Warner officially announces TotalHD discs - Jan '07

[dialog_gvf]

Warner officially announces Total Hi Def hybrid disc

and it has stated that the discs are able to contain dual layers of both HD DVD and Blu-ray on one disc.

Amir FUD is being shot down faster and faster these days.

The first Total Hi Def releases will hit in the second half of this year, but no specific titles have yet been announced.

Fast.

[Maximus]

Did Amir say that it would be a HD30, BD25?

Sounds like something he would say.

[dialog_gvf]

Originally Posted by Maxpower1987

Did Amir say that it would be a HD30, BD25?

Sounds like something he would say.

Yeah, his first comment about it was it would be difficult for it to be BD50. He immediately spits out FUD as the first thing that comes to his head.

Cinram has a BD50 line. Clearly, since Cinram did the sample, and assuming they didn't do a special BD25 version of Superman for it, it would be the silly 30GB used BD50 on one side of that sample.

Gary

[dialog_gvf]

CES: Warner Intros Total HD; First Titles Due Second Half 2007

See pic for the packaging.

[blitz6speed]

Looks like its going to be a real dry season for hd-dvd till these discs come out. Warner said all future titles to be announced are same day both formats, which means THESE discs. So other then the announced titles, hd-dvd has the 4 paramount titles and whatever is left from universal announced.

Of course, there are tons of blu-ray movies coming out with more to be announced as the days go by. No pitty for the weak.

[dialog_gvf]

Not to mention all the Warner catchups. They probably won't be rereleasing those on Total HD, at least so soon.

Gary

[Zvi]

Aren't those almost twice as expensive?

[dialog_gvf]

Yes, that's what Disney says, at least double.

But, looking at it:

(1) BD yield. The substrate plastic is reduced from 1mm to 0.5mm. What is the yield effect?

(2) Substrate cost. This is a custom substrate, isn't it?

(3) Cycle time. The BD half discs come of their production line and need to be fed into the DVD-18 like two-half gluing phase. What does that do to the averages?

(4) Overall yield. What is the rejection rate for the combined discs?

It's at least as expensive as HD DVD-30 + BD25/50 + something extra.

Gary

[Nismobeach]

Flippers.

It will be annoying because you'll have to always read the inner ring so you know which side to use.

[Jeff®]

Originally Posted by Nismobeach

Flippers.

It will be annoying because you'll have to always read the inner ring so you know which side to use.

Scribble cartoons on the HD DVD side with a permanent marker.

[Banjo]

(groan)

Not really what I want. Not only to mention that I think the packaging design is ugly.

[Deciazulado]

Originally Posted by dialog_gvf

(1) BD yield. The substrate plastic is reduced from 1mm to 0.5mm. What is the yield effect?

Mmm will it have a double thick durablis coat to prevent half as thick cover layer scratches? Will they have to eliminate the durablis coating to achieve thinness? I don't want a substandard BD when I can get a full standard pure BD.


Also:

Hi, my name is Mr. Paramount, I'm an independent Hollywood Studio. My mission should I choose to accept it, is to choose between releasing my intellectual property in either:

A: Toshiba tech B: BDA tech C: Warner Brothers tech

This tape will self destruct in 6 months.


Also:

See my comment on how great TotalHD (DualDiscHD™) is in making us pay for 4 times the storage but a quarter of cream filling. Might as well have stayed with DVDs for all this trouble!

[dialog_gvf]

Originally Posted by Deciazulado

Mmm will it have a double thick durablis coat to prevent half as thick cover layer scratches? Will they have to eliminate the durablis coating to achieve thinness? I don't want a substandard BD when I can get a full standard pure BD.

The idea is that a disc is 1.2mm thick. Two 0.6mm halves with dual-sided HD DVD/DVD.

BD up to now was always single sided, with a 1.1mm substrate and the 0.1mm cover layer (+ hardcoat).

Somehow Warner/Cinram have made BD discs on a 0.5mm subtrate.

When I brought up the idea before (as a suggestion of how BD could do combo discs) the claim from Amir was that maintaining the tolerances of the 0.1mm cover layer would be a problem to the flexibility of the thinner substrate.

Hence my concern about yield.

Gary

[KenThompson]

They won't be getting any of my hard earn money. I bought blu and want blu.Don't want some stupid disc that I can't read the title. Want a label period. If I wanted it the other way I'd stick to burning my own movies

[Chris Beveridge]

I clicked on the link with the picture.

I can't stop laughing. I showed it to my mother as well, who is aware of the basics of the competing formats as she's in her late 60's, and she laughed even harder about such an ugly looking box.

I'm passing on WB releases until they get past this. I don't want these boxes on my shelf. And I'm really looking forward to seeing where Best Buy puts these.

Regardless of which format you support, this is a bad idea all around.

[WriteSimply]

Originally Posted by Chris Beveridge

I clicked on the link with the picture.

I can't stop laughing. I showed it to my mother as well, who is aware of the basics of the competing formats as she's in her late 60's, and she laughed even harder about such an ugly looking box.

I agree with you and your Mom.

Well now that I've thought it even further, apart from Warner trying to keep their royalty payments on DVD and HD-DVD alive, it's also about trying to bump up the numbers of HD-DVD. If by the next quarter, Warner's BD shows a sharp increase in sales, there would be no reason for Warner and Paramount to support both.


fuad

[dialog_gvf]

I have one hope: It moves Universal over. Then it is OK. It becomes a transitional format. The need will die off in a few years.

The HD DVD fanboys rush to brown their noses on Warner, but they don't seem to realize that anything that locks BD into HD DVD studio releases while the BD studios are only putting out BD, is WORSE of a disaster for HD DVD than the current situation.

Availability and delays are identical for BD and HD DVD. And it hands every HD DVD owner the BD disc they can transition to.

The big negative is sales can't be differentiated, and so the sales will be split.

Gary

[Deane Johnson]

WB claims they are moving ahead with TotalHD discs later in the year and that's the only thing they'll release on. Time will tell if that's good or bad.

One thing jumped out at me from the press conference. They feel consumers will be willing to pay more for the combo discs for the security of not have obsolescence. That raises the question of how high is high. HD discs now cost more than SD discs. Add more cost to TotalHD discs and pretty soon you have the prices of the old VHS tapes of $79.95 which almost nobody purchased.

When is enough is enough? Are we going to have to stop being collectors and go back to renting. Yuk.

[dialog_gvf]

Originally Posted by Deane Johnson

They feel consumers will be willing to pay more for the combo discs for the security of not have obsolescence.

Certainly I can see the appeal for HD DVD owners now.

Gary

[dialog_gvf]

Bill Hunt's take

One also wonders if other studios would support it (Tsujihara claims other studios are "evaluating" the format).

Studios (plural).

Yet, Disney, Fox, and LGF immediately rejected it. You know Sony won't even begin to consider it.

So, Paramount and Universal are evaluating it?