http://www.engadgethd.com/2007/07/17/pressure-mounting-on-universal-to-support-blu-ray/ Engadget HD Comments for http://www.engadgethd.com/media/feedlogo.gif http://www.engadgethd.com en-us Copyright 2009 Weblogs, Inc. The contents of this feed are available for non-commercial use only. Blogsmith http://www.blogsmith.com/http://www.engadgethd.com/2007/07/17/pressure-mounting-on-universal-to-support-blu-ray/http://www.engadgethd.com/2007/07/17/pressure-mounting-on-universal-to-support-blu-ray/Jul 17th 2007 11:09PMhttp://www.engadgethd.com/2007/07/17/pressure-mounting-on-universal-to-support-blu-ray/http://www.engadgethd.com/2007/07/17/pressure-mounting-on-universal-to-support-blu-ray/
Even with massive price cuts, HD DVD is getting whipped. And the price drop on the PS3 will probably help with that too - my PS3 arrived today, the primary use is for Blu-ray. And I'm getting six free BD movies to go with it. :-)]]>Jul 17th 2007 11:47PMhttp://www.engadgethd.com/2007/07/17/pressure-mounting-on-universal-to-support-blu-ray/http://www.engadgethd.com/2007/07/17/pressure-mounting-on-universal-to-support-blu-ray/
This data is from the avs forums of the nielsen data see how bd was close to 70/30 and even more then 80% one week at start of year (due to PS3 debue)..but as more HD DVD players hits the market the sales gap gets smaller.

Day Week YTD SI
01/07 63.3/36.7 63.3/36.7 41.2/58.8
01/14 68.2/31.8 65.7/34.3 43.2/56.8
01/21 67.8/32.2 66.4/33.6 45.1/54.9
01/28 68.8/31.2 67.0/33.0 46.7/53.3
02/04 69.0/31.0 67.4/32.6 48.1/51.9
02/11 69.6/30.4 67.7/32.3 49.3/50.7
02/18 65.0/35.0 67.4/32.6 50.3/49.7
02/25 68.5/31.5 67.4/32.6 51.5/48.5
03/04 65.7/34.3 67.2/32.8 52.2/47.8
03/11 68.7/31.3 67.9/32.1 52.8/47.2
03/18 81.7/18.3 69.2/30.8 54.3/45.7
03/25 n/a 70.4/29.6 55.6/44.4
04/01 n/a 69.9/30.1 56.2/43.8
04/08 62.4/37.6 69.4/30.6 56.4/43.6
04/15 61/39 69/31 57/43
04/22 52/48 68/32 57/43
04/29 71/29 68/32 58/42
05/06 60/40 68/32 57/43
05/13 62/38 68/32 57/43
05/20 58/42 67/33 57/43
05/27 69/31 67/33 58/42
06/03 61/39 67/33 59/41
06/10 66/34 67/33 59/41
06/17 64/36 67/33 59/41
06/24 70/30 67/33 59/41
07/01 65/35 67/33 60/40
07/08 66/34 67/33 60/40]]>Jul 18th 2007 5:15AMhttp://www.engadgethd.com/2007/07/17/pressure-mounting-on-universal-to-support-blu-ray/http://www.engadgethd.com/2007/07/17/pressure-mounting-on-universal-to-support-blu-ray/
HD DVD can never 'win' - the only possible outcomes are a permanent split or a win for BD.]]>Jul 17th 2007 11:51PMhttp://www.engadgethd.com/2007/07/17/pressure-mounting-on-universal-to-support-blu-ray/http://www.engadgethd.com/2007/07/17/pressure-mounting-on-universal-to-support-blu-ray/
Engadget = in Sony's pocket

disgusting.

IF Fox or MGM started making both discs, then HD-DVD would have already dominated. So the article's effing retarded.
The fact that Weinstein and Universal are the only major studios exclusively backing the HD-DVD format, shows how strong the format is.
And what consumers REALLY want is:
An affordable entry into the High-Definition movie world with a good selection of movies. PRICE being the main point there.

The momentun has already shifted according to Neilsen video scan, and other sales analysis firms, due to 300 dollar HD-DVD players now being available.
Nobody's dropping HALF A GRAND, just to watch hi-def movies *cough* blu-ray lol]]>Jul 18th 2007 12:07AMhttp://www.engadgethd.com/2007/07/17/pressure-mounting-on-universal-to-support-blu-ray/http://www.engadgethd.com/2007/07/17/pressure-mounting-on-universal-to-support-blu-ray/SPOILERS

This is a blog, not a news website. They can make articles about anything they want relating to the blog they are writing for.]]>Jul 18th 2007 1:16AMhttp://www.engadgethd.com/2007/07/17/pressure-mounting-on-universal-to-support-blu-ray/http://www.engadgethd.com/2007/07/17/pressure-mounting-on-universal-to-support-blu-ray/
What the BDA fears most is starting next January with over 1 million installed HD DVD players, all dedicated to movies, versus a few million PS3s, only some of which are even connected to HDTVs, let along used for movies.

