Warner jumping ship?

This is on Home media Magazine

http://www.homemediamagazine.com/news/html/breaking_article.cfm?article_id=11449

Quote:
Dan Silverberg, VP of high-definition media for Warner Home Video, which since Paramount’s move to the HD DVD camp is the only studio to support both next-generation formats.

That may not be for long, Silverberg said. “One thing that may be changing is our strategy,” he said. “When both formats launched and hardware prices were high, we made a decision to support both formats and let the consumer decide. But now that hardware pricing is affordable for both Blu-ray and HD DVD, it appears consumers no longer want to decide — so the notion of staying in two formats for the duration is something we are re-evaluating now that we are in the fourth quarter.”

Silverberg noted that Warner has the top-selling Blu-ray title of all time with 300 and is consistently No. 1 or No. 2 in both Blu-ray sales market share and in number of Blu-ray titles in the market.

“We can definitely talk Blu-ray,” he said. “We are committed to the format.” At the Monday morning kickoff, the featured speaker was David Berman, director of Home Theater Specialists of America (HTSA), a buying consortium of 62 dealers and 800 installers with combined revenue of more than half a billion dollars a year. He said the HTSA supports Blu-ray because a member survey found 92% favoring Blu-ray over HD DVD.

A member survey found 92% favor bluray? In what delusional world are these guys living and how are these studios actually believing this crap? This is how they fool people into thinking people prefer bluray and get them to stay on the bluray side. It's just a bunch of false information that never ends but this is how the bluray camp feels they need to win.

Again hopefully the consumers AND the studios see through all these lies.

I agree with you Falcon, but it should be Bill Gates and Toshiba stepping up to battle back. It is obvious that SONY will play dirty atics to win this war, and this information about WB does not sound good for all of us HD DVD supporters. Grant it the drop in prices is a great idea, but if the cosumer cannot buy movies for HD DVD, then Blu Ray may win this battle. Remember, someone said it in one of the threads,if Blu ray wins then they will name their price and that will stick a fork in this new technology. Again, Microsoft needs to pull out their guns and send them blazing or it will be a dark future for all of us who support HD DVD.

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[Post edited by InvisibleBiker on Oct 30, 2007]

How much juice do we the HD DVD supporters have? We need to send a message to the people out there, that HD DVD is a better than SONY. We need to be heard, so that SONY does not continue to use the skat tactics that they have begun to use. Blu ray is not supreme , we know that and it is important that everyone knows it!

I think the HD DVD camp needs to come out with better ads, especially in the stores. Shelf cards, displays, whatever it takes to tell people about the beauty of HD DVD at a much lower cost. Make sure everyone knows that HD DVD movies are all 1080P, HD sound codecs are provided, exclusive studio support...I don't promote the product like crazy the way Sony has been without all the lies.

That will take lotsa money however and I'm thinking that the HD DVD camp is hoping the low priced HD DVD players this holiday season do all the talking. All we can do on the net is provide the best information possible.

Yes I agree Falcon, but if WB jumps to the Blu Ray side, well HD DVD could be doomed. Lower prices will not be able to stop the blood letting after that.

HTSA came ouit with that fake stat a couple of months ago. It's old news. Just keep in mind that these guys are megaHIGH end installers who set up systems worth MANY thousands of $$$ to the super rich, not a few grand like the Geeks or Fire Dog. They were corraled by Sony a long time ago. There's one in the BIG BUCKS Boston suburb of Wellsley that has been advertising BD setups for a long time on a local talk radio station.

Disney is throwing mega bucks at their new campaign. In the last few days, I have seen very loud "in your face" Disney ads on the more "mature" cable channels Discovery, Home and Garden, etc. These ads are clearly being aimed at a more affluent and mature market, on the assumption, I think, that this demographic is more likely to spring for the higher priced BD stand alone players. They are also advertising their BD releases as featuring interactive games as a major feature, something the HD DVD camp has not done. In other words, their strategy is to move beyond the PS3 market, but they still have games on their brain. We'll see if it works. The players are still a lot more $$$ then the HD DVD units. I'm not sure how many people will spring for the expensive BD players so their kids can find the gems on the Pirates disk, or the aliens on Independence Day or rodents on Ratatoli (did I spell that wrong?).

I agree, Toshiba and Microsoft HAVE to become more aggressive. I really wish there was some way to pressure them to do so.

I agree that if Warner jumps ship things will be tough again but I doubt they will do it any time soon. It would be irresponsible of them to go on the bluray side now with the prices of HD DVD players dropping so low. In the end it will greatly affect their bottom line with huge sales potential starting with this holiday season.

well according to the story on the site, they are going to make a decission some time soon. Like the news says, whoever they go with there is no doubt the WAR will be over. They do have the biggest catalog of movies. It is time that Bill Gates and Toshiba pony up the wampom, and fight it on the front lines. Or all we will have is DVD players that will upconvert and thats not cool at all.

