Could Warner Bros. Abandon HD DVD in 2008?

[dobyblue]

Originally Posted by Lotus

Best Buy has yet to drop SACD.

Sure - that's why they stock about 50 of the 4552 SACD titles available.

I can't remember the last time I saw and ad for an SACD at Best Buy, or a player, or anything actually EVER since 1999's SACD launch.

They stock a few popular titles. The majority of them aren't even in a correctly labelled section. I've been into the one in Toronto and the SACD's and DVD-Audio discs are in a section labelled "Kids"

Great point made there Lotus.

[dobyblue]

Originally Posted by GizmoDVD

Sorry to burst your bubble, but the 360 AO is in fact a stand alone. Just because it requires a 360 does not mean it can't be counted. The sole purpose of it is to play HD DVDs, nothing else. Why would anyone buy it and not watch movies?

So no-one will watch DVD's on their add-on, or play CD's? That seems rather odd.

Sorry to burst your bubble but the PS3 is just as much of a standalone Blu-ray player as the add-on is an HD DVD player.

We all know the refrain of "there are no games for the PS3" so they must be buying it for something? DVD upscaling? CD upsampling? Linux? Blu-ray maybe?

Duh.

(PS - the 750,000 number was several weeks after the 200,000 number - it was under 350,000 for HD DVD at that point.)

Facts are pesky for HD DVD fans aren't they?

See you next year.

Have a safe evening everybody.

[prerich]

Originally Posted by dobyblue

So no-one will watch DVD's on their add-on, or play CD's? That seems rather odd.

Sorry to burst your bubble but the PS3 is just as much of a standalone Blu-ray player as the add-on is an HD DVD player.

We all know the refrain of "there are no games for the PS3" so they must be buying it for something? DVD upscaling? CD upsampling? Linux? Blu-ray maybe?

Duh.

(PS - the 750,000 number was several weeks after the 200,000 number - it was under 350,000 for HD DVD at that point.)

Facts are pesky for HD DVD fans aren't they?

See you next year.

Have a safe evening everybody.

Well I use my add-on for hd-dvd viewing only (it's attached to my pc). I didn't buy the PS3 because I didn't want to buy a gaming system just to watch blu-ray (I waited until I could purchase a solitary drive for my pc). I game, but there is so much for just computers, xbox 360, and wii, that made PS3 un-necessary price vs function (if the PS3 goes down - everything goes down, if my pc goes down I can fix it without sending it to the shop - in the meantime I could still watch HD-DVD and game -xbox 360 and wii. It would take my computer, my console, and my son's (wii) console to go down for me not to enjoy anything - PS3 it goes - everything goes). Have a safe New Years yourself!

[Bob Black]

Originally Posted by dobyblue

Wait a minute, are you comparing review totals from only one site? Does Universal only have one title from the 70's? Is that the earliest they go back?

Warner have released the following:

Adventures of Robin Hood (1939)
Casablanca (1942)
Battle of the Bulge (1965)
Bullitt (1968)
Forbidden Planet (1956)
Grand Prix (1966)
Jailhouse Rock (1957)
Mutiny on the Bounty (1962)
Rio Bravo (1959)
Spartacus (1960)
The Dirty Dozen (1967)
The Graduate (1967)
The Searchers (1956)
Viva Las Vegas (1963)
Wild Bunch (1969)

How can Warner with much older catalogue titles put Universal to shame!!! This is without even including all the Warner movies from the 70's and 80's keep in mind!

Not much of an excuse in my book, but defend Universal's mediocrity if you must. Me personally, I'd still have to buy Last Starfighter if it came out on Blu-ray even with a 2-star transfer.

There are no "tiers" in my spreadsheet, it's simple averages, nothing more. If the numbers offend your tender sensibilities that is none of my concern.

I'm quite aware of Warner's list of older catalog films as I own most of them. However, Spartacus (which you've listed) is another Universal release which I actually missed on my list. So add a 1960 film to their list. Also, The Graduate was not released by Warner -- it's an HD DVD import from Studio Canal.

