Warner goes BluRay only, HD-DVD lost the HD format war

SquareIris · Post by **SquareIris** » Sat Jan 05, 2008 3:50 pm

Warner Bros. Entertainment to Release its High-Definition DVD Titles Exclusively in the Blu-Ray Disc Format Beginning Later This Year
January 04, 2008

In response to consumer demand, Warner Bros. Entertainment will release its high-definition DVD titles exclusively in the Blu-ray disc format beginning later this year, it was announced today by Barry Meyer, Chairman & CEO, Warner Bros. and Kevin Tsujihara, President, Warner Bros. Home Entertainment Group.

"Warner Bros.' move to exclusively release in the Blu-ray disc format is a strategic decision focused on the long term and the most direct way to give consumers what they want," said Meyer. "The window of opportunity for high-definition DVD could be missed if format confusion continues to linger. We believe that exclusively distributing in Blu-ray will further the potential for mass market success and ultimately benefit retailers, producers, and most importantly, consumers."

Warner Home Video will continue to release its titles in standard DVD format and Blu-ray. After a short window following their standard DVD and Blu-ray releases, all new titles will continue to be released in HD DVD until the end of May 2008.

"Warner Bros. has produced in both high-definition formats in an effort to provide consumer choice, foster mainstream adoption and drive down hardware prices," said Jeff Bewkes, President and Chief Executive Officer, Time Warner Inc., the parent company of Warner Bros. Entertainment. "Today's decision by Warner Bros. to distribute in a single format comes at the right time and is the best decision both for consumers and Time Warner."

"A two-format landscape has led to consumer confusion and indifference toward high definition, which has kept the technology from reaching mass adoption and becoming the important revenue stream that it can be for the industry," said Tsujihara. "Consumers have clearly chosen Blu-ray, and we believe that recognizing this preference is the right step in making this great home entertainment experience accessible to the widest possible audience. Warner Bros. has worked very closely with the Toshiba Corporation in promoting high definition media and we have enormous respect for their efforts. We look forward to working with them on other projects in the future."

In addition New Line has gone BluRay only as wel!

Can't say I'm sad about that. I own a PS3 and BluRay is the better burning format for the home PC user (that's why Apple has announced to use BluRay in future Macs and not HD-DVD).

thefool · Post by **thefool** » Sat Jan 05, 2008 5:11 pm

Paramount?

In terms of major studios in North America, HD DVD is currently exclusively backed by Universal Studios (including subsidiaries Focus Features and Rogue Pictures), Paramount Pictures (including Paramount Vantage, Nickelodeon Movies, MTV Films, DreamWorks Pictures and DreamWorks Animation), and The Weinstein Company (including Dimension Films).

Nobody lost anything yet. But frankly i don't care who wins.. its all a big phat joke heh

dracflamloc · Post by **dracflamloc** » Sat Jan 05, 2008 5:11 pm

The real winner is DVD... since pretty much everyone could care less about the HD formats. The HD versions only look better than normal on a 40" screen or larger and so the market for HD movies is very small. I even have a 60" and I don't even care. They are too expensive and my normal DVDs are fine...

Besides, who wants to have a movie in such hi-definition that you can see where the make-up artists screwed up? (I noticed this bigtime in the new pirates of the caribbean blu-ray at circuit city)

Rook Zimbabwe · Post by **Rook Zimbabwe** » Sat Jan 05, 2008 5:17 pm

What I love is... Blue Ray Burners are at the original CD 1X burner prices!

I don't even think there is a HD-DVD burner for the PC out there in the universe that costs under $4000.00 US$

Tipperton · Post by **Tipperton** » Sat Jan 05, 2008 8:25 pm

I have absolutely zero interest in any form of HD.

With my vision, I'd need at least a 50 inch TV to really see the difference and I refuse to pay what they want for TVs that big.

The only use I'd have for any form of HD format is data storage and HD burners are still too expensive and I'm sure the media is as well.

No thank you!

Derek · Post by **Derek** » Sat Jan 05, 2008 8:35 pm

The more studios that choose Bluray the better, for 2 reasons.

1. I have a PS3 to watch them on.

2. Micosoft support HD-DVD.

Mistrel · Post by **Mistrel** » Sat Jan 05, 2008 10:38 pm

I don't really care who wins so long as the media is an inexpensive solution for backing up large amounts of data.

