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"Transformers 2" is still a go with Michael Bay at the helm despite Paramount's $150 million USD HD DVD deal
There's plenty of cash to go around in the HD wars

The decision by Paramount and DreamWorks to go HD DVD exclusive set off an aftershock when most people thought that the high definition war was starting to favor Blu-ray.

The news was so profound that it caused director Michael Bay to go ballistic with a post to his official website. "I want people to see my movies in the best formats possible. For them to deny people who have Blu-ray sucks," exclaimed Bay. Bay even threatened not to direct "Transformers 2" after learning of the HD DVD exclusive deal.

Bay later had a change of heart and said that he took one too many sips of Kool-Aid from the Blu-ray camp. "Nothing good ever comes out of early am posts mind you - I over reacted," said Bay. "I heard where Paramount is coming from and the future of HD and players that will be close to the $200 mark which is the magic number. I like what I heard."

To see Bay go from raging anger over the decision to lockout Blu-ray to reaching an epiphany to going full-bore with HD DVD and discarding his threat to leave “Transformers 2” shows that there is more than enough Kool-Aid to go around on both sides of the aisle.

When it comes to the movie industry, dollars and cents are everything. The HD DVD exclusive deal made with Paramount and DreamWorks was valued at $150 million USD according to The New York Times.

According to two Viacom executives who wish to remain anonymous, the payout will come in the form of cash and promotional guarantees. Despite rumors to the contrary circling the Internet, Microsoft claims that it played no part in the $150 million USD payout.

"We provided no financial incentives to Paramount or DreamWorks whatsoever," said Microsoft consumer media technology group head Amir Majidimehr.

Supporters from the Blu-ray camp were quick to dismiss the deal. "This seems like a move of desperation," said Andy Parsons of the Blu-ray Disc Association, while Disney Home Entertainment President Bob Chapek simply said "This is not in the best interest of consumers."

HD DVD may have won this latest round in the high definition wars, but unfortunately for consumers, it looks like we're all in for a long fight.

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I laugh when I read all of this
By jrb531 on 8/22/2007 10:58:57 AM , Rating: 4
While I enjoy my $9.95 DVD's that I upconvert to HD.

I admit that this is not "true" HD but who cares?

The jump from VHS to DVD was "huge" - the jump from a "good" mastered DVD to HD is no so huge.

Some day I may get HD DVD but not until the players cost under $100 and the media is under the $15 mark like most DVD's.

So they can war all they want and I (and I suspect most others) will be happy to keep playing and renting quality plain old DVD's.

Remember that the overwhelming majority of people just want to watch a movie or recordings of old TV shows and paying extra for high resolution, comentaries or other extras are wasted on them.

For movies that I just "have" to see at the best quality... well I go to the show to see those :)

So yes someday I'll move over to HD DVD but it will not be for a long long time.

-JB

P.S. Blu-Ray, to me, is no different that beta was. Sony trying to ram their format over others so they can get a windfall on the patent money. I bet that if everyone got together and waived "any" money to be gained by whoever owns the patents in each camp... well then we could have one format. This is all about money and if not for patents and who will get a few pennies for every HD DVD sold we would not be in this boat.

And you all thought this had anything to do with picking the best format for the consumer ROTFL!




RE: I laugh when I read all of this
By michal1980 on 8/22/2007 11:06:55 AM , Rating: 5
How is hd-dvd and toshiba any different then sony and blu-ray?
all it is:
company A Forcing their format.
company B Forcing thier format.

Any one that does not see this is very short sighted.

Of all the formats sony tried to release they tried to do everything different this time. Lots of studio support, lots of manufacture support. Lots of 3rd party support.

Thosbia just did one thing. They went cheap.


RE: I laugh when I read all of this
By masher2 (blog) on 8/22/2007 11:15:15 AM , Rating: 2
> "How is hd-dvd and toshiba any different then sony and blu-ray?"

