Warner Bros. Gets on the Blu-Ray Bandwagon

Post by **bicostp** » Tue Jan 08, 2008 9:56 pm

Things aren't looking good for HD-DVD.

Blu-Ray has another heavy hitter on its team. Warner Brothers has made the switch and will only distribute movies on Sony's format.

On top of that, Paramount is rumored to have a clause in their contract which will allow them to jump ship and distribute movies on Blu-Ray if WB does so. Whether they will is anyone's guess, but it would make sense since Blu-Ray has about 70% of Hollywood's output now.

If Paramount switches, DreamWorks may follow, since they distributed their movies. (This is, of course, pure speculation.)

Now that the scales have tipped so far, will the entire market go blue, or will HD-DVD pull an amazing new trick out of its lower digestive tract and stay in the running? Only time will tell I suppose.

So, what does this leave HD-DVD with? Paramount and Universal?

Personally I think Blu-Ray is the better format. It has higher capacity per disc and sounds a lot better than HD-DVD. (That is, it's easier to say 'Blu-ray' than "HD-DVD".

)

Oh, right. Discuss! [size=0]Don't tell me you didn't see that coming.[/size]

Sources:
http://www.realtechnews.com/posts/5237
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/ea637496-bd8d ... ck_check=1
http://www.reuters.com/article/technolo ... 4620080107

lifeisbetterwithketchup · Tue Jan 08, 2008 10:01 pm

I'd say they're about even. Blu-ray has higher storage, but you don't need that really with movies, as there is such efficient compression so you can fit like 4 hours on a Blu-ray disc. The size different is negligible for movies, but matters tremendously more for the PC market (backing stuff up etc). HD-DVD has the price advantage (albeit they're getting closer and closer), and Blu-ray has the support of the PS3. Studios keep going back and forth on which format they support, and I don't really care which wins, as long as one does win, and we don't have to deal with two formats for too long.

vskid · Post by **vskid** » Tue Jan 08, 2008 10:53 pm

I'm hoping that Blu-ray wins. Higher capacity means that we probably won't have those 2-disc sets so that theres enough space for the "bonus features" that no one watches. And, since Blu-ray players cost about the same as a PS3, we'd probably just get a PS3. So I'm hoping the "war" ends soon, before dedicated players cost too much less than PS3's.

Dr. KillGood · Post by **Dr. KillGood** » Tue Jan 08, 2008 11:21 pm

I agree that it needs to end soon, but I do not much care who wins. If it is Blu-Ray, I hope Sony does not go Nazi with it.

ChrisS · Post by **ChrisS** » Wed Jan 09, 2008 12:03 am

I have both the 360 + HD DVD add on and a PS3.

From the movies I've purchased and viewed both HD DVD and Blu-ray have about the same picture quality. Where I noticed a difference is sound. I think Blu-ray has better digital sound standards than HD DVD.

HD DVD is already running into space issues. The Transformers HD DVD in order to fit the sound they had to use some older analog format for audio, still sounds good on surround sound, but not as good as it could have been and not as good as other movies.

HD DVD is pretty much done at this point. If Universal and Paramount want to make money on HD movies they need to jump to Blu-ray and end this war for good now. By the end of the month they should be on Blu-ray.

ChrisS · Post by **ChrisS** » Wed Jan 09, 2008 12:07 am

Dr. KillGood wrote:I hope Sony does not go Nazi with it.

I doubt it.

Winning over HD DVD will be the easy part, then they'll have to win over DVD, that's going to be the hard part.

khaag · Post by **khaag** » Wed Jan 09, 2008 1:08 am

^Exactly. I don't care who wins... I'm not giving up my huge DVD collection!!

nightwheel · Post by **nightwheel** » Wed Jan 09, 2008 9:43 am

khaag wrote:^Exactly. I don't care who wins... I'm not giving up my huge DVD collection!!

Amen to that

SZF2001 · Post by **SZF2001** » Wed Jan 09, 2008 1:26 pm

nightwheel wrote:
khaag wrote:^Exactly. I don't care who wins... I'm not giving up my huge DVD collection!!
Amen to that

I don't think that will be a huge problem.

The majority of anyone who owns a DVD player are most likely to have a few DVDs. Since the market of DVD players seem to be so huge now, there is a good chance that most of those people with the players have DVDs to watch them with.

When you bring a new format in, it should be backwards compadible in this type of situation - isolation doesn't work, and if tried, would fail horribly.

HazmatB · Post by **HazmatB** » Wed Jan 09, 2008 1:33 pm

SZF2001 wrote: When you bring a new format in, it should be backwards compadible in this type of situation - isolation doesn't work, and if tried, would fail horribly.

Then why do I still have a VCR?

Post by **bicostp** » Wed Jan 09, 2008 1:49 pm

SZF2001 wrote:
nightwheel wrote:
khaag wrote:^Exactly. I don't care who wins... I'm not giving up my huge DVD collection!!
Amen to that
I don't think that will be a huge problem.

[size=0]All aboard the quote train![/size]
Don't worry, I'm pretty sure all HD-DVD and Blu-Ray drives can read DVDs. They just can't read each other's discs.

DVD is the new CD. It's a widely used standard that won't disappear any time soon. (CD is, what, 26 years old now?)

Then why do I still have a VCR?

Because you haven't bought a DVD recorder and a pack of DVD+RWs yet?

lifeisbetterwithketchup · Wed Jan 09, 2008 1:58 pm

Also, in a world of YouTube and digital cable that looks like ass, it makes you wonder if there is actually a demand for HD video.

Kyo · Post by **Kyo** » Wed Jan 09, 2008 2:07 pm

I don't get why people need that movie quality anyway. DVD quality is fine, heck, I'm ok with VCD

Jongamer · Post by **Jongamer** » Wed Jan 09, 2008 2:16 pm

Kyo wrote:I don't get why people need that movie quality anyway. DVD quality is fine, heck, I'm ok with VCD

I agree

lol your post count is one away from 666

daguuy · Post by **daguuy** » Wed Jan 09, 2008 2:36 pm

I think the main reason blue ray's winning is because of the name. People see HD DVD and they're like "Oh, it has DVD in the name. That must mean it's the same old DVD technology." They see blue ray and they're like "OOOOOh blue ray sounds fancy and high tech and new."

I just like the higher capacity so I'm cool with BR winning.