Hey Warner, where's The Matrix for Blu-ray?
By Ben Drawbaugh 
posted December 18th 2007 6:19PM
posted December 18th 2007 6:19PM
The red camp has been enjoying The Matrix in HD over six months now and all the Blu-ray fans got was a promise of later this year -- at this point, an empty promise at that. Warner started out in the red camp, and although they officially went dual format before the first disc was released, they've always leaned red by only releasing some of their biggest titles on HD DVD; like Batman Begins, The Matrix Collection, and V for Vendetta. According to our poll, most of you believe Warner will go Blu-ray exclusive -- which would be a big change -- but at this point we'd be happy if they'd just catch up and start offering the same movies as they do on HD DVD.
Maybe the poster here known as "TruthTeller" can tell us since he claims to have indider, NDA protected, knowledge of all things HD and especially CES related.
Don't be surprised if they anounce it at the CES along with Batman Begins and other news ;)
Specially now that the PS3 is IME (profile 1.1) enabled, and that we have cheap Taiwanese players& recorders coming (anouncement to come at CES - Check Funai).
The poll? It was not acurate as bd.com stuffs the ballot.
Warner probably waiting for profile 2.0 to release with some cool features...to bad a lot of blue ray owners won't get to enjoy the features.
You guys are serious calling that poll credible and legit? HAHAHAHAH YEAH RIGHT!
and btw, the Matrix on HD DVD looks FANTASTIC! :)
No...BETTER THAN FANTASTIC!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
It's obvious why they haven't announced it. When Blu-ray can do PIP, they'll get The Matrix (and Batman Begins, and V For Vendetta, etc.)
I don't know if it's out for sale, but I wouldn't be surprised if Sony's been giving away preorders BOGO to up Nielsen scans
Well, now that the PS3 can do PiP courtesy of Firmware 2.1, where are these Warner titles?
Personally, I'd prefer Warner to go back and re-encode in AVC with a very high bitrate as opposed to adding these "interactive" features, but since there's room on the disc for both, how 'bout it Warner?
Just for the record, *The Omega Man* looked pretty good on Blu-ray, although it wouldn't break my heart if they went back and digitally scrubbed each frame since there are still defects present...not to mention the VC-1 encoding.
I'd also bet that *Batman Begins* gets a release date on Blu-ray close to the theatrical premiere of *The Dark Knight*.
LMAO
3 weeks to go.
Some people are in for a big surprise.
Truth Teller, I've got some insider information that you're a tool...and will be shortly graduating to the 6th grade....oops, I've breached my NDA....
Is the big surprise going to be that Bluray is expensive and has annoying fanboys for the next year, or that HDDVD is cheap and doesn't have disney movies for the next year?
I vote for option 1, option 2, yeah it'll happen sooner or later. I heard bluray has been giving studios nothing but hell, and with the Disney case, thats just all the the more proof. Think of all those consumers out there who bought this title and couldn't watch it. Ouch sony, sucks to be you.
"Is the big surprise going to be that Bluray is expensive and has annoying fanboys for the next year, or that HDDVD is cheap and doesn't have disney movies for the next year?"
I vote option 3. Both camps' fanboys will continue to be equally annoying, and nothing will change.
"Is the big surprise going to be that Bluray is expensive and has annoying fanboys for the next year, or that HDDVD is cheap and doesn't have disney movies for the next year?"
If by expensive you mean sub-$300 (and less soon in 2008), how much could you possibly have spent on your HDTV ? ;)
If by annoying fanboy you mean H4Idol, that's one. Now try counting the HD DVD fanboys from AVS (among which the die hards Nfinity, "Truth Teller" and "Bill").
As per what "Truth" actually meant, he thinks Warner is going Red exclusive at the CES. Which would actually be a sad day -if it happened- for HDM, as it would just prolong the war.
