Warner goes Blu-ray exclusive
By Darren Murph 
posted Jan 4th 2008 3:47PM
posted Jan 4th 2008 3:47PM
[Via Deadline Hollywood Daily, thanks Todd]
(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."
Its very interesting reading the debates over formats etc. One thing most people seem to forget in their discussion is that VHS survived decades before they got replaced. Then it took DVD less then 10 years to be phased out by HD format optical disks (BluRay-most likely or HD DVD). How long do you think it will take for entire industry to eliminate the slowest optical digital medium still in use. I'm talking about devices such as CD, DVD, HD DVD etc... We already have technologies that can run circles around all optical devices without the mechanical components such as motors etc. I am sure that solid state technologies (memory sticks, flash etc...) are one of the main reasons for the studios to end the HD DVD and Bluray war as it certainly introduces confusion and slows adoptions which in turn results in lost revenue. It is also certain that the future of all HD media will want to eliminate all machanical/optical aspects of its data processing which are more prone to failures and are the slowest data transfer media . So for those who are smiling after Warner Bro's decision to go 100% BlyRay, please think again, as we will be surely saying Good Bye to BluRay in no time at all. In the end the money makers are surely to be making a good buck on all of us re-re-purchasing the same movies all over again. We should all be able to buy a movie in HD digital format agreed by industry and let us decide which digital media we would like to put it on, period.
I like Blu Ray only cause it sounds cooler than HD-DVD. I mean, come on...HD-DVD, that's so lame. BLU RAY, thats like somethings from a science fiction novel!
happy
agreed
The future is indeed blue!
Actually, it was green for WB it seems. Huge pay off? Block Buster was paid off as well. So rather than release a better product at a better price point, Sony has decided the only way to win the war, is to buy it.
*Blu
Blu it is... Good news for us Blu-Ray adopters.
Disney, Sony, Warner... wonder who else will climb on board?
@ Rick: You got links to support those accusations? And you know Sony isn't the sole company backing Blu-Ray, right?
Whatever Rick. Remember the pay-off HD-DVD camp paid to Paramount?
Thank goodness. I've always thought Blu Ray was the most pragmatic choice but my confidence has been shaken by the deep pockets of Microsoft. I'm hoping that now Warner is going Blu Ray that this whole stupid, artificially prolonged war is going to end this year and consumers, studios and manufacturers can get on and make the most of it.
Rick you m0r0n, M$ paid a MASSIVE HD-DVD bribe to Paramount last year! 150 MILLION DOLLARS I believe.
@DelSource, not sure if the amount was confirmed, but Microsoft denied they paid any incentive; it appeared to be Toshiba.
The sad fact is, both sides are paying studios (& others) and the result is not favorable for the consumer. The more these two groups invest in briding studios, distributors, and retail stores, the more they're going to have to make up by charging the consumers. The winner of this war isn't going to slash prices for us as they'll need to recoop their investments spent on deals made to win ... instead of winning on merits. We all lose in these battles.
@ ChillyWilly
quote "Disney, Sony, Warner... wonder who else will climb on board?"
Almost every CE company in the world has been on board with Blu from the get go except for hmm....oh yeah...the twosome MSFT and Toshiba. It's probably quiet and lonely tonight at those two companies' hi-def divisions.
fanboy meltdown, imminent...
Time to buy a PS3... i like this bandwagon, we sing songs on the bus
Awesome. Xbox supports Divx now so what do I care what physical format the studios are paid off to side with?
Who doesn't love Tron? I thought this was humourous:
http://img4.imagebanana.com/img/32sz30fm/tron1.gif
Like so many others, I don't care who wins. I'm a consumer fanboy.
The advent of the upconverting DVD player, and my anger toward both sides in this format war have helped me decide to boycott both formats.
When (if) ALL studios get behind one or the other, then my boycott ends.
Heck, Toshiba seems to be having a bit of a hissy fit: http://www.tivolovers.com/2008/01/04/toshiba-comments-on-warners-blu-ray-move/
So does this mean BR will start dropping their ridiculous high ass prices for their players? HD should be better off joining BR and become a one format. Not sure what I'm going to do with the 5 HD movies that I own.
Man, I hate this format war. However, I am glad that decisions like this are not causing me any more pain...I paid in advance, and have both a Ps3 for Blu-Ray, and the Xbox HD-DVD add on. ^_^...
bring it on
You know, at first I was all for HD-DVD... But I just don't care anymore. I think Blu-Ray kinda has it in the bag.
No way, I totally heard that Sony is taking all it's studios to HDDVD in June.
Andir3.0:
Please die in a hole. Now.
Your just mad cause you didn't think of it first. =)
YES!!! Take that M$
YES!!! Take that consumer /sarcasm
GO $ONY! or GO DUBAI!?
