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| Registered: March 13, 2007 | Reputation:  |  Posts: 1,911 |
| | Posted: | | | | | | | | Signature banned: Reason out of date... |
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| Registered: March 13, 2007 | | Reputation: | | Posts: 1,911 |
| | Posted: | | | | Quote:
(January 4, 2008 – Burbank, CA) – In response to consumer demand, Warner Bros. Entertainment will release its high-definition DVD titles exclusively in the Blu-ray disc format beginning later this year, it was announced today by Barry Meyer, Chairman & CEO, Warner Bros. and Kevin Tsujihara, President, Warner Bros. Home Entertainment Group.
“Warner Bros.’ move to exclusively release in the Blu-ray disc format is a strategic decision focused on the long term and the most direct way to give consumers what they want,” said Meyer. “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 Home Video will continue to release its titles in standard DVD format and Blu-ray. After a short window following their standard DVD and Blu-ray releases, all new titles will continue to be released in HD DVD until the end of May 2008.
“Warner Bros. has produced in both high-definition formats in an effort to provide consumer choice, foster mainstream adoption and drive down hardware prices,” said Jeff Bewkes, President and Chief Executive Officer, Time Warner Inc., the parent company of Warner Bros. Entertainment. “Today’s decision by Warner Bros. to distribute in a single format comes at the right time and is the best decision both for consumers and Time Warner.”
“A two-format landscape has led to consumer confusion and indifference toward high definition, which has kept the technology from reaching mass adoption and becoming the important revenue stream that it can be for the industry,” said Tsujihara. “Consumers have clearly chosen Blu-ray, and we believe that recognizing this preference is the right step in making this great home entertainment experience accessible to the widest possible audience. Warner Bros. has worked very closely with the Toshiba Corporation in promoting high definition media and we have enormous respect for their efforts. We look forward to working with them on other projects in the future.” | | | | Signature banned: Reason out of date... |
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| Registered: March 13, 2007 | | Reputation: | | Posts: 3,480 |
| | Posted: | | | | Ouch. The death of HD DVD is nigh.  | | | ...James
"People fake a lot of human interactions, but I feel like I fake them all, and I fake them very well. That’s my burden, I guess." ~ Dexter Morgan |
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| Registered: May 19, 2007 | Reputation:  | | Posts: 5,917 |
| | Posted: | | | | Good thing I have more Blu-Ray titles than HD-DVD!  |
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| Registered: March 13, 2007 | | Posts: 1,414 |
| | Posted: | | | | That's a shocker.  I can't see it as anything other than the end. | | | | "This movie has warped my fragile little mind." |
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| Registered: March 13, 2007 |  Posts: 525 |
| | Posted: | | | | Poor microsoftie and toshiba. I wonder how the Paramount exec's are feeling about now  Seems the Warner's site is busy now. | | | 
Home of the phpDVDProfiler forums | | | | Last edited: by ajm |
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| Registered: September 7, 2007 | | Posts: 265 |
| | Posted: | | | | This one really surprised me. Anyone who knows my history will realize that I was planning to go neutral anyway but this really doesn't make sense right now. They've held off on releases because of the format limitations (PIP and the like), have had a nasty run of production issues on the format and now they embrace it? I know there are growing pains with both but come on... |
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| Registered: May 19, 2007 | | Reputation: | | Posts: 585 |
| | Posted: | | | | Quoting Dr. Killpatient: Quote:
Good thing I have more Blu-Ray titles than HD-DVD! Well, really does it matter? If they re-release a movie you have in HD DVD in the blu-ray format, are you going to buy it again?  Well, if this does mean the demise of HD DVD, if nothing else I expect to see nice clearance sales on the titles that are out there and I expect to clean up. In a way I'm rather glad I went red first so I can replace a large chunk of my DVDs in a hi-def format on the cheap. Ha ha you Blu-ray guys paying full price!  I wonder what this will mean for those dual format players? Will they just scrap them at this point even after all the R&D? Hopefully they'll still come out since they'll still be a market for them for people who want to get a BD player but still be able to play their HD DVDs. I know I'll certainly be needing one. | | | "Rules are for the obedience of fools and the guidance of wise men" - Douglas Bader
