Why Universal is gambling...

[Lord_Stewie]

Hey guys,

thought i should share a thought.

since the begining of the format war, i have kept an open mind, said both HD DVD and Bluray are the greatest technology out there for hi def movies. i have always kept up with providing myself with an excellent home theatre system, for a better enjoyment out of my DVD's. However, i wanted to wait and see the differences between both competing formats. ultimately, I saw the light, the BLU RAY. it is the best format out there. So, i bought me a bluray player and i also got myself a PS3, and told myself that Universal will soon see that they are going nohere as long as they are exclusively attached to HD DVD. Then, came the issue with WB releasing titles exclusively for HD DVD for the time and that the BD version will be released later because of the IME issue. and then follows fox, becasue they are working the issue of BD+. I understand BD have some issues to work out for now, but ultimately it will win, which i thank god for that.

now this link here is for some of the people out there who don't understand why Universal is siding with HDDVD. The link below explains why, and you should check it out.

http://www.philly.com/dailynews/feat...umer_win_.html.

personally i have learnt this from it.

1. universal doesn't care about quality.
2. universal wants to go cheap.
3. universal doesn't care about piracy.

well, i must say to universal, you must be pretty DUMB, to actually pull something like that off.

thank you for your time,

and bless you all for being part of this great community, the BLURAY CAMP.

[thebluemax]

The Sad Thing About Universal Is That Most Of There Hd Dvd Discs Look And Sound Pretty Bad, At Least The Ones I Have Seen. I'm Having Second Thoughts If I Really Want There Product On Blu-ray Unless There Is A Dramatic Improvement In Quality And There Product Reachs The Greatness Of The Sony And Disney Blu-rays.


Sure A Few Bd's Are Not Steller I.e Dirty Dancing. I Loved The Basic Instinct Disc, But Overall The Pq And Sq Of Bd's Are Far Superior To Hd Duds.

[Lord_Stewie]

Originally Posted by thebluemax

The Sad Thing About Universal Is That Most Of There Hd Dvd Discs Look And Sound Pretty Bad, At Least The Ones I Have Seen. I'm Having Second Thoughts If I Really Want There Product On Blu-ray Unless There Is A Dramatic Improvement In Quality And There Product Reachs The Greatness Of The Sony And Disney Blu-rays.


Sure A Few Bd's Are Not Steller I.e Dirty Dancing. I Loved The Basic Instinct Disc, But Overall The Pq And Sq Of Bd's Are Far Superior To Hd Duds.

i agree, i guess there is one solution in mind to wake universal up. that is boycotting them, not to buy their product, and that includes releases to theatres and DVDs.

[Blu As Hell]

Mr. Graffeo said...


"The fourth quarter will be telling. Our releases will be stronger, and we're looking for a big attach rate [that's disc sales per player] when people jump for an inexpensive HD-DVD machine to show off their new high-def TV set."


What releases will be stronger? He can't be talking about "Transformers" because it will be on Blu-Ray too. He must be talking about The Bourne Ultimatum, because that's the only HD DVD exclusive that will sell a lot of discs. This guy has absolutely no clue and it's sad that the higher ups at Universal keep letting this guy make them look stupid and uncaring toward the consumer by not releasing movies on Blu-Ray when it's clearly outselling HD DVD.

[mtmw1863]

The Digital Bits posted this in their rumor mill:

http://www.thedigitalbits.com/rumormill.html#061507


Looks kinda thin at this point doesn't it? I realize it is subject to change.

[GoldenRedux]

Moved to General Discussion

[GasCat]

It's not a gamble, it's economics. They do not have to compete with all the movie studios. This means they are getting more money that if they were Blu-Ray exclusive. Warner Bros. is going both ways but this adds to the cost of production and cuts into their profit margin.

Think of the HD buyers as two pies; pecan and cherry.
Uni eats most of the pecan pie but doesn't touch the cherry pie.
WB eats a little pecan and a little cherry.
Sony, Buena Vista, Disney, etc. are eating only cherry pie.

You can see how there how there willl be plenty of pecan pie but the cherry pie is running low. All we have to do is wait for more cherry pie to come out of the oven.

[LeoneFan]

I have been boycotting universal for a long time now. I don't purchase any DVDs from them. I don't need to support a studio that picks a lesser format to release their movies on.

[thebluemax]

Originally Posted by thebluemax

The Sad Thing About Universal Is That Most Of There Hd Dvd Discs Look And Sound Pretty Bad, At Least The Ones I Have Seen. I'm Having Second Thoughts If I Really Want There Product On Blu-ray Unless There Is A Dramatic Improvement In Quality And There Product Reachs The Greatness Of The Sony And Disney Blu-rays.


