Why Warner Went Blu-Ray
So, some, actually many may be wondering what the real reason behind Warner's defection to the Blu-Ray camp might be. It would turn out that Warner was on the verge of staying HD-DVD exclusive - depending on Fox's decision. All Toshiba had to do to cement the Warner deal was reign in one more studio: Fox. At the last minute, Fox nixed the deal and went with Blu-Ray thanks to a reported 30 silver shekels $120 million payout from Sony.
Oooo, so dirty!
Upon hearing this, Warner made their defection official and accepted between $400 - $500 million dollars as their reward. So as most things do, it all came down to money. It would seem that is almost always the case. While HD-DVD is feature rich and came out fully operational on day one, the more expensive (both to manufacture and to buy in stores) and less consumer friendly format is indeed inching out ahead. Sony, congrats on bribing your way to the top. Bravo! Of course, I do realize paying off other companies to join your side is standard practice, it just seems extra dirty in this format war. What do you think of it all?
Sound Advice: Blu-ray wins in format war, but at what cost? [Post-Gazette]
[via Gizmodo]
Super Timsy
Posted to Miscellany, Movies-DVDs on 14 January 2008
· Comments (19)
Other stuff like this: blu-ray, format war, fox, hd-dvd, sony, toshiba, warner
*in michelle voice from romy and michelle* its like oh my god i'm so surprise *scuffs*
You do remember that the HD-DVD camp admitted to paying Universal & Dreamworks bagfuls of money to go HD-DVD exclusive a few months ago, so that even if this new story is true, it is hardly a one side playing dirtier than the other.
The truth is, as Warner stated when they made the switch, that payout is nothing compared to the sales they could be losing not supporting the correct format.
Like I said, standard business practice. It's just assumed for all parties involved that money is flying this way and that.
Where to begin...
1. Warner was never HD-DVD exclusive.
2. Warner has publicly denied that cash was involved and have suggested their choice was purely on Q4/Holiday sales numbers (hint: 2:1 in favor of Blu-ray).
3. The stories of the "Fox switches and we switch" are good evening reading, but there is no confirmation anything of the sort ever took place. Given how wildly attached Fox is to BD+ it's quite difficult to believe this is even remotely an accurate account.
3. Paramount accepted $150M in 'marketing considerations' from Toshiba for their switch from neutrality to HD-DVD... so who played dirty first?
4. Blu-ray profile 1.1 (aka, every Blu-ray player announced AND the PS3, which is 99% of the Blu-ray player market right now) has every feature that HD-DVD does PLUS 20GB more storage and 10Mbps per second more bandwidth. "More feature rich" is hard to justify.
The comment from "Simple" says it all. Warner denied receiving any money from Sony AND ainticoolnews denied that as well... just to remind you, about that, they never were wrong in the past, so why now ? Secondly, right as well, Blu-Ray 1.1 is 99% of the current market and as all the HD-DVD features + a lot more. So it's not a money question here. It's just a fact.
Man...sounds like someone's a Blu-Ray hater.
The comment from "Simple" says it all. Warner denied receiving any money from Sony AND ainticoolnews denied that as well... just to remind you, about that, they never were wrong in the past, so why now ? Secondly, right as well, Blu-Ray 1.1 is 99% of the current market and as all the HD-DVD features + a lot more. So it's not a money question here. It's just a fact.
I'm actually glad blu-ray is winning. In 5 years when the new format is established and burners are available for a reasonable price, I want huge media. Blu-ray is huger.
And I fucking HATE Sony.
Gee, another nonfactual, ridiculous, aimless, and biased re-posting from those Hollywood insiders Gizmodo and the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette... good going GayGamer! That's some crack fact checking there, Timsy. Misinformation on!!
It would be nice if you actually did some research into real-world HD and experimented with the technologies and machines instead of just reprinting the moronic crap from Gizmodo on faith.
BTW:
- Warner Brothers 4Q sales on HD was 56% Blu-Ray to 44% HD-DVD. But nobody really cares, because HD unit sales was bupkis next to standard DVD from every library.
- The deal with Paramount followed (by two years) the deal with Fox.
- Blu-Ray diode failure is 3 times higher than HD-DVD in manufacturing (5 years into it and Sony has hardly made a dent in this problem). Blu-Ray dual layer failure of the disc is twice that of HD-DVD (which is no small matter with either format). Guess who pays for all that failure?
^^^
Did you know that 73% of all facts are made up?
It's true - I read it on the innerwebs!
So, we have the post about Warner defecting to Blu-ray, and out come the Sony triumphalists. And now we have the post about Sony buying off Warner in order to make that happen.... and out come the Sony apologists, who are pretty much the same people.
Let me guess. Simple, Jenny, David.... you all bought PS3's, didn't you. My deepest condolences on your monetary loss.
maybe i'm stupid and missing something, but i'm not seeing any official sources or quotes in that original article that is presented as proof.
- the author admits to being an HD DVD advocate. "In the past I have strongly recommended the HD DVD format as the best choice for consumers."
