Qui Gon Jim

Interesting. Keep your eyes peeled for Target HD DVD clearances. One of the titles I own I got there on clearance early last year.

I would love a hybrid player, but I won't get one from Samsung. I hope Toshiba or Panasonic comes through with one soon.

Supermallet

Any word on whether or not it will be 2.0?

Gizmo

Can we see said memo?

http://gizmodo.com/341294/rumor-smas...+ray-exclusive

Gizmo

Looks like 1.1

Big Dave

I was asking more along the lines between Universal and Paramount, what % of the total "movie" market share do they own.

Sdallnct

I'm probably in the minority, but I think this will hurt BD as well. Low prices helped spark peoples interest in anything other then SD DVD's.. But even tho I have a dedicated theater room and about 1/2 thu setting up a 2nd HD system, I will not paying $400 for a BD player or $25-$30 for BD DVD's. And I don't think there is any push now to lower prices. Even if Toshiba or others compete to make cheaper BD players, I'm not sure the DVD's will come down.

Heck I even think the $15-$18 HD/BD DVD's you could regularly get were keeping SD DVD prices down. I mean how can you charge $15 for SD when HD/BD was the same or only a buck or two more. Sooooo could we see even SD prices go up?

I know it is all speculation but it wouldn't suprise me to see BD DVD's locked in (more or less) at $25 and SD locked in at $15 (more or less).

But will see.

darkside

Makes no sense. If it also plays HD DVDs it will have the networking port so why not make it 2.0. Going to wait and hope Toshiba announces a combo player in 2008.

Gizmo

Does the network port on the UP5000 or LG2000 work with Blu-ray stuff (I guess it would just be firmware updates right now?) Anyone know?

Supermallet

Part of the 2.0 spec requires 1 GB of space. The HD DVD internet spec only requires 256 MB.

As for people complaining about $400 players, lower priced players are already being announced at CES.

darkside

Okay, I forgot about that part of the spec.

Arpeggi

Dude, you're salivating at a SAMSUNG product.

Gizmo

It looks pretty, lol.

darkside

Finished most of my Warner HD DVD to Blu-ray swap and was surprised at how many discs I will keep on HD DVD.

Adventures of Robin Hood - unavailable on Blu-ray
Batman Begins - unavailable on Blu-ray
300 - exclusive extras
Casablanca - unavailable on Blu-ray
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - unavailable on Blu-ray
Dukes of Hazzard - unavailable on Blu-ray
Excalibur - unavailable on Blu-ray
Forbidden Planet - unavailable on Blu-ray
Grand Prix - unavailable on Blu-ray
Happy Feet - lossless only on HD DVD
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire - IME
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix - IME
Mutiny on the Bounty - unavailable on Blu-ray
Phantom of the Opera - lossless only on HD DVD
Superman Returns - lossless only on HD DVD
V for Vendetta - unavailable on Blu-ray

Warner has some catching up to do. This is only from my personal collection. I know other stuff like the Matrix is also not on Blu-ray. I'm just wondering when Warner will announce the missing titles and if they will revisit the movies that had extra features or lossless audio on HD DVD.

Arpeggi

We should have a poll on the date for the Blu-ray release of Forbidden Planet.

Mid-2009!

PopcornTreeCt

I didn't know that. I don't think Universal has ever even released a silent film on DVD.

Universal still owns Jaws, Jurassic Park, and Back to the Future. For that reason alone, they are a very significant studio.

darkside

It would all be public domain now anyway. The companies like Kino handle that stuff.

dan30oly

I welcome, and bow down to, my new Robot Masters.

iretrek99

This is exactly what I am thinking. I have always planned on getting both formats or the winner of the format war, but not until the player dropped below $250. I picked up a HD-DVD this year for $159.

With this news, HD-DVD is probably dead and now there is no competition. Sony, owning the technology will keep the price high.

Sony as a company has lost all sense of their market. While high quality, all of their products are overpriced for the market. PS3 is a prime exampe. I know many many people who don't plan to ever uprgrade to PS3 because of the price. I think Sony has a very small window to get large numbers of blu ray players in homes before someone comes up with a much better way to deliver HD content and trumps them. My bet is Sony will miss the boat and kill the High Def DVD completely.

