Archived: Ask the Insiders: Judgment Day Edition

[Azumi]

hi guys,

First of all, congratulations to you all for the terrific news!

Now with WB exclusive, the sensible thing to do would be to promote a unified message to both consumers and retailers and end this war as soon as possible. Can we expect talks with Universal and Paramount to take place in these current days?

Can we also expect satisfying responses from the indie and foreign publishers that were sitting on the fence up until now?

[Deech]

It looks like New Line Home Entertainment and HBO Video are also included in the move to Blu-ray! http://www.videobusiness.com/article/CA6517192.html

[GreenScar]

The HD supporters are over at HDD forum saying it's not over yet..

[H9k_]

Finaly after reading every page of the insiders-thread for years,victory has come.

Thanks to all the insiders for providing so mutch fun and suspense!

Now how do i get an appointment with Penton to cut my hair

[OokieSpookie]

Originally Posted by jasonbird

The HD supporters are over at HDD forum saying it's not over yet..

You sound shocked

[BTBuck1]

Max a few pages back you spoke of "Lionsgates burns", and how it prolonged WB's decision, can you elaborate on that a little more?

[JasonS]

Insiders, especially Maxpower, you said that Time Warner made the decision to go Blu-ray so New Line and HBO were a given. Now I see this link that says New Line and HBO are still neutral and weren't part of the deal.
Which is it?

[dialog_gvf]

Originally Posted by JasonS

Insiders, especially Maxpower, you said that Time Warner made the decision to go Blu-ray so New Line and HBO were a given. Now I see this link that says New Line and HBO are still neutral and weren't part of the deal.
Which is it?

They are autonomous studios which will be allowed to make their own announcements.

[JAGUAR1977]

Originally Posted by dialog_gvf

They are autonomous studios which will be allowed to make their own announcements.

Announcements being the key word, not deals.

[JadedRaverLA]

Originally Posted by dialog_gvf

They are autonomous studios which will be allowed to make their own announcements.

I like your wording -- "will be allowed to make their own announcements," which is accurate. My understanding is that they were allowed input into the actual decision-making process, though, and that said decision does effect all Time Warner studios. But, yes, they'll make their own announcement.

[JasonS]

Originally Posted by dialog_gvf

They are autonomous studios which will be allowed to make their own announcements.

Meaning they are Blu-ray exclusive as well but we'll let them get a piece of the action with their own announcement soon?

That would seem like a bigger PR blow to HD DVD. If instead of one announcement you get 3 announcements from three "seperate studios" in a matter of a couple days.

[blindcat87]

I hope so. I am of the belief that folks from WB read this thread though they have no posting insiders. I want them to know that I, and I think I am not the only one, might grumble and complain about double dips, but if any of the already released titles that do not have lossless audio are redone with PCM or any of the lossless codecs, I will double dip in a second. Plus, some of those favorites that I have been putting off would enter my collection a lot faster if redone with lossless audio and BD optimized video, i.e. the Lethal Weapon series.

I was not even thinking about Shoot Em Up, but the revelation of the BD optimization and the audio has it sitting in my Amazon wishlist right now.

Chris

Originally Posted by richteer

And there's always the hope that the inevitable double-dipped titles will be re-encoded to take advantage of Blu's superior specs.

Oh, you can add me to the list of jubulant Blu supporters over this wonderful news! :-)

[blindcat87]

Not only that, but it makes sense from a corporate level. Despite being under the same parent company, they are all autonomous divisions with their own presidents, VPs and such. It is not the place of the WB president or any of his people to speak for New Line's president or any of the other divisions. It would be a bit presumptious and overbearing for the president of another division to do such a thing. Unlike say Ken Graffio who has no problem speaking for corporate officers of companies not even under his own parent organization.

Chris

Originally Posted by JasonS

Meaning they are Blu-ray exclusive as well but we'll let them get a piece of the action with their own announcement soon?

That would seem like a bigger PR blow to HD DVD. If instead of one announcement you get 3 announcements from three "seperate studios" in a matter of a couple days.

[Nismobeach]

Props to the insiders for all of their good work, and to Penton-Man for doing what he can to get that Mystik girl to take some hot pics.

This news made my day!

[LynxFX]

Originally Posted by BTBuck1

Max a few pages back you spoke of "Lionsgates burns", and how it prolonged WB's decision, can you elaborate on that a little more?

That phrase stuck out to me too. What does it mean Max?

[TheRealBob]

Originally Posted by BTBuck1

Max a few pages back you spoke of "Lionsgates burns", and how it prolonged WB's decision, can you elaborate on that a little more?

That's a reference to this article in BusinessWeek on December 6, 2007, in which this was said:

"The rumor is that Warner is coming aboard soon," says Michael Burns, vice-chairman of studio Lionsgate (LGF), which makes its movies available on the Sony-backed format. "That will make it awfully tough for HD DVD to stay in this game." (Sony declined to comment, and Toshiba only would say it is "in regular contact with the studios.")

So apparently Michael Burns wasn't supposed to say that and it may have caused some trouble.

[JohnGalt]

Originally Posted by TheRealBob

So apparently Michael Burns wasn't supposed to say that and it may have caused some trouble.

Safe bet that he was speaking out of turn and alarmed ToshibaSoft who likely loosed their legions of attorneys on a hapless and unsuspecting Time Warner.

[The Guardian]

I'm dissapointed in you people, I had only 20 pages to read by the time I got home.. turns out I left just a few minutes before the news was posted!

Anyway big thanks to the insiders for your hints... now we get to watch the dominoes!

[mystiksuicide]

Originally Posted by Penton-Man

Sorry folks, no time to answer any other questions today as I’m on my way out the door now to head out to the Big Show in Vegas........for presentations and such.

When I return to the office I expect to be literally swamped with things to do so I don’t know how much time I’ll be able to contribute here upon immediately returning from CES.

I’ll make a special effort to get an official Blu-ray bomber jacket out in the mail (size small ) to a certain mystical model we have here sometime before the end of the month so that she can get started on her photo shoot.

I’ll try to get paidgeek back on here around the 3rd week of the month.

Later

Thanks Penton and for the record I am going to give you a passing grade for all your efforts on here!

Now go on and enjoy the show.

[Rob Zuber]

To the insiders: What are your plans concerning your continuing communication with us online, now that the format war appears to be over? Will you still be spending time here? Our questions are of course now going to focus completely on Blu-ray.