I'd agree with that. By far the most films in both my DVD and HD DVD collection are from WB.

I really don't care that much who wins, just that someone wins. If Red can find a way to decisively win, fine by me. I just don't see that happening.

The CEs lined up? You mean Sony, Samsung, Pioneer, Sharp, and Panasonic, right? If the latest numbers hold true, only 200,000 stand alones have been sold, and 100,000 were the Sony BDP-300. That means the other 100,000 were split between Sony, Samsung, Pioneer, Sharp, and Panasonic. I imagine the Sony/Samsungs sold the best, followed by Pioneer, then Pansonic, and then Sharp (new to the market). Thats alot of CEs who didn't sell very many players and have to keep dropping prices every month to compete with either HD DVD prices, or Sony's ever dropping PS3. That does not leave a lot of money on the table for anyone, which is why it seems they are releasing "higher quality" machines like the Sony BDP-500 for $699 to try and recoup those costs. I imagine over time all of these CEs will just start making Dual Format players. Besides Sony, none of these CEs have announced plans for new Blu-ray players. They might at CES, but as it stands, besides Sony, we have no new Blu-ray players coming out.

Scratch resistant is only there because the data on Blu-ray discs is so close to the surface that if it wasn't the smallest scratch would cost the disc to be un readable. Its only a "bonus" if you don't take care of you're movies. We have all had floaters in the past on DVD, but I would never call this scratch resistant feature something that "1 ups" HD DVD. For all we know the TL51 disc will have it as well.

i just read this from afterdawn...

rumor has it that Warner is dropping hd-dvd and backing bd 100%

http://www.afterdawn.com/news/archive/12116.cfm

never mind... it looks like we're discussing it already, sorry for "late" post.

I pretty much feel the same way.

I've said it before - my biggest fear of WB going HD DVD-exclusive is not being able to avoid the combo for their day-and-date titles.

As it stands right now I only have 3 or 4 WB combos left, and I am actively looking to replace those with their Blu-Ray counterpart. As soon as the Superman Returns BD w/TrueHD appears it will be mine.

Unfortunately I don't have that option with Uni titles (except the rare import).

Ugh. I think whoever lands Warner ends up the winner. I don't care if the case is red or blue.

I never really minded the Combos, except when they put them on catalog releases. If they keep the price the same as the Blu-ray version, it seems it would be a better sale to those with multiple DVD players etc. At the very least, make all kids movies require it. I thought the rumor was Warner (and Universal) were dumping Combos for all catalogs come January 08?

I doubt those companies are dying to produce HD DVD players that would be priced at $99-$150 to compete with Toshiba.

You're speaking as a movie collector. A lot of renters out there can't control how well others take care of discs. I'm 1/1 with renting HD DVDs that were so scratched up it froze the system.

I don't see any $99 HD DVD players. Can you link me? The cheapest is the A3 which is $199 most weeks. So far, the HD DVD camp has gained 2 CEs since the start (Venturer and Onkyo), while Blu-ray has gained 1 (Sharp, even though they announced and canceled the players 4 different times), and one went neutral (Samsung, and even LG to a point). Dual Format is where the money is to be made now on both sides...they just need to price them better. I imagine a $599 Dual Player would sell like nuts right now and people would be selling there A2/3 and Blu-ray SA for one. Considering Samsung is selling their newest player for now $299, how much more would it cost them to add HD DVD support in?

I also wouldn't put all your faith on 1 rental of an HD DVD. Is that the same Transformers disc that froze your player too? Rent more. Still, after having Netflix/BB online and renting 50+ discs for both formats, not a skip or freeze.

I thought that rumor was refuted by WB.

I don't even care about the price - it's the reliability (or lack of) I despise.

There's nothing I hate more than watching a movie and feeling like the disc could choke at any second. A feeling I remember all too well from Uni's DVD-18's.

FWIW, the combos I've had that did crap out never even loaded, so at least I knew I was screwed before I got into the film.

Also, just want to note that I've rented about 20-25 HD DVD's from Netflix and never had a problem. Then again, I usually get them release week so I'm probably the first person to get the disc.

Why the PS3 affect all the time? Who cares! If the PS3 is driving BD supports, then Sony is doing a good job promoting BD. I don't see a similar machine offered by MS. No, the add-on doesn't count, since it needs the X360 or PC to work (i can't play any hd-dvds b/c my x360 is in the shop).

My BD collection is outnumbering hd-dvd like 10-1! Why? I rarely see any hd-dvd sales... Yeah, the crappy A2 was under $100, but so? I want the softwares and i want it under $10-$15 a piece. It all comes down to promotions, yeah, competition!

I honestly think a lot of people stocked up BDs due to the B1G1 promotions even though they don't even have a BD player yet.

