It's not all fun and games at camp Blu-ray, though. Warner and Universal have announced their initial slate of titles for release in France, among them some high-profile titles like Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire and Peter Jackson's remake of King Kong. These are the same titles that are already available, or will soon be available, in the US, so nothing on the list is particularly surprising. What is insteresting, however, is that a number of major Warner titles, including Harry Potter and Batman Begins, are listed as being HD DVD exclusives.
Warner is, as you probably already know, a format-neutral studio, along with Paramount, both of whom so far have a decent record of releasing material of similar quality on both formats. The suggestion that Warner are going to become more picky regarding which titles they port to Blu-ray, however, is pretty noteworthy. Warner recently announced that it was lowering its high definition software sales forecast from $500 million to $150 million. The reason? It's speculation, but the theory is that its Blu-ray sales have been a fraction of what they had been expecting. That they now seem to be withholding some of their most prized titles from Sony's format would seem to suggest a considerable shift in their faith in it. Another theory, of course, is that, as the titles marked as HD DVD exclusives are all fairly long and/or feature significant bonus materials, Warner don't want to have to pay for the more expensive (and currently in short supply) dual-layer discs.
Webmaster & Slave of GOREZONE. Your #1 source for bloody daily horror news. www.gorezone.net
Re: The official HD-DVD / Blu-Ray Thread
V FOR VENDETTA: Warner has announced that they will be releasing it on October 31, with "an In-Movie Experience interactive video commentary track, plus the exclusive 'Director's Notebook: Reimagining a Cult Classic for the 21st Century' featurette", in addition to all the extras of the 2-disc standard definition release.
Webmaster & Slave of GOREZONE. Your #1 source for bloody daily horror news. www.gorezone.net
Re: The official HD-DVD / Blu-Ray Thread
Warner on the audio specs for the studio's newly-announced high-definition discs (due 10/30). They are as follows:
HD-DVD - Excalibur (Dolby Digital Plus 2.0 - English, Dolby Digital Plus 1.0 - French & Latin Spanish), Under Siege (Dolby Digital 5.1 - English & French, Dolby 2.0 Surround - Latin Spanish), V for Vendetta (Dolby TrueHD 5.1 - English, Dolby Digital 5.1 - English & French)
Blu-ray Disc - The Phantom of the Opera (Dolby Digital 5.1 - English & French), The Searchers (Dolby Digital 1.0 Mono - English, French & Latin Spanish), Under Siege (Dolby Digital 5.1 - English & French, Dolby 2.0 Surround - Latin Spanish), Unforgiven (Dolby Digital 5.1 - English, Dolby 2.0 Surround - French & Latin Spanish)
Webmaster & Slave of GOREZONE. Your #1 source for bloody daily horror news. www.gorezone.net
Re: The official HD-DVD / Blu-Ray Thread
THE FINANCIAL PAGE
STANDARD-BEARERS
Issue of 2006-10-16
Posted 2006-10-09
In 1888, at Thomas Edison’s laboratory, i West Orange, New Jersey, a macabre even took place. While reporters watched, dogs wer placed on a metal plate that had been hooke up to a thousand-volt alternating-curren generator and electrocuted one by one. Ediso wanted to convince the public that alternatin current (which was offered by a competitor Westinghouse) was too dangerous to be used i the home, and his own direct-curren technology should be the national standard fo electricity
Edison’s tactics may have been extreme, but his purpose would have been readily understood by the marketers of Sony’s Blu-ray technology and those of Toshiba’s HD DVDs: both companies are trying to convince us that their product will be the standard high-definition successor to DVDs. Technological standards—like the compact disk, or the protocols that make the Internet function—are essential to the smooth running of a global economy. Yet standards themselves are determined in unstandardized ways. Sometimes they are the product of government mandate. (The European Union wanted one cell-phone standard for the continent, and now virtually all European cell phones use G.S.M. technology.) Sometimes a quasi-governmental organization or a technological consortium steps in, and sometimes deals are cut between companies. But sometimes companies that have spent billions developing new technologies decide to slug it out in the marketplace, just as Edison and Westinghouse did. Such fights are called standards wars—a familiar example is Betamax’s defeat by V.H.S.—and the biggest standards war today is the one between Blu-ray and HD DVD.
