Paramount chooses HD DVD exclusive!

[The Bat]

I know some one on this Forum said that Paramount was going to cross platform...but that's no longer true. This is the "Deal Breaker" for me...as I still don't own STAR TREK:TOS. Plus...I own an Xbox 360...so I can pick up the HD Player for $199.99

http://www.aintitcool.com/node/33722

[highquality]

Being in the industry, this was a huge suprise for me. It was looking like Blu-Ray would win this war hands down. The Sony camp pretty much had a lock with most of the networks before the HD-DVD/Blu-Ray Format war even started. As of late, Blu-Ray had 70% of the sales. I wonder what Sony did to tick off Paramount???

[mitchedwards]

Interesting, I thougth Blu Ray was the new standard. I guess the VHS BetaMAx Wars part II is still not over.

[toys2cool]

yeah I was talking about this to my brother and he was telling me that Blu ray was destroying HD dvds,so this is good news for the ones who prefer HD like me

[batmanmc]

never tried hd or blu ray . but ill go with wahtever sticks around like the vhs too dvd.

[toys2cool]

well I don't see either of them sticking around for long if they don't drop them prices,$30 a pop is a lot man

[cjefferys]

The announcement came right out of left field for me. But supposedly, Paramount is being paid $150 million to be HD DVD exclusive for 18 months, so it looks like they took the money and ran (although to be fair, I'm sure Sony has thrown a bit of cash Fox and Disney's way to help them remain Blu-ray exclusive).

If anything, this will just prolong the format war even longer. But on the plus side, this war has helped hardware prices drop much faster than they otherwise would have, and has helped in other ways too (such as forcing Sony to start doing a better job on their own Blu-ray releases, as their initial releases were rather poorly done).

Oh well, up until now, I've been Blu-ray only but have been thinking about going format neutral and getting a HD DVD player soon anyway (there have been several Universal HD DVDs that I've been really wanting to get). This just makes that decision easier for me to make, and now there are HD DVD players are quite reasonably priced.

[Corellian Corvette]

Video sales, *over the last few months*, have been running about 2:1. Life to date, it's about 60/40 in terms of movie sales.

The issue is the PS3. Coming with BluRay, it's very easy for a PS3 owner to rent/buy even one movie and swing the tide. That doesn’t mean he’s an active BD owner.

From a standalone player sales POV, HD DVD is the clear winner there. They've sold about 2x - 3x the number of standalone players which is a very important point. That means, people who are *choosing* a player format are choosing HD DVD 3:1. Every player sold on HD DVD, standalone or an Xbox accessory, are bought with the intention of playing movies.

On the PS3 it's incidental. Once decent games come out, people will move away from movies and buy games, and that's the risk in what's happening with Blu Ray for the studios. What they care about are standalone players as well as movie sales.

HD DVD players are also cheaper (there will be $200 ones this holiday) and around double that price for Blu Ray. Read all the reviews on the movies and the HD DVD versions rate better picture, and more features. Finally, HD DVD has HD and regular DVD versions on the same disc, which Blu Ray can't do.

HD DVD is also the format that was chosen by the DVD Forum, the consortium of companies that decide the specifications for "DVD".

Many people don’t know, but Toshiba and Sony both submitted their formats for consideration for the high-definition spec for the successor to DVD. The DVD Forum chose HDDVD, and Sony took their ball and went home and created BluRay anyway. That’s why their players are so expensive, and buggy (e.g. some of their movies work on some players and not others)

There is a lot of FUD going on around BD but the truth is that HD DVD is in the game far better than the press would like you to think. If all movies were coming out on both formats, HD DVD would win hands down because players are cheaper and the “brand” name of DVD is important.

It will be interesting to see how this all goes down.

[cjefferys]

From a standalone player sales POV, HD DVD is the clear winner there. They've sold about 2x - 3x the number of standalone players which is a very important point. That means, people who are *choosing* a player format are choosing HD DVD 3:1.

Well, there are a large number of people who bought a PS3 strictly for Blu-ray, instead of buying a standalone player, so those people did "choose" a format too. I have no idea what percent bought a PS3 for movies instead of for gaming, but I'm sure I'm far from the only one (considering the PS3 plays BDs flawlessly and seems the most "future proof" of BD players).

Read all the reviews on the movies and the HD DVD versions rate better picture, and more features.

While it's true that the HD DVD versions can have more features at this point (BD was really late with finalizing the spec that would allow them to do things like PIP, etc), but the picture quality of films released in both formats has pretty well been a tie. I don't think I've heard of any HD disc reviewed where it's been stated that the picture looked better on the HD DVD version over the BD version.

Finally, HD DVD has HD and regular DVD versions on the same disc, which Blu Ray can't do.

