Iger: Disney Committed to the Blu-ray Disc

[Merlins]

Interesting article in the latest Home Media Magazine:

Here is a little bit of it:

The CEO was asked whether he would entertain distributing product HD DVD instead of exclusively on Blu-ray Disc. He said Disney had made its bed with Blu-ray due to the format's perceived technological advantages and broader industry support.. "With Pirates coming out on Blu-ray May 22, we believe the advantage of Blu-ray [over-HD-DVD] is only going to widen." he said.
He believes Blu-ray hardware player prices will continue to fall heading into Christmas, thereby forcing retailers to make a decision regarding limited shelf space. "They are going to have to choose a format in order to manage their shelf space, and when that happens, the advantage is going to go even further in Blu-ray's direction," he said.

http://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/ques...hp?startpage=4
http://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/ques...p?startpage=30

[WhiteBread]

I believe him. But if the market changes, who knows if they will stick to their decision, or go neutral? That's their decision to make. But I find it interesting that they are so firmly behind bluray, but don't really back that up with releases (yet).

Things will get interesting. I think they'd be foolish to 100% rule out releasing on both formats, but that's their call.

[hi_i_am_wade]

The only reason Disney isn't going after the Hamas rip-off is because they know Hamas will shoot their lawyers dead. Disney's lawyers would go after a kid selling lemonade if it infringed on their copyrights. Look it up, Disney is vicious in copyright battles. So, when you read "we believe the advantage of Blu-ray [over-HD-DVD] is only going to widen" that means they believe BD+ will lock down their content even more.

[AV_Integrated]

It may be BD+, it may be BDJ, it may be 66% more space, it may be more CE support, it may be 2 to 1 sales advantages...

Pick your reason, but HD DVD has very little to offer studios right now.

[Bulldog]

Pick your reason, but HD DVD has very little to offer studios right now.

....unless said studios are little-known Paramount, Universal and Warner Bros., and by "little to offer" you mean comparable video and audio...and interactivity.

Other than that, HD DVD is worthless.

[dolphinius_rex]

Originally Posted by HD-DED

Pick your reason, but HD DVD has very little to offer studios right now.

You mean studios don't like the feature that the format is easily hacked? Or that you can't author an HD DVD-R master for replication, so you have to go the slow, expensive, hard to test-ahead-of-time way?

Where are movie studio's priorities?!... geez!

[ack_bak]

Maybe this will put all these rumors of Disney going neutral to rest. They sure seem pretty committed to me. Looks like nobody is switching sides anytime soon (based on announcements from Universal and Disney over the last 48 hours or so).

[dolphinius_rex]

Originally Posted by Bulldog

....unless said studios are little-known Paramount, Universal and Warner Bros., and by "little to offer" you mean comparable video and audio...and interactivity.

Other than that, HD DVD is worthless.

Comparable isn't good enough... an advantage is needed. Right now the only advantage HD DVD offers studios is interactivity. And that advantage will be lost by the end of the year. It's already debatable according to the nice folks who made the Dragon Lair game (or Dragon's Quest, or whatever it's called).

So a neutral company may stay neutral, but an exclusive Blu-Ray company certainly won't consider changing at the moment. And then there is Universal...

[dolphinius_rex]

Originally Posted by ack_bak

Maybe this will put all these rumors of Disney going neutral to rest. They sure seem pretty committed to me. Looks like nobody is switching sides anytime soon (based on announcements from Universal and Disney over the last 48 hours or so).

Disney is also still running those heavy Blu-Ray adds in home media magazine. They would have a hard time going neutral while still running the ads saying Blu-Ray is dominating 2:1 on sales

[onePIMPSLAP]

Originally Posted by HD-DED

It may be BD+, it may be BDJ, it may be 66% more space, it may be more CE support, it may be 2 to 1 sales advantages...

Pick your reason, but HD DVD has very little to offer studios right now.

Here we go again...

HDi is not somthing to sneeze at or put your nose up at. At least you can make use of it NOW. Please don't assume that BSJ and BD+ is going to really be that different. Come on!

What will studios do with the "66%" more space? They have consumers sold on multi-disc special editions. The larger capacity discs will cost more, why use them outside of computer applications? Really, for movies, who cares?

