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Blu-ray blow: Paramount, Dreamworks to go exclusively to HD-DVD
Posted on 21/08/07 10:54 by Jan Willem
While Blu-ray could always boost their support by the major Hollywood studios, the HD-DVD camp gained a little more support as Paramount Pictures and Dreamworks Animation have decided to only release movies on the HD-DVD from now on.
Before, Paramount had sold titles in both the new high-definition formats - HD DVD and Blu-Ray. Reason to move over to the HD-DVD camp exclusivly is based on their opinion that it offered better quality, lower-priced players and lower manufacturing costs.
Currently, most of the major Hollywood studios are selling their movies on the Blu-ray format and and HD DVD sales have lagged. But some HD DVD supporters hope to make the format more popular to consumers based on cost. The lowest-priced, stand-alone HD DVD player sells for $US299, compared with $US499 for the lowest-cost Blu-Ray option.
Paramount's first releases under the exclusive HD DVD program include Blades of Glory on August 28, and the summer blockbusters Transformers and Shrek the Third, due for release later this (northern hemisphere) autumn.
What do you think? Is the reason that HD-DVD is cheaper and offers better quality the real reason? Can we expect more movie studios to make the switch?
Read more on the TheAge.au
Thanks to ivanzeta, onebyside, Bobverens, Kerry56, SciFer and RichMan for using our newssubmit to report this story.
Update: According to this website the HD-DVD camp payed a total of $150 million to have the movie studios release their movies on the HD-DVD format. Thanks Deckard70 for submitting.
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By
androbeam (guest),
Tuesday 21 August 2007 11:37
YEAH! What a great day.
It's not that I'm a HD-DVD fanboy or something. I just hate Sony of all my heart, after all the anti-consumer things they have done. 
Quality wise, it does'nt matter if you go HDDVD or Bluray, because your TV is going to be the limiting factor anyway.
For storage purposes it's a different story ofcourse.
Quality wise, it does'nt matter if you go HDDVD or Bluray, because your TV is going to be the limiting factor anyway.
For storage purposes it's a different story ofcourse.By
Nvidia256 (guest),
Tuesday 21 August 2007 12:18
Paramount Pictures and DreamWorks Animation go HD DVD exclusive after a year of evaluating and producing both - what I'd call an informed decision if ever there was.
At last it's starting, the defection of the studios to HD DVD.
I'd like to just point a huge great big prolonged fart in the general direction of all those who said the 'war' was over and that BD had already won.
So, there we go, not only does HD DVD have the most content and the most exclusive content but if you take into account that Fox isn't even releasing BD movies HD DVD also has the best movie content.
The 'house of BD cards' is tumbling
HDDVD
- No region bullshit
- No BD+ bullshit
- Lower hardware prices
= win
Good job, Paramount / Dreamworks.
Now HD-DVD, you need to do your part. Let's see some burners!By
Anon. (guest),
Tuesday 21 August 2007 13:57
I can't say I have a total dislike for Sony, but like the above posts I dont support them on this format. There is a line when trying to protect your media. The Sony Rootkit that they snuck onto peoples computers, and then proceeded to lie about it after, was the last straw for me. Im sorry but if they are willing to do that, then there is no way I am going to trust this format with there BD+.
Who ever believed Sony, and there claims the format war was over and they won where fools. Its not the first time Sony has spread fud and lies if any have followed there history. The war aint over until its over, simple as that.
Even if there was a deal worked out, really would it surprise anyone as these deals happen all the time. Would it be any diffrent than what Sony has been doing?
These studios should continue to support BOTH formats and let the consumer decide the winner, i bet the cost of producing the same movies on both formats in minimal.By
RIGHTON HD-DVD (guest),
Tuesday 21 August 2007 14:14
Sony PR Firm Pushes Paramount HD DVD Payoff
http://www.tvpredictions.com/bluraypay082007.htm
"HD-DVD better quality?" They must be joking, right? Players cheaper? Why do they care? It's the consumer who is purchasing the item, not them?
Looks more like they needed some millions, especially Dreamworks (who should stop producing Shrek titles; the third one sucks badly) and accepted the "bribe". 
Ding Dong the Witch is Dead. Take that, $ony.
@ Androbeam
"I just hate Sony of all my heart"
LOL. I think we may have been separated at birth.
@ Nvidia256
"I'd like to just point a huge great big prolonged fart in the general direction of all those who said the 'war' was over and that BD had already won."
Good one. I have to admit though, it was starting to look pretty gloomy for HD DVD. I'm glad things are finally turning for us.
@ johnzap
HD DVD does have better quality. They're going where the money is. Blu-ray hardware is more expensive, so fewer people will buy one. HD DVD players are less expensive, so more people will buy one. Therefore, people will buy more HD DVD movies than Blu-ray movies. The masses prevail... yayyy!!!Here is another PoW:
I don't know if the payment is true or not but the Paramount move makes sense in the direction of cutting the production costs knowing that both the format will probably survive and a lot if not all the SA players will be dual standard.
