Warner Goes Blu-Ray Exclusive, biggest payoff yet
calima...@gmail.com
are going to stop supporting HD-DVD and support the Blu-Ray format
exclusively. There are rumors that this decision was made after Sony
paid Warner 1.8 billion dollars to sign an exclusive contract, one of
the largest payoffs yet (the second largest being 150 million to
Paramount and Dreamworks to go HD-DVD exclusively.)
Warner's official response, however, was:
"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.
After August 2007, Sir Howard Stringer, CEO of Sony said that the Blu-
Ray format was in a stalemate. "It's a difficult fight. We were trying
to win on the merits, which we were doing for a while, until Paramount
changed sides," Howard Stringer told the AP.
Blu-Ray was winning the HD format war in North America and Asia, but
not Europe, until the Dreamworks/Paramount buyout.
Many consider this new Warner Home Video buyout to be the end of the
format war completely.
Olaf
news:da39ef0b-c326-4826...@i7g2000prf.googlegroups.com...
> Just days before CES 2008, Warner Home Video has announced that they
> are going to stop supporting HD-DVD and support the Blu-Ray format
> exclusively. There are rumors that this decision was made after Sony
> paid Warner 1.8 billion dollars to sign an exclusive contract, one of
> the largest payoffs yet (the second largest being 150 million to
> Paramount and Dreamworks to go HD-DVD exclusively.)
lol 1.8 bil? I dont buy that. Whatever the reasoning, it does kill HD-DVD.
The alMIGHTY N
> <caliman.j...@gmail.com> wrote in message
I doubt there was any payoff. Warner has always been about doing
what's best for the consumer so they buy and studios make money.
Nobody can really blame Warner for this because Sony's devious tactics
in forcing PS3 owners to become defacto Blu-Ray owners in November
2006 started a snowball which just got bigger and bigger (but hey,
whatever way you can win as long as you're not committing crimes or
hurting people).
Sony should be quite proud of themselves because for the first time a
format they backed actually survived.
Doug Jacobs
> Just days before CES 2008, Warner Home Video has announced that they
> are going to stop supporting HD-DVD and support the Blu-Ray format
> exclusively. There are rumors that this decision was made after Sony
> paid Warner 1.8 billion dollars to sign an exclusive contract, one of
> the largest payoffs yet (the second largest being 150 million to
> Paramount and Dreamworks to go HD-DVD exclusively.)
Which is big news...for the HD video market. What does this have to do
with the 360, or even the larger console war again?
Even if blu-ray conquers the movie market, and PS3 sales skyrocket, it
won't mean a thing unless game sales increase as well. Otherwise, Sony
will just have a movie player that ocassionally play a game or two.
> Warner's official response, however, was:
> "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.
What, do you honestly expect them to publically admit they were bribed and
bought like some floozy? (a $1.8bln floozy, granted, but a floozy
nonetheless.)
--
It's not broken. It's...advanced.
yoman
kill HD-DVD.
I highly doubt 1.8 billion was paid to warner, but it's very possible
that they were paid more than the paramount deal, because warner still
has a legal contract with toshiba, and from what I gather, toshiba has
been using "War words," which I would assume meant that they were
preparing for a lawsuit.
Warner profited appx 169 million off of blu-ray and 106? million off
of hd-dvd last year, making quite a bit of money off of both formats.
So, they had to be persuaded somehow, especially considering that they
could potentially be sued for 200-400 million for unfulfilled
contractual obligations.
carlah...@hotmail.com
If this is true, it is actually great news. This is going to get a lot
of people off the fence about purchasing a hi def player and should
effectively kill HD-DVD. There is just no room for 2 formats. I didn't
care which format won, but I had no intentions of purchasing either
one until there was a clear winner. I'm sure a lot of other people
felt the same way which is what was holding them back from making a
choice.
Jordan
> lol 1.8 bil? I dont buy that. Whatever the reasoning, it does kill HD-DVD.
Both Warner and Sony would have to declare it because they're publicly
held companies. It doesn't seem likely that that much cash would
change hands. Mostly because Sony doesn't have that much money to
throw around.
- Jordan
Jordan
> What, do you honestly expect them to publically admit they were bribed and
> bought like some floozy? (a $1.8bln floozy, granted, but a floozy
> nonetheless.)
What's the old joke? Guy goes up to a pretty girl and says "Would you
sleep with me for a million dollars?"
"Well, you're kinda cute, sure, why not?"
"OK, how about $50?"
"WHAT? What kind of girl do you think I am?"
"I thought we already established what kind of girl you are, now we're
just negotiating price."
- Jordan
yoman
> If this is true, it is actually great news. This is going to get a lot
> of people off the fence about purchasing a hi def player and should
> effectively kill HD-DVD. There is just no room for 2 formats. I didn't
> care which format won, but I had no intentions of purchasing either
> one until there was a clear winner. I'm sure a lot of other people
> felt the same way which is what was holding them back from making a
> choice.
I doubt that this is the end of HD-DVD. Most likely, Europeans will
keep the format alive, even if the format fails in US and Japan, and
since there are no region lockouts as of yet on HD-DVD, a few die-
hards will keep importing them into America.
As of now, there are somewhere around 500 HD-DVDs in North America and
probably over 100-150 more unique releases in other countries. That
doesn't mean each is a movie or a single release, because some may be
documentaries, a few may be combo and non-combo formats, and a few
will be re-releases, like Full Metal Jacket and T-2.