So, F.U.D. to convince folks they have to buy the $500 bluray hardware rather than the $250 HD DVD machine.]]>Jul 18th 2007 2:43AMhttp://www.engadgethd.com/2007/07/17/pressure-mounting-on-universal-to-support-blu-ray/http://www.engadgethd.com/2007/07/17/pressure-mounting-on-universal-to-support-blu-ray/Jul 18th 2007 3:04AMhttp://www.engadgethd.com/2007/07/17/pressure-mounting-on-universal-to-support-blu-ray/http://www.engadgethd.com/2007/07/17/pressure-mounting-on-universal-to-support-blu-ray/Umm...the whole point of the article was simply ti reiterate that Universal is the only major studio exclusively backing hd dvd. There are many more exclusively backing blu ray. sure, if fox, disney, liongate, mgm were all to back hd dvd as well...sure the war would be over. the point is, they're not. it'd be far more likely to have one studio go neutral than 6, especially when they're already on the winning side.
@Kris
i dont get what you're sad about...
@heist
read what i already said to mike. also, you dont have much of an argument. the fact that hd dvd is only exclusively supported by universal, and they're still around does not show the strength of the format as you claim. remember, you can still buy WB and paramount movies on hd dvd as well...if anything, the strength of the blu ray format is shown because even though the players themselves are at the very least double the cost...people are still buying them, and still buying all those blu ray discs. you really sound like a fanboy, but sorry...its true. there are MILLIONS of people who are dropping half a grand to watch movies on blu ray, and half a grand to burn blu ray discs on their computers... ]]>Jul 18th 2007 2:51AMhttp://www.engadgethd.com/2007/07/17/pressure-mounting-on-universal-to-support-blu-ray/http://www.engadgethd.com/2007/07/17/pressure-mounting-on-universal-to-support-blu-ray/
Yeah, Fox and Disney are releasing a ton of movies for Blu-Ray...

Fact is, Sony is pretty much the only "BD exclusive" company that is releasing BD movies (aside from a few here and there, like PotC). Fox hasn't released a movie since what, February?

Funny how you NEVER see articles here saying, "Fox and Disney might go neutral - they haven't released any movies for BD in quite awhile!" Universal, on the other hand, releases a TON of movies for the format, and this place says, "They might go neutral... We have no facts or anything, but it could happen." Well, the sun could go supernova too, but you don't see people posting that.]]>Jul 18th 2007 9:26AMhttp://www.engadgethd.com/2007/07/17/pressure-mounting-on-universal-to-support-blu-ray/http://www.engadgethd.com/2007/07/17/pressure-mounting-on-universal-to-support-blu-ray/
But even at $299..that is a larger consumer base then the $499 consumers]]>Jul 18th 2007 5:23AMhttp://www.engadgethd.com/2007/07/17/pressure-mounting-on-universal-to-support-blu-ray/http://www.engadgethd.com/2007/07/17/pressure-mounting-on-universal-to-support-blu-ray/
The initial sale of PS3s put BD way ahead. A lead that has stagnated with the PS3, until just lately. Now, a new burst of PS3 sales. And they are trying to get gamers to buy BD movies by giving away remotes. It won't help any if they don't have HDTVs, though.

Except for the laser assembly, which is cheaper than a BD because it's "less advanced", the guts of the Toshiba player costs about $30-40 (a Linux computer). The price still has a way to come down. ]]>Jul 18th 2007 3:16AMhttp://www.engadgethd.com/2007/07/17/pressure-mounting-on-universal-to-support-blu-ray/http://www.engadgethd.com/2007/07/17/pressure-mounting-on-universal-to-support-blu-ray/
When do you think the PS3 was launched? I think you are forgetting about a little something called the HD-A1.

HD DVD has always had the price advantage, and haven't been in the lead in software sales since shortly after the launch of the PS3.]]>Jul 18th 2007 10:23AMhttp://www.engadgethd.com/2007/07/17/pressure-mounting-on-universal-to-support-blu-ray/http://www.engadgethd.com/2007/07/17/pressure-mounting-on-universal-to-support-blu-ray/Jul 18th 2007 9:33PMhttp://www.engadgethd.com/2007/07/17/pressure-mounting-on-universal-to-support-blu-ray/http://www.engadgethd.com/2007/07/17/pressure-mounting-on-universal-to-support-blu-ray/
I fail to follow your logic, and that is fully in line with my suspicion that the editors at Engadget HD are partially retarded.]]>Jul 18th 2007 10:28AMhttp://www.engadgethd.com/2007/07/17/pressure-mounting-on-universal-to-support-blu-ray/http://www.engadgethd.com/2007/07/17/pressure-mounting-on-universal-to-support-blu-ray/Jul 20th 2007 6:44AMhttp://www.engadgethd.com/2007/07/17/pressure-mounting-on-universal-to-support-blu-ray/http://www.engadgethd.com/2007/07/17/pressure-mounting-on-universal-to-support-blu-ray/
You are CONNECTING articles from your own site and that are mostly rumors, with bogus people doing "analysis" while they are expresing their own opinions without any shred of sources or facts. I guess you have to do this in order to justify your salaries being paid by Sony or other companies supporting Blu-Ray.

