Interesting Conversation (Universal)

[Wet1]

I'm sure Uni has already been paid at least once, and I'm sure they'll work the cow a second time given the P/DW deal.

[Teazle]

Originally Posted by Wet1

I'm sure Uni has already been paid at least once, and I'm sure they'll work the cow a second time given the P/DW deal.

It's getting close to a form of extortion. "You keep up payments or the competition gets our movies, see? You geddit, tough guy?"

[CAB]

Thanks for the update Beatboy. Great news for the consumer, terrible new for my bank balance.

Cheers

[LynxFX]

The whole deal with Universal, Paramount, and Dreamworks is like some Shakespearean love triangle and this without even bringing HD DVD into the mix.

Universal starts to piss off Dreamworks, doesn't make a big enough offer. Paramount pisses off Universal by sweaping up and taking Dreamworks. Paramount pisses off Dreamworks by trying to take the credit for all of their movies. Dreamworks will probably not renew their contract and Speilberg is back on the open market.

[jermwhl]

Originally Posted by Hanzaki

I'm sorry to saying it but it's really hard to believe you (and your "contacts") anymore. I prefer true insiders like Penton or Paid. I'm quite tired of your constant "good news soon" rumors, which news somehow never realized...

I'm getting a sneaky feeling we have another troll here! Most of his posts display negative or just plain stupid remarks.

You have 11 posts and have been a member for 2 months...how do you know which of his posts have and have not become "realized"?

[JAGUAR1977]

Originally Posted by The Guardian

They could announce now that they're going neutral in Jan '08... it wouldn't affect their HD DVD sales much.

The whole HD-DVD format would crash, thats why they won't announce anything yet.

They'll remain staunchly pro HD-DVD this Q4, then anythings possible.

Paramount only moved because they've been paid off, if you're looking at things based purely on sales, it makes sense for Universal to go neutral in 2008, just like Studio Canal.

[johnnyd1]

Originally Posted by jermwhl

I'm getting a sneaky feeling we have another troll here! Most of his posts display negative or just plain stupid remarks.

You have 11 posts and have been a member for 2 months...how do you know which of his posts have and have not become "realized"?

That was my first thought too !

[MovieTime]

There's a new web site as of today per the AVS forum...and it's from Universal Studios. You can even download trailers and exclusive content...I'm starting to wonder about this beatboy where he's gets this stuff...this doesn't look like there going neutral anytime soon.

http://www.universalhidef.com/

[shug7272]

Originally Posted by jermwhl

I'm getting a sneaky feeling we have another troll here! Most of his posts display negative or just plain stupid remarks.

You have 11 posts and have been a member for 2 months...how do you know which of his posts have and have not become "realized"?

To be fair, I love Beatboy, and I have not been a member here long, but I have read here a LONG time. That being said, I cant recall off the top of my head when he was right, I mean directly.. not in a round of bout way. Its a fair thing to say. I myself love hearing what he has to say, if it comes true thats even better. But the poster you are attacking raises a valid point.

Can you point to when he was right about big news and not small announcements?

[LynxFX]

Originally Posted by MovieTime

http://www.universalhidef.com/

That site has been in developement since at least Feb. A lot has happened since then. And it is Universal High Def, not Universal HDDVD. It could easily mean on Blu-ray as well if/when they choose to go that route.

[beatboy77]

Originally Posted by shug7272

To be fair, I love Beatboy, and I have not been a member here long, but I have read here a LONG time. That being said, I cant recall off the top of my head when he was right, I mean directly.. not in a round of bout way. Its a fair thing to say. I myself love hearing what he has to say, if it comes true thats even better. But the poster you are attacking raises a valid point.

Can you point to when he was right about big news and not small announcements?

I am relatively new to posting here at Blu-ray.com. I have mostly posted at AVS, but AVS has become obnoxiously HD-DVD biased. I have broke many things over there from announcement to release dates. Of course a lot has not come to fruition, but so is the world of reporting what I hear from my various contacts throughout the industry.

~Josh

[spam.curitiba]

Originally Posted by beatboy77

I am relatively new to posting here at Blu-ray.com. I have mostly posted at AVS, but AVS has become obnoxiously HD-DVD biased. I have broke many things over there from announcement to release dates. Of course a lot has not come to fruition, but so is the world of reporting what I hear from my various contacts throughout the industry.

~Josh

keep up the good work beatboy!

