Post-Gazette.com: Fox and Warner took money to stay Blu

Of course they took some kind of payoff. It's business, and anyone who wants to argue against that is delusional. Hell, I can't even blame them. Fox, Disney, WB...they all can really make BRDA bend over and kiss their rears for their support because they know without them Blu Ray will fail.
It still may anyway.

This news has only mobilized both camps of supporters and now HD-DVD players are flying at people all over. Clearances or not, people are gonna want disks for those players and while people like WB may consider us too small to care about, they have to be thinking about those folks buying them now AFTER the fact. That's pretty much saying "yeah, we don't care who YOU support, we support the cheaper alternative" Don't be shocked if another defection comes within a few months. If HD-DVD can hold the same market share or continue to grow as it is, then the game is far from over.

And one other thing...all this money BRDA is tossing about...you think they don't plan to get that back somehow? This is why I think your disks are going to go up in price regardless of what the market will tolerate. They need to get that money back and it's going to be passed to us to do it.

Aren't we already talking about this in another thread?

Jason

I say let's stick it to Sony!

Everyone keep buying HD DVDs and players, so that way Sony's bribery will turn around to bite them in the ass. Wouldn't it be hilarious that they paid $500-$600 million for nothing?

We still have illtempered Sea Bass we can destroy them with!

Most people don't know this little known fact, but "Bass" is actually just a nickname. The real name for the fish is "Bad-Ass" and "Bass" is just the short form.

the post-gazette. If that's not a plant, I don't know what is.

Sigh. Yep, it's a plant. Maybe a nice shrubbery.

You guys are funny. If this was the other way around, you'd be posting the same article.

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You guys are funny. If this was the other way around, you'd be posting the same article.

Not without attribution for the information.

Jason

JServo said,

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And one other thing...all this money BRDA is tossing about...you think they don't plan to get that back somehow? This is why I think your disks are going to go up in price regardless of what the market will tolerate. They need to get that money back and it's going to be passed to us to do it.

If Blu ray..no, let me rephrase that, when Blu ray wins they will not raise prices beyond what you pay for them now. It would make the Warner deal all for nothing. Everyone is concerned about disc price now to do so would only hurt the BDA and hurt the HD disc market. And besides studios set the prices of their titles not the BDA. You are right about one thing the BDA will get their money some how. If Blu ray wins they'll have at least ten years of being the only HD disc format. You have to look at it as a long term investment. Invest 1 or 2 billion now to recieve billions over the years.

SONY bought time, time that they didn't have when HDDVD was ready to hit the market first. They said if our stand alones aren't ready then the PS3 will be. Someone at SONY must have a crystal ball. If Toshiba and Microsoft would've known this was going to happen then every 360 would've had an HDDVD player inside. TOSHIBA under estimated the PS3 thinking the XBOX would killed it and no one would want a one, it all most worked. SONY played a good chess game with TOSHIBA and now it's checkmate.

Who wouldn't take money to take a side? I mean, they are businesses who want to make money, and free money to be exclusive to a faulty media, well....

How is HD DVD faulty?

Maybe you need to read this thread...

Early Blu-ray problems makes main-stream news

http://www.dvdtown.com/messageboard/topic/5713/6/0

[Post edited by Falcon01 on Jan 16, 2008]

tony, you take this MS TOshiba partnership too seriously. so toshiba said, MS please kill the paystation for me? so my Highdef media can win?.. lol

Fox and WB didn’t take any money. This is an honest business where both companies have been playing fair from the get go. Including the innocent Paramount. (sarcasm) I suppose the most crooked format is going to win this one, and when they do, damn that Hi Def format for giving money to production companies and disconcerting the “poor” consumer.

[Post edited by Kris on Jan 16, 2008]

Hey Kucoloco,

Actually, this is my own little conspiracy theory, the TOSHIBA CEO was hiding in the closet at Warner Bro. when SONY and Warner had their meeting. When it was over Tadashi Okamura(TOSHIBA CEO) came out of the closet and said to Barry Meyer (Warner CEO).


