What did Universal do right at CES? How about more interactive HD-DVDs?

[Ramenator]

There was a lot of FUD coming from this site (and even spilled onto DVS) about Universal blowing it at CES. This is just not true. They said prefer to give specific release dates at another time. That's all.

So does that mean they blew it at CES or that they are waiving their support of HD-DVD? No. In fact they were very present at CES and while other studios were more concerned with release dates, Universal talked about the future of the format and what new features it will offer. This is a more interesting topic to me than release dates.

http://mms.businesswire.com/bwapps/m...id=84833&vid=3
A picture of Universal President Craig Kornblau with the President of Toshiba and a Microsoft VP at the HD-DVD presentation in which he was quoted talking about HD-DVDs plan to have "more than 600 movies available globally, and offer an advanced level of internet connectivity."

Originally Posted by Ramenator

TThe real exciting stuff announced by Universal is in interactivity. Where is the story and thread on that?

I guess I had to start it myself...

Originally Posted by Ramenator

Corel's InterVideo is at both the HD-DVD and blu-ray booths. I don't know what is at the blu-ray booth, but the HD-DVD booth (Central 7914 if anyone is there and want to check it out) is using Universals material to showcase this new feature.

http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/070107/20070107005033.html?.v=1
Representatives from the HD DVD Promotional Group will be on stage to demonstrate the new HD DVD features running on an Intel® Core(TM) 2 Duo based PC with content authored by Deluxe and provided by Universal. This specially authored title includes additional information on navigation and the location of the Deluxe server with the bonus content.

[StingerNLG]

I think what people have gotten caught up on is that Universal didn't announce anything THEMSELVES. While Fox and Lionsgate and BV announced their own releases, Universal seemed more than content to let the HD DVD Promo group show off their upcoming titles.

Blu-ray's CES was all about titles. HD DVD's CES was all about new hardware and advancements in the technology (which BTW is pretty fitting for CES).

No one on the Blu-ray side of the isle today is talking about BD-J, any new interactive features, new players, special features, etc: It's all about what movies are coming out. And if no one announced any new movies on the BD side, they wouldn't have even had a CES showing to talk about.

That gets lost in all this.

[dobyblue]

Originally Posted by StingerNLG

I think what people have gotten caught up on is that Universal didn't announce anything THEMSELVES. While Fox and Lionsgate and BV announced their own releases, Universal seemed more than content to let the HD DVD Promo group show off their upcoming titles.

Blu-ray's CES was all about titles. HD DVD's CES was all about new hardware and advancements in the technology (which BTW is pretty fitting for CES).

No one on the Blu-ray side of the isle today is talking about BD-J, any new interactive features, new players, special features, etc: It's all about what movies are coming out. And if no one announced any new movies on the BD side, they wouldn't have even had a CES showing to talk about.

That gets lost in all this.

I'm pretty sure all of the Blu-ray exclusive studios touted BD-J on Monday as well as the availability of the 50GB disc.

[zombieflanders]

I've yet to meet a consumer who's more interested in the interactivity of the formats as opposed to the titles they can buy.

[Blueguy]

Fox/MGM did announce plans to aggressively support BD-Java and BD-50

[zombieflanders]

No one on the Blu-ray side of the isle today is talking about BD-J, any new interactive features, new players, special features, etc:

Odd, since I remember a new Samsung player, a Vaio media center, several burners, and bunch of complete and feature spec'd titles being announced, along with demos of two prototypes.

If there's anything that the HD DVD camp should be worried about, it's the fact that what is essentially a non-event (no announcement from Universal) immediately triggered the rending of garments and gnashing of teeth across the community. I was unaware that there were so many that were so tenuous in their support that it took the merest whiff of strange behavior to make them doubt the format (and in some cases, themselves). I doubt they have a lot of people scouring these forums, but if they did, they would be disheartened to see how people reacted. The question is, do they assume that the boards have no influence and continue as before, or do they run damage control? I wouldn't be surprised to see Kornblau make a strong announcement this week or next week to head off the concerns of the connected early adopters, as they are the vast majority of the consumers right now.

[Ramenator]

Originally Posted by zombieflanders

I've yet to meet a consumer who's more interested in the interactivity of the formats as opposed to the titles they can buy.

Does that mean you still prefer DVD because there are so many titles you can buy on it? Part of what is exciting about the next generation of movies/gaming/home entertainment is all the possibilities of the newer technology. If you don't think having your movie player, game system, PC, music player, all connected to each other and the internet is interesting, then you should be happy with your PS3.

Originally Posted by zombieflanders

I was unaware that there were so many that were so tenuous in their support that it took the merest whiff of strange behavior to make them doubt the format...

I wouldn't be surprised to see Kornblau make a strong announcement this week or next week...

Misinformation might make people who haven't really followed CES think Universal was wafering. Anyone actually there or paying attention saw just how committed Universal is to HD-DVD as CES. Kornblau did make a strong announcement... on Sunday. In case you missed it, I referred to it in opening this thread.

[Blueguy]

Originally Posted by Ramenator

Does that mean you still prefer DVD because there are so many titles you can buy on it? Part of what is exciting about the next generation of movies/gaming/home entertainment is all the possibilities of the newer technology. If you don't think having your movie player, game system, PC, music player, all connected to each other and the internet is interesting, then you should be happy with your PS3.

The extras are just that, extras. The main attraction, for me at least, is the movie in HD. I don't buy a sucky movie because it has a ton of extra stuff and I don't avoid a great movie because it has no extras.
Don't get me wrong, I like extras, but it's not the main attraction.