- "Warner Bros. ... found the "format war" was ... hurting their regular DVD sales ... They wanted to bring the format war to a quick close by picking a side.
"If they chose Blu-ray, studio support for Blu-ray would be lopsided and the war would end more quickly."
if WB wanted the war to be over quickly, they had their opportunity. doesn't sound like they needed to be paid off to join the BRD camp; they already had motive.
- the author of the article then goes in to conjecture about speculative deals being done, deals which all parties have officially denied. to continue believing speculation in the face of the contrary starts getting in to tin-foil-hat territory.
- "if HD DVD goes away, the cost of entry to high-definition movies will be doubled."
avg. cost for a HD-DVD player: $200-ish
avg. cost for a BluRay player: $400-ish
looks like he almost got something right. it's double now with two formats on the market. with HD-DVD out of the way, expect to see BRD players start dropping in price now that there is just one format. it happened for VHS players, it happened for DVD players, ...
- "no one in the media expected Warner to pull the plug so quickly when HD DVD stand-alones were selling so well this holiday season."
sure, stand alone HD-DVD players might have been selling, but how many players including PC drives and PS3s are out there in homes? went to a few BestBuys this weekend (on a hunt for red/black DSs. sad ending. don't want to talk about it.) and saw tons of people in the BluRay movie section. not a single browser bothering with HD-DVD in either store.
what good is having a lot of units out there if the software for it isn't selling? *cough* PSP *cough*
whole thing just reads skewed from the perspective of an HD-DVD advocate; hardly impartial journalism on their part, IMO.
@raindog
"Let me guess. Simple, Jenny, David.... you all bought PS3's, didn't you. My deepest condolences on your monetary loss."
My PS3 and my Toshiba TV are the two most satisfactory electronics purchases I have ever made. Ever. They've been flawless and consistently performed better than advertised. If you had a PS3, you could watch a Blu-Ray and see what all the fuss is about. The extra bandwidth, assuming it's actually used and not just ignored like all these HD DVDs Warner has been repackaging in Blu boxes, makes for a much nicer picture and better sound options.
@David B.
"- Warner Brothers 4Q sales on HD was 56% Blu-Ray to 44% HD-DVD."
Maybe there's a connection between that and the fact that Warner Blu-Rays are mostly the same as their HD DVD counterparts. If you just read the statistics, they have the same video track, and the HD DVD has slightly better audio. That would be enough reason for enthusiasts (who have both players) to choose the red box. If the HD DVD is dual format, that really clinches it.
But there's nothing to suggest Warner was looking for a landslide or only cared about sales of their own movies. They wanted to predict the winner and move on, and Blu-Ray sold 3:1 on the week of Black Friday and 2:1 fairly consistently.
"- The deal with Paramount followed (by two years) the deal with Fox."
The deal with Paramount defied the market in the way that the WB switch honored it. The ONLY explanation for Paramount's decision was the cash. That's a big difference.
Fox went blu before the market could be gauged, but they did know three things. More anti-piracy (bad for consumers, I know), better technology (which they actually use - DTS-HD MA and MPEG-2 or AVC standard), and cash money in the bank, but who's to say the BDA was even offering more than Toshiba was?
/hug Timsy.
I think it's fascinating how fervent people's reactions are about this whole format war. Simply fascinating.
My impression is that Sony has "bet the farm" on Blu-ray, and should it fail, we could end up losing a really fantastic platform for gaming!
Won't somebody think of the gamers? (and Timsy's feelings)?
I haven't seen a Blu-Ray that utilizes Internet connection to download bonus content. HD-DVD had that. Out of the box, I might add.
So, what does this mean for me? I'm someone who has a tv that isn't listed in universal remote guides, one that has a built-in dvd player, or one that we just got less than a year ago and isn't HD. Should it even matter? Not yet.
Wow! I've seen tamer flame wars in a Mac vs PC vs Linux "discussion."
Where's the Kool-Aid? I didn't get any.
Enough Already!
There's no format war. The only format war is a marketing push to make you care. DVD is fine for most people. This is a universal truth or opinion. Plus, why care which format has more fans or is more popular? There's room for everyone and at the end of the day, what matters is that people love movies or tv programs and want to own them for money. When you consider that you and I are demanding that and driving down prices, this whole debate misses the mark.
I think it's fine, if you want to download a movie on itunes, great. If you want to rent it from netflix, great. If you like blu ray and want to pay out the ass for that setup, great. Get it from Xbox Live, when the service is up and running, again. Great.
Plus, it's not uncommon to exchange marketing dollar values or branding ops for putting your content (as a content holder, say a studio or producer) on a new format. Itunes gives ad spot on itunes for getting BEE MOVIE, duh! That's not paying anyone off. It's just good business.
I'd love to see you guys host a discuss asking people how they feel about dvd in general and where your readers get their content? I bet you it's varied and will always be. Even if Blu Ray ends up with more fans, despite your unhappiness, most folks like you and I won't care or stop watching tivo or dvds or downloading movies.
Reed Hastings from Nexflix has a similar stance. What matters is that people care about movies still not a format, at the consumer level.