The rumor is that Warner is coming aboard soon

[Paradiso]

Originally Posted by soniqstylz

Warner to Blu-Ray wouldn't be immediate the nail in the coffin.

However, it might take the format war to a convincing level where Lucas brings out Star Wars, Jackson and New Line finally bring out LotR, and then Warner brings out the big gun.

yeah, you know what I'm talking about:























The Goonies.

LOL!!!! Nice one.

[Paradiso]

Originally Posted by cking2729

I have heard a lot about the HD downloads from M$, but I can't possibly see how that is going to end up successful. I love my HD media, but I honestly can't see myself paying or even bothering downloading HD content when I have Blu-Ray and HD on digital cable/VOD. Besides, the majority of people who are going to care enough to get their downloads in HD, already know how to torrent and file share HD TV shows. And if M$ is planning on tapping into iTunes' success, I think they are in for a big disappointment.

I honestly see this HD download project being chalked up in the Vista and Zune tabs as another huge M$ miscalculation.

**CoughWEBTVcough**

[Rob Tomlin]

Originally Posted by Ispoke

Time for the HD DVD group to back the truck up at Warner's

Made me smile anyway, especially the last couple of paragraphs.

Probably the only option they have now and we know from the Business Week article Toshiba are 'still talking to the studios', let’s hope they can't afford the diesel for the number of trucks they will need

Good lord, what a moronic article.

He argues against Blu-ray winning, and gives as one of the reasons he doesn't want BD to win:

" Add in the idea that Blu-ray is, unless the disc is combo format (DVD and HD DVD flipper disc), normally more expensive to purchase and is more expensive to make, and that's yet another reason. "

Then, in the VERY NEXT PARAGRAPH, he says:

"Now, I know plenty of people will complain that the market needs one format. Shut up you whiners. No it does not. There's room in the A/V rack for a player of either format. It's not that expensive to own both, or at least not that expensive to get HD DVD now "

The logic is indisputable.

[DaViD Boulet]

I'm curious as to why WB doesn't just end this war by going BD sooner than later. They have already indicated they only want to release in one format, and I believe they have indicated they want the war over with.

here's something that nobody has discussed in this thread.

The reason that Blu-ray is a format worth owning at all is pretty much thanks to Warner Brother's dual-format stance.

I don't know how good everyone's memories are, but when Sony first positioned Blu-ray against Toshiba's HD DVD, it was pretty much an MPEG-2 *only* system with specs for lossy Dolby, DTS, and PCM. It was pressure from WARNER to include VC-1 and advanced lossless audio that actually got Sony to change the specs to accomodate Warner's wishes so they would release content. Sony was so willing to accomodate Warner (and Microsoft) they even tried to get HDi added to the BD spec but the BD group wouldn't accomodate that point.

That's right. Had Warner not been willing to go dual-format, which gave them some serious weight to throw around with Sony, your Blu-ray discs today would probably be MPEG-2 with no provision for advanced video or audio codecs. In that reality, BD was no better than HD DVD because it only used legacy codecs which essentially wasted the theorectical advantages of the additional space over HD DVD.

Warner's influence made Blu-ray Disc become a format that was objectivley *better* than HD DVD by adopting the software advantages of HD DVD with the phsycial advantages of BD.

I think now Warner is trying to use their influence to get the BD camp to drop prices on hardware a bit to get more players in more consumers hands sooner than later. Remember, Warner just sells software, so it's in their interest to have more players in more homes regardless of the profit margins that might shrink for manufacturers as a result.

IMO, a little pressure is a good thing since it's pushed the BD group to make improvements, and now the pressure is on to bring PIP to BD hardware and get prices to "consumer" levels. I don't think that the BD group should toss in the towel on hardware profits and start charging $99, but a few "budget" models that come in between $250-$300 would be a great thing for the format's adoption this Christmas season. Then when everyone goes blue... it will be a huge market and grow even more quickly.

[OokieSpookie]

Just a suggestion...
When asshat articles like this pop up, do not link to them just cut and paste the text.
Do not give them hits and advertising points, that is what they want.
When people post links to shit like that you are helping their stupidity.

