Warner Goes Blu-ray Exclusive

[chilicoke]

disclaimer: I have no intention to start a flame war between the support of either HD medias, but this is arguably one of the biggest HDM related news since the introduction of both HD-DVD and Blu-Ray.

Breaking: Warner Goes Blu-ray Exclusive

It's official: Warner has announced it will drop its support of the HD DVD format, and will begin releasing its next-gen titles on Blu-ray exclusively.

The complete press release from Warner follows below. Watch for more developments in this breaking story soon.
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(January 4, 2008 – Burbank, CA) – In response to consumer demand, Warner Bros. Entertainment will release its high-definition DVD titles exclusively in the Blu-ray disc format beginning later this year, it was announced today by Barry Meyer, Chairman & CEO, Warner Bros. and Kevin Tsujihara, President, Warner Bros. Home Entertainment Group.

“Warner Bros.’ move to exclusively release in the Blu-ray disc format is a strategic decision focused on the long term and the most direct way to give consumers what they want,” said Meyer. “The window of opportunity for high-definition DVD could be missed if format confusion continues to linger. We believe that exclusively distributing in Blu-ray will further the potential for mass market success and ultimately benefit retailers, producers, and most importantly, consumers.”

Warner Home Video will continue to release its titles in standard DVD format and Blu-ray. After a short window following their standard DVD and Blu-ray releases, all new titles will continue to be released in HD DVD until the end of May 2008.

“Warner Bros. has produced in both high-definition formats in an effort to provide consumer choice, foster mainstream adoption and drive down hardware prices,” said Jeff Bewkes, President and Chief Executive Officer, Time Warner Inc., the parent company of Warner Bros. Entertainment. “Today’s decision by Warner Bros. to distribute in a single format comes at the right time and is the best decision both for consumers and Time Warner.”

“A two-format landscape has led to consumer confusion and indifference toward high definition, which has kept the technology from reaching mass adoption and becoming the important revenue stream that it can be for the industry,” said Tsujihara. “Consumers have clearly chosen Blu-ray, and we believe that recognizing this preference is the right step in making this great home entertainment experience accessible to the widest possible audience. Warner Bros. has worked very closely with the Toshiba Corporation in promoting high definition media and we have enormous respect for their efforts. We look forward to working with them on other projects in the future.”

source: http://www.highdefdigest.com/news/sh...Exclusive/1325
Engadget HD
Gizmodo

Related news:
Toshiba 'Surprised' By Warner Blu-ray Announcement
Warner: No Payoff for Move to Blu-ray

As a HDM enthusiast who keeps up with related news regularly, to me this announcement was unexpected. Despite rumors of Warner sliding either Blue (supposedly from an "insider") or Red (Warner's presence in HD-DVD's CES presentation list), I have always thought Warner would stay neutral considering their involvement (quality release) in both formats.

what do you guys think?

[Roman]

Playstation3 influence
Will Sony finally get their brand specific media to dominate the market with Blu-Ray

Didn't Disney already go the Blu-Ray way too ?

Have none of the players at the moment and waiting some more 'til a "winner" emerges.
Don't want to get stuck with Betamax type player in six months to a year from now.

[Hidden_Hunter]

Fuck this sucks,

The reason I hate bluray is simple, region locking.

Some titles just never make it to the "lesser" regions and importing them is a pain in the ass. It pisses me off no end with DVD's and I'm glad they removed it for HD-DVD because when studios do stupid shit like they did with say McGyver they release the first 4 series then decide bugger this not importing it. (obviously i'm aware of the ways around region locking but I much prefer it if I can just pop the disk in the drive and be happy with it)

So you're often left with imcomplete series released sometimes YEARS after other regions

[hokiethang]

The race is still up in the air. The allegiances, as they stand now:

Sony, Warner, Lionsgate, Fox, Disney: Blu-ray
Universal, Paramount, The Weinstein Company: HD-DVD
New Line Cinema, HBO, First Look Studios, Image Entertainment (including the Discovery Channel), Magnolia Pictures, Brentwood Home Video, Ryko,and Koch/Goldhil Entertainment: Both

And to be fair, Sony wasn't the only company behind the Blu-ray format. List from Wikipedia

I personally have both formats (PS3 and Xbox HD-DVD Drive), and i've accepted one of them is going to be the equivalent of a laserdisc in a couple of years, but it will be good while it lasts. Region locking sucks unfortunately most studios want it, and are willing to support a format that's going to give it to them

I really hope digital distribution finally takes off, and puts an end to these petty format wars

[Hidden_Hunter]

Originally Posted by hokiethang

The race is still up in the air. The allegiances, as they stand now:

Sony, Warner, Lionsgate, Fox, Disney: Blu-ray
Universal, Paramount, The Weinstein Company: HD-DVD
New Line Cinema, HBO, First Look Studios, Image Entertainment (including the Discovery Channel), Magnolia Pictures, Brentwood Home Video, Ryko,and Koch/Goldhil Entertainment: Both

And to be fair, Sony wasn't the only company behind the Blu-ray format. List from Wikipedia

I personally have both formats (PS3 and Xbox HD-DVD Drive), and i've accepted one of them is going to be the equivalent of a laserdisc in a couple of years, but it will be good while it lasts. Region locking sucks unfortunately most studios want it, and are willing to support a format that's going to give it to them

I really hope digital distribution finally takes off, and puts an end to these petty format wars

Same two players I have

[NAIDANAC A]

Originally Posted by Hidden_Hunter

Fuck this sucks,

The reason I hate bluray is simple, region locking.