More: you know that a Professional BD maker costs a lot more than its HD DVD counterpart and is able to produce a lot LESS HD Movie per hour at twice the price.
Think about it: why spend more to produce the same product if in the near future the standalone players (the most important) will be dual format???
This is my personal opinion about this issue... 
Of course HD-DVD quality is better 
as it lacks BD+ and super thin layer of lacquer used as protection. Who knows, may be we'll only have HD-DVD and combo players in future, as well as blu burners.I knew it!!!!
from http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/21/technology/21disney.html?ei=5088&en=d4e1f285e2f41437&ex=1345348800&adxnnl=1&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss&adxnnlx=1187698143-B5wO3L/F+4r1NyAsum87vQ
"But money talks: Paramount and DreamWorks Animation together will receive about $150 million in financial incentives for their commitment to HD DVD, according to two Viacom executives with knowledge of the deal but who asked not to be identified. "
I love stories like this. They draw the brainless fanboys out of the weeds and give them a chance to proclaim their love. So fun. I especially like the folks who use "we" when describing the particular camp they support. As if they actually had anything to do with it. Very entertaining.
As for this "war" and what this announcement will mean, well, I doubt it matters much at all. Both formats suck hard as far as I'm concerned. Neither camp gives a carp about the consumers. They both had an excellent opportunity to really make advancements in the field of home entertainment, and instead chose to serve the interests of big business and shove all sorts of useless "features" and DRM down the consumers throats. The fact that one format may be less annoying than the other isn't enough, I hope they both crash and suffer a costly, prolonged, and embarrassing death.
Unfortunately, both will likely survive off the ignorance of the sheeple. And whether you like one or the other, the odds are that the "winner" will be BD. Why? Because, while in the short term both will have ups and downs and nice little announcements, in the long run BD will sell more units into the PC market, based solely on it's greater potential capacity. Combine that with the PS3, and the reality that Sony isn't totally stupid so they will eventually lower player costs, and it becomes apparent that the "war" won't be won by the set top boxes, but by the ancillary markets.
Oh well, here's hoping somebody comes up with a better format, and more user oriented product, fast.
HD-DVD has better quality why? Because you say so?
Who knows what will happen to prices in, say 12 months? As you say, HD-DVD prices are a lot cheaper right now and what happens? Blu-Ray is clearly outselling HD-DVD! 
Just wait for when the prices fall (as they certainly will): yeah, the masses will prevail. By the way, the masses are with Blu-Ray.
From the nytimes article:
"DreamWorks Animation has not released a movie in either [format]". Comment: good job Dreamworks! You receive $50m and will have what to publish on HD-DVD? "Shrek 3"? LOL
"The key factor was HD’s lower cost to consumers, said Rob Moore, Paramount’s president of worldwide marketing and distribution.". Yeah, that makes sense. NOT. Right now the total number of players and discs sold is marginal (for either format). Currently prices are meaningless because both side's prices will fall sharply. What matters are the price levels when (if!!!) these formats pick up consumer acceptance. By then the price factor will be non existant.
"Paramount’s agreement to use only HD DVD is limited to only 18 months." Let's disgorge the HD-DVD proponent suckers for $150m for now and we'll see what happens in 1 1/2 years.
"Paramount noted that no films directed by Steven Spielberg were included in the deal."
"[...] both sides are hoping that the battle of the high-definition formats will not cause consumers to tune out entirely, perhaps deciding that standard DVDs are good enough." My bet for what will happen.Great, more fragmentation of the already messed-up HighDef optical media market.
HD-DVD is a step back Bluray is a step forward we want more capacity and reliability. Bluray will improve, like most sony stuff they never spec it correctly. but personally i think neither will win Holographic is the way.
"HD-DVD is a step back Bluray is a step forward we want more capacity and reliability. Bluray will improve, like most sony stuff they never spec it correctly. but personally i think neither will win Holographic is the way."
The ONLY benefit Blu-Ray has is more capacity. Reliability was one of the negative aspects of Blu-Ray and why it was initially a hard sell for the format. Blu-Ray MUST use a specially formulated lacquer to seal the disc because the layer is so thin on the reader side. A scratch that would not affect a regular DVD or HD-DVD (since they use the same plastic layer thickness) would absolutely ruin a Blu-Ray disc without the special Lacquer.
After Sony's rootkit fiasco, I will never trust any of their "new technology" products. Unfortunately, this is all a moot point, as you say holographic or some other format will eventually reign supreme. I think the optical industry as we know it is slowly dying with the advent of cheap flash and cheaper hard drives...This message was edited at: 22-08-2007 03:24
@ johnzap
"HD-DVD has better quality why? Because you say so?"
Yeah, pretty much.
This is great news.
I like bluray. However this format should have been keept under development, this way the bluray format could have been the next logical step and a "storage format only" for those who need it.
Perhaps a media to distribute movies to the cinema and so on. Who would not love a "laserdisc" version of blu-ray that couls store say 200-300gb of data
HD-DVD is a logical evolution, supports the dvd standard, probably easy to move dvd movies onto the hd-dvd format.
