A nail in the coffin for HD-DVD???

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Warner Bros to back Blu-ray DVD format exclusively
Fri Jan 4, 2008 6:48pm EST

Warner Bros, Hollywood's biggest seller of DVDs, representing about 18 to 20 percent of sales in the United States, was one of the few studios that backed both formats.

All sides of the format war had agreed it was confusing to consumers and a stumbling block for a potential multibillion-dollar industry.

Total DVD unit sales fell 4.5 percent in 2007, the first major year-over-year decline since the disc format debuted in 1997, according to Adams Media Research. Sales fell 4.8 percent to $15.7 billion.

"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 Bros Chairman and Chief Executive Barry Meyer said in a statement.


Warner said it would continue releasing in the HD DVD format until the end of May, although those releases would follow the standard DVD and Blu-ray releases.

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Is this the beginning of the end for HD-DVD?

AWESOME! Down with the HD-DVD scumbaggery!

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Originally Posted by littleindiangirl

AWESOME! Down with the HD-DVD scumbaggery!

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Woooo! 1st reply in and you're already swinging away. :P

:colbert: i wish they would pick a format and stick with it. i'm sick of replacing my collections...

records to 8-track to cassette to cd

beta to vhs to dvd and now this...

oh man... consumerism bites... harms the earth with the garbage it creates. :tears:

Well, as I understand it, there won't be any need to replace collections this time...just replace the machine you're using. The Blu-Ray machine will also play the older, standard DVD format we're most familiar with.

Unless, of course, you've already started snatching up HD-DVD's...then you may be replacing some eventually. :P

Seriously, I don't ever buy into the new gadgets and technology until the standards have been locked in for quite some time. It'll probably be at least another couple of years before we've fully switched over to the High Def craze.

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Originally Posted by recycling goddess

:colbert: i wish they would pick a format and stick with it. i'm sick of replacing my collections...

records to 8-track to cassette to cd

beta to vhs to dvd and now this...

oh man... consumerism bites... harms the earth with the garbage it creates. :tears:

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HEY! I still collect records! Vinyl rules. Goddess don't make me come over there!


Look in to my eyes :mad:.....


http://i198.photobucket.com/albums/a...ingo/bc101.gif

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It'll probably be at least another couple of years before we've fully switched over to the High Def craze.

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Nonsense. Stop on by and bring the family. I have enough popcorn for eveybody. :D

sure freak me out with those moving eyes!!! *runs from the room*

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Originally Posted by recycling goddess

:colbert: i wish they would pick a format and stick with it. i'm sick of replacing my collections...

records to 8-track to cassette to cd

beta to vhs to dvd and now this...

oh man... consumerism bites... harms the earth with the garbage it creates. :tears:

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we never should of had vhs to start with beta was far better sony just lost the war back then.
thankfully the industry realized their mistake all those years ago and realize how far ahead of the game sony is and is backing them now (it doesnt hurt that sony is huge in the movie industry now i believe #2 or #3)

hd dvd never had a chance anyway tho the quality of blu-ray on a 1080 tv is so crisp and clean it doesnt look like real life it looks better

I made up my mind from the very beginning, I'm not buying either format till there is a clear cut winner. It's getting closer but still not 100% yet.

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Originally Posted by 771subliminal

we never should of had vhs to start with beta was far better sony just lost the war back then.
thankfully the industry realized their mistake all those years ago and realize how far ahead of the game sony is and is backing them now (it doesnt hurt that sony is huge in the movie industry now i believe #2 or #3)

hd dvd never had a chance anyway tho the quality of blu-ray on a 1080 tv is so crisp and clean it doesnt look like real life it looks better

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HD-DVD and blu-ray pictures are exactly the same, and often use the same video file on the disc. The big difference is that HD-DVD encryption has been cracked so it's now the consumer friendly format despite the wish of it's creators, while blu-ray is still the anti-consumer pro-studio format.

Having moved beyond plastic discs a couple of years ago, blu-ray with it's locked-in format is useless to me. HD-DVD can be copied to my media server and played at a click from a menu without the disc being present, and those files will be playable without restriction when HD-DVD and blu-ray are a distant memory.

Blu-ray has one advantage right now in that if you buy a PS3 and a $1,200 stereo, you can play uncompressed 7.1 audio over HDMI 1.3 rather than DTS-ES on several movies.

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Originally Posted by littleindiangirl

AWESOME! Down with the HD-DVD scumbaggery!

