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TotalHD gets the axe
Warner's proposed "TotalHD" dual Blu-ray / HD DVD format has been given the axe. It's the final act of the all-too-familiar three part play: announcement, delay and cancellation. TotalHD was aimed at cooling down the format war and addressing "buyer hesitancy," but in an exclusive interview with High-Def Digest, the studio announced it had shelved all plans for the format. Between the "with us or against us" vibe in the two HDM camps and Paramount's move to HD DVD, there's just no place for the format in the retail space. That pretty much kills the format before questions about consumer desire even enter the conversation. Warner has left the door open for TotalHD to reappear if other studios go format neutral, but we're not holding our breath for that to happen any time soon.
Warner's Total HD delayed 'till 2008
With the second half of 2007 right around the corner, Warner has come out and confessed that its Total HD discs won't be delivered this year -- contrary to what was promised during CES 2007. While a new release date isn't given, they are shooting for early 2008. There also isn't a mention of the reason for the delay, but we suspect that sandwiching these two formats on one disc turned out to be more difficult than they bargained for; or maybe they want to wait and see if a winner emerges this holiday season. In the meantime, Warner promises to keep releasing titles on both formats, and believes that "There is no expiration date on the viability of this concept."[Via High-Def Digest]
More TotalHD details emerge
Although Total HD was announced with plenty of fan fare, there weren't many details. Those details are finally starting to come out and they're not good. We expected the Total HD discs to be available this summer, but we also expected dual layers on both sides. Warner previously said that, after they started to release Total HD discs in June, that they will stop releasing normal discs and that both sides will contain the same material whenever possible. We really hope this doesn't mean that the Blu-ray side will be capped at 15GB like the HD DVD side. They plan to release discs with dual layers on the HD DVD side by August, but this still caps the Blu-ray side at 25GB. While this is supposed to be a temporary problem, the question is when?[Via HighDefDigtest]
Warner officially announces Total Hi Def hybrid disc
Warner Home Video's press conference concerning the Total Hi Def disc that has HD DVD and Blu-ray all on one disc is currently ongoing, and it has stated that the discs are able to contain dual layers of both HD DVD and Blu-ray on one disc. The first Total Hi Def releases will hit in the second half of this year, but no specific titles have yet been announced. At the conference, Warner used a copy of Superman to show off how it worked in an HD DVD player, Blu-ray player, and the recently announced LG Super Multi player that plays either. Finally, Warner claims it will not cost "materially" more than a regular disc. At the conference, already an exec from Best Buy has come out in support of the format, but whether or not other studios would ever pick up on Total Hi Def releases is still unknown, although Warner claims they would not have to pay any licensing fees to Warner for using it. For more information, check out our live coverage of the Warner Home Video press event.
Warner to unveil Total HD hybrid Blu-ray HD DVD discs at CES
People love to continue to characterize Blu-ray and HD DVD as VHS vs. BetaMax -- but it's vaguely reassuringly quite different. This time around we aren't contending with physical cartridge incompatibilities and differing analog tape types, thankfully now it's blu-laser based optical discs which do operate differently, but are at least different in the same physical form factor. Enter Warner's finally-commercialized Total HD discs, the hybrid double-sided Blu-ray HD DVD discs we originally heard about being patented are now being commercialized and introduced at CES next week. Of course, so long as some studios don't release in both formats on the same disc (say, for example, Sony Pictures Entertainment), this disc actually hinders the unwitting user who buys content that isn't double-sided, thinking that Blu-ray and HD DVD formats are no longer relevant in day to day buying decisions. We know this is indeed a great stopgap for all those crossover movies released in multiple formats, but we really think it's the hybrid players, not discs, that are going to save the day during this format war.[Thanks, Ezra]
