“All six major Hollywood studios are now in the Blu-ray DVD camp, following Toshiba’s decision to pull the plug on HD DVD earlier this week,” Reuters reports. “Paramount Home Entertainment quietly came onboard via a statement issued late Wednesday: ‘We are pleased that the industry is moving to a single high-definition format, as we believe it is in the best interest of the consumer,’ the statement read. ‘As we look to (begin) releasing our titles on Blu-ray, we will monitor consumer adoption and determine our release plans accordingly.’ No further details were given.”
“Universal Studios Home Entertainment, in contrast, cast its lot with Blu-ray within hours of Toshiba’s announcement Tuesday morning that it was ending the format war by ceasing the development, manufacture and marketing of HD DVD players by the end of March,” Reuters reports. “Universal had been exclusive with HD DVD since the format’s launch in April 2006, while Paramount initially supported both HD DVD and Blu-ray. Paramount and DreamWorks switched to HD DVD-only in August, reportedly after receiving a $150 million payment from the format’s supporters for ‘promotional consideration.'”
MacDailyNews Take: Read: wasted bribe.
Reuters reports, “The four other majors committed to Blu-ray are Sony Pictures Home Entertainment, 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment (along with its distributed MGM Home Entertainment label), Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment, and Warner Home Video (including distributed labels New Line Home Entertainment, BBC Video and HBO Video).”
Full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Adam W.” for the heads up.]
Nobody does anything for nothing. SIlly Toshiba!
Now give me my Transformers Blu-ray you denied me.
Consumers should punish Paramount for accepting the HD-DVD bribe by boycotting Paramount’s products.
Paramount made out pretty well in this whole little drama — they get to keep Micro$oft’s $150 million bribe and only had to commit exclusively to HD-DVD for a few months before it gave up the ghost. That what you call good timing.
Now that the dust had settled, I have to say, this was amazing! Less than two months ago, many people were doubtful that this war was going to end before the next holiday season. Most did see the writing on the wall, though, but gave it at least another year or so for stubborn HD-DVD camp (i.e. Universal, primarily) to give up. To see this come down so swiftly is remarkable. We now have full ten months for all manufacturers to begin competing against each other for the cheapest player, as well as movie studios to finally focus on single duplication process.
If only we were this lucky with the DVD-R and DVD+R war… We’re still paying the price for that stale-mate (more expensive burners, more expensive blank media).
Let’s hope three years from now, 100GB blank blu-ray discs will be $0.50 each.
Anyone else notice that all the big retailers had great sales on HDDVD players this weekend. You could get one for $150, plus a load of movies free. I wonder how many suckers thought they were getting a great deal, not realizing that those free movies were the last ones they’ll ever be able to find.
I want to see how long it takes before the blu-ray players come down under $200. Hopefully sales volume picks up a bit now that the war is over.
Actually…..
I would say that the companies that went with Blue ray earlier actually are way ahead. Their movies are fully out in Blue ray format and not that people start buying, they are ready. For those that just started making the change, they seem to indicate that it will be months before they have titles out in Blue-ray.
??? Just a thought = MDN word?????
I think HD-DVD is a great value now, but I am also a foward-thinking person. I advised a few of my clients to buy, since it represents a deal to them personally as long as they keep their financial investments within reason. A $99 HD-DVD upconvert player, costs the same as a DVD upconvert player, plus you get 7 free HD-DVDs, if you leave it at that, your pretty far ahead. HD movies at Amazon are $10-15, compared to $15-30 for Blu-Ray, plus, certain titles (The Frighteners) are only on HD-DVD, AND you don’t have to wait for a probably more expensive Blu-Ray version (not to mention used HD-DVDs which will probably be in the $5 range). I look at it clearly, if BR movie prices don’t drop within the next few weeks, it’s because BR is the only HD game in town, and they may just keep the high prices (like music CDs were) to help cover ‘manufacturing costs’, so everyone buying the ‘live’ format will be paying a premium of 2x-3x on everything for it. A similar example of my concept is that I have an Xbox and still buy all the old games used for $6 each. It is a ‘dead format’ like HD-DVD, but I received worthy entertainment value for up to 90% less money, because neither myself, nor my clients have a money-tree in our backyard that affords us the luxuries of ‘keeping up with the Nelsons’, in this case, the latest, greatest, but way more expensive, entertainment technologies. If you have a HD-DVD player or older console at home, I consider it a value as long as the price is right, and it benefits your life.
Oh yeah, I am a movie collector, so I definitely need Blu-Ray also, if only for the Blade Runner Super Special Ultimate It’s About Time Blu-Ray edition in the Deckard briefcase.
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How good is the “upconvert” chip in those Toshiba players?
Laserdisc till the day I die!
Blade Runner – The Reason I Bought A PS3.
I pre-ordered Blade Runner on Blu-Ray.
I bought a PS3 the day I heard WB went Blu-Ray. I only own one game. Waiting for Gran Turismo 5. Which is the only other reason to own a PS3.
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1 minute after I wrote the last post: I got a text message on my iPhone that GT5 is available for pre-order now. That’s weird.
Ha! BETA ALL THE WAY BABY!