HD DVD "postpones" CES Press Conference

[Blu-Balls]

Talk about wheels falling off in a hurry. This is horrible. Blu Ray players better go down in price along with the announcement (although they have no reason to go down now - no competition).

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

HD-A30
Panny Plasma
23 HDs in-house, 5 HDs coming via rebate, 5 coming via BestBuy.com (to be returned immediately upon reception - money to go towards saving for a Blu Ray player)

YOU SUCK WARNER!!

[michealo]

no competition among the CE's?

yeah, you're right.
samsung won't care if a sony unit is sold.

[lichtenfelt]

Clearly Toshiba realizes that it is game over for hd dvd.
Nothing left to even discuss.

[venk]

Man, it looks like this announcement caught the HD DVD camp COMPLETLY off guard. I wonder if the HD DVD folks found out by reading EngadgetHD like I did.

[Sporadic]

Why is the article on the front page saying this is cancelled when in the press release it only says it's been postponed?

[-Tabris-]

As far as pricing goes, and as stated earlier in this post, when DVD was a fairly new thing I bought a decent player (not great - not horrible) for $450.00, and I was fine with that. I also purchased a number of DVD's for $30-$40.00 (which you can find for $9.99 or less now).

I have no regrets, I was a bit of an earlier adopter, and you end up paying a bit more this way. And as far as I'm concerned HD-DVD/BR are still in the early stages. So we will continue to pay high prices for good systems, and $25-$35 for a movie, but that's the way things always start (give it a couple years, and the discs we are paying $35.00 for now will be in a bin marked '2 for $15.00').

And for Digital Downloads. I'm tech savy enough that I have a good understanding of Digital downloads, though I would much rather have a hard copy myself (even if I have to pay more). I always use the analogy of my parents record collection.. sure it doesn't get much play anymore, but it's nice for them to pull them out and look at the cover art and inserts. It brings back memories. Just imagine 15-20 years from now.. and you pull out a box with marker labled cdrs/dvdr/BR-r/etc.. kind of boring.

Even things like Valve's "Steam" service for games. I would much rather pick up a copy of the game at a store then pay to download it digitally (Although I do like, and trust, Valve's program).

My opinions anyway

[hi-def-fanboy]

I'm Unviversal & Paramount may be weighing their options.

[SAFOOL]

Well at least all the gloating over a 2 hour vs a 1 hour press conference can end.

[unreal1080p]

Why is the article on the front page saying this is cancelled when in the press release it only says it's been postponed?

Because they WILL have a conference before CES is over to announce that they quit. Realisticaly, what else are they going to do?

Panic mode is in full motion and the rats (and ants) are abandoning the sinking ship. Forget about women and children first... it's every man (studio) for themselves. If you go to Ebay right now it's full of people desperately trying to salvage some $$$ for their HD DVD equipment and movies. Kind of reminds me of all the excess PS3's on ebay last year and the desperation of the sellers who thought they were going to get 1000$+ for them.

As I predicted in my CES predicitions a few weeks ago, there will be NO new dual players announced at the CES and this is TRULLY the END for HD DVD (Thank GOD!). It's a format which never should have existed in the first place ---> Toshiba forgot to take the "pill" and Microsoft used a defective condomn that fatefull night when the bastard child was conceived... they should have taken the morning after pill but they were blinded with greed and proceeded to sucker and bamboozle poor gullable HD DVD fans into buying their inferior, ill-advised POS. Good rittens to bad rubbish

Warner will be playing this song at there booth: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sz1t0Ns-ZfI

HD DVD reminds me of Simon the used car salesman in True Lies --> see video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZOaRmOLu21w

He's a complete coward = So is HD DVD hidding behind Microsoft
He's got to lie to "get laid" = HD DVD lying (TL51) to sell movies and players
He does'nt score much = Neither does HD DVD
He's got a little dick it's pathetic = HD DVD Low bitrates & no lossless audio --> it's pathetic
He pretends to be a spy = HD DVD pretends to be the next generation movie format
He's not worth a bullet = Neither is HD DVD
In desperation, he offers to give away the car for free = Does that remind you of anyone? HD DVD much?
And he pisses his pants = HD DVD sure are pissing in their pants today

And this is Toshiba RIGHT NOW --> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xh0qD0aA2bY

[unreal1080p]

I'm Unviversal & Paramount may be weighing their options.

The "options":

For Weinstein and Universal:










For Paramount and Dreamworks:

Break there...






For Toshiba, Microsoft and HD DVD as a whole:

http://home.paonline.com/jeff_lup/bugle/taps.wav

[BlkM383]

HD DVD its over, you guys lost...

[MNTWISTER]

I've been a blu-ray supporter from day one, but I do feel bad for Toshiba right now. I think they put up a good fight, did alot of things right, but just couldn't cut it. I do give them credit for their effort. I always feel good for the winner but I also feel bad for the loser.

Warner had alot of power in their hands, and I think they made the right decision if they wanted to end this format war. Clearly they chose the side with 52 weeks of software wins and worldwide sales. Sure they were making more money than any other studio releasing in both formats, but they were also helping to keep the format war alive, and every studio wants this to end quickly so the mainstream consumer is not afraid to dive in. From a business standpoint, they did the right thing.

Now, we need a few things from the blu-ray side. We need 2.0 players, we need DTS master for the Playstation, and we need low priced stand-alone players, and for people like me, more classic movie titles like Ben Hur or The Sound of Music. They are missing out on an entire fan base by not releasing these older titles too, though I think we'll start seeing more of them by studios other than Warner.

I was feeling that Warner might go hd-dvd considering it was ethernet and interactive, and lower priced players. But clearly Warner was looking more into the future than what is happening right now because right now the number of player owners is nothing compared to dvd.

Warner has effectively ended a crushing format war (crushing to the consumer) and now maybe we will see more players sold and movie software prices come down. For those who bought a hd-dvd player, heck I hear the upconversion is very good, and the movies you have will play for the life of the player.

I was desparately trying to find a Samsung bd-up5000 combi player, which was slowly sent to dealers the last several weeks, but with this announcement, I am glad I could not locate one and can stay with my PS3. Saving that kind of money, I am off to the Amazon BOGO blu-ray sale :-)

[Carl314]

Don't recall seeing this posted before, but the HD DVD PRG issued a pretty terse statement:

"While Warner's decision is a setback for HD DVD, the consumer has benefited from HD DVD's commitment to quality and affordability -- a bar that is critical for the mainstream success of any format. We believe widespread adoption of a next generation format will ultimately be determined by the consumer."

Source: Reuters

Sounds rather like the Toshiba statement - shocked enough that they're not presently trying to rally the troops.

Cheers, Carl.

[highdefw]

HA, they're probably panicking after what Warner did :P

P.S.

[blu-bird]

Now if this is the end, then we can all just watch the HD movies. I wonder when the changer over to Blu-ray will start. I guess I'm not too mad that I got a HD DVD player, but at least 10 free movies with it. I'm not going to replace thise movies, untill they or my player gives out. The 10 moives are probably worth as much as the player.