I posted this on my Twitter, but the HD DVD news du jour is big enough to mention here. As if your Xbox 360 was not busy enough with all the great games coming out this year, now we'll even more HD movie action to feed our HD DVD players. Yogi is right...it ain't over till it's over.
Well slap my ass and call me charlie this is outstanding news! Interesting choice to say the least! Thanks Major!
I don't think we'll see a dramatic, EARTHQUAKE-like effect coming from one side of the HD format war or the other until one decides to release a standalone player for under $300, unrelated to video game consoles. That will be a LONG time still, but Paramount chose wisely!
Now all you need is Sony Pictures, and Buena Vista (Disney).
I still say Blu-ray will win only because PS3's have built in blu ray players.
As much as I love the 360, this is horrible news for consumers, as they are the only ones that lose here. Blu-Ray discs sell more (its a fact) and this move was motivated by coorporate cash.
I hope high def discs don't move to a niche format with all these studios dancing about on a fence.
shame paramount choose for the easy money this battle will now turn in a sacd/dvd-a battle with no clear winner and the consumer who loses.
btw i own both players
This makes the war a bit confussing. Dont get me wrong i prefer Hd-dvd and this is great news but.... with Blu-ray discs out selling Hd by 2 to 1, i must say im confussed by paramounts choice. I am likewise confused about which format i should abck with the Harry Potter box set. Originally i had thought well Hd-dvd wont be here in 3 or 4 years when movie 6 and 7 land on the Hi-Deff format and i dont want half my collection in 1 and the other half in another. So i had elected blu-ray for that purchase but now i have to re-evaluate the life span of hd-dvd. Perhaps if a few more studios would back it id be set.
Ohhh wow, isn't everyone with a HD-DVD player lucky, I mean, Transformers AND Shrek the 3rd! Whuppie doo! That is going to winn the HD war - probably push people to buy a Blu-Ray player or PS3!
ms moneyhats
thanks for ruining yet another industry
try to make quailty stuff instead and you wouldnt have to open your wallet all the time
Best thing Paramount could do is get HD-DVD Star Trek Box Sets incoming
THAT would cause a bump
Uh oh , HD DVD just raised the white flag:
www.betanews.com/.../1187630265
the fact that PS3 has built in Blu Ray, I already know Blu Ray will win.
Now I'm back on the fence.. I was all ready to jump onto Blu-Ray since it looked like it was going to pull in the lead.. and now Paramount goes and does this.. now I gotta sit back on the fence and wait.. grr...
With the good sony stuff available as imports and paramount now doing this HD-DVD is here to stay! Now everyone just needs to call blockbuster and ask them how they're going to stay in business since paramount is now exclusive to HD DVD. Seems like blockbuster shot themselvs in the foot getting comfy with Sony. HD DVD FTW!
I guess its good news for HD-DVD. Not so much for me. Neither The Departed or Smoking Aces would work in my HD-DVD add-on. I returned 3 copies of The Departed before convincing Best Buy to let me have the blu-ray version.
new update for shadowrun not long happend...for peeps who still play..
Paramount decided on HD-DVD because it hit the consumer price point first, its cheaper to produce for and its a well designed product from the getgo.
Which basically means it can get to the consumers faster and cheaper than on BDA and that is how studios make money.
Sony heavily subsidizes the PS3 as both a console and bluray player and if there was ever to be a sub 200.00 BDA player people wouldn't buy a PS3 for movies and Sony would be fighting an even tougher battle. As its stands right now the Bluray market is single handedly leveraged by Sony and the PS3 and it won't be a console that wins the market and publishers are leary of such control, price fixing and expensive costs of production.
Kigmal, your link provided the quote that should end all arguements about this for at least another 2-3 years:
"none of this matters yet until more people start upgrading."
the fact that Blu-ray has been outselling HD-DVD 2 to 1 thus far doesn't mean diddly when you look at the installed base of the PS3 vs. standard definition DVD's at this point... it's not until the general public start purchasing stand-alone players that this "war" can be won (or even truely fought for that matter).
personally i'd like to see studios continue to release on both formats to spur competition and bring prices down, but i guess this is good news for Toshiba and MS...
This is huge news.
HD-DVD is the superior format, both from a cost of manufacture point of view, and an end-user functionality point of view.
As a consumer, I get cynical when I see studios trying to use their content to determine which product is best for me.
From day 1, it's been clear that HD-DVD is the superior format, from the interactivity to manufacture, to the compression. The only thing that Blu-Ray has going for it is the larger capacity, which has been a non-issue.
However, it's amazing to me to hear people say "oh well PIRATES OF THE CARRIBEAN is on Blu-Ray so that's the format I want to buy."
Hello?? Since when did we let the STUDIOS determine what kind of electronics that we buy? Should I ask Warner Brothers if I need to get the Samsung DLP or the Panasonic Plasma? I'm pretty sure Sony would have an opinion ;)
Admittedly, Paramount and Universal releasing exclusively to HD-DVD is also a way of circumventing consumer choice - but that's exactly what Sony and Disney and Lions Gate (et al) have been doing all along. But Paramount/Universal's transgressions are forgivable: they're supporting the better format.
Personally? I hope Disney comes to their senses.
we may end up in a stalemate. dvd-r & dvd+r anyone?
some of you seem to forget though that the ps3 is and always will be a game system, yes its got blu ray but its a standard player with no features, and with more and more companies sideing with hd-dvd the sales will only increase, and bert what the hell are you talking about how have they ruined another industry sony have ruined it by trying to force thier product on us all, they all should;ve back one from the start and we would have none of this crap at all