[JTK]

Originally Posted by DaViD Boulet

here's something that nobody has discussed in this thread.

The reason that Blu-ray is a format worth owning at all is pretty much thanks to Warner Brother's dual-format stance.

I don't know how good everyone's memories are, but when Sony first positioned Blu-ray against Toshiba's HD DVD, it was pretty much an MPEG-2 *only* system with specs for lossy Dolby, DTS, and PCM. It was pressure from WARNER to include VC-1 and advanced lossless audio that actually got Sony to change the specs to accomodate Warner's wishes so they would release content. Sony was so willing to accomodate Warner (and Microsoft) they even tried to get HDi added to the BD spec but the BD group wouldn't accomodate that point.

That's right. Had Warner not been willing to go dual-format, which gave them some serious weight to throw around with Sony, your Blu-ray discs today would probably be MPEG-2 with no provision for advanced video or audio codecs. In that reality, BD was no better than HD DVD because it only used legacy codecs which essentially wasted the theorectical advantages of the additional space over HD DVD.

Warner's influence made Blu-ray Disc become a format that was objectivley *better* than HD DVD by adopting the software advantages of HD DVD with the phsycial advantages of BD.

I think now Warner is trying to use their influence to get the BD camp to drop prices on hardware a bit to get more players in more consumers hands sooner than later. Remember, Warner just sells software, so it's in their interest to have more players in more homes regardless of the profit margins that might shrink for manufacturers as a result.

IMO, a little pressure is a good thing since it's pushed the BD group to make improvements, and now the pressure is on to bring PIP to BD hardware and get prices to "consumer" levels. I don't think that the BD group should toss in the towel on hardware profits and start charging $99, but a few "budget" models that come in between $250-$300 would be a great thing for the format's adoption this Christmas season. Then when everyone goes blue... it will be a huge market and grow even more quickly.

Excellent post as always.

This is a nice reminder and perspective refreshner for all of us: Look how far things have come in just a year and change's worth of time.

[AaronSCH]

It's been said before but Warner really only has one option to end the war. Not sure who I am quoting, but, "If Warner goes Blu-ray exclusive, Paramont and Universal fold like lawn chairs." It is game over. However if they choose HD DVD, this thing drags on for a long, long time. Warner has the power to end it almost immediately. One announcement, and eBay will be flooded with HD DVD software and hardware over night.

[Rob Tomlin]

Originally Posted by DaViD Boulet

here's something that nobody has discussed in this thread.

The reason that Blu-ray is a format worth owning at all is pretty much thanks to Warner Brother's dual-format stance.

I don't know how good everyone's memories are, but when Sony first positioned Blu-ray against Toshiba's HD DVD, it was pretty much an MPEG-2 *only* system with specs for lossy Dolby, DTS, and PCM. It was pressure from WARNER to include VC-1 and advanced lossless audio that actually got Sony to change the specs to accomodate Warner's wishes so they would release content. Sony was so willing to accomodate Warner (and Microsoft) they even tried to get HDi added to the BD spec but the BD group wouldn't accomodate that point.

That's right. Had Warner not been willing to go dual-format, which gave them some serious weight to throw around with Sony, your Blu-ray discs today would probably be MPEG-2 with no provision for advanced video or audio codecs. In that reality, BD was no better than HD DVD because it only used legacy codecs which essentially wasted the theorectical advantages of the additional space over HD DVD.

Warner's influence made Blu-ray Disc become a format that was objectivley *better* than HD DVD by adopting the software advantages of HD DVD with the phsycial advantages of BD.

I think now Warner is trying to use their influence to get the BD camp to drop prices on hardware a bit to get more players in more consumers hands sooner than later. Remember, Warner just sells software, so it's in their interest to have more players in more homes regardless of the profit margins that might shrink for manufacturers as a result.