That said, I am not comparing WB to Universal -- I am refuting your constant rankings of PQ relevent to the individual studios. Universal has dug deep into their back catalog of films and none of the BD-exclusive studios compare.

For instance, 26 of the 58 Sony released films were from 2006 and 2007 alone! That's a whopping 45% of their releases that are brand new films with brand new transfers. A mere 13 of their 58 releases were films dating earlier than 2000 (Donnie Brasco, Revenge, Cruel Intentions, Seven Years In Tibet, Flatliners, Wild Things, The Fifth Element (remastered), Immortal Beloved, Close Encounters, Arlington Road, A Few Good Men, The Replacement Killers, and Bram Stoker's Dracula. Again, this data is from early November. If you look at the PQ average for these older releases, they are at exactly 3.5 stars -- very comparable to Universal's PQ rankings for similarly aged films (3.32) and with a much smaller sampling size.

For FOX, their slate of pre-2000 releases totals 10 films from this same period. And they had a mere 3 releases from the 80's and earlier (Rocky, Hoosiers and Robocop, all of which scored 3 stars). That means 70% of all Fox releases on Blu-Ray were movies from 2000 and later.

Disney always ranks highest in PQ averages. I agree their transfers are generally excellent -- and why shouldn't they be? Twenty-one of their thirty-eight releases were no older than 18 months removed from theaters! That's over 55% of their total releases consisting of only 2006 and 2007 films! Hard to mess that up! In addition, only Dinosaur (1999) and GI Jane (1997) were films released on BD disc that pre-dated 2000 (and, no surprise, scored 2.5 and 3.5 stars respectively)! Disney Blu-Ray releases AVERAGE year of release is 2005! Compare that to Universal's average of 1998 and you start to get the picture!

You mentioned Lions Gate. They had 6 releases from before the year 2000 - Reservoir Dogs (1992), First Blood (1982), Young Guns (1988), Dirty Dancing (1987), Basic Instinct (1992), and King Of New York (1990). And guess what their PQ average was? SURPRISE - 3.5 stars! In fact, they had some incredible stinkers from recent films as well, like Van Wilder with 2 stars and Doctor Strange also with 2 stars.

In terms of Warner, I applaud their efforts. Releases like Casablanca and Adventures Of Robin Hood, Grand Prix, Forbidden Planet have been remastered with excellent results. Blade Runner has risen the bar for catalog releases and should be considered the benchmark for future titles. All studios have had their handful of stinkers (even Warner isn't exempt with Christmas Vacation and the so-called "bobbed" transfers), but the biggest factor in comparing studios and quality of disc releases must be the age of the films. Anyone thinking that The Last Starfighter should look like Wild Hogs is kidding themselves. This is why I defend Universal...they have done a great job of releasing older titles that I love mixed in with stellar new releases like Hot Fuzz and King Kong that compare to ANY release on either format! For me, it's about the movies first and foremost. Who cares about stellar transfers when the films are the ilk of The Lockout, The Guardian, Ultraviolet, Little Man, The Covenent, Ghost Rider, and Gridiron Gang?

[1more4HDDVD]

Originally Posted by Bob Black

I have 256 movies on HD DVD and 2 players, the A1 and A2!

Bob, you and I are part of an exclusive club. I have 200+ HD DVD movies and 3 HD DVD players!

No matter what we say about HD DVD, at the very least we can say we put our money where our mouth is!

[JerryDelColliano]

Bob, you and I are part of an exclusive club. I have 200+ HD DVD movies and 3 HD DVD players!

No matter what we say about HD DVD, at the very least we can say we put our money where our mouth is!

-----

I got you guys BOTH beat!

We must have bought 10 HD DVD players so far and easily 5 or 6 BR players for review, reviewers etc...

Hell, I spent $3,000 for my PS3 on the first day so we could be FIRST with a real home theater oriented review. 36 hours later we had a full 5500 word review written - and I still don't play the thing.