While you have something of a point, you have to remember that the DVD Group chose HD-DVD as the successor format. Upset over the decision, Sony and a few other companies left to promulgate Blu Ray instead. Toshiba and the other HD-DVD supporters are the ones who stayed.


RE: I laugh when I read all of this
By michal1980 on 8/22/2007 11:47:05 AM , Rating: 1
dont twist facts, Most companies left the Group. Toshiba was one of the few that remained.

If theres a company that did not want to work with others its toshiba. There would have been no war if they went blu-ray, and if they went blu-ray i'm sure they'd have a cut of the money as well. But they wanted the whole thing.


RE: I laugh when I read all of this
By Master Kenobi (blog) on 8/22/2007 12:02:43 PM , Rating: 5
I would trust Toshiba over Sony any day of the week given Sony's track record.


By ViperROhb34 on 8/28/2007 3:52:15 PM , Rating: 2
I agree !

And to the original poster who said -

"How is hd-dvd and toshiba any different then sony and blu-ray?
all it is:
company A Forcing their format.
company B Forcing thier format.

Any one that does not see this is very short sighted."

And you're not factoring in that alot of people See that SONY also pushed this down our throats in PS3 .. they couldve had Bluray as an add-on and PS3 would've flown off shelves at a chaper price without forcing a format on us !

Last time I checked Toshiba wasn't making a gaming console. MS had the option to use either format.. they still have the option to use Bluray if the other would fail.


RE: I laugh when I read all of this
By masher2 (blog) on 8/22/2007 12:05:09 PM , Rating: 4
If "most" companies in the DVD Forum had supported Blu Ray, they wouldn't have needed to leave to found a new group-- they simply would have voted it the new standard.

The true story is that Sony pushed BD over HD-DVD for two reasons. One, as an owner of several film studios, they felt its region-locked discs and additional content protection mechanisms were an advantage over HD-DVDs non-locked discs and less intrusive AACS. Two, they felt BD-Java and the greater storage capacity dovetailed better with their interests in the computing sector.

Had Sony managed to convince a majority of the DVD Forum, there would have been no format war. Instead, they drummed up enough disgruntled support to found a wholly new group.


By FITCamaro on 8/22/2007 12:37:26 PM , Rating: 3
But the untrue story is far more saucy. Full of deception and betrayal. If only I could do the voice the movie commercial guy has.


RE: I laugh when I read all of this
By omnicronx on 8/22/2007 12:42:54 PM , Rating: 1
3. History likes to repeat itself and sony likes to go against the flow.

VHS vs BETA -- lost that battle even though it was superior

toshiba DVD vs Sony next gen format -- sony lost that battle and were forced to incorporate their technology into the dvd format. And lost a big piece of the pie in royalties received.

HD-DVD vs BD-- superior technology, but with a higher manufacturing costs will history repeat itself?

Sony wants their format to reign supreme without compromise, always has always will. Until they are ready to compromise they will never win outright. This of course leaves the consumer with two formats, thanks sony!


RE: I laugh when I read all of this
By FITCamaro on 8/22/2007 12:51:41 PM , Rating: 2
You forgot the flash memory route. In a world that already had 2-3 formats, they created yet another one that they still price over the cost of other formats. And since their devices only support their format, you get to pay that higher price.


By omnicronx on 8/22/2007 1:25:40 PM , Rating: 2
tell me about it <--PSP owner..
Ebayed it and still paid 70 bucks for a 4 gig card a while back. If it were SD i could have got one for 20 bucks.
I still don't know what the adapter converts too haha.


RE: I laugh when I read all of this
By mdogs444 on 8/22/2007 1:26:49 PM , Rating: 5
You both forgot "Minidisc". The minidisc was great - same quality sound as CD, but small and scratch proof. What happened? Sony wanted it all for themselves - so the only artist you could buy on minidisc was signed with sony recording studios, and only sony players were available for the longest time. They dropped the ball on

Betamax
Next Gen Video - DVD Competitor
Minidisc
Memory Stick
....soon to be BD-DVD? Who knows.

