What goes around comes around Paramount LOL

[bone crusher]

Funny thing is that there are VERY few Paramount movies that I actually want. Top Gun, Face Off and that's almost it. It's DreamWorks that has the killer titles like SPR, War of the Worlds, and Gladiator that I really want.

[Esox50]

Originally Posted by badboi

Don't know about most of you, but Paramount will have one big, hairy ass to kiss (mine) before I forgive them for what they did. But I guess the last laugh is on them, as they are stuck with a dead format for a while.

Me too. Hell, while we're in the driver's seat (), I say we demand they send every Blu supporter (must show a receipt for your player dated before Paramounts August announcement) a free Blu of our choice from the prevously announced but canceled titles:
Face/Off
Top Gun

LOL. Paramount can piss off. As much as I like many of their movies...I'm prepared to wait for those movies as long as Paramount has to get stuck with HD DVD as it goes down. In other words, I don't need any Blu's from Paramount, I'd rather watch them flounder for the next 12 months or so on HD DVD while the CEs, studios, retailers, and consumers all move on with Blu-Ray.

[seanjohn21276]

Do you think whoever's in charge at Viacom is channeling his/her inner Fred Sanford and calling Paramount/Dreamworks some big dummies right now?

[dahoover]

I know, it feels good doesn't it. I don't feel the least bit of sympathy for Paramount after the shit they pulled.

Although I do hope they get out of their contract so we can see Transformers and countless other great movies that they have the rights for.

[BluMonkey]

Its funny to look back ...

This was posted on W'kend consumer electronics in Sept

.................................................. ................................

Warner still not picking a side in the hi-def format war
12 September 2007 22:35 by Rich "vurbal" Fiscus | 27 comments

Despite reports of lucrative offers to follow Paramount's lead and get behind HD DVD exclusively, Waner Home Video president Ron Sanders says competitive sales of both formats are likely to ensure they release titles in both formats.

In an interview with This Week In Consumer Electronics, Sanders answered questions about the future of HD at Warner, saying "we’re talking to both sides and it’s crazy right now. We remain committed to both for the time being. We’ll see how the fourth quarter plays out. The consumer is still kind of divided, and we still believe that we should offer the content in both formats. Now, we will watch the marketplace very closely, and see how it plays out, but for now we are supporting both."

He called the current situation between HD DVD and Blu-ray "a Mexican standoff", and indicated that his company doesn't really care which side wins, as long as people are buying some kind of players so they can sell whatever kind of discs they play.

Unlike other companies, Warner has hedged it's bets by creating TotalHD which includes HD DVD on one side of the disc and Blu-ray on the other. According to Sanders plans for TotalHD releases are "on hold right now" because other studios haven't shown interest in it.

[BluMonkey]

So far Blu-Ray discs have been outselling HD-DVD because Blu-Ray has the higher install base as PS3’s are also Blu-Ray players. On the other hand the cheapest HD-DVD player is the add-on for the Xbox 360 which hasn’t sold spectacularly yet.

Looking at Fall’s HD disc lineup for Blu-Ray the major two titles are Spider-Man 3 and Pirates of the Caribbean 3.

If HD-DVD does not meet or surpass Blu-Ray sales this Holiday season, studios could begin to question the future of the format. For consumers waiting to adopt a HD format things have just gotten a little crazier.

I own the HD-DVD add-on for the Xbox 360, but I haven’t bought a HD movie since I purchased the unit. I can’t tell a huge difference between HD titles and regular DVDs so why pay the extra money per disc? The huge advantage to this next-gen formats is with box sets. Now you’ll be able to fit more hours of content onto a single disc which makes viewing extra features better for everyone.

Blu-Ray is here to stay because Sony is using it on the PS3. As long as the PS3 is bought by consumers, Blu-Ray will always have a stake in this war. If Microsoft truly wants HD-DVD to win they will have to integrate it with the system. I think Microsoft will release this combo system next year if HD-DVD can survive this Holiday season.

[Via Reuters]

[cartman781]

Originally Posted by Esox50

Me too. Hell, while we're in the driver's seat (), I say we demand they send every Blu supporter (must show a receipt for your player dated before Paramounts August announcement) a free Blu of our choice from the prevously announced but canceled titles:
Face/Off
Top Gun

LOL. Paramount can piss off. As much as I like many of their movies...I'm prepared to wait for those movies as long as Paramount has to get stuck with HD DVD as it goes down. In other words, I don't need any Blu's from Paramount, I'd rather watch them flounder for the next 12 months or so on HD DVD while the CEs, studios, retailers, and consumers all move on with Blu-Ray.

