Oh, CRAP!!! Not "THEY" -- say it isn't so!!!!

Wait -- did this friend of a friend of a guy who knows this other dude say "HD DVD" or "HD-DVD"? . . .

Heresy is how I get all my information, so why not this as well.

I also get my information from theological or religious opinion or doctrine maintained in opposition, or held to be contrary, to the Roman Catholic or Orthodox doctrine of the Christian Church, or, by extension, to that of any church, creed, or religious system, considered as orthodox. :)

rotfl

I think Hearsay would have worked better there, but I'll just roll with a Firefox spell check glitch on this one :D.

I do.

Hey, I agree with all of you guys. I think it's all b.s., but I also don't want to be the guy stocking up on discs for the "losing" (for lack of a better term) format.

RichC2... awesome comment. That made my day.

Dude. You're not that guy. And if you are, I are, too!:)

Maybe "unfair" was a harsh word. But, as said earlier, it should be considered when it comes to a studio looking at software sales to choose a format. How would they sell if they weren't B1G1? With the B1G1 for BR, I believe that the studios and Sony got together and decided to do the B1G1. HD-DVD may have had no choice in the matter if the studios didn't want to do it. BR has Fox and Disney fully supporting the format, no matter what (and, if you ask me, it all seems like a grudge against Microsoft more than any superior technology), and getting them to do B1G1 sales was probably an easier sale than HD-DVD getting their studios to do so. Now, as for HD-DVD releasing heavyweight movies, what choice did they have? For the most part, it seems that new movies are the key to sales, not catalog titles. The titles I listed were the big new movies that each format had in the last couple of months. HD-DVD couldn't help it that Universal and Paramount didn't have as many huge films as Disney, Sony, and Fox combined. Though, I agree, they could have tried to release better catalog titles, but I don't know if they would have been the deciding factor as much as the new titles.

What about the new release breakdowns in sales? Those often don't get included in B1G1 deals for a few months, so they may be a barometer of what happens without the deals.

Its not like they are gonna explode if one side gives up.

They won't?? I still have my first DVD player I purchased back in 1999 and it works too. There are already enough titles for both formats to justify the purchase of a player.

Damn right!!! I am enjoying the B1G1F deals and feel that if HD-Dvd really wants to compete they the studios for the HD-Dvd camp need to do them more often. There is very little profit to be made on each player compared to the money they can rake in over the long haul by getting more and more software sold. I'll continue to buy both but I'll spend more of my money where the deals are to be found.

Rumor around town is that Harry Potter 5 is the LAST WB HD DVD Combo title. This came up several months about by Robert from AVS. He is still stating this is true. The Invasion and The Brave one do show up as a "Combo" release, but rumor has it they will both be on the new TL discs to be announced at CES. Could get interesting.

As much as I wish this to be true, the cover art for the new Justice League HD DVD being released near the end of February clearly shows it as a combo...
Makes it look pretty likely that if they stay format neutral (or go HD DVD exclusive), we will unfortunately still see combos on day and date releases...

Maybe if you started stocking up on the discs for that format, it would be less likely to "lose". :)

The cover art can easily change. Poseidon was supposed to be a combo disc when it was announced and they had the cover showing that. Once it was confirmed it would be a non-combo, we started seeing the revised art on websites.

The Hollywood Reporter mentions that The Bourne Ultimatum was #1 on the HD DVD charts, outselling Harry Potter 5 by a nearly 2:1 margin. Pirates 3 was still #1 for BD and HP5 was #2.

One "insider" from Blu-ray.com said the early HP numbers were BD 1.78:1 over the HD version. If that holds, I wonder what WB thinks? They've said before they don't want a videogame system to carry a movie format. Doesn't seem like many gamers bought HP5 on BD.

I actually prefer the 2.35:1 margin but of course it's up to the director. ;)

Surprised that The Bourne Ultimatum outsold Harry Potter some were speculating that release to be of some significance in the format war. I guess not.

HP5 has been out-sold because about half the friggin' orders from people wanting the movie and/or the set, haven't been placed yet. The reason I say this is because a lot of people are not buying the set, but buying the single movie releases. And then you have those who are waiting for a better deal on the set. So, I wouldn't really take much into consideration about the HP5 vs. Bourne Ultimatum. I bet we'll have brand new figures which will easily out-sell Bourne next month.

Bourne Ultimatum will have a spike, then dramatically decrease in sales. Harry Potter will have more of a gradual decline, and might even spike again, depending on sales. There's not much you can do with the Bourne series, but HP, there's a lot.

As to the BD vs. HD DVD numbers, well, I can't take anything seriously from Blu-ray.com when it comes to predictions. They have some great factual information about the media, but in regards to which way a company is going to lean, I wouldn't put much trust in it.

If anything, WB might announce something like:

"Over the last several months, our sales have increased dramatically in both formats. While Blu-ray sales have been strong, HD DVD sales have held fast and increased dramatically over the last few months. At this point in time, WB has decided to continue support for both formats as WB has done in the past. The future may bring different format offerings, but for now, HD DVD and Blu-ray will still be offered for our consumers."

If Bourne beat Potter 2:1 on HD DVD and 2nd week Pirates beat Potter on BD, I don't know if Warner will be too happy with either format this week lol.

Maybe setting the retail price equal for both HP5 versions also played a role in the numbers being closer.

The HP5 were different in their bonus features, as well. I would love to know which one the "neutral" people went for.

Hey! I'm doing my part. You know how hard it is to avoid purchasing Bourne Ultimatum steelbooks and Harry Potter lenticular covers in favor of the HD versions? For an OCD collector like me, not very... but I manage. I always remind myself that the transfer is paramount and everything else is just icing on the proverbial cake.

The proverbial cake is a lie.