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Why would you be against the consumer friendly format, and for the locked-down one?

I'm not for or against 1 or the other. I always thought it was a bit silly to see studios go with different formats for their films so hopefully soon there will just be 1.

wait VCR's are out of date now....

where have i been

Pssst Kevin, we have a stack of VCR's movies if you wanna come over and watch them. We just don't have a working VCR! :tears:

We just bought our first HD tv and will be purchasing a better DVD at some point. That's a few months from now though so hopefully there'll be a clearer idea of which one to buy by then.

http://i198.photobucket.com/albums/a...ingo/bc101.gif



Holy cow, starin at that first thing this morning was freakin creepy as all get out.... o.O

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Originally Posted by JeffFlanagan

Why would you be against the consumer friendly format, and for the locked-down one?

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Because, I dont care about user friendly format. Just because we've cracked HD for now, doesnt mean Blu Ray wont be there in a few years from now. Have more faith in our nerds! No technology is completely safe from our prying little hands. :P

Blu-ray is better quality. Just most people wont be able to tell the difference on our resolution sized TVs. Not until you get to the 60" screens does it make a difference, and there, yes, I have seen blu ray in action, and it is far better.

The clear cut winner should be BLU RAY!!! All the way baby!!

Hopefully, there are enough people like me who won't buy either of them that they'll keep making normal dvds and players. Yeah, that's right.... I don't want "superior" quality. I won't buy a LCD/Plasma/whatever tv, either :)

I really didn't care about it, but then someone made the decision for us and bought us a PS3. I must say now I am hooked!

Honestly, I figured that Blu-ray would win once the porn industry chose it. I still believe that the VHS/Beta war was decided by that factor. Sad but true :)

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Originally Posted by fishmommy

Honestly, I figured that Blu-ray would win once the porn industry chose it.

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They did? That's awesome!....*cough* I mean yeah I can see how that would tip the odds in Blu-rays favor. http://i198.photobucket.com/albums/a...dingo/nerd.gif

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Originally Posted by littleindiangirl

Because, I dont care about user friendly format. Just because we've cracked HD for now, doesnt mean Blu Ray wont be there in a few years from now. Have more faith in our nerds! No technology is completely safe from our prying little hands. :P

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Maybe, but the virtual machine encryption may never be cracked. DirecTV has been secure for a few years now.

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Originally Posted by littleindiangirl

Blu-ray is better quality. Just most people wont be able to tell the difference on our resolution sized TVs. Not until you get to the 60" screens does it make a difference, and there, yes, I have seen blu ray in action, and it is far better.

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Sorry, but that's just not true. I've seen both often on my 1080p AE2000 projector on a Carada screen. I'm a fairly serious videophile and TV/Movie geek with a display MUCH larger than 60", and I can tell you that video quality-wise they are exactly the same. Blu-ray has more capacity than the current HD-DVD, but HD-DVD has plenty of capacity for 1080p movies, which are mostly only 24fps anyway using that much less space. If you see anything but a perfect representation of the film on either, the encoder screwed up. They both look fantastic.

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Originally Posted by littleindiangirl

The clear cut winner should be BLU RAY!!! All the way baby!!

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Only from a PC storage perspective. 1st generation HD-DVD delivers plenty of capacity for movies. Both formats plan to add layers for increased capacity in the future.

I'm a big HDTV fan (and am always watching HDTV while waiting for my snake bins to disinfect:)), but not a fan of either format. I wouldn't recommend either format at this point unless you have money to burn. I'll be surprised if both formats aren't replaced by network distribution in the next 15 years, so I don't think either will "win" We'll have dual format players shortly, fixing the format war problem, then move to the internet eventually.

I recommend moving to Home-Theater PC based HDTV, stripping DRM, and building a movie collection on cheap hard drives. Don't let the studios tell you how you can watch the movies you bought. When HD-DVD and blu-ray are a memory, the ripped disc images will still play from any HTPC with the right playback software decades from now.

I can watch my TV and movie collection in the highest resolution available in my bedroom, living room, kitchen, and theater without worrying about if the movie is the right format for the player in that room, or even where the plastic disc it came on is. My physical media are all boxed up so I can have a less-clutered home and a MASSIVE video collection at the same time. I have a little bit of a DVR/CD/DVD/DVHS/HD-DVD collecting problem, but if you were at my house you'd never know it.

You would notice my BP problem. Can't hide that habit

I think that MP3s are the future as far as music is concerned. Tiny, easy to carry.. one iPod an hold your entire collection! Insane..