How long do you all guess before we see $250 blu ray players from now?

iretrek99

I'm resigned to the fact the HD-DVD is dead or dying, but I will not forget that WB left this announcement until after the holidays and after many many people bought into HD-DVD only to have the carpet pulled out from under them.

This announcement should have come 1 Nov 2007. That would have allowed people to know what they were really getting into as far as catalog availability. I think the exclusive thing is garbage anyway, look at the gaming industry, exclusives are dying and companies make most games for 2-4 different gaming formats.

I'm seriously considering getting out of the whole High Def DVD thing anyway. I can see HD content on cable (not as good I admit) and I do not have to buy another player.

Cosmic Bus

Do you have a link or info on which players these are? I'm not touching Blu until it's less than $200 and the library improves, but I'd still like to keep an eye on the progress (or possible lack of) on lower priced units. Are they still outdated, non-updatable players like the slightly cheaper standalones are now?

Vipper II

I'd think the frown would come as a result of it being a Samsung.

wewantflair

It would be if it weren't locked up in Universal's vaults. It's a pedantic point anyway.

Universal and Paramount, not counting the silent films and such, hold roughly a 30% market share, from what I've read, with Universal being the bigger of the two.

milkdog

I wonder if this will encourage WB to re-release superior versions of their movies on BD over the next 2-3 years. I won't be replacing my WB HD-DVD titles in BD when I go Blu if everything is the same or close. However, IF they came out with a significantly superior BD version of a title I already have on HD-DVD that would inspire me to double-dip and buy some titles again on BD.

Mr. Cinema

Batman Begins is supposed to come out on BD during The Dark Knight's theatrical release. I wonder if they will do a new encode for that now that they are BD only. Also, Superman Returns with TrueHD should start hitting store shelves at some point. It was previoulsy only available with the new Pioneer BD player, but from reading at AVS, once current stock of the old disc is gone, the new version should start showing up.

PopcornTreeCt

Toshiba's not going down without a fight...

Toshiba defiant after HD DVD setback

LAS VEGAS - Toshiba Corp. executives had a tough moment Sunday, when they had to face reporters just two days after its HD DVD movie disc format was dealt a potentially fatal blow by the defection of Warner Bros. Entertainment to a rival technology.

"It's difficult for me to read the comments of the pundits that HD is dead," said Jodi Sally, vice president of marketing for digital audio and video at Toshiba America Consumer Products. She was speaking at a news conference ahead of the International Consumer Electronics Show, which starts here Monday.

Sally indicated that Toshiba would continue its fight with a Sony Corp.-led group to dominate the market for a replacement to the DVD.

"We've been declared dead before," Sally said.

Only two major U.S. studios now support HD DVD, while five support Sony's Blu-ray disc. Warner is the last studio to put out movies in both formats, but will stop publishing HD DVDs in May.

Akio Ozaka, head of Toshiba America Consumer Products, said the company was surprised by Warner's announcement Friday.

"We were particularly disappointed that the decision was made in spite of the significant momentum HD DVD has gained," Ozaka said.

HD DVD players, practically all of which are made by Toshiba, had their best sales ever in the fourth quarter of last year, Ozaka said.

Sally said HD DVD players represented 49.3 percent of the players for high definition discs sold as of Dec. 22, quoting figures from market research firm NPD. However, the figures don't include sales of Sony Corp.'s PlayStation 3 game console, which plays Blu-ray discs. The format also has consistently beaten HD DVD in the number of discs sold.

While Toshiba sounded a defiant note, a media event scheduled for Sunday evening by the North American HD DVD Promotional Group, which includes Intel Corp. and Microsoft Corp., was canceled because of Warner's defection.

"We are currently discussing the potential impact of this announcement with the other HD DVD partner companies and evaluating next steps," the group said in a statement.

Warner said its decision to drop HD DVD was based on consumers' preference for Blu-ray.

The availability of two competing formats, and the confusion and uncertainty it's sowed among buyers, has been widely blamed for the slow adoption of high-definition players in general.

Warner Bros. Entertainment is owned by Time Warner Inc.