DVD Polizei

Well, I guess some people can hold their trophy high in the air, but personally, a lot of HD DVD owners are rejoicing now as well. We're gonna get some awesome deals. This might be a win-win for everybody.

HD DVD dead? Far from. There's a few HD DVD discs out there.

DVD Josh

The ship for early adoption sailed a long time ago.

darkside

If all MS really cares about is VOD I'm glad Blu-ray won. VOD is fine for rentals, but I'm not buying movies to store on a HDD. I know Sony is doing the VOD thing on the PS3 as well, but at least they care about Blu-ray.

I don't have many regrets. We all knew HD DVD was a major underdog, but it was out first, was affordable and drove down prices for consumers. I will fondly remember it. I felt this was coming and my only major regret is not sticking to my guns and only buying Warner on BD the past couple of months. However, the B1G1s made buying HD DVDs and BDs for that matter pretty hard to resist. At least it was a pretty affordable venture.

discostu1337

ugh, the inferior format wins, forcing me to buy more expensive discs and play them on a poopy video game system

DthRdrX

I was referring to this. IMO the best thing going is still prepackaged media, unless someone is trying to sell you something.

Patman

Just took inventory of my HD DVDs, and learned that I have over 40 of them, plus 2 TV season sets and the Matrix trilogy. I'm hoping to add to that total when the inevitable HD DVD clearance sales show up. Plus, I will try to pick out the titles with IME, and extras not on their BD counterpart.

wewantflair

He was talking about HDM, not VOD....he even clarified that point a few posts down, but I'd think it was obvious from the context.

DVD Josh

WRONG. Neither format is inferior to the other.

WRONG. No one is forcing you buy anything.

WRONG. The PS3 is a stellar BD system.

Zen Peckinpah

I don't regret my purchasing of an HD DVD player for one minute. I'm keeping the thing because if I wasn't old enough to be a laserdisc fiend, HD DVD can take that place (if it does). Also, it's a better upconverter than the PS3 IMO.

I'm not going to be political about this. I'm taking what's coming.

71Makaveli96

Havent read all the post, but this means THE DARK KNIGHT will be on Blu-Ray Only, YES. i also had a question when does, Paramount/Dreamworks deal expire i know it was for 18 months but dont remember when it went into effect.

ScissorPuppy

Paramonts deal expires at the end of 08. Around November I think.

darkside

Exactly.

Also, I would have been fine either way. If HD DVD had pulled off the deal with Fox and Warner I would have been fine with my Toshiba players and the HD DVD format.

discostu1337

Nah, I'm right...luckily I got a free P30 60gig a while back so I'll be OK for a while. I'll continue to only buy HD-DVD as much as possible though, and hopefully they will get cheaper

nmr1723

Wow...I'm completely shocked. I picked neutral in the speculation thread, but I thought if WB went one way it would have been HD DVD. As a format neutral guy, I'm not bothered by this at all.

Hopefully this will lead to the rock bottom software and hardware prices many are talking about for HD DVD. I will pick up as many titles as I can if they are heavily discounted.

All in all, this is good for HD media. Fence-sitters can feel better about jumping into the game and format neutral folks can concentrate more on BD. I still think we'll see BOGO's and lower priced software even though BD is likely to win. That is the only way they are going to get consumers to buy into a new format and possibly double-dip on titles.

DthRdrX

With Amir you never know ...

though I'll give him the benefit of the doubt. I'm most interested to hear what MS does now.

Spiderbite

Bah. I guess I should care but I really don't. After all the free discs and specials, I got my A2 and 360 HD add-on for practically nothing. They work fine as upconverting players and I paid about $10 each on average for the HD titles I do have that I didn't get free.

I will continue to buy HD-DVDs that come out if I want them and they hit my magic price point of $12 bucks or less. If not, no biggie.

This just delays me getting deeper into buying more HD discs and spending more money which is fine with me. I am not a Sony fan and have no plans to buy a BR player until they are super duper cheap (which might awhile). I don't care if they are the only game in town...it doesn't mean I have to run out and buy one immediately (like so many posters here are stating they are going to do) just because WB changed sides.

With so many HD movie channels (especially On Demand HD channels) and specialty HD channels (like History Channel HD, A&E HD, etc.) on Dish, Direct, and various cable companies, to quickly start spending a lot of money on a different HD format makes no sense to me (and we all know something is being worked on somewhere to displace the current HD format).

