Warner already starting to delay HD DVD titles.

[mystiksuicide]

I can just see the last 10 remaining dud'ers watching us pick up Warner blu-titles knowing they're days are numbered.

[Sonny]

I dont think WB should put out any more new releases on HDDVD or even more movies that are already on the shelf , there are plenty on shelves & ware houses why make any more??? & SCREW this BULL about filling Contracts

[Razzy]

If roles were reversed and Blu ray was on the verge of collapse I'll tell ya one thing......there is no way in hell I'd be buying Warner titles and/or Paramount/Universal titles knowing the end was near. I'd be forced to get an HD DVD player, unfortunately.

Hardcore HD DVD fans just have to accept defeat so HDM has a chance to thrive. Universal/Paramount need to give up HD DVD now rather than later.

[spam.curitiba]

What is going to be interesting is how many hd-dvd versions of twister they make since it is coming out may 5th. I bet this will be a hard to find for anyone still buying hd dvd's

[MrXpress]

Originally Posted by Sonny

I dont think WB should put out any more new releases on HDDVD or even more movies that are already on the shelf , there are plenty on shelves & ware houses why make any more??? & SCREW this BULL about filling Contracts

Agreed. The average customer who may have an interest in HDM but doesn't keep up with the news and everything (i.e., wouldn't necessarily be of the knowledge that WB is now Blu-ray exclusive and that Blu-ray is winning) is still going to see two high-def formats in the aisle at the local Best Buy, and will still have that degree of confusion that existed 6 months ago... which obviously isn't exactly the right way to try and gain mainstream acceptance. Hopefully it gets to the point soon where the typical customer walks into a store, goes to the movie aisle and sees "High Definition movies," and nothing but Blu-rays displayed there. Maybe have a small HD DVD section elsewhere in the store, but where most people look it should definitely be entirely Blu-ray, or else like I said, the confusion will still be there and the customer will likely skip right on by it.

[Tok]

June 1 can't come fast enough. Just think WHV encodes that are hopefully maximized for BD. It will be interesting to see if they still continue to use MSFT's VC1 or if they switch over to AVC.

I vote for switching just to give MSFT the big ol' finger after MSFT was intentionally trying to confuse the consumers.

[bkbluray]

Originally Posted by BlueNeon

A three window between releasing in Blu-ray the HD DVD is great news. First most people go in the stores to buy the movies the week of release. Everyone wants to see a movie in the first week it is available (either purchase or rent).Customers will always see the Blu-ray version and not the HD dVD version. Any neutral buyer will purchase the blu-ray version. By the time the actual HD DVD version is released 99% of the public would have either purchased it on Blu-ray, DVD, or rented it from Blockbuster.

+1 This is great news for Blu-ray. I agree, if I'm going to buy a $30 movie, I'm going to buy it on week one or day one. If I wait, the title "loses its luster" so to speak. It's just more fun having a movie right when it comes out.

This will impact HD-DVD sales. How much, who knows? But we know they won't be winning any weeks.

[Icemage]

Originally Posted by Grubert

Some confirmation here.

With this move, HD DVD effectively loses two-thirds of its Q1 day-and-date slate (Warner has a strong lineup for the next few months).

Your comment piqued my curiosity about something I've been wondering for a while.

I took the previously released list at HighDefDigest for HD DVD:
http://hddvd.highdefdigest.com/relea...istorical.html

...dropped it into a spreadsheet and wrote some code to analyze the totals.

There are 400 total unique titles on the HighDefDigest list, not counting re-issued discs, and of those, 108 are Warner titles.

So not only does HD DVD lose a lot of upcoming day-and-date power, but it also loses over 25% of its total title catalog (and the proportion of sales represented by the Warner catalog is even larger than that - I would wager Warner's overall HD DVD disc share since inception is probably closer to 40%).

[Grubert]

Originally Posted by Icemage

So not only does HD DVD lose a lot of upcoming day-and-date power, but it also loses over 25% of its total title catalog (and the proportion of sales represented by the Warner catalog is even larger than that - I would wager Warner's overall HD DVD disc share since inception is probably closer to 40%).

If not more. It was 47.0% in sales since inception through March 18, 2007. It can have dropped a little since (Transformers and all), but not much (300 and Planet Earth).

[Esox50]

Originally Posted by CraigW

I vote for switching just to give MSFT the big ol' finger after MSFT was intentionally trying to confuse the consumers.

I think it was posted by a WB employee on another forum that WB plans to stick with Vc-1.

I personally have no problem with this, as long as WB doesn't have to encode for HD DVD and port to Blu-Ray. I suspect the practice of DNR'ing the film transfer to be able to encode at a lower bit-rate for HD DVD will die soon.

We should get Non-DNR'd transfers at BD spec VC-1 bitrates. I expect nothing less from WB going forward (once the pipeline is cleared of movies already encoded for HD DVD).

I suspect by this time next year, we'll be regarding WB's Blu-Rays to be in the same league as those of Sony and Disney. VC-1 or no VC-1.

[BluOgre]

Originally Posted by w_tanoto

it should be given 1 month gap.... IMO

I am legend should be released at the very end of may, meaning it won't go to HD DVD

It doesn't matter, if the street date is in May (which makes sense) then they will be forced to release it on HD-DVD (even if limited in qtys). The contract will force them to at least release it after Blu-ray's version IF it does release in May.

Here is what will be instresting.....how many qtys will they actually make? I mean that's a title that would sell 50-80k easily on HD-DVD (before the announcement of Warner) but it would be funny to see the total qty released to retail is 5-10k lol. Remember, by the time I Am Legend releases in April/May major retailers will not even have an HD-DVD section....or there is also a very good chance Toshiba throws in the towel before that so they won't even have to make an HD-DVD version.

