French Warner List. Playing games again? Major HD DVD only titles?

[dialog_gvf]

European announcements:

June
V for Vendetta (HD-DVD only)
Matrix (IME) (HD DVD only)

July
Matrix Reloaded (IME) (HD DVD only)

August
Matrix Revolutions (IME) (HD DVD only)

September
300 (IME) (HD DVD only)
Blood Diamond (HD DVD only)

November
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (IME) (HD DVD only)
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire(IME) (HD DVD only)
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (IME) (HD DVD only)
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (IME) (HD DVD only)

Is that IME for HD DVD only, or releases for HD DVD only?

Geez, talk about getting the shaft. The HD DVD folk will rightly have something HUGE over us if these are only to be released on HD DVD.

French announcement

Gary

[dialog_gvf]

There is going to be no end to this on AVSF.

Geez Warner, that's the thanks we get for buying your product?

[BLu-Balls]

Are you sure about this?

[dialog_gvf]

No, but check the link.

Gary

[Polyh3dron]

This means that if this report is true, those films will be HD-DVD exclusive in Europe at that time. That's got nothing to do with the U.S.

[blitz6speed]

Warner said that all US releases from now on are same day both formats. Also, TotalHD discs are for US only, overseas will still see HD-DVD only releases, so they are on a totally different time table then the US. In fact, ive read SEVERAL posts by hd-dvd fanatics saying they want to import any and all combo movies from europe just to not have a flipper disc even if it costs more. Thats a sure sign that Combo discs are the prefered format and a real Trojan Horse LOL.

[Captain Wiggles]

At CES Warner Announced a Blu-Ray line up that had Matrix, Reloaded, Revolutions, and all of the Harry Potter movies on it (http://dvd.ign.com/articles/753/753786p1.html). If they did change their minds, that would be rather sneaky.

[JTK]

Seems hard to believe that Warner would make the mistake of shortchanging BD.

At the very least, if they play both sides fair and equal, like they've been doing for the most part...it just means more money in their pockets.

[Blubaru]

Originally Posted by Captain Wiggles

At CES Warner Announced a Blu-Ray line up that had Matrix, Reloaded, Revolutions, and all of the Harry Potter movies on it (http://dvd.ign.com/articles/753/753786p1.html). If they did change their minds, that would be rather sneaky.

Link doesn't work. It looks like they removed the page for some reason

Here is what the page did say: http://72.14.209.104/search?q=cache:...s&ct=clnk&cd=1

[JTK]

Originally Posted by Blubaru

Link doesn't work. It looks like they removed the page for some reason

Here is what the page did say: http://72.14.209.104/search?q=cache:...s&ct=clnk&cd=1

Maybe it was misinformation and they wisely took it down?

[dialog_gvf]

Well, Warner claims to not want to use region coding. So I suspect Europeans can always get the NA releases.

But, until NA dates are announced, those key catchup titles are not real.

Note, we have MANY non-North America members here. So, my post was mostly about them.

Gary

[dobyblue]

As soon as Sony has the interactivity going you will also see these titles on Blu-ray.

[onyxx]

I have not seen this information on any of the European HD sites, don't make to much of it just yet. As far as I know Warner has not made any official announcement regarding exclusive HD DVD movies in Europe. With slow HD DVD and BD (something like 3000 players sold total) sales and the European PS3 launch just lurching, why would they do HD DVD exclusives?

For the non French speaking reading this article, heres an English google translation for you:

http://66.249.93.104/translate_c?hl=...news.php?18624

Now that I have read the English translation I must admit that the article seems legit. Bad news for European BD owners and maybe for the US as well, considering all the exclusives in the article are just that because of the IME. How much longer is BD interactivity going to take, maybe we should ask paidgeek that question?

[phloyd]

I imagine that Warner will not want to set a schedule for release of BD titles with 'IME' since they are relying on outside companies for availability.

It may well change if/when that is all sorted out.

[goodstuff]

Is that list even from a valid source? Anyway, if it's Warners intent (as they have indicated) to go TotalHD, then we will be getting those titles all at the same time, no? Let's wait to see a real North America press release.

[Spankey]

It's the release schedule for France. They haven't even released the US HD-DVD schedule yet. No need to panic. We will get all of these catalog titles.

[JBlacklow]

I thought I had read that all BD players made from June 2007 on were supposed to be completely compliant with all levels of BD-J. That could be why the releases start then.

[JTK]

Originally Posted by JBlacklow

I thought I had read that all BD players made from June 2007 on were supposed to be completely compliant with all levels of BD-J. That could be why the releases start then.

Yup. Wait until it can all be done right.

[HD4me]

I have a few HD-DVDs with IME on it and I find it really annoying, I just want to watch the extras/comments after the movie, and not have to surf through them through the movie.

[JBlacklow]

Just like the Universal non-announcement press release, this looks like another example of how the non-response on the forums is bigger than the response. Last year, an announcement like this would instantly have generated a zillion-page thread of smug attacks on Blu-ray and declarations that the war is over. Now, they've got less than 5 pages of "hey, I might get that", but they've been burned enough to hedge their bets that these will actually be exclusives here or that they'll be better sellers on HD DVD. It also looks like an increasing number are looking at the slates from the BD-exclusive studios and saying "hey, I really want that title", and a neutral studio list isn't setting their wallets on fire.