Paramount to Drop HD DVD? 470
zeromemory writes "The Financial Times reports that " Paramount is poised to drop its support of HD DVD after Warner Brothers' recent backing of Sony's Blu-ray technology, in a move that will sound the death knell of HD DVD and bring the home entertainment format war to a definitive end." According to the Times, Warner Brother's recent defection to Blu-Ray allowed Paramount to terminate their exclusive relationship with HD DVD. Universal Studios remains the only major studio to exclusively support the HD DVD format, though rumors have surfaced that their contract may also contain a termination provision similar to that exercised by Paramount."
Is this really the end -yes -or no -or maybe? (Score:3, Insightful)
Some big players in the market there.
The Warners move gives Blu-ray about 70 per cent of Hollywood's output, although the format's grip on film content will increase further when Paramount comes aboard.
The words "grip on film content" makes me feel all cornered.
Not holding my breath (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Paramount Denies (Score:5, Insightful)
May I be the first to say... (Score:3, Insightful)
I always suspected Blu Ray would win (partly because I wanted it to win, partly because of the PS3), but it took far longer than I thought it would. For the most part when corporations compete for the consumers business, the consumers win because they get a better product. In the case of the Next-Gen DVD format, neither the corporations nor the consumers won (or maybe they both won but it was a phyrric (sp?) victory). The products a few years ago are barely any different than what they are now (albeit significantly cheaper), so all that resulted in this conflict was consumer confusion and lost sales from people waiting out on a "winner".
I must say though I'm glad that Blu Ray won given that the only end user noticeable difference is storage and price, and Blu Ray win's on storage space, and will eventually get equal in price.
Re:Seems like HD-DVD is dead (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Winner is the Consumer (Score:2, Insightful)
Then the XBox 360 would have been late to market and expensive. I think MS had a lot more staked on the success of the XBox 360 than HD DVD.
Re:Porn studios showed the way. (Score:5, Insightful)
The myth that it was the porn studios who cased VHS to win over Betamax has been pretty thoroughly debunked... besides, even if it was so, this does not mean it must happen again 20 years later -
*People can get porn online easily these days.
*Porn might be one of the few genres that DON'T benefit from high-definition.
Re:May I be the first to say... (Score:5, Insightful)
Seems like this is a war not worth winning (Score:5, Insightful)
Gates famously said this would be the last format far. I think that it will prove to be the last plus one. Most people are going to be uninterested in buying video in a locked format; unless blu-rays allow you to play your videos on a generic DVD player, rip your video into your computer, play your video on your PSP, iPod, iPhone, or whatever, not enough people will want them to generate economies of scale.
I suspect that 1080 will turn out to be a mere stepping stone to arbitarily large screen resolutions. DVD, VHS, etc. all targeted an otherwise very stable market of equipment: NTSC televisions and stereo (or even mono) audio. The old CE companies have tried to create a new ecology (HD TV + Surround sound) but the real ecology is much more complex and diverse (PCs, laptops, cellphones, iPods, and stuff we haven't even dreamed of yet) and it's not going to stay even vaguely stable for long enough for a deeply flawed and mistargeted technology to gain traction.
Re:already denied by paramount (Score:4, Insightful)
That doesn't sound like a denial at all. That just sounds like they haven't announced any changes yet, so of course it's their "current plan". We already knew that it was their "current plan".
Blame Micrsoft? That is so 90s (Score:3, Insightful)
This is about Hollywood studios lining up with a product more friendly with what they want.
I went with HD-DVD initially because of price. That and the fact ALL movies start immediately without bunches of lead in crap - something that disney loves.
I will get a BluRay once the price reaches HD-DVD player price points. Fortunately there aren't enough movies restricted to one player or the other. Do I think my "investment" in HD-DVD is wasted? No, because they aren't going to stop playing. Besides calling it an "investment" is just a lame way to justify what you spend on something that is essentially frivolous.
Grats to Sony on the win, too bad for the consumer as I while both have overpriced movies the BluRay players are not competitive. If anything it may slow down real High Definition roll outs.
Re:Seems like HD-DVD is dead (Score:3, Insightful)
looks like the chances of getting a next gen dvd player for linux are out the window.
Oh geez. (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:do not want (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Seems like HD-DVD is dead (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Seems like HD-DVD is dead (Score:5, Insightful)
Far better for HD-DVD than the 2:1 to 3:1 we were seeing during most of the summer, and a hell of a lot better than the 8:1 or more that some Blu fanboys were suggesting we'd see by Christmas six months ago.
No, what really seems to have caused the announcement of the switch isn't the ratios at all, but that the raw numbers, and certainly raw profit numbers were far worse than expected. Loads of people sitting out the battle because they didn't want to back the loser, and loads of loss-leading promotion being run on both sides to ensure it wasn't them.