IMO, a little pressure is a good thing since it's pushed the BD group to make improvements, and now the pressure is on to bring PIP to BD hardware and get prices to "consumer" levels. I don't think that the BD group should toss in the towel on hardware profits and start charging $99, but a few "budget" models that come in between $250-$300 would be a great thing for the format's adoption this Christmas season. Then when everyone goes blue... it will be a huge market and grow even more quickly.

I'm sorry, but this is the ultimate in irony.

Basically WB made BD a better format is what you are saying. Of course, the IRONY is that WB has failed miserably at taking advantage of those specs that they supposedly demanded from BD!

How many lossless audio tracks have they released exactly?

How many releases does WB have that are ranked near the top in terms of picture quality?

To think that they were the ones that pushed so hard for these extra capabilities only to be one of the worst studios in terms of utilizing them really makes me

[Blu Titan]

I must admit that i love visiting blu-ray.com and seeing this thread with almost 600 responses Lets go for a thousand by monday

[DaViD Boulet]

To think that they were the ones that pushed so hard for these extra capabilities only to be one of the worst studios in terms of utilizing them really makes me

There is an irony there. But keep in mind WB is trying to keep the additional cost of authoring each title for two different formats to a minmum, which is why they want to share the HD DVD encode across both formats while they're in dual-format mode. I think if HD DVD goes away we'll see them take advantage of BD50, though their stance on lossless audio as a "rare privilege" seems to be an inbred shorcoming of the studio towards audio transparency (WB has never been known for prioritizing audio fidelity on any format).

[Rob Tomlin]

Originally Posted by DaViD Boulet

There is an irony there. But keep in mind WB is trying to keep the additional cost of authoring each title for two different formats to a minmum, which is why they want to share the HD DVD encode across both formats while they're in dual-format mode. I think if HD DVD goes away we'll see them take advantage of BD50, though their stance on lossless audio as a "rare privilege" seems to be an inbred shorcoming of the studio towards audio transparency (WB has never been known for prioritizing audio fidelity on any format).

Which makes the fact that they supposedly pushed for the advanced audio codecs all the more........ironic!

[jknuss01]

From the article .... Time for the HD DVD group to back the truck up at Warner's

Why not Blu-ray? Go visit a site like say SlySoft.com or the aforementioned HighDefDigest.com on why HD DVD is the more consumer friendly of the two formats

So.... are they really saying HD is more consumer friendly because you can pirate it better?

[AikonEnt]

Originally Posted by jknuss01

From the article .... Time for the HD DVD group to back the truck up at Warner's



So.... are they really saying HD is more consumer friendly because you can pirate it better?

Yep. Strange that M$ would be in bed with the same people isn't it?

[Alan Gordon]

Originally Posted by DaViD Boulet

here's something that nobody has discussed in this thread.

The reason that Blu-ray is a format worth owning at all is pretty much thanks to Warner Brother's dual-format stance.

I don't know how good everyone's memories are, but when Sony first positioned Blu-ray against Toshiba's HD DVD, it was pretty much an MPEG-2 *only* system with specs for lossy Dolby, DTS, and PCM. It was pressure from WARNER to include VC-1 and advanced lossless audio that actually got Sony to change the specs to accomodate Warner's wishes so they would release content. Sony was so willing to accomodate Warner (and Microsoft) they even tried to get HDi added to the BD spec but the BD group wouldn't accomodate that point.

That's right. Had Warner not been willing to go dual-format, which gave them some serious weight to throw around with Sony, your Blu-ray discs today would probably be MPEG-2 with no provision for advanced video or audio codecs. In that reality, BD was no better than HD DVD because it only used legacy codecs which essentially wasted the theorectical advantages of the additional space over HD DVD.

Warner's influence made Blu-ray Disc become a format that was objectivley *better* than HD DVD by adopting the software advantages of HD DVD with the phsycial advantages of BD.

I think now Warner is trying to use their influence to get the BD camp to drop prices on hardware a bit to get more players in more consumers hands sooner than later. Remember, Warner just sells software, so it's in their interest to have more players in more homes regardless of the profit margins that might shrink for manufacturers as a result.