[Ramenator]

Originally Posted by dobyblue

I'm pretty sure all of the Blu-ray exclusive studios touted BD-J on Monday as well as the availability of the 50GB disc.

In what sense was BD-J talked about? Does BD have picture-in-picture yet or are they still running into problems with that due to the difficulty for developers in working with the format? How about advanced internet connectivity (what Universal has been talking about with HD-DVD?) Did BD talk about that? I heard a lot of talk from BD about release dates. Will those releases be more of the same (movies with little or no high def extras?)

[Ramenator]

Originally Posted by Blueguy

The extras are just that, extras. The main attraction, for me at least, is the movie in HD. I don't buy a sucky movie because it has a ton of extra stuff and I don't avoid a great movie because it has no extras.
Don't get me wrong, I like extras, but it's not the main attraction.

The "main attraction" of the movies in HD are of equal quality in both formats. So why would anyone prefer the format that is not as concerned with complimenting that experience with extras?

[StingerNLG]

I'm pretty sure all of the Blu-ray exclusive studios touted BD-J on Monday as well as the availability of the 50GB disc.

Didn't seem to be part of their press conference. Nor is anyone on the forums really talking about it today. I haven't seen many CES-related BD-J conversations taking place.

Again, if Blu-ray folk didn't announce titles, they wouldn't have had a presence there at all. And despite Universal letting someone else announce some of their lineup, people are still talking about the technology side of HD DVD. Is there gnashing of teeth over Universal not speaking on their own behalf? Sure. How much of that was caused by the article on this site? Much.

I saw the partial list of Universal movies coming out on HD DVD this year. Would those movies to me be any better if Universal said they were coming out rather than the promo group? Once again, we're getting caught up on the company themselves not announcing said titles, and letting the promo group do it for them.

[Ramenator]

Originally Posted by vooswing

I don't understand this comment. Isn't this exactly what the PS3 or a PC or a 360 currently does?

I don't know if the comment was worded wrong or if I'm just reading it wrong but it doesn't make sense to me.

Did you see Microsoft's keynote presentation? Did you see what the 360 connected to a PC can do? Can you watch and record high def TV through a PS3? Can you talk to someone, or play games with, or share multimedia with someone logged on to a PC by using a PS3? Do you have the choice of playing a movie on a disc or downloading a movie on the PS3? The 360 will automatically work with software that will will be soon be standard in PCs making it a communications hub connected to your TV as well as having games, high def movies, etc. Does the PS3 do that?

All that plus being able to watch an HD-DVD while having a connection to the internet that while allow for online info, trailers, clips, etc. sounds pretty interesting.

[zombieflanders]

Originally Posted by Ramenator

Does that mean you still prefer DVD because there are so many titles you can buy on it?

Well, yes, if the product doesn't exist. What I meant was that, given the choice of the promise of interactivity, or a firm title, which do you think the average consumer would go for? Before you come up with a quick response, consider that this we're talking about a market that still has fullscreen vs. widescreen, theatrical vs. unrated/director's cut, and regular vs. special editions.

Part of what is exciting about the next generation of movies/gaming/home entertainment is all the possibilities of the newer technology. If you don't think having your movie player, game system, PC, music player, all connected to each other and the internet is interesting, then you should be happy with your PS3.

I fail to see what your PS3 quip means, since it has all of those capabilities, all of which I'm using on a regular basis.

Misinformation might make people who haven't really followed CES think Universal was wafering. Anyone actually there or paying attention saw just how committed Universal is to HD-DVD as CES. Kornblau did make a strong announcement... on Sunday. In case you missed it, I referred to it in opening this thread.

I'm wondering if you're actually reading the words I type (and you're not the first to have this problem). I don't think Universal's non-announcement is huge news, and I say so right above and elsewhere. But take a look at the HD message boards right after the posts here and Digital Bits, and you see this spasm of horror. You can't deny that. And these people that were following CES, just as obsessively as you and I. That's why I said (again, read above) that I think Kornblau won't wait too long before giving up some goods. He's gotta assuage the bruised egos.

[Blueguy]

Originally Posted by Ramenator

The "main attraction" of the movies in HD are of equal quality in both formats. So why would anyone prefer the format that is not as concerned with complimenting that experience with extras?

That's not even the issue at hand. You said the part that's exciting is the possibilities of the new technology. I just said I'm not concerned with the extras. I want the movies I like in HD. Anything else they can slap onto the disk is just an extra. My reasons for chosing Blu-ray over HD-DVD are irrelevant to the discussion.

Now if you're just asking as a matter of curiosity, I chose Blu-ray simply because I was buying all the consoles anyway. PS3 has the built in Blu-ray player, so I don't need to go out and spend the extra $200 for the 360 add-on. Plus, Blu-ray has more Hollywood studio support. So more movies that I enjoy and would buy will more then likely show up on Blu-ray rather then HD-DVD. I like the idea of having more space on the disk. Perhaps not entirely necessary for most movies, but for TV shows, it'll be nice to need to swap disks less often. And finally, I have not seen anything that HD-DVD can do that Blu-ray can't do similarly. At least as far as features go.

[hmurchison]

Originally Posted by Blueguy

And finally, I have not seen anything that HD-DVD can do that Blu-ray can't do similarly. At least as far as features go.

How about PiP interactivity. Your PS3 doesn't do that nor does it have analog outputs or upscale DVDS. You won't see anything if you're not looking.