Warner Bros. to back Blu-ray DVD format exclusively

Move seen by some as an end to the format war; Toshiba, maker of the rival HD DVD technology, vows to fight on.
The party for HD DVD is over, literally

The story "Warner Bros. to back Blu-ray DVD format exclusively" published January 4, 2008 at 4:42 AM is no longer available on CNET News.

Content from Reuters expires after 30 days.

[Wookiee-1138]

Take that, Xbots!

Your Trolling days are over.

[brandonh33]

Cool

I cant wait untill all of the 360 and hd-dvd fanboys start showing up this is going to be hilarious. I can see it now. "Its not over consumers are all about price and our cheep peice of crap 1080i unit is $50 cheeper." You know, the war already has had a winner for a while, the only thing that was confusing was when the war would end. Honestly I dont believe hd-dvd is just going to go away, but its going to turn into nowadays vhs and tape, they are still for sell, but nobody buys them and there will be very small supply. When does that happen? I am betting on 1 1/2-2 years. Ahh, I cant wait for the o so sweet fanboy hatemail comming my way, but i speak the truth:)

[ylla]

LOL

Post that in one more place why don't ya...lol.

[jackasssiegel]

LOL I'll Bite

Not what you would call an XBOT however I would point out that the xbox 360 keeps winning the "war".

If the format war continues than instead of choosing a format people like myself are able to download hd movies off of xbox live.

If HD DVD wins they already have the player and if BLU RAY ends up winning then they will produce a BLU ray player. It's simple as that.

Besides I personally believe that before this whole format war is over most of our HD content will be received over the net.

[ylla]

Sigh

The scary thing is that no matter what site I go to I keep seeing the exact same posts (and posters apparently) saying the exact same comments over and over. Makes me wonder who all the REAL fan-boys are - I'll never understand why people have such odd "loyalty" to technology branding. How many times do you need to say the same thing in so many places? Does it matter THAT much? LOL.

[wilswong]

Does it matter?

ylla, I agree with you...technology, on hind sight, does not really matter much. It does not really matter that we are using facebook to connect to other people, it does not matter that our money in our bank account is not real money but in digits and the list goes on.

Yes some people are pretty 'hot' in what they are saying and thing said already should be left to rest.

The only problem is that Toshiba is not conceding defeat in the face of fact and thus bringing up the debate once again (though this time round, the news is on one company choosing one format over the other).

People would then point to VHS versus Betamax saying a technologically advanced product will not necessarily win.

But right now, I am seeing my HDD capacity grew from 40GB 3 years ago to a whopping 600GB right now (all thanks to my 12 Megapixels camera image in RAW). Even though DVD is sufficient right now, it might not be in a couple of years time when user initiated content (as in Web 2.0) will leak into the entertainment scene. There's when a higher capacity disc would be useful.

So all-in-all, I would rather save my money now and it does matter when every dollar into the wallet counts.

[wilswong]

Format War

Be real Toshiba...bluray is technically more superior won't just you accept that fact and just roll over and die off.

I appreciate the fight but those who are technically inclined are not buying HD DVD or Bluray just because you are touting something that is just about the same as a BR Disc without much significance in price reduction.

For now i just stick with DVD even with a 500+ lines I can still live with it. If the movie production companies don't make a concerted decision anytime soon, your sales ain't gonna go up!

[ylla]

Oh I agree as well.

I wasn't commenting that technology doesn't matter I was actually commenting on the need for an indivudual to post over and over again as if their whole life was hanging on a format war (while insulting others or their choices.) To me I don't see the need for someone to take it SO to heart that they are practically salivating when their chosen BRAND or item is winning. That to me is just a bit silly.

All I seem to see is "Xbox" insults or "Sony" insults or "Fan Boy" insults - that suggests to me that a person is attached to a "NAME" rather than the particular merits of a technology. Sorry if I didn't make that clear enough. :-)

[cross platform]

Maybe......

They're attached to the hundreds of dollars they've already spent? Ever think of that?