We all know about the CE support issue. Bluray is flooding the market with so many choices of stand alone players, it's confusing Joe Public. Again, on paper.

Yes, a 2:1 sales advantage. If we were talking 10 million to 5 million disc sales that is a major difference. When the numbers are as small as they are and the market is still in its infancy, this sales ratio really doesn't mean too much. Over time, it will, especially when the volume is larger. This, to me, is a wait and see subject. But I know you like to throw it around, so...

I guess HD DVD really doesn't have anything to offer studios?! If that were true, wouldn't everyone just stop supporting it? Isn't that what it will take to end this? To have the studios ALL go bluray and force HD DVD out? I can't see it happening.

[stfugine]

I doubt they'd go neutral.

I quicker see Universal going neutral.

[pkremer]

Originally Posted by onePIMPSLAP

What will studios do with the "66%" more space? They have consumers sold on multi-disc special editions. The larger capacity discs will cost more, why use them outside of computer applications? Really, for movies, who cares?

This is a point that I completely agree with. Do you know what happened when studios started running out of space on DVD for the movie and all the extras? They *GASP* put another disc in the case. We've been used to them doing this for years with every major release, I'm not sure why Blu-Ray supporters think that all of the sudden studios won't continue to do it? Even if a studio had to put 2 HD-DVDs in a case, the production costs would still be comparable to 1 Blu-Ray disc.

Originally Posted by onePIMPSLAP

Yes, a 2:1 sales advantage. If we were talking 10 million to 5 million disc sales that is a major difference. When the numbers are as small as they are and the market is still in its infancy, this sales ratio really doesn't mean too much. Over time, it will, especially when the volume is larger. This, to me, is a wait and see subject. But I know you like to throw it around, so...

Exactly. This 70-30 ratio that everyone is always talking about is year to date, 4 completed months. The sales totals of 1.4 million to 1 million is actually a 58-42 ratio, and with so few discs sold, companies are not concluding anything.

Don't forget, if these sales numbers were so conclusive, the war would be over. Huge corporations actually wait until there is enough data to decipher a trend, they don't jump with fluctuations in the market. Companies that jump at fluctuations usually fluctuate with huge wins and losses, and trust me, investors DO NOT like that kind of instability. No surprise the major movie studios are still sticking behind their guns for both formats.

Paul

[ack_bak]

Originally Posted by pkremer

This is a point that I completely agree with. Do you know what happened when studios started running out of space on DVD for the movie and all the extras? They *GASP* put another disc in the case. We've been used to them doing this for years with every major release, I'm not sure why Blu-Ray supporters think that all of the sudden studios won't continue to do it? Even if a studio had to put 2 HD-DVDs in a case, the production costs would still be comparable to 1 Blu-Ray disc.
Paul

Don't underestimate having that higher capacity for allowing for higher bitrate encodes and lossless audio soundtracks. I am anxious to see what the POTC movies look like as they are on two discs, with the movie being on a 50GB disc and the extras on a 25GB. If they really maximize the bitrate (I believe this is AVC) this could be a beautiful transfer. It also contains a PCM (uncompressed lossless soundtrack).

I really could care less about extras, and as you mentioned, am more than happy to have them on two discs. I suppose it is nice to have everything on one disc, but certainly is not a huge advantage for Blu-Ray.

[Razter]

The interactivity point is interesting, Universal use it over and over, HD DVD supporters use it, but what the hell is gonna happen when Blu-ray gets HD PiP up and running? "The HD DVD interactivity is still comparable and will do it for most of the users"
Is that a line we could get to hear in the future? Well not from Universal anyway, are they gonna stick with "HD DVD is cheaper"?

It's gonna be fun to se what Universal actually say when the cheap BD players and HD interactivity hits Blu-ray later this year.

The HDi and Disney thing is also fun to read, yeah sure, they where maybe involved in the development early on, but like they haven't been regarding BD-J and HD PiP in Blu-ray
I can only guess, but what studio do you guys think pushed the hardest for HD PiP?
They don't delay that kind of think just for fun if no studio want it, they could of just gone the HD DVD way if that was the case.

[vegasr]

The shops are going to have to decide between selling a fairly cheap introduction to Hi Def through HD or a more expensive BR standalone. I think he is making the scenario way to simplistic.