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Paramount to Drop Blu-Ray for HD-DVD
JM78 writes to tell us The New York Times is reporting that Paramount Pictures and DreamWorks Animation will be dropping support for Blu-ray Disc and going solely with HD-DVD for their next gen DVDs. "Jeffrey Katzenberg, CEO of DreamWorks Animation, said consumers seeking to switch to high-definition DVDs will be enticed by the movies available for HD-DVD players. He added the lower price for the Toshiba devices will appeal to the family market. 'It's a game-changer, what they're doing, and it's why we decided to throw in with them,' Katzenberg said."
I smell someone making an argument to get a better deal.
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The thing I can't believe is that they expect anyone to make any sort of investment as long as there are two formats. Too many of us remember being burned by VHS/Beta. That's one of the reasons CDs were such a huge hit--when the CD came out it was a tremendous improvement PLUS there was no format competition. I won't even consider either format until it is the only format. Until then, I could care less about the details.
See the stories on www.thedigitalbits.com
Actually, your link says that he was called by a Sony PR firm which told him that their (Sony PR firm) "sources" that Paramount/Dreamworks were paid a hefty sum to go exclusive. Seems fishy. Sounds fishy. Probably is fishy (on both sides). Well, call me when they've resolved the squabble. Till then I don't care.
Previously Blu-Ray sales had been about 2:1 in favor of Blu-Ray, though the whole year (66% to 34%, to be exact). Sony Blu-Ray players in the last few months have actually been outselling Toshiba standalone players, and that's not counting the PS3 numbers.
Target had announced they were only offering a dedicated Blu-Ray player in store, and Blockbuster was only going to offer Blu-Ray in store.
Now, with Paramount and Dreamworks the equation has changed. Blu-Ray still has really significant exclusives in Fox, Disney, and Sony (Star Wars/Pixar/Spider Man!). But, it will take much longer for Blu-Ray to win, if it can eventually. This means there is actually a war, as opposed to HD-DVD claiming tehre was a war and slowly fading away which is what was happening previous to this announcement.
The rumor is that Microsoft paid Paramount $50M, and Dreamworks $100M, to make this switch (until now they had been neutral). Why would Microsoft do this? Pretty simple, if consumers are confused about which format to buy they are more likley just to download HD content from the only provider currently sellign HD content online. That provider is Microsoft...
Bad news basically for consumers interested in HD content, as this will really kill sales for both formats through the year. Consumers want one choice.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Well yes but the real truth is that DVDs have been beating Blu Ray and HD DVD by about 500:1
I don't think that blu ray has all that much in the way of momentum.
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The end result is obvious: eventually every player is going to be pushing drives that handle both high-capacity/high-def formats as well as DVD and CD, much like we saw with DVD-R vs. DVD+R. I agree though: this has been the only good news on HD-DVD's side in a while.
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I guess in the end we will end up with both formats, just like with DVD+ and -.
:)
Great, paying for two licenses always rule! Because one open one wouldn't do!
What was chinas next-gen format called now again? I would assume their players will be cheap
(That's irony).
Consumers won't buy into either format until they see some signs of stability.
As long as it's on-again, off-again, now-you-see-it, now-you-don't, consumers will just hold off.
Once a company declares it will support either format... or both... it should stick with whatever they've announced. Fickle commitments that change every six months just hurt both formats.
As with the stock market, what investors hate is uncertainty.
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Really? Has there really been a major outcry among studios that DVD was just too small? If there has been, I haven't been aware of it.
Besides, do you really think there will be another physical format after this? I'd be willing to bet that by the time this format war is finished and another one ready to begin, digital distribution will be quite ubiquitous.
Neither format has caught on at all, and the only players that are in homes in any sort of numbers are the PS3. I think that most people who have a PS3 bought it as a gaming machine and don't care that it can play any sort of DVD. Any format decision made by any studio is subject to change without notice; if Blu-Ray becomes dominant I am sure that Paramount will make Blu-Ray disks. Other than all of the major studios going to only one format, the only significant format change by a studio would be if Sony started to sell their movies in HD-DVD.
It could be that this is not a Beta / VHS format war, it be a Laserdisc flop and neither of the new formats will catch on; so far, it does not appear that people see a compelling reason to buy either HD-DVD or Blu-Ray players and disks.
to use on Linux, after having paid for the appropriate hardware? Or are we required to pay for the hardware + Windows + software + disk?
"Thanks for all the money you paid to us. We've used it to buy off ISO among other things" -Microsoft
It seems to me that a really big reason why neither Blu-Ray nor HD-DVD are likely to catch on is the simple fact that sneakernet in general is going the way of the buggy whip.
Nor is it that regular DVDs are “good enough,” as some have suggested, but rather that we’re already moving beyond the station wagon filled with tapes, to simple high-bandwidth networks.