Tadashi Okamura: Man, I thought that meeting would never end, thanks for the info about FOX, but let's get down to business. You hold out for 500 million and then go exclusive. I'll begin to dump players by droping prices therefore prolonging the war . You tell the BDA that we are going to fight this to the end therefore it would be in the best intrest of the BDA to make an offer to us. If not then WB will renig on their agreement. I will tell the BDA that no less than 2.2 bilion will be excepted (covering for losses from the $99 dollar sale and then later dumping players) and incentives. If SONY wants their format to win than it going to cost them some change.


Barry Meyer: Ok, but what about all those early adaptors that believed in TOSHIBA?

Tadashi Okamura:They are........(pause)...............Casualties of war.

Who needs The Writers Guild

[Post edited by tony1569 on Jan 16, 2008]

@the person who said that Blu-Ray would be the only HD format for the next 10 years. . . GUESS AGAIN!!!!!!!!!! HD-VMD was launched just recently and although the selection has a long way to go it doesn't have the studios split up all over the place the way HD-DVD and Blu-Ray do. At just $210MSRP for their high end model and a cost of $17.49 per disc regardless of title (no not from BOGOs) they definitely have the potential to do some damage to Blu-Ray and HD-DVD. If they market it properly they can do quite well.

By the time they get real studio support Blu ray will be well adapted. Everyone will have HD audio capable recievers which HD-VMD will never support. Plus it has 6 regions.

[Post edited by tony1569 on Jan 16, 2008]

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I say let's stick it to Sony!

Everyone keep buying HD DVDs and players, so that way Sony's bribery will turn around to bite them in the ass.

Sony can get all the studios behind them and I still wouldn't buy movies on that format. I've got my PS3, I like it, I rent movies to watch on it, but I have no intentions of ever investing in the discs...they just aren't worth it.

I still love my HD DVDs. Even my worst HD DVD (transfer wise: Willy Wonka) is more captivating than the best Blu-ray Discs. I feel Blu-ray is better than standard definition DVDs, but that's as far as it goes.

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I still love my HD DVDs. Even my worst HD DVD (transfer wise: Willy Wonka) is more captivating than the best Blu-ray Discs.

If you think Willy Wonka is the worst HD DVD transfer you've even seen, I'm guessing you haven't rented nor own many HD DVD movies!

I can recommend some very, very bad HD DVD transfer if you like...

Behave Skyhawk.

LOL @ Skyhawk.

Nothing could be worse than the bluray versions of Robocop and The Fifth Element that were first released. Those were BRUTAL.

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I can recommend some very, very bad HD DVD transfer if you like...

Go on now...don't be shy.

<edit>I know about Christmas Vacation, but I don't own it...I've got well over 40 HD DVDs...but do go on with your list - I'm curious to find out what you call a bad transfer.</edit>

[Post edited by JPSofCA on Jan 16, 2008]

Falcon, "House of Flying Daggers" on Blu-ray comes pretty close. Goddam, they better fix this one eventually. I'd double dip because I liked it, and visually would lend itself to a "real" transfer. Idiots!

JPSofCA,

Oh there are so many, where should I begin? LOL

I just watched "Breakfast Club" the last week, and I think my DVD version was actually better (and it's not a great DVD transfer). "The Fugitive" just sucked in so many ways. We watched "Last Starfighter" just last night, and it was only a bit better than my standard DVD version. Thank God it was a rental. Gothika just sucked. I could go on...

Unfortunately, we have crappy transfers on both formats. I hope they redo many of these movies later (as they did with early DVD transfers), cause some of these movies I actually liked (movie-wise).

Edit: BTW I own Christmas Vacation LOL, it's pretty crappy for whats supposed to be an HD transfer, but it isn't as bad as the ones I listed above IMO.

[Post edited by Skyhawk on Jan 16, 2008]

Well, I'll accept your "I could go on..." as your perverbial "white flag" so to speak. It's okay. You don't have to feel embarrassed here...we can all get along just fine - I'm not here to say my HD DVDs are better than your Blu-rays or vice versa. Blu-ray still has a while to go yet, and I'm sure they'll do just fine, eventually.

