Retailers see format war dragging on


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Still, right now all the statements that are out are vague at best. It's not clear cut that Universal/Paramount are going to back Blu-Ray, or go neutral or whatever.

At this point, we can only guess and speculate on what will happen.

So only time will tell if anyone of them is going to switch for good. And logic does not seem to impact their choice, money does.

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There is not one word about continued exclusivity in these statements. They are gracefully going neutral.

I don't think so. At this stage of the game, going neutral will not help their bottom-line at all. They need to either hop on the Blu-wagon or stay with HD DVD and hope Toshiba can pull some major deal off. If they go blu or neutral, then BD has won.

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Still, right now all the statements that are out are vague at best. It's not clear cut that Universal/Paramount are going to back Blu-Ray, or go neutral or whatever.

Oh please, why would Universal end it's HD-DVD exclusivity commitment if not to release titles on Blu-Ray? It would serve no purpose and damage the already struggling HD-DVD campaign. They've announced they'll continue to promote HD-DVD, so currently they are not planning on going Blu-Ray exclusive, but basically they're acknowledging that Blu-Ray already has a considerable lead and they don't want to miss out on that.

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This reminds me when DVD burners were getting popular and they would say released in +R format only and not -R. It will probably not end this "war".

The only ones who will benefit are those who buy HDDVD/BluRay readers/burners for the computer.

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Oh please, why would Universal end it's HD-DVD exclusivity commitment if not to release titles on Blu-Ray? It would serve no purpose and damage the already struggling HD-DVD campaign. They've announced they'll continue to promote HD-DVD, so currently they are not planning on going Blu-Ray exclusive, but basically they're acknowledging that Blu-Ray already has a considerable lead and they don't want to miss out on that.

Those commitments end up by themselves, they are for a limited period of time, and they are renewed if they still think its the thing to do.

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Can Universal and Paramount just switch already and send HD-DVD to it's funeral.

I think they're holding off for the moment in hopes that they can come to some kind of 'financial agreement' first.

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I hope this "format war" ends soon. It' just like the betamax vs. vhs war. Technically, blue-ray is superior, so my bet is on it. I agree that the major studios should choose one format and send the other to it's funeral. There's no need to keep the consumer like this!

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Warner casts the swing vote in the high-definition format war

IT HAD a green ogre and gang of huge shape-shifting robots on its side?but that was not enough to ensure victory for HD DVD, one of two rival high-definition video-disc formats fighting to become the successor to the DVD. On January 4th Warner Bros, a big Hollywood studio that had backed both HD DVD and the rival standard, Blu-ray, said it would drop its support for HD DVD from June 1st. This tips the balance decisively in favour of the Blu-ray camp (see chart). ?Game over,? said one analyst; HD DVD would now ?die a quick death?, predicted another. Blu-ray's triumph seems almost inevitable.

For Sony, the leader of the Blu-ray camp, victory would be sweet indeed. Sony famously lost a similar format war in the 1980s, when its Betamax video-cassette standard was defeated by VHS, which won Hollywood's backing. This time around Sony had two advantages: it now owns one of Hollywood's biggest studios, and it built a Blu-ray drive into its PlayStation 3 games console, thus seeding the market with millions of players. Despite HD DVD exclusives such as ?Transformers? and ?Shrek 3?, sales of Blu-ray discs outpaced those of HD DVDs by two to one in 2007.

Warner's announcement came on the eve of the Consumer Electronics Show, a huge technology fair that took place this week in Las Vegas. It threw the HD DVD camp, led by Toshiba and Microsoft, into disarray, prompting it to cancel promotional events and issue a statement saying it was ?evaluating next steps?. Only two of the biggest studios, Universal and Paramount, remain committed to HD DVD. Paramount, which had supported both formats, abandoned Blu-ray last year after Toshiba offered it tens of millions of dollars in marketing incentives. But under the terms of its deal with Toshiba, it can resume support for Blu-ray in 2009?and may be able to do so sooner if the deal has an escape clause. On January 8th Paramount said its ?current plan? was to stick with HD DVD.

Blu-ray's victory would be good news for the industry, allowing it to unite to promote a single next-generation format as sales of DVDs start to decline (they fell by nearly 5% in America last year, the first ever year-on-year decline, and by around 3% worldwide). For consumers, most of whom have chosen to steer clear of both formats until a winner emerges, it would also be good news?except, that is, for those who have already bought HD DVD players. It is possible that HD DVD will live on as a data-storage technology for computers, suggests Eiichi Katayama of Nomura, an investment bank. But as far as the living room is concerned, HD DVD now looks like the new Betamax.

The Economist

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Even the gizmodo article is based on the Variety article, which is mostly rumor.

You won't hear anything substantive about Uni going neutral until the end of this month, if at all.

Calm down, have some dip.

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I dont understand what is the problem. Why the members wars between HD and BR? In the end its just a movie format!

Or is this like one of those xbox360 vs ps3? People validating their esteem through their possesions?

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how is and was HD-DVD a joke.

what i dont get is everyone who does switch to blu-ray is right now switching to an unfinished product ok and when it is finished they will be praising features HD-DVd already has so they are switching over just to wait for features that they already have in there grasp does not make since

Who cares if you cant watch some of the extras, you can still watch the main movie which is the most important thing, and obviously if Blu-Ray has still been outselling HD DVD despite being "unfinished" then it shows the market doesnt give a toss about extras either.

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I don't own a PS3, but I want Blu-Ray to win.

Why? Read (Marty2003's sig): http://s87762315.onlinehome.us/blu-ray/

Wanting a format you think its better for you to win its different, its even understandable. But I am talking about the constant ultra-emotional fights we see here everyday.

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Wouldn't it suck if your xxGiB Blu-Ray disc had a scratch? There goes xxGiB of data! oh noes!

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Wouldn't it suck if your xxGiB Blu-Ray disc had a scratch? There goes xxGiB of data! oh noes!
Well the jump from 25-50GB to 3.9TB is one hell of a jump. Unless it's "not so important" files n such, you wouldn't store 3.9TB of data on an optical disc for backup purposes. Sure they might be more difficult to scratch than cds & dvds but the possibility is still there.
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