Warner to Back Blu-ray Exclusively

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Warner Bros. Entertainment to Release its High-Definition DVD Titles Exclusively in the Blu-Ray Disc Format Beginning Later This Year
January 04, 2008

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."
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I just wanted to post this for people who are unsure about which high-def format to invest in. The choice is now becoming more clear... it's Blu-ray Disc.

Right now, only 2 major studios, Universal and Paramount/DreamWorks are supporting HD DVD exclusively while the rest of the major studios are supporting Blu-ray Disc.

Sony (Columbia, Tri-star and other smaller studios), Fox, MGM, Lionsgate, Disney and now Warner (Warner Bros. and New Line Cinema) support Blu-ray exclusively.

Paramount/DreamWorks may jump the ship and break the contract and support Blu-ray Disc instead. It has been confirmed that people from Universal Studios are scouting the Blu-ray Disc replication facilities. That's a good sign that they are thinking about switching over to the Blu-ray Disc format.
 
Banjo said:
I just wanted to post this for people who are unsure about which high-def format to invest in. The choice is now becoming more clear... it's Blu-ray Disc.

Right now, only 2 major studios, Universal and Paramount/DreamWorks are supporting HD DVD exclusively while the rest of the major studios are supporting Blu-ray Disc.

Sony (Columbia, Tri-star and other smaller studios), Fox, MGM, Lionsgate, Disney and now Warner (Warner Bros. and New Line Cinema) support Blu-ray exclusively.

Paramount/DreamWorks may jump the ship and break the contract and support Blu-ray Disc instead. It has been confirmed that people from Universal Studios are scouting the Blu-ray Disc replication facilities. That's a good sign that they are thinking about switching over to the Blu-ray Disc format.
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I have a question, Banjo -- If the companies decides to use the Blu -ray Discs for the films, they have made. If all these standard DVD's that has been used in the last few years since it was invented. If the Blu Ray Discs has taken over that -- do I have to get a new DVD player that supports Blu-ray Discs or would it work in a standard DVD player or only based on PS3?
 
jclarke said:
I have a question, Banjo -- If the companies decides to use the Blu -ray Discs for the films, they have made. If all these standard DVD's that has been used in the last few years since it was invented. If the Blu Ray Discs has taken over that -- do I have to get a new DVD player that supports Blu-ray Discs or would it work in a standard DVD player or only based on PS3?
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I would think (don't take this as fact since I'm not sure) that Blu-rays players would be backward compatible. If you play DVD in Blu-ray players, it should work. However, you cannot play Blu-ray in a DVD player.
 
jclarke said:
I have a question, Banjo -- If the companies decides to use the Blu -ray Discs for the films, they have made. If all these standard DVD's that has been used in the last few years since it was invented. If the Blu Ray Discs has taken over that -- do I have to get a new DVD player that supports Blu-ray Discs or would it work in a standard DVD player or only based on PS3?
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Blu-ray Disc will not work in a DVD player. But you can play and upconvert DVD movies on all Blu-ray Disc players. It will be called a Blu-ray player, not DVD player because it's a new format. Though it will be able to play older formats including DVD and such.

PS3 is not the only Blu-ray Disc player on the market. There are plenty of Blu-ray Disc players to pick from starting with Panasonic, Sony, Pioneer, Samsung, Sharp, LG and more.

HD DVD still has only one major company making HD DVD players and that is Toshiba. Venturer is selling repackaged Toshiba HD DVD players.

This is a big, big announcement. A very crucial one and it is a MAJOR blow to the HD DVD format, even bigger than when Paramount/DreamWorks announced that they are supporting HD DVD even though they were selling more copies on Blu-ray Disc. But I guess they couldn't resist the $150 million payout by Microsoft and Toshiba even though they denied it, but insiders said otherwise.

I feel sorry for all these people who bought the $99 HD DVD players from Wal-Mart in November on an early Black Friday event.
 
Secretblend said:
I would think (don't take this as fact since I'm not sure) that Blu-rays players would be backward compatible. If you play DVD in Blu-ray players, it should work. However, you cannot play Blu-ray in a DVD player.
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100% Correct. :)
 
Banjo said:
Blu-ray Disc will not work in a DVD player. But you can play and upconvert DVD movies on all Blu-ray Disc players. It will be called a Blu-ray player, not DVD player because it's a new format. Though it will be able to play older formats including DVD and such.

