Well, no ENTHUSIASTIC market for them, that's for sure. If this legion of Bd owners had really wanted to see/own these titles, yet balked at an extra $200 player to get them...then it seems to me they DON'T need them that badly and can wait quite a while for them to be parceled out slowly. After all these 'rabid' HDM fans were originally prepared to wait indefinitely to get them. As for Mr Hunts inside info...it is a song and dance he has down pat now. "great things are a-coming..." Duh. What is he supposed to say? That Close Encounters made such little money that all future 'prestige' titles from the main Bd studio are shelved for the next few years ( like Lawrence of Arabia)? Or that 2 years into the HD on disc era- and for the first year of Bd's supreme solitary reign- we will be seeing LESS new unique releases in HD for the next 12 months, not more? Nope...simply a vauge 'great times ahead'. This was clearly a response to all the unfortunate and unpleasant candid admissions now starting to circulate since there is no longer a format war. Mr Hunt continues to do what he has always done- cherry pick the 'news' to paint the current state of things in Bd land in the most positive light thus failing to illuminate the numerous potholes up ahead. Because if more people saw the condition of the road, that might just scare them away from buying that shiny new Bd car...or keeping the one they have fully gassed up. And before anyone accuses me of being a bitter HD DVD fan, I've owned a Bd player for over 9 months now. I ceased being a head in the sand cheerleader at that point. My focus since then has been on content and the fact is I will be getting access to less content I value and want than when there were two formats ...despite Mr Hunt and others arguing just the opposite for the last two years.

Owning a Blu-ray player for nine months apparently doesn't make you any less bitter or quick to jump to wildly wrong conclusions. I've owned an HD DVD player since day one, and a Blu-ray player for a year and a half. Whoop-dee-doo. The fact that I "balked" at buying some titles on HD DVD has nothing to do with lack of interest. It only had to do with having no desire to have to own and maintain two separate HDM players in each location where I watch movies (and please, don't start with the dual format player bit again, that is such a tired and worthless debate).

I want to buy many of the titles that Paramount and Universal previously released on HD DVD, but I want them on Blu-ray. How can that be such a difficult concept to grasp?

It's not difficult at all. I just don't see it being imperative they come out fast either (using up slots that could go to new-to-HD titles first). The fact remains that anyone that wants to see these in HD-right now- CAN. Especially you. And anyone else could drop $100 and not have wait for several hundred titles to be slowly parceled out in a landscape that is mostly apathetic to HDMs as well as being brutal to the vast majority of catalog titles. Can't YOU understand why I, as someone who had been committed to HDMs in general and not one format specifically, would want to see unreleased catalog titles before ones that have been on the shelves for months/years, and been consistently passed over because of the inconvienence of them being on the format with the lower buy-in cost?

Why should he even have to go out and drop another $100, when that $100 dollars will be better spent on actual movies?

If you can find someone else that can provide at least half of what Bill Hunt provides on a daily basis, be my guest.

This post is garbage. How many more times are people going to bash him? I think we know now already.

Its so simple of a concept. A lot of us refused to own 2 formats. We knew one was going to die. We picked the right one. Simple. There are TONS of uni/para titles im going to gobble up on Blu-ray, and i am so glad i didnt "settle" for 2 formats, one of which i knew personally was obsolete the day it was released. Bring on Serenity, King Kong, The Deer Hunter, The Thing, Transformers, Blades of Glory, Casablanca, The Matrix Trilogy, etc etc. My credit card is ready.

I've never been to the digital bits or read anything he's said and yet I've always been able to find the newest release announcements.

I don't put much stock into rumors or "wait till you guys hear about what's coming next"

Yes, but your "right one" was simply a 50/50 shot. Blu-ray didn't win because it was a superior technology or because of consumer preference. It won because Sony sunk more money into the format than Toshiba did with HD DVD. If Toshiba had spent more, HD DVD could very well have won, and then the HD DVD owners would be gloating. As Blu-ray won, now the Blu-ray owners are smiling like the cat that ate the canary. Perhaps you could get over yourself and just enjoy the movies in high definition.

I'm so glad I get to watch all of those movies now in fantastic quality right alongside all the great Blu-ray titles I own. Not everyone has to share your opinion.

As for Bill Hunt, I thought the bashing would decrease when the format war ended. Guess not. Given that there wasn't anything particularly offensive about what he said, I don't see why people need to level such vitriol at him.

Exactly. Both formats were essentially identical so I risked nothing supporting both. I got to enjoy as many films as possible in HD the past two years instead of wishing I could watch this one or that one on another format.

I do not believe it was a 50/50 shot. EVER. I knew sony would do whatever it took to win and i was right. Didnt take a rocket scientist to see that 2 major companys (Toshiba/MS) against the entire industry was doomed. But if you believe that it was down to a coin toss from Warner (like all the fake insiders want you to believe), then hey, go for it. I listened to the "real" insiders with proven track records, and i bought into the format that won. Yippie Skipiie for me.


I am not forcing anyone to share my opinion, and those with HD DVD collection who are happy with them, more power to you. Enjoy and be merry! I am just very happy to have not bought into it and glad i listened to what the real insiders who were not spreading lies suggested.

As far as the bill hunt bashing, he was right with DVD, he was right with Anamorphic films on disc, he was right with Blu-ray. I guess him being constantly right makes people who chose wrong feel silly and the hatred comes from that. Hard to hate the guy, hes so down to earth and really is looking out for the consumer.