Warner want one side, any side to win, so the fence-sitters might dive in. They just jumped the way they thought might make the most difference.
Re:Porn studios showed the way. (Score:3, Insightful)
Yes but real people don't have genitals the size of 42" screens and razor pimples the size of tennis balls...
Heh (Score:3, Insightful)
Well, I bought one of the HD-DVD players at Christmas time and was quite happy with it...for about a week, when WB cut the legs out from under the format. The only actual title I've bought so far was a WB title. Heck, I took their statements about continuing neutrality to be honesty.
I figured it'd turn out that way, but thought the worse-but-final-and-cheaper format might pull one out. I guessed wrong, but at least I got a good upscaling DVD player out of the deal, and I think I'll go ahead and grab some titles before they disappear.
And as far as Blu-Ray goes, I'll wait until there's a non-sucky entry-level player that doesn't cost more than double my 3rd-gen HD-DVD player. I mean, really, a stand-alone player that sucks ass and costs as much as an entry-level PS3, which also plays Blu-Ray and comes with 5 free movies? What kind of moron is going to buy into that right now? I guess the same kind of suckers who buy brand-new computer tech as soon as it comes out.
The way I look at it, these studios just set HD movies BACK a year, and in that time, people won't be buying as many DVDs either, since the studios will take the attitude, "Just buy the Blu-Ray titles, morons!" before long. So have fun losing that revenue stream, guys.
Re:already denied by paramount (Score:3, Insightful)
Of course, denying the switch is the correct course of action, whether they're going to switch or not.
There's no sense in risking your sales by announcing shortly you won't be supporting the formatting you're selling. The rumour that they might should be enough to drive sales up a bit for the people who already have HD DVD players and don't want to switch to BluRay. Meanwhile you can be sure as hell, they're getting ready to go both formats and/or BluRay exclusive if the money works out.
I.e. the only reason they would not use the escape clause would be because they have to give back some of the bribe if they don't complete the term of the contract.
Comment removed (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:The impossible happened, hell froze over (Score:2, Insightful)
Besides, HD-DVD uses rep to identify their movies; where as Blu-Ray uses blue. Which one do you think looks more appealing to the consumer? The success of consumer electronics is often not depndant on technical merits, but visual ones.
And Warner denied last month as well (Score:3, Insightful)
If there is a clause, what makes you think it's not needed? HD-DVD sales have tanked on Amazon, and there are also rumors of some retailers dropping HD-DVD altogether. If that happens, I would say Paramount would consider it nessecary to invoke the clause.
Comment removed (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Seems like HD-DVD is dead (Score:3, Insightful)
Despite the fact that Tosh has been dumping players at somewhere around 1/2 of production price, the uptake of HD DVD has been pretty dismal. In fact, uptake of HDM in general has been dismal. This is the problem Warner was facing. They, and only they, had the power to put an end to a format war that kept the consumer on the fence. To do so they only had one move open to them. They made it.
There is no reason to think Warner was paid off in the way Paramount was, but it is not unreasonable to assume they got some good disk-printing incentives. Warner executives denies Warner was paid, and with Sarbanes-Oxley, it is reasonable to assume they are speaking the truth about that. I find it odd that the HD DVD fanboys are so adamant that Warner is unable to make rational business decisions. As with most nutcase theories, there has to be a conspiracy somewhere.
Oh, and BTW, in December, the sales of stand alone Blu-Ray players was higher than that of HD DVD players, despite the fact that they are priced twice or more of HD DVD. So, what can we say? Even when you give away HD DVD players, the general public say shrug, I don't care. That hurts everybody, and Warner needed to do something about that.
Now, now, let's not just make up numbers willy nilly or distort pretty ancient numbers. A good portion of PS3 players by now was sold with a Blu-Ray movie, the consumer isn't that stupid.
And that is your prerogative. I prefer to watch HD movies. You apparently want to watch SD movies rather than going with a format that your religion says you should not use. Good for you.
Re:Waiting... (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Winner is the Consumer (Score:3, Insightful)
I call BS on this. If MS did this then the xbox would have been 100 dollars more, fanboys would have complained, and they still would have lost the format war. They might even have lost the console war.
First off, MS is not Sony. They dont own a movie studio and billion dollar movies. MS is always fighting off regulation and is somewhat controlled by the threat of lawsuits and the judgement against them. In Japan, Sony is a powerhouse that is encouraged by the government. Its a brand thats part of their national pride.
MS knew that HDDVD was a huge gamble when going up against Sony in the movie business and along with Toshiba and others they lost. Xbox is still pretty cheap, ironically , a much better value and success than the ps3. So Sony lost the console and got the movies. Good for them. Here's to more Sony style managerial decisions like spyware on my discs, proprietary everything out the wazoo, and huge premiums.
Re:Winner is the Consumer (Score:3, Insightful)