Warner Bros. Picks Blu-Ray Over HD-DVD

I would have rather had all studios support both formats and let the best hardware win, but one side does need to die or HD discs in general are at risk. Everyone one I know is waiting for a winner to emerge. I have both, but I'd like to see one die so mass adoption can start.
 
First off, I own both players. If I have a choice I always pick HD-DVD over Blu Ray, mainly because of the features it will get over BR, plus there is no difference in image or audio quality since they are using the same encodings. I a supporter of the lack of region encoding and lax DRM on HD-DVD, not to mention that it shipped with a completed spec (early BR adopters got screwed in that regard). All that said, after seeing some recent sales numbers I can see why Warner decided to go with Blu Ray.

Warner gave heavy support to HD-DVD and had some of its strongest titles as HD-DVD exclusives, such as The Matrix and Batman Begins. Warner had a lot of cross platform releases but these were flagship titles that you just couldn't get on Blu Ray. It also used the advanced features of HD-DVD to its fullest, such as the picture-in-picture "before and after" view in the HD-DVD releases of 300 and MI:3, something that wasn't available or even at the time possible in the Blu Ray release (this will change with the updated BR spec). That said, Warner still sold 50% more copies of 300 on Blu Ray over HD-DVD. Given those numbers, it is all they needed to see that consumers were picking BR as their format of choice.
 
I am very saddened by this news since I have bought myself an HDDVD player this holiday. However, I only bit because the price was right in comparison to standard upconverting DVD players, and I got 10 free movies. If HDDVD does die, I will gladly pick up the titles in the bargain bin and wait until next gen because the series of events has caused a bad taste in my mouth for both sides, and Blu-Ray may win, but not my money.
 
The Blu-crew is paying Warner 450 million dollars over 3 quarters with preferential licensing. That is 70 million dollars more than the HD DVD crew was willing to bid for.

But wait, the storm isn't over yet. Some insider news being talked about on other forums says some other Blu-ray exclusive studios might go dual format now.
 
"Hating" a company is so silly to me. Sony makes tons of good products.

Its funny that the same people who "hate" Sony for this, dont hate Toshiba for buying out Paramount. Nice double standards.
 
It's all about money no matter which business you go into. The person/group/company with more money wins.
 
I think the rate of video pirates is increasing exponentially every time these companies switch sides. :p
 
fallguy said:
"Hating" a company is so silly to me. Sony makes tons of good products.

Its funny that the same people who "hate" Sony for this, dont hate Toshiba for buying out Paramount. Nice double standards.
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While I would in general agree with you, Sony is in a special class of shit all on their own. They've done several things which are to me, unforgiveable. While boycotts do nothing anymore I suppose, I do it FULLY as best as I can. Royalties, to new movies, to anything they make money off of -- I refuse to buy. Hate them.
 
Serpico said:
First off, I own both players. If I have a choice I always pick HD-DVD over Blu Ray, mainly because of the features it will get over BR, plus there is no difference in image or audio quality since they are using the same encodings.
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I don't disagree with most of your post except this. There is a difference in image or audio quality available. You have to remember, they offer the same codecs but different specs. There is more bandwidth available for BD is higher, up to 37 mbps I believe. With the increased capacity you can have better audio and video.

The problem is the only way to test this is with dual format movies, of which a studio is not going to produce two encodings. They'll produce one that fits the least common denominator, and be done with it. Was it the Harry Potter movies that had the extras in SD on HD DVD but in high def with BD?

Transformers won best audio you say? Imagine those sound engineers with a PCM/HD Audio track. It could have been that much better.

I'm not saying HD DVD sound and IQ sucks, far from it, it's beautiful. But the extra space and bandwidth affords more ... it is not indentical.
 
