Not to derail this conversation, but I'm going to a special "first look" banquet in chicago that is being hosted by Universal in two days. It's some big presentation where you get a sneak peek at their coming theatrical releases, DVD, and HD DVD releases. They also discuss the issues facing the movie industry today. I get to go because my boss doesn't want to. There's free food and a cash bar and i heard they give out screeners/promo material.

So, in case there's a Q&A session, anybody got any questions you want me to ask?

Awww.....Jimmy.....Blitz.

*sigh*

good times.

Choo-choo to them. ;)

Sure. Would "not a chance in hell" be their stance on switching to BD? :)

Oh...and "when is Jaws coming out?"

Ummm... the current discussion is about the rumors and your question of why would a studio go neutral. Kind of hard not to stick to it. I gave facts and you tried "counter" them with maybes.

Not billions. On the one hand you're arguing that the HD market is miniscule and now it is abandoning billions.

Believe me I did. I quoted it and it is in context. You may not like it but you contradicted yourself. Not suprising really since all you did was take a factual statement I made and replaced "HD DVD" with "Blu-ray":

I said:
Your "counter argument":

True, but those titles with IME arent announced for BD yet. (Batman Begins, Terminator 3 and Troy come to mind).

WB may be neutral, but they are playing heavily on the hd-dvd side (recent V announcement and also soon to be announced HP4...both with TrueHD and IME).

FYI...those unannounced WB BD titles will remain as such until BD-50 becomes a viable reality. Until then, they will have to pick and choose which ones get it. That's why you're not seeing the Last Samurai and others thus far.

those were two of the questions i was actually thinking of asking. And maybe asking about any TV on HD DVD releases.

Or how about "why the fuck are all the L&O season sets coming out in 4x3?"

Rumors are not facts. You didn't like that I said the future maybe different than today, yet you want to discuss rumors which suggest that the future maybe different than today. Think about that, but not too hard.

If Blu-Ray dies, HD DVD will be successful. If HD DVD dies, Blu-Ray will be successful. I'm not sure why you are so confused, or would even begin the conversation with something so obvious.

Oh noes! The Searches and Unforgiven on BD50 10/31!

You know, if I were an extreme Blu-Ray supporter, Josh's arguments wouldn't make me too confident in my decision, especially after seeing this debate with awmurray. I can't help but think you're way over your head Josh; you really aren't making a very strong case for Blu-Ray. Maybes and ifs don't cut it quite as well as actual, definite results, like HD DVD HAS delivered. These contradictions of yours don't help well, either.

Oh, I see your confusion now. The unfactual part was:

I even bolded it for you in post #353 so you wouldn't be confused. See in post #279 you agreed that momentum was going with HD DVD and had been since launch.

That's the contradiction. Not the "if".

Um, its more likely that both will survive for some time....I think we all need to get used to that.

You need to understand that studios are seeing the success of hd-dvd and may be jumping on board. They see a potential market. It doesnt necessarily have anything to do with success/failure of Bluray even though you keep bringing it into the argument.

And, HD-DVD fans need to realize that BD isnt going anywhere either. So everyone chill.

Are you really trying to say that "if HD DVD dies" they will still have momentum? :lol:

That is something I've said plenty of times. Funny how the entire conversation started when awmurray responded to a comment of your by saying:

I don't know of any HD DVD fans here that think it IS going somewhere anytime soon. However, I do believe that in the next year, it's possible that one of these formats will go away.

Honestly, I'm not convinced either format will be successful (at least in the sense of being the dominant home video format, period), no matter how things shake out.

I dont necessarily agree with his statement...I do understand that hd-dvd was supposedly doomed from the beginning and BD was supposed to win.....so by studios supporting both formats, its better for hd-dvd than bd.

It extends their supposedly doomed existence.

They will both be around for a while.

I completely agree....IMO, neither of these formats will surpass DVD....I bet a future format will do that.

I think these formats will be more successful than LD, but not as successful as DVD.

And that's an entirely DIFFERENT topic. First things first, getting rid of one of them. Then we'll tackle how far it's going to go.

One thing is a definite: with two, neither is going to go anywhere. I don't even think they'd reach laserdisc status.

Figure i'll repost this here too.

Here's some more releases for HD-DVD for 1/02/07:

Lucky Number Slevin
Clerks 2
Pulse

Not that I think you would get a straight answer, but I'd really appreciate it if you would ask the Universal rep why Universal decided to support HD DVD and not BD. That question has been puzzling me for the best part of a year now.

I'd also like to know why they don't have "zoom" (the "A" button) and "bookmarking" (the "B" button) enabled on their HD DVD releases. (WB does enable those functions, so why doesn't Universal do so?)

Finally, please thank them for putting out some excellent HD DVD releases thus far.

TV on HD DVD is a great question. Especially with them sitting on Battlestar Galactica.

At this point I think this is very likely.

My opinion: digital downloads will slowly replace DVDs as the dominant medium. HD-DVD and BD will exist for a long time as the collector's formats.

Just like iTunes is slowly suffocating CD sales.

Not that this would prevent them from zooming with another button, but Universal is reserving the "A" button for their U-Control features.

You should have asked me. I believe they answered that at the meeting last week. I just can't remember now.

Please ask this Kocheese99. I don't care about zoom, but I bookmark all the time and think its one of HD DVD's coolest features. Really sucks that the Universal discs don't support it.

Well then I guess that depends on how one measures success. LD has titles out that still haven't made it to DVD. If that's the case, I'll be very happy.

I'll try to ask them about the TV on HD DVd and about the reason for going HD-DVd over BR, not sure if i'll ask about the zoom, simply because i highly doubt the guy runnign it will be able to come up with an answer, but if it seems like he knows about the technical aspects i'll be sure to ask.

Yep, if worst case is the number of titles LD had and a 20 year niche then I will be thrilled even if it never comes close to DVD sales.

Same here. I'd prefer if it were wildly successful, but we may very well have to live with a LD-like niche market. That's fine with me.

Kocheese99, ask about Steven Spielberg titles in general.

At least it sets us apart from Joe Six Pack. ;)

Exactly.....ask how much say he has in the release of his titles to HD.

repost from the release date thread:

Here's something for the Blu-Ray guys out there:

According to what i've read: X-men 3 will be streeting 11/14/06

This has already gone beyond LD. If Best Buy and Circuit City are stocking them... ;)

Oh, I have another question, if you're going to ask about specific titles: The Producers (2005). Is that on the way? Universal distributed the DVD, but it was a Columbia co-production. I'd like to know if they can release the disc if they want to or if Sony has some veto power over it.

If you don't mind me asking, what is your source?

Care to elaborate? What will "U-Control" features do?