Universal and Paramount’s lacklustre announcements.

[Bullseye]

While any announcement that they are moving the Blu Ray is to be welcomed am I not the only one who thinks that it was lacklustre. No mention of titles and no timetable for releases given. Are we to expect a more detailed press conference or was that it?

[miked924]

Patience...

[glenn22]

I expect they just wanted to get the information out there and still need time to figure out a release schedule for Blu-ray movies. I bet we'll see announcements from both companies before the end of February.

[ninjanki]

Kind of expected. Universal responded faster cause they had nothing to worry about their previous stance. But it will take time for them to have discs mastered, printed and ready to ship. In fact, since they are just jumping in, and have no idea on how easy or difficult it will be, they might keep the launch schedule hidden until they are ready to go.
Paramount, on the other hand, already knows how things work on the Blu side, but they had the baggage of their previous exclusivity agreement. They will probably also need time to get all things aligned, specially the marketing message.

[Joon]

Originally Posted by glenn22

I expect they just wanted to get the information out there and still need time to figure out a release schedule for Blu-ray movies. I bet we'll see announcements from both companies before the end of February.

I am waiting for Transformers the most right now. I will be purchasing two copies. I will keep the 2nd sealed as more of a show to people that this was the main title the format war said we would never have.

[cdot2four]

how much you want to bet there first release will only be dolby digital sound

[Kairav]

I am on your side

[Bullseye]

Its not even on their home entertainment sites??

[StilettoViper]

Paramount has to eat their healthy dose of freshly baked "Crow" first then maybe they'll make more of a splash. Give them some time to choke it down. The clowns....

[ryoohki]

I mean. give them time. The hollywood reported said end of Spring, Summer Time so it's May/June/July

Peton reported that it could take Universal at least 3 months to begin release titles..

[Bobby Henderson]

The final collapse of HD-DVD happened very fast. Less than 10 days have passed since Netflix and Best Buy began writing the final chapter of this drama. Toshiba's official announcement was given just 2 days ago.

There's only so much Universal and Paramount can do in regards of issuing statements and such. At least they have let everyone know they're going to be releasing future high definition product on Blu-ray.

I expect the first few titles from Universal and Paramount to be fairly bare bones in nature -that is if we see any releases from either studio within the month. The only exceptions to this would be Blu-ray Disc titles Paramount was already far along in authoring prior to their HD-DVD deal. Hopefully Paramount was near to completion with Transformers. If that's the case we could see that title on store shelves pretty soon. Universal has a lot more work cut out for it.

[greekjgg]

Originally Posted by StilettoViper

Paramount has to eat their healthy dose of freshly baked "Crow" first then maybe they'll make more of a splash. Give them some time to choke it down. The clowns....

What Crow? They pocketed $150 million and don't have to give it back. They made the most money out of any studio regarding blu ray profits!!

[BigB88]

Both need time, but again, I really don't care what either of them does. Neither studio was or is a "real player" in this anyway. Neither made any difference in the war other then being your typical irritant. What I am waiting for is floods of titles from the other Blu studios, most, even Sony have been quite reserved up to now in releasing, re-releasing new and catalog titles on BD. Now that they all know their is only ONE HDM format in town, I'd think they would ALL open the flood gates! and do it quickly

[AikonEnt]

Not really surprising as they were basically forced into it with Toshiba pulling the plug on HD-DVD. Now we all know that Blu is superior and these companies should have been releasing their titles on our beloved format from the start, but they made their decisions to support HD-DVD and had Toshiba not done the decent thing they probably wouldn't have come over to the Blu side, well not this quick anyway. So there was never going to be huge razzle-dazzle press conferences or anything. The main thing is that they are now Blu, the format war is over, and we can enjoy all the movies from all studios. Just hope we don't get ported versions of HD-DVD releases and they maximise the potential of Blu.

[StilettoViper]

Originally Posted by greekjgg

What Crow? They pocketed $150 million and don't have to give it back. They made the most money out of any studio regarding blu ray profits!!

Money aside...They still made the wrong decision..and how do you know they get the entire $150 million? The contract didnt even last a year and it was signed for 18 months. So they MAY have gotten $80 million unless they got the whole thing upfront. I admit it is hard to blame them for taking it but they are still sell outs to me and they will lose a great deal in all their HD inventory and investments. Dumb move by them, easy call...

[WriteSimply]

Originally Posted by AikonEnt

Not really surprising as they were basically forced into it with Toshiba pulling the plug on HD-DVD.

What s/he said.

Universal and Paramount didn't quit HD DVD. Toshiba did. So they got dragged into making the change after dividing the consumer and Hollywood with their continuation of the war. If they had the balls like Warner and changed on their own accord, they would have blown their announcement out of the water. Not only did they not change their tune after Best Buy and Walmart made theirs, they didn't even do a joint statement either with Toshiba America or with each other.


fuad

[greekjgg]

Originally Posted by StilettoViper

Money aside...They still made the wrong decision..and how do you know they get the entire $150 million? The contract didnt even last a year and it was signed for 18 months. So they MAY have gotten $80 million unless they got the whole thing upfront. I admit it is hard to blame them for taking it but they are still sell outs to me and they will lose a great deal in all their HD inventory and investments. Dumb move by them, easy call...

They won't lose anymore then Warner or Universal has tied up in HD stock. They didn't back out of the contract, Toshiba did. So yes, they are sell outs, but what did they lose? Nothing! The $150 mill compensated for any sales they would have made on blu in the 18 months they were exclusive. At the 3% adoption rate, this is pure profit for them. It's like a pizza shop getting paid more to NOT make Sausage Pizza. Yes, it irked us because we were on the other side, but you have to look at it from their point of view. Had the market been much bigger then it would have cost them. So for 5 months they stopped making blu and made $150 mill. They got the best deal!!

[Kirsty_Mc]

Both Paramount and Universal should get their websites updated... they are still promoting HD-DVD. I would have thought it wise at this juncture to start distancing themselves from failure.

[ezcobar411]

I expect to see better announcements soon. They will want to announce upcoming titles and give some definitive release dates. Falling too far behind in the market will not be good for them.

[MrVorhees]

Originally Posted by Kirsty_Mc

Both Paramount and Universal should get their websites updated... they are still promoting HD-DVD. I would have thought it wise at this juncture to start distancing themselves from failure.

+1