Warner's neutrality was bought with subsidies from Sony. I guess it's different when it's the Blu-ray camp doing that.
BD or HD-DVD do you really care?
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Warner's neutrality was bought with subsidies from Sony. I guess it's different when it's the Blu-ray camp doing that.
No, I'm expecting Lions Gate to go neutral shortly. Their stock was at a one year low last week and they're facing a credit crunch. It will take a whole lot less "incentive" than it took for Paramount for them to go at least neutral. And almost all their BD releases are 25GB and will port over to HD DVD easily.
The thread I started about them going HD DVD was mostly a dig at Bill Hunt. I can't see them going exclusive. Among other things, they'd look pretty stupid doing so after crowing so loudly about the benefits of releasing on both formats.
But, what I do expect them to do something exclusive with New Line - either have them go HD DVD only, at at least release first on HD DVD & delay a BR release saying the features aren't ready on BR. And, if their is any delay or problems with the BD 1.1 being implemented, that will push Warner & subsidiaries over to HD DVD exclusive.
No it is not. But Sony does have a dog in this hunt. Please tell me John what dog M$ has in this hunt?
X-Box 360 and PCs. for entertainment centers (the OS and related technologies) and VC-1 as the favored codec on HD-DVD. MS also is now selling their VC-1 encoder.
Wow, but you weren't expecting that answer; were you?
Cheers,
The BD camp is pretty solid about October being the month that BD 1.1 is fully required on new BD players. The PS3 is already there, it has a second video decoder, more then 256k of memory and 60GB for storage along with the ethernet connection. I guess the other major BD manufacturer's are going to be coming out with some newer players with more features. Hopefully they will be much lower priced then now.
Sorry, too positive, you're a poopy head or something Joe.
Oh GREAT, now who's gonna replace my keyboard now that I spit up my Diet Pepsi all over it in laughter.....
JoeSP, that was a well reasoned, succinct description of WHY HD DVD proponents are against BR, and vice versa....
Doesn't mean we won't continue to fight to back our horse right until the time either you or us march ours off to the glue factory.....
In a perfect world, both sides get ordered by Congress to support both formats equally and let the market decide. In the old days you could buy an album on LP, Cassette, or 8 Track.... I don't see why it is such a burden to support two formats now, but I wish that it was universally supported like it was then....
No way they will go neutral if they are in a credit crunch as you say. Mayby HD exclusive if they are paid off, but not neutral. Neutral would be more expensive.
-John
I was think neutral, for raking in "incentives" from both Blu-ray & HD DVD to release on their formats. But in retrospect, thinking about how Paramount was handled, I think the format war is probably now too heated for either side to negotiate anything but complete exclusivity. And here's a news report from Reuters detailing my claim they are facing adverse financial conditions:
LOS ANGELES, Aug 10 (Reuters) - Independent film and television studio Lions Gate Entertainment Corp. reiterated its May forecast for fiscal year 2008 revenue of "well over $1 billion," free cash flow of $100 million and a loss of $50 million on a Friday conference call with analysts.
The company on Thursday afternoon reported a net loss of $53.1 million, or 45 cents per share, compared with a net loss of $3.6 million, or 3 cents per share, a year ago..
The company's shares slid as much as 4.9 percent on Friday, touching a new 52-week low amid a broad market downturn reflecting investor concern over a possible credit crunch. Lions Gate stock pared its losses to be down 2.2 percent, or 20 cents, to $9.11 in afternoon trading.
The only place I've ever read that the PS3 has a secondary video decoder is that computer magazine review you linked to some time back. I hope your right that the PS3 will be BD 1.1 compliant - that's one of the main reasons I went with a PS3 as a BD player, even though I have no interest in gaming. Back in March when I bought, I figured if any current BD player could meet the new standards, it was the PS3.
The BDA companies are already complaining about the current "low prices" of BD players (that HollywoodinHighDef.com article criticizing Universal for "prolonging" the format war). With the added production costs of adding more memory, a secondary video decoder, and re-configuring Firmware to handle it, what in the world makes you thing new players will be "much lower priced than now"?