"The Breakfast Club" I haven't seen on HD DVD yet (although I've been wanting to since day one), but the original film is a bit soft to begin with. Never saw "Gothica". I think they rereleased a better "Christmas Vacation" after the first one got griped about. "The Last Starfighter" turned out pretty nice compared to its source.

Mostly the ones you might mention as HD DVD duds are really just films with a poor source. Then there's "Pirates of the Caribbean" where the head and feet are chopped off, I'll admit, that is a bit inexcusable...oh wait, that one's Blu-ray. I don't know...you know what I mean though.

I'm just glad we've got an open forum where we can discuss these things to help one another from making poor purchase decisions. I think that way, we all end up winners!

[Post edited by JPSofCA on Jan 16, 2008]

i was so pissed watching Liar Liar on HD DVD. it was a rental, but mannn, it looked like crap.

JPSofCA, I own 73 HD DVDs, but rented many more over the past year+ since I have a zip.ca (netflix like, but Canadian) account where they are mailed to me. I think I've probably seen more than 200 HD DVDs over the live of my player so far.

There are so many that I seriously could keep listing, like Sleepy Hollow, Deliverance (oh boy), Lethal Weapon 1 & 2, etc. Then there are movies which I think they just ruined, not because of bad transfers but because of excessive DNR or EE - like Traffic, Waterworld, and Tremors. They just killed these movies.

But lets face it. Bad transfers on both sides of the format fence are not due inherently to the format itself, but due to the studios feeding us this crap. It's up to the public and reviewers to speak out and let these studios know we want quality transfers if they want us to double-dip our DVDs (again), or buy their new releases instead of rent only.

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i was so pissed watching Liar Liar on HD DVD. it was a rental, but mannn, it looked like crap.

I don't remember Liar Liar as being that bad. I rented that one too. It wasn't great, but certainly not really BAD like the titles we're talking about.

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There are so many that I seriously could keep listing, like Sleepy Hollow, Deliverance (oh boy), Lethal Weapon 1 & 2, etc.....

I saw "Sleepy Hollow" and I was thoroughly impressed.

I thought "Deliverance" was as clear as a bell, a totally clean transfer and a true masterpiece!

I haven't seen the "Lethal Weapon" movies.

I suppose we do see transfer quality differently, and you are entitled to your opinions. What could they have done with "Deliverance" that you would have found it to be a better transfer?

For me with "Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory" I find that if you zoom in at all you will find little Atari 2600 jaggies on the picture. Although you can see the stitching on Gene Wilder's coat where you never could see it in standard definition. But those little jaggies don't exist on "The Searchers" one of my favorites, nor on any other HD DVD transfer of films old or new that I've noticed. But then I'm still renting my way down the Netflix list too! LOL

I should check out "The Breakfast Club"...eventually I will.

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What could they have done with "Deliverance" that you would have found it to be a better transfer?

Color saturation, shadow delineation, detail (it was "mostly soft"), contrast, and blacks could have been much better, and a fair bit of grain that looked like "noise" to me was present in many scenes. I just remember it as a rather disappointing transfer. That's not to say it wasn't considerably better than the very crappy DVD version I own. I think I bought that one in the early days of DVD when I still had my original player. At least they didn't EE and DNR the HD DVD version to death I suppose.

They can make these old movies look very good. Look at Blade Runner for example. I suppose studios just don't put the restoration money into catalog releases like "Deliverance" because of the limited viewer demographic. They probably wouldn't make their money back I guess.

JPSofCA,

BTW, if you think the movies you've mentioned are good transfers... try out the following HD DVDs:

The Chronicles of Riddick
Hulk
Planet Earth
King Kong
Corpse Bride
Aeon Flux
Hot Fuzz

It's all relative. After watching these HD DVD transfers and drooling a bit, you'll look differently at many other titles.