Paramount/DreamWorks fallout... a primal scream therapy thread for Blu-ray fans

[Anthony P]

even incentives like the ones you mentioned would be anti-competitive. It is not how much or how that makes something anticompetitive but a restriction of exclusivity. It just tends to be easier to hide then 150$ in the pocket book of an individual or a company.

[blackhawktraffic]

Originally Posted by Bizi Jones

ya ya...sent out for that yesterday luckily the Canadian place is like 10 min away from me lol...

Wow nice, I would go ask if i could buy some for a discounted price haha.

[scragham]

sadly the only real way is to start discounting heavily/giving away HDTVs.

regardless, the increased HDTV ownership is just a matter of time.

[blackhawktraffic]

I'm with ya on this one...i just made a deal that i can buy as many BD's as long as they aren't duplicates of what i have on dvd. (I still live at home rent free so i had to make a bargain )

[Anthony P]

I still think this could end up hurting HD DVD more thyen helping it. We will see soon enough.

[zed0118]

I had this to say on another post ...

My reaction to this whole thing is this ...

Michael Bay is a mediocre film maker. Typically, his films have no plot, no character development, and a lot of action. Kudos to him for making great popcorn munching movies.

His initial reaction to the whole Paramount thing was good. His retraction of his initial post merely cements in my mind that he's just a Paramount *****. He may never see this post, nor any other post on this site, and that's ok.

Paramount's contribution to the Blu-Ray community has been minimal at best. Their loss for the next 18 months will be negligible. Can anyone think of the last Paramount picture that really captivated them? I can't. Yes, Transformers was a big blockbuster. But overall, what was it really? The movie was called, "Transformers." But, how much of the Transformers did you really see? It really was a vehicle (pun not intended) for GM, Shia Labouf (sp?) and other product placements ads for other big companies, with some robots fighting each other thrown in for good measure. Trust me, I won't be buying this movie. Nor any other Paramount movie, for that matter. If Paramount is willing to kill off such a large audience as BD commands, then it doesn't deserve my support ... even after the 18 month "exclusive" period has ended.

I will not buy, nor will I go see in the theater, any movie that Paramount produces or distributes. To my mind, they're just industry *****s, not worthy of even a passing glance.

[CAB]

I don't think BDA got sloppy. Paramount had little after Shrek and Transformers that were going to be huge sellers in BD, HD-DVD, or DVD. They took $150mil to make a few titles exclusive. Paramount makes out like a bandit! I see it as a act of desparation by HD-DVD Group and Microsoft not wanting to see VC-1<30GB encodes get their ass kicked by Paramount >30GB AVCs.

-CB

[PrinceLH]

Originally Posted by blackhawktraffic

I'm with ya on this one...i just made a deal that i can buy as many BD's as long as they aren't duplicates of what i have on dvd. (I still live at home rent free so i had to make a bargain )

I don't want to double dip either. I'm trying to buy movies on BD, that I don't have on DVD. That can get hard, when you have over 400 DVD's. Each time we lose a studio, we have less of a choice. If we lose Warner, than the shite hits the fan. That classic back catalogue is what keeps me buying.

[bryan915]

Originally Posted by zed0118

I had this to say on another post ...

My reaction to this whole thing is this ...

Michael Bay is a mediocre film maker. Typically, his films have no plot, no character development, and a lot of action. Kudos to him for making great popcorn munching movies.

His initial reaction to the whole Paramount thing was good. His retraction of his initial post merely cements in my mind that he's just a Paramount *****. He may never see this post, nor any other post on this site, and that's ok.

Paramount's contribution to the Blu-Ray community has been minimal at best. Their loss for the next 18 months will be negligible. Can anyone think of the last Paramount picture that really captivated them? I can't. Yes, Transformers was a big blockbuster. But overall, what was it really? The movie was called, "Transformers." But, how much of the Transformers did you really see? It really was a vehicle (pun not intended) for GM, Shia Labouf (sp?) and other product placements ads for other big companies, with some robots fighting each other thrown in for good measure. Trust me, I won't be buying this movie. Nor any other Paramount movie, for that matter. If Paramount is willing to kill off such a large audience as BD commands, then it doesn't deserve my support ... even after the 18 month "exclusive" period has ended.

I will not buy, nor will I go see in the theater, any movie that Paramount produces or distributes. To my mind, they're just industry *****s, not worthy of even a passing glance.

I said it in another post, but your points are all accurate. The new Transformers movie just demonstrated what I've felt all along about Michael Bay (think Pearl Harbor). He takes a story that interests a huge audience, gets everyone excited for it, and then ruins it with a stupid love story and inaccuracies from the original. As for the movie being a GM ad, I think it just goes to show that he can be bought. Didn't he say at the start of production that he wanted to keep it faithful to the original cartoon? Bumblebee was a bug not some piece of crap white trash Camaro. Jazz was a Porsche 911 and not a Pontiac Solstice "tricked out" to be some teenagers wet-dream.

