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Warner Bros. goes Blu-ray
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The following comments relate to this news article:
article published on 4 January, 2008
According to an announcement by Barry Meyer, Chairman and CEO of Warner Bros., the studio has decided to throw its support behind Blu-ray beginning in May 2008 meaning it will no longer be dual format.
"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," explained ... [ read the full article ]
Please read the original article before posting your comments.
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vinny13
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6. January 2008 @ 17:36 |
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Originally posted by HughFart:
Blu-ray is on the way to just being another stagnate proprietary game console format with a relatively tiny amount of standalone & PC burner activity tacked on.
Lmao who is this guy :S
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AfterDawn Addict
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6. January 2008 @ 21:04 |
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Originally posted by HughFart:
Blu-ray is on the way to just being another stagnate proprietary game console format with a relatively tiny amount of standalone & PC burner activity tacked on.
If it was not backed by movie studios I would believe it.
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AfterDawn Addict
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6. January 2008 @ 21:20 |
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Well if Warner Brothers throws it support behind Blu-Ray then we will have a definite winner. They are the biggest movie studio. The only thing i wish they would do and i have been advocating this from day one is that if they could bring both Blu-Ray and HD DVD formats out and bring one player that can play both formats and can charge a little bit higher than a standalone DVD player that only plays one of the two formats.
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AfterDawn Addict
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6. January 2008 @ 21:27 |
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Originally posted by borhan9:
Well if Warner Brothers throws it support behind Blu-Ray then we will have a definite winner. They are the biggest movie studio. The only thing i wish they would do and i have been advocating this from day one is that if they could bring both Blu-Ray and HD DVD formats out and bring one player that can play both formats and can charge a little bit higher than a standalone DVD player that only plays one of the two formats.
the only trouble with that is BR hardware is not cheap, dual lens is not cheap, sure the ahrdware can be about 250$ with 1080 support and soem mid range audio outputs but the lens and tech royalties are another 400-500$.
I believe if BR can effect a a 30-60% price drop they will start a cascade effect that will win them the war but until BR can effect its won price not much will leak out of the niche market BR/HDVD is in.
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glasssd
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6. January 2008 @ 22:10 |
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Originally posted by ali2007:
Here is everyone's chance to flame me. Universal will go neutral with in this Month. Paramont will Live out their contract for the rest of the year.
we need facts not gossip
Insiders have hinted at it, but MSNBC has stated that Universal was asked flat out today about their intentions and they wont make a statement at this time. ?????
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vinny13
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6. January 2008 @ 22:37 |
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V
This message has been edited since posting. Last time this message was edited on 6. January 2008 @ 22:40
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vinny13
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6. January 2008 @ 22:39 |
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Quote:
Originally posted by ali2007:
Here is everyone's chance to flame me. Universal will go neutral with in this Month. Paramont will Live out their contract for the rest of the year.
we need facts not gossip
Insiders have hinted at it, but MSNBC has stated that Universal was asked flat out today about their intentions and they wont make a statement at this time. ?????
They've probably haven't made a decision yet. With Warner now down, I would switch because unless a miracle happens for HD-DVD then they're only going to sell less as HD-DVD slowly bleeds out. I wonder how Toshiba is going to handle this in the coming months...
It was bad enough already.
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lordesq
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6. January 2008 @ 23:36 |
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Sony had better watch. They, unlike toshiba,are considered "competition" to warner fox and disney yet entering into an agreement to "limit" competition is a highly illegal maneuver. Just visit the federal trade commission?s website.
http://www.ftc.gov/bc/index.shtml
Toshiba by courting paramount was simply leveling the playing field and they do not own media interests, yet sony is essentially using unfair business practices to eliminate the competition...instead of the proper way by competing with, price, features, and product quality. Then, letting the consumer decide. They're walking a thin line.
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AfterDawn Addict
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6. January 2008 @ 23:59 |
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Originally posted by lordesq:
Sony had better watch. They, unlike toshiba,are considered "competition" to warner fox and disney yet entering into an agreement to "limit" competition is a highly illegal maneuver. Just visit the federal trade commission?s website.
http://www.ftc.gov/bc/index.shtml
Toshiba by courting paramount was simply leveling the playing field and they do not own media interests, yet sony is essentially using unfair business practices to eliminate the competition...instead of the proper way by competing with, price, features, and product quality. Then, letting the consumer decide. They're walking a thin line.
