Archived: Ask the Insiders: Judgment Day Edition

[whippersnapper]

Originally Posted by Talkstr8t

Not Toshiba, but the North American HD DVD Promotions Group. Nonetheless, it's true. Or, in Princess Bride-speak, "It's Twue! It's Twue!"

Talk, I hope you enjoy your time in Vegas. And I hope a smile doesn't leave your face all week. Thanks for being a straight-shooter and stand up guy through these many months.

[PaulGo]

Originally Posted by whippersnapper

Talk, I hope you enjoy your time in Vegas. And I hope a smile doesn't leave your face all week. Thanks for being a straight-shooter and stand up guy through these many months.

And remember what happens in Vegas does not stay in Vegas. It appears here.

Have a great time you and your fellow insiders (along with the mods) have earned it.

[NutsAboutPS3]

Originally Posted by Razzy

Originally Posted by dobyblue:

What about events like Universal going neutral or Warner going Blu-exclu? You think there's no notwithstanding clause even based on those two events happening?


Reply by Max:

I will be very careful with this.

The deal includes get-out clauses in which Viacom can leave, but neither of those events would trigger any of the clauses.

However, Max's words do leave open the possibility that if both of those events happened, that might trigger a clause, even though neither event on its own would.

[richard lichtenfelt]

The thing I have noticed about insiders from both sides is that our insiders were here to educate and inform, whereas the hd dvd insiders really just spent all their time with misinformation and smoke and mirror tactics.
I don't know if anyone before me as done this yet, so let me just give a hearty thanks to our illustrious insiders and mods.
Perfect way to kick off what should be a great 08!

I would imagine that the out clauses are tied in to sales performance of the hd dvd format and that their #'s should be dropping to deal breaking levels before long.

[The Guardian]

Sales performance yes.. but I would be willing to bet it would also be triggered by some number of major retailers dropping HD DVD (say, Best Buy and Circuit City).

[Seabass]

Apologies if this has been ask before (This thread just blew up) but was Warner offered any "incentive$" to go exclusive? I know official denials were announced but some people seem to think there was.

A very vague response please, I just like the air to be cleared so to speak.

I personally think there wasn't because all those "reputable" people offer different figure$.

[Seabass]

I read that Mr. Tsujihara has again denied those rumors, until the wires start reporting the contrary it's all just bitter FUD.

[mattym]

supposed figures range from $450 t0 $620 million...the size of these figures just seems silly to me, thats why i find it hard to believe, if they said $200m maybe...alot of other 'experts' are saying that this was a last minute deal involving Fox, any comments on that Insiders?

[RUR]

Originally Posted by Seabass

I read that Mr. Tsujihara has again denied those rumors, until the wires start reporting the contrary it's all just bitter FUD.

Since Tsujihara has officially denied it, don't expect the insiders to reveal anything contradictory. In the end, who cares? After the Paramount buyout, I'm glad the BDA did whatever was necessary to secure Warner.

[mattym]

As to the talk of being motivated by financial inducements, Sanders says this:

"There is absolutely no incentive from either side that would have changed the decision we made based on what we were seeing in the consumer data. The worldwide DVD business is about $40 billion. Any incentives we might have been offered would have paled next to the lost profits from that business if we get this one wrong."

thats from teh Bits, seems to suggest payoffs not the case

[Blue]

Look at the History of Fox.
Every title they release is region encoded. New Line (Warner) released Hairspray ONLY on Blu-ray, it was region encoded. It was being released in the Cinema in OZ when being released on Blu-ray in the US.

Fox stopped releasing when the initial titles were cracked until BD+ was released.

Fox goes to a lot of trouble utilising very high bit rates for incredible picture quality, now they want to reduce that down? Why not use VC-1 at under 30Mb/s to make the transition easier especially on their newer Blu-ray releases?

So they are trying to say that Fox now wants to throw all that out just, so they can be held by the hand by Warner to go HD-DVD?

Who knows what was going on (that we may never know) but the logic doesn't stack up that Fox was about to go HD-DVD.

There has been some noise about Fox and most probably much more before the end of the CES show by various HD-DVD fanboy's, but logically the arguments don't make sense.

Originally Posted by stockstar1138

insiders,

DV has stated that Fox was very close to going neutral and toshiba/ms had negotiations with wb (they wanted another studio involved) to go HD DVD exclusive with FOX neutrality. however, fox got cold feet and wb then decided very recently blu-ray was the way to go. this would certainly make explain Toshibas shock and also some of the rumors we have heard from the red camp as of late. is there any validity to this.

[Member-9711]

Will Warner drop HD DVD by late May 2008 everywhere or is this timeframe just for United States?

[Icemage]

Originally Posted by Dofflan

Will Warner drop HD DVD by late May 2008 everywhere or is this timeframe just for United States?

It's worldwide.

[jopemoro]

Originally Posted by TheRealBob

Let's be gracious in victory and treat HD DVD supporters as we would want to be treated in the same situation. For the most part, these are people that simply got on board the wrong format and simply hoped they had made the right choice.

Yes, please, let's.

Being personally burned in the past in a similar way in a different industry, I can tell you you basically feel a fool for sticking to what you think is best.

I'm Blu, but no 'nyah, nyah, nyah' coming from me...

[dobyblue]

Originally Posted by richard lichtenfelt

Bill Hunt sent me a personal email confirming that the Lethal Weapon series is already being redone by WB and should be out "early this year."
It will be labeled the Director's Cut.

Thanks Richard that is good news.
I'll be listing my Lethal Weapon's on eBay later on next week.

[jopemoro]

Originally Posted by ErikR

Does anyone care to comment on this latest revelation...

No insider here, but my guess is that it has more to do with intra-studio formalities than anything else, meaning that NL may want to do their own announcement, for example...

[Bombthroat]

Originally Posted by RangerSix

RDJAM responds:

Leave HDDVD ALONE!

LMFAO...that is classic!

[jopemoro]

Originally Posted by Green Iguana

I saw the Samsung at the BB in Houston - looked nice, but I don't think it will have much of a market at the $999 they have it listed for.

Actually, I think combos will make a killing among the HD DVD crowd, seems logical.

The real question is: when will Toshiba announce their own combo player?

[richard lichtenfelt]

Originally Posted by dobyblue

Thanks Richard that is good news.
I'll be listing my Lethal Weapon's on eBay later on next week.

My pleasure DobyBlue. I'm going to miss reading your smackdown comments on other forums. I've seen you lay down the gauntlet and cheered you on as I read.

I sold my copy on amazon right after I received the email.

[whippersnapper]

Originally Posted by jopemoro

Actually, I think combos will make a killing among the HD DVD crowd, seems logical.

The real question is: when will Toshiba announce their own combo player?

I think that Combos will go the way of the Do Do bird; with the possible exception of Toshiba later coming out with a money losing Combo as part of their "penance".