PS3 is not the only Blu-ray Disc player on the market. There are plenty of Blu-ray Disc players to pick from starting with Panasonic, Sony, Pioneer, Samsung, Sharp, LG and more.

HD DVD still has only one major company making HD DVD players and that is Toshiba. Venturer is selling repackaged Toshiba HD DVD players.

This is a big, big announcement. A very crucial one and it is a MAJOR blow to the HD DVD format, even bigger than when Paramount/DreamWorks announced that they are supporting HD DVD even though they were selling more copies on Blu-ray Disc. But I guess they couldn't resist the $150 million payout by Microsoft and Toshiba even though they denied it, but insiders said otherwise.

I feel sorry for all these people who bought the $99 HD DVD players from Wal-Mart in November on an early Black Friday event.
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Ahh -- I understand now, thank you for explaining the logistics of the new techonolgy working on the new machines. ;)
 
jclarke said:
Ahh -- I understand now, thank you for explaining the logistics of the new techonolgy working on the new machines. ;)
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Anytime. ;)

I like to help out by giving people the information they need. This way, people can make better-informed choices and avoid bad investments.
 
Banjo said:
Blu-ray Disc will not work in a DVD player. But you can play and upconvert DVD movies on all Blu-ray Disc players. It will be called a Blu-ray player, not DVD player because it's a new format. Though it will be able to play older formats including DVD and such.

PS3 is not the only Blu-ray Disc player on the market. There are plenty of Blu-ray Disc players to pick from starting with Panasonic, Sony, Pioneer, Samsung, Sharp, LG and more.

HD DVD still has only one major company making HD DVD players and that is Toshiba. Venturer is selling repackaged Toshiba HD DVD players.

This is a big, big announcement. A very crucial one and it is a MAJOR blow to the HD DVD format, even bigger than when Paramount/DreamWorks announced that they are supporting HD DVD even though they were selling more copies on Blu-ray Disc. But I guess they couldn't resist the $150 million payout by Microsoft and Toshiba even though they denied it, but insiders said otherwise.

I feel sorry for all these people who bought the $99 HD DVD players from Wal-Mart in November on an early Black Friday event.
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I love this comment, MS got owned again.

I'm getting very sick of MS that made all on their own, praise to companies to support HD-DVD only, ActiveX, DirectX, net framework and few others, plus MS has praised to consumers and education to massively switch into PC in late 90's and early 2000's.
 
That's good thing: I have not buy any HD DVD player yet. Blu-ray discs start to spread out.

I rather to wait for 100% cc compatible with HDTVs, then I will buy both HDTV and blu-ray player.

I wonder if blu-ray player can play any kind of dvds (regular DVD, HD DVD, and blu-ray discs) or just blu-ray discs only. I saw several symbol stickers on blu ray player device yesterday at Best Buy. I just wonder if any of those can compatible with blu ray dvd player.
 
Oddball said:
That's good thing: I have not buy any HD DVD player yet. Blu-ray discs start to spread out.

I rather to wait for 100% cc compatible with HDTVs, then I will buy both HDTV and blu-ray player.

I wonder if blu-ray player can play any kind of dvds (regular DVD, HD DVD, and blu-ray discs) or just blu-ray discs only. I saw several symbol stickers on blu ray player device yesterday at Best Buy. I just wonder if any of those can compatible with blu ray dvd player.
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It's called Blu-ray Disc, not Blu-ray DVD. DVD is a format, Blu-ray Disc is a format. They are two different formats.

Now, Blu-ray Disc players can play ANY DVDs but not HD DVD. No point in buying HD DVD as it's being phased out slowly. Universal and Paramount will eventually switch sides.

Now... about CC. All major studios offer SDH instead of CC. There is a good chance you will not see CC being used on any Blu-ray Disc or HD DVD movies. Instead, they are replacing CC with SDH (Subtitles for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing). To tell you the truth, I prefer SDH. People are kidding themselves if they think HDTV will ever become 100% compatible with CC. That's why it's better to stick to SDH for physical media (DVD, Blu-ray, HD DVD) because you will be able to access them 100% of the time while it could be a hit and miss with HDTV's CC.

