New Line confirms it'll follow in Warner's Blu footsteps
By Ben Drawbaugh 
posted Jan 5th 2008 4:45PM
posted Jan 5th 2008 4:45PM
As if anyone expected anything different, New Line confirmed with Variety Magazine that it'll follow Warner to the Blu-ray promise land. While this is a no brainer considering the relationship between Warner and New Line, (also owned by Time Warner, just like Engadget) other studios remain up in the air. When, and if, Universal makes the switch as well is any ones guess, but at this point we doubt many would expect otherwise. But, as we've learned in the last few days, anything's possible, but the idea of having one HD format to adopt is something even most members of the red camp can get behind.
im in the download camp, down with optical media.
I think it'd be more wise to join the faster-connection-speeds camp first...
with current pathetic speeds on an average connection (2-4mbps) it would take days to even download a 720p movie... and weeks to download anything higher then that...
100MB connection both ways ftw!
My 1.5mbit connection isnt as ready as you are for HD downloads.
I have Comcast and dont pay for anything special but I get about 14mbps down and 2mbps up. I think the speeds are there and you can definitely download HD movies in hours if the other party has the upload. You can already rent HD(although a bit more compressed) movies from Xbox Live. I think something they will really need to make sure they do is have no DRM because people want to be able to use those HD videos on more than just their one computer or player in their house. People should be able to buy the license and watch the movie where they please and not have to worry about backing up their copy because they did purchase it and should be able to download it again if lost. It wont really increase piracy if you have no DRM because even with DRM there isn't a movie or tv show you cannot get yet most people are still purchasing the content legitimately.
I can also vouch for comcast. Here in oak ridge, we get unusually high speeds (for cable) of 13-20 mpbs down and 2-5 mbps up.
Yeah, good luck with downloading 50GB of 1080p goodness.
Hey Chris. I would like to introduce you to a concept...the rest of the world meet Chris. Chris meet the rest of the world that DOESN'T have the same pipe that YOU have.
I'm so sick of coming onto forums where someone says well I have this....or my original 360 hasn't died so they all must be fine. No let me clue you in to a fact: much of America doesn't have a pipe fat enough to handle speedy downloads of HD content and event if it did lets say you and 12 other people in your neighborhood were all downloading a 1.5GB file all at the same time eating up 100% of your possible bandwidth...do you have any concept as to what your connective connection speed would degrade to? We are NOT talking 4MB iTunes tracks here. The US could bring Comcast, QWEST, et all to its knees if we all started download large amounts of content.
And then there is the question as to where I'm expected to play this content. Burn it? Yah as if the MPAA would ever really allow that. Transfer it to a mythical box connected to my 46" TV that doesn't exist? Or better yet watch it on my 20" computer monitor.....in my den...
Seriously people need to get a damn clue....HD downloads on a scale that iTunes is doing are probably at minimum 5 years away....at minimum.
agree, no optical restraints for me. I have plenty of BW and get a full 1080p movie in 40mins to an hr.
just stock up on additional hdd, those prices continue to drop :D
what about the people downloading hd video on a daily basis already? it doesnt have to be as fast as standard def. a hi-def film can be distributed at under 3gb, a bit more compression than on a disk but people put up with a lot more compression on mp3's for convenience.
If you're lucky enough to live on a campus with a Direct Connect hub, downloading HD movies only takes around 20 minutes...assuming someone else on the hub BTed it already. Luckily for me, one guy on the hub has a whole ton of HD movies. 720p movies are about 8 GB. Very few rips are 1080p anyway.
Ahh so Engadget is going Blu, too?
Apparently.
I'm just curious... what companies release major info on the weekends? As of yesterday, new line was still doing HD DVD, so why flop on a Saturday when the markets are closed?