Please tell me I'm not the only one whos pissed at this whole format war. First Dreamworks goes to HD-DVD now Warner goes Blu-ray. You can't even watch the movies you want to on one HD format. I mean come on what about Batman! HD-DVD and Blu-ray should kiss and make up then have a single format child. I'm sorry, I must be dreaming. Well, I'm going to go cry in a corner for purchasing an HD-DVD player.
I has teh hate for vendor lock too, Colonel Smith - but one war at a time. Let's get rid of DRM first, then worry about HD DVD format wars.
I love my $99 HD-A2 player, even though only 1 out of every 10 discs I put in it is hidef. It upconverts beautifully and it's 1080i max resolution is perfect for my second gen Mitsubishi HDTV. Even if HD DVD goes the way of DIVX (not Divx, btw) and Beta, I'm not going to regret purchasing it for a second.
[says in Dori voice] - There there - it's alright. Have you seen that video on youtube? You can use it as a great cup holder! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IvE_dONJIWU [end Dori voice]
oh man...looks like Sony is finally going to win one of its format wars. ARGHHH
Sony must be writing some big checks!
What, like MS did last year when it paid Paramount 150 MILLION DOLLARS to stay red? Some short memories here today.
So much for Sony's comments about wishing to go back in time to avoid this format war...
Yeah, because Warner's decision is only going to prolong the format war.....
What are you on?
Come on Truth Teller tell us some f**cking Truth? HD-DVD gonna win? i think not.
Yay! My PS3 is actually worth something now! Big surprise... *(sarcasm) nothing to see here move along...
It'd be worth a heck of a lot more if sony would stop blocking 3rd party access to the graphics chip.
But then, the fact that it's worth /something/ says a lot, eh, Microsoft?
At least The Matrix trilogy made it out on HD-DVD. And does anyone know if these exclusives are like video games. For example, can WB release a given movie on HD-DVD after a set time period? Take Spiderman 3, probably the last movie to ever show up on HD-DVD, but why would Sony refuse easy money like that. Sell it on your own format until sales die, then release it on the opposite one. That sounds easy enough.
*Correction: Spider-Man 3 came out ONLY on Blu-Ray (it is a Sony Pictures feature after all).
I know, I mean to say: "Take Spiderman 3, probably BE the last movie to ever
It has begun...
Wow. That's all I got. Wow.
So, lets say Blu Ray wins this whole war (which it looks like they will) does that mean that the studios that initially went HD DVD exclusive will be able to switch later? Basically, will all movies be made available on whichever format eventally 'wins?'
You can count on it. The hollywood studio imbalance is so lopsided now in Blu-ray's favor, it would be suicide not to support it.
Probably. I remember long ago when a friend of mine had purchased Ghostbusters on Beta. And then they put it on VHS as well.
I guess we should wait to see who will win this "war" before we buy any movies.
Or, if players fall in the $100 range, buy both players if you must have HD content now.
I won't... I don't have an HDTV!
Eff that. I already bought Transformers on HD-DVD. The only movie I got on HD-DVD. I will hold on to that and my XBox360 external HD-DVD drive either way, it can always be used as an external DVD player anyway.
I used to root for HD-DVD, but it's starting to seem like Blu-Ray is winning. Doesn't matter to me, the sooner this is over, the better.
This ensures that I won't be purchasing or renting any Warner titles on this generation's HD media
Get over it. You knew you took a chance becoming an early adopter. As much as I think the studios should let the market decide, I'm glad the war is over. This one is really the final nail in a coffin that's way overdue to go underground.
I refuse to buy a unfinished format that more importantly is region locked. Thats why I bought HD DVD, but it looks like Warner doesn't want my money. I called and told them as much as well.
Don't expect Blu-ray to ever exceed DVD usage. Considering the masses don't even have HDTVs.
( Ralph Wiggum voice )"...I cho-cho-choose Blu-Ray"
Nice, finally!
Well at least my soon to be paper weight HD-DVD player only cost me $100
I agree, it upscales DVD very nicely. And for $98.88 it's actually right inline with the players that only upscale, without any HD format.
My only complaint is that Blu-ray is so anti-consumer. Imagine a day when you go buy your shiny, new Blu-ray movie, pop it in your Sony PS3 and a dialog box comes up that asks, "would you like to play this movie on this device?" and you think "hell yeah I do" only to find out that now that movie won't play on your BR player in the bedroom or at your friend's house. Want to watch it somewhere else? Buy another copy.
Big media's wet dream.
"My only complaint is that Blu-ray is so anti-consumer. Imagine a day when you go buy your shiny, new Blu-ray movie, pop it in your Sony PS3 and a dialog box comes up that asks, "would you like to play this movie on this device?" and you think "hell yeah I do" only to find out that now that movie won't play on your BR player in the bedroom or at your friend's house. Want to watch it somewhere else? Buy another copy."
