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[Xbox-Scene]

CES HD DVD Event canceled due to Warner announcement Posted by XanTium | January 4 23:23 EST | News Category: Xbox360

From dailytech.com: It looks as though the fallout from the Warner Bros. move is coming fast and furiously. The DailyTech inbox was just moments ago greeted with the following message from a Toshiba representative regarding CES press meetings and the scheduled HD DVD press conference: "Based on the timing of the Warner Home Video announcement today, the HD DVD Promotional Group has decided to cancel 1:1 press meetings at CES, in addition to the press conference that was scheduled for Sunday evening. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause... 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 -- a bar that is critical for the mainstream success of any format. We'll continue to keep you updated on new developments around HD DVD." Full Story: dailytech.com

[gerzand]

Scary stuff....

[0794]

yeah, this is definitely bad for toshiba and the HD-DVD camp, although even if one format is chosen by the end of the year, the general public will still be slow to adopt until prices come down significantly.

and by that time, other methods besides optical distribution will really be taking off as well...and that would be a good future with options for everyone...

[BasicAir]

Way to go Warner... You make a not-so-great strategic move thats founded on questionable reasons, and do it at the worst possible time which causes HD DVD consumers to miss out on it's biggest press conference of the year.

I still don't understand why Warner doesn't just produce on both formats. It's not like they lose a ton of money on HD DVD releases. Especially not considering how well the format has done in 2007... particularly in the last 6 months.

[XanTium]

well they kinda explained it ...

the war is slowing down HD adoption. Ending the format war will make people switch faster to HD discs.
By choosing one side they think/hope the format war will be over faster. They chose blu-ray because they currently sell more Blu-ray discs.

[xboxjason]

I know it's "technically" not over, but pretty much all signs point to Bluray as the winner. On come the "I told you so!" comments. So allow me to be first, I called it! lol

Congrats to Sony. This time the superior product (since it has more storage) wins. This is great because Bluray prices will now drop since everyone will be adopting the Bluray format. This also may cause PS3 sales to spike. I guess we'll see. I really believe the PS3 helped push the format to win, anyone else think so?

~Jason  

This post has been edited by xboxjason: Jan 5 2008, 07:32 AM

[rezonat0r]

QUOTE(xboxjason @ Jan 5 2008, 07:05 AM)

Congrats to Sony. This time the superior product (since it has more storage) wins. This is great because Bluray prices will now drop since everyone will be adopting the Bluray format. This also may cause PS3 sales to spike. I guess we'll see. I really believe the PS3 helped push the format to win, anyone else think so?

I know I sound like a broken record, but Sony is just one of eight other big companies in the Blu-ray Disc Association (BDA).  If Sony were going this alone, they would have failed big time.

Sure the PS3 helped, but what helped even more was the studio and hardware support behind BD.  If you looked at how many corporations were backing each format 6 months ago (hint: BD had waaay more support) it wasn't exactly rocket science to figure out which format would prevail.

[maz57]

QUOTE(xboxjason @ Jan 5 2008, 02:05 AM)

Congrats to Sony. This time the superior product (since it has more storage) wins. This is great because Bluray prices will now drop since everyone will be adopting the Bluray format.

The rumors suggest Blu-ray wins because they paid off the studio's more money, not since they were superior. And if HD-DVD's are done, will Blu-ray partners drop the prices all that quickly? They want to try and get back some of that $500mill+ they paid out, so I don't think they will take loses on the players.

From: http://www.campaignh...arner_Paid.html
"According to a trusted source that was close to the negotiations, Warner and FOX were working on a deal to go Exclusive to HD DVD as recent as last week. Our source tells us that Warner was only willing to go to HD DVD if FOX would go with them. Their thinking was if they just went to HD DVD by themselves, it would not end the format war. Early this week FOX was paid an undisclosed amount to remain exclusive to Blu-ray. With the FOX deal falling through, Warner had no choice but to accept the BDA’s $500 Million offer to go Blu-ray exclusive. We do wonder if FOX was just playing the HD DVD side, while having no intentions of ever switching."

[xboxjason]

QUOTE(rezonat0r @ Jan 5 2008, 08:10 AM)

I know I sound like a broken record, but Sony is just one of eight other big companies in the Blu-ray Disc Association (BDA).  If Sony were going this alone, they would have failed big time.

Sure the PS3 helped, but what helped even more was the studio and hardware support behind BD.  If you looked at how many corporations were backing each format 6 months ago (hint: BD had waaay more support) it wasn't exactly rocket science to figure out which format would prevail.

