"Club Penton" - Ask questions to Hollywood insider "Penton-Man"

[BluDomain]

Baring an announcement by Toshiba
Michael Bay has the solution for Toshiba
to cease HD DVD as in Oops, one two,
it's over..........

[Fozziwig]

Originally Posted by pythagoras

Are you saying that to get the film selections I currently have with blu-ray and hd dvd I need two blu-ray machines one region a and one region b????

Once hd dvd is well and trully buried Most people thought that the two box solution was dead, you seem to be saying once hd dvd is dead rc will be more wide spread and I will still need two boxes

Is that what you are saying?

Regards

John.

You would prefer no region coding. I would prefer no region coding.

Hollywood disagrees with us. I understand their reasons.

My choice is to use a Region A player. My logic is that blockbuster day/date titles from major Hollywood studios are more likely to carry region coding, but catalogue or minor day/date titles from European producers are less likely to have region coding.

People forget that there has never been a time without region coding. In the VHS days release windows were protected by incompatible TV systems (NTSC/PAL/Secam). DVD was divided into 6 region codes and now Blu-ray has 3 regions. There have been (and still are) ways around all these release window protection schemes for those interested in doing so. To expect a new video format to abandon region coding entirely is wishful thinking. The only reason HD DVD went that route was to encourage more sales (and they failed yet again) - another example of the HD DVD camp failing to understand the home video marketplace.

For 99% of the home video market you yell 'region codes' and everybody says 'huh, what?'. The wider market just does not know or care about it.

But there is some good news for you:

http://bluray.lindsite.dk/

[desmond]

Dear Mr. P:

From today's Journal

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1203..._us_whats_news

If Toshiba withdraws from the HD DVD business, Viacom Inc.'s Paramount Pictures and General Electric Co.'s Universal Pictures, both of which support the format exclusively, would be immediately released from their commitments, one of the people familiar with the situation said. Warner Bros., which is obligated to sell HD DVD movies through May under its contract, would also be freed from those terms. All three studios couldn't be immediately reached for comment.

Care to comment?

[johnnyd1]

Originally Posted by Jeff®

Use a photo from "Caddyshack"

[Fozziwig]

With your permission Jeff. A slight modification..

[blindcat87]

Note that the information of late is coming from the home office in Japan now and not the US PR folks.

I don't get why people thought a multi-year phaseout like Betamax was the likely path. Betamax had commercial applications. I am not aware of any other applications for HD DVD. They really wouldn't want to compete with BD as a storage medium since 50>30, and they didn't bother trying to get into camcorders and other such devices. They kind of put their eggs all in the home video basket.

P-Man, am I making too much of that first observation? It seems to me that when Toshiba US is silent and Toshiba Japan is doing all the talking, that the plans are being laid fast and furious with no time to relay communication through regional spokespeople. Seems to me that this is further indication of Tosh softening the formal announcement for themselves and perhaps laying the groundwork for the studio people to make their announcements first. Or maybe it is just because it is the weekend.

I found the comment about Toshiba being a bit player in the CE market to be interesting. HD DVD as a means to move from bit player to mover and shaker puts some of Toshiba's actions into perspective for me. Hadn't thought about it that way, though I suspect that the insiders definitely have.

Chris

Originally Posted by desmond

Dear Mr. P:

From today's Journal

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1203..._us_whats_news

If Toshiba withdraws from the HD DVD business, Viacom Inc.'s Paramount Pictures and General Electric Co.'s Universal Pictures, both of which support the format exclusively, would be immediately released from their commitments, one of the people familiar with the situation said. Warner Bros., which is obligated to sell HD DVD movies through May under its contract, would also be freed from those terms. All three studios couldn't be immediately reached for comment.

Care to comment?

[Azumi]

I have a question that I'm posting here because it's really aimed to all Insiders:

Do you know if any major publications (WSJ, Business Week...) are planning to time the official announcement from Toshiba with large cover stories on the insides of the format war?

More than 2 years ago, Business Week published a very nice story on the inner forces at work behind the curtains of the format war:
http://www.businessweek.com/technolo...9074_tc024.htm

It would be very nice to be able to read something of this envergure.

[eat_me_cool]

envergure=scale? Overview?

[Paradiso]

Originally Posted by Fozziwig

With your permission Jeff. A slight modification..

Nice addition!

[jopemoro]

Originally Posted by eat_me_cool

envergure=scale? Overview?

Scale, I think...

[Ilka]

Originally Posted by Penton-Man

...

In that regard, the only person that I believe should be fired, has already…...."retired".

He's probably available for a consulting gig ... interested?

