Could Warner Bros. Abandon HD DVD in 2008?

[Lotus]

Originally Posted by 1more4HDDVD

+1

Lotus, I appreciate your insights, but an explanation about this would be nice. 2 days ago, you talked of WB dropping some blu titles and adding TL titles… then yesterday you said “If I was to guess, I'd say they're going BD and Universal is with them... just from the way the guys at FOX were acting.” … those two posts don’t seem to fit each other…

I'm told not to look at the BD title drops as a sign of anything and that it was business related. That could mean anything, changing dates and not having a new date to changing authoring, etc.

I know guys at Sony who are convinced Warners is going BD and that Universal is going with them.

I know guys at Paramount who say the opposite but it's Disney going with Warners.

There are rumors left and right and unless I'm getting the info from the top right now I'm not sure what to believe.

[Lotus]

Originally Posted by DaViD Boulet

And the vast majority of those discs don't (can't?) even provide lossless audio. Compared to the nearly 100% record of lossless audio on Blu-ray from Disney, Sony, MGM, and Fox.

Funny how the HD DVD producing studios (Warner, Paramount, Universal) seem to make lossless audio the exception rather than the rule. Why would studios who don't care about delivering lossless audio quality would embrace HD DVD... or maybe authoring HD DVD limits their options given bandwidth and space? (Paramount stated that they wanted to provide lossless audio on Transformers but didn't have the space to do it).

While I'd like it "all" (and I agree that the BD strategy of allowing features like PIP and/or web connections not to be standard feature day one was a pretty bad move), If I had to choose between shopping for merchandise using my web-connected HD player and listening to the feature film in full lossless qualtiy... I'd choose software with lossless sound.

I still think the public are going to like the one that works more often and has it's standards set from the begining.

What is to stop the BDA from adding more?

[PRO-630HD]

Another great lossy title is Queen Live in Montreal hddvd. It has a DTS-HD HRA mix that is 24bit/96khz. Don't know the bitrate but I think 1.5 mbps. Specs should be the same for bluray.

[Lotus]

Originally Posted by PRO-630HD

Another great lossy title is Queen Live in Montreal hddvd. It has a DTS-HD HRA mix that is 24bit/96khz. Don't know the bitrate but I think 1.5 mbps. Specs should be the same for bluray.

I've had people I respect greatly in Audio tell me that you can't tell the difference between a good DD+ or DTS-HD HRA compared to a lossless audio track.

I really want to take part in a double blind test on it and see if it's true.

If you can't tell the difference...

I'd still prefer a lossless track. With the TL discs there will be no excuse anymore.

[PRO-630HD]

Originally Posted by DaViD Boulet

And the vast majority of those discs don't (can't?) even provide lossless audio. Compared to the nearly 100% record of lossless audio on Blu-ray from Disney, Sony, MGM, and Fox.

Funny how the HD DVD producing studios (Warner, Paramount, Universal) seem to make lossless audio the exception rather than the rule. Why would studios who don't care about delivering lossless audio quality would embrace HD DVD... or maybe authoring HD DVD limits their options given bandwidth and space? (Paramount stated that they wanted to provide lossless audio on Transformers but didn't have the space to do it).

While I'd like it "all" (and I agree that the BD strategy of allowing features like PIP and/or web connections not to be standard feature day one was a pretty bad move), If I had to choose between shopping for merchandise using my web-connected HD player and listening to the feature film in full lossless qualtiy... I'd choose software with lossless sound.

David 1/3 of the population has hdtv's to take advantage of the visual benefits from blurays and hddvd's.

How many people have a receiver that decodes DTS-HD MA. How many bluray players decode DTS-HD MA from Fox, MGM and Lionsgate titles or have the ability to send it bitstream? See my point.

Since very few hddvd's use these codecs you can make the argument for DD+ and Dolby True HD. How many hddvd players decode DD+ or Dolby True HD? Every one! 4 players can even bitstream DTS-HD HRA or MA to the very few people with a HDMI 1.3a receiver.

[PRO-630HD]

Here's precisely what the HD DVD promotion group communicated to the press in case you were serious:

"Featuring executives from the HD DVD Promotional Group: Intel, Microsoft, Paramount Home Entertainment, Toshiba, Universal Studios Home Entertainment, and Warner Home Video".

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Last edited by Rich Peterson : 12-14-2007 at 09:34 PM.

Warner is scheduled to be at the hddvd prg press event. With all the rumours flying I am sure this was a must. I highly doubt they will announce bluray exclusivity here. It is not known yet whether Warner will have a representative at the bluray press event.