Grubert

40-Year-Old Virgin
Aeon Flux
Apollo 13
Armageddon
Batman Begins
Behind Enemy Lines
Blazing Saddles
Bourne Supremacy
Bram Stoker's Dracula
Brothers Grimm
Charlie & The Chocolate Factory
Chronicles of Riddick
Cinderella Man
Constantine
Dark Water (USA remake)
Desperado
Devil's Rejects
Dinosaur
Doom
Dukes of Hazzard
Dune (mini-series)
Everest (documentary)
Fantastic Four
Fifth Element
For a Few Dollars More
Four Brothers
Full Metal Jacket
Goodfellas
Great Raid
Green Mile
Guns of Navarone
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
Hero
Hitch
House of Flying Daggers
Ice Age
Italian Job
Jarhead
Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back
Kill Bill: Vol. 1
Kiss Kiss Bang Bang
Kiss of the Dragon
Knight's Tale
Kung Fu Hustle
Ladder 49
Last Samurai
Last Waltz
League of Extraordinary Gentlemen
Legends of the Fall
Lethal Weapon
Lord of War
Manchurian Candidate (remake)
Matrix
Million Dollar Baby
Oceans 12
Phantom of the Opera
Punisher
Rambo: First Blood
Reservoir Dogs
Resident Evil Apocalypse
Robocop
Rumor Has It
Sahara
Saw
See No Evil
Sense and Sensibility
Serenity
Sky Captain & the World of Tomorrow
Sleepy Hollow
Species
Stealth
SWAT
Swordfish
Syriana
Terminator 2: Judgment Day
Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines
Tomb Raider
Total Recall
Training Day
Troy
Twister
U2: Rattle and Hum
U-571
Unforgiven
Van Helsing
We Were Soldiers
XXX


Blue: launch in Blu-ray only
Red: launch in HD DVD only
Green: launch in both Blu-ray and HD DVD

Total titles = 87
Available in BD only = 43
Available in HD DVD only = 19
Available in both = 25

Total available in BD = 43 + 25 = 68
Total available in HD DVD = 19 + 25 = 44

Hence,

A buyer of a player, at launch, will have access to:

Buyer of a Blu-ray player: 68/87 = 78% of all launch titles
Buyer of an HD DVD player: 44/87 = 50% of all launch titles

Granted, this is probably academic and of not much real-world importance. Not to mention that comparing two non-simultaneous launches is also arguably an empty exercise.

Important or not, if we are going to compare, we must do it fairly. Only specific titles announced for respective initial launch have been counted. Hence, Fox launch wouldn't be 20 titles, but only the five named. Also, though the Warner slate for HD DVD goes all the way to June, I've included everything as launch. I think that's cutting them sufficient slack.


(If anybody thinks there is an inaccuracy in the list, speak up.)

joshd2012

Wow. You put a lot of work into that post.

Grubert

Thanks. Some clever use of tables helped a lot.

I put it first on avs because I got fed up of misinformation. But I thought it might be useful here, to help people make an informed decision.

In summary, BD has advantage in:

-Total number of titles announced and named at launch (68 to 44)
-Number of titles exclusive to the format (43 to 19)
-Percentage of titles available WRT total hidef titles (78% to 50%)

And that's a very conservative estimate regarding BD.

Mr. Cinema

The only disadvantage I see is IF YOU DON'T buy a PS3, you have to pay $1000 to watch a Blu-Ray movie. Correct?

digitalfreaknyc

We don't know yet.

Grubert

Correct. But personally, I'd rather pay $1000 and be able to buy 80% of the movies than pay $500 and be able to buy 50% of the movies.

Mr. Cinema

I know later, they'll release players that will be priced around $500. But, only giving the option to purchase a player at $1000 or more, they are basically forcing people to buy a PS3 to watch Blu-Ray. Combine that with the fact that tons of gamers will be also looking for a PS3 to just play games will make it tough to find one. Not to mention the possibility of a shortage at launch. I undertand the strategy from their perspective.

Is the reason they're not making $500 players now is they don't want that to affect the PS3 sales? If that isn't the case, why does it cost double to buy a standalone BR player as opposed to HD-DVD?

Good list, btw. Are those titles that are confirmed with streetdates? I thought I read that King Kong will be a HD-DVD title.

