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Universal, Paramount contemplating exclusivity; Warner pushes HD DVD away

While Toshiba continues to promote the price advantage and other merits of HD DVD players, the two major exclusive movie studio forces behind the format are unusually mum on the high-definition format war.

According to entertainment publication Daily Variety, Universal’s deal with HD DVD to back the format exclusively has ended. As the only major movie studio to back HD DVD since the format’s inception, Universal’s long history with HD DVD could be one of the major forces keeping it from releasing its movies in blue boxes.

Paramount, which signed last summer along with DreamWorks Animation as an HD DVD exclusive studio, is believed to be re-examining its position with high-definition movies and may publish on Blu-ray Disc again soon, despite statements regarding its current strategy. If reports are to believed, Paramount has an escape clause in its contract with HD DVD should Warner Bros. choose to exclusively support a single format.

Neither movie studio has made any comments hinting at a potential switch in high-definition allegiance, though conversely, studio representatives have refrained from making any overly confident claims about their respective company’s future with HD DVD.

Meanwhile, Warner Bros. started to reveal its plans to bring Blu-ray Disc into the forefront by staggering the releases between the two high-definition formats.

The Invasion (Nicole Kidman, Daniel Craig) was originally slated for a January 29 release on both formats, but now the HD DVD version has been pushed back three weeks to February 19. The Blu-ray Disc version retains the original January 29 date.

A similar delay will also hit The Assassination of Jesse James (Brad Pitt, Casey Affleck), which will release on HD DVD on March 19, while the Blu-ray Disc will street on February 26.

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sell your stocks in hddvd
By tastyratz on 1/15/2008 4:09:19 PM , Rating: 1
At this point its pretty obvious where the direction for HD media is going. Ill probably buy a cheap used hddvd player as an upscaling dvd player for my bedroom in 6 months when they are 50 bux but other than that the format is doomed. People cry and say consumers push the drive and demand and the movie studios will go where consumers go.
Well... The consumers chose and they picked the more expensive bluray regardless of what toshiba told everyone on price. They picked it awhile ago and sales are still multiple times more. Now the studios are moving over and the notion of HDDVD albeit great was one that just didn't have what the consumer wanted as well as the studios.

It gave a good run and I expect a lot of sore losers but I'm sure Ill be happy to pick up that copy of transformers in a blue box soon enough.




RE: sell your stocks in hddvd
By InternetGeek on 1/15/2008 4:41:59 PM , Rating: 3
I got a upscaler DVD (Phillips) and will just hold until a HD player is within an affordable price. Meaning under $100. If their cash cow are the movies there's no need to give them a premium for the player.


RE: sell your stocks in hddvd
By NullSubroutine on 1/15/08, Rating: -1
RE: sell your stocks in hddvd
By JSK on 1/15/2008 6:45:23 PM , Rating: 5
This is a total fallacy. It all depends on the chipset.


RE: sell your stocks in hddvd
By TomZ on 1/15/2008 8:17:30 PM , Rating: 1
On the other hand, HD-DVD players are almost all newer more modern designs compared with their DVD counterparts, and they also tend to have higher-end electronics generally. So a generalization that many/most have better upscalars doesn't seem too implausible to me.


RE: sell your stocks in hddvd
By Treckin on 1/15/08, Rating: -1
RE: sell your stocks in hddvd
By JustTom on 1/16/2008 1:10:14 AM , Rating: 3
Of course something can be a fallacy, since one common usage of fallacy is as a noun that means false notion. Anything that is a false notion must also be a fallacy for example "The belief that the world is flat is a fallacy." In this case it has nothing at all to do with the logic of the argument it simply is a statement of its truthfulness. The sentence can also be structured as "The belief that the world is flat is fallacious" since fallacious is nothing more than an adjective that means containing a fallacy. It would be similar to saying "That animal is a cat" opposed to "That animal is feline" both mean much the same thing structured slightly differently.


RE: sell your stocks in hddvd
By Bigjee on 1/16/2008 1:27:02 AM , Rating: 2
quote:
Even then, your pushing it.


Surely you mean 'you're'


RE: sell your stocks in hddvd
By roadrun777 on 1/16/2008 6:23:29 AM , Rating: 5
Stewie Voice:
Oh god, please will someone just shoot the English teacher so we can all just get along?
Every time someone wins an argument with chewy, mystery nuggets of information, a strange and mysterious English perfectionist, appears from nowhere, and gives us all lessons.

OOHH! OOHHH! can you count my comma usage?


RE: sell your stocks in hddvd
By Moishe on 1/15/2008 5:01:46 PM , Rating: 2
I got mine for under $100 and HD is certainly better than upscaled. I call tell the difference every time.


RE: sell your stocks in hddvd
By Dart23 on 1/15/08, Rating: -1
RE: sell your stocks in hddvd
By OxBow on 1/15/2008 5:23:46 PM , Rating: 3
What Sony payoffs? HD-DVD has made some payments to keep exclusivity, but apparently even that wasn't enough to keep them viable.

Here's the kicker. The PS3 uses Blue-Ray discs for their games. With millions on PS3's in the wild worldwide now, there's a viable, long term marketplace for those disc manufacturers. On top of that, the larger, more lucrative movie market is a pretty little cherry on top. Blue Ray manufacturing won't go away, it's here, so the long term viability of the format is stable (regardless of it's technical merits and demerits).