[jason_grumpy]

Originally Posted by CraigW

June 1 can't come fast enough. Just think WHV encodes that are hopefully maximized for BD. It will be interesting to see if they still continue to use MSFT's VC1 or if they switch over to AVC.

I vote for switching just to give MSFT the big ol' finger after MSFT was intentionally trying to confuse the consumers.

I wouldn't hold your breath for WB to also switch exclusively to using just AVC. The issue really never was with codecs (mind you, mpeg2 is legacy), but with the bitrate associated with said codec. A secondary consideration is that VC-1 seems to filter the film, but can be disabled and seems to have been employed because of HD-DVD bitrate limitations.

VC-1 can look very good when given enough breathing room. Deja Vu looked fantastic on Blu, with peaks all the way up to the 40's. The issue a lot of us had with Warner's decision to use VC-1 was the low bitrate encodes optimized for HD-DVD. Many people independent of Microsoft claim that the sweetspot for AVC and VC-1 is 20-25mbps and at this point they do look pretty identical, with AVC slightly better.

Besides according to a certain MS employee over on another forum, it's not the use of VC-1 that gains royalties per encode, but instead that the hardware players gain them royalties for the ability to decode it. So unless Blu-Ray drops VC-1 decoding from stand alones, the royalties for the ability to use it will continue to go to MS with stand alone sales. It's unfortunate, but Microsoft hedged their bets and did win that battle before the format war really went into consumers hands.

I think it'll pretty much break down like this with which codec is used:
Disney, Paramount, LionsGate, Sony - AVC
Fox - AVC/MPEG2
Warner, New Line, Universal - VC-1

We might see the occasonal AVC or VC-1 encode from any number of these studios but thats it. AVC, VC-1, or MPEG2 have their strengths and weaknesses, and I'd prefer the film looks the best it can -- regardless of codec.

[JTK]

The Neilsens are really going to start showing blowouts for Blu very soon at this rate.

[BluOgre]

I just got a priceprotection sheet from my distributor for Warner titles and there are HD-DVD titles reducing in price. It seems Warner is dropping titles from $34.99 to $27.99 SRP.

Probably not the first wave of cuts for HD-DVD but I did find it funny that the Blu-ray version of those titles were not reduced (like Happy Feet, Departed, Fountain, ect...).

[HeavyHitter]

Evidently, Toshiba is dropping hardware prices again too.

The HD DVD liquidation sale begins!

[CptGreedle]

Time to clean out the garage.... they got to get rid of all those to make room for the new Blu-ray discs they are going to be getting in.

[Joon]

Originally Posted by CptGreedle

Time to clean out the garage.... they got to get rid of all those to make room for the new Blu-ray discs they are going to be getting in.

LMAO!!! Time to clean out the garbage....That is great.

[Icemage]

Originally Posted by BluOgre

I just got a priceprotection sheet from my distributor for Warner titles and there are HD-DVD titles reducing in price. It seems Warner is dropping titles from $34.99 to $27.99 SRP.

Probably not the first wave of cuts for HD-DVD but I did find it funny that the Blu-ray version of those titles were not reduced (like Happy Feet, Departed, Fountain, ect...).

Thanks, BluOgre!

Seriously... thanks! Your posts here have been a great window into the rental retail space that we don't often see from news reports - and for sure the other insiders haven't been saying anything.

It really goes to show how far and how seriously Warner is taking this. All the HD DVD fanatics who think they just received a payoff are living in a bubble; I sincerely doubt if they were just taking a payoff, they'd be going to extreme measures like delaying almost every HD DVD release, and cutting MSRPs to blow out inventory.

[goodstuff]

Here's the official word from Warner

http://www.highdefdigest.com/news/sh...s_HD_DVDs/1364

Warner Outlines HD DVD Separation Plan; Delays 'Invasion,' 'Jesse James' HD DVDs
Fri Jan 11, 2008 at 03:20 PM ET
Tags: Warner (all tags)

Formalizing the first step in its HD DVD separation plan, Warner has pushed back the previously-announced HD DVD releases of 'The Invasion' and 'The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford.'

As we first reported late last week, Warner stated in their original Blu-ray exclusivity announcement that although they would continue to support HD DVD through May, their HD DVD releases would now follow their Blu-ray release by "a short window."

The studio has now confirmed the first titles to be affected by the transition, announcing a three-week-delay for the HD DVD/DVD combo versions of 'The Invasion' (now February 19, previously January 29), and 'The Assassination of Jesse James' (which will shift from February 26 to March 18).

Street dates for the previously Blu-ray and standard DVD versions of both titles remain as originally scheduled.

The studio has told us to expect a three-week delay for all of its remaining HD DVD/DVD combo titles through the May 2008 cut-off date, but that they will officially announce the new dates over the next several weeks.

All Warner HD DVD catalog titles will remain unaffected by the transition, and are expected to street as originally announced (including such highly-anticipated titles as 'Bonnie & Clyde' and 'Twister').

Tech specs and special features for both 'Invasion' and 'Jesse James' remain as previously announced, and Warner says future delays will also not see any changes in specs.

As always, you'll find disc details for 'Invasion' and 'The Assassination of Jess James by the Coward Robert Ford' linked from our HD DVD Release Schedule, indexed under their new dates of

[mystiksuicide]

Originally Posted by HeavyHitter

Evidently, Toshiba is dropping hardware prices again too.

The HD DVD liquidation sale begins!

I expect all Toshiba players to be at $99 by April 1. Fitting day to since it's April Fools Day.