Hopefully this means the eventual end of all the petty, douche-like posts championing a movie format.. after they've shouted their last hurrahs in this thread, of course. Even as a Blu-only owner, that shit really made it hard to enjoy this sub-forum.

I don't think it would have been over as quickly. Sony still owns a movie studio, and I'm pretty sure they would have not conceded as quickly (and rightfully) as Toshiba did. We still don't know what Disney would have done, or if they ahd a contract with the proper out clauses.

It's precisely because it wouldn't have ended the war as fast that WB went Blu instead of red.

I'm just happy to see the death of combos. I can't wit to get my hands on a Blu-Ray copy of Children of Men.

I really hate the format war. When VHS and BETA came out, I had hard time choose which format I should get, I ended up getting VHS on gamble decision. And then when DVD and DIVX came out - again, I gambled on DVD (I spent $800 on DVD player on first month of first DVD release :eek: ).

This time, I decided not to gamble on either Blu-Ray and HD DVD for numerous reasons. I'm glad that the format war is over for this time.

Oh, well. I got my A3 for about $150 last October and have purchased about 46 HD discs since. I'll happily keep using it as an upconverter and hi-def player until I can snag a BR player for around $200. I hope these fire sales kick in soon. I look forward to getting some great stuff on HD for the cheap.

quoted for truth.

i am purple and just couldnt stand the petty bickering. i hate Sony and their overpriced products and ovoid them like the plague, but I can at least admit to when they do make a good product and swallow my "pride".

I own a TV in my bedroom and a PS3...both great products.

As an HD-DVD owner I am sad to see this end so quickly but am glad I can cut my losses and move on.

Unfortunately IMO it won't be. I suspect the mods will have to start taking the gloves off with some users on both sides.

There will be ever-present sniping from the former and current HD DVD-only supporters, and it will even continue to come from those who own both. In turn, you will see the more vocal Blu-Ray champions respond as always happens. People who spent 2+ years being emotionally invested in the outcome of this war are not just going to throttle it down in a month's time, although I wish it would be so.

I'm already getting the impression now that Blu-Ray has been "crowned", the red owners are going to demand everything be 100% perfect. Well guess what: things weren't close to 100% perfect on HD DVD, and there's no reason to expect that from Blu-Ray or any consumer electronics product for that matter. What we have with Blu-Ray and HD DVD are formats with some negatives, but on the whole they deliver the goods.

Pick one (or both) and enjoy. But box up the pom-poms, please.

Great post. I hope that "hostilities" come to an end, but I agree with you, we have a way to go before that happens.

Universal coming over to Blu-ray
 

http://www.homemediamagazine.com/new...ticle_ID=12118

Wow, they actually announced this before Paramount could announce their move back. I'm sure we'll have news from them before the day is done.

You beat me to it!

I'll let you post the Paramount one :)

Does anyone know who has copyrights to the U-Control function that Universal has on some of their movies? This is one function I hope they can include when they start releasing on Blu Ray. I think this was the best feature on HD-DVD.

Or maybe it's an HD-DVD function only......I'm not sure. I'm just happy to see things moving forward with them.

You're too kind! :)

So should I hold off on buying that American Gangster DVD today?

Nice.

I am holding off on my Into The Wild DVD and Beowulf BD import, hoping these new releases will squeak in on BD at the last minute. With my luck they'll announce The Thing, Dawn of The Dead (2004) and The Breakfast Club BD's first. :(

i really enjoy my HD DVD player and will continue to, with no regrets, alongside my PS3 and BDs. as a movie collector, i'm planning to keep all of my HD DVDs. there's no telling if all of the special features will be ported over to the BD counterparts eventually, considering the inexplicable dropping of features from one DVD version to another on many double-dipped titles.

i will say that i'm extremely happy that now hopefully we can put behind us all of the rumors-treated-as-fact, corporate-exec-statement-parsing, absurd/pointless online petitioning, and silly format cheerleading, etc.

:grunt: :grunt: If the past performance is any indication of future behavior, then you may be right. I certainly hope this is not the case. I'm pretty much burnt out.

As an HD DVD fanboy, I agree! ;)

My stance is: I don't expect Blu-ray to be perfect. I think that's absolutely ridiculous. But I do expect Blu-ray to show its' superiority over HD DVD, as advertised from the beginning. Whether that's with improved PQ or AQ (although, you can't exactly get "better than lossless..."), or more compelling extras, or what have you. As a fan of film making, I love special features almost as much as the films themselves.

