CurtPalme.com Home Theater Forum

CZ Eddie · Joined: 23 Mar 2006 Posts: 1601 Location: Austin, TX

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=893192

Very impressive to get two MAJOR studios to go exclusive for any format, this late in the game! Shocked

CZ Eddie · Joined: 23 Mar 2006 Posts: 1601 Location: Austin, TX

In other news, Sony has also released a statement informing the public of their newly designed G100 10" CRT projector! Very Happy

ahh, okay this part is a hoax. But not the Dreamworks/Paramount thing!!

Joust · Posted: Tue Aug 21, 2007 2:34 am Post subject:

It's a whole new ballgame now.

CZ Eddie · Joined: 23 Mar 2006 Posts: 1601 Location: Austin, TX

Definately interesting. I'm loving some of the user-comments posted here:

http://www.blu-ray.com/news/?id=412

**kal** · Posted: Tue Aug 21, 2007 2:57 am Post subject:

Yep. Very big news. Already being discussed here: https://www.curtpalme.com/forum_archived/viewtopic.php@t=6335.html

Note that this is not ALL of Dreamworks, but Dreamworks animation. And Steven Spielberg's movies are not included. Still big news.

On that front Fox just announced their 29 Blu-Ray exclusive titles to be coming out in the next little while and it includes the Die Hard movies (including the new one), Master and Commander, Ronin, and a bunch of others. Give it a read here: http://www.thedigitalbits.com/#mytwocents

Kal

Tom.W · Joined: 09 Mar 2006 Posts: 6635

Screw Fox ! They don't want my money Wink

Stonefool · Joined: 24 Dec 2006 Posts: 253 Location: Sweden

And after October/November, how will the pipes be playing then? (Since most of the "troubles" seem to be related to what the hardware/software supports.)

wkomassa · Joined: 21 Aug 2007 Posts: 101 Location: Brookfield, WI

The Blu-Ray forum was hysterical.

Everywhere I turn I get the impression that Blu-Ray supporters really just want spew hate and HD-DVD supporters have actual, rational reasons for support of that format. Does anyone else get this feeling? I'm not sure - it seems to me that because of the PS3 Blu-Ray's supporters are skewing younger? Dunno - just an observation based on the bunch of comments I've read prior to this news today and then the hilarity following this.

WanMan · Joined: 19 Mar 2006 Posts: 10270

When boardroom politics invade my home life I have to think mean thoughts. This isn't about consumer's best interests, but who can bribe the other guy at the right place. Sony is doing it on the retail end, and their competition is doing it in the board room.

I have better respect for the prostitute on the street corner than I do for these guys.

kschmit2 · Posted: Tue Aug 21, 2007 11:12 am Post subject:

Kal, it should be all of Dreamworks, as Dreamworks Pictures is fully owned by Viacom, just like Paramout Pictures, whereas Dreamworks Animation is a separate entity.

Movies directed by Steven Spielberg are exempt from the deal, in that they may not be exclusive to either format. This could mein two things:
no release at all, or release on both formats.

Movies that were only produced by Steven Spielberg will be HD DVD exclusive

Ridebreck · Posted: Tue Aug 21, 2007 2:20 pm Post subject:

As an owner of an HD-A1, I can't help but be excited about this news. However, I still hold a "show me the money" attitude about it. Hopefully these studios will start pumping out the titles. The holiday season is fast approaching. Let's see if they take advantage and give the consumers some more good movies in HD.

Moose · Joined: 09 Mar 2006 Posts: 788 Location: Minnesota

While this is an interesting development and gives HD-DVD a boost, I'm still going format-neutral, as soon as I can find a reasonably priced used PS3. These boardroom maneuvers don't matter to me at all.

wkomassa · Joined: 21 Aug 2007 Posts: 101 Location: Brookfield, WI

It is going to be a long time before there is any clear cut winner at this rate. Both camps are very motivated and will probably stop at nothing in their attempt to secure a victory. In the near-term, that should continue to drop prices on players, and hopefully on software soon.

