Reuters/USA Today: Warner Bros. will back only Blu-ray
 

http://www.usatoday.com/tech/product...-blu-ray_N.htm

<quote>
Warner Bros. will back only Blu-ray

NEW YORK/LOS ANGELES2008-01-04 20:22:49 GMT (Reuters) (Reuters) — Time Warner's Warner Bros. studio Friday said it would exclusively release high-definition DVDs in Sony Corp's Blu-ray format, dealing a big blow to Toshiba Corp's rival HD DVD technology.

Warner Bros, Hollywood's biggest seller of DVDs, representing about 18 to 20% of sales in the United States, was one of the few studios that backed both formats.

All sides of the format war had agreed it was confusing to consumers and a stumbling block for a potential multibillion-dollar industry.

Total DVD unit sales fell 4.5% in 2007, the first major year-over-year decline since the disc format debuted in 1997, according to Adams Media Research. Sales fell 4.8% to $15.7 billion.

"The window of opportunity for high-definition DVD could be missed if format confusion continues to linger. We believe that exclusively distributing in Blu-ray will further the potential for mass market success and ultimately benefit retailers, producers, and most importantly, consumers," Warner Bros Chairman and Chief Executive Barry Meyer said in a statement.

News Corp's 20th Century Fox, Walt Disney, and Lionsgate are among studios backing the Blu-ray format. Viacom's Paramount studios and General Electric's NBC Universal release movies in HD DVD format.

Warner said it would continue releasing in the HD DVD format until the end of May, although those releases would follow the standard DVD and Blu-ray releases.

(Reporting by Kenneth Li in New York and Bob Tourtellotte in Los Angeles, editing by Gerald E. McCormick)</quote>

That's all she wrote folks. Time to sell my A2 and all my discs. Glad I didn't buy alot from that recent B1G1 HD-DVD sale at amazon.

Wow..70% of the movies are now in Blu-Ray exclusive while 30% only in HD-DVD. Ouch.

I'm just glad I only own 40 HD-DVD discs. That's not so bad.

I just hope WB knows what they are doing and that BD is ready to start releasing more quality product, with FULL extras and features.

Yes, I was shocked to read this. Really was hoping they'd at least stay neutral. I have nothing against Blu-Ray, but since I have only the 360 HD DVD add-on, I'm not a happy camper to read this.

Yeah, it's over, but I won't be selling my player or my movies, in fact, I'll wait to pick up a lot of movies when they go on super sale.

At the risk of sounding like a "Blu-ray fanboy" (which I'm not, since I currently own more HD DVDs than BDs), I think it's time to quote Mace Windu.

"This party's over."

Boom! It's over (but not for a while still).

I've been buying Warner's titles on Blu-ray anyway, so no dramatic change for me. Will be interesting to see how the HD DVD camp reacts, if at all.

That raises an interesting question for gaming.

Now that HD-DVD is soon to be a dying format by the end of 2008, will there be a BD add-on for 360?

And will the fact that the next gen of HD media will be exclusively BD encourage game makers to put more efforts into PS3 releases?

Interesting implications throughout.

I will say that I do appreciate the durability of the BD disks and have not been happy with the scratches on HD-DVD. I also like how fast my PS3 is to warm up. Other than that, I much prefer the HD-DVDs.

Not looking forward to the BD prices, however.

Figures. Guess I'll have to wait until BR prices go down because I'm not getting another machine anytime soon.

Disappointing.

A good reason to come out of retirement and congratulate Warner Brothers for bringing this asinine war to closure. :up:

Pro-B

The ONLY thing HD-DVD can do is attempt to buy Disney / BV over to the HD-DVD camp or at least neutral. Fox and Sony ain't going anywhere. But I doubt they will.

You will see tons of big sales on HD-DVD media as the spring rolls around. I may keep my player for awhile, just until HD-DVD releases migrate over.

I don't think so. I think you will see a cheaper BD plaer than the PS3 4Q of 2008, and I don't think it translates over to more games selling on the PS3. But I could be wrong.

I can't friggin' believe this news, having just bought an A3 within the last month and opened up a bunch of HD-DVDs ...

So, I guess your saying "Mission Accomplished"?

:p

Sad day for HD-DVD and will probably lead to its demise within the next 1-2 years. BUT, that doesnt make the players obsolete or anything.

I still plan to enjoy my current hd-dvds on my duo player.