Irene · Post by **Irene** » Sat Jan 05, 2008 11:24 pm

Mistrel wrote:I don't really care who wins so long as the media is an inexpensive solution for backing up large amounts of data.

The question is, can Blu-ray be concerned as an inexpensive solution for backing up data? A rewritable Blu-ray disc that holds up to 25GB of data costs about $20 ($19.99 >_<): http://accessories.us.dell.com/sna/prod ... u=A0912739

My current solution for backing up data is a little expensive, but very efficient (well I think it is, actually it was the idea of my uncle ^_^): a 160GB IDE hard drive ($80) and an external USB hard drive enclosure ($20) = $100. There are some points which make this solution better than Blu-ray discs:

1. More space: five 25GB Blu-ray discs (5×25GB = 125Gb) versus one 160GB IDE hard drive (160GB-125GB = 35GB)

2. Faster transfer rates: a Blu-ray disc can be written to at 2X speed and it must be erased before new data can be occupied to it, but an IDE hard drive can be written to whenever you like with very fast speed (dependant on RPM and seek time of course).

3. Portability: external hard drive enclosures are usually equipped with either USB or FireWire ports, meaning they are very portable and can be used nearly wherever you like, but a Blu-ray disc can be read only on personal computers with a Blu-ray disc reader or writer.

About Blu-ray versus DVD: well, DVDs are very cheap and work nearly everywhere just like USB devices. A 25-pack spindle of DVD+RWs cost $16 ($15.99 >_<): http://accessories.us.dell.com/sna/prod ... u=A0158638
That is 117.5GB of space (25×4.7GB = 117.5GB) compared to a single Blu-ray disc which holds only 25GB of data.

Anyway I do not understand much of storage and backup solutions, so my post can be ignored here ^o^. Hihi a bit funny: Blu-ray's new slogan: "All your space are belong to us" ^_^

Cheers,
Irene

thefool · Post by **thefool** » Sun Jan 06, 2008 12:10 am

Don't forget that dvd's in the start weren't really the cheap

Irene · Post by **Irene** » Sun Jan 06, 2008 9:40 am

thefool wrote:Don't forget that dvd's in the start weren't really the cheap :)

Well, at the time DVDs arrived CDs were cheap and besides in that time there was no need for backing up a lot of data, so times have changed dramatically!

And before CDs there were floppies and before those there were those super big 8-inch disks and and ^_^

Dare · Post by **Dare** » Sun Jan 06, 2008 9:49 am

Irene wrote:Hihi a bit funny: Blu-ray's new slogan: "All your space are belong to us" ^_^

lol. That brings back a memory.

Tipperton · Post by **Tipperton** » Sun Jan 06, 2008 2:23 pm

Irene wrote:My current solution for backing up data is a little expensive, but very efficient

Same here, but instead of using a hard drive in a USB enclosure, I use a IDE Iomega REV drive. Data transfer is almost as fast as a IDE hard drive and each disk holds 35 GB of uncompressed data. The drive itself is about $200 to $300 depending on where you buy and the disks are about $50 each.

I use Acronis True Image to do the backups and it only takes a couple of hours to do a full backup and less than half an hour to do an incremental backup. Works for me!

thefool · Post by **thefool** » Mon Jan 07, 2008 1:46 pm

KAPOW

http://www.computerworld.com/action/art ... onomyId=15

of all the comanies in this thing i actually do like toshiba the most.

dracflamloc · Post by **dracflamloc** » Mon Jan 07, 2008 3:19 pm

True, I do like most of the toshiba products i've had.

About your USB HD backup: Its good and works, however in the event of the hard drive failing you lose EVERYTHING. The one thing about backup DVDs is they are cheap and can be easily stored in a bank safety vault routinely without too much worry about one 'failing'

Solution: I do both. Once per month I burn everything to DVDs and archive them. Every night I do a mirror to an external drive.

thefool · Post by **thefool** » Mon Jan 14, 2008 6:49 pm

HD Strikes back

http://www.engadget.com/2008/01/14/hd-d ... re-prices/

http://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.html?i ... 1&plpage=1

Maybe i'll get one, just to support Toshiba