[sanjayb]

Just take one dip and END IT!

I really don't care who wins the war. I have no preference. I just want it to end.

[brandonh33]

Hello again

Haha ya sorry about the double post. The story behind it is that I found this article first and wrote up the post but then I looked on the front page and found basically the same article only, it was the one everyone was posting on. So I decided to take the cheep way out and just do a copy paste. Sorry about that but I mean seriously why do they have 2 articles? And to one of the posts on here about the 360, I think you were trying to say, correct me if I misunderstood, that if hd-dvd turns out to be a flop microsoft cant just get a blu-ray disk player for the xbox. Well they cant do that because the main supporter behind blu-ray is sony which happens to make the ps3 and they are not going to give that technology to the console that they are competing with. So the 360/Microsoft is stuck with hd-dvd or nothing. And to Ylla, it seems that you posted the same article on here twice too... I guess we are even now. :) And the reason I support blu-ray is because it is the superior format of choice. Now that profile 1.1 is out blu-ray is capable of doing everything hd-dvd is capable of doing, only it has much more memory under the hood. I am not just choosing a brand name, if hd-dvd had the superior technology I would root for them but the main fact is that some people just dont get is that the biggest factor to a disk is memory. Yes there are other factors like the burn/read speed ect ect. But there is nothing right now that hd-dvd has the blu-ray doesnt. You guys should be happy of the time period I am giving hd-dvd untill its washed up, because it seems that none of the writers of any of the articles give them that much time.

[brandonh33]

Type-error

I dont know if any of you care but besides all of the grammatical errors i would like to clearify this. The other person said that if hd-dvd is a flop then microsoft CAN just get blu-ray. and i responded that it cant if that helps you understand part of my post better.

[jltnol]

Sony isn't going to give anything away...

whether it be to MS, or to Apple. Everyone who uses BluRay
Technology will have to pay some type of licensing fee, and if
you think for one heartbeat Sony won't license the technology to
MS to include in their X-Box, I'd say your wrong.

Money Money Money, and more of the same. It's all that matters,
and have no doubt that when the time comes, MS will ask for
and get a license from Sony to include BluRay technology in the
X-Box.

[zackinma]

i did know blu ray would win from day 1

how did i know that blu ray would win out from day 1.
because of the PS3. the PS3 comes with a blu ray player.
M$ may have chosen HD-DVD as their format, but you don?t get a player with the 360, you have to pay extra and buy one. (add on)
For the price they charge for the player, you can pretty much buy a stand alone HD-DVD player that is of better quality, the Toshiba A30.

Now lets discuss how that impacts the numbers

when determining who is winning we need to look at total players sold. that after all tells us how many people are going to buy the movies on the format.

Blu ray players outsold HD-DVD players 2-1. I submit that is because the PS3 has padded the blu ray players sales figures.
For every PS3 sold, it also counts as a blu ray player sold. Even if the person who purchased the PS3 has no intention of using it as a blu ray player.
HD-DVD gets no such love from M$?s xbox 360.
Hence blu ray will win out in the end.

Good decision by sony to include a blu ray player in the PS3. It may have cost them more money to produce the PS3 and they aren't making any profit on the console sales, but they are going to make 10 times more on movie sales and licensing when the format war is over.

Thank god the war is coming to an end. We the consumer have suffered for too long with it. Many of us, myself included had to become format neutral to enjoy all the movies we wanted.

now in a year what am i supposed to do w/ this HD-DVD player i paid 450.00 for? throw it in the trash i guess.

[bdaughtry]

No you didn't

How can you know what has not happened?

As another posted said, the winner is the old DVD because of the quality of the existing upconvert players. Besides, Sony is bad news and can not be trusted. The movie studios just don't want to see the same thing happen to movies that has happened to the music industry. But guess what, that is exactly what's going to happen because of their failure to see beyond their noses.

[Dogbert]

So what?