On the world stage illicit things become legal, sony is not the core of BR but do have enough sway to aid it, in the end the media companies themselfs not the consumer decide the format, the emdia compnies are the ones to back and create the formats and tech to then sale tothe consumer but they have a long road to win the consumer so these deals and backbiteing and whatever are all part of how the game is played.
Copyright infringement is nothing more than civil disobedience to a bad set of laws. Lets renegotiate them.
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juankerr
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7. January 2008 @ 00:16 |
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Originally posted by lordesq:
Sony had better watch. They, unlike toshiba,are considered "competition" to warner fox and disney yet entering into an agreement to "limit" competition is a highly illegal maneuver.
Warner Home Video sits on the Board of the BluRay Disc Association (BDA). This decision was made by the studio as a member of the BDA.
There may have been incentives involved but you can be sure all parties had teams of lawyers going over the details before Warner made the announcement.
This is probably why Warner is still releasing HD DVD titles until the end of May. I think they have a contract with HD DVD that expires this June.
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lordesq
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7. January 2008 @ 00:29 |
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Well just because warner and or sony may have sheilded themselves from a heavy lawsuit doesn't mean that what they're doing is kosher. I mean what the hell is the BDA association anyway. Its a consortium of electronic companies and movie studios. This is no government body! It means nothing.
But look at it this way. The worst thing that could happen to warner is that they are told to give back the 1/2 billion dollars and forced to make movies for HDDVD. So really how could they turn down what equaits to a spiderman release in the wake of a writers strike and falling profits. Its a no brainer for them to take a slight risk.
As for sony their ps3 sales trail 360 and wii sales and they have everything to loose so for them to try this tactict, as well, is a no brainer. This still doesn't make it legal.
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7. January 2008 @ 00:40 |
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Quote:
Originally posted by ali2007:
Here is everyone's chance to flame me. Universal will go neutral with in this Month. Paramont will Live out their contract for the rest of the year.
we need facts not gossip
Insiders have hinted at it, but MSNBC has stated that Universal was asked flat out today about their intentions and they wont make a statement at this time. ?????
I can't wait to hear what they got to say after all that tongue lashing that HD-DVD Fan boy Ken Graffeo did.I ready to hear him eat his words.He really ticked my nerves.
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AfterDawn Addict
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7. January 2008 @ 00:47 |
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Quote:
Originally posted by lordesq:
Sony had better watch. They, unlike toshiba,are considered "competition" to warner fox and disney yet entering into an agreement to "limit" competition is a highly illegal maneuver.
Warner Home Video sits on the Board of the BluRay Disc Association (BDA). This decision was made by the studio as a member of the BDA.
There may have been incentives involved but you can be sure all parties had teams of lawyers going over the details before Warner made the announcement.
This is probably why Warner is still releasing HD DVD titles until the end of May. I think they have a contract with HD DVD that expires this June.
this explains the reason for the change of heart and dropping of HDVD stuff, they are closer to the BR core than some of the others.
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juankerr
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7. January 2008 @ 00:52 |
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Look at it this way: Warner going BluRay exclusive doesn't "limit the competition" as you say.
Sony is not the only CE manufacturer making BluRay players. It has competition from Samsung, Panasonic, Pioneer, LG, Philips, etc.
Warner Home Video is not the only studio releasing titles. There's competition from Sony, Disney, MGM, Fox, etc.
Plus there's competition from regular DVD, Video On Demand, and Video downloads.
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lordesq
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7. January 2008 @ 02:37 |
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I don't think you're getting me. We're talking about High Definition Disc Distribution. Not downloads, not dvd, not VHS...(thats a little joke). Cellphones and Plain old telephone lines are regulated differently because they are infact different, although they serve similar purposes. We are also not talking about content.
Try this perspective. Since its inseption Bluray and HDDVD have gone down in price from over $1,000 to (right now on amazon for an HDDVD player) $178. The movies have gone from 30 bucks a pop to bogo deals left and right. That's because there has been competition. What sony has done is, realizing that they cannot compete in price, have negotiated with the "competing studios" to sell movies on their format exclusively. This is the very defenition of unfair business practice. I emplore you to read on the Federal Trade Commision's website about competition. If the format war never existed and everybody agreed at the beginning to produce a singular format you would still have players at the $500 or higher level. Do you think bluray players will come down to sub $200 levels now? Not anytime soon! Especially if Sony wants to continue to sell PS3's.
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trancer70
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7. January 2008 @ 03:24 |
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Originally posted by lordesq:
I don't think you're getting me. We're talking about High Definition Disc Distribution. Not downloads, not dvd, not VHS...(thats a little joke). Cellphones and Plain old telephone lines are regulated differently because they are infact different, although they serve similar purposes. We are also not talking about content.
