I remember Disney said they were interested in HD-DVD, but this was back in March 2006. So far, I haven't heard anything else. (I would love to see Pirates of the Caribbean 2 and Cars for instance)


But what about FOX? Are they staunchly against HD-DVD, or did they just pick Blu-Ray at random? I'd hate to lose this great studio (the amount of titles they have is enormous! Star Wars!)

AS of right now they are firmly Blu Ray only. That can always change, but don't expect it anytime soon and only if Blu Ray completely flops in comparisson to HDDVD. Sony tailored some of the BD spec to satisfy Fox's concern with copy protection. That is how Sony got them in their camp.

Fox is the same as every other corporation on this planet and will do what is best for Fox period. If BD does worse than expected or HD-DVD does better than expected Fox would switch without a seconds hesitation. The reason why you havent heard anything yet as to them switching is that all of the BD only companies have been waiting for the launch of the PS3 to see what that does for the sales of BD movies. Now that the PS3 is out, the clock is offically ticking.

HD-DVD just has to continue doing what it has been doing and I have no doubt that Fox, and every other BD only studio excpet of course Sony, will support both formats. Anyone expecting Fox to make any kind of change before the PS3 has ben on the market for awhile is fooling themselves. The PS3 is the key to everything with BD and the BD only studios. In other words, it gets interesting from here on out.

PS..

By the time SW is released, the player prices will have come down so far that it won't really matter what format it's on.

Fox is currently antagonistic towards HD DVD. They've had some marketing Execs state some silly things.

Thus far the PS3 isn't generating a huge interest in movies. We'll see...it's having a positive effect but just not a huge one. Nothing that makes me think HD DVDs days are numbered.

I think we'll (HD DVD) pick up at least one studio early next year and I believe Disney will be onboard by Xmas 2007.

Think about it. The PS3 was coming and some people knew they'd be getting one. So wouldn't they take advantage of buying some movies early to be ready? I dont' have a HD DVD player yet but I have 12 movies. I'll have 20 movies by the time I buy my A2 in January.

THAT's supporting you format. One guy worked at a retail store said something like 32 PS3 were sold on launch day with not one movie attached. That tells me that relative to HD DVD, the PS3 is going to worsen the Blu-ray attachrate and studios are looking right at that area.

Fox will hold out as long as they can but the writing is on the wall. HD DVD isn't going anywhere and it'll probably thrive in 2007.

If Lionsgate comes over and Disney I'm not going to support Blu-ray. I have everything I need with HD DVD.

1. Excellent movies.
2. Low cost hardware
3. No Region encoding on a A1(I might pick one up on eBay just for this in the future)
4. More full featured platform with TrueHD, Networking and Interactivity in every player

HD DVD success isn't a fluke. Fox has to watch the bottom line like every other company.

I will entertain myself with HD-DVD just fine and if the need presents itself I'll buy into BluRay when it's more affordable or better yet, there's a good buy on a multi-format player.

Did they add region coding to the A2/XA2?

Region coding has nothing to do with the players, AFAIK. It has to do with the discs.

I thought it had to do with both. Like how in DVD it was dependant on both the Region Code on the disc and the whichever region(s) a particular player was programmed to accept. If not, I'm rather confused.

Star Wars is controlled by George Lucas and by the time the movie is released, the format winner has been declared long ago.

You are correct. Both the discs and players would need to be region-coded.

With HD-DVD are the players currently unlocked or are the discs not coded?

It was my impression that the Toshiba A1/XA1 and RCA HDV5000 were unlocked and that current discs feature no region coding whatsoever. I would hate for that to change once the A2 and XA2 finally arrive.

An insanely large number of PS3 went straight to ebay meaning most haven't been in a home for 9 days and some haven't even made it to a home yet. Many people are waiting to put them on ebay closer to Christmas. So that explains why no movies were purchased. Also while I'm sure some people bought accessories before hand many questioned the PS3's availability and waited to see if they'd actually be able to get one.

I have a PS3 and I can tell you that it's capabilities are a little overwhelming at first. There is alot of stuff you can do. Many of the people who camped and actually kept their PS3s are hardcore gamers and it shouldn't be suprising that all they've done the first 9 days is play games. Not to mention the PS3 came with a movie... so that was suitable enough for most to try out the Blu Ray player. Had Ricky Bobby not come with the PS3s I'm sure more people would have purchased a movie.

The average joe will determine who will win this war and right now the average joe has never heard of Hd-Dvd or Blu Ray. Both my family and my wife's family fall into this category and they both learned about Blu Ray and viewed a Blu Ray movie this past weekend when I took my PS3 on the road for Thanksgiving.

It is way to early to tell... but to claim the PS3 hasn't made an impact is a little premature..... even if it had made a big impact I doubt we'd know about it 9 days into the PS3's life.

It's both, so far. The discs aren't coded, and the players don't support region coding yet.

All I know is my XA1 won't play my PAL version of "Reform School Girls".

SD DVD region coding is enforced...

The HD DVD region coding is what is missing in the players/discs.

well.... the rumour (from the AVS forumboard) is that Disney might say something about this come January's Consumer Electronics Show

No.

serenity (universal) was released on hd-dvd, therefore firefly (fox) will be released on blu ray.