Sure A Few Bd's Are Not Steller I.e Dirty Dancing. I Loved The Basic Instinct Disc, But Overall The Pq And Sq Of Bd's Are Far Superior To Hd Duds.

Plus most of the Universal movies already released on DUD are pretty bad movies, in addition, to having poor quality.

This Graffeo character should have been terminated long ago. He has no clue how to run a division of Universal.

[rock-ranger]

Originally Posted by thebluemax

The Sad Thing About Universal Is That Most Of There Hd Dvd Discs Look And Sound Pretty Bad, At Least The Ones I Have Seen. I'm Having Second Thoughts If I Really Want There Product On Blu-ray Unless There Is A Dramatic Improvement In Quality And There Product Reachs The Greatness Of The Sony And Disney Blu-rays.


Sure A Few Bd's Are Not Steller I.e Dirty Dancing. I Loved The Basic Instinct Disc, But Overall The Pq And Sq Of Bd's Are Far Superior To Hd Duds.

That's right. The quality of some of their DVD's are shocking (e.g. Coogan's Bluff or The Eiger Sanction)
Let them do what they think they have to. It is a waste of money...

[darinp2]

Originally Posted by Blu As Hell

Mr. Graffeo said...

"The fourth quarter will be telling. Our releases will be stronger, and we're looking for a big attach rate [that's disc sales per player] when people jump for an inexpensive HD-DVD machine to show off their new high-def TV set."

I mentioned elsewhere that I thought that Universal's Knocked Up had a good shot at $150 million at the theater in the US and would be successful, so that could be a good release, but being the kind of movie it is I wouldn't call it great for Blu-ray. I did see a movie tonight that I think will be huge for Blu-ray though. Ratatouille. If enough other people's taste is like mine then that one should be big. If I didn't have a Blu-ray player that one would probably convince me to get one. I really wasn't sure if I would like it going in, but I think it is the best of the Pixar movies so far (and I've liked them all to some degree). Good comedy and physical humor, while fun overall.

Spiderman 3, Shrek 3, and Pirates 3 are all making a lot of money and I'm sure they'll sell pretty well on disc (Shrek 3 likely on both formats), but Ratatouille easily beats all of them in my book and when all these things are combined I think it is going to be tough for the HD DVD camp to have better releases overall in Q4. Universal would have to dig pretty deep and so far I don't see them doing that. But then, maybe some of their movies coming up will be bigger hits than predicted. I think Bourne Ultimatum could be pretty big. And if The Transformers is huge it could help HD DVD by being on both, if they maintain their hardware price advantage, but I'm having a hard time believing that HD DVD's Q4 releases will be better. Especially if Warner catches up with Batman Begins and The Matrix releases on Blu-ray.

As far as Universal, if they go neutral and then exclusive to Blu-ray later they might still feel like they made a good choice by supporting HD DVD if the competition forces Blu-ray player prices down faster. I think they've made it pretty obvious that they value cheaper players for consumers.

Those who want Universal to stay exclusive to HD DVD should probably hope that BD+ gets hacked soon after discs are released with it. I think they will, but people at Universal would probably have a hard time justifying trying to kill Blu-ray if AACS continued to be ineffective and BD+ showed itself to be effective.

--Darin

[ps3andlovinit]

Originally Posted by darinp2

I mentioned elsewhere that I thought that Universal's Knocked Up had a good shot at $150 million at the theater in the US and would be successful, so that could be a good release, but being the kind of movie it is I wouldn't call it great for Blu-ray. I did see a movie tonight that I think will be huge for Blu-ray though. Ratatouille. If enough other people's taste is like mine then that one should be big. If I didn't have a Blu-ray player that one would probably convince me to get one. I really wasn't sure if I would like it going in, but I think it is the best of the Pixar movies so far (and I've liked them all to some degree). Good comedy and physical humor, while fun overall.

Spiderman 3, Shrek 3, and Pirates 3 are all making a lot of money and I'm sure they'll sell pretty well on disc (Shrek 3 likely on both formats), but Ratatouille easily beats all of them in my book and when all these things are combined I think it is going to be tough for the HD DVD camp to have better releases overall in Q4. Universal would have to dig pretty deep and so far I don't see them doing that. But then, maybe some of their movies coming up will be bigger hits than predicted. I think Bourne Ultimatum could be pretty big. And if The Transformers is huge it could help HD DVD by being on both, if they maintain their hardware price advantage, but I'm having a hard time believing that HD DVD's Q4 releases will be better. Especially if Warner catches up with Batman Begins and The Matrix releases on Blu-ray.

As far as Universal, if they go neutral and then exclusive to Blu-ray later they might still feel like they made a good choice by supporting HD DVD if the competition forces Blu-ray player prices down faster. I think they've made it pretty obvious that they value cheaper players for consumers.