[Penton-Man]

Originally Posted by desmond

Dear Mr. P:
From today's Journal
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1203..._us_whats_news

If Toshiba withdraws from the HD DVD business....................

If Toshiba can actually arrange a board meeting by Tuesday with a sufficient number of members in real-time attendance, then I will, for the first time be impressed with their effectiveness.

One must understand that some people may be on vacation (fishing in some stream in a remote section of the world) in hospital, etc. The logistics can be a nightmare to overcome.

[Penton-Man]

Max, I’m glad to see you back and helping me out here on my thread because it looks like I’ll have to go radio silent concerning issues regarding hold-out studios for the time being.

[u_nick]

Originally Posted by Penton-Man

Max, I’m glad to see you back and helping me out here on my thread because it looks like I’ll have to go radio silent concerning issues regarding hold-out studios for the time being.

O_O Looks like someone maybe just got some news at work!

Hopefully you wont have to be silent for too long!

[blitz6speed]

Penton

Wake up weinstein while you are out working. Tell them they have a whole new audience waiting for their titles with open arms. And that we want them Day/Date, not 2-4 weeks after the DVDs.

[ezcobar411]

Originally Posted by Penton-Man

Max, I’m glad to see you back and helping me out here on my thread because it looks like I’ll have to go radio silent concerning issues regarding hold-out studios for the time being.

Huzza, good news is on the horizon. Sorry for the huzza, but i'm watching the history channel and it's everywhere in this presidents special. lol

[Wilche]

Originally Posted by Maxpower1987

Haha, I was referring to anonymity from my other half, not from work. In that respect I am in a very similar situation to you Penton, not a word to be said about certain studios...

Hmmm, I may be opening that nice bottle of peaty Lagavulin I picked up at Wally's tent sale Saturday.

[SDG]

Max and Penton, In due time, will you be able to give details of how this whole thing fell out with a time line? Say from Paramont going red untill all Studios are BLU. It would be very interisting.

[Jiffylush]

General question, hopefully general enough for one of you to answer safely.

Does anyone expect a studio announcement about um "changes to HDM strategy" to include new release announcments/information?

Also, any idea when we should get more titles announced from studios that are already blu?

[BluDomain]

I'm not sure how big a player [BRT] this replication
business is in the industry, but every bit helps.
http://www.prweb.com/releases/2008/02/prweb704763.htm

BRT to Pull HD-DVD Lines from Pressing Plant, Not Waiting for Toshiba Announcement

Blue Ray Technologies multi-format disc pressing plant will drop its HD-DVD lines, founder Erick Hansen says not waiting for Toshiba to throw in towel in format war. Makes statement to Toshiba and High Definition fans: "Not a loss for Toshiba, but a victory for consumers."

Spokane, WA (PRWEB) February 18, 2008 -- The only indie multi-format high definition disc pressing plant, Blue Ray Technologies, will drop its HD-DVD lines without waiting for the widely-reported and anticipated announcement of Toshiba's retreat from HD-DVD.

"This is a victory for the consumers, who can now move in to the stunning high def disc world and build collections with confidence," said industry expert Erick Hansen, a DVD pioneer and chairman of Blue Ray Technologies. "Toshiba can take heart in that there is no shame: it was a battle well-fought and that they have several adaptable technologies and backup plans."

In fact, no orders had come in to the full-service disc manufacturer for HD-DVDs, even partial orders along with Blu-ray clients looking to service both markets, since November. The indie film companies that BRT serves had seen the death of the HD-DVD format long before last week's announcement that Walmart, Blockbuster and Netflix were dropping the format - and even before Warner Bros. announced in January at the CES show they were going Blu-ray only.

"This week we will dismantle our HD-DVD lines and will be adding new equipment to bolster our Blue-ray manufacturing," said Hansen explaining, "Despite our name and preference, we always offered HD-DVDs as a service to our customers. Now we will reconfigure part of that equipment to make DVDs and CDs," said Hansen. "The indie film companies moved quicker than the studios and gradually stopped mixed orders in favor of Blu-ray late last year."

Hansen explained "They preferred the larger capacity and full 1080p quality of the Blu-ray discs going forward. We saw this but since I have been saying HD-DVD was DOA for four years, we still had to wait for the industry to catch up to the inevitable. HD-DVD is dead, all that is left is the burial."

He said "We are waiting this week for the other shoes to drop from Universal and Paramount/DreamWorks, the last studios to support HD-DVD over Blu-ray -- and word from Microsoft, who used the now-obsolete format as an add-on to their Xbox game console."

More info at www.blueraytechnologies.com.