What’s Behind Warner’s Blu-ray Switch

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Don Lindich, writer for the Pittsburg Post and outspoken HD DVD supporter, claims that he knows the reason why Warner dropped HD DVD support. The motive? A failed alliance with Fox and a cold hard cash offer of $500 million from the Blu-ray team.

Warner gave Toshiba an opportunity to lure a Blu-ray studio to HD DVD, in which case they would go HD DVD exclusive and give HD DVD a clear studio advantage. A deal was nearly secured with Fox, which had been having trouble with Blu-ray disc production due to the lack of manufacturing infrastructure. At the 11th hour, Fox went to Sony with its concerns and received a reported $120 million payout to stay with Blu-ray. With no studio joining them on the HD DVD side, Warner's hand was forced and it went with Blu-ray, receiving a reported $500 million for doing so.
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Interesting news about Fox...didn't even know they were contemplating a move!
 
Gee...
who woulda thought.

If 500 million did change hands, it would show up in financials. SEC, Sarbanes-Oxley, etc ,etc. There is no way to hide this. When someone shows me the paper trail, ill stfu.
Why ppl keep posting this very old speculation, i dont know. But then again, im not surprised it showed up here!
 
TexasAg05 said:
In before ethug, w1retape and 4saken ruin this thread.
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You barely beat me. :D And this thread was ruined when the news story got posted.

Because there is absolutely no credibility to the claim yet..
 
4saken said:
Gee...
who woulda thought.

If 500 million did change hands, it would show up in financials. SEC, Sarbanes-Oxley, etc ,etc. There is no way to hide this. When someone shows me the paper trail, ill stfu.
Why ppl keep posting this very old speculation, i dont know. But then again, im not surprised it showed up here!
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Gee who woulda thought.

4saken getting his nose brown from Sony's ass once again. But then again I'm not surprised it showed up here!
 
Azhar said:
Gee who woulda thought.

4saken getting his nose brown from Sony's ass once again. But then again I'm not surprised it showed up here!
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At least thats all the counter argument i get these days.
:p
 
Azhar said:
Gee who woulda thought.

4saken getting his nose brown from Sony's ass once again. But then again I'm not surprised it showed up here!
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Gee who would have thought, Azhar who believes everything he reads. :D
 
Well considering Warner gave an actual interview and specifically and unequivocally answered this question in the negative, I am inclined to believe Warner over some shmoe quoting hearsay "insider information".

OTOH it is nice to see Steve keep up his derogatory Blu Ray post of the day. :D

FWIW, I won't buy any HD till the war is over and just want it to end sooner, rather than later.
 
Ockie said:
Gee who would have thought, Azhar who believes everything he reads. :D
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I didn't say a word about me believing anything. I was referring to him and some other guys (you know who you are) who would constantly ignore anything, be it opinion or fact, purely out of fanboyism.

You'd think that a reporter would try to be careful and make absolutely sure of something before reporting about it. But I guess you and 4saken know more than him, right?

Nobody really knows the fact. But he blindly denies it anyways. Thats fanboyism.
 
Well, the guy is an outspoken fan of HD DVD etc. etc. etc. so you have to take what he says with a grain of salt the size of Kansas....but....this is also the guy that originally broke the Warner Bro switch story in the first place (we posted the link here) back when WB was still denying the switch.

4saken is right about the money not being able to be hidden once financial are reported for this period.....but, outside the hardcore HD DVD - Blu-ray fans, who will really care? The average Joe wouldn't care why concession were made, just the sa,e as for Paramount getting the fat cash to switch to HD DVD.
 
Azhar said:
I didn't say a word about me believing anything. I was referring to him and some other guys (you know who you are) who would constantly ignore anything, be it opinion or fact, purely out of fanboyism.

You'd think that a reporter would try to be careful and make absolutely sure of something before reporting about it. But I guess you and 4saken know more than him, right?

Nobody really knows the fact. But he blindly denies it anyways. Thats fanboyism.
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Ahh yes, including me into this. I simply made a statement on that you believe everything you read because "a reporter can't be wrong"... that assumption is dangerous.

FWIW, I own more HD players than I do BluRay players... so save me your garbage.
 
Ockie said:
Ahh yes, including me into this. I simply made a statement on that you believe everything you read because "a reporter can't be wrong"... that assumption is dangerous.

FWIW, I own more HD players than I do BluRay players... so save me your garbage.
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Once again you're reading what's not said.

I said reporters are usually careful what they report because their career would be on the line if they make wild presumptuous claims that aren't true. I also said that nobody really knows the fact. Stop putting YOUR garbage in my mouth.
 