During the entire year of 2007, Blu-ray Disc beat HD DVD every week in software sales. The thing is, HD DVD came out before Blu-ray Disc did and yet it is not able to beat Blu-ray Disc.

The Future is Blu.
 
It does seem to be going that way. Seems to be going better this time than the beta and VHS format war back then seems like.

I'm glad, I think Blu-ray seems to be better to me. As for SDH, it makes sense, it seems to fit digital age better than CC does.
 
Thanks for the timely info--and sharing with AD'ers. ;)



Sooo...in a sense, we're gonna be seeing a whole lotta blue. Heh.... :D





~RR
 
Thanks for information about this! :D But I will have to difficult to choose Blu-ray or HD-DVD until these format wars will be over!
I hope Blu-ray will be win, so I will have to buy this
format. :) I love blue is my favorite color ever.
 
I'm glad to see that this thread is generating a bit of interest. :)
 
Secretblend said:
It does seem to be going that way. Seems to be going better this time than the beta and VHS format war back then seems like.

I'm glad, I think Blu-ray seems to be better to me. As for SDH, it makes sense, it seems to fit digital age better than CC does.
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I doubt that we are in the better techonolgy as it is today. Unlike VHS, it has vanished from us few years back and that's good, becuase VHS is just the worse yet.
 
I got some more good news...

According to several reports and insiders. There are some confirmations that Universal Studios and Paramount Pictures are heading for Blu-ray Disc. Word has it that we should not expect an announcement from Universal Studios til February at the earliest. But we are being told to expect an announcement from Paramount this month.

It is being said that Paramount will end support for HD DVD and switch over to Blu-ray Disc rather than remaining neutral. Universal Studios, could be either neutral but exclusive.

By the way, it was confirmed today that HBO is now Blu-ray exclusive. So, it looks like all of the studios under Time Warner are now Blu-ray exclusive.

Warner Bros., New Line Cinema and HBO are all independent studios under Time Warner. They have no say in each other's decisions. New Line Cinema was already leaning toward Blu-ray to start with. They will be starting immediately since they did not previously announce any HD DVD releases. Warner Bros. will be done with HD DVD in May as they already announced several releases. HBO, I don't believe they announced any HD DVD releases other than the already released Sopranos editions on both formats, so it would be safe to assume they are starting immediately.

This has been quite an exciting month for Blu-ray Disc supporters so far.
 
Banjo said:
I got some more good news...

According to several reports and insiders. There are some confirmations that Universal Studios and Paramount Pictures are heading for Blu-ray Disc. Word has it that we should not expect an announcement from Universal Studios til February at the earliest. But we are being told to expect an announcement from Paramount this month.

It is being said that Paramount will end support for HD DVD and switch over to Blu-ray Disc rather than remaining neutral. Universal Studios, could be either neutral but exclusive.

By the way, it was confirmed today that HBO is now Blu-ray exclusive. So, it looks like all of the studios under Time Warner are now Blu-ray exclusive.

Warner Bros., New Line Cinema and HBO are all independent studios under Time Warner. They have no say in each other's decisions. New Line Cinema was already leaning toward Blu-ray to start with. They will be starting immediately since they did not previously announce any HD DVD releases. Warner Bros. will be done with HD DVD in May as they already announced several releases. HBO, I don't believe they announced any HD DVD releases other than the already released Sopranos editions on both formats, so it would be safe to assume they are starting immediately.

This has been quite an exciting month for Blu-ray Disc supporters so far.
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As long as we know which would be the one and not waste money by buying the other and find out it's not gonna be around anymore. I would be happy.
 
Banjo, I want to add my appreciation to others for sharing this information.

I have a question. Of course my Dell XPS M1710 laptop is already obsolete. It now plays "standard" (if there is such a thing) DVDs. When (not if) the future brings a drastic format change like the change from VHS to DVD, do you think I may be able to buy a plug-in and still play subtitled movies on the go?

I know I could ask Dell, but I truly hate message-exchanges with someone living in a trailer outside Katmandu who chooses English phrases from a menu.
 
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