Warner Bros. Gets on the Blu-Ray Bandwagon

Want to just shoot the breeze? Forum 42 is the place!

Moderator:Moderators

User avatar
bicostp
Moderator
Posts:10491
Joined:Mon Mar 07, 2005 5:47 pm
Steam ID:bicostp
Location:Spamalot
Contact:
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". :P)

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

User avatar
lifeisbetterwithketchup
Senior Member
Posts:2180
Joined:Fri Jul 21, 2006 12:08 pm
Steam ID:lifeisbetterwithketchup
Location:Illinois. Whee.
Contact:

Post by 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.
Rekarp wrote:
mako321 wrote:What makes you head ninja, anyways? :wink:
Cause I am Abe F#!@ing Lincoln. :mrgreen:

User avatar
vskid
Senior Member
Posts:6314
Joined:Fri Mar 25, 2005 8:25 am
Steam ID:vskid3
Contact:

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.
Image

User avatar
Dr. KillGood
Senior Member
Posts:2209
Joined:Sat Jan 21, 2006 1:03 am
Location:Earth

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.
Image

User avatar
ChrisS
Posts:85
Joined:Sat Sep 22, 2007 12:28 pm

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.

User avatar
ChrisS
Posts:85
Joined:Sat Sep 22, 2007 12:28 pm

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.

User avatar
khaag
Senior Member
Posts:2261
Joined:Sat Mar 18, 2006 7:54 pm
Location:C eh N eh D eh
Contact:

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!!
[url=http://thekevbot.com]Portfolio[/url]
[url=http://twitter.com/thekevbot]Twitter[/url]
[url=http://blog.thekevbot.com]Blog[/url]

User avatar
nightwheel
Senior Member
Posts:2017
Joined:Mon Mar 19, 2007 11:49 am
PSN Username:nightwheel
360 GamerTag:nightwheel94
Steam ID:nightwheel
Location:Kentucky, We are KFC
Contact:

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
Image

Who knows if the Namco Portable will ever become a reality? :P

User avatar
SZF2001
Posts:92
Joined:Thu Jul 05, 2007 10:18 pm

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.
Image

User avatar
HazmatB
Posts:197
Joined:Wed Nov 28, 2007 6:23 pm

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?

User avatar
bicostp
Moderator
Posts:10491
Joined:Mon Mar 07, 2005 5:47 pm
Steam ID:bicostp
Location:Spamalot
Contact:

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? :P

User avatar
lifeisbetterwithketchup
Senior Member
Posts:2180
Joined:Fri Jul 21, 2006 12:08 pm
Steam ID:lifeisbetterwithketchup
Location:Illinois. Whee.
Contact:

Post by 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.
Rekarp wrote:
mako321 wrote:What makes you head ninja, anyways? :wink:
Cause I am Abe F#!@ing Lincoln. :mrgreen:

Kyo
Senior Member
Posts:2470
Joined:Tue Jan 02, 2007 11:59 am
Location:Germany
Contact:

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
Senior Member
Posts:2151
Joined:Wed Dec 13, 2006 2:43 pm
PSN Username:Geekystig790
360 GamerTag:Mesu Gitsune
Location:Fairborn, Ohio

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 :P

User avatar
daguuy
Portablizer
Posts:3666
Joined:Fri Apr 01, 2005 7:09 pm
Location:missoura

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.
ImageImage

Post Reply