Horrible news for HD-DVD supporters. I'd been hoping HD-DVD would win, but now I'm glad that I held off on buying anything.

It looks like I'll be getting a Blu-Ray player sometime in the future. I'm really not looking forward to reading The Digital Bits reaction, because I assume they'll be pretty cold to the HD-DVD crowd.

In the short term those who chose HD DVD will be out take a hit, but in the long term we'll all come out ahead because I think there will be more movie choices available to us.

Poor idea for Warner, but ah well. I prefer Red over Blue but am a dual supporter so it makes no real difference to me. I like how they tout the amazingness of neutrality only to neuter it a couple months later. Does this mean New Line will be Blu only as well?

I'd agree, but still stand by my earlier comments that Blu costs too damn much. It'll be a while before decent improvement in numbers would start to show for it.

I just read it. All Bill said is that "you can't say we didn't warn you".

God Damnit. First Spider-Man, and now this.

Jim is a wise man.

same here.

I'm format neutral but this announcement still smarts a bit

I wouldn't say that. I, for one, am very glad that there were two competing formats -- HD DVD and Blu-ray are both monstrously better as formats thanks to the competition -- but this couldn't go on indefinitely.

I'm just curious if HD DVD is going to throw up its arms and admit defeat or if it'll limp to the same inevitable conclusion. I don't know how likely Disney supporting both formats would've been beforehand, but I can't imagine that they'd be likely to support HD DVD after the format suffers a blow like that.

I can only imagine how things are in the avs forum :)

Good thing I'm purple. But I really like the IME features in HD-DVD, Blu Ray has tried but is still two steps behind in disc features.

Certainly.

Pro-B

I think this makes the 360 add-on the wisest purchase of all HD-DVD players since it doesn't use an extra component on your TV or AV Receiver. I'll start buying more BDs, but I won't sell off all my HD-DVDs since I can still watch movies in 1080p with decent (DTS 1.5) audio.

Is this going to be like the Paramount/HD-DVD though? Paramount agreed to release only on HD-DVD for a period of 18 months. Will Warner be returning to both formats after a specified time period?

The odd thing is that someone on another forum posted a "Warner goes Blu-Ray exclusive" statement just a few minutes before I read this thread, and I thought it was a joke. Then I read it here and I was shocked.

Good points! This is no time to chest pump.....The competing formats did alot to bring prices down.

Now, HD-DVD will slowly die most likely.

I know you're only joking, but really, I had no horse in this race. I think BOTH formats have advantages and disadvantages, and I didn't really care who came out the victor. I just wanted SOMEONE to.

So, to the extent that the announcement will hasten the end of the war, then yes, I guess I would say "Mission Accomplished." :D

And, of course, I know that my HD DVDs will continue to play, but I have to admit that I'm thinking hard about taking back my recent Christmas gift (Order of the Phoenix on HD, still unopened) and exchanging it for the Blu-ray version. No sense in "throwing good money after bad".

The war, led by corporate propagandists, divided our community like nothing I have witnessed in my time (and that is quite a bit). So, as far I as I am concerned it was asinine.

Ciao,
Pro-B

Hopefully it forces the prices down. Otherwise I'll be sticking to Netflix.

Same here, the wife just bought me a HD DVD player for Xmas.

Good thing I'm format neutral. But may just be purchasing Blurays from now on.


You think we'll start seeing HD DVD players on ebay soon?

Ours maybe, but the format war has nothing on the console wars of the last few generations (this generation has been relatively quiet). Mostly because those participants are years younger. It's still funny seeing people act like 5 year olds over this format war. And I still say, if you aren't buying a PS3 at < $400, Blu is incredibly overpriced.

Nothing they've said indicates that. In fact, the comment about one format indicates the opposite, that they're firm in the decision.

I said before that I am going to hold onto my player. I spend $450 for my A2, so it's not like I was going to see that much back on it anyway. I have lots of NF movies and sealed HD-DVDs that I'd like to watch first anyway, so I might as well use the thing.

If nothing else, its' one hell of an upconverting player and will get used in my house, one way or the other.

There will likely be an increase, but I've got so many HD DVD "only" movies that I can't see a reason to go throwing it out a window or anything. I still like watching the dang movies! :lol:

Many people still own their VHS/LD players because a title has still yet to come out on DVD.

This will be no different.