Warner Pulls Support For HD DVD and Backs Blu-ray

[TheMoose]

Originally Posted by Lotus

Sure. What would be their case? Right. What lawyer would take that up? Also in what world will there be no movies in a couple of months? It's 5 months for Warners and last I checked they weren't the only studio out there.

Their case would be the format didn't exist any more, if HD-DVD does lose & believe me there are plenty of lawyers who would take the case!

Also you posted that Paramount & Universal could bail if something didn't happen in 1 month, if that does happen the format is dead & people just bought expensive upconverting DVD players & if you don't think they will sue just look at the people suing because Xbox live went down for a few days, they found a lawyer for that they can find a lawyer for this.

Originally Posted by Lotus

Hmmmm... they were offered the Recordable Media Market. Sony flat out said they would stop all BD-R production and GIVE THEM the recordable media market. Samsung and others were convinced it was going to happen to the point they talked about it!

So they obviously have something else up their sleeves. I know you're a PS3 man and thus blue all through but perhaps they have a strategy?

I'm thinking what they have up their sleeves is they want a bigger piece of the pie that what was offered.

Originally Posted by Lotus

Well then if anyone is suing anyone it's the HD DVD PRG vs the research group they hired! It's obviously not wrong. It actually makes some sense. You see most people KNEW about the High Def formats and were mad that Studios weren't supporting both. Because it was labelled by the media as a WAR where one side may lose the majority refused to buy. However of those polled who were waiting the MAJORITY said if they were to buy it would be HD-DVD. It's likely the name and nothing more, but it was their answer. Then again maybe it was their answer because it was cheaper who knows.

What I do know is that most people I talk to don't like that Studios are trying to make their decision for them.

Well you can word a poll to get the answers you want!
Didn't you state they did the polling in malls, they went to the place with the biggest numbers of uninformed consumers possible!
HDTV's aren't actually in everyones homes now & most of the people who do own them don't have or know much if anything about HDM, Hell 40% of the people with HDTV's don't even have an HD signal going to them!
You are not going to get accurate poll results from people who don't know what you are talking about!

I've said before the biggest failing from both sides is a lack of education, too many people don't know what HDM is & it doesn't help to ask the high school kid at Best Buy because he doesn't know either.

Originally Posted by Lotus

What I do know is that most people I talk to don't like that Studios are trying to make their decision for them.

Who else was going to make the decision?
People weren't making a decision because of the format war the studios are the only ones that can make a decision.

Originally Posted by Lotus

Sure. However lets be honest if there was no war and there was just a HD-DVD solution where both techs had been combined (think BD 2.0) then right now you'd likely have one with about 3M to 5M stand alone players sold. Because of the war you have less than half that combined. The war has left a bad taste in peoples mouths. If HD-DVD took the recordable media market and went home it will still take likely 6 months at least for the public to start buying like it never happened. However that research group found out otherwise. This could be because HD-DVD did well enough to get in enough homes that somebody knows somebody that got "screwed," by the war. That does leave a bad taste in peoples mouths.

Plus BD is still priced about $200 too high for mass consumer consumption.

But there is more Blu-Ray players & media in peoples homes despite the price differences & Toshiba only did "well enough" because the prices were artificially low which is why they were the only ones building the standalones!

Originally Posted by Lotus

No, they will win there is a clear choice for a safe investment PLUS the right cost. With 2.0 players having an undisclosed price point (because they figure they can ask for MORE if HD-DVD is dead) we have no idea how soon that will be.

Not true at all. If HD-DVD announced they were going to take the recordable media offer and back out then the new players would all have $600+ price points for 2.0 units, and the others would get priced at $399 to $499.

However with HD-DVD announcing a $199 1080p unit then BD can't afford to have 2.0 units at $600+. They're going to have to price aggressively.

Well if they did crank up the price because of no competition that would be pretty stupid wouldn't it?
Do you think all these companies are going to shoot themselves in the foot?
The price of new tech has always been high & guess what, it's always come down in price, this isn't any different.

Originally Posted by Lotus

That is a good thing Moose. If HD-DVD grabs a 3rd Studio it prolongs the "war," long enough for likely both to survive. Then you don't have anyone getting screwed.

If that happens & both survive then both will die or become like DVD-A & SACD in 5 years.

[TheMoose]

Originally Posted by kennyt

prerich,

I have said this from the start, once I can buy the rights to the film and stream it to my home anytime both formats are dead, because it is convenience, not quality that seem to make new formats fly. Making J6P struggle with firmware updates and slow load times isn't a help, but if I just need to go to any movies site and watch, that's convenient!

