Universal HD DVD exclusivity contract has expired, sits non-renewed
By Steven Kim 
posted January 10th 2008 12:39PM
posted January 10th 2008 12:39PM
More news from the format war today, and it isn't good for the red camp. Daily Variety has confirmed that Universal's agreement to stick with HD DVD has ended and has not been renewed. Additionally, Paramount has an escape clause in its contract that can be exercised following Warner's departure from the (now dwindling) HD DVD ranks. The article highlights various ongoing commitments both companies have to the format, but we've heard these kind of promises before from studios. It's feeling like a party where everyone leaves at once; nobody wants to be the first out the door, but everyone's looking in that direction. [Thanks, Mike M!]
I am talking about how HD DVDs can be made to play on standard DVD players.
Which they can't...
Wait, when did we see her ass the first time?
the way toshiba is still holding on to the hd dvd tech you would think they went to the future and saw that in the end hd dvd won the war. come on now that fat lady has sang joined the gym,lost weight and run of with another person hubby
None of this shit matters. Everyone on this blog will be downloading all their movies in less than 2 years. The format war has spawned a new HD competitor: download services. Booyaa!
Yeah I want to pay good money for something that I don't have a physical copy of. Digital downloads are a long ways off as long as the US doesn't go nationwide with fiber.
You will be watching movies on your cell phone in the same time frame. Don't tell me you need fiber for anything.
PS. You don't own anything. You are purchasing the right to view it.
I am wondering when Microsoft will make a Blu-Ray drive for 360...?
Fingers: Crossed
Well, I'm glad I only spent $100 for my Toshiba HDDVD Player. I did get the 360's HDDVD add on, so that's another $160 (special), but I got Heroes season 1 with it. I'll still keep it to watch my Serenity HDDVD. Gotta start looking for a cheap PS3!
Fuck Sony shit... Go HD-DVD!!!
It has been a well faught battle. HD-DVD I was hopefully that you would pull out the victor. But, alas the fight is over. I'm glad that during the holiday's my choice of either PS3 or hd-dvd player was made easy by at least having a game console if blue ray didn't make it. Obviously, I went the way of Blueray. Like a relationship that ended badly, it's just best to move on. Farewell HD-DVD...
And the more times you post your comment the bigger your e-penis grows...?
And the more times you post your comment the bigger your e-penis grows...?
Shit, the comment system really is broken, sorry :P.
I was ever so slightly on HDDVD's side simply because I think that Sony is being run by a bunch of chipmunks. Other than that though, I do hope this thing is settled soon one way or another.
PS2 Sale are still very high this year. The Wii was top seller. What's the connection? They are both SD and not HD. So what, you may ask? Basically, the 16million xboxs out there are DVD based game players. If you think about it, this means that most people are still on SD TVs. So with Sony having a BR drive and a much more solid line up of games this year than the xbox(check the lineup), you're going to see sales rise steadily as HD TVs rise. Who's going to buy a DVD based player for their shiny new TV? Also, Sony plans a 10 year life cycle for the PS3. THink about that, you'll see Nintendo and MS make a new system two times over before then. Sony has a long term strategy and most people don't have the scope to see that. This is a huge win for them and almost guarantees the PS3's success.
a 10-year strategy with no backwards compatibility-- brilliant indeed! seriously, i don't believe this idea, nor even the alleged bribes, were the reason sony won. as a content provider themselves, they just made sure the DRM was really tight. check out the specs. HD-DVD not even having region codes really says it all.
Sony didn't spend nearly the money Microsoft did back it's respective HD format.
For those who claim that the movies will increase in price to $40-$50 let me say that you have no idea what you're talking about.
Even though BRD is going to win the format war, it's really winning the computer media, gaming media war. In regard to hi-def movies the only way for it to compete with digital download is for it to replace DVD as a cost effective seemless upgrade. In other words, DVD players go away, new players support BRD and DVD. Eventually we stop selling DVDs. Sony knows that won't happen if prices don't come down to DVD level.
