Universal Studios Home Entertainment president deals "death blow" to Blu-ray...not
Somehow in the Australian alternate universe iTWire occupies , a quote from Universal Studios Home Entertainment president Craig Kornblau citing early review victories and positive consumer reaction in the press release for HD DVD's promotional event at CEDIA 2006 is a death blow to rival format Blu-ray. To them, the mere force of his words have done what Universal Studios' exclusive support of HD DVD has not, settled the format war and sent Blu-ray packing. For some reason, they are surprised that a Universal exec is coming out in support of HD DVD, although Kornblau has gone public with his support before. They also paint a misleading picture where all of the studios were behind Blu-ray before and go on to name only the studios supporting HD DVD now. This time last year, we were watching Paramount and Warner Bros. go from only supporting HD DVD to supporting both formats, not to mention Sony Pictures and Fox staying exclusively Blu-ray. While some of us at HDBeat have chosen sides, all would likely agree it's just a bit early to be proclaiming a "death blow" based on shoddy reporting and verbal support.[Thanks, Tyler & Joystiq]
Filed under: Industry
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
AG @ Sep 18th 2006 1:37PM
This is probably a last resort effort to save HD-DVD
Bow down HD-DVD, Blu-Ray is here and the clear favorite.
Steve @ Sep 18th 2006 5:52PM
Yeah, whatever. I agree with Richard's conclusion just the same, but iTWire just made up their conclusion based on a quote in HD DVD's press release. Give me a break -- that's hardly a reason to declare HD DVD the winner. Especially when there are so many other reasons: delays in the PS3 anyone? How about delays for the Pioneer player and the Sony CE player? What about crap Blu-ray movie transfers? And where's that 50GB disc? My HD DVD player might have a 45 second startup time, but at least the movies look GREAT. And all for $499...
Milt R. Smith @ Sep 18th 2006 10:33PM
The Sony branded blu-ray player has been up & running at South Coast Plaza Sony Style store in Costa Mesa(L.A. area) for weeks now, and the image seems little different from the Samsung. It, like the Toshiba, produces a high-quality, hi-def image -- but once again is only incrementally better in terms of resolution, color saturation and contrast than a first-class upconversion of a high-quality standard DVD. So go figure.
Dave @ Sep 19th 2006 9:49AM
Universal have no choice. They will go to Blu-Ray or ... will disapear forever :)
SC @ Sep 19th 2006 3:42PM
I don't understand why everyone is putting up with the HD-DVD crap. Blue ray holds, and can hold significantly more data than HD-DVD, period. For this reason only, if none other, it will ultimately be the primary choice for technology users, and then everyone who wants to be compatible with them. Would you want to be using blue ray disks and work and HD-DVD at home? I don't think so. And no corporations will back HD-DVD as an industry standard format for DATA, and that is the point. If you can store more data, you can always screw around with the video compressions to get better quality with that amount of data. I really don't understand ANY pros to HD-DVD other than that it is out now and that its cheaper (as with most things - you get what you pay for). but eventually all prices will fall anyways.
Izzy @ Sep 19th 2006 3:52PM
As an Insider I let you know why Universal is backing HD-DVD. Sony had 24 #1 Movies last year. Figure it out that half the year of Dominance by Sony Pictures. But everyone knows Sony's in trouble with the PS3. The stock is down and the other studios know if they don't support Blu-Ray it will kill the system. This will put Sony in a bad position and allow the other studios to gain lost ground. Are you all that blind?
FimShady @ Sep 19th 2006 5:26PM
Either the rival camps are still terrified of Sony, or someone is doubling up on their hyperbole supplements. The news coming out about the PS3 or Blu-Ray aren't any where near as catastrphic as the blogs seem to want them to be.
Xyzzy @ Sep 19th 2006 6:30PM
#5 - BD does NOT hold more than HD-DVD, at least not yet. Theoretically it may in the future, but I'll believe it once it ships.
HD-DVD currently has 30/9 disks -- 39G of data. BD will have 50G at some point in the future. Not that significan of a difference, especially because it's been reported that HD-DVD already has working triple-layer disks for a total of 45G -- and the 45G disks are CHEAPER to manufacture than a BD-50. You really care about an extra 5G at that point? No, didn't think so.