Standards wars involve lots of variables, and understanding them often seems more an art than a science. They generally involve just two big players, and end in a winner-take-all situation. So whereas Coca-Cola and Pepsi can happily share the soda market, Microsoft Word now has ninety-five per cent of the word-processing market, and WordPerfect has almost none. Thus the rules that govern these wars are different from those of simple free markets.
The most important rule is that, as the economist Hal Varian says, “the product that people expect to win will win.” Consumers know that if they back the loser in a standards war they’ll be stuck with an obsolete product, so convincing them that your product is a winner is essential. Some economists argue that this means that quality is irrelevant in a standards war, but the historical record suggests that survival of the weakest is a rare occurrence. Betamax fans still extoll its superior picture quality, but for most consumers V.H.S. was the better product; Betamax tapes could fit only an hour’s recording time, while V.H.S. could record an entire movie. Similarly, Edison’s attempt to make direct current the industry standard failed because alternating current was more reliable and allowed electricity to travel longer distances. Ultimately, the best way to make people believe your product will win is to have a better product.
That isn’t enough, though. It’s essential to develop as many partnerships as possible with companies that make so-called “complementary goods.” Sony’s Playstation, for instance, became a huge success in part because there were simply so many more games available for it than for its competitors. Companies also need to get their products to market quickly, because, once a standard is established, it’s difficult to dislodge. If someone buys a Blu-ray player and disks, he won’t want to switch to HD DVD, and vice versa. But, while much has been written about the so-called “first mover advantage,” the historical evidence for it is shaky. Alternating current was developed after direct current, V.H.S. followed Betamax, and RCA’s color-TV technology (which eventually became the industry standard) was developed after CBS’s. So you need to be fast but not necessarily first.
Both Sony and Toshiba appear to have taken these lessons, ambiguous as they are, to heart. Toshiba was first to market: HD DVD players appeared in the spring. But Sony made sure that Blu-ray machines appeared soon afterward. Sony has done a better job of making partners: it has signed exclusive deals with Disney and Fox, and almost every Hollywood studio is releasing Blu-ray disks. But Toshiba is the exclusive distributor of films for Universal, and has so far released more movies than Blu-ray has. Blu-ray’s technology, which allows you to pack fifty gigabytes of data on a disk, is theoretically superior to that of HD DVD, which manages thirty. But for most users the differences in quality will probably seem negligible—movies look extraordinarily good on both machines—and Toshiba is offering its products at cheaper prices.
Curiously, though, a standards war in which both companies are avoiding obvious errors may not be in anyone’s best interest. An extended standoff will likely make customers hesitate to buy either product, resulting in hundreds of millions of dollars in lost sales. And if it goes on long enough consumers may just decide to wait till they can download high-definition movies. The obvious solution to this impasse is negotiation. That’s what happened with the original DVD—in the nineteen-nineties, a consortium of companies pooled patents and adopted a single standard. Sony and Toshiba did talk last year, but there’s no sign that any kind of deal is in the works. Cutting a deal would require Sony and Toshiba to admit that they might lose the war, and right now neither company can afford to be seen to doubt its position. So they may end up staring at each other for a long time, and when, finally, someone blinks consumers may have forgotten what all the fuss was about.
Re: The official HD-DVD / Blu-Ray Thread
Looks like the first batch is nothing that we haven't already seen from the US. Still, the cover art of certain titles, especially Serenity and The Bourne Supremacy, looks considerably better than their American counterparts, and this announcement, as well as the November 13th release date, should please those that don't like the thought of importing.
In other news, Warner has announced the release of an HD DVD version of Casablanca for November 14th. Not to be outdone, though, the Blu-ray camp has responded by announcing another equally lauded World War 2 classic for December 5th... that Michael Bay meisterwerk, Pearl Harbor.
Webmaster & Slave of GOREZONE. Your #1 source for bloody daily horror news. www.gorezone.net
First up, MGM (via Fox) will release Rocky and Bulletproof Monk on Blu-ray Disc format on 12/5 (SRP $39.98 each). Both titles will apparently include English DTS HD 5.1 among the audio options. Windtalkers is also set for release on 11/28.