No worries though, I'm pretty sure that on a certain day of the CES I'll be here posting to the intention of the AVS fanboys with jsut the right dose of smugness, but with the intent of trying to patch things up and start moving toward a single format so we can finally enjoy all our movies in HD in one format.
Why release a crappy Matrix set with incomplete features on blu-ray when the spec isn't finished...
BD fans will just claim that they want the movie, but if Warner were to release the set with stripped down features that were on the HD DVD (IME) but missing from the BD, then BD fans will complain of Warner playing favorites.
Jeez Jim.
You managed to be sad, tedious, pathetic & embarrasing in the one post.
It's a 'gift' right?
Truth Teller (I feel silly even referring to you as such)
I couldn't possibly match the level of sadness and silliness that you exhibit here on a more than needed basis....that is of course unless I claimed to be the Warner Bros janitor who stole some insider memo which reads
"SECRET MEMO:
TO: Agent Schmuck (aka Truth Teller)
RE: Big Surprise Coming
Beloved Agent Schmuck,
We are happy to inform you that Warner Bros will soon be dropping any support of Blu-ray. In fact we are going to activate plan X, which all existing blu-ray discs sold by Warner Bros will simultaneously explode, disabling the victims blu-ray player. This of course has been our super secret plan all along.
Thanks for being Faithful, Agent Schmuck, your service is appreciated.
xxxoooxxx
Jim Noonan,
Warner Bros. Senior Vice President and General Manager
P.S. - Can't wait for our next meeting ;-)"
That of course would be close (but not quite) to matching your nonsense....
Cheers....
Maybe they're holding it hostage to get the Pirates set on HD DVD. Or maybe they've decided to go Red and there's no point. Or maybe they're just having too many problems getting their BD-Java scripts to work on 17 subtly different Java engines.
Maybe they just forgot.
LOL, they forgot! That was perfect!
M
All I care about is the movie. I could care less about the special features and PIP.
I do want Batman Begins and The Matrix. Maybe the Matrix Reloaded but Matrix Revolutions can suck my balls.
Warner started out as a red supporter and released its best movies on HD-DVD first. Then they decided to go multiformat and release movies on HD-DVD and BluRay. Ever since then the BluRay titles sold better. So why would they go back to being HD-DVD exclusive, doesn't make sense.
I think I know. Maybe someone in Warner's head office has a hard on for HD-DVD hoping for Toshiba blood money and doesn't want to release the Matrix box set and Batman Begins on BluRay because the sales would be better on BluRay and it would give more ammo to th epeople in Warner that want to drop HD-DVD.
Wow, I bet in your own head that was really funny.
Keep taking the meds.
Or maybe Warner has a business strategy in mind, one where they make money selling on both formats until one knocks the other out, and could give a rats ass what fanboys of an optical disc format think.
sorry Ben. Stop complaining about your blu format and just buy an hd-dvd player already. Surly they pay you enough here at engadget to buy the inexpensive hd-dvd players.
And who started this rumour about warner going blu at ces? They already came out and denied it. And its not like blu is doing better then red compared to last year. Red may still be behind in sales but every day that goes by, red closes the gap closer and closer to blu. If anything, I see warner making a CES announcment that they are going red exclusive. And that right there would be the finishing blow to blu-ray.
Me personally, I dont own either format, so im not gonna complain about any release on any platform. I will buy winner of the war, which will be decided the day manufacturing of the loser comes to a halt. Of course im goping hd-dvd wins. why? Because I like the advantages like being region free, which triples my movies selection, not to mention I can choose the best quality release of a movie. Also, hd dvd seems to have better picture quality on hd-dvds compared to blu-ray. Its like if theres a multi format release, read about them in any quality review forum and people are saying the hd-dvd version looks better.
Why does anyone bother to respond to Truth Teller? He is an antagonist who is probably being fed FUD from the likes of rdjam and offers absolutely NOTHING meaningful to any debate other than to send it to hell and try and piss people off.
