Well, I'm curious as to whether Toshiba will take any action to see what sort of secret deal Sony made with Warner. In any case, it sounds rather anti-competitive. I've a mind to contact my Representative myself as a matter of fact....

As for all this nay saying. I'd be more inclined to take it seriously if people weren't trying to counter "votes" to Warner Customer service with their own positive counters and people weren't so aggressively trying to discourage me. If I am wasting my time, then I'm (and we) are wasting time. It shouldn't warrant such strong discouragements (and an incredible amount of immature trolling from what I see all over the net including the online petition ). If anything it should just elicit a chuckle as Blu-ray supporters go about their business.

All this tells me is that people think, however unlikely, that this might actually make a dent and it's either scares them or angers them.

During a format war, there are risks you take when you pick a side. As much as you may dislike it, Blu-ray came out on top.

While I may be a BD supporter, if Hd-dvd came out on top, I would have no problems moving forward with Hd-dvd. I'm all for one format because IMHO having one format will expedite the catalog of titles from studios more than having two formats. Writing petitions or calling is a waste of time in my opinion since the studios don't give a shit about us.

When Paramount stopped BD support, I didn't sign a meaningless petition or contact my local congressman as some would suggest. I went out and bought a hd-dvd player to play the movies I would like to watch so I don't understand why some people are taking this really personally.

But that is rational thought. Can't have any of that!

It really doesn't matter much to me.
I was just asking if you could understand why others are upset, but I guess not.
Just like a stubborn Southerner. LOL!

I think it would make a lot more sense to contact the stuidios that are still playing word games, and it you belive some people, not made their final decision. WB is not that studio.

4028 now.

ha! seriously. more things that won't be missed about the format war: delusional petitions and futile individual letters to massive corporations.

Online petitions have as much influence as a typical voter does. Actually, less come to think about it. However, writing Warner Brothers in a calm and collected fashion lets them know they do have HD DVD consumers who are concerned, and could allow WB to at least offer some deals for HD DVD consumers. Obviously, it won't change their minds, but it COULD help with the HD DVD transition to Blu-ray.

So yes, writing WB directly and NOT via online petition, is a good idea and I support it.

tonymontana313,

Why would you have signed a petition when Blu-ray (at the time Paramount announced its decision) still had the majority of movie studios at the time? This is a different situation.

If Blu-ray had only a few studios left and went through the exact same latest events, I wouldn't be surprised if Blu-ray owners would be organizing a Million Blu-Man March on Washington with a PS3 under one arm and a pack of tissue under the other.

Let's not fool ourselves into thinking Blu-ray owners are of some amazing caliber of behavioral quality which have demonstrated their maturity time after time.

I don't think that was his point. The Paramount move could have been seen as just delaying the inevitable to some. I am just sayin'.

I won't be whining or petitioning either way it goes. I completely understood the situation going in, and chose not to put all of my eggs in one basket. Many did.

The only statements that I find completely ridiculous are the statements "I will NEVER buy Blu-Ray." I mean, just ridiculous. For those that say that, hypothetical here...IF, say in 5 years, Blu has won and has a significant market share compared to DVD, all machines are up to spec, have all the kinks ironed out (THE SAME PROBLEMS THAT DVD HAD IN THE BEGINNING!), the prices have come down (like they will), are you saying that you will continue to whine and hold a grudge because your beloved side didn't win?


There is absolutely no way that I will buy the DVD version of a film anymore as long as a high def version of it is available. No way in hell I would do that after seeing the difference.

After Paramount flips back, I will gladly sign a petition to have my Blades of Glory HD DVD replaced with the BD that I had pre-ordered & cancelled!

But that visual would be pure comedy gold dammit!

htrtuyeryrey

A lot of people might sign that petition because a lot of people purchased HD-DVD and don't want to see their studios disappear. It's not difficult to figure that out.

But at the same time, Warner Brothers may have seen the support Blu-Ray had... such as Fox, Disney, Sony (of course), MGM, Lionsgate... and there wasn't really too much going on one way or the other between Blu-Ray and HD-DVD. Nothing solidified until Warner made their decision. They thought 'where's the better sales market going to be five years from now'. Although Universal and Paramount are also ace, a lot of the hot titles are going to the blu-ray camp. Warner made their decision and that's that. They're not going to listen to emails, petitions, whatever. Over time now that the format war is all but officially over (and I'm an HD-DVD supporter mind you), Warner will see their move as nothing but the 'smart choice'. Wouldn't it be more cost efficient to develop for one company instead of two?

I'm just happy that one format has been able to silent claim victory.

Victory? When HDM has 5% of what DVD is then maybe you can call it some sort of victory. Right now we'll be lucky to claim 3% of DVD sales this year.

That is how I feel. The sooner one format wins, the sooner we should start to see more catalog titles. Give me A L I E N!

One thing this may accomplish is to help them consider some kind of discount program on BD versions of titles if you trade in your HD DVD versions. Yes, they don't HAVE to do it, but it would be a nice gesture.

The problem is that some people feel that it is an entitlement that they deserve.

If Toshiba has plan for producing an XA2-ish product which was also Blu-ray, I'd be buying Blu-ray movies. The problem for me, outstanding other issues of course, is the hardware quality. I don't really want to buy a Samsung, Pioneer, or Sony product. I'd rather buy from Toshiba.

Is that statement as of now, due to the current hardware issues with some Blu players, and can change in the next year once the kinks are worked out?

Lets be real here.
Its been 1.5 years since Blu-ray launched and they should not be having these types of issues still.

Why should a play release last month not be able to play new movies?
http://www.engadgethd.com/2008/01/12...ng-to-deliver/
I understand players having some issues...it happens. But there is no reason why Samsung, Pioneer, Panasonic, Sharp should not be able to play all movies when they come out. Why should anyone have to wait days, weeks, months for a firmware update? Why should it take 20 seconds for Sunshine to boot up on a PS3 but 4-5 minutes on a $600 Samsung unit?

So what. Don't buy one now. Within a year the kinks will be worked out. DVD had the same problems for more that a year and a half.

Personally. I wouldn't buy any blu player other than a PS3 at this point until 2.0 is out.

I sent them an email and told that I'm disappointed in their decision.

Its been 18 months, how much longer should anyone wait to buy into the supposed "winning" format?

DVD has no wear near the issues that Blu-ray is having. The usual Pro-Blu people will say "they didn't have DTS or progressive scan" as usual. What we are seeing today is studios releasing movies that do not work on stand alone players.

How many SA players have been released...15 total between all the different models? How hard would it be to test a movie in each play and say "Hey, Samsung, Sunshine does not work in the 1200. You should work on an update before the movie hit shelves in 2-4 weeks". But they don't. Now, the usual response will be "why should they? Its up to the CE's to make sure they can play all the movies, not the studio". Well, at this point, both the CEs and Studios need to play nice if they want to catch on to the next DVD-type format and make money. If they continue to have issues people will bail.

The PS3 should NOT be the only option to Blu-ray. You should not have to be forced into buying a video game console if you want to play all the movies the day of release and not wait for a firmware update or endure 4-5 minutes of loading/java crashing menus.