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Originally Posted by JeffFlanagan

I can watch my TV and movie collection in the highest resolution available in my bedroom, living room, kitchen, and theater without worrying about if the movie is the right format for the player in that room, or even where the plastic disc it came on is. My physical media are all boxed up so I can have a less-clutered home and a MASSIVE video collection at the same time. I have a little bit of a DVR/CD/DVD/DVHS/HD-DVD collecting problem, but if you were at my house you'd never know it.

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Oohhhhh man! I need to share that tidbit with my hubby when he gets back from the War. Maybe that'll be our next step in Entertainment Upgrades! We've got literally hundreds of DVD movies, but even with their slim little boxes, they start taking up a LOT of space!

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Originally Posted by JLC

Oohhhhh man! I need to share that tidbit with my hubby when he gets back from the War. Maybe that'll be our next step in Entertainment Upgrades! We've got literally hundreds of DVD movies, but even with their slim little boxes, they start taking up a LOT of space!

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Yep. You're in my situation.
Best wishes to you and your husband. I hope you're together soon!

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Originally Posted by JeffFlanagan

HD-DVD and blu-ray pictures are exactly the same, and often use the same video file on the disc. The big difference is that HD-DVD encryption has been cracked so it's now the consumer friendly format despite the wish of it's creators, while blu-ray is still the anti-consumer pro-studio format.

Having moved beyond plastic discs a couple of years ago, blu-ray with it's locked-in format is useless to me. HD-DVD can be copied to my media server and played at a click from a menu without the disc being present, and those files will be playable without restriction when HD-DVD and blu-ray are a distant memory.

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Originally Posted by JeffFlanagan

Why would you be against the consumer friendly format, and for the locked-down one?

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Sounds like the industry is just trying to protect its interests.....maybe some of us so much anti-consumerism, just more like anti-piracy and anti-theft.

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Originally Posted by 771subliminal

we never should of had vhs to start with beta was far better sony just lost the war back then.
thankfully the industry realized their mistake all those years ago and realize how far ahead of the game sony is and is backing them now (it doesnt hurt that sony is huge in the movie industry now i believe #2 or #3)

hd dvd never had a chance anyway tho the quality of blu-ray on a 1080 tv is so crisp and clean it doesnt look like real life it looks better

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Its ignorant to say that HD-DVD never had a chance. If Microsoft got on board and put a DVD player in there xbox 360 system then Blu-ray wouldn't have a chance. Its all about cooperate sponsorship. If xbox had a HD-DVD drive then there would be far more people on the bandwagon because there are far more people on the planet right now with an xbox360 than people who own PS3's or bluray drives combined. Sony invested into there own product. WB will invest in there product. HD is done, but to say they never had a chance is just stupid. By the way, im probably one of the only people on here with both HD-DVD and BluRay player and im also the biggest techy I know and I don't notice a damn thing between the two other than bluray drives have to have far more power invested in there units to provide the same picture quality and most middle of the road to low end players look like absolute garbage, where as hd-dvd format you can get a high end player for 300$ that looks ridiculous and not break the bank. IMO There both the same and its just cooperate greed and consumer confusion that purpetuates these 'format wars'. Clearchannel and Viacom still own everything and one way or another I have a feeling they are making money on this reguardless.

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Originally Posted by Mendel's Balls

Sounds like the industry is just trying to protect its interests.....maybe some of us so much anti-consumerism, just more like anti-piracy and anti-theft.

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Unless you're part of the scam, you're being used by people who don't give a damn about you.

The industry's interests are to squeeze us for every penny they can.
If they had their way, copyright would last forever, and we'd pay every time we watch a movie.

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Originally Posted by Mendel's Balls

Sounds like the industry is just trying to protect its interests.....maybe some of us so much anti-consumerism, just more like anti-piracy and anti-theft.

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btw, DRM hasn't historically been anti-piracy. It's been to stop the consumer from using the media as they please. While Joe Shmoe couldn't copy his DVDs to VHS for the kids, or even skip advertisements on a DVD, criminals were pressing thousands of copies, bypassing these restrictions easily. DRM controls the public, not the pirates.

In the case of music downloads, DRM has already failed and is being dropped label by label because it's bad business. I hope video goes the same way.

God Jeff, you sound exactly like my boyfriend. I can only handle so much anti-corporation, anti-government, anti-walmart, anti-industry speeches in one day. (not to say you touched on the last 3)

Point is, who cares? If we don't pay them to watch their movies, where will they get the billions of dollars to make more?

