“The fuzzy future of high-definition DVD came into sharper focus Friday after Warner Bros. said it would release movies for the home video market exclusively on the Blu-ray disc format,” Dawn C. Chmielewski reports for The Los Angeles Times.
“The decision, announced on the eve of the influential Consumer Electronics Show, delivers a de facto knockout punch to the rival HD DVD format backed by Toshiba Corp. and others now supported by only two of Hollywood’s six major movie studios,” Chmielewski reports.
“‘Expect HD DVD to die a quick death,’ said Richard Greenfield, an analyst with Pali Research in New York, in a research note Friday,” Chmielewski reports.
“Late Friday, the HD DVD group canceled a news conference scheduled for Sunday at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. ‘We are currently discussing the potential impact of this announcement with the other HD DVD partner companies and evaluating next steps. We believe the consumer continues to benefit from HD DVD’s commitment to quality and affordability,’ the group said in a statement,” Chmielewski reports.
MacDailyNews Take: And now, Ladies and Gentleman, prepare yourselves for the most stunning performance in recent memory as Rob Enderle — yes, Rob Enderle! — actually gets something right (probably because he’s not trying to talk down Apple with ineffectual, made-up nonsense):
“‘I think the fat lady just sang,’ said Rob Enderle, principal analyst with Enderle Group in San Jose. ‘This gives Blu-ray a decisive lead. The question now is whether it is too little too late.’ Enderle said consumers might have moved on to digital downloads to get movies rather than wait to buy them on next-generation DVDs. The next big chance to sell high-definition movie players won’t be until next Christmas, he said. ‘By then, it may all be moot,'” Chmielewski reports.
“Sony Corp.’s Blu-ray discs have had a 2-1 sales edge since the beginning of 2007, thanks to its exclusive studio deals and the sale of Sony PlayStation 3 game consoles that play films in that high-definition format,” Chmielewski reports. “That prompted the HD DVD camp to flash its cash to remain viable. It paid $150 million to Paramount Pictures and DreamWorks Animation in August to secure exclusively the rights to such major movies as ‘Transformers’ and ‘Shrek the Third’ on HD DVD.”
MacDailyNews Take: HD DVD is the inferior technology, no wonder they had to resort to bribing studios to use it.
Full article here.
Electronista reports, “The statements cloud the expected impact of HD DVD at CES, which was expected to mark a renewal of the conflict between Blu-ray and HD DVD with likely new products unveiled by supporters of each format. Microsoft in particular is rumored to have an Xbox 360 with an HD DVD drive built-in as part of its CES keynote presentation on Sunday and (if true) may be significantly impacted by Warner’s decision to offer HD movie discs only in Blu-ray form.”
Full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “HotinPlaya” for the heads up.]
MacDailyNews Take: Still in shock from Enderle making sense, we’ll just repeat what we said back on March 10, 2006: “It’s par for the course that Apple backs the superior format while Microsoft supports the inferior one.”
Normally I go with you guys but on this statment “HD DVD is the inferior technology, no wonder they had to resort to bribing studios to use it.” I will make an exception, as far as Videos go HD DVD and Blu-Ray are equals (Data is another story). From what I understand the BD group paid $500 Million to Warner so resorting to bribing is a two way street. Where they would be better to spend that money and offer an amnesty program (Exchange your HD DVD player and Video’s for a Blu-Ray player and matching video’s) it would be money much better spent.
Both formats are dead. Digital downloads are the future.
What Enderle fails to understand is that consumers prefer something tangible to exchange, whether for borrowing or gift-giving time. That’s why the disc will remain popular. Can’t wait for the new Macs with Blu Ray drives across the board!
Enderle must have forgotten that Microsoft was fully behind HD DVD..!
Otherwise he would he still be saying that this was a minor hiccup and all will be well.
Go Blue-Ray we Won
…and if you don’t give my football back i’m going to get my dad on you…
I guess I am in the minority here. I love my HD-DVD player, I got an A3 for cheap and I have been really impressed by it. the cool thing about the HD-DVD players is that all of the players come with all of the audio decoding, etc, as part of the format, Blu-ray does not. The online features are really cool, and the picture quality is excellent.
The real story, here, I think, are how the many, many people who bought HD-DVD have been totally screwed over by the industry. MDN’s childish glee at this being a defeat for Microsoft is amateurish and tiring, but I guess we’ve all come to expect that from this site and its many trolls.
“Uh, maybe he plans on doing a lot of sailing this year.”
Good pitch….
TT,
Good catch.
Close the door on your way out.
You are not the minority here. I love my HD DVD player also. I don’t care who wins or if my HD DVDs wont be produced anymore. This is senseless fanboy BS. That is like saying I don’t like my PSP was a worthless purchase, because they barely make any games for it. Ultimately they will quit making games for it, and the DS is very popular and Nintendo and other companies will support it. Face it, even if they quit making the Xbox 360 games the Xbox 360 would have been a good purchase for Halo 3, even if they didn’t make another game for it EVER. MacDailyNews is opposed to it because Microsoft made help make it. That is it. MDN loves anything Apple even if it is a failure (Newton). The facts are HD DVD is cheaper and more economical especially with Dual Format, and the lack of mandatory 1080p on most videos, becausse 720p sucks and you all know it. How many people can really afford to go 1080p? Another fact not that many. We all know that HD DVD has web content and other features which make the movies more enjoyable. THE PICTURE QUALITY IS THE SAME!