Hell yeah , If it means that they will keep losing money, I guess I can wait a while for their titles

[secret]

If I had things my way, everyone who owns a bluray player will boycott all paramount titles once they start releasing titles on bluray. The boycott should last just long enough to not only make the bribe money wash away, but also to cause a loss. The purpose of this is to punish the ones who made the decision to defect and mar Paramount's valuable reputation and character that might stink for a long long time after this move. This one might be in the history books, perhaps, Forever. It will probably be studied in business schools from now on from one generation of students to the next forever.

But I'm sure that Paramount knows that almost everyone who owns a bluray player will rush out to buy Transformers on Bluray the moment it hits the shelves (as I know most of you intend to do), so they could care less about all the yapping about betrayal. Release Transformers and everything is made up. The husband cheats. Buys the wife a new car. She's happy again. He goes and cheats again. Buys her a new toy again. No big deal.

Heck, there are probably some people out there who rushed out to buy a HD-DVD player just so that they could watch Shrek and Transformers.

[secret]

Originally Posted by BluMonkey

If Microsoft releases a HD-DVD combo player for their xbox360, they'd probably have to phase out the DVD version soon because developers will be confused on which format to develop for. Look at how things are now with the PS3 and xbox360. Because the xbox360 has a larger fanbase, most developers tend to develop a game up to the xbox360's DVD limitations and then just force feed everything to the PS3.

Now, with the the release of the HD-DVD player xbox360, some developers might as well just use the same logic. There are still more DVD enabled xbox360 consoles in the market. Therefore, why not just develop for the DVD and force feed it to the HD-DVD version? They've been doing it to the PS3 owners with COD4 and practically every other mutliplat. You don't see them optimizing with bluray on COD4 and then dumming it down to the DVD level for the xbox360, do you?

But who knows. I'm sure Microsoft must have some strategy and contracts at hand so that games will be developed for the HD-DVD version. Otherwise, the newly HD-DVD purchasers are going to be upset when COD5 or Gears of War 2 has only 5 levels of gameplay that's on the DVD version. Don't all you PS3 owners tell me that you didn't point the fingers to the xbox360 owners in blaming them for COD4 having only a few hours of gameplay. I'm sure most of you blame the xbox360 on that one.

Microsoft seems to have the developers and media firmly in their hands. They'll probably work something around it. Maybe they'll try to do a software update to allow the previous consoles with the HD-DVD "add-on" to allow gaming along with movies. But then, not everyone will rush out to buy a HD-DVD add-on immediately.




But they'll surely, for the time being, divide their own group of xbox360 fanboys into two camps -- the camps with the DVD version and the HD-DVD camp. They're basically dividing and weakening their own fanbase.






If Bluray wins, looks like the xbox360 owners will be forced to buy a standalone bluray player soon. Again, if they do their research carefully and are interested in video games, they'll find out that the PS3 is the best valued bluray player for them, which is right back to where they should've started from. Too bad they'll learn that the PS3 will make their xbox360 redundant because almost all important xbox360 games will be on the PS3, too, or on the PC computer. They've totally bought the xbox360 for nothing.

[w_tanoto]

Originally Posted by Travism718

haha, can't imagine how Paramount feels right now

let's await some announcement from them and universal tomorrow

[w_tanoto]

Originally Posted by Maaz

forget them we got warner

+1

losing warner would be devastating. fortunately it's para we lost, not warner. while hd dvd lost warner

[kolasi]

Originally Posted by seanjohn21276

Do you think whoever's in charge at Viacom is channeling his/her inner Fred Sanford and calling Paramount/Dreamworks some big dummies right now?

lmao. nice one.

[theirishgonzo]

watch that the xbox 360 is adding a blu-ray player for 2008 and calling the blux 360

[Porfie]

Originally Posted by w_tanoto

let's await some announcement from them and universal tomorrow

I hope we get more good news!

[qjack1]

I know I will get flamed for this, but you are all a bunch of morons! I have a Sammy bd-up5000 dual player. I support both formats and dont favor one over the other. Its about time that the blu camp is FINALLY catching up on the interactive side of things. I do agree that blu should be the winner in the LONG term just from the storage advantage. What you seem to be misssing is that competition leads to innovation, not to mention less expensive technology. IMO this "war" is going to end far too prematurely. What I dont get is all of you getting so excited over blu being able to proclaim victory. I just want good hd content to view. I dont care where it comes from! Now that this war seems to be over hopefully Sony can do something to make a dent in the much larger war vs. s.d. dvd. Average Joe probably doesnt see (or care) a huge difference between s.d and h.d. If they cant get more penetration into that market this format will go away as well. Again, I am am not red, nor am I blu. I guess you can consider me purple. Hows that for a first post?.......FLAME AWAY!!