I hate to say it kids, but if Warner goes Blu exclusive, it will be the beginningof the end for HD DVD.

Absolutely

How many releases does warner have in early 2008.. Maybe one -- Twister.. If we don't get more releases from Warner in the month of January then we know something is not right. Only time will tell.

"In the end it will greatly affect their bottom line with huge sales potential starting with this holiday season."

The event is ending today so give it some time. They are not going to throw away business over the holidays and if HD DVD consumers smell impending doom, then they'll do just that. I'm sure there will be a lot of speculation in the coming weeks (it's already starting on the BD sites) , but it's not over until it's over. Take Warner's remarks at face value there were a lot of "may"s and "might"s in that statement. After all they were at a BD sponsored event. Would you expect them to say otherwise? You don't know what happened behind closed doors and you can be certain that MicroSoft and Toshiba are not sitting on their thumbs doing nothing. Let's not get paranoid. At least, not yet.

I've been saying for a year it's all about the software and that HD supporters aren't buying software like the number of players in circulation suggest they should. I just don't know if this rumbling is for real. It may be intended just to scare HD owners into spending during the fourth quarter. Then again, take a look at the sales figures for the major dual format releases of the past year from WB: 300 and the Departed. It wasn't even 2:1. Now I don't know the total units sold by WB, but they are a publicly traded company and expenses have to accounted for and profit margins explained. If you're WB and you're losing money on HD and turning a profit on BD, what format would you support?

Furthermore, if WB decides to side with HD DVD, Blu Ray will stay in the game. Due to the fact of the companies they have backing them. But if they jump to Blu Ray, well HD DVD only has Universal and Paramount ( and that does not include Spielbergs movies ) Bottom line, HD DVD needs to win this game, if they want to take home the trophy.

Oh boy, this is great! I love it when all you fanboys squirm in fear of your precious HD!

* Tim grabs bag of popcorn and reads in excitement! *

Tim

Warner Bros. could decide the winner also if they choose HD DVD. No one can survive without them.

All this said, I think it is the most unprofessional remark in a long time. It generates fear and will hold back people from buying product.

Lets hope they make a clear statement very soon.

TIMMAY fanboy lol, I am just a supporter not a fanboy. Remember I am old school. I am not stopping, I will still buy my HD DVD's and hope that all ends well. I just hope Bill and Toshiba counters strong.

It is VERY unprofessional. That's why I question its real meaning. And Timmy,I'm not a fanbois either, just a long time audio video consumer. Steve

Tim, why do you call supporters of the HD DVD format fanboys? To me, the "fanboys" are the people that decide to pay through the nose for the same exact high-definition quality. We can't help it that we made the smarter, more affordable decision.

Let's all go buy a Warner movie today, just to give them some numbers to crunch. I'm on my way to get "Deliverance" and "2001: A Space Odyssey" right now.

Let's just see how many HD DVDs vs Boo-rays get sold!

The repeated threads on a daily basis that are all about HD DVD or Blu-ray = Fandboys.

How could they just like that "jump ship", that IS very unprofessional they didn't "make up their minds" they made people buy their HD DVD products and now just like that drop it?....It would've been better to have made up their minds from the beginning and not show the same support to both formats by releasing the same titles to both formats when they really from the start when 300 made it's triumphant rise as the top HD title which was Blu-Ray just stop producing HD DVDs? I mean they still have on schedule the WHOLE Harry Potter Movie Series to be realised on HD DVD and if they did favour Blu-Ray and its "unique" features then why do their releases have more features in the HD DVD rather than the Blu-Ray, even "300" has more features in the HD DVD than the Blu-Ray...

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[Post edited by leo_4_four on Oct 30, 2007]

Well, since you are also participating Tim, then you must be one as well.

Tim,

I could not agree more. Do u wanna bet that his thread will have more than 5 pages by the end of the night? If not then Jack Daniels is on house

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[Post edited by rpruthee on Oct 30, 2007]

It is really nice to see all the fanboys yelling and ranting that WB is unprofessional. Quiz for fanboys -- who jumped the ship from BD to HD-DVD in August? Again, these are speculations but it is always fun to see fanboys errupt in frustration and anger. It spices things up !

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[Post edited by rpruthee on Oct 30, 2007]

Quote:
Well, since you are also participating Tim, then you must be one as well.

I would need to own an HD DVD player first, which I don't. I'm still all SD and watching all you fanboys squirm in agony, it's a beautiful thing!

What people seem to forget is that it costs studios more money to author their movies in the bluray format than it does on HD DVD. So even if they do sell more bluray copies they are not making as much profit in sales.