OK you buy a movie in 1080p HD with True HD audio & all the extras & you stream it & watch it, what now?
How long are you going to keep it on your DVR's hard drive, it's over 40G after all, are you going to get a 100 terabyte hard drive to store all of your HD movies?
Well actually you'll need two 100 terabyte hard drives so you can back them up in case your computer crashes.
That will work for you but 95% of the people don't have a computer hooked to the home theater so they will need to start deleting movies off of the DVR's drive when they want another movie.

I like discs, I want to be able to watch a movie I buy more than once, I want to be able to take it to a friends house & play it when we are checking out his home theater.
I'm sure all these problems will be worked out one day but right now I want my HDM in a disc & I want to be able to watch any movie I want on 1 format.

[glocksout]

I do respect Lotus, I really do, but I don't know why he thinks people will be ****ed at Blu-ray is HD DVD loses. When Betamax lost they were ****ed at Sony for losing. If HD DVD loses, those that bought in will be ****ed that they don't have anymore content. Hell, they're ****ed already.

[kennyt]

Originally Posted by TheMoose

OK you buy a movie in 1080p HD with True HD audio & all the extras & you stream it & watch it, what now?
How long are you going to keep it on your DVR's hard drive, it's over 40G after all, are you going to get a 100 terabyte hard drive to store all of your HD movies?

No, Moose, I think Hollywood would want to sell you the RIGHT to watch the film, and that would need to stay with you, all this ties into some of the newer high tech security systems my flight to Vegas neighbor was telling me his one company does. FWIW the chipsets are already in many computers (all Macs and others...) waiting for initiation and use.

Yes, this is big brother watching, and I too like the hard media, but if I could pay $10 for Christmas Vacation and stream it each and every year after, that is worth it to me!

That is what I think we are heading to..... I could be wrong....

[prerich]

Originally Posted by TheMoose

OK you buy a movie in 1080p HD with True HD audio & all the extras & you stream it & watch it, what now?
How long are you going to keep it on your DVR's hard drive, it's over 40G after all, are you going to get a 100 terabyte hard drive to store all of your HD movies?
Well actually you'll need two 100 terabyte hard drives so you can back them up in case your computer crashes.
That will work for you but 95% of the people don't have a computer hooked to the home theater so they will need to start deleting movies off of the DVR's drive when they want another movie.

I like discs, I want to be able to watch a movie I buy more than once, I want to be able to take it to a friends house & play it when we are checking out his home theater.
I'm sure all these problems will be worked out one day but right now I want my HDM in a disc & I want to be able to watch any movie I want on 1 format.

I have had "Open Season" on my drive now for over 4 months - in HD no less ! You are making some of the same justifications that HD-DVD people make when comparing it to Blu-ray - it makes more sense when the shoe is on the other foot. Everybody doens't have a blu-ray drive but most people have a computer - and if media can be streamed directly to it? No HDCP issues due to the VGA port which is capable of HD resolutions in the analog realm - even 1080p. Let them activate the ICT feature - it will be cracked in a week and we would still have full resolution through the analog realm. This would be Blu-ray's worst nightmare - I for one, if Comcast was available in my area instead of Mediacom, would be all over a vudu box right now! I would sell pieces of my system to get one if I had to. Yes, computers crash but BD has software and hardware problems also. I have several other HD movies saved on my 120gb hdd, but when I get tired of them - I delete them. The only movies that I consistantly watch are Disney movies. Wait till you're able to put serveral movies on a 1 tb solid state drive (40 to 80 gb drives alread exist). Soon the computer will be reduced to a shell that you plug your Solid State drive in, it will automatically detect all drivers (I can see Apple doing this before MS) and you will have all your data with you wherever you go - including O/S. This would be hot! I believe the one format will be digital - but not on a disc. Just as we are going to a papeless society - how long did you think it would take for media to follow the same path? That boy on the playground is getting ready to challange MJ ... and it looks like he might forgo college and go straight to the pros.

[prerich]

Originally Posted by kennyt

No, Moose, I think Hollywood would want to sell you the RIGHT to watch the film, and that would need to stay with you, all this ties into some of the newer high tech security systems my flight to Vegas neighbor was telling me his one company does. FWIW the chipsets are already in many computers (all Macs and others...) waiting for initiation and use.

Yes, this is big brother watching, and I too like the hard media, but if I could pay $10 for Christmas Vacation and stream it each and every year after, that is worth it to me!

That is what I think we are heading to..... I could be wrong....

No - you are right - that's where we are heading - and yes Big Brother is watching - and what better way to watch than have a choke collar around your neck called a network connection . As long as you obey the rules - you're ok, and like you, I wouldn't mine as long as I had the rights on my machine.