For Joe Sixpack and myself, it looks like a good HD satellite service with a HD-DVR is the best way to go at this time.

Gizmo

March of 09 actually.

peateargryphon

Sorry if this has been mentioned already, but here's an in-depth article from Variety. It states that New Line has also confirmed a move to Blu Ray, which isn't a surprise, but wasn't confirmed before.

Article

Flynn

Have an A20 and a PS3 in my theatre room. Have an A2 in my living room. Have an HD-A1 in my bedroom.

Have 39 HD-DVD movies, as well as Matrix Trilogy, Heroes Season One, Star Trek OS, Ocean's Trilogy, Planet Earth, and Mission Impossible Sets.

Have 36 Blu-Ray movies.

I'm very happy with the upconverting abilities of my hd-dvd players in the three rooms of my house. I won't be buying any more HD-DVDs, but will continue buying Blu-Ray. I'm very happy with the HD films I have now.

Several of these discs are unopened, and I've noticed a lot of people saying they will return theirs. How do you do that if you don't have a receipt? Do you just hope Wal-Mart will accept them...?

I'm a little crushed - I guess I was kind of selfishly hoping that the war would just keep going on since I'm neutral, but it's probably a good thing it's ending soon so I don't keep buying in both formats.

Sad day for HD-DVD owners indeed, and very underhanded of Warner to do right after the Holiday Season.

RayChuang

Now that Time Warner has decided to support Blu-Ray exclusively starting the middle of 2008, I'd like to see the following happen:

1) All new players support the latest Blu-Ray Profile 1.1 spec as soon as possible.
2) Mandatory Dolby TrueHD audio encoding, with optional DTS HD audio encoding.
3) Mandatory VC-1 or AVC video encoding.

I can't wait for the Lord of the Rings movies in Blu-Ray!

RoboDad

Well, yes and no. Will HD DVD disappear from store shelves tomorrow? No. Will there be great deals on players and movies over the next few months? Absolutely. Will there be very many new titles released on HD DVD for the 2008 Christmas season? Probably not.

If all a person wants or needs is what's out there now and in the pipeline, then that's great for them. But it would be a mistake to think that there will be a steady stream of new HD DVD titles for the long range future. I really don't think that's going to be the case.

chanster

My HD DVD player replaced an upconverting DVD player that I had recently bought at Costco. I estimated I paid an additional $10 extra for the player and have bought just a few titles at cheap prices.

I don't plan on buying a Blu Ray player until the prices come down to around $200.

HD is better than DVD, but given the options for On Demand HD programming (including movies) and upconverted DVDs, I have no interest in plucking down $400 or so for a Blu player.

Honestly the PS3 is not an option for me because of the stupid Bluetooth remote. I have a Harmony and don't want to want mess around with a 3rd remote. I'm happy with what I have, and thats it. I honestly don't have time anymore to sit around and watch lot of movies anymore actually.

sauce07

I am a BD fan and i'm not jumping in here just to crap on the HD-DVD crowd but I just have to say that i'm glad that we will be down to 1 format here soon. I hate seeing some of the exclusive titles for HD, just as some of you HD people are probably jealous over a few BD. This is good in the long run.

Just my .02

Bill Geiger

don't forget...

TOKYO, Jan. 4 /PRNewswire/ -- Toshiba is quite surprised by Warner
Bros.' decision to abandon HD DVD in favor of Blu-ray, despite the fact
that there are various contracts in place between our companies concerning
the support of HD DVD. As central members of the DVD Forum, we have long
maintained a close partnership with Warner Bros. We worked closely together
to help standardize the first-generation DVD format as well as to define
and shape HD DVD as its next-generation successor.

We were particularly disappointed that this decision was made in spite
of the significant momentum HD DVD has gained in the US market as well as
other regions in 2007. HD DVD players and PCs have outsold Blu-ray in the
US market in 2007.

We will assess the potential impact of this announcement with the other
HD DVD partner companies and evaluate potential next steps. We remain firm
in our belief that HD DVD is the format best suited to the wants and needs
of the consumer.

Bill Geiger

I get all my Blu Ray HD's on my Starz HD / Starz HD On Demand