I would be very suprised if Warner went exclusive to either side and actually made an announcement right before the holiday season starts. Again especially with the HD DVD players dropping so low in price.

Another thing that has me wondering about this is if Warner was actually thinking about going to bluray then why haven't they released movies like Batman Begins and The Matrix trilogies on bluray yet? If they really believed in bluray THAT MUCH they would have released these on bluray a long time ago, not just on HD DVD as they are currently available. Something doesn't make sense.

P.S. Tim is not a fanboy...he just loves the antics I don't know if I'm exactly a fanboy either cause I think of myself as a supporter more than anything.

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[Post edited by Falcon01 on Oct 30, 2007]

Again, Warner Bros. needs to make an official statement. This is unsettling for the HD consumer. Will they stay neutral or chose either HD DVD or Blu-ray.

I'm working our Warner Bros. contacts as we speak. Hope they will return with a clear answer.

Falcon01 i couldn't have said it better myself. And there is a difference between supporter and fanboy. I'm a supporter who doesn't want his money wasted and this is one of the ultimate fanboys: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fdcExmbTyTY

Personally, if I had to guess I'd say that they might side with HD DVD. I think it's beyond coincidental that this announcement comes at the precise moment that all the HD DVD player prices are dropping so significantly. It has to make you wonder that with such low price players, there's going to be a ton of sales this holiday season. Maybe WB sees this as a smart move.

Hoodaguy I'm thinking the same thing cause it makes perfect sense however it would be pretty ballsy of them to go to a bluray conference and announce they may be going exclusive to one format and they're not talking about bluray. What a burn it would be if they went HD DVD exclusive after making that announcement at a bluray conference.

we all know sony is very hostile, we all know about the retail shelf space idea, we all know HD-DVD needs better ads, we all know price-drops alone might not do it, and we all know it wouldnt be good for sony to manipulate everything.

lets hope our friends at Warner share the same big picture we do, and arent manipulated by Sony's strategies.

or we might aswell bring back that thread.... hmm i think it was called. ... what if your format looses.

Well, we don't know exactly how they were approached. If the blu-ray side came up to them to ask if they were ever going to be exclusive to one format or the other, they wouldn't really want to say they are going to side with HD DVD when they are surrounded by BD supporters. It would have been a huge letdown for them at that conference, so maybe they were just trying to be nice.

I mean, that conference or whatever was the PERFECT spot to announce such a big endeavor if they were indeed going with BD, yet their statements have a lot of ambiguity with cloudy "mights" and "maybes" and no definites.

It is unprofessional, unbusinesslike and irresponsible to leave a large customer base "hanging" with unsubstianted product speculation. Period. Last August's decision by Paramount and Dreamworks was not the same they left no doubt as to their intentions from the onset. Also, these decisions, one way or another, are not made in a vacuum. They take many months of anaylsis and study. You can bet that Warner knew in advance what Para/Dream was up to and visaversa with today's announcement, not to mention Microsoft/Toshiba, AMAZON, etc. Its an odd time to make a major shift in a marketing strategy. There is more behind this then meets the eye. It not only affects a large consumer base, but also other studios, like Universal who will also lose big bucks should Warner jump ship.

I expect a clarification will be forthcoming pretty quickly. If indeed, Warner does what is being speculate and BD becomes the format of choice, then yes, I will eventually buy a player I said that before. You can bet your arse, however, that it won't be a Sony.

Simply put, I will not give in to BD. I don't care if they win the war or not, my player upconverts regular DVDs just fine. Plus you just know for a fact that if for some strange reason BD does triumph over HD DVD - BD disc prices will skyrocket.

Yep prices of movies, and probably players, will go up if bluray wins.

Steve I agree with you...IF I ever get a bluray player (believe me I will be holding out a long time and may never get one) then it definitely won't be a Sony.

I still believe HD DVD is being way too aggressive with their pricing for Warner to jump ship now. Plus Paramount and Dreamworks went HD DVD exclusive for SOME reason (not because they got paid $150 mill LOL) otherwise they would have stayed neutral. Somethings up.

Is it just me, or is there something really strange about Dan Silverberg's quoted statements in that article? Spreading FUD or at best "confusion" about your own company's products that could potentially result in lost sales is generally considered a bad thing - one that often results in people getting fired. Company execs are usually very well versed in what to say and what not to say when the media are within ear shot.

Figured I would throw out my thoughts. I believe WB will go to the side that sells the most stand alone players. Its all about who owns these players not how many discs are sold. When it comes down to it if they HDDVD players double this holiday then WB may go with them if not maybe they will go to BluRay. People are not going to buy 4 PS3 or a 400 dollar Player for there 6 year old.. Heck People will have a hard time buying 2, 200 dollar HDDVD players. Its all about profit.