I was early to adopt the Xbox 360 and I bought a new HD DVD player for Xmas. The primary use of the new HD DVD player will be to play my DVD library. And let me tell you ? You would have to spend a lot off cash to get an ordinary DVD player who would do the job as god as the Toshiba player (Up scaling). As for the Blu-Ray player, I guess I eventually will buy the PS3 and then I will own a Blu-Ray player to.

But as for today the 360 have a good line-up of games and the Toshiba player do a great job playing my DVDs. Hopefully the DVD prices will go down while the studios focus on the HD part of things. Great!

[trekker4life]

Blu-Ray? No thanks!

Where do you think the money lost due to Sony's 500 million dollar payoff to Warner Brothers will come from? You... the Blu-Ray disc buyers. You won't see it right away, but just wait until HD-DVD dies. The big winner anyway is DVDs with up-convert players. You can hardly tell the difference between HD and up-converted DVD movies, so why waste the money on anything else?

[samkass]

payoff...

You must be thinking of Toshiba's payoff to Dreamworks and
Universal. If you don't want/need HD, keep buying DVDs (or
downloading stuff). If you do, for goodness sake buy Blu-Ray. The
battle's over.

[bdaughtry]

Blu-Ray = Bad & Sony = Bad

Ask any idiot if a HD-DVD player needs to play regular DVDs. Nuff said.

[samkass]

They both play regular DVDs

All Blu-Ray and HD DVD players play regular DVDs.

[couchpotato99]

warber bros. blue ray sellout

Mark down January 4, 2008 in your calendars. This was the day the video consumer who wanted the best value for his or her money got stabbed in the back. Warner Bros. Home Video decided to go exclusively with Blue Ray and discontinue releasing movies in HD-DVD.

What exactly prompted Warners to make this appalling decision will eventually emerge. But one thing is for sure. Three quarters of a million owners of HD-DVD

[Wookiee-1138]

Don't worry.

If the HD DVD companies have any sense, they'll go out gracefully and offer an exchange program or something to people who have already purchased their products.

[samkass]

Give me a break

What prompted WB to make this decision is that Blu-Ray media is
outselling HD DVD by 2:1 in the US, 3:1 in Europe, even more than
that in Japan, and 4:1 in rentals. It's a no-brainer.

Once the PS3 came out with native Blu-Ray support, the battle was
over. "three quarters of a million" HD DVD players? There are more
PS3's sold per quarter than all the HD DVD players ever sold.

[trekker4life]

The reason has already been revealed

The reason for the Warner Brothers sellout has been revealed. Just before Warner Brothers was about to go with the superior (finished) format of HD-DVD exclusively, the Sony camp offered them half a billion dollars to go with the problem plagued (unfinished) blu-ray format instead. Blu-ray will probably be worth buying in a few years (after they finish the format).

[ralfthedog]

Warner Brothers Hero

HD DVD is an over priced technically inferior technology that many of us did not want to be stuck with for the next 15 or 20 years. It is far better for those who are stuck with HD DVD players to have the format end now than to keep paying for over priced disks for the next 20 years.

Long live the Blue!

[couchpotato99]

Warner Bros. exclusive with Blue Ray

Mark January 4, 2008 in your calendars. This was the day the video consumer who simply wanted the best value for his or her dollar got stabbed in the back. Warner Bros. Home Video decided to release exclusively in Blue Ray and discontinue HD-DVD.

Just what transpired to lead to this appalling decision will eventually come out. But one thing is for sure. 750,000 owners of HD-DVD players, nearly all of whom absolutely love their machines, are going to remember this day forever as an ill-conceived decision motivated only by corporate profits and NOT in the best interest of the consumer!

[cross platform]

Well It Remains To be Seen...........

If this is truly the end of the format war what kind of angry backlash this will have with people who've already purchased HD DVD. And that's a lot of people. Sony may have just shot themselves in the foot. Myself I've just purchased a player and several titles. If some kind of consolation for the consumer isn't offered that's really bad press. That in turn won't help the growth of BluRay or any kind of HD home video.

[tangokid]

HD DVD sounds dorky

Sony was right on calling their system Blu-Ray! Wow! Cool! Like a
light sabre! HD DVD sounds like something out of the tombs of
dullness at Microsoft.