For what it's worth, I think HD-DVD players are more speaking my language that Blu-Ray though. Toshiba's release of several different players with varying featuresets seems tailor-made for early adopters and enthusiasts. They have a unit with a great high-end processing system that from all accounts I've read is not only better, but dominates the PQ of Blu-Ray units. They also have cheaper players that still seem to be performing better than their BD counterparts, and more to the point, they are continuing to innovate and correct issues present in the 1st/2nd G players.

My $.02. I'm still not buying either in hopes that that mystical $300 combo player will hit the streets in the next few weeks, but right now, HD-DVD seems to have the edge in hardware and has at least pulled even in software.

kschmit2 · Posted: Tue Aug 21, 2007 5:01 pm Post subject:

garyfritz · Joined: 08 Apr 2006 Posts: 12088 Location: Fort Collins, CO

Only hardcore enthusiasts will take the format-neutral route, at least until dual-format players get down below $300 or so.

J6P is NOT going to spring for a $300 HDDVD player AND a $600 BD player. Either he'll buy one or the other, thus missing out on lots of movies and getting soured on the whole concept, or (much more likely IMHO) he'll say "F that, I can't see the difference on my TV anyway" and stay away from the format entirely.

Which will delay or completely prevent the widespread adoption of the HD formats, and could very easily turn them into another Laserdisc -- lots of money thrown away by lots of hardcore enthusiasts, and now they've got a bunch of outdated media and players.

I'd much rather see one format or the other succeed, so it can take over and succeed in the marketplace the way DVDs did.

Brian Hampton · Joined: 22 Apr 2006 Posts: 1173

You know I'm all over the Blu. The silver lining I see in this is I'll now be able to actually buy a higher percentage of the films want on Blu Ray (since some of the movies I want just got pushed back by 18 months Smile

)

ecrabb · Posted: Tue Aug 21, 2007 6:05 pm Post subject:

This isn't going to turn into another Laserdisc. The first day that Sony or Toshiba ran an advertisement for BD or HD-DVD, they spent more money on advertising than Pioneer did the entire time Laserdisc was a viable format. Do you remember seeing a TV ad for Laserdisc? Yeah, because there weren't any! It was a videophile format... because hardly anybody had heard of it, and because very few average consumers had a TV that was good enough to even see the difference between LD and VHS, let alone even a STEREO connected to the TV to hear the great sound. Part of the reason it was just videophiles buying Laserdiscs back then was because videophiles were almost the only people who bought movies. VHS movie buying was just starting to take off as LD faded away.

Consider also that movies and home entertainment is HUGE now! It's a massive, big-buck industry. The studios very often make more money on the home video release (DVD) than they did on the theatrical release. The market was nothing like that back then.

There are billions of dollars at stake now. Don't think think either side OR the studios are just going to give up on this.

SC

JustGreg · Joined: 07 Mar 2006 Posts: 3098 Location: Kenosha, WI

The ball is in Sony's corner and I'm betting they counter by reducing the cost of their players. It's really the only move they have at this point.
If that's the case, I've already got the XB360 HDDVD player, and if I can pick up a halfway decent BR player for <$300.00, I win all the way around. Then it's just the studios and format consortiums duking it out.
And just think of the manufacturers betting on their dual format players scoring big. Some are ready for holiday release, others are in the design stages. If Sony drops the price of it's players those manufacturers won't be able to recoup, unless they're offering some hotshit wizzbang hardware (eg, A/V processing, etc).

Overall it's bad news for the early adopters; but great news for the fence sitters.

Greg

wkomassa · Joined: 21 Aug 2007 Posts: 101 Location: Brookfield, WI

I'll just call the whole thing a massive conspiracy perpetrated by Big Oil and Detroit and Washington.

Think about it, maaan... the discs, they use plastic maan. And there is, like, oil in the bearings that lubricate the laser assemblies, maaaann. If you have to have two players, that's like, more oil dependence! It's all because of the MAN, maaan!

Does that help? Oh. Probably not Very Happy

kschmit2 · Posted: Tue Aug 21, 2007 7:38 pm Post subject: