Seeing that some of the bigger titles that we were promised from Warner (Batman Begins, Potter) were pushing into the 4th quarter, does anyone else think that they were delayed because of the TrueHD 5.1 spec?

I noticed on the Potter art posted that the TrueHD 5.1 is listed first on the audio options, and someone on AVS mentioned that Batman will be TrueHD, as well.

I'm wondering if the studios are holding off the big titles until the firmware update is out.

Maybe, but I still think it has more to do with saving the big titles for the holiday season rather than late Summer. This also allows for more players to be sold. They're not starting their big advertising push until mid September.

Is TrueHD *that* much better?

I never understood the reasoning for them waiting for more players to be sold to release a title.
Let's say that 100% of people who own a player are going to buy 'Title X'. If 20,000 palyers have been sold so far (i'm making these numbers up btw) and another 20,000 are expected to be sold by the holidays, what difference does it make if you sell 20k copies now and 20k more once the holidays come as opposed to waiting and selling them all at once? To me it would be better to start making money from them now.

They are just keeping them for the holidays would be my guess, but the technology could go with that. I am unsure what BD will have, but the holiday slate for HD-DVD is shaping up nicely - The Sopranos will be a big feather in the cap of HD-DVD. People will want it for Christmas and will want HD-DVD for Christmas and it won't matter that a BD Sopranos should come out in 2007.

Suppose to be lossless format.

They want to wait for more players to get sold because of retail shelf space. If 20k people buy Doom HD, then thats great since Best Buy and Walmart only have to put aside a single spot. But if there are 100 titles on the shelf, with the same 20k base, then all of a sudden BB and Walmart are giving up a ton of space for something with a small sales potential compared to normal DVDs. By waiting for the install base to grow, it gives the retailers more incentive to actually buy the discs (remember, studio's dont sell to people, they sell to stores).

D

This makes sense. I never thought of it that way.

The studios will also give placement money if the revenue is there, but if not enough players are sold then they won't be making much money.

So why not hold back one of the catalog titles and release a big gun instead?
A 'King Kong' would certainly have more selling potential than a 'U-571' and also help sell players in the process.

I don't recall many blockbusters being released in dvd's early days. It makes more sense to hold the bigger titles for the holiday shopping season rather than the dead of summer.

I would think once their $150 million marketing campaign cranks up that we'll start to see some concrete annoucements regarding the A list titles.

I don't get that logic either, if you released it during the summer months it will still be there for people to buy during the holiday season if they didn't buy it in summer. It's not like they are limited editions or anything.
And in the meantime you have already made some money from it before the holiday sales even begin.

It is essentially the same as DVD-Audio. Much better.