New Line Shifts to Blu-ray Exclusivity

[theyarecomingforyou]

People had to put up with region coding for DVD so people are used to it. I'd rather not have it at all, obviously, but at least with Blu-Ray there are only three regions. The only thing that's a bit ridiculous is that Japan is part of the same group as the US, which is clearly politically motivated rather there being an actual logic to it. Don't confuse my position, though - I'm not defending Blu-Ray for incorporating region coding.

[Coldgunner]

People had to put up with region coding for DVD so people are used to it. I'd rather not have it at all, obviously, but at least with Blu-Ray there are only three regions. The only thing that's a bit ridiculous is that Japan is part of the same group as the US, which is clearly politically motivated rather there being an actual logic to it. Don't confuse my position, though - I'm not defending Blu-Ray for incorporating region coding.

most people are gonna buy at their local tesco's etc, region coding ain't a big thing unless your after somethign in particular.

[TruckWEB]

Read this : http://www.dailytech.com/article.aspx?newsid=10240

Warner Home Video also distributes New Line, HBO and BBC Video products, leaving some to wonder if Blu-ray Disc just gained an entire stable of studio support.

Much more than I was thinking of... HBO and BBC also under WB!!! Wow....

New Line already positions its Blu-ray Disc products with greater priority than the equivalent HD DVD. New Line?s first high-definition film, Hairspray, hit Blu-ray Disc in late November 2007, while an HD DVD version was only promised sometime in early 2008.

The reason for the disparity in the release date of Hairspray was supposedly due to HD DVD?s lack of region coding, reported High-Def Digest. Studios can sell Blu-ray Disc and DVD versions in the North American market thanks to region coding technologies that uphold international distribution agreements. The same situation also applies to the currently released Rush Hour 3 on Blu-ray Disc and DVD. New Line has yet to announce release dates for Hairspray and Rush Hour 3 on HD DVD.

So, New Line love region coding....

[Julius Caro]

I guess most new lines movies are not distributed by the same company throughout all countries, and hence their choice of using region encoding. Even the theatrical releases are carried away by different companies and that's the reason hairspray was premiered in europe between july and october/november depending on the country.

In fact, according to IMDB, it is premiered next week in turkey (and it doesnt say "dvd" so I guess that's the cinemas).

By publishing "region free", if the import market is big enough, they risk being sued by the companies they granted the distribution rights to.

I guess that's why they use region encoding, otherwise they would do the same as warner and not enforce the region coding at all. But most warner releases are published by a local warner company depending on the country.

Update: Apparently this news tates that Warner will dont use region enforcement on BDs even after going exclusive. http://meinhdblog.blogspot.com/2008/01/ces...weiter-auf.html

Can someone who knows german better than me confirm? :p

Edited January 8, 2008 by Julius Caro

[kak]

Accord to High-Def Digest, New Line Cinema has announced that they will release no new titles on HD-DVD (unlike Warner who will release until May 2008).