But thats really a mixed "blessing". Many people actually complain about having to pay more money for having the standard definition version put on the other side of the disc, as many think it's something they will never use so why should they be forced to pay extra for it. And of course, Universal has had some serious quality problems with some of their combo discs (eg. CHILDREN OF MEN) so that a lot of people actively avoid buying those discs.

There is a lot of FUD going on around BD .

Hell, there is tons of FUD being thrown around by both formats' cheerleaders. Forums like AVS are looking like complete trainwrecks these days, this war is driving some people absolutely nuts.

I'm not a BD cheerleader trying to pick apart what you are saying, honest! I just wanted to clear a few points up.

[Dave Mc]

I don't care who "wins", I just wish one would, so I could finally buy one. I refuse to spend the cash, then have half the distributors going exclusive with the other side. Argh!

[cjefferys]

For those keeping track at home, here's how things stand currently:

Blu-ray exclusive studios:

Sony (ie. Columbia Pictures, Sony Classics)
Disney/Buena Vista
Fox (includes MGM, as they have a home video distribution deal with Fox)
Lions Gate
Starz (Anchor Bay)

HD DVD exclusive studios:

Universal Pictures
Paramount (includes Dreamworks, except for Steven Spielberg directed titles which will still supposedly be released in both formats )
Weinstein Company (rumoured to be going neutral by years end)

Neutral (releases in both formats):

Warner Bros.


This is US/Canada only, and doesn't take into account foreign releases (due to various distribution deals, some films may be released in one format in North America and in the other format elsewhere).

Sorry Dave, the way things are looking, one format may not win out for awhile. At any rate, I've always believed that no matter which wins, it will remain a rather niche format (not unlike laserdisc, but probably with a bit more market penetration). Many people think DVDs look good enough, and don't want to waste money investing in a new format.

[MegoSteve]

Sony's bet the farm on Blu-Ray, pretty much. While I'd agree that having the next gen disk format built into a console is good feature, I don't know Blu-Ray adds enough value to the PS3 to justify its incredibily high price. One look at NPD sales figures bears this out... they are a distant third in the next gen console war, and no one would have predicted that a couple of years ago. The cause: their complete arrogance. Sony tried using the PS3 as a Trojan Horse to sneak Blu-Ray into our living rooms, and instead of dominating the gaming market like they have for the past five years, they crippled the PS3's crucial initial year sales and allowed their competitors to overtake them. Now market perception is that the PS3 is a failure (even though I think it'll be around for a while, cruising on the coattails of the PS2's success), and there's even more pressure on them because MS just cut the price of the 360 Premium to $150 less than the cheapest PS3 option.

The problem both sides have is what DaveMc said... there's a fear of wasting money on a format that might well be dead in few years. I just bought an HDTV and I am hesitant to buy a player even though I'm dying to see the potential of this amazing TV... (though, to be honest, I'm leaning HD-DVD just because of the convenience). For now, I'll just rent downloadable HD movies from Xbox Live.

[EMCE Hammer]

Everything I've read leads me to believe that HD is the superior format. I hope it wins, but I'm not holding my breath. The only way I'll buy a player is if it plays both formats and costs under $200. Until that day comes, I'm not spending any money unless there is a clear format winner. I really feel BluRay is inferior, and I'll be disappointed if we get stuck with it because of all the market manipulation strategies.

[The Bat]

Yup...I plan to wait this one out Myself. I already own a lot of regular DVD's.

[cjefferys]

Sony's bet the farm on Blu-Ray, pretty much. While I'd agree that having the next gen disk format built into a console is good feature, I don't know Blu-Ray adds enough value to the PS3 to justify its incredibily high price. One look at NPD sales figures bears this out... they are a distant third in the next gen console war, and no one would have predicted that a couple of years ago. The cause: their complete arrogance. Sony tried using the PS3 as a Trojan Horse to sneak Blu-Ray into our living rooms, and instead of dominating the gaming market like they have for the past five years, they crippled the PS3's crucial initial year sales and allowed their competitors to overtake them. Now market perception is that the PS3 is a failure (even though I think it'll be around for a while, cruising on the coattails of the PS2's success), and there's even more pressure on them because MS just cut the price of the 360 Premium to $150 less than the cheapest PS3 option.
.

I'd have to agree with that, well said. In theory, the trojan horse idea seemed like a good one, but when it was done at the expense of not having the PS3 at a competitive price point against the 360, Sony may have seriously hurt themselves. They were already losing money on each unit sold, (due mainly to the expense of having a BD drive included in the system) and with the recent price drop, they are losing even more money. For what it is and what is does (and what it has the potential to do) the PS3 is an amazing value for the money, but Sony seemed to forget that a very large percent of the PS3's potential buyers just wanted a next gen game system, and the price point is very high for those people (those who don't care about all the other cool things the PS3 can do, they just want to play games on it)