I Ask Again, Did New Line Know Long Ago?

[C6 Z06]

I'm going to paste a post from an old thread of mine from early Nov/07



Preorders for DUD not showing after x-mas

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Probably nothing, but I noticed that new preorders after 12/25/07 are not showing up for HD-DVD on Warners site. Rush Hour 3 was there before and now gone for HD-DVD (release date 12/26/07) and now I see that Shoot em Up (release date Jan 1/08) is only on DVD and Blu.

I buy alot direct from Warner and this is the first time that a new release has shown up first and/or only for Blu. Maybe nothing, but maybe a sign of things to come. Maybe now they want to get them on the site for their strongest supporters first................................BLU.
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This I posted on Nov 3/07 and now an article from High-Def Digest for Jan8/08 ......



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New Line Details Transition to Blu-ray
Tue Jan 08, 2008 at 05:06 PM ET
Tags: Industry Trends, New Line (all tags)

Confirming earlier reports that it would follow Warner to Blu-ray exclusivity, New Line says its first HD DVD title ('Pan's Labyrinth') will also be its last.

Though it was widely assumed that New Line (whose parent company is Time-Warner) would follow Warner Home Video's lead and continue to release on HD DVD through May 2008, a company rep tells us that New Line's move will go into immediate effect, with all of the studio's planned HD DVD releases now cancelled (including the HD DVD versions of current Blu-ray releases 'Hairspray' and 'Rush Hour 3,' which had previously been planned for HD DVD release sometime in early 2008).





As for 'Pan's Labyrinth,' which hit stores late last year as the first (and only) New Line HD DVD release, the studio says that once current retail supplies are depleted, the title will be discontinued -- making it an instant collector's item.

New Line says it's not planning to issue an official press release trumpeting the move, ending its short-lived HD DVD support with a relative whimper.

The studio also tells us they won't be revealing any new Blu-ray titles at CES, though they do plan to continue to support the format throughout 2008 with a variety of new release and catalog titles to be announced in the future.



Hairspray and Rush Hour 3 were titles that I noticed back then that disappeared from Warner site for order on HD-DVD. I know for sure that RH 3 was on the site for preorder on HD-DVD for a short time in Nov. Just makes me wonder if Warner/New Line knew what they were doing a long time ago.

[Marcusarilius]

Most likely. As Warner was talking about waiting for the fourth quarter to play out before making a decision ("I can definately say we are looking at blu") I posted that they had already made their decision long before Christmas sales kicked in. Easy guess. They already knew what the sales figures were and would only be hotter during the holidays. Kudos to them for being so bold so early though. They ended the format war, they ended fence sitters and allowed the natural progression of this mess to cleanly and swiftly move forward to everyone's benifit.

[Blu As Hell]

I think so. I felt New Line knew what was up when they stated that they were releasing recent theatrical releases day and date on DVD and Blu-Ray and not HD DVD. Now all the HD DVD fanboys are pissed because they just got "Paramounted" by New Line when they said "Fcuk HD DVD" and cancelled all their releases for the format.

[WickyWoo]

think so. I felt New Line knew what was up when they stated that they were releasing recent theatrical releases day and date on DVD and Blu-Ray and not HD DVD. Now all the HD DVD fanboys are pissed because they just got "Paramounted" by New Line when they said "Fcuk HD DVD" and cancelled all their releases for the format.

They did that to protect their overseas partners because HD lacks region coding. Nothing to do with it

[MarekM]

Originally Posted by WickyWoo

They did that to protect their overseas partners because HD lacks region coding. Nothing to do with it

+1

Marek

[lgans316]

Though NL dumped HD DVD, the HD DVD version of Pan's Labyrinth has more features than the BD version which shows that NL was inheriting Warner's approach of producing HD DVD optimized encodes and porting it over to Blu-ray. They broke that trend with Shoot Em Up as they were ready with some sort of announcement beforehand.

[WickyWoo]

It's got a few web poll crap on it, that's it. All the items of substance are A-ok

[Marcusarilius]

Originally Posted by WickyWoo

It's got a few web poll crap on it, that's it. All the items of substance are A-ok

Hi Wicky. Whats the scoop on Paramount and Universal that you can't relate to us just yet? (Type in small print)