I bought the $99 HD ( in addition to my HD-A2 ) and a $299 BD-P1400 Blu-ray on boxing day, and I have a few things I've noticed now having this setup with both on one TV

1) Depsite a few great titles, HD-DVD is falling behind. I've had my HD-DVD for 4 months, and Blu-ray for 1 week and I'm already even in movies because so much more is out there for me ( and more importantly my wife ) on Blu-ray

2) Blu-ray stinks. The player boots up faster, but waiting endlessly for load screens on the Pirates discs, and a few others is aweful. It took so long I thought it wasn't working. I also have maybe as a newbie yet to find an easy way to skip the friggin previews and get to the Top menu. HD-DVD, I hit Top menu, done. Maybe its my player, but I end up chapter advancing through them. I like the HD-DVD operation from the time the player is fully running onwards. Blu-ray seems clunky.

3) For audiophiles, I have to lean towards Blu-ray. The inability of either of my players to output bitstream over the HDMI interface is a huge annoyance. I'm lucky enough to have a receiver that can decode both formats ( TrueHD DTS Master ) over the HDMI interface, but you have to step all the way up to the HD-A35 to get that function. My "entry level" Blu-ray player has no problems doing this, and if you like the picture, but havn't heard what the sound is like with TrueHD, you are missing a large part of the experience. I can hear the TrueHD from my Toshiba HD-A2, but its decoded internally and passed to the receiver and the sound is not as good. From the models I looked through, most current Blu-ray players can now pass bitstream via the HDMI and that is a big plus.

I for one hope this ends soon so we can move forward, but for those waiting for the next gen, good luck. Unless the movie is three hours ++ blu-ray can hold uncompressed 7.1 audio, and a full 1080p picture on this technology. There is no advantage to having a disc that holds 4 times more, as the picture and sound are peaked with today's television technology, which is not going to progress above 1080p anytime soon, with all the networks finally getting their HD content up to an acceptable level.
 
defuseme2k said:
While I would in general agree with you, Sony is in a special class of shit all on their own. They've done several things which are to me, unforgiveable. While boycotts do nothing anymore I suppose, I do it FULLY as best as I can. Royalties, to new movies, to anything they make money off of -- I refuse to buy. Hate them.
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lets be friends
 
I really can't undstand why people take such a hard stand on this subject. When the duel format players come down in price that is when I will purchase a stand alone player. I am cool as a cucumber when reading or discussing this format 'war'. When I read some of these posts I think some of you are getting a little hot under the collar. LOL.
 
deeznuts said:
I don't disagree with most of your post except this. There is a difference in image or audio quality available. You have to remember, they offer the same codecs but different specs. There is more bandwidth available for BD is higher, up to 37 mbps I believe. With the increased capacity you can have better audio and video.

The problem is the only way to test this is with dual format movies, of which a studio is not going to produce two encodings. They'll produce one that fits the least common denominator, and be done with it. Was it the Harry Potter movies that had the extras in SD on HD DVD but in high def with BD?

Transformers won best audio you say? Imagine those sound engineers with a PCM/HD Audio track. It could have been that much better.

I'm not saying HD DVD sound and IQ sucks, far from it, it's beautiful. But the extra space and bandwidth affords more ... it is not indentical.
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Deez - I totally know where you are coming from and what you mean. That said, until we get the same film encoded up to its max potential on both formats we won't know for sure what the differences will be. As it stands, if I take the best looking film encoded specifically for each format (say, Pirates Of The Carribean on Blu Ray versus King Kong on HD-DVD) we won't know exactly how much better we will be looking at. As a very picky videophile who was on laserdisc when everyone was VHS, I hate to say it but I wonder what the point of diminishing returns are, because the best of each respective format looks really freaking good. Conversely, I've seen utter shit looking exclusives on both as well (especially the initial Blu Ray run).

So yeah, I know what you're saying, but at the same time I wonder if it is getting to a point of splitting hairs when you have exclusive HD-DVDs that look as good as the best that Blu Ray has to offer.
 
homernoy said:
I really can't undstand why people take such a hard stand on this subject. When the duel format players come down in price that is when I will purchase a stand alone player. I am cool as a cucumber when reading or discussing this format 'war'. When I read some of these posts I think some of you are getting a little hot under the collar. LOL.
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Exactly. When combo players get below $300 it won't really matter.
 