[Lord_Stewie]

Originally Posted by beatboy77

Last night I had the opportunity to speak with my contact at Universal for quite a bit of time. We were basically talking about this format war and feelings of Universal going neutral.

She then brought up a very good point. She mentioned that essentially the "higher-ups" at Universal despise those at Paramount for the failed DreamWorks deal from not so long a go. She also mentioned that in her eyes there was no way she could see Universal "partnering" with Paramount much longer as HD-DVD's only exclusive studios. She mentioned there are still quite a few hard feelings between the two companies.

Finally she said that no more major studios will shift support one-way or the other this year to her knowledge, however she fully expects Universal to go format neutral in the beginning of 2008.

~Josh

this would be an awsome news.

[gand41f]

Originally Posted by shug7272

To be fair, I love Beatboy, and I have not been a member here long, but I have read here a LONG time. That being said, I cant recall off the top of my head when he was right, I mean directly.. not in a round of bout way. Its a fair thing to say. I myself love hearing what he has to say, if it comes true thats even better. But the poster you are attacking raises a valid point.

Can you point to when he was right about big news and not small announcements?

I remember he got the "Fox coming back soon" right, although the dates were a little off. I think he posted June/July, and as we all know we got the announcement in August with the releases starting in October.

enjoy
gandalf

[reiella]

Originally Posted by CptGreedle

It is true, Logic dictates that any move toward the more popular and widely accepted medium would benefit financially. However since when did major companies rely on logic?

Look at Paramount... that was the stupidest move they could make, and not the first time they've done something stupid like that either.

I dunno, let's say it's bizarro world and you can actually say there were 1mil HD-DVD players out there.

150$ per potential customer.

[CAB]

Originally Posted by beatboy77

I am relatively new to posting here at Blu-ray.com. I have mostly posted at AVS, but AVS has become obnoxiously HD-DVD biased. I have broke many things over there from announcement to release dates. Of course a lot has not come to fruition, but so is the world of reporting what I hear from my various contacts throughout the industry.

~Josh

I appreciate the risks you and others with inside knowledge take when opening it up to the unbridled scrutiny of even a moderated forum. Thank-you for working to keep us up-to-date. The closest I get to Hollywood inside information is the Hollywood Video.

*hugs*

[Sir Terrence]

Originally Posted by beatboy77

Last night I had the opportunity to speak with my contact at Universal for quite a bit of time. We were basically talking about this format war and feelings of Universal going neutral.

She then brought up a very good point. She mentioned that essentially the "higher-ups" at Universal despise those at Paramount for the failed DreamWorks deal from not so long a go. She also mentioned that in her eyes there was no way she could see Universal "partnering" with Paramount much longer as HD-DVD's only exclusive studios. She mentioned there are still quite a few hard feelings between the two companies.

Finally she said that no more major studios will shift support one-way or the other this year to her knowledge, however she fully expects Universal to go format neutral in the beginning of 2008.

~Josh

Josh,
I also heard this rumor as well from my co-workers at Disney. This would fully explain why Paramount was so aggressively pursued. This would explain why the higher ups reasoning for Paramounts change technically speaking is so different than the technical people themselves. While Deluxe is doing their authoring and compression(under the supervision of Paramounts technical crew), they were reporting that HD DVD ran into capacity problems both in the pipeline and on disc on some of their titles. They also eluded to the complexity of BD-java, something that Disney seems NOT to have an issue with. All the reasoning is screwy and 180 degrees out of phase with logic.

I knew that HAD to be a damn good reason Paramount would have given up sales on the format with the largest installed base. I also know that Universal is under intense pressure to go neutral from both inside the organization, and the outside as well.

[UltimateFighter]

Originally Posted by beatboy77

I am relatively new to posting here at Blu-ray.com. I have mostly posted at AVS, but AVS has become obnoxiously HD-DVD biased. I have broke many things over there from announcement to release dates. Of course a lot has not come to fruition, but so is the world of reporting what I hear from my various contacts throughout the industry.

~Josh

Hey Beat,

What ever happened with that National Lampoons riddle you gave us? Did something fall through?

Thanks dude

[beatboy77]

Originally Posted by UltimateFighter

Hey Beat,

What ever happened with that National Lampoons riddle you gave us? Did something fall through?

Thanks dude

Still in negotiation. MAYBE something by CEDIA. This is one hell of a complex deal.

~Josh

[tobytobe2002]

Originally Posted by beatboy77

Still in negotiation. MAYBE something by CEDIA. This is one hell of a complex deal.

~Josh

National Lampoon riddle? Huh?