This whole thing stinks if you ask me. Friend of mine just bought all the seasons of Smallville, Heroes, and BSG on HD DVD a month ago. The fact that they were on HD DVD was mainly the driving force behind his decision to go with HD DVD. Now less then a month later, it's looking like he just threw a thousand bucks into the toilet. And companies wonder why the adoption rate for either hidef format is so low compared to DVD. Bastards.
Ummm cash. If your friend didn't realize that there is a 50/50 chance of either format failing and his content becoming useless he's another in a long line of morons. Its called early adopter for a reason. Love or hate BR this is actually good news....kinda...I hate BR as a format but this should speed up the war a bit. An exec at WB stated they did this to try and bring this war to a close. You can NOT deny that doing this is a good thing. Just because your friend, you, and I may be bitter they HD DVD probably won't win and the media in the long run will fall by the wayside doesn't make this a valid choice for WB.
@Jon
Limiting the consumer's options is a "good thing?" What kind of bizzare upside down world do you call home? As I said, he went HDDVD because at that time the stuff he wanted was available *only* on that format. Silly him, he though that was an indication of HDDVD being a solid choice. I don't think any of us who purchased an HDDVD product were worried about our format of choice facing the chopping block not because it wasn't the better format, but rather a couple key studios chose to sell out and hose us. Myself, I'm not as badly burned by all of this as some others, as my player was one of the 99 dollar HD-A2's Walmart offered up last November, and the only HDDVD's I own were the ones I reveived free with purchase. As it stands, even if the format goes the way of beta, it's still a beautiful upscaling dvd player for under a hundred bucks.
And yes, I know what it means to be an early adopter. My second gen Mitsubisi HDTV has 3 lovely sets of component inputs, and not a single HDMI port. Nothing like being one of the dupes that bought into the hype and helped get the format off the ground, only to be shot in the proverbial kneecaps and left in the dust.
Lord of the Rings. Here we come!
@Cash -- Look at the 'Read' link. This news about New Line came out Friday.
@Cash
How did your friend throw 1000 bucks in the toilet? Are his discs going to melt away without the love of their parent studio?
"Silly him, he though that was an indication of HDDVD being a solid choice."
Couldn't have put it better myself.
@Jon Doe
50/50 chance? or... 50gb/200gb chance?
we have a winner!
So what does this really mean for both camps right now? I know that it deals quite a blow to HD-DVD, but is it enough to give a serious bias for one camp or the other? I really don't care too much who wins, but I'd rather it be over soon, and if this gives a serious advantage to Blu-ray, then hopefully the format war will be over in the near future (at least for a few years until they bring out those fancy holographic disks).
Blu-Ray was already way out in front of HD-DVD. There's a reason Variety said this might be a "death blow" for HD-DVD. HD-DVD was struggling at best already, and it had a terrible Christmas in relation to Blu-Ray. This is probably too much for them to overcome.
Umm Jeff that is a load of shit. HD DVD players were flying off the damn shelves at those $199 price points. I spoke with several reps at Best Buy, Circuit City, and Target. the drives were going out as fast as they got them in. BR on the other hand was selling but hardly as the same pace and at no point was I not able to find a BR player in stock. PS3's are another matter. However I doubt that the average PS3 player is buying the device (That is double the price of the cheapest HD DVD player.) for movies.
I am however a bit amazed that WB didn't wait until holiday results were in before making this decision. Little bit odd.
Blu-ray just locked up %75 of Hollywood, exclusively. You've have to be insane to think HDDVD is gonna survive on Universal and Paramount alone at this point.
But nevermind that, this is devastation in terms of consumer perception. There are tons of people at this moment returning or planning to return their HDDVD Christmas gifts, players and movies alike, and many are hitting ebay as we speak. There's no coming back from the consumer dumping happening this month, and let's not get started with the retailers, the rumblings aren't pretty.
But What do I know?! Maybe TruthTeller or Nfinity, in the vein of the Iraqi Information Minister they so adeptly imitate, will tell us different, like they always do :)
WB going to BD gives them 75% of the HD market share (studios), and basically spells the end for HD-DVD.
