movies (till Jan 31).

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00..._rd_i=14210751

Am I right in assuming that I'd have to pay VAT but not import tax? If so, that's about £45 on top. Should still come in under £300. I have a pile of Amazon vouchers which would soften the blow further still.

I'd go for a UK model if they hadn't phased out the inclusion of an SACD player. If I'm going to buy a PS3 I'd prefer not miss out on Hi Res audio playback... even if that is buying into another dead format.

If I have to be restricted to region coding, it might as well be Region A. I don't have to worry about backwards compatibilty for games, as I've never owned a PS2.

I believe the PS3 has an internal transformer so it should be okay just to switch to a UK power cable, right?

Can anyone think of any restrictions or pitfalls which I may have overlooked?

That's an interesting point. HD-DVD may live on in some form in China. That's a huge untapped market big enough to support a format on its own. If it did, that opens up "interesting" possibilities for HD-DVD owners buying cheap movies from China.

I'm not 100% sure but I think a DVD/CD capable games console carries a 14% import duty and as you say VAT and any additional handling charges IF it's declared or stopped.


No idea about the power but I'm sure there are US PS3 owners around abouts

The CH HD DVD format will be fully region coded from launch and I suspect even so US studios would not be looking to offer original English soundtracks en-masse.
After all the time, trouble and yes money to kill of HD DVD it would be a little bizarre if competition in any form returned via grey imports although this is speculation in that the hardware can not be legally sold in western markets.

Indeed, a US PS3 owner in the gaming forum has confirmed that there is an internal transformer, so you need only add your own kettle lead. They've found no discernable disadvantage in buying the American model, so I may well go the same route.