I hate to see people with HD-Dvd or Blue-ray get screwed, but I'm glad it seems we might have a winner. Like most I don't care which format is technically better, I just want to grab a HD movie and call it a day. I also want my cheap HD reader and burner for my computer. Since Sony might win I guess the cheap idea is gone. Oh well in the long run one format for better or worst is really best for the consumer. I just wish something would have snuck out and trumped both formats during all this.
Oh yea and my PS3 just started looking better to me. I thought for sure HD-DVD was going to win when I got that. I also thought N64 was going to kick PS's ass too.
 
I wouldn't be a bit surprised if Blu-ray won. Not that it really matters though, video games hardly use the full potential of DVD-9 (most of the time not even DVD-5) and movie's really have to stretch content to fit on a single DVD-5. When we really need a new format Blu-ray and HD-DVD will be obsolete.
 
kubicki2007 said:
Does anyone remember another Sony folly called BETAMAX ? How about what ended up killing the format? Porn. Adult videos were widely available on VHS. That was the difference. Well it could happen to Blu-ray. Since Disney publishes to Blu-ray only, they are trying to keep all mastering / production facilities from producing adult material on Blu-ray. There are some facilities that will produce adult material Blu-ray discs, but very few because of this. HD-DVD has embraced the adult video industry and in the end that might be the difference.
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Maybe you should keep up on the news. Blu-Ray is now supported by many Porn studios.
 
kubicki2007 said:
Does anyone remember another Sony folly called BETAMAX ? How about what ended up killing the format? Porn. Adult videos were widely available on VHS. That was the difference.
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In the age of digital distribution and torrents, I don't think porn got a large impact on the format war. People rather anonymously download porn, rather than going to a store and buy it.
 
I'm purple til' I have no other choice.

With all the B1G1 deals, and the crazy equipment price drops, I can afford to dabble in both. I prefer HD DVD since I feel kind of dumb having to own a PS3 just to watch movies on, but why buy a more expensive lesser unit when the PS3 mops the floor with all but the highest end?

Really, who cares who wins? Anybody vesting any emotion in a silly format war by humongus japanese corporations needs more and better shit to occupy their time.

I prefer the mercenary, price focused approach, which benefits me and only me. Blu Ray winning just means I'll get to buy more HD DVD's for less until they're all gone, and for the price they're selling the players, I can buy a spare to keep in the closet if my primary ever breaks.

I'll avoid Blu Ray until I have to, but it was written long ago that I'd have to bu into the format:

Bond - Star Wars - Lord of the Rings

That right there represents the cement boots Blu Ray will inevitably have around my feetsies. I'm simply waiting, and I'm sure others feel the same way when it comes to those franchises.
 
Kahnvex said:
I'm purple til' I have no other choice.

With all the B1G1 deals, and the crazy equipment price drops, I can afford to dabble in both. I prefer HD DVD since I feel kind of dumb having to own a PS3 just to watch movies on, but why buy a more expensive lesser unit when the PS3 mops the floor with all but the highest end?

I'll avoid Blu Ray until I have to, but it was written long ago that I'd have to bu into the format:

Bond - Star Wars - Lord of the Rings

That right there represents the cement boots Blu Ray will inevitably have around my feetsies. I'm simply waiting, and I'm sure others feel the same way when it comes to those franchises.
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I feel about the same. Got the 360 add-on drive for $180 with Heroes, Batman Begins, Transformers, and King Kong. Add the 5 free movies, and not too shabby.

Just bought (this last weekend before the WB news) from Circuit City these HD-DVDs:
Shooter, Harry Potter Order of the Pheonix, Bourne Ultimatum, Next, Ocean's 13. for $53 total. That's right... $10.60 per disc including tax. Customer service messed up and gave me 3 for free, paid for 2. I wasn't going to say anything.

