It's official: Paramount/Dreamworks going HDDVD exclusive!

[JoeSp]

Somebody give me $100 million dollars and I will support HD-DVD only too!! Heck, I would take the $50 mil and still do it. My, my, my this does even things up a bit. I guess we are going to have two formats for awhile. I sure would like to know where the money came from --- hummmm?

That third generation HD-DVD player is starting to look good right now.

 

[vurbano]

 

[teachsac]

Somebody give me $100 million dollars and I will support HD-DVD only too!! Heck, I would take the $50 mil and still do it. My, my, my this does even things up a bit. I guess we are going to have two formats for awhile. I sure would like to know where the money came from --- hummmm?

That third generation HD-DVD player is starting to look good right now.

That's exactly why I support movies and not formats. Toshiba pays this studio, Sony pays these studios, it goes on. Everybody gripes about MS, but they have made their codec available to BD, but BD still chooses to release about 67% of their movies using MPEG2 and Uncompressed PCM. No wonder 50gb is needed.

I have an A35 on preorder. I'm going to put my FirstGen in the twins' room, move my XA2 downstairs, and put the a35 w/my projector. I'll leave my Panasonic downastairs and am going to check out the new Denon at CEDIA. At 2k w/ the Realta chipset should be sweet.

S~

 

[teachsac]

:haha
Now this is a movie that needs to be released in HD.

S~

 

[teachsac]

To the best of my knowledge, there's not a single player announced yet that will support BD 1.1 - which is kind of strange as it's only a little more than 2 months away.

The new Denon to be released this fall is the first player to be 1.1 compliant. I don't recall right off hand if it has an ethernet connection for 2.0. I don't believe it does, but I could be wrong. I'll take a look at it in a couple weeks.

S~

 

[navychop]

Monty forever!

 

[CochiseGuy]

The new Denon to be released this fall is the first player to be 1.1 compliant. I don't recall right off hand if it has an ethernet connection for 2.0. I don't believe it does, but I could be wrong. I'll take a look at it in a couple weeks.

S~

Yes, I forgot about the Denon.

But at $2,000 list price, it's become much more difficult recently for many folks to take out a 2nd mortgage on the house to be able to afford it.

 

[mike123abc]

It's really not that complicated. In the Paramount/Dreamworks PR, they said "Today's announcement does not include films directed by Steven Spielberg as his films are not exclusive to either format."

That's because when he only Directs a film, the film belongs to the studio, and the studio decides when and on what format to release it. For example, Sony owns 100% of the rights to "Close Encounters" and chose to release on Blu-ray. Universal owns the rights to Jaws & Jurassic Park, and can & will release them on HD DVD.

However, when Spielberg is a Producer of a movie, he is a financial investor in the production and retains some ownership and does have say over when & how the film is released. Like "Transformers", for which he is an Executive Producer - and it's going straight to HD DVD!

Spielberg has chosen a format and it's HD DVD.

The Wall Street Journal Disagrees Paramount Chooses HD DVD Over Blu-ray - WSJ.com

Paramount's exclusive deal with HD DVD doesn't include titles directed by Steven Spielberg for its DreamWorks SKG unit; Mr. Spielberg will reserve the right for those films to be issued in both formats. And all studios continue to release in the traditional DVD format.

So it looks like he kept the rights for the films he directed.

 

[Smthkd]

 

[CochiseGuy]

The Wall Street Journal Disagrees Paramount Chooses HD DVD Over Blu-ray - WSJ.com



So it looks like he kept the rights for the films he directed.

So, that means Sony will also be releasing 'Close Encounters' on HD DVD?
:

 

[mike123abc]

So, that means Sony will also be releasing 'Close Encounters' on HD DVD?
:

Or it could mean he could release a film in one format or another depending on what deal is made with each format... He could (and probably will) make out like a bandit...

 

[roachxp]

Or it could mean he could release a film in one format or another depending on what deal is made with each format... He could (and probably will) make out like a bandit...

I was thinking the same thing, I also hope they release set on one format, not thin JP1 & JP2 on HD DVD, then turn around and do JP3 & JP4 on Blu.

Come on Toshiba get thoeses 51TL discs finalized.

