Blu In The Face

[ReduxInflux]

i realize there was a post similar to this made days ago but this one has interesting commentary. its Scott Hettrick's latest blog at hollywoodinhidef.com or as i like to enter into my address bar: hidefhollywood.com:

"Wow, last week's flood of announcements and stories favoring Blu-ray Disc was probably the biggest surge for the format since Disney, Fox, and almost every hardware manufacturer signed on several years ago.

Already riding recent announcements by Blockbuster to stock Blu-ray exclusively in most of its stores and Sony dropping the price of one of its Blu-ray players and its 60 GB PlayStation 3 to $499, last week brought the following developments within just a few days:

* Target, the nation's 2nd largest retailer, chose Blu-ray as the first high-def disc player to sell in its stores this fall and during the holidays.

* Steven Spielberg chose Blu-ray as the format on which to introduce the first hi-def disc version of one of his vast library of blockbuster hits -- a special "Ultimate Edition" of "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" exclusively on Blu-ray -- even though almost all of his biggest films are distributed by Universal, the only major studio refusing to release in Blu-ray and yet to release a Spielberg film in HD DVD.

* BJ's Wholesale Club is reportedly removing all HD DVD product from the shelves in its 170 stores in order to feature Blu-ray exclusively, according to Video Business. We hear the timeline is set for October, timed for the all-important fourth quarter.

* Thieves in Seattle chose Blu-ray over HD DVD when they reportedly walked past a section of HD DVD movies in a Silver Platters store in the Northgate section of Seattle to steal an entire section of 200 Blu-ray movies with a retail value of $7,000.

Of course, the last item was more amusing than truly indicative of anything relevant to the format battle between Blu-ray and HD DVD. But hey, one has to assume that thieves have a good idea of what they can most easily sell.

And, of course, the HD DVD camp and fanboys downplay each of the other announcements, noting that the Target deal is for a single endcap display and that Target will continue to sell both Blu-ray and HD DVD movies. And, like Blockbuster, BJ's will offer both Blu-ray and HD DVD movies online.
But the point is that when retailers need to make a choice based on space or when the country's 2nd biggest mass merchant makes a choice for a promotional endcap display in one of the most valuable pieces of real estate in its stores during the most lucrative holiday season, they are choosing Blu-ray every time, not HD DVD.

And when Spielberg, who could have insisted that Universal release "Jurassic Park" or "Jaws" or most any of his movies on HD DVD as a show of solidarity for the format and for the studio he has called home for nearly four decades to represent the filmmaker's debut on hi-def disc, he opted instead to have Sony release one of the few movies he released through that studio. (Universal could not have picked a worse time to stand alone in trying to use its clout to sway the industry and conusmers to HD DVD -- the studio not only lost DreamWorks as a partner but its own slate of movies in the past year has been weak enough to drop Universal to the last of the six major studios in market share.)

HD DVD has not been completely absent any favorable developments in recent weeks and days, but most are mitigated by various factors. For instance, Toshiba dropped the price of its lowest-priced HD DVD player to $299, but Toshiba is the only major manufacturer selling HD DVD machines exclusively since it is the primary proponent of HD DVD, as compared to all the other biggest and most trusted electronics companies backing Blu-ray, from Sony, Panasonic and Pioneer, to Philips, Samsung and many others.

Last week Microsoft knocked $20 off the price of the HD DVD add-on drive for the Xbox 360, which sounds like a nice little gesture but that still leaves consumers having to spend $400 for the Xbox 360 videogame player with even a basic 20 GB hard drive and another $180 for the add-on HD DVD player, as compared to the all-in-one and much more robust PlayStation 3 (60 GB) for $499.

Most of the biggest upcoming hi-def disc titles announced in recent days, such as "Cars," "Pirates of the Carribean: At World's End," "Close Encounters of the Third Kind," and "Spider-Man 3," will be available only on Blu-ray. And if and when the Fox logjam breaks, which rumblings amongst insiders indicate may be soon, expect additional Fox summer hits led by "The Simpsons Movie" (opened at a whopping $72 million last weekend), "Live Free or Die Hard" and "Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer."
Meanwhile, almost all the major new HD DVD titles will also be released simultaneously on Blu-ray, including "300" and Ridley Scott's latest and definitive cut of "Blade Runner."

Paramount did announce last week what initially appeared like a potential HD DVD exclusive -- the first season of the original "Star Trek" TV series. But Paramount execs quickly noted that while the series will initially be released only on HD DVD, a Blu-ray version is in the works as well.

As for the publicity and marketing battle, Sony and Disney had dynamic Blu-ray exhibits at Comic-Con last week and Disney is launching a nationwide 18-city mall tour over the next 4 months that allows consumers to get a hands-on look and feel of all that Blu-ray has to offer, while Toshiba is running a new commercial on TV featuring Michael Imperioli endorsing Toshiba's HD DVD player.

Michael Imperioli? The actor whose "Sopranos" series just ended?

Hmmm, it's not exactly comparable to Spielberg choosing Blu-ray."

- Scott Hettrick
hollywoodinhidef.com