Have to agree with this. The best HD DVD sales I've seen have been Fry's selling select WB titles for 13.99. I think Amazon may have had a B2G1 sales at some point.

Although, the fact that Amazon has been doing multiple WB BOGO's for Blu only is strange.

Are they doing this because someone/something wants to pad the Blu-Ray numbers as much as possible?

Do they know something we don't and want to get rid of as much WB Blu inventory as possible?

Pick your foil-hat theory.

Yes, the BOGO deals helped sell a ton of "crappy" software...we know. Its nothing new and the BDA is doing it every single week. I think right now there are 3 different sales going on. Thats how the BDA thinks they will "win" is by software. HD DVD camp sees players as whats going to "win". Just like the A2 for $99 that sold 90k in a matter of days.

Not all the software is crappy. I think you know that.

Right now at Amazon in the BOGO one can get 300, The Departed, Casino Royale, GoodFellas, A Christmas Story, Last Samurai, Fifth Element Remastered, Letters From Iwo Jima, Bram Stoker's Dracula, Unforgiven, Black Hawk Down, and that's just from the first page.

I was more referring to his comment of:

Which is funny considering it has a very high build quality and has gotten excellent reviews, unlike many of the Blu-ray SA players.

Nor do I. What I'm saying is it'll be easier/quicker to get to 1 format if Warners goes to Blu only. It'd be a totally different situation compared to last year. Even though HD DVD only had 1 exclusive (Universal), they still had support from Paramount and WB. This time, it's 2 exclusives, but only 2 studios. And since day & date titles are the most important right now, there's no way Universal and Paramount could support the format by themselves.

It's much easier to get Universal to go neutral than it is Sony, Fox, Disney, and Lionsgate.

If WB chose Red, then that evens things out and adds years? to ending this thing, if it ever did.

HD adoption has slowed down because of 2 formats. Let's see how it does with only 1 to worry about. I'm sure Best Buy would love to get rid of a sku, as would most retailers.

And there are plenty of WB titles they can release next year, just in time for those many 1.1 players to be released. Batman Begins, Matrix, and V for Vendetta to start with.

I wonder how many copies of Transformers Paramount could sell to the BD only crowd, especially with lossless audio.

Agreed. CES 2008 should be very interesting.

I for one would double-dip in a second.

GizmoDVD... sorry dude... call it crappy all you want, but nonetheless, i'm very happy to have Black Books, Lives of Others in my BD collection for less than dvd prices.

You're not getting my point GizmoDVD... so what the A2 is selling like hot cakes, the five free hd-dvds are not instant, so people need something "instantly" to play with the new toy and where can they get a descent hd-dvd deal? Oh yeah, the CC computer glitch...

The "hottest" hd-dvd promotion was free HEROES with the add-on purchase (and two instant free hd-dvds $35 under from BB). That was it!

It's one thing that hardware driving software sales, but quite another when software sales driving hardware sale! You know what? I think the every other week BD promotion is working, at least i'm cool with it. Hell, i'm hoping next week as well, so that my spending can be stretched out...

GizmoDVD, geeze... i call every standalone HD players crap, even the Sony ones okay? Why? Loading time and updates, so i don't play favorites.

Sorry man, i can't stand the idea of waiting for a minute to load a disc, that's not normal...

Didn't we have an older thread about the war ending early 2008? And i believe BD is the victor? And something about TonyMontana has a bet or something?

The 5 free on the Blu side are not instant either. Considering the A2 was $99 and the cheapest Blu-ray player was $399, that would mean they would have $300 to "instantly" buy HD DVD movies then, right? How about the A3 which is $199 with 7 movies "instantly" right now. You're argument is so flawed I'm just going to stop.

You might want to pull that one to make a better point.

Gizmo, you're not getting my points... no, your logic is flawed!

Buying the A2 at $100 saves you $300, but how the fuck you can compare that if you have gotten the PS3 instead? Does the A2 have a hard drive? can the A2 play games? Does the A2 do multi-media? Oh, can the A2 ever do VOD? you can't apply your logic like that!

Oh shit, i brought a dvd player for $30, i saved $70 to buy dvds (comparing to $100 A2). Come on now...

Ok, my "foil-hat theory" is that the WB BD sale is being subsidized by someone other than Warner Bros, much as you suggest above. Otherwise it doesn't make much sense to me to discount the BDs and not the HD DVDs. I don't buy the notion that WB is just having a clearance sale, although I suppose it could be possible.

I've been enjoying the BOGOF sales at Amazon and have scooped up quite a few discs for re-sale. I tried to pick titles I wouldn't mind watching if they don't sell — the HD market is pretty thin compared to SD DVD — but, in fact, the discs have been selling quite well at nice mark-ups. So, a big thank you to Amazon (for the 10% off x 2) and whoever is subsidizing these Blu-ray Disc sales.