[Maclover1]

??????

The best thing about HD-DVD it its name!!!! Let me see we have TV and HDTV which is better. HD equates to better. HD-DVD to joe user means High Definition DVD...as in better.

Blue Ray means....??????

You must be joking.

[umbrae]

Sony also calls Blu-Ray HD DVD...

Watch the commerical's closely. They usually say on DVD and HD DVD then round it out with a "Only on Blu-Ray". Sony has been at the lead of confusing customers about HD formats.

[bemenaker]

are you insane?

You are too much of a techie and fail to see the world as a standard consumer. Consumers say *** is bluray? A consumer can look at HD-DVD and instantly know what that means.

[VI Joker]

Does it really matter?

Shortly the video content that is on disc today will be available through your cable box or through a service like Tivo. The only reason this so call "war" is going on is to make the movie studios and tech companies money while they sort out how to make the video on demand work to their benefit.

[cross platform]

Ok What About Portability?

So you record this HD content on your cable box ( which by the way doesn't look as good as these discs. I know I've compared ) and you want to take this over to your buddy's house to show him. How do you do that? If you want something to become the mainstreme medium to replace DVD it has to have this capabiltiy. Otherwise it's just a time shifter. Not a main video format. Do you really think movie studios will just let you take HD content from cable and burn it to a BluRay or HD DVD burner? They're already so paranoid over piracy this is not likely. The public is already used to this model so it's not likely to go mainstreme for something they can only watch as long as they watch it at home and their hard drive isn't full.

[X-C3PO]

Movie companies should release both format.

Who care about the end users? If I already have a "HD" or "BR", and the movie companies said "Sorry, now we changed to release "XX" format exclusively..."

Movie companies should release the both format.

[couchpotato99]

Making discs in both formats

I say to that, "AMEN!" What a refreshing idea! Make the discs in BOTH high definition formats and let the CONSUMER decide.

But wait a minute! Do the movie companies really give a tinkers damn about the consumer? They pay lip service to that concept, but their actions show otherwise. They just want the QUICKEST road to big profits to make up for the fact standard definition dvd's are slowing down.

The Warner Bros. decision was a "hail mary pass"!

[umbrae]

This will happen...

They are fighting over 2% of media sales. WB, along with the large payout from Sony, is hoping their switch will tip the favors, but it will not happen. It will just decrease their sales. Many HD DVD owners have made vows to not buy any DVD or Blu-Ray disks from BR exclusive providers, so they will being to see a drop in DVD sales which is the bread and butter.

If they were really worried about "consumer confusion" they would continue to support both formats. The studio's taking sides just shows who does not care about consumers. If they cared they would do whatever it takes to make sure customers could see their movies.

I will never own Blu-Ray or any Sony technology. I am happy getting their HD movies on Pay Per View, so as far as I am concerned Blu-Ray will never win. Only consumers will lose.

[Ilgaz]

BluRay means

A blue laser, way too more stylish than HD-DVD.

What was that failed JPEG/RAW killer from MS? HD Photo?

They suggest a standard but they don't ship necessary support for
Mecca of Multimedia, Apple OS X and it fails. See a pattern there?

[KTMCDO]

sony pictures

This is one reason why
an electronics company
should never be allowed
to own there own motion
picture studio
they have an invested
reason for the blu-ray
to win screw the
little people

[ralfthedog]

Paramount escape clause.

With any luck, Paramount included an escape clause in the exclusivity deal they had with Toshiba. If HD DVD sales drop to half or less of Blue-ray for x number days, Paramount is allowed to jump back to the Blue.

It would just take one HD DVD studio crossing over to the light to turn HD DVD into nothing but a very bad memory.

Long live the Blue!

[brandonh33]

They did kind of

The Paramount deal contract date ends in, correct me if I am wrong, about one year from now. I read that in an article somewhere but could not find it. It is something like that for sure. If anyone could find a link to that article that would be great.