I'm glad at least the superior format won this time.
http://www.t3.com/news/blu-ray-porn?=35064
The crying about DRM with BD makes me laugh. For the people that want to rip/copy do you honestly think whatever DRM Sony has/will come up with will stop it?
Yeah.. because thats really been the case with ANY copy protection..
We've been tracking CES topic popularity at Collective Intellect and the next gen DVD format war wins the day!
I wouldn't buy a blu ray add on if MS put it out, because it will not support the lossless sound formats just like the HD-DVD add on. I'd rather wait until the Panasonic BD30 or BD50 comes down to around $299.
I'm sorry but i just got to chime in.....why does every one think the price on blu ray dvd's are going to skyrocket....sure there expensive today 27.99 to 15.99 but damn wasn't the standard DVD formt like that......and the price went down as soon as the install base went up.....i mean really the price won't be effected once there is a single HD Format.....once the install base grows so does production and the shrinking of price of production.......hell if HD-DVD won what makes it from not rising in price also....sure they use the same production method but they could just as easily put on HD tax
Well, this is interesting news. All these studios seem to be falling in line quickly. If there are really only two major studios remaining, then this war will be over indeed. Thank God. Now we'll soon have a solid indicator as to what HD media to commit to - that is, if downloading HD doesn't soon prove to be the best method before Blu-ray's number of titles climbs to a strong number. I just didn't think it would happen so fast. But in terms of this, fast is good.
So hopefully, these two remaining studios will switch and complete that process swiftly and all the studios will go gangbusters and start pumping out the HD movies. Because 350-400 Blu-ray titles is lame.
What Rob means by getting "a few games" for the PS3 is "all of the good ones." All both of them.
Too bad that comment is about 12 months too late. There are actually quite a few good titles now and 3-4 blockbusters are coming this spring. 2008 is going to be the year of the PS3. The hardware and graphics BLOWS THE DOORS OF A X360
Hahahaha, yuh huh. 3-4 blockbusters? Like Haze? You mean the game that was supposed to come out like 5 different times last year? The one that the developers probably finished and were like "S#!% this sucks. Let's rebuild it"? There's nothing in the current PS3 library that even taps into the kind of games that Xbox360 has. All the good titles that PS3 has, Microsoft has already snatched up too (Assassin's creed, anyone? GTA IV? How about Call of Duty 4? The Orange Box, Rock Band, DiRT, etc.?). The huge tentpole-like games that Xbox360 has are actually exclusive (Bioshock, Halo 3, Forza Motorsport 2, Mass Effect, PGR4). And don't give me that "Well this game is supposed to be killer when it comes out 8 months from now" crap. You can't count on a game that hasn't come out to be good, no matter the hype, and you never know if/when it's actually going to come out(Konami keeps tugging on your heartstrings with their MGS release dates huh?). You can say whatever false statements you want (Have you seen MTX/ATV on a PS3? Looks like total garbage, like a lot of other PS3 games do) about the 360's hardware vs. the PS3's, but even if Sony had attached a supercomputer to the thing and it was the 2nd coming of Christ himself in a black box, it wouldn't make a damn bit of difference without several real, solid, titles to even pretend to contend with the 360.
I think both Universal and Paramount need to go neutral. It's the only economically
rational decision. Maybe Toshiba need to go neutral too? If they made a resonably
priced "combo" player that payed Blu-Rays and HD DVDs, they could keep some pride
and still look after their loyal HD DVD fans too!
as for sony, the riaa member. we have de-sony our house of sony products such as computers, tv's, speakers..etc.
this family has purchased the wii and several ds's.
we will not purchase blu-ray, ps3, psp or anything sony until sony drops out of the riaa and begs to the world to forgive sony of the rootkit--bad corporation actions against humans.
sony should ask for a refund of "lobby" which is bribery of every american politican over copyright extension, and other bad deeds.
since sony will not do that. our family will never purchase sony products which means the products sony manufactures sony executives and sony employees can have fun purchasing the product.
adios sony which includes blu-ray