Wait and see what format the porn industry uses. All the HD DVD camp has to do is pull in the porn studios and they can hold their head high. The war is far from over.
Porn? Pirates sold extremely well on Blu-ray it seems.
What is shocking is people are still paying for pr0n.
I've always rooted for the HD-DVD camp, if for no other reason than it's been fun to see Sony on the back foot for a while. That said, I own a PS3 and 360/HDDVD and have a decent collection of movies for both.
I can't help but feel that regardless of who "wins" this war, both sides will ultimately be losers as it's surely only a matter of time until streaming or purchased downloads are a reality for the typical consumer.
If anyone had asked me a couple of years back if I would ever stop buying CD's and would download music online instead I would have laughed. Yet here I am with my entire CD collection in a cupboard, and all the content on a disk drive not having purchased any new titles on CD for nearly two years (I still buy vinyl, but only for really special albums).
My only concern is that downloaded content will be "just the basics", highly compressed streams, no frills and extras etc, and ofc, no physical disk and package to hold (and lets not even start on DRM possibilities, let's all pray the powers that be kill it dead).
Time will tell...
Dani, I agree totally with your last paragraph. Downloaded music is fine ( I too have hundreds of CDs gathering dust) but I would really miss the extras that you get on physical DVD's. Much of the "special" features are mere filler, but there is often very interesting material as well. But then I'm an old timer who still misses my LP's with the cover art, liner notes, and other promo goodies that the big releases used to include. No, I wouldn't want to go back to LP's and audio and video tapes only, things ARE far better now, but I suppose time, and technology, has no sense of nostalgia...
me too on the last paragraph. i dont like streaming media because a) it totally doesnt work and you always have to pause it (at least on my 2.2mbit connection) and wait for it to buffer and b) because there is no physical copy for you to keep and enjoy whenever you want, even if the 'net is down.
if all the tv and film studios could release their content as 1080p xvids with no drm and under 3gig each i would pay the same as a dvd or maybe even more.
its just that i know well end up with streaming as the future of media consumption simply because its the delivery method that sucks the most ass, hence the support for blu-ray in this war. but even with all the suckyness i would still support blu-ray over a stream because i could just rip it with anydvd and have the drm-free digital file that me and every single other person in the world wants right now.
god i hate the people who make the decisions about piracy. they dont understand that people want movies on their computer and that there is no decent way to get them there legally. i think that a lot of the people who use torrents would pay for official ones, even without high def, if the money mostly went to the people who actually made it and it had some kind of server seeding so its really fast.
like a comment i read the other day "have any of the people responsible ever actually been on the internet?"
end of off topic rant :)
me too on the last paragraph. i dont like streaming media because a) it totally doesnt work and you always have to pause it (at least on my 2.2mbit connection) and wait for it to buffer and b) because there is no physical copy for you to keep and enjoy whenever you want, even if the 'net is down.
if all the tv and film studios could release their content as 1080p xvids with no drm and under 3gig each i would pay the same as a dvd or maybe even more.
its just that i know well end up with streaming as the future of media consumption simply because its the delivery method that sucks the most ass, hence the support for blu-ray in this war. but even with all the suckyness i would still support blu-ray over a stream because i could just rip it with anydvd and have the drm-free digital file that me and every single other person in the world wants right now.
god i hate the people who make the decisions about piracy. they dont understand that people want movies on their computer and that there is no decent way to get them there legally. i think that a lot of the people who use torrents would pay for official ones, even without high def, if the money mostly went to the people who actually made it and it had some kind of server seeding so its really fast.
like a comment i read the other day "have any of the people responsible ever actually been on the internet?"
end of off topic rant :)
oops double post :( the aforementioned crappy internet isnt working.
Digital downloads are the future, but a far away future, but we'll see optical media for a while IMO. Can you download 1080p video at a reasonable speed? Will you be able to in some years (at a humanly affordable price (again, outside Japan and Sweden))?