Some titles just never make it to the "lesser" regions and importing them is a pain in the ass. It pisses me off no end with DVD's and I'm glad they removed it for HD-DVD because when studios do stupid shit like they did with say McGyver they release the first 4 series then decide bugger this not importing it. (obviously i'm aware of the ways around region locking but I much prefer it if I can just pop the disk in the drive and be happy with it)

So you're often left with imcomplete series released sometimes YEARS after other regions

I thought you could play any Blu-Ray disc on a PS3. I know you can for games because people were importing GT5 and StrangleHold collectors to get a hold of HardBoiled on Blu-ray...but I guess I am wrong.

[Hidden_Hunter]

Originally Posted by NAIDANAC A

I thought you could play any Blu-Ray disc on a PS3. I know you can for games because people were importing GT5 and StrangleHold collectors to get a hold of HardBoiled on Blu-ray...but I guess I am wrong.

Nope ps3 has region locking for movies, 3 of them I beleive


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:B...s_with_key.png

[cvrefugee]

Sad news for me...even though I never intended to purchase any movies on HD-DVD I still own two players (I rent instead of buying). HD-DVD was the better format IMO, no region locking like Hidden_Hunter said and it had complete standards instead of the multiple profile bullshit like Blu-Ray. HD-DVD discs are cheaper to manufacture and the players are less expensive...a shame indeed.

Fuck you Warner Bros.

[chilicoke]

I would considering myself neutral since I have no preference and region locking/profile makes no difference to me.

I do however own a PS3 and a few Blu-Ray movies, for me this is good news not because I dislike HD DVD, but because we can finally get this silly format war over with.

[cvrefugee]

Originally Posted by chilicoke

I would considering myself neutral since I have no preference and region locking/profile makes no difference to me.

I do however own a PS3 and a few Blu-Ray movies, for me this is good news not because I dislike HD DVD, but because we can finally get this silly format war over with.

I really wanted Sony to lose, in a bad way. They pissed me off by "subsidizing" Blu-Ray technology into their loss-leader PS3 and counting it as part of Blu-Ray stand-alone player sales. They could have released the PS3 without Blu-Ray and made it cheaper, but Betamax/Minidisc/ATRAC3/UMD/Blu-Ray Sony knows best.

Oh, and here's a plus of no-region locking for HD-DVD:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Prestige-HD-.../dp/B000QEIPXO

Does that movie look familiar?

[chilicoke]

Originally Posted by cvrefugee

I really wanted Sony to lose, in a bad way. They pissed me off by "subsidizing" Blu-Ray technology into their loss-leader PS3 and counting it as part of Blu-Ray stand-alone player sales. They could have released the PS3 without Blu-Ray and made it cheaper, but Betamax/Minidisc/ATRAC3/UMD/Blu-Ray Sony knows best.

I won't comment on weather if it's right or wrong for Sony to include BR into PS3s since I believe it's still too early to tell.

But may I ask why are you "pissed off" about Blu-ray Association's (not Sony) decision to include a system that is BR ready out-of-the-box into their sales figure? Are you a HD-DVD stock holder and suffer some sort of loss from these numbers? or are you just a little bit too biased and take this format war a bit too personally? But since you brought it up, one could easily argue that HD-DVD group is just as guilty about their numbers, are they claiming that no one watches BR on PS3 by not counting it? and continuously using such number to claim to have outsold BR players is far from being honest.

Originally Posted by cvrefugee

Oh, and here's a plus of no-region locking for HD-DVD:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Prestige-HD-.../dp/B000QEIPXO

Does that movie look familiar?

I'm not exactly sure what you are trying to do here as I had just mention that region-lock makes no difference to me, but I am guessing it's about my post in "New Toy" thread. Just because I own a PS3 and a few BR movies doesn't mean I am anti-HD-DVD and embrace BR it like the Jesus Christ of HDM. In fact I was disappointed about not able to snatch up a Toshiba HD-A2 from Walmart when it was on sale. Yes I am aware of the benefits of no region locking (owner of Japanese GT5P) and am happy that HD-DVD owners can enjoying The Prestige like I do, but at the same time the lack of it also causes New Line to delay releases on HD-DVD. You win some, you lose some.

IMO this format war hurts consumers more in the long run than it benefits, the sooner it ends the better.

[chaos386]

Good. I don't buy a whole lot of movies, and the few I do are all from the same region, so region-locking doesn't mean a whole lot to me. All I really want out of the new formats are large discs to make data backups on, and Blu-ray does that better than HD-DVD does (I haven't even seen any HD-DVD burners, and newegg doesn't sell blank HD-DVD discs anymore), so I'm glad it's getting more support.