What's more, we've learned that future MGM titles on Blu-ray Disc will include The Usual Suspects (possibly also for release on 11/28) and Rocky Balboa (day and date in 2007).
We've also learned that Fox is currently working on Blu-ray Disc releases of Phone Booth, Planet of the Apes (2001) and Flyboys, among other titles.
Meanwhile, while visiting Paramount's DVD production facilities yesterday to preview Monday's HD-DVD and Blu-ray Disc release of M:i:III (watch for reviews Monday), I was able to confirm that Oliver Stone's World Trade Center will be released day-and-date on both high-def formats (on 12/12, according to their press site). The Blu-ray Disc will be a 50GB release. The studio is also planning to release most new films day-and-date on both high-def formats going forward, and is working to develop plans for their large slate of catalog titles for 2007.
I also learned that the reason the HD-DVD version of M:i:III includes the enhanced commentary, but the Blu-ray Disc version doesn't, is that when production started on the title, the Blu-ray Disc/BD-Java authoring toolset wasn't quite ready to do it. That's about to change, however, so expect future releases to include similar such features on both formats. With regard to the lack of more advanced audio options (beyond standard Dolby Digital and Dolby Digital Plus) on Paramount releases, the studio wants to be able to hear and test these audio formats on actual consumer hardware before including it on their releases. They do, however, expect to add such audio options eventually.
One other interesting note - I was told that both HD-DVD and Blu-ray Disc are now capable of seamless branching, though no title has yet taken advantage of it. Basically, all of the same basic functionality that the existing DVD format is capable of is now ready to go on the high-def formats. What's left to be worked out in authoring software and hardware testing are the more advanced interactive features that are new to HD-DVD and Blu-ray Disc. You'll start to see a lot more of that on titles from the various studios early next year.
Meanwhile, we've got official word on the audio specs for Warner's just-announced HD-DVDs of Forbidden Planet, Mutiny on the Bounty and Casablanca (street date 11/14). Forbidden Planet will include Dolby Digital Plus 5.1 (in English) and 1.0 (in French and Spanish). Mutiny on the Bounty will include Dolby Digital Plus 5.1 (in English and French) and 1.0 (Spanish). Finally, Casablanca will include Dolby Digital Plus 1.0 (in English, French and Spanish). All of the standard DVD extras will be included on the HD-DVDs.
Webmaster & Slave of GOREZONE. Your #1 source for bloody daily horror news. www.gorezone.net
Re: The official HD-DVD / Blu-Ray Thread
Well, who could have seen this coming? Sony has delayed their Blu-ray player, the BDP-S1, yet again, this time pushing it back from late October to early December. Just in case you've forgotten, this is the player that I originally had pre-ordered for a June 30th release date.
Over at the AV Science Forum, the mood is not pretty. The general consensus is that Sony has backed itself into a corner, attempting to dominate both the game market (with the PS3) and the film market (with Blu-ray movie discs), but, thanks to a lack of blue laser diodes, has had to choose between pushing stand-alone players and pushing the PS3. The gaming market it clearly more important to them, so they're electing to support it and screw Blu-ray. Mark my words: this could be the beginning of the end. Expect Disney and Lions Gate to announce HD DVD support by the end of the year.
This really isn't a good year for Sony, with the news of this delay coming hot on the heels of yet more battery recalls and a predicted net profit drop of 38%. Oh, and they may not hit their PS3 shipment target. Seriously, at this stage, is Sony ends up crashing and burning, I won't be shedding a tear for them. They've strung their loyal customers along for too long and seem content to screw them again and again. The lack of diodes can't have come as a surprise to them. They must have known that they wouldn't have enough for both the PS3 and the Blu-ray player for some time, and yet neglected to say anything until the last minute. If I still had a BDP-S1 pre-ordered, this would be the point when, like many people, I'd say "fuck 'em".
Oh yeah, and the PS3 won't upscale standard definition DVDs. The Xbox 360 HD DVD add-on will.
Webmaster & Slave of GOREZONE. Your #1 source for bloody daily horror news. www.gorezone.net
Re: The official HD-DVD / Blu-Ray Thread
The contrasting fortunes of two of the biggest players in the global gaming market were underlined today when Sony announced a 94% plunge in profits for the most recent quarter, while Nintendo said its profits over the first half of the fiscal year had more than tripled.