Blu-ray LOTR. Peow.
LORT stand for?
Lord of the Rings?
Yah maybe in a couple years when the BR standard is actually finalized and every player ships with it. I personally don't want to see a LOTR BR until they can add some of the sweet features found on HD DVD that have been there since it was released.
Fox + WB + Sony = Epic Win. All my favorite movies are on those studios, and especially the movies I'd actually want to see in HD.
It's called Epic Movie, not Epic Win. Jeesh.
Steve, please refer to your copy of "The Idiot's Guide to the Internet," (version 352 or later.) I believe you will find an answer there. Maybe your sense of humor, too? We can only hope...
Ed, I think you need to buy "Idiot's Guide to Sense of Humor" It's a great book!
IT WAS A FAILED JOKE, OK?
It's over for us in the red camp. I'll be waiting until they finalize the spec. and get it up to HD DVD's features before I finally dive in. In the meantime I looking forward to some great deals on HD DVDs.
Engadget=anti-sony hq. Is this why everyone is disappointed?
Glad to hear that many are turning to the Blu-ray.
50 GB movie downloads is only possible in Sweden and Japan (and you know why!?)
I don't think full movie download is a good idea in the near feature, but movie rentals would be a great alternative to Blockbuster.
I gotta ask. How many times do you have to report on the same subject? I think this is the 5th within the last 24 hours. Obviously someone or multiple someone's are BR fanbois. Personally I feel sorry for anyone who is looking for something more then just a movie since BR is still dicking around with the format and not even half the players are compatible with the current BR feature set. But hey. Who needs quality. Its a moot point for me. I'm not touching BR until a player falls under $200 so meh. Mean time I'm going to continue to buy HD DVD content because of the money I saved on the player. If BR ever gets their shit together and comes out with a cheap player that has a finalized spec then lets talk.
The writers have to post a certain number of pieces per month. Witness: the 300 HP product posts a couple of days ago.
Humm, you're calling others fanboys. I've read the posts and you seem the fanboy who wants to cry. Just give it up; it's nonsense and you're making yourself look pretty bad. The was ending is a good thing for everyone. Even for people who still have HD DVD; Warner even gave them more months of movies.
BTW, you complain about the profiles and compatibility. Remember DVD-R/DVD+R?
Something will come up to solve that.
I really did prefer HD-DVD, I think it was better for it's marginal benefits for the consumer like a lack of region coding, but mainly for the smaller distributors, who make most of the films I actually like, because it was slightly cheaper for them to use.
But still, we're in a better position than we were yesterday because at least the market's not up in the air.
Just imagine - the next xbox/nintendo console will in all probability use Blu-Ray disks. I don't think the consumer really chose in this battle but it's unlikely to make much of a difference, and the HD-DVD camp were using pretty much all the same tactics, only Toshiba don't make a successful games console.
Dang, I just bought the HD-DVD player for my xbox too. Someday I guess I will go Blu-ray as well because I will end up buying a PS3 but I just can't see buying something that has games that don't appeal to me right now.
At this point, I know HD-DVD is going to suffer but I still have some hope that things can change in favor of them.
Does anyone know what the market share is in High def sales of the studio's supporting blu ray and of the ones who are supporting hd-dvd? This should give a clear picture on the outcome of this format war that's been going on for way to long now.
I was really hoping this Blu-ray "win" wouldn't happen. Initially I preferred Blu-ray over HD-DVD because of its higher capacity, but I have really come to dislike Sony forcing DRM down our throats and Blu-ray certainly fits in that category. Blu-ray is about the most anti-consumer format out there.
HD-DVD isn't a lot better that way, but it is a little better. It at least has one less layer of DRM.