<A HREF=”http://web.mac.com/kof4life/Site/Blog/Entries/2008/1/5_IS_HD-DVD_Dead.htmll”>Is HD-DVD Dead?>
You are not the minority here. I love my HD DVD player also. I don’t care who wins or if my HD DVDs wont be produced anymore. This is senseless fanboy BS. That is like saying I don’t like my PSP was a worthless purchase, because they barely make any games for it. Ultimately they will quit making games for it, and the DS is very popular and Nintendo and other companies will support it. Face it, even if they quit making the Xbox 360 games the Xbox 360 would have been a good purchase for Halo 3, even if they didn’t make another game for it EVER. MacDailyNews is opposed to it because Microsoft made help make it. That is it. MDN loves anything Apple even if it is a failure (Newton). The facts are HD DVD is cheaper and more economical especially with Dual Format, and the lack of mandatory 1080p on most videos, becausse 720p sucks and you all know it. How many people can really afford to go 1080p? Another fact not that many. We all know that HD DVD has web content and other features which make the movies more enjoyable. THE PICTURE QUALITY IS THE SAME!
<A HREF=”http://web.mac.com/kof4life/Site/Blog/Entries/2008/1/5_IS_HD-DVD_Dead.html”>Is HD-DVD Dead?>
Last try for the link
Is HD-DVD Dead?
I guess he felt that it was worth repeating.
Why so much vitriol over which heavily compressed, heavily compromised, heavily rights managed, overpriced format wins the battle? How often is Sony the evil corporation yet in this one venture they are the righteous savior riding in on a beam of glowing blue light?
This all reminds me of a comment I encountered on Apple releasing the second generation of G5 based towers. I’m paraphrasing at this point but this American educated simpleton was expressing his dissatisfation by bemoaning the fact that Apple couldn’t even be bothered to incorporate such an obvious feature as 10Gb ethernet.
I have a PS3, and I’ve watched some rented Blu-ray movies. They are fantastic in 1080p over HDMI. To ignore all the PS3s as Blu-ray players is a mistake. Further, Blu-ray holds more data and is indeed a superior technology to HD-DVD.
But I have not bought a single Blu-ray movie. Right now the PS3 does upscaling of DVDs and I did not want to purchase something until there was a clear winner. It’s starting to look like there is a clear winner now.
I have an xbox 360-Halo 3 sucks. The single player game runs about 6 hours and the conclusion to it is crappy. There was nothing really new or innovative in it nor any compelling gameplay.
I am seriously preparing to trade it in with all of it’s games and get a PS3.
Purchase APR=14.24% variable; Default APR=31.24% variable; Minimum Finance Charge $1.00.
APR variable = ?
default = HOLY CRAP !!!
_______________________
Yeah, store cards will kill you with interest.. The only reason I opened the card was to receive the $100 credit. Once it shows up on my bill, I’ll pay off the $299 for the PS3 and close the card.
I wonder how long it will take for the HD-DVD camp to officially fold their tent? A week? Two Months? You can bet that Universal is now perusing their contract with Toshiba, looking for a way out.
The people I know have bought PS3s for their Blu-Ray players, not the games.
Everyone on the internet is talking about how this is the end of the battle. THEY ARE ALL WRONG!! Yes, this is the end of HD DVD but even from reading the posts here you can see that Blu ray support is tied almost entirely to PS3. The challenge for Sony is to prevent the format from becoming PS3 dvd.
Warner Brothers said they picked Blu Ray to end consumer confusion. How about that for the non tech crowd, only 1 stand alone player meets the current blu ray spec. Or that as a consumer you can buy a player and not be able to even view the root menus of some Blu Ray movies. How does that end consumer confusion? It doesn’t. And if you think late adopters are comfortable and “not confused” by the idea of buying their first video game console and navigating the menus with a joy pad to watch movies you are wrong. Sony’s next fight is against DVD and I personally don’t think they will win. None of the movie studios have stopped supporting DVD so Blu Ray will eventually go the route of UMD movies for the PSP.
@TowerTone
Even the broken clock analogy is too good for Enderle.
At least a broken clock is accurate twice a day. How often is Enderle accurate/’on the money’?
Once a year me thinks
MikeK,
Good thinkin’.
Blu-ray are as far away as ever from replacing DVD.
The public will continue to ignore high def discs, using HD TV, upscaled DVD and downloads.
Blu-ray just isn’t seen to be worth the extra.
The game console devoted can rave on to themselves about this but it means nothing outside their narrow world.
switcher,
What if the clock runs but the hands are broken off?
Purchase APR=14.24% variable; Default APR=31.24%
Yikes. I think my local godfather loans on better terms than that, broken kneecaps notwithstanding…
I realize this is a case of think before you sign/buy, but why can cc’s get away with what’s usury for everyone else?