Warner Bros.' dual-format disc delayed
Total HD, the Warner Bros. solution to the Blu-ray/HD DVD face off for high-def home video supremacy, won't be rolled out in late 2007 as promised at CES, a Warner Bros. official said Wednesday.
The first discs, which will feature Blu-ray on one side and HD DVD on the other, will not appear until early 2008, according to Dan Miron, the studio's vice president of sales and planning, who made the comments at an entertainment business conference in Los Angeles.
The studio didn't provide further details, other than to say that it wants to avoid confusing customers further by putting yet another format on retail shelves. Warner Bros. believes that waiting a few more months doesn't make the dual-format disc "any less viable," according to a studio spokesperson.
But with the way things have been going for HD DVD, will a Blu-ray/HD DVD union even be necessary by January? This proposed format marriage may end up like an engaged couple that keeps pushing the wedding date back, but never actually gets around to tying the knot. We shall see.
Erica Ogg is a CNET News reporter who covers Apple, HP, Dell, and other PC makers, as well as the consumer electronics industry. She's also one of the hosts of CNET News' Daily Podcast. In her non-work life, she's a history geek, a loyal Dodgers fan, and a mac-and-cheese connoisseur. E-mail Erica. 
The content isn't widely available, the price is way too high, and downloadable / on demand content is likely to be the more popular way of getting movies in the future.
Go ahead guys, play your format wars. IMO, no one cares.
Investing in both an Xbox 360 and HD-DVD drive, plus a Sony PS3 is still cheaper than buying either both stand-alone solutions, or the expensive (where is it?) combo player. I'm wondering why the delay for real? Could this be a collusion to prevent sales of certain "cheaper" models? Will certain studios want their titles on opposing format? (Like Sony?) Will there still be isolation? (BluRay special features not available on the HD side?)
My colleagues and I will still rent, thank you. I don't see much difference between the two formats. Maybe for storage, BR wins. But for viewing, give me an unscratchable, unbreakable medium...cheap.