HD-DVD really had (has?) some cool things going for it... most movies released so far on HD-DVD actually use higher capacity discs (only about 50% of Blu-ray are the double layer 50GB variety vs 86% dual layer on HD-DVD) and more prevalent use of better codecs (97% of HD-DVD use VC-1/AVC, vs 64% of Blu-ray). Also, HD-DVD discs have better interactivity, and don't support region coding. So you get a better experience, and aren't prevented from importing titles from overseas. Pushing me over the edge was the Managed Copy feature, which would let you legally copy your movies to a computer/server so you don't have to have the physical disc with you to watch a movie. The same can't be said of Blu.
But maybe then again studios don't like those features... They have to pay higher royalties on the newer codecs, have to spend more money on developing more special features on discs, and want to limit release schedules for titles in different regions. And we know they don't want us to put our movies on computers because they want to sell us another copy for playback on a new device/format. Maybe it makes sense that the studios would pick Blue over Red. They certainly have a track record of doing consumer unfriendly things, don't they.
"I've always rooted for the HD-DVD camp, if for no other reason than it's been fun to see Sony on the back foot for a while." - Dani.
I agree with Dani on that.
I despised Sony for ruining the PS3 with over-priced technology that no one, at the time, knew if it would last or not. After all, Developers still cringe at the thought of the PS3 Kits, and this "Cell Processor" is nothing special.
Here we are some years later, and the tide is shifting towards Blu-Ray for only this line of reasoning: The PS3 is now a cheap HD Player with a piss poor library of games!!
I would watch, and buy, movies all day long too if I purchased a six hundred dollar gaming machine with no games...
However, its obviously over, and although I was sulking about the PS3, its true that Blu-Ray offers more to consumers than HD DVD.
I am happy this day has come, and that the end of the "format wars" has come.
Unfortunately, like most posts have pointed out...
...the world is shifting into a digital age.
Solid State FTW!!
Blu-Ray will be used for years, but I see it being phased out and only used as a cheap alternative to backing up data until we have the cheap technology to do that too.
Note: You consumer fanboys are making the transformation harder by purchasing everything in sight. Stop buying expensive shit because its cool.
The sooner you learn to be patient, the better, for our world and the technology that will follow.
I had to give you a plus for the RTCW logo.
One nice thing about the Xbox 360 is that if Blu-ray truly does take over, MS could release a Blu-ray drive that works with the 360. Don't know if it would ever happen, but it is possible.
You do know Microsoft is behind HD-DVD. Unless HD-DVD has literally 0 hollywood support, MS would never stop making HD-DVD addon.
I think Universal will stick with the HD DVD...
Guys, to download 720p and 1808p movies isn't a 50GB ordeal. Do you download 4GB every time you download a DVD? No, it's encoded.
x264 ftw.
1080p, typo, but I know I'll get jumped on for it.
uncompressed video and audio and special features don't come with the downloaded versions either.
Except BluRay/HD-DVD's are all already encrypted as MPEG-4/VC-1, so unlike DVD's where MPEG-4/H.264 will offer a lot of extra compression, it won't offer a thing for HD. The last thing I want is a horribly pixelated, over compressed movie without lossless audio that takes me a day to download. I'll stick to buying media until a download offers something better, not lesser.
DVDs you're downloading at 640x480 interlaced (max) are encoded at low bit rates at very lossy codecs. BDs are encoded at high bit rates, even with H.264 (a.k.a. AVC) and are 1920x1080 progressive. Point is, they're already as compressed as you'd want them to be for an HDTV viewing experience. There's just an order of magnitude more data there.
As I've said elsewhere, if you see a new Blu-ray 1.1 player output an H.264-encoded disc at 1080/24p via HDMI to a new 1080/24p LCD with 120Hz and 1 to 1 pixel mapping, you will become a believer. (Each of those specs is very meaningful.)
Who does HD-DVD have left?
Universal and Paramount. And Paramount's exclusivity agreement for HD-DVD ends in February of 2009.
