Live Coverage from the Warner press conference
By Ben Drawbaugh 
posted Jan 9th 2007 9:11PM
posted Jan 9th 2007 9:11PM
5:44pm PST - Wow are they making a big deal out of checking in for this press conference, everyone is waiting to get in. The Bellagio has a very nice convention center.
5:58pm PST - Only 2 mins to 6pm and they haven't let us in yet, there had better be something special in then there.
6:05pm PST - Wow we are in and now we see what all the fuss is about, they really have this placed decked out and quite a spread of food.
6:15pm PST - They just announced that the press conference will start in 2 minutes.
6:20pm PST - An announcement declared that the show is about to begin, the lights dim.
A great quality video starts and they make fun of the limited HD content available. Lots of great hight quality video clips including the matrix.
6:24pm PST - Barry M. Meyer the Chairman of Warner takes the stage. Barry explains that the format war is bad for business and retails don't like to stock two sku's of the same content. Warner thinks they have the solution so they are here to introduce the total HD disc for both consumers and retailers.
6:27pm PST - Kevin Tsujahara and Ron Sanders both Presidents of Warner takes the stage.
First year sales, 775,000 sales. (yeah we missed what they were talking about, here is the slide.)
90% owners surveyed are thrilled with picture quality.
They explain the current hardware situation for both HD DVD and Blu-ray.
HD DVD will bring 2.5 Million devices to the market
Blu-ray 6.2 million devices to the market.
This will total over 9 million including current devices.
SD DVD had 1.3 million 2 years after release.
6:33pm PST - Kevin talks about how many HDTVs there are and the opportunity to sell content regardless of format. They are here to tell us tonight that the wait is over.
Another video starts with blue and red flashing, saying that when you bring together red and blue you bring the best of both worlds on one incredible disc. Everyone claps.
They again claim that Superman is the best selling movie in both Blu-ray and HD DVD.
6:35pm PST - They put a slide with lots of sales stats from both sides.
HD DVD
Blu-ray
Total Hi def logo again.
This will help the retailers so they don't have to stock two copies of the same disc.
The majority of those interviewed said they were 49% more likely to buy a HD format because of a dual format disc.
6:39pm PST - They start the demo by inserting the disc into a HD DVD player.
The movie is playing on a movie theater sized screen and looks awesome, maybe it is a fake demo or a 3 chip DLP.
6:41pm PST - Now they inserted the same disc into the Blu-ray player and are playing the same scene from Superman. It looks just as good on the big screen.
Superman saves the day on both players. Ha
6:44pm PST - Now the same scene in the LG Super Blue player and all three look the same. They stop the scene saying we all know what happens.
They share a few quotes from a Best Buy exec.
As well as from Transworld promoting TotalHD.
A Panel of Execs takes the stages and the floor is open for Q&A
HD DVD
Blu-ray
Everyone on stage
What is the capacity for each side?
They have the full capacity of both HD DVD and Blu-ray and dual layer on both discs.
Cost of production is unknown, but it will not be materially more that a regular HD disc.
No retail price yet, but it is not cost prohibited.
If it motivates customers to buy it will be worth the cost.
Will HBO and Newline be making TotalHD discs?
Yes, no one else has announced support.
They haven't run any titles to market yet, but now they will.
HBO is very excited and think it is important to end the consumer confusion.
We will announce titles later, but right now the second half of 2007.
Licensing costs for other studios?
The fees overall don't change, there is no fee for Warner, only to Blu-ray and HD DVD.
They will move away from regular discs and only produce TotalHD discs.
How will the player know which format to play on a dual format player?
It is a dual sided disc, so you have to put it in the correct way.
They plan to have the same content on both sides.
When will see LOTR in this format, they are working on it now and are determining a release date.
Any replication machine will be able to make this disc.
Does this mean we are authoring twice and isn't the feature support different?
They have to do that now so this doesn't change that process.
Isn't this a temporary solution?
Other formats co-exist, Kevin continues on a long explanation about how long the format war is going to last.
That's it, it's over.
And the format war goes on.
I really don't see how putting both hd-dvd and blu-ray on one disc solves anything, it probably confuses the poor consumer even more, not too mention a higher price..
Great. So we have now three different HD format. It doen't bring clarity, only confusion.
Warner, do ourselves a favor. Just pick Blu-ray for your movies, so this war is over in a minute.
If traditional DVD had "1.3 million" (devices?) 2 years after release I find it hard to believe the HD DVD / Blu-Ray figures of 600M and 4000M are true. That would make one blu-ray drive for every other person on the planet... what were these numbers supposed to be?
What we need are more players that they both formats not discs...
And I like labels on my movie discs!
But it doen't make sense for Warners who supports both formats to make two versions, so this will help them somewhat.
Retailer enthusiasm is helpful, but they'd want all studios to put this out this type of disc, not just a few, taht way, they have one HD movie section.
I don't know if this hurts or helps getting more people into HD movie discs...
YESSSS!!!! FINALLY! I've been wondering when I would be able to see LotR in HD, but I'm glad enough to hear "determining a release date".
Blu-ray cases are blue.
Hd-dvd cases are red.
How ironic that Superman is both blue and red, and was chosen to "save the day".
::shrug::
"If traditional DVD had "1.3 million" (devices?) 2 years after release I find it hard to believe the HD DVD / Blu-Ray figures of 600M and 4000M are true. That would make one blu-ray drive for every other person on the planet... what were these numbers supposed to be?"
What they said was:
"HD DVD will bring 2.5 Million devices to the market
Blu-ray 6.2 million devices to the market."
That is devices in the two years after the release, that is 2008 I believe.
The 600M and 4000M is referring to actual media.
He dicho.
The 600M and 4000M in media is still too high for 2007. They claim 9M devices total in 2007, no way you'll have that much media sold.
What did he really say?
where did you guys see the 600 or 400 million? was the post edited?
I don't understand the doubt expressed in the earlier posts. I'm basically a please-just-make-it-work type of AV consumer, and to me this sounds great. If I'm choosing between a single format player or something like the LG dual format player I'm going to take the latter. And, the same applies with the disc. In the long run the question is not what is better, it is what is cheaper and most likely to "just work". I don't know about the cheaper, but this looks like the winner in the "just works" category.
It's not the format war that is the main problem for BR, HD-DVD.. The main issue is the cost-driving DRM-stuff, HDCP etc.. That makes it non-consumer friendly compared to old DVD and other formats..
"I really don't see how putting both hd-dvd and blu-ray on one disc solves anything, it probably confuses the poor consumer even more, not too mention a higher price.."
Did you even read the article? The price stays the same. And consumers can handle DVD/CD dual-sided discs today without any problem... it's not like a customer can't match up the BluRay logo on their player to the bluray logo on the side of the disc they need to insert.
"What we need are more players that they both formats not discs..."
And then the cost of putting two diodes and two players into one box gets passed down to you, whereas here, there's no significant additional cost.
people just like to complain.