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Hi-Def Media Lovefest: The war is over and we can all go home.
- Thread starter HyperionX
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VanMardigan
has calmed down a bit.
They just announced four more titles in July for HD DVD yesterday. This would definitely come as a shock.
M3Freak said:
The DVD of the first POTC is an awful transfer - absolutely puke-worthy, so I'll have no issues rebuying the first movie. As for the second, I don't own the DVD and have, in fact, never seen the movie, so I'll obviously buy it on BD.
As for the Universal thing, there have been so many false alarms concerning Universal that I don't believe anything concerning that particular aspect of the format war. Particularly when it's being translated second-hand from some German site.
mckmas8808
Mckmaster uses MasterCard to buy Slave drives
I hope this is true.
DarkJediKnight
Member
Reading from AVS, apparently Universal had a performance clause for 1 year in their contract with Toshiba from the launch - that just passed. We can only assume bad sales and incompatible HDI stuff (Children of Men etc...) would play a part.
DarkJediKnight
Member
You can bet there will be some sort of an annoncement from the HD DVD camp immediately. This news is spreading like wildfire. If there's no news by tonight, this article would have a lot more credibility. The weird thing is, a Pioneer exec said this, not some rumor. Whether or not he was joking we'll know soon enough.
The Main Event
Member
2Qr. said:
No no no. You got it all wrong.
German Pioneer representatives confirm Universal is going neutral :lol
distantmantra
Member
Second said:There's no need for HD-DVD when Universal goes neutral.
Tell that to the Weinstein Company and Bandai Visual.
Something isnt' right when BV is releasing their upcoming titles on Blu Ray and HD-DVD in Japan, but only HD-DVD in North America...
distantmantra
Member
Suikoguy said:
I'm not an HD-DVD supporter, I was being sarcastic.
teiresias said:
I understand that, but in this case, Bandai Visual is releasing them in Japan and North America. It just sounds like money-hats to me.
distantmantra
Member
Suikoguy said:Sarcasm failed
Yeah, I was thinking of putting a :lol after it, but for some reason I didn't.
Curse you internet and your lack of conveying emotions!
Manmademan
Member
HD-DVD we hardly knew ye
Crayon Shinchan
Aquafina Fanboy
The more important implication to Universal going neutral is that; HD media FUD can come to an end.
Kinda. All that's left now is for the BDA to get the BDJava+ stuff into gear, so we can get all the benefits of HD-DVD, and then some.
Kinda. All that's left now is for the BDA to get the BDJava+ stuff into gear, so we can get all the benefits of HD-DVD, and then some.
Ignatz Mouse
Banned
VanMardigan said:We'll see what happens. If true, though, I don't see me keeping the 360 add-on for much longer. I love HD DvD, but with no exclusive studios, I'd probably be better off with Blu Ray. Which means I'd need to buy a Ps3.
That's a GOOD thing!
the thing I find amusing about this soap opera is the way either side is painted as having a vested interest, or 'choosing' to support this or that.
If this performance/exclusivity contract is true then thats just how a lot of things work. During the exclusivity period you probably get great (i.e cheap) deals and in return you pledge eternal love for the other guy.
If the performance criteria aren't met, its like the contract never existed. It can sometimes seem like the company is being two-faced, but its just business.
Personally I hope this is true, and it'll mean one format going into Christmas. Surely the best option to try and get HD discs off the ground. I don't personally care that its HDDVD or Bluray doing the losing, it just happens that in theory its easier to tip over HDDVD than bluray.
Course, all the other exclusive studios on bluray's side could suddenly announce the same thing, then it'd be *really* interesting
If this performance/exclusivity contract is true then thats just how a lot of things work. During the exclusivity period you probably get great (i.e cheap) deals and in return you pledge eternal love for the other guy.
If the performance criteria aren't met, its like the contract never existed. It can sometimes seem like the company is being two-faced, but its just business.
Personally I hope this is true, and it'll mean one format going into Christmas. Surely the best option to try and get HD discs off the ground. I don't personally care that its HDDVD or Bluray doing the losing, it just happens that in theory its easier to tip over HDDVD than bluray.
Course, all the other exclusive studios on bluray's side could suddenly announce the same thing, then it'd be *really* interesting
Ignatz Mouse
Banned
Another vote for "wait and see." Even though I have long thought BluRay would win the war, I didn't expect Universal to make any more anywhere near this soon.