Azhar said:
Once again you're reading what's not said.
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This isn't possible is it?

Azhar said:
I said reporters are usually careful what they report because their career would be on the line if they make wild presumptuous claims that aren't true.
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Really? LOL. Sometimes those wild claims can be great for their exposure.

Azhar said:
I also said that nobody really knows the fact. Stop putting YOUR garbage in my mouth.
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Then why are you attacking 4Saken who only asked for facts? lmao.
 
IF there's any proof behind these supposed behind-the-scenes payoffs, the Blu-Ray group could be in some seriously deep doo-doo. While this kind of stuff has been going on since the beginning of time, I give it a month before the EU launches a massive assault demanding billions for anti-trust/anti-competitive actions and the US should follow suit.

Oh well, we'll see.
 
Just bites they went with the buggy Blu-Ray technology. Forcing people that want Blu-Ray to buy a PS3 gaming console to watch movies on or risk not being able to update their player to the newest Blu-Ray standard due to no hardware support. HD-DVD was a finished product, Blu-Ray is not but it is what Hollywood evidently wants everyone to buy now. I think I shall stick with Digital Distribution and DVD media for now. I hope to god something new comes out to replace Blu-Ray that isn't buggy as shite.
 
I said the other day when this was posted that they went to Blu-Ray, that what the guy really meant was they got paid huge amounts to switch. Looks like I was right :)
 
I too must question the validity of this article. I imagine it would be pretty hard to just give someone $500 million without leaving any traces of it. I mean, obviously they would have to transfer the money electronically, so wouldn't that leave footprints everywhere?

I'm not saying the article is wrong, I'm just wondering how Sony could have pulled off such a payment.
 
Now if only Paramount would switch to Blu Ray so I can get Transformers on Blu Ray

Need an excuse to go buy a sexy HD player
 
isnt this why intel is beign sued for this kind of crap in europe against amd? since when is 30$ movies a better deal for consumers on a 5cent disc?
 
IMHO, the 500 million, if it exists, probably wouldn't be straight cash. It would be incentives or discounts off of licensing or some other less tangible commodity.
 
xappie said:
IMHO, the 500 million, if it exists, probably wouldn't be straight cash. It would be incentives or discounts off of licensing or some other less tangible commodity.
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I agree 100%. A Direct Pay-Out would probably get some Anti-Competative .gov type scrutiny.

It was probably a bunch of kick-backs over a multi-year deal.
 
Even if this story were confirmed which it is far from (considering the direct and unequivocal denial by Warner), this would only make the Blue side guilty of doing something that the Red side is already confirmed doing.

AFAIK the only confirmed switcher payment went to Paramount, to go Red for 18 months.
 
This is the part that stands out to me:
As for my future course, I will recommend the Playstation 3 to people who want Blu-ray until fully specified Blu-ray Profile 2.0 players are available and their performance matches the PS3.
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[Not] Speaking of Blu-ray, which floor is your locker on? I need you to give someone a note for me. Do you think she likes me?
 
fox has always been pro blu-ray... due to region coding and bd+ for security.

to them those were deal breakers...

and fox has also been reported that they are the only hollywood studio to have never done a test disc on hd-dvd.

i have yet to see any reports of a fox or warner top executive admit to any payouts, directly or anonymously, unlike the case with paramount where you have had folks admitting to the payouts. in fact warner has denied them out right.

sides this isnt 100 mil or 200 mil we are talking about... in total based on the report... its $620 million dollars. thats almost 2/3rds of a Billion dollars. Just where would sony get that money from? its not like they are MS where they have a global monopoly.
 
qdemn7 said:
This is the part that stands out to me:
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Why, the PS3 has always been your best value for a Blu Ray player. The profile 2.0 is irrelevant though. If you just want a movie player a 1.1 profile ( AKA final standard profile) is all you ever need. If you don't care about Picture in Picture features 1.0 is all you need.

Profiles explained:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blu-ray_Disc#Player_profiles
http://www.highdefdigest.com/news/show/Joshua_Zyber/High-Def_FAQ:_Blu-ray_Profiles_Explained/1186

As can be gleaned from its description as the "Final Standard Profile," 1.1 is the new mandatory base requirement for all Blu-ray player models released after the November 1st cutoff date (older models can continue to be sold as-is). Profile 2.0 is an optional enhancement and is unlikely to become a mandatory standard. At present, there has been no announced timeframe for the availability of Profile 2.0 hardware.
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