This War is far from over. If I remember correctly Transformers sold 8.5 million copies and only 150,000 copies on HDDVD and Spiderman 3 will do about the same. The true problem with this War is that most people dont care. Dvds are pretty much a perfect product. Only we care the people that like new tech. I am a tech dealer this is how I make a living. Until its in black and white and WB says we are for one or the other dont buy it.

Just my thoughts

I think calling this a war is stupid anyways. This is not VHS versus Beta. Back in those days, they didn't sell as many beta players as they did compared to HD players. Too many people have both formats, and Sony was kind of to blame for bringing in BD after HD DVD was already out on the market.

I agree, Skyhawk. It was a very poor business move, and again, I seriously question his motives. That's why I believe it he either misspoke or is trying to purpously create confusion for some unknown reason which is not yet apparent. I don't know: maybe it was simply the result of too many martinis. If he screwed up, rest assured that he is being chewed out by the powers as we speak, if not, then maybe we're screwed. We'll find out shortly.

There we have it! 5 PAGES!!! Five-pages of pure HD DVD fanboy panic! It doesn't get any better than this.

There Tim goes off again. Somebody needs to buy you a dictionary for the holiday season since you don't seem to have an extensive vocabulary.

I don't mind constructive criticisms, but all you've been doing lately is tossing around the fanboy remarks left and right and it's getting very old. For someone who is strongly against HD DVD you sure do make a lot of posts in HD DVD threads. That's more a sign of fear and panic than anything else I've known.

Hey Tim

I am not a fanboy and noticed you didn’t have any real comments. It doesn’t matter to me which camp wins this I have stacks in both. But Sony was defiantly wrong in starting this format battle. If Sony didn’t push their format out there against the consortium we wouldn’t be having this debate. Sony has everything ridding on BluRay they have mortgaged their company on its success. A once well run company is squirming and lossing money left and right. Don’t believe me check there stocks and quarterly earnings...

BluRay is not the better product its just Sony's. A once respectable company...

Hey Tim,

I'm making an early New Year's resplotion: Every time you, or anyone else for that matter, makes a comment about a fanboy, I will IGNORE it. I can't waste my time squabbleing about that nonsense. Steve

Good call Tim (and rpruthee). There's just too many daily, repetitive fanboy comments (and follow-ups), and a growing number of related threads (strongly tilted to HD-DVD, of course). It's not worth the effort to read every post these days.

By the way, for those still on the fence, LG just lowered their "Combo" unit (plays both hi-def formats, also DVD) to now $799 on Circuit City's website.

-Love Hendrix! (The Loverboy)

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[Post edited by Love Hendrix! on Oct 30, 2007]

Tim,

My prediction was right ! It doesn't get any better this. It is like 5 songs playing on a repeat mode..same endless discussions and speculation.

Sigh, it would be nice if you guys would be constructive instead of trying to provoke people by coming on here and posting nothing but fanboy comments with no purpose but to try and stir up trouble.

Quote:
For someone who is strongly against HD DVD you sure do make a lot of posts in HD DVD threads.

Never said I didn't like HD DVD. In fact, I think it's great the technology is moving forward. However, what I don't like or agree with is a stupid greedy format war. And yes, I find it a pure joy that you fanboys go into a major panic anytime it looks like your camp is going to take a major hit. In other words, fanboys do a lot of pointless panic posts over nothing major. Face it hooberloco, it's funny as hell and great entertainment.

Tim (relax and laugh a little)

Quote:
Sigh, it would be nice if you guys would be constructive instead of trying to provoke people by coming on here and posting nothing but fanboy comments with no purpose but to try and stir up trouble.

What's ironic is you fanboys stir up more controversy, drama, trouble and rumors by debating and over-analyzing one little thing that might put a damper on your format of choice. It's all a part of business competition and it's been going on for decades. What we don't need are daily threads debating the whole issue over and over like a broken record. You think it's old for me to come in here and make light of it but you fail to see how OLD it is seeing the latest HD thread day after day. My advice is to calm down, take a pill, have a beer and relax. And for god's sake, lighten up!

Tim

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[Post edited by Tim Raynor on Oct 30, 2007]

Hey TIMMAY can you still control the contrast on the new HD TV's ? LOL

Quote:
Hey TIMMAY can you still control the contrast on the new HD TV's ?

Only on the Sony sets.

well, fanboys or not is entertainment. The threads are repeated "yes", but entertaining... "yes". some are also useless, "yes" to that too. but if you come in and post "fanboys", then you keep it alive alot longer -if is of no interest, let it die fast.........then no one will comment any more.... or bring up something fun to discuss. which you guys often do.

-kucoloco
ps: can afford both. choose to support HD DVD. come on over Warner!