uhmm.... and?

Weird, I bookmarked that forum but never registered.

Thanks for the reminder!

I can pretty much vouch for what Pro-B quoted - he did defend Josh Z in that thread... some of those posts are really out there.

Good Job Pro-B!

From the same Warner is neutral article,

Hmmm, let the speculation begin!

2 key notes in the article.

the growing threat to plastic-boxed DVDs from movie downloads over the Internet.
This is an eye chart test," said James Burger, a lawyer who represents technology companies in Washington. "You don't even begin to see the difference unless the screen is larger than 42 inches."
especially the latter. my friend paid over a grand on a 32 inch widescreen hdtv last year and it was not impressive sorry.
any thoughts on the above 2 notes? I find this to be a fascinating topic.

WWII was over in 1945.

Thought this interview with WB Home Video prez Ron Sanders was rather informative.

http://www.twice.com/article/CA6477849.html

Uhmmm... ok.. and?


You didn't really take my post as serious did you?


Oh darn.... and I forgot to add the " we are all doomed!!!!" part to that post too... oh well.

It's an internet forum, who knows what to take seriously.

That's true... I've seen a couple members post something just as out there and they appeared to be very serious.

I was only at the most 10% serious.... lol

I gather from that statement that Bill Hunt must have been talking out of his ass when he claimed that the HD DVD offer to WB was "old news" as it sounds to me like it is very much an ongoing negotiation (with both sides).

To clean up some of the negativity, maybe we should ease up on the Bill Hunt namecalling. Feel free to continue pointing out any inconsistencies, inaccuracies, skewed reporting, and all that fun stuff -- as well as what he gets right -- of course.

...but yes, I don't think there's any chance of either side not aggressively pursuing exclusivity for Warner. They'd be insane if they're not.

Yea, I can only image the numbers being thrown in Time Warner's direction right now!

Good point, Adam.

I agree Adam, but let's remember that no one's forcing Bill to say these things...he's been kind of shooting himself in the foot lately. I agree on the namecalling, but I think it's fair to say that Mr. Hunt has seriously damaged both his credibility and objectivity in the past year or so. He's still fun to read, however.

Oh, without a doubt.

TOTAL HD "ON HOLD"

I think this is further evidence that Warner Brothers will back 1 format in 2008.

http://www.highdefdigest.com/news/sh...ld_For_Now/965

I think Total HD being put on hold is something supporters on each side can agree is a good thing.

Maybe, but it could also be that going to the lengths to manufacture Total HD discs wouldn't pan out if Warner were the only studio to use them.

I'd just as soon the idea be dropped anyway, though.

Yes. I wasn't looking forward to dealing with a potentially high defective disc rate nor with the higher prices of Total HD.

Agreed.

If Warner is making money off of Blu-ray sales, there isn't much justification on why they would stop. They will certainly support both till the end of this year, and probably into early next year as well.

If Warner comes out and says, "Hey, our Blu-ray sales were decreasing", I'd challenge that remark, because at this point in the format wars, that would be an impossibility. With few titles being released, Blu-ray and HD DVD owners are eating them up as they are being shipped.

I'm sure Warner has a hefty report of Blu-ray sales, just like it does HD DVD.

If Warner can stick to offering two formats and not bend to pressure, Sony might, just MIGHT offer HD DVD formats as well in the future. But Warner would have to have discussions with them. If Warner does go exclusive, this will not be a good thing for HD DVD owners, or Blu-ray owners.

I'm sure they would base their decision on more than a few thousand copies sold per week. Just like Paramount, I'm sure they are factoring in production costs and specs of each format. Who knows if any studio is making any serious profit off HD sales. They still only combine to make up 1% of home video sales.

But it's more than a few thousand copies sold today. It's about a few million sold in the future. You have to be very future-orientated. When DVDs were originally released, movie companies didn't necessarily like it. It was costing a lot to make the discs and the profit margins weren't to their liking. But now, DVDs are made, the cases are pumped out like a formula. The same will happen with HD, and companies know the biggest profits are yet to come.

Since HD is a new media format, the reason for this total domination syndrome by movie companies, becomes more clear. They don't want ANY chance of having a competiting format cut into their sales. But what they don't realize, is they will undermine their own format if they continue the same childish ownership behaviors.

This is what I am saying. They ARE looking at future sales. If they decide to pick 1 format soon, it won't just be which one is selling now. They may be more profitable now selling HD DVD because of lower production costs. Paramount was selling more on BD, but they said HD DVD is cheaper for them to produce. Yes, they also received incentives from the HD DVD side, but there was more to that major decision. Warner likes the interactive features. HD DVD offers that now. That's why there's dozens of titles not on BD because of that. With as many PS3s sold, I'm sure Warners expected more BD sales, since I'm sure that was Sony's selling point in the first place, "look at all the PS3s that'll be sold." If Toshiba standalone unit sales rise in Q4, combined with finalized specs, cheaper production, easier programming tools, more patents contained on the format, and HD DVD looks like a good choice for Warner to fully support. Remember, that was their original plan, until Sony convinced them of the supposed PS3 factor which isn't really helping as much as they were told it would.

If Warner did choose HD DVD exclusively, I think it would help the war. That would be 2 major studios dropping BD. I'm sure Disney and Lionsgate took notice when Paramount left. What do you think their reaction is going to be if the much larger Warners left too? Think they may re-access their position?

Mr Cinema, you're sadly mistaken if you think BR production costs are not going to go down. You mention a lot of scenarios for Hd-dvd moving forward and as if BR is going to stay status quo. Interactive features will be a moot point once the PS3 gets the 2.0 firmware update and Profile 2.0 players slowly but surely get to the market.

P.S Sony is coming out with a 399 PS3 for the holidays based on a new sku in the works so I would not discount the PS3.
Article for confirmation: http://www.thesimexchange.com/commun...d=12568&r=2624