I think HD-DVD will hang on for the time being, but if Universal decides to go Blu-Ray exclusive in the coming months, then it truly will be game over I think. Paramount and Dreamworks will inevitably switch to Blu-ray when their deals with HD-DVD expire, unless they have a get out clause to make that happen sooner.
um, mr cash, i'm pretty sure your friend will still be able to watch all the hd-dvd's of heroes and smallville, they won't suddenly stop working.
I was pretty firmly in the HD-DVD camp, but even I have to call a loss a loss. We're beaten, and I'll accept that. I didn't have much invested in HD-DVD, luckily, so I'll be able to make the switch to Blu-Ray without a fuss. While I hate kowtowing to Sony, I recognize that after so many of their formats have bombed, they were due for a success.
So congratulations to Sony and the Blu-Ray camp. You win. I'm giving up on HD-DVD, because really, there is NO point to devoting myself to that format if most of the studios are now behind Blu-Ray, and even Apple is a Blu-Ray supporter.
I still prefer downloads to buying HD discs, though.
Duh, it was obvious this would happen. Its all a scheme by Sony to get the companies to Blu Ray by making it cheap for the companies. And in return allow them to sell PS3's.
or maybe not... since the PS3 will also need more quality games.
Can't wait for LOTR extended cut in 1080p on a single disc. HD DVD would have required 2 discs per movie. I'm sure the movies will come in 2 disc sets for the extras two since almost 4 hours won't leave any room on the 50GB discs.
Profile 2 is supposed to be released this year as well, so we could see LOTR by the end of the year with all those dumb online features for those that like them.
4 Hours won't fit on a 45GB triple layer HD-DVD? Yes the same triple layer that all HD-DVD players are capable of reading. 51GB hasn't been tested, but 45GB support has been there since day one.
I wonder how many more early model BR players are going to get ebay'd because they aren't upgradeable from 1.1 to 2.0. Sure the movie would still play , but wouldn't that suck to have a movie you love with extras you actually wanted yet only be able to hit the play button? guess it would stby.
@webdev511
Fellowship Extended - 3.5 hours
Two Towers Extended - 3.75 hours
Return Extended - 4 hours.
Do the math and that's 11.25 hours straight - not possible in 1080p on any format right now, but possible in SD with maybe a slight bit of lossless compression.
Universal could and might switch but aren't Paramount and Dreamworks contractually obligated to stay HD DVD exclusive for another year and a half? Their library is not insiginficant. So could this be something that could prevent Blu from being a complete movie solution for some time?
Year and a month. Their agreement was from August of 2007 to February of 2009.
And Paramount's big movie this year (the new Indiana Jones movie) will be on both formats because Spielberg's movies were exempted in the agreement.
I think that HD-DVD has been handed its head.
Blu-ray in Mortal Kombat fashion: ''FINISH HIM!!!''
This pretty much sums up the current situation
http://i2.tinypic.com/6t04mz8.jpg
I guess things are different in the USA, but here in Canada 1.5 meg internet service is considered "lite" now, with a half meg service being the slowest "ultra-lite" service you can get in many areas.
Standard service is in the 3.5 to 5 meg range, with 8 megs being the "semi-premium" service, and 10 megs (premium) being available residentially for about $50/Month.
Business customers can go faster yet..no problem.
I have the 10 meg service myself...not because I necessarily need it, but it's paid for by a third party, so why not. It's always fast - even neighborhoods full of 5 and 10 meg customers don't slow down a great deal during peak times, so the earlier suggestions of ISP's being "brought to their knees" by downloaders clearly doesn't hold true. If the ISP themselves actually spend some money on architecture and put the technology in place to service their customers properly, instead of minimally, there's no worries.
It certainly changes your perspective on the downloading issue, though. I'm not condoning movie downloading, but on this side of the border, it's wouldn't take "Days" to download one, that's for sure. The only limiting factor I can see is bandwidth limits imposed by most ISP's in the name of fair use policies.
You DO know that it's 1.5 mega BITS, 3, 5, 10 mega BITS, right? not BYTES.
