Why Universal is gambling...

[darinp2]

Originally Posted by monkeytap

my question is how much is universal really invested in HD DVD. if the format fails will it mean they lose out on millions of dollars.

Other than kickbacks and the special case with Sony owning a studio and having a huge stake in one format, I think economically the best thing for any studio would be if every other studio would release their best stuff in order to get lots of people buying into HD and then come in at a later date. Basically, leave the stuff in the vault until sales will be much higher. One of the problems with this is that somebody has to get things going and if one studio sits on the sidelines it would look pretty bad and might get one or more other studios to do the same. In the long run I think Universal could actually make more if HD DVD loses. While releasing stuff on Blu-ray that has already been on HD DVD isn't as fresh as releasing stuff that has never been released in HD, at least they could say, "First time on Blu-ray" and have a new release date. And they might be getting money for supporting HD DVD now that they get to keep whether it wins or not. And all that while putting pressure on the Blu-ray side to lower player prices, which Universal seems to value.

--Darin

[monkeytap]

Originally Posted by darinp2

In the long run I think Universal could actually make more if HD DVD loses.

--Darin

thats what i think as well. i just was unaware if universal themselves were heavily invested in HD DVD or if they just release their titles on that format. and I am sure they are getting paid bank to stay loyal.

[Sir Terrence]

Originally Posted by thebluemax

The Sad Thing About Universal Is That Most Of There Hd Dvd Discs Look And Sound Pretty Bad, At Least The Ones I Have Seen. I'm Having Second Thoughts If I Really Want There Product On Blu-ray Unless There Is A Dramatic Improvement In Quality And There Product Reachs The Greatness Of The Sony And Disney Blu-rays.

I cannot agree that most of Universals HD DVD look and sound bad. They look quite good, but they are not keeping up in the sound department with using DD+ instead of trueHD. Sorry but 1.5mbps audio has been around since Dts DVD's came out. Its not new just because the codec is.

PQ wise Universal has done pretty well with the Hulk, King Kong, and Serenity as some of the better looking titles, not to mention Happy Feet.

Universal is just trying to thumb there nose at sony because of the Universal versus Betamax case. Immature, stupid, but real.


Sure A Few Bd's Are Not Steller I.e Dirty Dancing. I Loved The Basic Instinct Disc, But Overall The Pq And Sq Of Bd's Are Far Superior To Hd Duds.[/QUOTE]

[DaViD Boulet]

PQ wise Universal has done pretty well with the Hulk, King Kong, and Serenity as some of the better looking titles, not to mention Happy Feet.

Happy Feet was WB.

though I do share your sentiments that Universal has relesed some decent HD presentations.

Folks (the other folks), let's not sound as tunnel-visioned and fan-boy-blind as the HD DVD zealots over at AVS. Nothing has to be evil or all-bad, we don't have to despise or find a way to dismiss Universal just becase we wish they would release on Blu-ray.

Universal actually had some *good* reasons for making the choice that they did. One of them was wanting HDi interactivity on their titles right from the start. We still haven't seen a PIP-commentary window on a BD title though the spec has finally been finailized. BD should have been further along in regards to advanced audio and interactivity and I don't blame some groups for being critical of this point.

Hopefully in a year's time when BD is fully "up to speed" these discussions will be moot and Universal will be co-releasing content on both HD platforms.

[aaronwt]

Universal will be exclusive to HD DVD until the end of 2007 when their rumored exclusive HD DVD agreement with Toshiba is slated to end. Once that ends they should go dual format. No point in leaving out the other 65% to 70% of the market or the 30% to 35% of the market.
The best sellers have been from studios releasing on both formats.

[GoldenRedux]

Originally Posted by aaronwt

No point in leaving out the other 65% to 70% of the market or the 30% to 35% of the market.
The best sellers have been from studios releasing on both formats.

Flawed argument - Warner may move more units, but it costs them more in production selling to both sides because they have the costs of two setups, two sets of packaging, etc. No studio wants that long term, and certainly retailers don't want it, as Blockbuster has just proven.

[GoldenRedux]

Originally Posted by DaViD Boulet

Universal actually had some *good* reasons for making the choice that they did. One of them was wanting HDi interactivity on their titles right from the start. We still haven't seen a PIP-commentary window on a BD title

Not exactly true. The Descent had PiP commentary, although they utilised two separate 1080p encodings and seamless branching to achieve this - some called this 'cheating' but, still, the disc had excellent PQ and it is something that HD DVD couldn't dream of doing, cheating or not.

though the spec has finally been finailized. BD should have been further along in regards to advanced audio and interactivity and I don't blame some groups for being critical of this point.

Why should they have been further along? The BDA set a schedule, the deadline for Profile 1.1 is 31st October 2007, and they have been moving steadily and assuredly towards that target. Meanwhile, we already have BD players on the market that can and will be made Profile 1.1 compliant through firmware upgrades (PS3, Samsung 1200) and more on the way. What more do you want? Would you prefer the bug riddled players and discs that HD DVD people have to deal with? HDi? What a joke. They can't even get it to work properly, so what's the point? And to date, there is only now 1 release that is just coming out on HD DVD - over a year after the format's release - that takes advantage of internet connectivity, so let's keep things in perspective a bit, shall we?

Hopefully in a year's time when BD is fully "up to speed"....

More like a few months.