Studios and the the Hi Def format war
08-04-05 | 02:19 PM
#1
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Studios and the the Hi Def format war
Saw this mentioned over at the Digitalbits.
(LATE UPDATE - 7/29/05 - 11:30 AM PDT)
Well, we promised you we'd check back in with any major breaking news this afternoon... and this is pretty major. We've been saying this was going to happen for many months now, so it should come as no surprise. However, 20th Century Fox today confirmed that it is supporting Blu-ray Disc, rather than HD-DVD, in the upcoming high-definition format war. The move has been expected for almost a year - last October the studio joined the Blu-ray Disc Association as an advisory member, but said they had yet to decide which format they would ultimately support (Fox is, of course, also a member of the DVD Forum). Now their preference for the format is official. With their decision, Fox joins Sony, MGM and Buena Vista as the major Blu-ray Disc supporting studios. By comparison, the HD-DVD camp includes Warner Bros., Universal and Paramount. You can read more on this here at Home Media Retailing and here at Video Business. You can also read Fox's official press release here.
In addition to its greater data storage capacity and features that Fox considers to be a greater technical innovation beyond the existing DVD spec, the main reason Fox ultimately decided to support Blu-ray Disc over HD-DVD is that the Blu-ray Disc spec calls for a particular form of renewable copy protection, which is considered more robust. Fox and other studios had called for the HD-DVD format to include the same renewable copy protection, but forces within the HD-DVD camp apparently believed that it was too expensive and unnecessary. Despite this announcement, there's no specific word yet as to which titles will be among Fox's initial Blu-ray Disc releases when the format officially launches early next year.
This is rather pretty big news for Fox to be siding with Blu-Ray, the format war is beginning to bubble up - let the mudslingin' commence.
(LATE UPDATE - 7/29/05 - 11:30 AM PDT)
Well, we promised you we'd check back in with any major breaking news this afternoon... and this is pretty major. We've been saying this was going to happen for many months now, so it should come as no surprise. However, 20th Century Fox today confirmed that it is supporting Blu-ray Disc, rather than HD-DVD, in the upcoming high-definition format war. The move has been expected for almost a year - last October the studio joined the Blu-ray Disc Association as an advisory member, but said they had yet to decide which format they would ultimately support (Fox is, of course, also a member of the DVD Forum). Now their preference for the format is official. With their decision, Fox joins Sony, MGM and Buena Vista as the major Blu-ray Disc supporting studios. By comparison, the HD-DVD camp includes Warner Bros., Universal and Paramount. You can read more on this here at Home Media Retailing and here at Video Business. You can also read Fox's official press release here.
In addition to its greater data storage capacity and features that Fox considers to be a greater technical innovation beyond the existing DVD spec, the main reason Fox ultimately decided to support Blu-ray Disc over HD-DVD is that the Blu-ray Disc spec calls for a particular form of renewable copy protection, which is considered more robust. Fox and other studios had called for the HD-DVD format to include the same renewable copy protection, but forces within the HD-DVD camp apparently believed that it was too expensive and unnecessary. Despite this announcement, there's no specific word yet as to which titles will be among Fox's initial Blu-ray Disc releases when the format officially launches early next year.
This is rather pretty big news for Fox to be siding with Blu-Ray, the format war is beginning to bubble up - let the mudslingin' commence.
08-04-05 | 02:38 PM
#2
no specific word yet as to which titles will be among Fox's initial Blu-ray Disc releases when the format officially launches early next year.