The sooner they drop HD-DVD and focus on making more Blu-ray discs, the sooner economics of scale kick in and prices for burners and blank discs can fall.

[Speedtouch]

Wow. My Chemistry teacher's husband works at Warner Bros. She gives us DVDs for getting really good marks at the end of year etc. Maybe I can convince her of geting some Blu-Rays for the PS3 owners in her classes ?

[FATMOUSE]

I have a PS3, but no HD movies of any sort. DVD just the job just fine for me.
<NoBoss>
//And I'm not switching anytime soon, either.
</NoBoss>

[cvrefugee]

Originally Posted by chilicoke

But may I ask why are you "pissed off" about Blu-ray Association's (not Sony) decision to include a system that is BR ready out-of-the-box into their sales figure? Are you a HD-DVD stock holder and suffer some sort of loss from these numbers? or are you just a little bit too biased and take this format war a bit too personally? But since you brought it up, one could easily argue that HD-DVD group is just as guilty about their numbers, are they claiming that no one watches BR on PS3 by not counting it? and continuously using such number to claim to have outsold BR players is far from being honest.

Why am I pissed off? Pricing the PS3 for $500-$600 on release day was idiotic of Sony. Had they kept Blu-Ray out, the price could have been cheaper.

The average consumer is interested in price, so that's why HD-DVD was such a better product for offering players at sometimes less than half the price of the cheapest Blu-Ray competitor. Now that a larger majority of the movie studios are supporting Blu-Ray, don't expect to see much of a price decrease for Blu-Ray players (hurting the consumer).

Originally Posted by chilicoke

I'm not exactly sure what you are trying to do here as I had just mention that region-lock makes no difference to me, but I am guessing it's about my post in "New Toy" thread. Just because I own a PS3 and a few BR movies doesn't mean I am anti-HD-DVD and embrace BR it like the Jesus Christ of HDM. In fact I was disappointed about not able to snatch up a Toshiba HD-A2 from Walmart when it was on sale. Yes I am aware of the benefits of no region locking (owner of Japanese GT5P) and am happy that HD-DVD owners can enjoying The Prestige like I do, but at the same time the lack of it also causes New Line to delay releases on HD-DVD. You win some, you lose some.

The point is that I can buy a movie that's only available in Blu-Ray in the U.S. Because of different licensing agreements in other countries, that same movie has been released in HD-DVD. With your Blu-Ray three region BS, you can't import "exclusives".

Originally Posted by chilicoke

IMO this format war hurts consumers more in the long run than it benefits, the sooner it ends the better.

I doubt we'll see sub-$200 Blu-Ray players for a while now.

[Speedtouch]

Originally Posted by FATMOUSE

I have a PS3, but no HD movies of any sort. DVD just the job just fine for me.

Haven't you got a free one Sony gave you? I got Casino Royale.

[chilicoke]

Originally Posted by cvrefugee

don't expect to see much of a price decrease for Blu-Ray players (hurting the consumer).

...

I doubt we'll see sub-$200 Blu-Ray players for a while now.

You don't think competition exists within the same format? There are more hardware manufactures making Blu-ray players than HD-DVD players and they DO compete against each other. Sure prices for BR is slightly higher at the moment, could be due to its technology or later entry, but once a single format gets mass adaption by the industry (let it be HD-DVD or Blu-ray), hardware and software manufactures can focus their resources on one single "standardized" format instead of splitting into two. Just like any open market, such adaption gives newer manufactures assurance to invest into the technology and will ultimately drive the price down, DVD is the perfect example of that.

[cvrefugee]

Originally Posted by chilicoke

You don't think competition exists within the same format? There are more hardware manufactures making Blu-ray players than HD-DVD players and they DO compete against each other. Sure prices for BR is slightly higher at the moment, could be due to its technology or later entry, but once a single format gets mass adaption by the industry (let it be HD-DVD or Blu-ray), hardware and software manufactures can focus their resources on one single "standardized" format instead of splitting into two. Just like any open market, such adaption gives newer manufactures assurance to invest into the technology and will ultimately drive the price down, DVD is the perfect example of that.

True, but DVD hardware took forever to become cheaper. Remember when the PS2 came out in late-2000? It was a great deal at $299 (I bought one) because stand-alone DVD players were around $200 or so. I remember paying $400 for a Sony (how ironic) DVD player back in 1998. In 2003 I bought another Sony DVD player (we had three at one point) for $129. Only now do we see $50 units, ten years after I bought my first one.

So will it take another 10 years for Blu-Ray to get to $50? The Toshiba HD-A2 was selling for $100 all over the place a few months ago.

[edkwon]

Originally Posted by FATMOUSE

I have a PS3, but no HD movies of any sort. DVD just the job just fine for me.
<NoBoss>
//And I'm not switching anytime soon, either.
</NoBoss>

Ironically i only use my PS3 for playing bluray movies, as there are really no games right now I desire to play (all my video game playing is done on the xbox360).

[FATMOUSE]

Originally Posted by Speedtouch

Haven't you got a free one Sony gave you? I got Casino Royale.

Mine came with no free movie.