You are right, of course- but do you realize HOW right you are, and to what extent that is a detriment to Bd now? Even a future lowballed $300 Bd player represents a hell of a lot of 'good enough for now' $5-10 sd dvds. Even better, there's no waiting and wondering when they'll ever get released.
Congratulations, you just made the case for why Bd is going sputter as a negligable niche, with unenthusiatic release slates from the studios for many years to come.

Sony? You mean the same Sony that made Betamax? Minidisc? Pro Duo cards?
As for you're "insiders", Warner was ready to go HD DVD. Hell the CES show was already prepped for it, along with the speech, but when Warner took the higher cash payment, Toshiba had to cancel the whole damn show as they couldn't simply re-write and re-do everything in 2 days (being it was Friday and the show for them was Sunday). Remember those invitations that were sent out with Warner? Remember Blu-ray did not have any? Thats what your "insiders" won't tell you. They will say it was known for weeks, month, that Warner was going Blu. Them telling you to go out and buy Warner disc to "show you're support" was just helping for the inevitable. Its a joke, really. Both formats had a 50/50 shot and Warner, like any smart studio seeing cash on the table (i.e. Paramount and all the other exclusive studios) took it. I don't blame them. A "huge title" sells 50-70k in a week while the DVD sells 4+ million. Both formats are simply a small solution what will eventually happen; VOD.

But thats it for my rant. Feel free to keep your opinion that Sony was always going to win. We saw dozens of BOGOs from them, player prices going down, 5 free by mail....now all gone. They did what it took to win the war and good for them. Now they have to deal with the fact that its going be a very bumpy ride in the future. Many pissed off HD DVD only owners, pissed off Blu-ray owners that BOGOs are all but dead, sales are dried up, no more incentive to buy (5 free), Profile 1.0 players STILL being made and sold and player prices jumping up $100 when were in a recession. I'm glad I supported both formats, but I'm not too happy we have Sony to now deal with for the rest of HD formats life.

/end rant

i just want good movies in hi-def. whether current HD DVD-only titles or not-yet-available-on-HDM titles get priority, i've got enough movies to enjoy while i wait for the ones that i'm interested in. can't we move beyond the format war posturing?

I agree. If Sony had lost we would never, I mean never, get Sony titles on HD DVD. If all the studios supported HD DVD we would still have blu-ray players. That's pretty much the fundamental difference between Sony and Toshiba.

But at least the sore losers won the war.

And yet here we are again with more whining in the BD thread. Give me a break.

Sure, I can understand that POV. I thought I already made that clear. But, as I also already said, people in your position are an extreme minority of the HDM customers that the studios hope to attract to Blu-ray over the next year. They don't want to just appease the bruised feelings of HD DVD supporters at the expense of losing potential NEW Blu-ray customers. And if re-releasing titles on Blu-ray that have already been released on HD DVD will attract new customers (and I believe it will), then they would be foolish to not re-release them.

Yeah, and dont forget about Sin City!

Believe what you want to believe. But you don't need to be smug or obnoxious just because the format you chose won. Why can't we just discuss the movies without this continual format bickering? You complain about the people who bring up HD DVD, but you fan the flames more than most.

Bill made a lot of enemies during the format war because of the way he would trumpet any minor Blu-ray victory while downplaying any loss, and doing the exact opposite for HD DVD. I presumed that now that the war had ended, and he's backed off with his hyperbole, other people would also calm down. But I guess old grudges die hard.

Bill Hunt is a really nice guy, no doubt about that.

I can understand this, but all this does is let me focus on purchasing other titles that I have had a hard time catching up on because all the new releases. Not to mention it gives me more time to hunt down some of the HD titles that eluded me in other countries!


I've been trying to look at the positive in this situation - One format lost but the prices are down now, which leads me to purchase titles that I loved, but wouldnt spend on even with a 30% discount. I have been finding titles for $8-12 dollars which is a perfect price point for me.

I also have BD and I've been very pleased with a majority of the titles being released.

I know not everyone is in the same boat as I am, but either way I'm happy.

And as for the comment about not picking a side makes us weak (or however it was worded) is just plain narrow-minded logic - I choose both because I wanted the most selection avaliable now.

In the long run its saving me money.


So win - win situation!

Is it ever going to stop? I post positive news for BD and bitching/whining and whatever else you want to use starts trickling in again.

Well, I at least hope that about half of the upcoming catalog titles from Universal and Paramount will be new to HDM. I understand they'll want to release some of the titles that were on HD DVD, but hopefully there will be some new ones too.

Ditto.

I'd rather see a focus on new catalog titles being available. It would be a pretty boring year for some of us if they spent most of it chucking out BD versions of HD-DVD releases.

IMO, we will see 90% of Uni's releases in 2008 as previous HD DVD catalog, with 10% new stuff (day/date titles and a few DVD double dips also having a BD release). I do not expect much as far as new catalog for quite a while. For the millions of Blu-ray owners out there, their entire catalog from the HD DVD era are new releases. So really, why not go with what you know will sell.

IMHO...Do you really think the majority of Blu Ray owners -i.e. PS3 owners - care about the classics (and I use that term very broadly)

I doubt it. Instead you will get double dips of fantastic movies like Alien v. Predator. Sure the people on this forum might care, but I don't think we are representative of much.