But what i do know is they are much better at making high quality parts for things that already exist - standard dvd players, they were the kind of the DiscMan back in the day too. The Sony Walkman - great!


RE: I laugh when I read all of this
By VIAN on 8/22/2007 2:17:56 PM , Rating: 2
MDs were awesome.

That was my first MP3 player. You could put a crap load of songs, at the time, on both sides of the disc. But Sony F'd that up very easily.

First, the controls on my MD player went started to malfunction within a year, at least on mine. The software that came with player sucked mighty ass. It had many bugs, and was bloated, and used up resources, wasn't easy to use... etc. And IIRC, it only allow you to use Sony's compression format which wasn't as easy to understand as MP3.

The implementation may have sucked, but the medium is still a great idea. A CD in a slim protective case. It is very futuristic as well. You can still see MDs alive today in the form of UMDs, although UMDs have substantially more space, while at the same time being smaller, the casing isn't as robust as MDs and they can break much easier.

Another great idea gone to crap.


By enlil242 on 8/22/2007 4:58:37 PM , Rating: 3
Man, I bought into the Betamax hype only to be srewed out of my $400 in paper route funds... Thanks Sony.

Then I was screwed out of my Many, Many more dollars in Mini Disc purchases only to have a lot of my Mini Discs become unreadable, and now obsolete. Thanks Sony...

Then the whole Memory Stick farce. Can't use any of those in my new Canon DSLR... Thanks Sony.

So now I say: No Thanks Sony. I hope BluRay finds its way to the obsolete bin as well. In the meantime, I'll support HD-DVD ... although I bet Video On Demand / Subscription Downloading will be the true winners in the long run. Who knows...


RE: I laugh when I read all of this
By erikejw on 8/22/2007 5:17:08 PM , Rating: 2
Aren't they part of DVD-Audio(most likely) or SACD.
A superior format to CD but never got anywhere.


RE: I laugh when I read all of this
By Oregonian2 on 8/22/2007 1:39:41 PM , Rating: 5
quote:
VHS vs BETA -- lost that battle even though it was superior


Not true. Had a higher video quality when it was playing, but as a VCR system Beta was inferior in a big way. It originally could not record a movie unattended (and even attended it would have been a pain with a gap in the middle). Beta was one hour per tape. Not long enough to record a movie off of TV -- a very major reason for buying one. VHS was two-hours which was long enough the vast majority of the time (esp. on TV "versions"). Sony reportedly did not want to compromise it's video quality so that it could record a movie onto a tape. That is what killed them. They eventually was forced to have longer modes by the market, but by then it was too late and VHS had become much more popular (Sony did learn and is using PS3 to try and gain this early leverage!). Also rental movies were one tape for VHS and two for Beta. Also somewhat of an inconvenience for Beta users. So yes, Beta had better video quality, but was an inferior VCR system (in the early days).


By omnicronx on 8/22/2007 2:18:40 PM , Rating: 2
heh, when sound quality and video quality is better, i would say the format is superior regardless of how much space it had. While i agree with you the tape times made a difference, by the time VHS/BETA became popular VHS tapes had long play which enabled 4 hours of recording, while BETA had 2, but at superior quality.

This wasnt even the backbreaker though, JVC made the decision to essentially make VHS an open standard, therefor anyone could create and market the VHS player for a fraction of the price that sony demanded in fees. Also it was said that (kind of like today) sony would not allow pornographic material on their media.

In the end, it was probably a mix of 4 or 5 things that resulted in the failure of betamax not just the recording size. Its just too bad sony keeps making the same mistakes.


By mushi799 on 8/22/2007 10:19:16 PM , Rating: 2
beta wasn't superior, in quality yes? but practicality? No.

Beta was limited to one hour recording when it first arrived. That killed it literally. VHS 2+ hrs, no contest.