IMO, a little pressure is a good thing since it's pushed the BD group to make improvements, and now the pressure is on to bring PIP to BD hardware and get prices to "consumer" levels. I don't think that the BD group should toss in the towel on hardware profits and start charging $99, but a few "budget" models that come in between $250-$300 would be a great thing for the format's adoption this Christmas season. Then when everyone goes blue... it will be a huge market and grow even more quickly.

Yes, it's easy to forget that Warner Bros. was supposed to be a HD DVD exclusive studio until the last minute when they chose to go neutral. Given the FANTASTIC performance of "300" on Blu-ray, we wouldn't be near as far along in the format war as we are today if we had missed out on that release. Though we shouldn't forget Warner's other titles in this format war either. Heck, the week ending December 2nd, of the Top 10 best selling HD titles, Warner (WB, New Line, & BBC) had 4 Blu-ray titles in the Top 10 (2 WBs, 1 New Line, and 1 BBC title) compared to 1 HD DVD (PE via the BBC)... and can I just say how impressed I am that in it's second week, "Hairspray" (New Line) is still in the Top 10 while the HD DVD camp still harps on the "gamer demographic".

As for the "Warner Bros." quality discussion, WB's not one of my favorite "transfer" studios (even though they do have some great transfers on some of their titles), and I'm disappointed in the lack of HD audio (even though I don't yet have the equipment to hear it), I do hope that their upcoming Blu-ray "exclusive" titles will take advantage of the higher bandwith and additional space (to HOPEFULLY get the picture regarding HD audio).

That being said, I'm also hoping that for whatever reasons they chose not to on HD DVD, the Blu-ray version of "V For Vendetta" will offer the "Natalie Raps" SNL skit in HD instead of SD-windowboxed.

~Alan<~~~~~~~~~~Who does not expect to be disappointed in HP:GoF due to the FANTASTIC quality PQ shown on WB's HD DVD demo...

[Steverhcp02]

Originally Posted by jknuss01

From the article .... Time for the HD DVD group to back the truck up at Warner's



So.... are they really saying HD is more consumer friendly because you can pirate it better?

LOL, yeah if anything id say that makes a case FOR blu-ray.....at least to the people who actually care and can make a difference...IE CE's and studios.

HD DVD is better.......all the hackers want it so they can make more money and the studios can lose money...lol, brilliant strategy. Mark my words, in 2 years when we all are laughing about this format war we will look back and the top 2 things EVERYONE will be asking WTF about is.......1rivate screenings of movies through players and online stores via discs being an advantage and 2: how everyone used SlySoft as a legit reason why we should adopt HD DVD.

[fitprod]

Originally Posted by Alan Gordon

That being said, I'm also hoping that for whatever reasons they chose not to on HD DVD, the Blu-ray version of "V For Vendetta" will offer the "Natalie Raps" SNL skit in HD instead of SD-windowboxed.

Unfortunately, WB would have to get clearance from Universal since they distribute SNL.

Just a simple FYI.

fitprod

[Terjyn]

Anyone who mentions the Slysoft thing proves they flat out don't get it.

It took them weeks to crack one press run of a single title.

Yeah, that'll be a great pirating method. Once a month they can give you a single title copy...assuming that you manage to find an original of said title that came from a specific press run.

Good luck with that.

What Slysoft really proved was the opposite of what they intended, Blu-Ray copy protection is very very good.

[Alan Gordon]

Originally Posted by fitprod

Unfortunately, WB would have to get clearance from Universal since they distribute SNL.

Just a simple FYI.

I'm aware of that, but since they got the OK for the SD version, I'm hoping they can get the OK for a HD version (if they weren't already told no, and that's why they didn't have it on the HD DVD).

~Alan

[Dalese]

Originally Posted by AikonEnt

Yep. Strange that M$ would be in bed with the same people isn't it?

It follows the theory of "the enemy of my enemy is my ally".

Eventually Microsoft is going to have to face the fact that Java won and HDi ain't the future.

[Paden]

Originally Posted by AikonEnt

Yep. Strange that M$ would be in bed with the same people isn't it?

Not at all. M$ is only worried when you pirate THEIR software. They couldn't care less about the studios.