Cochise:
In fairness; LG is introducing their 2nd gen PC drives that support reading HD-DVD and Blu-ray discs. The first drive had an MSRP of $1099. THe 2nd gen drives are coming out at $399 and $499. I don't know the reason for the price differential between the two models.
Given this price reduction from LG it is quite reasonable to assume that the costs to manufacture the mechanism (currently a large line item on the Bill of Materials) are coming down dramatically. This could be linked to increased yield for the blue diode laser manufacturing process.
Damn, I guess I can be objective
In fairness; LG is introducing their 2nd gen PC drives that support reading HD-DVD and Blu-ray discs. The first drive had an MSRP of $1099. THe 2nd gen drives are coming out at $399 and $499. I don't know the reason for the price differential between the two models.
Given this price reduction from LG it is quite reasonable to assume that the costs to manufacture the mechanism (currently a large line item on the Bill of Materials) are coming down dramatically. This could be linked to increased yield for the blue diode laser manufacturing process.
Damn, I guess I can be objective
I remember reading that OPU+Diode were 70-80% of the BOM.
Aside the HDCP handshake chip, there will be nothing left that differentiate such a drive from a regular DVD drive.
Could it be that the firstgen dual drives had two diodes?
Diogen.
Cochise:
In fairness; LG is introducing their 2nd gen PC drives that support reading HD-DVD and Blu-ray discs. The first drive had an MSRP of $1099. THe 2nd gen drives are coming out at $399 and $499. I don't know the reason for the price differential between the two models.
Given this price reduction from LG it is quite reasonable to assume that the costs to manufacture the mechanism (currently a large line item on the Bill of Materials) are coming down dramatically. This could be linked to increased yield for the blue diode laser manufacturing process.
Damn, I guess I can be objective
That's a nice price reduction for dual format drives. I don't see were that necessarily leads to a similar cost reduction for single format drives. And there's still the add'l. cost of of the secondary video decoder & add'l. memory for BD 1.1 players. But, most importantly, the "game plan" for Blu-ray was never about getting prices down ASAP.
I must be missing something here then. It costs more to make a dual format drive.
Oh, I have seen some PC Blu-ray burners at the $400 price point lately. This is down from $650+ 6 months ago.
Cheers,
Ive given up on arguing about it. At the end of the day, Sony-M$-Toshiba did not buy my HDTV.
Its all about the movies. Now that it looks we are stuck with two formats and they both may fail, Im just going to pick up a cheapo A2 on black friday.
Two many movies Ill buy next year coming only to HDDVD now with the Paramount fiasco.
Its all about the movies. Now that it looks we are stuck with two formats and they both may fail, Im just going to pick up a cheapo A2 on black friday.
Two many movies Ill buy next year coming only to HDDVD now with the Paramount fiasco.
If they were willing to pay you would you go exclusive to one format?
Sorry, that was just out there; waiting to be asked and I stepped up to the plate and asked.I don't know that a unified format would have a super long life either. As bandwidth increases to the homes; it will be much more realistic to get HD downloads in a reasonable time window.
Only two == many? Watch your homonyms please
John, if one of them offered to buy me the Optoma 1080p projector and screen I want, YES id go exclusive
On Black Friday, that will be an A3.
Likely under $200 since the MSRP on the A3's is only supposed to be $299.As for Lionsgate, if they are losing money like that, best bet for them would be to go DVD only. I can't see them making much on HD media since its such a small market.
-John
Yeah, but Black Friday won't be clearance deals, it will be new product deals. So no A2 deal on BF. You'll probably see good A2 deals in Oct/Nov tho.
Plus, those A3's really look nice. You know you really want the A3 not the A2.
Navy-> You don't think there will be $200 deals on Black Friday?
Plus, those A3's really look nice. You know you really want the A3 not the A2.
Navy-> You don't think there will be $200 deals on Black Friday?