Sony said the combined cost of its global recall of potentially faulty PC batteries and developing its next-generation game console, the PlayStation 3, had shrunk profits for the July-September quarter to 1.7bn yen (£7.6m) compared with 28.5bn yen for the same period a year earlier.
Webmaster & Slave of GOREZONE. Your #1 source for bloody daily horror news. www.gorezone.net
Re: The official HD-DVD / Blu-Ray Thread
More Sony lies
The Sony Bullshit Machine is fully operational today as, in an exclusive interview with High-Def Digest, Don Eklund, Executive Vice President of Advanced Technologies, and Claire McKittrick, Director of Worldwide Publicity, spew a load of garbage as they attempt to excuse their lacklustre Blu-ray releases, lack of extras and refusal to adopt modern codecs. As always, everything is someone else's fault - the reviewers don't understand what they are reviewing and need to be educated about it, people are using crap TVs, Samsung put out a Blu-ray player with a faulty noise reduction chip, filmmakers are making poor stylistic choices... oh, and the corker:
We as a studio have a responsibility to educate the people who are reviewing our discs; but they also have a responsibility to their consumer to look at our discs on the right kind of equipment. So they can say, "Oh, maybe I could have been wrong? Is it possible that the MPEG-2 delivers a better and more accurate picture than VC-1? And, oh, yeah, what are those funny amoeba-like artifacts that VC-1 can produce, where it looks like there is a jellyfish on the wall that's moving around?"
Webmaster & Slave of GOREZONE. Your #1 source for bloody daily horror news. www.gorezone.net
Re: The official HD-DVD / Blu-Ray Thread
Pioneer has just announced that they're going to follow Sony's lead and postpone the release of their $1500 set-top Blu-ray Disc player, the BDP-HD1, until December. According to Pioneer's Andy Parsons, "We just want to make sure the player does what it's supposed to do." You can read more here at Video Business.
Meanwhile, Toshiba, which will be releasing its 2nd generation HD-DVD players around the time that Pioneer and Sony are releasing their 1st gen Blu-ray players, has announced a plan to boost its sluggish hardware sales by offering three free HD-DVD titles with the purchase of their players. Click here for the details from Home Media Retailing.
Re: The official HD-DVD / Blu-Ray Thread
It seems the studios are eager to make as much of a splash with HD-DVD and Blu-ray Disc as they can before the holidays, so the title announcements just don't stop coming. The latest is that Warner Home Video is about to announce the simultaneous release (on BOTH formats) of A Christmas Story, National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation and Scooby-Doo: The Movie. Warner hasn't finalized the street date yet, but we expect to have it shortly. You can reasonably expect the titles late this month or early in December.
Also today, we have some more details for you on 20th Century Fox's X-Men: The Last Stand Blu-ray Disc. Fox claims that it's their first Blu-ray Disc title with 100% high-definition content. The 11/14 release will SRP for $39.98. From the studio's press release: "Authored in HDMV with AVC (MPEG 4 compression) and exceptional 6.1 DTS ES HD Lossless Master Audio, the X-Men: The Last Stand BD release boasts two commentary tracks (director Brett Ratner with writers Zak Penn and Simon Kinberg; separate track featuring producers Avi Arad, Lauren Shuler Donner and Ralph Winter), 12 alternate/extended scenes presented in 5.1 Dolby Digital audio (with optional director/writer commentary) and enhanced Marvel Trivia Track - with this feature activated, color graphics pop up throughout the film giving inside information from the Marvel universe on characters and events, plus favorite Marvel Comics are referenced and Marvel characters and graphics are incorporated into the presentation." We'll post art as soon as it's available.
Still not done. Paramount has just revealed that they'll be releasing Ridley Scott's Black Rain on HD-DVD and Blu-ray Disc on 1/23/07. Also on that day, they'll be releasing We Were Soldiers and The Manchurian Candidate on Blu-ray Disc (both titles are already available on HD-DVD). And on 2/6, they'll follow with Failure to Launch on both HD-DVD and Blu-ray Disc.
Webmaster & Slave of GOREZONE. Your #1 source for bloody daily horror news. www.gorezone.net
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