HD-DVD can only become a viable production line for movie's, no ancillary demand is driving their production. As such, even though their cheaper to produce, they're trying to enter a glutted market on a margin that has already been staked out by Blue Ray. Granted, HD-DVD was first to market, but that thin margin they're operating in is to narrow to maintain a long term competition. With Blue Ray having an effectively subsidized back end, most of the studios see HD-DVD as a doomed technology. The only reason to go HD-DVD is if you're paid to do so. Toshiba has some deep pockets, but not deep enough to float that far for that long.

Universal and Paramount will dump HD-DVD in a couple months. They are probably scrambling behind the scenes right now negotiating new contracts and setting up new production schedules so that their christmas releases are competitive on blue ray. They won't announce anything until those new contracts are settled, at which point go set your HD-DVD player next to your old betamax.

As far as DVD upscaling, both HD-DVD and Blue Ray players are quite good at this. While not quite as good as native high def, it's still pretty good. That's why I haven't bothered with an HD-DVD player. If it's not out on blue ray, it's still out on DVD and that looks pretty good on my 42" LCD. There's only a couple movies that I wanted to see that were HD-DVD exclusive and I still was able to see them as pretty good, upscaled DVD's.

Had Microsoft embraced HD-DVD for games as Sony did Blue Ray, the story would have been different. I think that MS should have, since future games will need that extra space, something that'll be incovenient down the road for the 360. They didn't, however, so HD-DVD had no deep pocket underwriter to support it's long term back end production. To bad for HD-DVD, now it's just up to Universal and Paramount to have their quick little press conferences and the war will be over.


RE: sell your stocks in hddvd
By griffynz on 1/15/2008 10:38:54 PM , Rating: 3
Your 42 inch LCD would not benefit from the new Samsung Blu-ray for DVD upscaling as they have dropped all the good stuff out.

http://www.hometheaterhifi.com/cd-dvd-player-produ...

Try watching movies on a real 'home theatre' screen (my projector is 110 inch) and you will think upscaling is rubbish. HD is the only way to go.

The problem with the HD DVD and Blu-ray fight is that apart from the USA where Toshiba has started selling cheap players, the rest of the world can only buy HD DVD add-on drives and PS3.
Here in New Zealand ($0.79us) it costs $2999 for a panasonic Blu-ray player, HD DVD player is nz$1599. Sony Blu-ray is nz$1499.
Most people either add a Xbox 360 drive, buy a PS3 (cheapest is nz$799) or get a friend to import a HD DVD drive (dvd stuck on zone 1).
I see prices are getting better in Australia. But many of the cheaper stand alone players are dropping all the good parts to cut price.


RE: sell your stocks in hddvd
By JarrettV on 1/15/2008 4:56:27 PM , Rating: 5
I disagree with tastyratz that the consumer decided. It's more logical that the studios decided. The consumers just wanted to watch their favorite movie in HD and it just so happens that more of the popular movies (and movies which do well as home videos such as disney) came out on bluray rather than hd-dvd.

I'd bet that if all movies came out on both formats that HD-DVD would have easily won.


RE: sell your stocks in hddvd
By feraltoad on 1/15/2008 8:03:14 PM , Rating: 3
I totally agree. The studios want it both ways! First, saying that consumers have made a clear choice in regards to which technology they prefer. Then they say the opposite, which is they have to KILL HDDVD using dissuasive tactics in order to facilitate the adoption of a single format so consumers will finally decide. ? Which is it? If CONSUMERS really had made the choice for BR, then HDDVD would have died on its own, and there would be no reason to adopt ANTI-consumer strategies in order to kill it. This "consumer choice" line is pure BS, whoever throws it around has an agenda.


RE: sell your stocks in hddvd
By mars777 on 1/16/2008 10:40:49 AM , Rating: 2
Regarding stocks:

I dont' know if consumers or studios made the choice but i know who will make the choice for Paramount and Dreamworks (VIACOM) to head back to BluRay:

http://www.nyse.com/about/listed/lcddata.html?tick...

Look the stock going down from January the 3rd when Warner went Blue. If they continue going down like this or don't catch up (and this is all the conglomerate not just Paramount) somebody shall get fired soon...


RE: sell your stocks in hddvd
By killerroach on 1/16/2008 9:45:02 AM , Rating: 1
quote:
I'd bet that if all movies came out on both formats that HD-DVD would have easily won.


But that's called "living in a fantasy world." The truth of the matter is, when a movie did come out in both formats, the HD-DVD movie typically was outsold very badly, and, in the best of situations, still lagged behind its Blu-Ray counterpart. Even cheap players and other promotions couldn't fix that situation.

Perhaps the studios decided. That being said, the consumers had the ability to turn the tide, and their inaction spoke volumes.


RE: sell your stocks in hddvd
By sweetsauce on 1/16/2008 11:14:13 AM , Rating: 3
The main reason HD-DVD's don't outsell blu is because the studios are greedy. They can easily charge less for HD-DVD movies since it costs less to produce, but if they did that they would not only hurt their blu sales, but they would lower their own profit. If toshiba can somehow convince their studio partners to drop the prices of their HD-DVDs and make them close in price to DVD, i guarantee the sales will skyrocket.


RE: sell your stocks in hddvd
By tastyratz on 1/17/08, Rating: 0