Try this perspective. Since its inseption Bluray and HDDVD have gone down in price from over $1,000 to (right now on amazon for an HDDVD player) $178. The movies have gone from 30 bucks a pop to bogo deals left and right. That's because there has been competition. What sony has done is, realizing that they cannot compete in price, have negotiated with the "competing studios" to sell movies on their format exclusively. This is the very defenition of unfair business practice. I emplore you to read on the Federal Trade Commision's website about competition. If the format war never existed and everybody agreed at the beginning to produce a singular format you would still have players at the $500 or higher level. Do you think bluray players will come down to sub $200 levels now? Not anytime soon! Especially if Sony wants to continue to sell PS3's.
I think Sony just said there is going to be a blue ray drive avaialable for your computer for $200. This sucks - I just bought a HD DVD player around thanksgiving for $179 and now I'm gonna have to shell out the $400 for a blue ray.
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juankerr
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7. January 2008 @ 08:23 |
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Originally posted by lordesq:
What sony has done is, realizing that they cannot compete in price, have negotiated with the "competing studios" to sell movies on their format exclusively.
Actually BluRay was competing very well against HD DVD. BluRay movies have been outselling HD DVD for 54 weeks straight prior to the Warner announcement. (Just look at the Nielsen/Videoscan sales data.) That's even with a disadvantage in player prices. At the Toshiba presentation at CES 2008 yesterday they even acknowledged indirectly that BluRay was also catching up in standalone player sales.
Quote:
This is the very defenition of unfair business practice.
Let's say Warner accepted a $500 million offer from HD DVD to drop BluRay then BluRay eventually loses. By your definition this would be a case of "limiting the competition", an unfair business practice, and would therefore be illegal. Am I right?
Actually this was what was about to happen. Warner was ready to side with HD DVD until a last minute deal was struck. There was supposed to be a very big announcement at their CES party last night - which was cancelled BTW. Let's face it, BluRay had the better negotiating team and pulled off a great business deal. HD DVD have no one else to blame but themselves for letting Warner slip through their fingers.
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AfterDawn Addict
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7. January 2008 @ 10:15 |
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Originally posted by juankerr:
Originally posted by lordesq:
What sony has done is, realizing that they cannot compete in price, have negotiated with the "competing studios" to sell movies on their format exclusively.
Actually BluRay was competing very well against HD DVD. BluRay movies have been outselling HD DVD for 54 weeks straight prior to the Warner announcement. (Just look at the Nielsen/Videoscan sales data.) That's even with a disadvantage in player prices. At the Toshiba presentation at CES 2008 yesterday they even acknowledged indirectly that BluRay was also catching up in standalone player sales.
Quote:
This is the very defenition of unfair business practice.
Let's say Warner accepted a $500 million offer from HD DVD to drop BluRay then BluRay eventually loses. By your definition this would be a case of "limiting the competition", an unfair business practice, and would therefore be illegal. Am I right?
Actually this was what was about to happen. Warner was ready to side with HD DVD until a last minute deal was struck. There was supposed to be a very big announcement at their CES party last night - which was cancelled BTW. Let's face it, BluRay had the better negotiating team and pulled off a great business deal. HD DVD have no one else to blame but themselves for letting Warner slip through their fingers.
Selling very well? I don't think so with the number of players BR has out they should have a 3-6 to 1 lead not a pitfall 2 to 1 lead, yes BR is doing alttile better but it the scheme of things its not by much and certainly not enough for a studio to jump formats on "consumer" issues, its a pure "green" deal nothing less nothing more its a shame ti had to be warner who wanted to sale on both formats and not be tied down by the high costs of BR production and royilies, but in the end 1 format one format is probably better for the consumer in the short run.. havign the market compete with itself one tech is more simple and can wind up lowering prices faster as long as there is no price fixing "from above".
Copyright infringement is nothing more than civil disobedience to a bad set of laws. Lets renegotiate them.
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eatsushi
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7. January 2008 @ 10:38 |
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Originally posted by ZippyDSM:
I don't think so with the number of players BR has out they should have a 3-6 to 1 lead not a pitfall 2 to 1 lead, yes BR is doing alttile better but it the scheme of things its not by much and certainly not enough for a studio to jump formats on "consumer" issues
The problem with that argument is that the you conveniently include the PS3 numbers when you talk about software sales ratios or attachment rates then you conveniently remove the PS3 from the picture when you talk about player sales. You can't have it both ways.