Chris is a nerd, we have literally hundreds of movies ripped, hundreds more on harddrives, tv shows up the wazoo, hundreds of games for several systems, and while I'm grateful for the hours of mindless entertainment at my finger tips, (to watch on a fairly nice size hdtv) I prefer to see movies on the big screen, and I really dont watch that many movies anyways.

I just have other crap to do. (Like video games lol)

Anyways, still rooting for blu ray like I have nothing else to do. Gettin all hifey over it, (chris thinks i'm nuts)

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Originally Posted by JeffFlanagan

Unless you're part of the scam, you're being used by people who don't give a damn about you.

The industry's interests are to squeeze us for every penny they can.
If they had their way, copyright would last forever, and we'd pay every time we watch a movie.

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Not sure what DRM is.....you probably know more about this then me.....but

How is it exactly a scam?

Sounds like if you had it your way no one could protect their intellectual and artistic property.

I believe the blu ray has been cracked...

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Originally Posted by KeithTN

I believe the blu ray has been cracked...

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That's what Chris thought, but he wasn't 100% sure on that...

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Originally Posted by JeffFlanagan

Unless you're part of the scam, you're being used by people who don't give a damn about you.

The industry's interests are to squeeze us for every penny they can.
If they had their way, copyright would last forever, and we'd pay every time we watch a movie.

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I don't know what you are up to my friend but what ever it is you are drinking I'd like you to reduce it by half, walk at least 2 miles everyday, and get 8 hours of uninterrupted sleep every night. :)

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Originally Posted by Earl

I don't know what you are up to my friend but what ever it is you are drinking I'd like you to reduce it by half, walk at least 2 miles everyday, and get 8 hours of uninterrupted sleep every night. :)

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About three beers at that point, and yeah that was a little strong.

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Originally Posted by littleindiangirl

God Jeff, you sound exactly like my boyfriend. I can only handle so much anti-corporation, anti-government, anti-walmart, anti-industry speeches in one day. (not to say you touched on the last 3)

Point is, who cares? If we don't pay them to watch their movies, where will they get the billions of dollars to make more?

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Your boyfriend probably makes some good points, but I'm not one of those extremists. I have no problem with someone making a profit. The problem comes in when they start taking rights and capabilities away from all of us and treating every customer as a criminal. The technologies that I buy should work for me, not for some 3rd party.
Things have been trending in a bad direction with extended copyright and DRM taking away our rights to our own culture and many people aren't even aware of it.

Quite honestly I haven't put enough effort in either to care much. I manage a video store, maybe once a week we get a single customer who asks us if we have Blu ray or HD-DVDs. Now my store personally doesn't but then again we don't have a high demand for them.
I haven't switched and most likely won't, I have over 500 DVDs, many out of production and I have no desire to switch formats.

I sooooo told you so. Blu ray all the way baby!!!!
http://truemors.com/?p=25552

Actually at this years CES everyone expected microsoft to announce that they were coming out with a Xbox360 with a built in HD-DVD player. What they didn't expect is Warner Brothers and Paramount (has a contract to follow Warner Brothers) To come off the fence and go to Bluray. I sell electronics and although they are over double the price our Bluray players are on back order and we have HD-DVD players on the shelf and they come with two free movies. Also Bluray movies are typically cheaper or at the same price as HD-DVD movies with more storage space. Also as for Beta Vs VHS I've always been told that the reason VHS won was because of record time. I think Sony Learned its lesson.

I have been waiting to see who wins. I updated my home theater system last year and my buddy who did my system told me to hold off until someone wins the battle, still waiting.

I did get a HP laptop that plays Blue Ray dics but haven't been able to make it work, does anyone know if I need a specific program to play them?

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Originally Posted by West Coast Jungle

I have been waiting to see who wins. I updated my home theater system last year and my buddy who did my system told me to hold off until someone wins the battle, still waiting.

I did get a HP laptop that plays Blue Ray dics but haven't been able to make it work, does anyone know if I need a specific program to play them?

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You dont have to wait anymore... Toshiba has pulled the plug ;)

As to the laptop, mine came with the necessary drivers and programs... I dont remember what it's called, but you should be able to download them.

Of also I'm at work and saw on G4tv that Walmart has dropped HD-DVD players and movies as well. Oh and there was an announcement a while back that Microsoft would put a Bluray player out for the Xbox 360 if Bluray won soooo.