 

[CochiseGuy]

Or it could mean he could release a film in one format or another depending on what deal is made with each format... He could (and probably will) make out like a bandit...

What is so hard to grasp about this? Blu-ray nor HD DVD own any rights to any movies Spielberg directed. His employer at the time - the studio - own the movie. Sony owns 'Close Encounters" and is releasing it on Blu-ray. Are you saying Spielberg can make a deal with Sony to release it on HD DVD?
I'd like to see that.

 

[navychop]

Spielberg can, and probably has (or so I've read), retain say over the release of any of his movies beyond the original agreed to terms (theaters in the U.S., region 1 DVD, and so on). That my be the price studios pay to get his name and talent.

He may prefer one format over the other. But I suspect the postings are correct- he prefers money over ideological purity in a truly trivial (to him) matter.

 

[BobMurdoch]

Elstevo, you're my hero. Ask and you shall receive.....

How about the head of Sony brandishing a HariKiri sword pointed at his gut..... Nah, too gory...... But I bet he is drinking a LOT of sake now.....

It's like the plot of 300 is unfolding right in the middle of this format war (why WON'T they just surrender and acknowledge the inevitable show of brute force).... Now we just need consumers to wake up and support the underdog here..... To keep Combodiscs and no region coding in the next gen videodisc spec....

 

[dfergie]

I liked this from Doom 9

And I just cannot resist - the company behind ARccOS, the company that killed RipIt4Me, the company with the exploding notebook batteries and rootkits is also the company behind BD+ and Blu-ray - make sure you consider that before buying Sony.

Doom9.net - The Definitive DVD Backup Resource

 

[JoeSp]

A few interesting notes: First Sony did not develope BD+. Second, Sony does not have control over who uses BD+ and who does not. Third, Sony is currently not paying any manufacturers to produce BD players. Fourth, most new BD movies out are not MPEG2 only. As a matter of fact most are MPEG4-AVC and VC-1. As for PCM -- what you guys didn't know -- all HD audio codecs that are decoded in the player are transported to the AVR using PCM. A PCM soundtrack is as good as any TrueHD or MasterHD loseless soundtrack -- read the reviews.l

On the Toshiba/M$ side -- M$ is paying everyone. They pay the manufacturer's , the studios, and they also do not have complete control over VC-1. If Sony had aggreed to VC-1 and iHD then there would of been no HD-DVD format -- so HD-DVD has M$ to thank for their continued existance. Could someone please explain to me where M$ actually fits in here other then the deep pockets guy in the shadows?

Finally, I hope all this hoopla is worth it. If HD-DVD does not pull even with BD in discs sales then you can bet that $150 million will be worth nothing. However, if HD-DVD can at least pull even with BD in Discs sales then you guys will really have something to party over. However, since in July and August HD-DVD has been releasing 5 to 1 almost every week and they have made no ground in catching BD disc sales can someone here please explain to me how this announcement will make a differance? Neither one of these guys is Disney so we all know where families will be spending their HD dollars. And Dreamworks can't hold Pixar's pants!!

 

[meStevo]

I love your posts JoeSp, cause it means i can ready a CochiseGuy reply picking it apart

 

[CochiseGuy]

I love your posts JoeSp, cause it means i can ready a CochiseGuy reply picking it apart

No, I consider Joe a friend - he has excellent tastes in Audio Video Receivers.

Now, if I can just convince him to sneak in a HD DVD player under the WAF radar for those Paramount / Dreamworks / Universal movies, we'll be best buddies.

 

[diogen]

If Sony had aggreed to VC-1 and iHD then there would of been no HD-DVD format...

True!
The first logical deduction of yours that is not complete crap!

Microsoft would have stayed on the sidelines (most probably), Vista would play both BD and HD
(until both were alive and it had a chance not to be broken by now), and get patent checks for VC-1, AVC, AACS, etc.
But no, Sony decided winning the fromat war isn't enough and wanted to f*ck with Microsoft by choosing BD-J and adding BD+ and ROM Mark.

Whatever rocks your boat.
I don't think we are going to hear "We Won!" from the BD camp as often as we used to.

Diogen.