The difficulty lies in the fact that no one knows for sure how many use the PS3 to watch BluRay and how much BD movies the PS3 owners buy. The "PS3 effect" is an unknown quantity.
The bottom line is the BluRay side played the game perfectly. They knew when they had to make their moves and caught HD DVD with their pants down. error5 and juankerr are right. Whoever managed to pull this off were geniuses.
For now I'm keeping my 2 HD DVD players and my HD DVD collection of about 100 movies. I still have my PS3 but I'm looking out for that new Panasonic BD50 with internal DTS HD MA and True HD decoding and BD Live 2.0 specs.
This message has been edited since posting. Last time this message was edited on 7. January 2008 @ 10:42
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AfterDawn Addict
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7. January 2008 @ 10:48 |
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Originally posted by eatsushi:
Originally posted by ZippyDSM:
I don't think so with the number of players BR has out they should have a 3-6 to 1 lead not a pitfall 2 to 1 lead, yes BR is doing alttile better but it the scheme of things its not by much and certainly not enough for a studio to jump formats on "consumer" issues
The problem with that argument is that the you conveniently include the PS3 numbers when you talk about software sales ratios or attachment rates then you conveniently remove the PS3 from the picture when you talk about player sales. You can't have it both ways.
The difficulty lies in the fact that no one knows for sure how many use the PS3 to watch BluRay and how much BD movies the PS3 owners buy. The "PS3 effect" is an unknown quantity.
The bottom line is the BluRay side played the game perfectly. They knew when they had to make their moves and caught HD DVD with their pants down. error5 and juankerr are right. Whoever managed to pull this off were geniuses.
Its rather easy to reduce the PS3 sales numbers to 30 or 50% will still give a a huge lead to BR in terms of player sales numbers which are not really fermenting disc sales in the amounts it should be.
In any case the format war is not over and BR has only a 60-70% chance of victory as things are.
Dose anyone know when they are going to drop prices again or when they when the blu diode will be cheaper to produce, when BR gets cheaper the end will come quickly and frankly its about time.
Copyright infringement is nothing more than civil disobedience to a bad set of laws. Lets renegotiate them.
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eatsushi
Senior Member
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7. January 2008 @ 11:05 |
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Originally posted by ZippyDSM:
BR has only a 60-70% chance of victory as things are.
How did you figure that?
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AfterDawn Addict
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7. January 2008 @ 11:27 |
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Originally posted by eatsushi:
Originally posted by ZippyDSM:
BR has only a 60-70% chance of victory as things are.
How did you figure that?
the future is uncertain, if paramount and uni go daul thats 75-85% chance of victory, if one or both go BR exclusive 85-90%.
and yes this is 100% tatained with the foul odor of my poo maker but for now BR dose not have a 90%+ chance to win the Hdef war, if other things fall into place they will gain it for sure but for now they only own alil more than half of the niche Hdef market.
In comparison HDVD has a 20-40% chance of winning the Hdef war currently, and I would still give 20-35%(or 2-3.5 in 10) chance at them joining forces but with ever year that passes that drops 10% so if by 09 no end is in sight and HDVD is still in the market even if by 20-30% the chances of a joint venture for media is 10-15%, hell by 09 the Hdef format war could well be over.
Copyright infringement is nothing more than civil disobedience to a bad set of laws. Lets renegotiate them.
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iamgq
Junior Member
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7. January 2008 @ 11:41 |
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BLUE-RAY THUGH LIFE HOMIES! CRAZY BLUE-RAY FOR LIFE! N WHUT!
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eatsushi
Senior Member
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7. January 2008 @ 11:52 |
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Originally posted by ZippyDSM:
if one or both go BR exclusive 85-90%.
85 - 90%? You're kidding right?
If one goes BR exclusive the other is sure to follow then it's game over. HD DVD cannot survive without one of the big 6 studios.
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AfterDawn Addict
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7. January 2008 @ 12:01 |
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Quote:
Originally posted by ZippyDSM:
if one or both go BR exclusive 85-90%.
85 - 90%? You're kidding right?
If one goes BR exclusive the other is sure to follow then it's game over. HD DVD cannot survive without one of the big 6 studios.
first off there is no such thing as 100%, there are also 2ndary markets where HDVD could be viable thus keeping it aloft for years, there are also economic issues to worry about the market could just fall apart or be damaged beyond vision, what would happen if the US falls into a great depression in 3 years time and it slows the world economy just enough, there are to many circumstances to state anythign over 90/95% butI will say that90% is praticaly a win.
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