His comments are 100% DEAD wrong. CES 2008 is going to be VERY good for bluray.
In fact, I think we should open a betting pool.
The very same reason they bother to respond to the likes of hd4lol, BBG, nfinity, Greg, etc...
These peoples posts are getting worse, either rambling of crazy zealots, tired blanket statements and in general, just stuff to stir the pot. It is getting rather annoying to even look at any HD-DVD or Blu-ray post due to these trolls and zealots mudding it up.
However, about your Warner comment, I think there are going to be a lot of disappointed Blu-ray fans that think Warner is going to go exclusive or anything for that matter of fact. The rumors out now are nothing but, and not even good at that. Words have been severely twisted and parts have been left out to make them fit into the agenda of the Blu-ray zealots. I think it is going to be another dull and boring CES, with nothing but hardware announcements for either side.
I guess we will have to wait and see though.
If the matrix does come out, then i definitely have to find a place where i can sell my 3 matrix dvds, along we/ batman beings, and some others....
EngadgetHD is a very happy place. Always people LOL and LMAO when talking about blu vs red. It *is* equipment for our entertainment, afterall.
Time to go watch The Matrix on HD DVD. Sorry blu fans but, 'NOT YOURS'
I don't see why they aren't on Blu-Ray.
PS3's are already ahead of the curve and are 2.0 complaint as far as I'm aware unless they modify the spec to add more to it.
I hope Warner at least stays neutral but when they do go neutral they cater there disks toward HD-DVD owners due to there disks not being able to handle the extra content(Harry Potter being the only expection I'm aware of) which is then made up by "interactive" features that could also be on the Blu-Ray as well.
Sure, the PS3 with the update can now play the new features, but all of the existing standalone's can't. I think most with a ps3 would understand compatibility issues, while most with a standalone player who plunked down a few grand at BB for a sweet entertainment setup would just expect a bluray disc to work in a bluray player, no matter what.
Warner knows that these people would blame them, and not the player/format, so is probably waiting until more compliant standalones are out in the wild.
Industry insiders have stated that HD DVD association paid off Warner some undisclosed sum of $$$ to keep Matrix and Batman Begins HD DVD exclusive, in a desperate attempt to actually have some decent exclusive titles to temporarily delay its imminent demise at the hands of the blu-ray juggernaut. Too bad for HD DVD that Warner will be going blu-ray exclusive at CES 08, effectively nailing the final nail in the HD DVD coffin.
Has to be red if you want the truth. If you take the blue pill you stay with your mind closed and believe whatever you want to believe.
Funny the parallel to red and blu fans ;-)
@LA26 - I don't believe the PS3 is profile 2.0 compliant at the moment. It needs another firmware update at least.
As far as I'm aware profile 2.0 only details DVD playback and internet connectivity via updates and "interactivity" which the PS3 has had for a while.
Farce Teller (aka Truth Teller)
No, unfortunately I wasn't joking, that *is* how ridiculous and silly you come off when you *act* as if you have some sort of insider HDDVD news for CES that will make blu-ray side weep....
If you have something to claim, claim it, otherwise, it looks childish "I know something you don't know and I'm not tellin'!" Frankly, your HDDVD fanboyness cost you any credibility and anything you say has to be treated with extreme prejudice....
JimC dares bash anyone else's credibility?
Too funny.
HD-DVD is deprecated. :-)
Lets just leave it at that, and start thinkg and acting smart ;-)
Go Blu!
Well, for one, I haven't made any wild ridiculous claims like having insider information. I guess we'll find out how credible you really are in a few weeks. I'm not holding my breath however...
empty promise... that's what Sony does best. (yaya, we're talking about warner here)
Hey Warner,
This is silly.
How on earth did you arrive at the decision not to release this on Blu-ray?
Matrix is a great, innovative movie.
Matrix would sell very well on Blu-Ray.
Am disappointed it's not here in time for Christmas.
Vanguard.