Hypnosis4U2NV used our news submit to tell us what we all know at this point. But it is the last word, so here you go! It will be interesting to see some sales figures for hardware that hasn't any software for it. Probably a lot will be sold anyway and Warner reasearch seems to suggest this. At least they are saying the reason for the delay, is to make sure that when the films are released, they are going to be "flawless".
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Warner Home Video said Thursday that it has pushed back the release dates of its initial slate of high-definition DVD titles to April 18 from March 28. The studio also has scaled back its launch to just three titles: "Million Dollar Baby," "The Phantom of the Opera" and "The Last Samurai." Stephen Nickerson, the studio"s senior VP market management, attributed the delay to technical issues. "Everything we do is new," he said. "We"re using new copy protection, new compression, new codecs, and we want to make sure the product that goes out is flawless." The remaining 17 titles in the first wave of Warner"s HD-DVD launch -- the total also has been scaled back from the 24 announced at the Consumer Electronics Show in January to 20 -- will be released in subsequent weeks, he said. These include "Batman Begins," "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" and "The Matrix." |
Well, I don't know about you, but I could probably go the rest of my life without seeing "The Matrix" again, regardless of the fact that it is in high def now. Aside from that though, the Yahoo! article went on to make some interesting claims! Warner research suggests high-definition products could catch on with consumers even faster than DVD. They say this is even factoring in the format war and predict by years end, some 600,000 set-top players will be sold! The y also predict the majority of those players will be HD-DVD. But together, this is nearly two times the amount of sales that DVD logged it's first year-1997.
Source: Yahoo!
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This is absurd. DVD was the quickest adopted consumer electric format ever because it offered CD style convienance, better quality and extras. High Def merely offers further enhancements to extras and picture/audio quality. Whilst this will be popular with the home cinema market it will be of limited interest to those without high def screens. A slow but steady taekup is alot more realistic IMHO.
That said what will drive the takeup is software. The fact studios are holding back will not help matters: the HD DVD launch range looks impressive - if we get these titles soon then the format will have an excellent start. The BluRay lineup is, IMHO, quite weak - stronger followup titles will be needed to inspire me to buy into that format.
If the price is not right, those releases will definately have a slow start..