[DrinkMore]

Originally Posted by qjack1

I know I will get flamed for this, but you are all a bunch of morons! I have a Sammy bd-up5000 dual player. I support both formats and dont favor one over the other. Its about time that the blu camp is FINALLY catching up on the interactive side of things. I do agree that blu should be the winner in the LONG term just from the storage advantage. What you seem to be misssing is that competition leads to innovation, not to mention less expensive technology. IMO this "war" is going to end far too prematurely. What I dont get is all of you getting so excited over blu being able to proclaim victory. I just want good hd content to view. I dont care where it comes from! Now that this war seems to be over hopefully Sony can do something to make a dent in the much larger war vs. s.d. dvd. Average Joe probably doesnt see (or care) a huge difference between s.d and h.d. If they cant get more penetration into that market this format will go away as well. Again, I am am not red, nor am I blu. I guess you can consider me purple. Hows that for a first post?.......FLAME AWAY!!

We welcome morons with open arms. We just don't like them.

Umm, what innovation does HD-DVD have over Blu-Ray again? The combo discs? The boiling issues? The cheap 1080i players? Wait, it's the only 2 studios backing it right? No, that can't be it. Wait, it's the PIP/online content where your friend in spain or whatever can pause your movie in America right? Yeah, that is SUCH an innovative feature.

Yeah, HD-DED is so innovative - it's going down the drain as we speek. So much for innovation huh?

[GCW2216]

Check this out!

http://gizmodo.com/341983/hd-dvd-rea...ray+only-party

[TLBradbury]

Originally Posted by qjack1

What I dont get is all of you getting so excited over blu being able to proclaim victory.

I think the important point here is that by removing the obstacle of having studios focusing on format instead of content, they will all be able to work on delivering great content instead of dealing with the political agendas of the hardware vendors.

Let us not forget that Blu-ray was in development far longer than HD-DVD, and that many attempts were made to release a single standard, but the HD camp would have none of it. The only reason the HD-DVD format was ever even approved (it was already voted down twice) was by changing the voting rules in the DVD Forum and adding three more members favorable to HD-DVD.

This so-called war has never been about providing the best solution to consumers, but a battle over content control and royalties. Do not kid yourself for one second into believing that the HD camp (or the BDA for that matter) is working with the consumer's best interests in mind. If the format issue is removed from the equation, studios can return to focusing on creating content, and let the hardware guys work on providing the best hardware to play it on. With a unified standard, there can finally be true competition on a level playing field.

[qjack1]

Originally Posted by TLBradbury

I think the important point here is that by removing the obstacle of having studios focusing on format instead of content, they will all be able to work on delivering great content instead of dealing with the political agendas of the hardware vendors.

Let us not forget that Blu-ray was in development far longer than HD-DVD, and that many attempts were made to release a single standard, but the HD camp would have none of it. The only reason the HD-DVD format was ever even approved (it was already voted down twice) was by changing the voting rules in the DVD Forum and adding three more members favorable to HD-DVD.

This so-called war has never been about providing the best solution to consumers, but a battle over content control and royalties. Do not kid yourself for one second into believing that the HD camp (or the BDA for that matter) is working with the consumer's best interests in mind. If the format issue is removed from the equation, studios can return to focusing on creating content, and let the hardware guys work on providing the best hardware to play it on. With a unified standard, there can finally be true competition on a level playing field.

That point i will concede. With only one format the general public will be less confused as to which player or format to side with. That in itself gives HDM a greater chance to succeed in the general marketplace. Hell, I stood on the sidelines this long because I wanted to see which side would come out on top. Now I think the remainder of people that have been waiting for the same reasons will be more inclined to buy a blu-ray player and feel as they have made a sound purchase without fear of buying a future obsolete product.
Again, dont get me wrong, I am not blu bashing. I felt the same way towards hd-dvd once Paramount announced they were going hd exclusive. All the hd people had the same reaction. Like I said, I just want a good glitch free player (by the way, the bd-up5000 is nice, but too many fixes need to be fw updated) and high qulity content to watch. Sorry if my first post came off sounding a bit harsh, I was a bit intoxicated last night.

[mrbarker]

... Do I think its funny what Paramount is eventually going to do. From a business standpoint they took a chance on a lesser format by taking a $150M bribe. The funny part to me is that it had a clause if Warner goes Blu exclusive they can back out. Warner goes exclusive so hopefully Paramount will finally come on board. They would then get the $150M bribe, back out of the exclusive, and make all the money from blu... That would be genious in a business standpoint from my thinking.

...But I can only say that now after the fact, and thankfully

bring on Transformers in the quality it was supposed to be seen on