It won’t be Blu-Ray that kills HD-DVD, or vice-versa, or even regular DVDs. It’ll be YouTube, iTunes, Bittorrent, and garden variety video-on-demand from your local telco monopoly. Sure, there’re plenty of shortcomings with all of those today, from quality to DRM to “ownership” to the time it takes to acquire a movie. But neither Blu-Ray nor HD-DVD intrinsically offer anything better over the online equivalents for those with bandwidth.
Cheers,
b&
All but God can prove this sentence true.
Well, don't forget that MS has also just dropped the price of the Xbox HD-DVD add-on. I was thinking about getting one as soon as I got my Xbox, but dropping the price definitely persuaded me to do it. Now that another film publisher has announced their dedication to it, I'm even more inclined to fork out the dough..... However, the logical part of me is still telling me to hold out, which I think is what most people are waiting for. Although most of my video-phile friends have already made a purchase, I think the average consumer is waiting for a clear "winner" of the HD format war. Sony played a smart game by including Blu-Ray with the PS3, but I'm not sure how long they can hold out. I'm thinking that the other studios are seeing most of the benefits of the PS3, rather than Sony. They are still losing money on PS3's (as far as I know). I, for one, am really excited about this. The competition will only increase benefits for the consumer as far as choice and price is concerned. I wouldn't mind getting the 5 free HD-DVD/Blu-Ray deal one bit.....
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$100 does not get you a good upconverting player. For that you are in the $200+ range. If you rent more than buy, the cost of movies is the same. There is no significant reason not to go with a HD-DVD player if you rent.
Exactly, the 2:1 sales ratio doesn't mean much when they sold so few units. It would be like comparing Mac computer sales to Linux computer sales, and forgetting to mention that windows sales are still through the roof. The simple fact is that most people don't care about HD movies. Same way they didn't care about HD Audio. There's just too little of a quality difference for most people to justify the inflated price, and a format war doesn't help the situation in the slightest.
Anthropic principle: We see the universe the way it is because if it were different we would not be here to see it.
If the PS3 is what's driving the market, then Bluray is in trouble because a PS3 isn't going to be a cheap Bluray player anytime soon. If the price of entry to play Bluray discs stays at $500, then HD-DVD will win, end of story.
What if there was a war, and nobody came.
The High Def format war seems more like a clown pie fight to me. Neither side is offering me anything that I want.
The technology is so laden with anti-customer "features" that, frankly, I hope the both lose. I think this is a realistic possibility as downloadable HD content becomes commonly available, which you hit on later in your post.
Peter
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"BluRay, please meet betamax."
I wouldn't call blu-ray the new betamax just yet, with Blockbuster already announcing they're carrying only blu-ray titles primarily due to PS3 sales.
But you have a point. Sony doesn't have a great history of making formats that eventually become the standard. Minidisc? DAT? UMD movies? If I was Sony I'd practically give away Blu-ray players just to get them out there, then in a year or two once it becomes a standard re-coop their costs in license fees. Microsoft has been doing this for years with the Xbox and Xbox360 but it was necessary to make them a major player in the console wars and at times Xbox has had the most sales.
my karma will be here long after I'm gone
These competing standards (that's an oxymoron if I've ever heard one) are both losers. When I go buy movies, I still buy DVDs (despite having an HD TV for 3+ years). Know why? Because it plays in my player.
Eventually, a common player will be affordable for both HD and Blu. At that point, do you know who will win my business? That's right... Netflix. With the industry proving to me that ownership is dumb... I've gone from buying 3-5 DVDs a month to 1 every three months. When I get an upgraded player, I don't expect that there will ever be a movie that I'll want to own.
Am I wrong, or has the format "war" done nothing but alienated consumers and shown that companies are too egotistical to work together to create standards that are actually beneficial to the end users... and for that, I trust them as far as I can throw them.
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If Microsoft would just release a Blu-Ray drive for their Xbox 360, I'd buy a 360, the HD-DVD drive, the Blu-Ray drive and upgrade the rest of my AV gear to HD and 6.1 surround. That's several thousand dollars worth of equipment waiting to be bought and all it needs is an affordable combo HD-DVD/Blu-Ray player.
Or you can buy neither Blu-Ray or HD-DVD drive and simply pay Microsoft $10 directly to download HD movies.
Which plan do you think helps Microsoft more? Microsoft does not sell AV gear. They only sell an HD-DVD or Blu-Ray player once. Potentially, you will buy hundreds of movies in the course of a lifetime...
Now do you see why the Elite does not come with an HD-DVD drive? Or why Microsoft has publically said there will be no new physical media formats? Microsoft intends to make sure that claim comes true.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
If those are included as sales then Blu-ray is doing even worse since Sony & Company have been doing the same thing.