[PrinceLH]

Originally Posted by zed0118

I had this to say on another post ...

My reaction to this whole thing is this ...

Michael Bay is a mediocre film maker. Typically, his films have no plot, no character development, and a lot of action. Kudos to him for making great popcorn munching movies.

His initial reaction to the whole Paramount thing was good. His retraction of his initial post merely cements in my mind that he's just a Paramount *****. He may never see this post, nor any other post on this site, and that's ok.

Paramount's contribution to the Blu-Ray community has been minimal at best. Their loss for the next 18 months will be negligible. Can anyone think of the last Paramount picture that really captivated them? I can't. Yes, Transformers was a big blockbuster. But overall, what was it really? The movie was called, "Transformers." But, how much of the Transformers did you really see? It really was a vehicle (pun not intended) for GM, Shia Labouf (sp?) and other product placements ads for other big companies, with some robots fighting each other thrown in for good measure. Trust me, I won't be buying this movie. Nor any other Paramount movie, for that matter. If Paramount is willing to kill off such a large audience as BD commands, then it doesn't deserve my support ... even after the 18 month "exclusive" period has ended.

I will not buy, nor will I go see in the theater, any movie that Paramount produces or distributes. To my mind, they're just industry *****s, not worthy of even a passing glance.

They had a few decent BD titles that I enjoyed, Sahara, Italian Job and 4 Brothers. Yes they are an industry ***** but it's all in the perception. We had a 3 - 1 advantage in exclusive studio's. Now it is 3 - 2. That closes the gap in the eyes of those who don't know or don't care where the quality titles are. With lower Hardware prices and a closer number of available studio's and titles, HD DVD looks a lot better now than it did, 36 hours ago. We had the victory, but the BDA let HD DVD back into the game.

[blackhawktraffic]

Originally Posted by PrinceLH

I don't want to double dip either. I'm trying to buy movies on BD, that I don't have on DVD. That can get hard, when you have over 400 DVD's. Each time we lose a studio, we have less of a choice. If we lose Warner, than the shite hits the fan. That classic back catalogue is what keeps me buying.

yeah i have like 400+ DVD's and now I am trying to build a Blu-Ray collection...and yeah it is hard when i just want to get rid of some older dvds and get the Blu-Ray anyway. Of course Universal titles will be hard for a while to do so with

[cueman98]

I know that guy. he promotes his retail store on http://www.satelliteguys.us/index.php? . he is nobody, trust me. he just wants to sell more hardware. This news is like a wet dream to him. He thinks he MIGHT be able to capitalize on the news, a sell maybe 5 extra hd-dvd players.

[supabilly8]

Originally Posted by Blu-Style

maybe they have an ace up one's sleeve

hopefully, they're probably saving the big announcements for this holiday season

the fox move was a good counter by the bda

[supabilly8]

it wasnt really the bda's fault in my opinion

i think they just as blindsided as we were

[blublublu]

Originally Posted by supabilly8

it wasnt really the bda's fault in my opinion

i think they just as blindsided as we were

They should have been more proactive, meaning:

- Fox should never have been on the sidelines as long as they were, and Disney should have stepped things up
- BD 1.1 Hardware should have been out (e.g. PS3) and they should have gotten Warner on board to leverage with The Matrix and other titles
- Price desparity should have been dealt with

[Ender]

Originally Posted by supabilly8

it wasnt really the bda's fault in my opinion

i think they just as blindsided as we were

They knew well in advance, take a look at the insider's thread.

[PrinceLH]

Originally Posted by supabilly8

it wasnt really the bda's fault in my opinion

i think they just as blindsided as we were

I wish that I could agree with you, but I cannot. The BDA had all of the momentum, Blockbuster, Target, etc. So what did they do to launch the final assault on the ramparts of HD DVD? They took the summer off. I shopped for new titles all summer but saw very few new exclusive releases. FOX went AWOL, Disney went to sleep, Sony did very little and the Hardware end didn't push their product hard enough. They foolishly decided to coast and think that MS was going to roll over and do nothing. You had to know something major was up with HD DVD, when they said and did nothing until yesterday. Now, we have a major format war on our hands, when it could have been over by now. Who is to blame? The one's making the decisions on hardware pricing and software release dates. That would be the BDA. I kept up my end of the bargain, by buying their products, when they became available. I just had very little to buy the last three months. The BDA screwed up, plain and simple!

[jcdDigix]

If You're Really Tru Blu, Then Boycott Everything Else!
I'm For The Best Choice, And The Best Choice Now Is Blu-ray.

[WickyWoo]

When anything like this happens there's always a spike

[WickyWoo]

Pull out the big guns and put Batman Begins on Blu-ray in AVC with lossless audio,

They'll recycle the VC-1 encode, just like all Warner titles