Now, let's let the studios know that we will not put up with 2.35:1 or wider films cropped to 1.78:1. :D Same goes for 1.33:1 content. If we get 1.33:1 content cropped to 1.78:1, I'll be furious. Mind you, I don't actually expect this to happen, but DVD was doing mighty fine with OAR until it hit the mainstream, from what I remember. Then the studios started releasing Widescreen and Fullscreen editions, and all hell broke loose (Freaky Friday, in Canada, was ONLY available in Fullscreen! How dare they! ;))*

*please, no flaming. take this paragraph lightly. we can address the issue if it ever happens, but if we're vocal about it now, it may prevent the studios from making that mistake again...

I'd say hold off and see what the specs are for the inevitable Blu-ray version. The HD DVD seems a little constrained in terms of storage issues (for example, it should have had both the director's cut and theatrical version available on HD via seamless, instead of just the theatrical).

Bourne goes Blu! :rock2:

Excellent, now bring on the BD encodes! :up:
Unfortunately I expect HD DVD ports of all their current releases, except maybe (hopefully) a new American Gangster issue.

I would. American Gangster certainly is a prime candidate to be one of the first Universal BD releases. And they may be able to include both cuts in HD on that disc.

they ought to be able to implement U-Control with BD-Java, Blu-ray's alternative to HDi (which is the HD DVD technology that makes U-Control possible).

Bourne. Box. Set.

I'm glad that Universal isn't wasting time. I was red, then purple, then blu. I just want hi-def movies :)

Dunno nuttin' about HDTV Praxis but:
http://www.engadgethd.com/2008/02/19...ms-on-blu-ray/

Can you imagine if an HD DVD supporter was getting home today from, say, a month-long cruise to Antarctica and started reading this forum? It would be like a Twilight Zone episode.

I am glad it's over, but count me in the camp that is happy to have my nearly 100 HD DVD titles and an XA2. I will maybe pick up a few more catalog titles, but I am pretty lucky to own all the ones I really want.

So now do I buy a third HD DVD player?

Whew! I'm glad I waited as I would have gone with HD.

Wow, I'm actually looking forward to The Thing and Breakfast Club on Blu. To each their own, I guess.

Let's get some title announcements!

Is Paramount "official" yet?

Frankly, I'm looking forward to the next few months. As the anxious handwringers and petulant children sell off their HD-DVD players and movies (why I cannot fathom), I look forward to buying a backup HD-DVD player or two and filling in a lot of holes in my HD-DVD collection on the cheap.

Increased or Equal MSRP?
 

Assuming the existing Blu-ray studios are getting some sort of subsidy on production of discs, and assuming Universal and Paramount/Dreamworks won't be afforded such a luxury, can we expect a higher MSRP on titles from these two studios for their future Blu-ray releases? I'm not saying I expect it to happen, but business is business, right? If these studios set a $39.99 MSRP across the board, they may run into problems actually making a profit if discs don't sell as well.

It's too late. They've already started doing that with 1.33:1 material. See Dragon's Lair on BD, Roy Orbison: Black and White Night on HD DVD, and IMAX films on both formats. Granted, these aren't classic films, but they're out there. Thankfully Digital Leisure has learned their lesson, as the upcoming release of Space Ace will have original and "fullscreen" (16x9) versions.

ha. I knew about those, but completely forgot. Wasn't Chronos cropped, too? Let's hope this doesn't become the trend. All the titles you listed are from "smaller" distributors, right? You'd think they'd know better than the big studios...

Nothing yet

'Chronos' had the common IMAX aspect ratio of 1.34:1 as with many IMAX features being featured on Mojo HD/HDNet, and Warner's/Image's releases they are cropped/expanded to 1.78:1

not necessarily. with every major movie studio releasing on blu-ray, a lot more movies will need to be replicated and as such, production cost of discs across the board ought to go down.

At least BD is going to have a decent studio releasing besides Disney. I only own 4 BDs and that is mostly because a few of the studios suck for releasing discs stripped of special features.

Fox the worst, and Sony/Columbia is hit and miss.

There's a reason my HD-DVD titles far outnumber my BDs. I refuse to downgrade Memento from the SE to the stripped down BD. I had sold my 1disc Master and Commander awaiting the BD, only to find out it was again lacking features. So I picked up the 2-disc SE SD-DVD instead. :p

I hope the studios get with the program on this.

Even though I backed HD-DVD first, I am excited. I am format neutral now, been since December, but I am really looking forward to some really good sales on HD-DVDs. and happy theres finally one format. but I still like HD-DVD better, seems like a better product, Bluray feels like a product still in development, The interactivity and PIP stuff are much better on HD-DVD.