Alcibiades
Member
Well, the guy in charge of Universal Studios Home Entertainment at Universal, Craig Kornblau (a stauch HD DVD supporter) and the chair of the North American HD DVD Promotion group just got promoted and will now be in charge of both packaged media (DVD + HD DVD) and digital media (downloads + games).
Just a month or two ago, Universal put another one of their execs, Ken Graffeo, in charge of HD DVD operations worldwide.
So yeah, make that what you will, but why is the head of HD DVD Promtion in NA (Universal chairs the position), who just got promoted, going to take his company neutral?
Universal may eventually decide to release titles on Blu-ray, but it wouldn't make sense to do it this year. Ken Graffeo has already said that they expect Blu-ray to continue to outsell HD DVD yet will remain in the HD DVD camp.
Just a month or two ago, Universal put another one of their execs, Ken Graffeo, in charge of HD DVD operations worldwide.
So yeah, make that what you will, but why is the head of HD DVD Promtion in NA (Universal chairs the position), who just got promoted, going to take his company neutral?
Universal may eventually decide to release titles on Blu-ray, but it wouldn't make sense to do it this year. Ken Graffeo has already said that they expect Blu-ray to continue to outsell HD DVD yet will remain in the HD DVD camp.
DarkJediKnight
Member
The shocking news was made (in Europe) during the announcement of Pioneer's new 2nd gen Blu-ray player which was unveiled today. Still waiting for some confirmation. Here's the new player.
http://www.engadgethd.com/2007/05/09/pioneers-new-blu-ray-player-the-bdp-lx70/
http://www.engadgethd.com/2007/05/09/pioneers-new-blu-ray-player-the-bdp-lx70/
VanMardigan
has calmed down a bit.
Ignatz Mouse said:
Not for me. I have a 480p/1080i only tv.
That's good enough for Blu Ray movies, but for games:
I'm not saying this is true or not, but it always makes sense to sell titles for a format that is outperforming the format you are currently supporting. What doesn't make sense is Universal's decision to continue support for a format that they expect to be outperformed for at least the rest of the year.Alcibiades said:
distantmantra said:
Right now, BV isn't right at all in the eyes of the fans. Period. After the two PatLabor movies and GunBuster, their DVD price points for GunBuster 2, Wings of Rean, Enma, and Galaxy Angel Rune are just disgustingly high. Freedom will be on HD-DVD/DVD dual format only, which is also going to kill them. These releases will crash and burn, despite their quality (which is, admittedly very, very high quality).
distantmantra
Member
Kintaro said:
Yep, BV is bringing out R2-like releases with R2 prices. I loved hearing about the fan response at Sakura Con, I'm sure they'll learn their lesson soon enough.
Alcibiades
Member
Studios are going to look at their marketshare relative to the whole HD market, not whether a particular format is outselling another format. Even if Blu-ray software was outselling HD DVD software 10-1, Universal would probably be concerned about their marketshare relative to Sony, Warner, etc... (and this is years down the road, not this or next year when volumes are so low it doesn't make much difference overall). Bigger hits and more software on Blu-ray might help it sell more software, but it's not gonna help Universal substantially just by default neutral support. If Universal's theatrical releases are blowing while Fox, Sony, and Disney are doing great and in turn helping Blu-ray, it's not really gonna help Universal all that much to release on Blu-ray, since their movies aren't as popular anyway (at least the past year or so).Chemo said:
Since many early adopters own both formats, and since the hardware market is moving towards dual-format devices (and moreso once players and PC drives become cheaper), it's quite possible that Universal might be able to reach a wide audience without ever releasing on Blu-ray.
Think of it this way, suppose RE5 was exclusive to 360 and Capcom expected to sell 1 million copies. Would Capcom care that they could sell 500,000 of RE5 on 360 and 500,000 on PS3 if overall software sales were 10-1 in favor of PS3? That's an extreme madeup example, and obviously their are many HD DVD and Blu-ray owners that only own one format right now, but I just wanted to point out that software sales wouldn't necessarily be a motivator for Universal is their titles still performed strongly on HD DVD.
That's a lot of spin, man. Software sales should be a motivator for Universal... if there are more people buying Blu-ray discs, then they're more than likely willing to add Universal releases into their purchasing habits if and when they become available. Businesses don't make money by settling on what they have, they make money by expanding and going after larger audiences. To use your own example somewhat, Universal going neutral and making Blu-ray discs would be like Capcom making Devil May Cry 4 multiplatform -- a really damn good move to avoid missing out on a huge piece of the market.Alcibiades said:
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