Blu-ray Vs. HD DVD Debate May Be Finally Over
January 6, 2008
It appears that Warner Brothers may have delivered a death blow in the ongoing high definition DVD war.
Warner Brothers has announced that they have decided to exclusively release high-def titles in the Blu-ray format. Warner had previously been neutral on the issue, releasing movies in both Blu-ray and HD DVD up to now.
Ironically, more HD DVD standalone players and Xbox 360 peripheral drives were sold than standalone Blu-ray players. However, BR still has more market saturation due to the fact that every Sony PlayStation 3 has an internal BR drive, giving the format an overall advantage. In addition, software sales have been in Blu-ray’s favor by a large margin for an extended period of time.
The move is seen by many analysts as a death blow to HD-DVD, although it’s never too late for a surprise last-minute manuever to try to save the format.
The release from WB follows after the jump.
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.”
Sony is a a monster and BLUE RAY IS A JOKE. The discs scratch too easy and become useless, This was told years ago that the protective layer isn’t good enough??? BLUE RAY IS like a paper towel compared to HD is a cloth towel. BLue ray will hopefully loose to downloads, beacuse I refuse to buy overpriced junk!
Goodbye hd-dvd. Nice meeting you.
Blu ray Disc don’t scratch themselves lier, Microsoft is facing defeat but is in shock so they will try to stay on denial until they can’t no more Xbox with out a HD DVD drive will fail.
hahahaha losers, couldn’t happen to better person.
oh and who cares about your so called scrath theory. do you not take care of your discs, handle them with care and enjoy 50 gigs of data instead of your inferior product.
If Toshiba bows out of the competition and beging making Blu-Ray players, hopefully they will incorporate dual-format support so as not to leave all their current HD DVD supporters hanging. Unike the VHS-Betamax format war, where everyone who went Betamax was left out in the cold with obslete hardware and media, if you have already supported HD DVD and it does indeed go under, with dual-format players you might not be out the money you’ve spent. It would be a good marketing point for Toshiba to bow out gracefully and produce low cost dual media players.
Everybody with a little bit of sense saw it coming. Arguing whether Blue-ray or HD-DVD is better is just like arguing whether 50 Gig Drive or 30 Gig drive is better. Blue-ray always wins. I just feel sorry for the people who got duped into those cheap $199 HD-DVD players. I guess they can always use them for paper-weights or door-stops…
And to the looser that says Blue-rays scratch easily - here’s a newsflash to you: they have a patented protective cover which makes them more durable than either HD-DVDs or DVDs. There was actually a demonstration where the guy took a Brillo pad to a Blue-ray disk, and it still worked fine. It’s good to be right - I knew getting PS3 would pay off!
THE BATTLE IS STILL NOT OVER. IF SOME OF YOU HAVE DONE MORE RESEARCH, YOU WILL SEE THAT HD DVD COSTS LESS AND HAS A SUPERIOR PICTURE QUALITY.
You can give out free hd-dvd and people still don’t want it because there are no movies to play them on. Why make if nobody want to buy. That is a recept for diseaster / bankruptcy.