As for Bond, the series is getting worse and worse as the years go by. I'm done with buying Bond. Star Wars: blah. I don't like Lucas' attitude of control, so I'm not buying. LOTR: already own all 3, don't need them again.

I would like to see an end, but I don't like Sony. I still can't understand why Microsoft wouldn't have matched or beaten the offer.

Perhaps we are doomed to have a separate large format DVD for DVDR use only, and maintain DRM anti-piracy on movies. I really do like all the menus and responsiveness of HD-DVDs though.
 
I guess it's over then. But I'm still not remotely convinced that I need to replace my DVD library with a higher resolution version.
 
I can't say I'm exactly looking forward to the resurgence of region encoding.
 
Big Lebowski said:
Two companies a Hate with a passion. EA and Sony. I never buy any of their stuff.
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Sony certainly is a major stakeholder in BR but Matsushita (parent of Panasonic, etc.) actually owns more patents and stands to make more money if BR is successful than Sony.

theDreamer said:
Blu-ray still has to lower prices of their players before they will fully get mainstream or overtake HD-DVD 100%.
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Agree that BR isn't mainstream (by a long margin) but they passed HD DVD a long time ago and never really looked back.

kubicki2007 said:
Does anyone remember another Sony folly called BETAMAX ? How about what ended up killing the format? Porn. Adult videos were widely available on VHS. That was the difference. Well it could happen to Blu-ray.
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Times have changed greatly since the days of VHS vs. Betamax. Porn is so readily available through the internet that getting it on disc isn't nearly as important to the success of the next-gen format anymore.

gtg465x said:
Err... no. Panasonic is a member of the Blu-ray Disc Association, but Sony invented the format and is the closest company to "owning" it.
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See above, Matsushita owns more patents related to BR than Sony.

And FYI, I own an HD DVD player (never considered buying a BR player till now) :(
 
Tly said:
Agree that BR isn't mainstream (by a long margin) but they passed HD DVD a long time ago and never really looked back.

And FYI, I own an HD DVD player (never considered buying a BR player till now) :(
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Not sure what you mean by the first sentence. As for the second one quoted, I'm considering the same, although this decision still hasn't pushed me over the edge.
 
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defuseme2k said:
While I would in general agree with you, Sony is in a special class of shit all on their own. They've done several things which are to me, unforgiveable. While boycotts do nothing anymore I suppose, I do it FULLY as best as I can. Royalties, to new movies, to anything they make money off of -- I refuse to buy. Hate them.
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Exactly, boycotts do not do shit anymore. I like to se folk like you try, making 0 difference, just punishing themselfes and missing out on awesome products. Sony isn't perfect, they are in the business for the money and they do bring awesome products. Take PS3 for example, even if you don't game..awesome DVD player on it's own.

I saw somebody mention Blu Ray loading times, Pirates of the Carribean takes 1 second to load on my ps3, it is flawsless in that department.

Seriously though, boycott all you want, in the end, you are the one missing out. Just my two cents.
 
I'm not partial to any camp since I'm going to crack and rip all my discs to my HTPC, but I did get an Xbox HD DVD drive, just because it was so convenient and cheap at the time. That being said, it's done. Blu-ray wins. End of format war. Game over. Sony won, the consumer lost. Time to move on. The only future HD DVD has is in the bargain bin for the early adopters like me. Guess I can at least get the few worthwhile "exclusives" on the cheap in a few months.
 
What sucks is that once the Sony Marketing machine crushes HD-DVD player prices and movies will start to skyrocket due to their being no choice.
 
So anyone want to venture a guess as to when the remaining studios will jump ship to Blu-Ray to end this format war?
 
soccermatt34 said:
So anyone want to venture a guess as to when the remaining studios will jump ship to Blu-Ray to end this format war?
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Could be soon.. but probably not. Warner just breached many contracts doing what it did, so we'll see how it pans out. There have been talks that some BR exclusive studios might go dual format as well, so don't hold your breath.
 
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