5 mbp/s = 650kB/s = just a bit over HALF a mega BYTE per SECOND.... a typical Bluray movie is almost 25 GIGA BYTE (25,000,000 kB) and larger movies at 50GB (50,000,000 kB), meaning a typical download would take an average of 1 hour and 30 mins if you have a 5 mega BITS per second internet connection, and that IS the north american average right now, 5 mbps.
I don't know about you but I wouldn't want to wait that long just to watch a damn movie.
VOD (video on demand), on the other hand, is a viable alternative to movie rentals (streaming)... but for the majority of people they'd STILL prefer to have a physical DISC to own than to have a "collection" of 1s and 0s on their hard drives.
The whole "Bluray won't succeed because downloadable contents will take over soon!" argument is the most hilarious thing I've ever heard. In time, yes, that will be the trend, but it won't happen until EVERYONE in North America are on higher speed networks compared to what they currently have.
HD DVD lost, simple as that. and Sooner or later Bluray will replace DVD as the next movie format for people to buy... but it won't be completely mainstream until at least late 2009 or early 2010 when MOST people would have an HDTV set in their living room already.
argh I hate that you can't edit your mistakes in the posts.
it's 15 HOURS , not 1.5 HOURS.
So... 15 hours for a movie download? yeah I don't think so.
@ Spark -
No one would be downloading the entire disc. Right now a lot of pirated HD released are encoded under the x264 format in a .mkv file - Spiderman 3 at 1080p compressed under x264 and then compressed into RARs is 10.1 GB - a far cry from 25 or 50 GB. Yes I guess the extra features would be a bit more room - but you can download those while you're watching the movie. Plus, most households wouldn't notice the quality of the movies and instead download 720p versions - which is about 7 or 8 GB.
Wow, is Sony actually going to claim sponsorship of a format for once that just might actually survive?
Perfect.
If you expect the HD-DVD team to just throw up their hands and resign, I feel sorry for you...
Porn isn't completely one way or the other. Yes I saw the story about Pirates selling well on Blu-Ray but that isn't every porn movie - if the HD-DVD group can convince the majority of porn studios to release on HD-DVD then that's a major decision factor.
CH-DVD. Really, 'nuff posts have been made on this matter it's essentially Chinese HD-DVD which means that HD-DVD on a manufacturing scale is nowhere near dead in China and will end up flooding the US market with cheap HD-DVD drives.
2 studios is still 2 studios - I like a lot of Universal pics (when is American Pie coming to HD-DVD?) and the Warner pics I like are still on HD-DVD - would not be surprised if Toshiba sued Warner to go back to HD-DVD and go HD-DVD exclusive based on the contract they were alluding to. Plus MS can dump a ton of money on whoever's desk and get another studio or two (only thing damn corporate america revolves around).
And for the classic "Independence Day" quote:
"We can't be consumed by our petty differences anymore. We will be united in our [consumers] common interests. [HD-DVD is better for the consumer, don't tell me otherwise]... you will once again be fighting for our freedom... Not from tyranny, oppression, or persecution... but from annihilation. We are fighting for our right to live. To exist.
"We will not go quietly into the night!" We will not vanish without a fight! We're going to live on! We're going to survive! Today we celebrate our Independence Day!" XD
screw this all i care about atm is the release date for the Lord of the Rings extended in 1080p!
It's a shame that I bought an HD-DVD addon for my 360. However, with the 6 free movies I get with it along with a remote it comes down to about a $80.00 investment that I will still surely enjoy. The lower the prices, the better it is for me. By the time I invest into getting a PS3 I'll already have a great collection of HD-DVDs. No loss for me; matter of fact it feels good to see this dumb debacle finished with.
I can't complain; I just bought a PS3 specifically to watch the Blade Runner: Final Cut on. I live in Japan, and the PS3 is still the best bang for your buck over here for a stand-alone player (plus, I was looking to upgrade my console system.) Seeing the format basically win out a couple of weeks later is just the icing on the cake. Woohoo!