I have a feeling I'll be an early adopter. I've never bought a gaming system at launch, but I may do so here because I like movies 100x more than games.

speedyray

Very nice list. Just makes my internal struggle on choice worse. Despite leaning BD, there is alot of red I would like to have.

DthRdrX

Sony has yet to determine and release prices of their stand along player. LG has been working on two of them as well. Hopefully we'll see something for Blu-Ray go sub 1K.

Toshiba is bottom pricing their two HD players. It's basically a last ditch effort to gain more market, quickly, to draw the other studios attention away from BR.

Giles

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire: HD-DVD only - boooooo

DthRdrX

Nice pics of some of the Blu-ray title "spines" at Blu-ray.com under CES.

Grubert

True. But Goodfellas was on the Blu-ray 'wall of movies' at CES, so it can't take very long. Now about Kubrick...

I don't mind very much missing out on Universal for a while (though I like many of the movies relesed by their Focus Features studio). They'll come to their senses, eventually.

raven56706

doing all the math is nice..... it comes down to how much the players will be at launch... sorry but Samsung and pioneer's price tag on the blu ray isnt too thrilling... not to mention i am hoping PS3 isnt the same price(which i doubt)

Josh Z

I don't think you're looking at this with the proper perspective. Blu-Ray will have 80% of the titles at launch, but that's still only 68 movies. And of those 68 movies, how many are good ones that you'd actually want to buy? What will those numbers look like in a year, or two years? Nobody knows.

This is Year One. Neither format is going to have much of a selection out at first. Whichever format catches on with consumers is the one that will have a better software selection in the long run.

Stu 17

Price at launch is pretty meaningless.

More important is price 3 months after launch, 6 months after launch, and then in October and November for Christmas shopping.

Qui Gon Jim

There is no price for PS3. Any price you read is speculation at this point.

Grubert

I wasn't discussing PS3 pricing, only standalone players published prices.

darkside

Hmm, defintely a lot more red that interests me in that list compared to Blue. I'm definitely going to have to wait this out though. Too much division right now.

Dazed

Really ? wow, im the opposite. The only Reds that grabbed me were Serenity, Goodfellas and Full Metal Jacket.

Either way, im happy with DVD so wont be any rush to upgrade.

matome

Yep, no reds are a must-have for me.

THe Blue must-haves though:

Bram Stoker's Dracula
Kill Bill Vol. 1
Terminator 2
Fifthe Element

BobDole42

No one has mentioned the obvious, so I will - when one format wins, ALL of the movies will be available on that format. I'm going to wait it out for a few months if I can resist the urge to buy one (or both) players.

That being said, I think BD is going to win. The PS3 is going to result in HUGE BD penetration. I'm sure Sony is going to fight tooth and nail on this after beta.

DthRdrX

Agreed, though I still think Hd-dvd won't get to market anyway.

Alot of people are looking at content right off the bat, while both formats are only talking about limited titles anyway. I wouldn't consider a difference of 20 or more titles at launch a big difference anyway.

The main thing that concerning me from buying into HD-dvd is the limited CE support. There is really only one big company making these things and the fact that they dropped the price from 1K to 500 dollars, months before product is released, is a red flag to me.

Qui Gon Jim

I am 100% the opposite. If any format is going to be stillborn it will be BR. A later launch date along with a substantially higher price may mean bad news.

That said, I believe both will make it to market. HD drives are already being pre-sold.

DthRdrX

Hd-dvd is being released at the end of March(28th) BR releases start sometime in April. That's not exactly an advantage unless you think people are going to line up to buy the things, which isn't going to happen anytime soon.

Hd drives are on pre-order, which means absolutely nothing. For all we know, Toshiba fibbed about the price at CES and slashed the price of their players to worry Sony execs to get some extra concessions not to launch their format. Their are alots of backroom deals going on right now. No one can tell me that a $500 price cut isn't curious on their part. It definitely tells me they know they are losing.

Qui Gon Jim

By your logic, for all we know Sony is BSing about the coming BR drives. Fact is there is a HD drive up for pre-order at several retailers, while there is not a BR one up yet. Fact is the only currently announced BR is $1800, a full $1300 more than the HD drive.

I am not on either side, I'm just being the devil's advocate to those blindly thinking Sony has this one in the bag. Studio support is important, but the sell through point is just as important. The winning format will have 100% studio support.