There could still be 200 or more HD-DVD releases in America before the
end, and if HD-DVD in Europe continues to be a success, probably
thousands more that could be imported. The only things that can
determine the fate of HD-DVD now is Toshiba, NEC, Microsoft, and the
remaining film studios that support hd-dvd: Paramount, Dreamworks,
Kinowelt (T-2), Concorde (Silent Hill, Underworld, Tomb Raider),
Constantine Films (releasing sony's Resident Evil Trilogy in Germany),
universal, Studio Canal (Releasing Disney, MGM, and Fox movies),
Weinstein Company (Grindhouse), highlight (perfume, story of murder,
fantastic four, rise of the silver surfer), dfw (dutch film works, Saw
trilogy), EMS, Filmax (Underworld Evolution), Galileo, TF1 (Le vie en
rose), Monolith Films (mr and mrs smith), Ascot Elite (Bug), Universum
Film (crank), Imagion, Pathe (enemy at the gates), SHV, SPI (Hannibal
Rising), DeA Plaeta (American Haunting), Moviemax (bridge to
terabithia), Optimum (brotherhood of the wolf), etc.
As you can see, HD-DVD still has a lot of studio support, just not in
the US.
Olaf
> As you can see, HD-DVD still has a lot of studio support, just not in
> the US.
Well I am in the US. And the movies I want to see...at least half of them
are already blu-ray only. Now that Warner is blu-Ray only (as of mid 2008),
I dont see how HD-DVD survives long term, despite what Euro studios might do
in the short term.
yoman
> "yoman" <3x3e...@gmail.com> wrote in message news:6a808d41-03de-4594-bba0-
I suppose it's up to each individual if he/she wants to spend $30-$40
(Japanese hd-dvds may be a bit more) ordering hd-dvd imports. I
personally don't go to wal-mart or best buy to acquire my laserdiscs,
dvds, vhs, vcds, betamax, or hd-dvds and prefer to order them on-line,
whether from ebay, amazon, half.com, xploitedcinema, or whatever.
For any one else that may be interested in ordering hd-dvd imports,
here are some links:
Amazon Japan http://www.amazon.co.jp/
Amazon UK http://www.amazon.co.uk/
Amazon France http://www.amazon.fr/
Amazon Germany http://www.amazon.de/
CD Japan http://www.cdjapan.co.jp/
Yes Asia http://global.yesasia.com/en/index.aspx
Play Asia http://www.play-asia.com/
Xploited Cinema (in USA) http://xploitedcinema.com/catalog/index.php
HD Addicts (Canada) http://www.hdaddicts.com/catalog/
DVD Therapy http://www.dvdtherapy.com/shoppingcart/
DVDGO (Spain) http://www.dvdgo.com/
EDVD (Poland) http://www.edvd.pl/
Merlin.pl (Poland) http://www.merlin.com.pl/frontend/browse/home.html
HD Movie Source (USA) http://www.hdmoviesource.com/catalog/
EZYDVD (Australia) http://www.ezydvd.com.au/
Sendit (UK) http://www.sendit.com/
HMV Japan http://www.hmv.co.jp/
DVDit (Italy) http://www.dvd.it/page/welc/nlang/en/
Blah DVD http://www.blahdvd.com/blah/Home.aspx
DVD Co UK http://www.dvd.co.uk/
DVD Source http://www.dvdsource.co.uk/
HMV UK http://www.hmv.co.uk/hmvweb/home.do
Play UK http://www.play.com/
FNAC (France) http://www.fnac.com/
DVD Enlard http://www.dvdenlared.com/hd-dvd/
FNAC (Spain) http://www.fnac.es/dsp/?servlet=home.HomeServlet
1A DVD (Swiss) http://www.1advd.ch/
Disc Shop (Swedish) http://www.discshop.se/shop/index.php
DVD Crave (Australia) http://www.dvdcrave.com/
Axel Music http://www.axelmusic.com/
Buy HD Online http://www.buyhdonline.com/
Ro-Disc http://www.rodisc.nl/
Spamdula McDibbleweeds
> On Jan 4, 8:32 pm, carlahomo...@hotmail.com wrote:
>
> > If this is true, it is actually great news. This is going to get a lot
> > of people off the fence about purchasing a hi def player and should
> > effectively kill HD-DVD. There is just no room for 2 formats. I didn't
> > care which format won, but I had no intentions of purchasing either
> > one until there was a clear winner. I'm sure a lot of other people
> > felt the same way which is what was holding them back from making a
> > choice.
>
> I doubt that this is the end of HD-DVD. Most likely, Europeans will
> keep the format alive, even if the format fails in US and Japan, and
> since there are no region lockouts as of yet on HD-DVD, a few die-
> hards will keep importing them into America.
>
> As of now, there are somewhere around 500 HD-DVDs in North America and
> probably over 100-150 more unique releases in other countries. That
> doesn't mean each is a movie or a single release, because some may be
> documentaries, a few may be combo and non-combo formats, and a few
> will be re-releases, like Full Metal Jacket and T-2.
>
> There could still be 200 or more HD-DVD releases in America before the
> end, and if HD-DVD in Europe continues to be a success,
HD-DVD in Europe a success? Not at all. Blu-Ray has over 70% of the
marketshare here.
Even if the remaining HD-DVD owners are importing from the US, it's a
miniscule market compared to the general one.
Big Daddy
"yoman" <3x3...@gmail.com> wrote in message news:6a808d41-03de-4594-bba0-
> I doubt that this is the end of HD-DVD. Most likely, Europeans will
> keep the format alive,
It's like a 4-1 sales ratio in favor of Blu-ray in Europe. Worse than in US
(which is like 3-1). Japan is like 14-1.
HD-DVD is dead, thankfully.