That's the fear you should have with HD DVD, which MANDATES an ethernet port. Just get a BD 1.0 or 1.1 player, and you won't ever have this issue. (although I doubt you'll have that problem ever).
Finally a tipping point. I don't give a shit if HDDVD or BluRay wins. I just want a single format!
Pisses me off, this BD/HDDVD exclusive thing!
Why not let the consumer choose, and release on both? Oooooh nooooo! That'd be way too simple *sigh*
Guess money talks, the end-user with the wrong player walks :|
of course money talks. these guys aren't in business to not make a profit. have you overlooked the fact that these are the same companies that feel it's ok for theaters to charge you 10 bucks for a movie ticket?
Look, noob--THEY ALREADY GAVE CONSUMERS THE CHOICE AND CONSUMERS CHOSE BLU-RAY!! This is over. Stick a fork in it.
Get over yourself and admit defeat already. Sheesh.
The end result: a resolution to the format war is good for everyone! Now we can move on with our lives and start buying the format that will inevitably dominate the marketplace. Remember when all the manufacturers got together and decided on ONE FORMAT? Remember the good ol' fashioned DVD? Remember what happened afterwards? IT BECAME THE FASTEST GROWING CONSUMER TECHNOLOGY IN HISTORY!
Establishing ONE format will help us move on. This is a good thing, regardless of who the victor is. To all you RED fans--you tried and it didn't work. It looks blu, my friends. Embrace it!
On the one hand, people complain about "confusion" and competing formats. On the other, those *same people* complain about "exclusives".
News flash: if you want one format, *everything* will be exclusive to it. That's just the way it is.
This is a necessary step.
You can expect Dreamworks to make the switch as soon as their HD-DVD contract is up. They'll have no choice at that point.
Blu-ray wins! :P
What if Gates announces a HD-DVD 360?...and Jobs announces a download/rental service?
Some major what ifs. The war is not over.
Red Alert - Downloadable movies at this point don't matter. Even HD ones are compressed so much they look bad on a decent size screen. Until people have 10MBit+ internet connections in their homes it would take FOREVER to download a movie equal to the quality of BR.
To be honest if Gates does announce an HD-DVD Xbox 360 it won't help HD-DVD cause. If it was originally installed into the 360 maybe, but now that the 360 has a high installation rate people aren't going to go out and buy a new one just cause it has HD-DVD. And given the choice between the 360 with the HD-DVD drive and the PS3 with a bluray drive people are going to go PS3 because more movie studios are backing Bluray. Ultimately it would be a waste of money for Microsoft. I mean why do you think they didn't install it to begin with, they knew they were going to lose in the end.
It is over.
Warner has by far released more HD content than any other studio. This is HD-DVD-doom.
It wouldn't matter if Gates announced that all 360:s starting from today would come with HD-DVD. It would still be over. Period.
Jason M most European countries do have 10Mb+ ISP's. I myself am on Virgin's 20Mb which they are increasing to 100Mb some time this year apparently so your argument is only valid for the US I'd say.
Good riddance, the Warner HDDVD's had the worst quality and I really wish I hadn't rented or purchased any of them. Some looked worse than upconverted DVD's in my opinion. I love my player and it will suit me well as an upscaler since dvd's have dropped to $5 each and for the rest, I will just download until we don't use discs anymore. My only wish is to get one last firmware upgrade to turn my HD DVD player into a PAL compatible, xvid/divx, netflix online watching beast that perhaps watches youtube videos? Pretty Please? That would make it the best deal ever. (I am guessing HD signed on with Netflix for live downloading or something similar with a firmware update -> thus the big announcement). Oh, and Sony can go F*¢% itself, I have always hated that company.
I think this is the end, but don't forget that WB is not the only movie studio. There's still universal and paramount.
That said, MS could still announce a new xbox, as long as they were planning on doing it correctly: new form factor more in line with home theater gear, RS232 control, bluetooth, wifi built in, a 500Gb HDD, and a DVR blade, all built on the 65nm stuff. Drop the 360's by 50 bucks, and put the new one in at 499.
There would be nothing to be shy about if that was the new xbox they were thinking about introducing.
That it does. It will go nicely in the bedroom!
Looks like it's going to be upscaling DVD and downloads for me then.
I'm not even going to consider buying a BD player until I can get a 2.0 for under $300, with an ethernet port, which I don't expect to happen for at least another year, maybe 2.
So fuck BD, I refuse to be their beta tester. Call me when the final product is released.
yep! same here
hopefully it's not too late to ebay the HD-DVD's I have
Scott;
Bullcrap. Consumer had nothing to do with the 'choice' of formats.