Those who want Universal to stay exclusive to HD DVD should probably hope that BD+ gets hacked soon after discs are released with it. I think they will, but people at Universal would probably have a hard time justifying trying to kill Blu-ray if AACS continued to be ineffective and BD+ showed itself to be effective.

--Darin

I think your right about Ratatouille. Everyone who has seen the trailer at our place has chuckled and enjoyed it. Just from the trailer it looked like it could be the best Pixar movies to date..nice to see it the whole movie appears to be up there.

[Lord_Stewie]

i see the point of it being economic. but universal so far have not made a single right decision to gain more. they can't make money if not that many buys their hd dvds. yet they continue to support hd dvds, and here is the point when it turns from an economic perspective to a gambling perspective. it is as if they hope one tuesday morning their sales of hd dvds will go through the roof. But that will not, will not, and will not happen.

i say let them enjoy themselves, because no matter what they will do Bluray will always end up the winner.

[LeoneFan]

Originally Posted by shadblz

i see the point of it being economic. but universal so far have not made a single right decision to gain more. they can't make money if not that many buys their hd dvds. yet they continue to support hd dvds, and here is the point when it turns from an economic perspective to a gambling perspective. it is as if they hope one tuesday morning their sales of hd dvds will go through the roof. But that will not, will not, and will not happen.

i say let them enjoy themselves, because no matter what they will do Bluray will always end up the winner.

They are making money in the short term since M$ is probably greasing them up nicely.

[GasCat]

Originally Posted by thebluemax

Plus most of the Universal movies already released on DUD are pretty bad movies, in addition, to having poor quality.

This Graffeo character should have been terminated long ago. He has no clue how to run a division of Universal.

I don't know about most but there are quite a few titles they have I would want. I agree the guy should have been let go. Going Blu is admitting a mistake too so he will be effectively resigning when they come over to us.

[thunderhawk]

They are making money in the short term since M$ is greasing them up nicely.

Yeah... You never know.

[Deane Johnson]

As we know, Universal is owned by NBC. NBC is not well known for making good decisions. We all know what runs down hill.

Mix this with a little commercial bribery, and perhaps some personal executive bribery and you have the present nonsensical circumstance. Like it always does eventually, this is going to blow up in their collective faces, and somebody will be unemployed over it.

[Esox50]

Originally Posted by darinp2

Spiderman 3, Shrek 3, and Pirates 3 are all making a lot of money and I'm sure they'll sell pretty well on disc (Shrek 3 likely on both formats), but Ratatouille easily beats all of them in my book and when all these things are combined I think it is going to be tough for the HD DVD camp to have better releases overall in Q4.

Agreed, but the big questions would then be: First, will Disney release two Pixar films this year so close together (i.e. Cars is coming in Sept/Oct)? Second, part of the delay on Cars was so that Pixar could be more involved, will they have time to get Ratatouille done before November/December?

Originally Posted by darinp2

Universal would have to dig pretty deep and so far I don't see them doing that. But then, maybe some of their movies coming up will be bigger hits than predicted. I think Bourne Ultimatum could be pretty big. And if The Transformers is huge it could help HD DVD by being on both, if they maintain their hardware price advantage, but I'm having a hard time believing that HD DVD's Q4 releases will be better. Especially if Warner catches up with Batman Begins and The Matrix releases on Blu-ray.

I believe Dobyblue, who seems to have connections at WB, has said that Batman Begins will be out on BD by Xmas, but that it is quite possible that the Matrix series will slip to first 1/2 of 2008. I'm not a fan of The Matrix, but I'm betting the HD DVD folks have gauranteed a 1 year window of exclusivity for Matrix. I do think that Bourne Ultimatum will be HD DVDs sole "big hit" excusive day and date title.

The only "trick" I can see left in HD DVD is that if they can work out another timed exclusive with New Line for the Lord of the Rings Trilogy later this year.

[monkeytap]

my question is how much is universal really invested in HD DVD. if the format fails will it mean they lose out on millions of dollars. otherwise, it seems like being exclusive and cutting costs (aka picture and sound) could be them knowing HD DVD is going to fail, and until then they will remain exclusive bc they want to sell as many movies as possible.

and although ppl on here are boycotting them now, I cant imagine they will be when/if universal starts releasing blu rays. all of their killer titles will have already sold 'x' many copies and opened up a brand new market to the blu ray camp and eventually the HD DVD camp will switch to blu ray and buy the movie again. now, they've sold '3x' copies in a way (terrible use of math logic, but you get it)


so, if universal can afford hd dvd to go under, remaining exclusive until the format actually loses is the best thing they could do as far as maximizing titles.

[bluflu]

Folks, don't waste your time trying to rationalize FUD!