"A common mistake that people make when trying to design something completely foolproof is to underestimate the ingenuity of complete fools." - Douglas Adams |
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  | Erik | | It's a strange world. |
| Registered: March 13, 2007 | Reputation:  |  Posts: 422 |
| | Posted: | | | | If Warner now adopts the wonderful A/B/C region encoding I might as well sell off everything HD and return to DVD.   | | | Erik
"Has it ever occurred to you, man, that given the nature of all this new stuff, that, uh, instead of running around blaming me, that this whole thing might just be, not, you know, not just such a simple, but uh - you know?" -- The Dude, The Big Lebowski
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| Registered: March 13, 2007 | | Reputation: | | Posts: 3,480 |
| | Posted: | | | | Quoting ajm: Quote:
I wonder how the Paramount exec's are feeling about now I was thinking the same thing.  Maybe Warner will release Casablanca and Robin Hood on their new beloved BD format? | | | ...James
"People fake a lot of human interactions, but I feel like I fake them all, and I fake them very well. That’s my burden, I guess." ~ Dexter Morgan |
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| Registered: March 13, 2007 | | Posts: 103 |
| | Posted: | | | | It doesn't make much sense either, that being deciding now to go exclusive? Why didn't they make this decision and announce it before the holidays? They must have thought HD-DVD would have done a lot better than it did otherwise I don't see the reason for waiting until now. Their logic for going exlcusive is sound: they chose the format that sells the most and to stop the confusion between the formats.
Maybe there is hope that the format war will end sooner than later. |
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| Registered: May 19, 2007 | | Reputation: | | Posts: 5,917 |
| | Posted: | | | | Quoting Vega: Quote:
Well, really does it matter? If they re-release a movie you have in HD DVD in the blu-ray format, are you going to buy it again? Only when my xbox HD-DVD drive fails! |
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| Erik | | It's a strange world. |
| Registered: March 13, 2007 | | Reputation: | | Posts: 422 |
| | Posted: | | | | Quoting graymadder: Quote:
Maybe there is hope that the format war will end sooner than later. Paramount will be "tied up" for quite some time, possibly Universal too unless they jump ship. 2008 will be a nice and confused year with releases all over the place, methinks... But that's kinda normal in the HD world. | | | Erik
"Has it ever occurred to you, man, that given the nature of all this new stuff, that, uh, instead of running around blaming me, that this whole thing might just be, not, you know, not just such a simple, but uh - you know?" -- The Dude, The Big Lebowski
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| Registered: March 14, 2007 | | Posts: 254 |
| | Posted: | | | | Quoting Erik: Quote:
If Warner now adopts the wonderful A/B/C region encoding I might as well sell off everything HD and return to DVD. Agreed. Today is a sad day for HDM and a huge mistake by Warner. |
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| Registered: September 7, 2007 | | Posts: 265 |
| | Posted: | | | | I really don't think that the Paramount execs fell any differently about their decision. They made the move they felt was best for consumers. Apparently so did WB. The problem is with WB that this move really contradicts some things that they've said in the past. What about those releases that are HD DVD exclusive still because of the BD limitations. And the replication issues they've had recently? Not seeing the PS3 as a "confirmed player". Things like that make me question what the hell they were thinking with this deal.
I know this isn't going to be a particularly popular comment but I can't imagine the incentives they were offered to do this. You know they were there too, please don't be naive enough to think that wasn't part of the deal they struck. They did what they felt was best for them I think, not necessarily the consumer. It's good for business but not always in the best interest of the consumer. |
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| Registered: March 13, 2007 | | Reputation: | | Posts: 1,911 |
| | Posted: | | | | Quoting Erik: Quote:
Quoting graymadder:
Quote:
Maybe there is hope that the format war will end sooner than later.
Paramount will be "tied up" for quite some time, possibly Universal too unless they jump ship.
2008 will be a nice and confused year with releases all over the place, methinks...
But that's kinda normal in the HD world. Paramount should have "outs" in the contract they signed. If they don't, its their own stupidity. I see Universal at least going neutral soon. They won't want to be the last one holding the bag. | | | | Signature banned: Reason out of date... |
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