The reason is simple: nobody wants to owe royalties to Sony, the Sony known for coming up with proprietary media formats and bungled DRM. Go Blu Ray? Cut Sony a big check every month. That would only get worse if Blu Ray was the only choice. If Sony wins this war, they can be expected to extort every one of the studios for the next ten years.
On the other hand, HD DVD has lower fees, more of a decentralized ownership, and much of the existing DVD production machinery can also make HD. And there's no Sony to stand up and demand fees for eternity.
Well perhaps the other parts of Sony don't like the thought of downloading movies. Sony do make a lot more hardware than Microsoft, and stand to sell more kit if downloading doesn't take off. Not so for Microsoft.
HD-DVD only have one level of encryption that keeps getting broken all the time.
Blu-Ray has two levels of encryption, one of them can apparently only be broken for an individual Blu-Ray disk and player.
So if you looking for something that can easily be ripped/ played on free software then you need to back HD-DVD.
thank God the internet isn't a human right.
Digital distribution wont never be ubiquitous for one reason that nerds always fail to appreciate. People like buying things.
The truth is, 128 KBit AAC is pretty low fidelity sound. But it didn't stop apple from selling 3 billion songs. CD Quality is low fidelity compared to SACD and DVD-Audio. Most CDs are put so loud in the mastering process, that most of the waveforms are severely clipped, creating terrible sound. My point is, most people either don't notice, or don't care. CDs took over tapes because they didn't wear out, and because you could skip to any track. DVDs took over VHS for pretty much the same reasons. HD-DVD and blu-ray don't offer any functional advantages over DVD, only differences in quality. And that's not something most people are willing to pay for.
Anthropic principle: We see the universe the way it is because if it were different we would not be here to see it.
The only BD advantages are 10GB of unused space, JVM and extra DRM... all of which add (mostly unnecessary/futile) costs/complexity in the player and media distribution chains.
Since both HD-DVD and Blueray streams have maximum bitrates of 18Mbps (nearly twice DVD's 1X spec), HD-DVD's 15GB is already (though barely) sufficient to store a 2h movie at the maximum allowed bitrate. From what I read though, it seems most HD movies (both HD-DVD and Blueray) are encoded at rates in the area of 5-6Mbps so there should be plenty of space left for extras even on HD-DVD - at current typical rates, HD-DVD would be good for 5-7 hours, plenty long enough for any of the LotR extended editions. I personally do not care which one wins as long as I can watch stuff in full HD without flipping discs half-way.
HD-DVD's 15GB capacity is sufficient for its primary purpose: cost-efficient HD movie distribution. Worst case, HD-DVD specs do allow for dual-layer discs should some titles (or disc writers) require extra space. For Joe Sixpack (at least those who do not have a PS3), the format war is likely to remain irrelevant until stand-alone players drop below $200. After this point, things could snowball towards HD-DVD - HD-DVD will almost certainly get there first, possibly this year.
Of course, I personally don't think that Blu-ray or HD-DVD will win the format war. The next major format is not media at all; it's network delivery of content. Ten years from now, the concept of having to put a disc into a drive to watch a movie will seem quaint.
I doubt that in the next ten years the network providers in this country will get their heads out of their asses -- apparently their asses are full of our money and they see no reason to perform the rectal-cranial extraction -- enough to actually make this a practical choice much less a reality.
Besides, people still like their plastic discs. People still like to own things, physical things. Lots of reasons why it will still be useful -- less dependent on a particular device that could fail, easier to bring something to a friend's, easier to browse through while someone else is watching TV.
But I don't think BluRay or HDDVD will win the format war either. The current war is untenable and if they continue, they'll both lose. Consumers barely want a replacement for DVD anyway, much less one where they can only watch half of the available movies and have to worry about whether a given movie is supported by their player or if they buy a gift does the person they are buying for have HD or Blu type players? The only feasible way to get people to adopt either format en masse is to make players that support both. At which point, HD or BluRay becomes largely meaningless from the point of view of the customer and both can succeed without killing the other. Some studios will release on HD-DVD, others on BluRay, and you won't care you'll just know you have a "next-gen" player that will play the movie.
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Both Blu-ray and HD DVD use the same AACS-128bit scheme but Blu-ray is coming out with a new scheme as AACS-128bit has been cracked already.
HD DVD has no Write and Erase format standard. After market HD DVD burners are virtually non-existent and are only supported on Windows. There is no HD DVD camcorder standard. HD DVD has lower capacity and a lower maxiumum bandwidth (bitrate). There are no HD DVD video recorder settop devices. There is no HD-DVD ROM (software) standard. Blu-ray has all of those things.
Jesus was a compassionate social conservative who called individuals to sin no more.