QUOTE(maz57 @ Jan 5 2008, 08:19 AM)

The rumors suggest Blu-ray wins because they paid off the studio's more money, not since they were superior. And if HD-DVD's are done, will Blu-ray partners drop the prices all that quickly? They want to try and get back some of that $500mill+ they paid out, so I don't think they will take loses on the players.

Does it really matter why it won? It's still the better product. Also, the prices will drop with the one format more than it ever would with two formats on the market,  since now there will be more manufacturers competing in the Bluray camp thus bringing down player prices and blank media. Although I'm happy it's ending this way, I am more glad that this ends a possible long ongoing format war, which would have made us have to adopt both. Consumers win

~Jason

[jdsony]

How is it the better product? I'll be happy that there is only one format although both are near technically identical anyway, the real difference is the discs.

[tecatekxf]

The only reason why they sold more Blueray disk is because there was no games for the PS3,People wanted to use them in some way other than a conversation peace.lol

[Lordscr]

What would happen to this "War" between BR and HD DVD if Toshiba reduced thier HD DVD player to a MSRP of $99, With the mail offer for free movies? I would think that it would hurt too much since the players have been that price before, as a special deal.

[PerfectGun]

QUOTE(xboxjason @ Jan 5 2008, 12:34 AM)

Does it really matter why it won? It's still the better product. Also, the prices will drop with the one format more than it ever would with two formats on the market,  since now there will be more manufacturers competing in the Bluray camp thus bringing down player prices and blank media. Although I'm happy it's ending this way, I am more glad that this ends a possible long ongoing format war, which would have made us have to adopt both. Consumers win

~Jason

Yea, well tell that to all the BR stand alone owners who bought what is basically a beta Blue-ray player and not being told up front that it supports an old profile and cannot be updated to the latest.. So you wont have access to the latest features like PIP without buying a new one.  
 

[bucko]

Surely they have new players to announce and stuff, they shoulda gone ahead with the event.

Oh well Warner Bros will soon realise Blu-Ray Disks are more expensive to buy & produce than HD-DVD so they basically shot themselves in the foot for not supporting both.

This post has been edited by bucko: Jan 5 2008, 11:37 AM

[signal-to-noise-ratio]

Wow this is a sad day indeed.

QUOTE

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HD-DVD#HD_DVD...disc_comparison

Blu-ray Discs require mandatory hard coating to prevent damaging scratches, since the disc information is closer to the surface and more vulnerable to wear and tear.

While HD DVD support for the new Dolby Digital Plus audio codec is mandatory at 3.0 Mbit/s, support in Blu-ray players is optional at 1.7 Mbit/s.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blu-ray_Disc#Region_codes

Blu-ray discs may be encoded with a region code, intended to restrict the area of the world in which they can be played; similar to the DVD region codes. Blu-ray players sold in a certain region should only be able to play discs encoded for that region. The purpose of this system is to allow motion picture studios to control the various aspects of a release (including content, date, and, in particular, price) according to the region. Discs may also be produced without region coding, so they can be played on all devices.

Also anyone remember rootkit sony music cds?

"There is much speculation to what extent the actions taken by this software are a violation of various laws against unauthorized tampering with computers, or laws regarding invasion of privacy by "spyware", and how they subject Sony and First 4 Internet to legal liability. The States of California, New York, and Texas, as well as Italy, have already taken legal action against both companies and more class action lawsuits are likely."

and this

"Princeton researcher Alex Halderman discovered[17] that on nearly every XCP CD, code which uses a modified version from Jon Johansen's DRMS software which allows to open Apple Computer's FairPlay DRM is included. He found the code to be inactive, but fully functional as he could use it to insert songs into Fairplay. DRMS, mpg123 and VLC are licensed under the GNU General Public License (GPL). The other software found, like LAME is licensed under the Lesser General Public License (LGPL), also as free software. If the claims are correct, then Sony/BMG was distributing copyrighted material illegally."

and this

"On a National Public Radio program, Thomas Hesse, President of Sony BMG's global digital business division asked "Most people, I think, don't even know what a rootkit is, so why should they care about it?"[23] He explained that "The software is designed to protect our CDs from unauthorized copying and ripping and Rootkit technology is one of the best ways to do just that.""

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sony_rootkit#...ight_violations  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sony_rootkit#Sony.27s_response

Is this really one the companies you want in charge of your hd format???

This post has been edited by signal-to-noise-ratio: Jan 5 2008, 11:54 AM