There are only 3 factors that tipped to Blu-Ray's favor; money from Sony, 3.4 million PS3's sold and the studio's choices.
If you look at stand-alone Hi-Def players, they are 3 or 4 to 1 in favor of HD-DVD. But, if you add in the PS3 which has been available before most Hi-Def players, the numbers radically flip in Blu-Ray's flavor.
But, I can guarantee you that a larger percentage bought PS3 for games vs. movies.
Am I pissed that my Hi-Def player seems to be on the way out, yes I am. I thought I made a good choice, but apparently not.
Now I'm unsure if I'll get a stand-alone Blu-Ray to put on top of my HD-DVD or if I'll buy a combo player when prices come down.
Sheesh...
Mr. David, the consumer did indeed choose Blu, I think you need to do a bit more research, for one there are way more than 3.4 million PS3's out there, there is actually about 8.8 million, and those who bought a PS3 got the 2 for 1 combo, a awesome gaming machine and a High Def player, a very smart move by Sony to include the Blu-Ray in their console.
And stand alone players may not have sold as well as HD DVD but it was not 3 to 1, not even 2 to 1. The fact of the matter is there are more Blu-ray drives out there regardless if they are in a PS3 or not, and that led to Blu-Ray titles outselling HD DVD by a vast amount.
And if you think Sony's money did it, look at Toshiba bud, them and Microsoft were paying people left and right, massive ad campaigns, false statements, losing money on each player they sold.
As for your decision on a HD DVD player, it was your own stupidity, I knew from the moment that the PS3 released that Blu-ray would win, and that's why I've been enjoying my HD Blu-ray movies for over a year now.
fair enough, standalone hardware sales are indeed in favour of hd-dvd. how about software? isn't that what the movie studios are interested in?
@David
"There are only 3 factors that tipped to Blu-Ray's favor; money from Sony, 3.4 million PS3's sold and the studio's choices."
I have to point out to yet another moron that MS paid Paramount $150million to stay red last year. Did you complain about "money" influencing decisions then?
@DelSource
'Yet another moron', eh?
Geez. Re-read my post. I wasn't complaining about money exchanging hands, I was merely correcting the comment that consumer choice soley determined the outcome of Warner (or anyone for that matter) turing to Blu-Ray.
Moron...
To quote Metal Gear Solid 3:
"The sky was Blu(e), but there was no God."
But seriously, I've been staying out of the format war until the death of one of the formats...which looks soon.
Didn't the porn industry choose HD-DVD?
Yes, but they also are now supporting Bluray! Pirates Was the first and they are all starting to waver. Plus which it is not as important as it was between Betamax and VHS. The amount of Porn on the internet and cheap DVD's makes it so it's definitely not as important as VHS and Betamax war.
your expertise in this matter frightens me...
Is it hard to type with a sticky keyboard?
hahahaha, most of this info was taken from Tech blogs such as Engadget ;)
@Douglas:
Pirates wasn't the first :)
If this is confirmed, I'm going back to DVD. Blu-Ray costs too much. It's destined to be the new laserdisc.
Confirmed?
Warner released a press release, how much more confirmed can you get?
Bluray costs too much?.....Oh yeah, I forgot things NEVER get cheaper they just stay expensive forever.
cduran, do you even know how much Blu-Ray players are NOW? Not in the future, NOW.
Well, at least I got my hd-dvd player and 7 movies for 110$ (mail in fee) and then found a couple favorites on sale for 20$
Getting a ps3 as well, so purple all the way!
wurd.
this is awful. i want to watch quality VC1 movies, not crappy mpeg bullsh**. like before, the inferior format wins, *cough, cough, VHS*. anyways, looks like it's time to put my xbox 360 hd dvd player to rest, and hope another price drop occurs for failure that is the PS3. gotta save my $$$ for this POS now. lol
flame on
Please, noob, educate yourself. Blu-ray can also do VC-1. Not only that, but just because the it's VC-1 doesn't mean the HD transfer is automatically perfect. Example:
http://hddvd.highdefdigest.com/game.html
One of the worst looking HD-DVD's! OMG it uses VC-1 :o Anyways, the only real difference in the two formats is the amount of space they hold. And blu-ray wins in that department.
I have to agree with ColonelSmith, the war is bogus. They are trying to remove the consumer from the decision. I won't be buying any HD DVD's until the price comes down to something more reasonable. Even then I will hesitate to buy Blu-Ray because of Sony's track record with proprietary formats, and I'm still pissed at them for their sneaky little DRM root kit.
What isn't reasonable about HD-DVD prices?
I just want Criterion to release in High Def, so if we are closer to a coffin for one of the two formats all the better! Just give me the Criterion Collection!!!
Well it's over. Time to save up for BD/HD DVD combo player.