Cheap hardware, cheap media, but most of all "PROVEN TECHNOLOGY" as dvd has been out there for a long time now and works verry well.
We will have to see what happends.
HD-DVD is a logical evolution, supports the dvd standard, probably easy to move dvd movies onto the hd-dvd format.
Cheap hardware, cheap media, but most of all "PROVEN TECHNOLOGY" as dvd has been out there for a long time now and works verry well.
We will have to see what happends.
First I'll start by stating I have both and I like both but... BlueRay is obviously the clear winner. Forget the Sony fiasco/crap/history but based on the fact that it's outselling HD-DVD and the tech being more superior (yeah, maybe we can make due with the HD-DVD format but we have to plan for the future, we don't want another format down the line due to capacity demands) its pretty obvious why they (HD-DVD) had to "pay" their way to stay in the game. Let's not kid ourselves, just remember the market was already deciding who the winner was going to be (1) that's why they had to do something about it. Good luck HD-DVD, you are going to need it. (1 - from link in above article) "Sources are telling me these moves are "really out of desperation" by HD DVD and "a cash grab" by the studios. Hollywood was lopsided in favor of Blu-ray: until now, 7 of the 8 major movie studios (Disney, Fox, Warner, Paramount, Sony, Lionsgate and MGM) supported Blu-ray, and 5 of them (Disney, Fox, Sony, Lionsgate and MGM) release their movies exclusively in the Blu-ray format. Only Universal was exclusively HD-DVD. The $100 mil is a huge $$$ infusion for the Shrek-dependent public company DreamWorks Animation" And "After all, the consumer is already making a decision between formats: even though Toshiba-backed and Microsoft-backed HD-DVD players are far cheaper right now, Sony-backed Blu-ray prices are rapidly coming down. And Blu-ray high-def movie discs outsold films on rival HD-DVD 2-to-1 in the U.S. in the first half of 2007, Home Media Research said last week. Meanwhile, Blockbuster plans to line its shelves with Blu-ray DVDs which are "significantly outpacing" HD-DVD rentals."This message was edited at: 22-08-2007 23:52
BluRay "outsells" HD-DVD now because some ppl have hardware to play it on - PS3, and thats a tiny % of the entire market. Once the drives are broke , people will start shopping for standalone players. And since most are not "high" on tech they will go for the cheapest piece of iron that makes as loud a bang.
In a year or so from now I will look thru the specs and buy whichever format I can risk loosing a 100 bucks on, meaning that it may become obsolete. If the rentals are there, its not a big deal some studio doesnt support it, it would be their loss, not mine, I can always buy a dvd should they film smth decent.
I still don't ever see there being a winner. Blu-ray has a lead because it comes built in the ps3.. but when it comes to people just buy a player.. hd-dvd is cheaper.
They can make dual players.. and those prices will come down too.. its not like the 80's the tapes were different sizes so you would need two loaders to make a dual format player, they can squeeze the components into one drive here in the 21st century, so I don't think they'll be a winner... they'll coexist.
hd dvd will have pretty much the same amound of storage as bluray pretty soon (aiming for the end of 2007):
http://www.dvdtown.com/news/hddvdgoesbeyond50gbwithnewdisc/4260
will be nice once hd dvd burners are out
i think both formats will survive...and players that supports both formats will be the solution...so whoever can produce a low cost dual format player will cash in big time 
Blodulv,
That's a nice announcement. Too bad the 51 GB HD disc will only be 1/4 of the 200 GB Blu-Ray disc, already announced. Ooops.
Assuming of course that either actually ever comes to market.
Blu-Ray will win the capacity war no matter how hard HD tries, because one of the same things the fan boys point to for why HD is great is also what hurts them, old DVD manufacturing methods. A 4 layer HD disc, if ever developed, will have less capacity than a 4 layer Blu-Ray disc. This is why Blu-Ray will win the PC market. Capacity rules for the PC folks.
I still hope both camps get raging cases of a hard to cure and rather itchy crotch malady.
Chuckwagon is absolutley 100% correct. Blu-Ray will definitely win the PC market, the appeal is simply there. The 'movies' part will naturally follow as is already being demonstrated. Both formats may survive for a good while but in the end HD-DVD will become, technologically speaking, obsolete. 
Yeah but where is the price war? I mean that's the key to selling a good product. A good price war. Competing products, competing prices. Tell you which one I'll buy, whichever one has a player for my living room and a burner for my computer under $80 each ($160 total). That's the one I buy. Until they have a good old fasion kick em when their down price war. I could give a crap less.
By
Gary (guest),
Tuesday 28 August 2007 20:40
As far as compared quality, HD-DVD looks ten times better than Blu-Ray, not too mention at least the HD-DVD works when inserted into the player as opposed to 2nd Generation Blu-Ray which wouldn't play on older players. When it comes to quality, HD-DVD wins this round hands down, not just on the overall look of the product but how the product interacts with its playback technology.
HD-DVD has less error load rates, and better playback resolution due in part to the VC-1 codec. Much of blu-ray is still using MPEG2 a format already used by standard DVD, and still a lossy format.
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