Here let's start dissecting your NEWS:

Ever since Universal's non announcements at CES this year there has been speculation that Universal's days of HD DVD exclusivity are numbered. Sure they came out and announced 100 titles without dates for 2007, but many still wonder when they will be released.

Let's just read through this please. COMPLETELY FALSE and you say it but conveniently skip through those facts quickly. How is Universal not coming out with titles? Who is speculating that Univeral's days of exclusivity for HD DVD are numbered? Your Ross Rubin that writes for Engadget and has just blurted out his opinion, if you can call it that, why Universal SHOULD switch to HD DVD. No facts, NOTHING. In fact, Universal re-iterated no plans to support Blu-ray this year. They specifically mentioned 100 "Exclusive" HD DVD titles.

Here let me remind you, as you probably count on a lot of people not sourcing your "facts".

This is what ONLY Ross said, that you are classifying and presenting like the whole world is speculating, when it's just one guy in his blog:

"Let me spell it out for you, Burnstein. Universal gets to enjoy some sweet market share without Sony and Disney playing in their high-definition home video pool... at least for a while. But over time it's going to become increasingly difficult to ignore all those PlayStation 3s stacking the deck for Blu-ray. Sure, the attach rates on the game consoles for movies may be lower than those for the dedicated players, but it's still going to move a lot of titles. Universal is the weakest link among the HD DVD backers. Unlike Toshiba, it has no hardware R&D investment to lose. And unlike Microsoft, it has no axe to grind with Sony or Java. "

This is just unsourced, personally opiniated rant that has no connection with reality. And it's completely flawed btw. Universal is ONE of the main backers with vested interest in HD DVD, second, the same way PS3 might become interesting to them, there may be millions of cheap chinese branded players available for HD DVD. So what? People don't go writing Sony will go and start releasing HD DVD titles cause there will be a bunch of cheap ass HD DVD player. Completely laughable, his WHOLE statement.

And then we have Ben of course seals the news and gives it value by saying:
"While this is nothing more than speculation, he has a point -- Universal is going to have a tough time ignoring the recent sales figures and the shear number of Blu-ray players PS3s".

How exactly does he have a point? On what? Where are the facts? Where is the logic? If anything an attachment ratio for PS3s is HORRIBLE. 1 million copies of BD titles sold for 3.5 million PS3s? HOw is this DESIRABLE? You have 300k HD DVD players and over million HD DVD titles sold, where Universal has COMPLETE majority of titles thus take a HUGE chunk of HD DVD software sales. What the hell are you talking about? You guys know all this, but we all know why Ben is saying all this right.

All this is ridiculous at best, because of the latest Universal announcement that just reinforces HD DVD support: Universal Pledges Web-Enabled Features on All New HD DVD Titles.

I mean Ben's news are just COMPLETELY laughable and biased. Jesus Christ. Let's take a look at his statement:

In the article: THE CURRENT STATE OF FORMAT WAR: NO END IN SIGHT he tries to seem objective and then he states this:

"Four months ago we laid out a list of tasks that each side would have to do to win. Blu-ray has arguably achieved 6 out of 8 of the tasks, while HD DVD has achieved 6 out of 9."]]>Jul 20th 2007 9:58AMhttp://www.engadgethd.com/2007/07/17/pressure-mounting-on-universal-to-support-blu-ray/http://www.engadgethd.com/2007/07/17/pressure-mounting-on-universal-to-support-blu-ray/
Amir says:
=====
"Sure. I just typed a long repsonse for the other forum. Happy to answer any questions you may have.

The program [Indie program] is for this year, and even shorter time frame than end of the year. I suspect there will be hundreds new titles by fall and well surpass the 1000 mark by the end of the year. Indeed, our biggest worry is what to do when far more demand materializes than the current target.

At high level, this is super important news for movie fans, independent film makers, and of course, HD DVD.

1. If you are a movie fan, you will soon have access to more titles than both formats combined today. But more importantly, you will see a lot of fresh content, and not standard big budget movies you may already own on DVD. The content owners will negotiation the price with Amazon but I expect titles to retail for less than current Hollywood movies. So you will be able get great value to boot.

We already have a better breath of content due to deeper catalog from likes of Universal, wider availability of replication which attracts many smaller companies, and absence of region coding which allows you to import foreign films. This will provide an entirely new dimension to that offer.

2. For independent film makers, this is an incredible opportunity. Through this program, http://www.customflix.com/hddvdindies, they will get unprecedented level of distribution and access to their target customers. Amazon is the premier retail site for the discerning audience which is interested in their creativity. This, coupled with the fact that Amazon is the top retailer for HD optical and hardware, the program is liable to do for independent film makers, what Youtube did for personal videos. With cost of distribution zeroed out, and the best retail brand behind their content, they will not find a better way to get into film business.

Of course, Amazon will be screening for quality content but the analogy of YouTube still holds in taking away the cost of getting distribution. But more importantly, unlike YouTube, they will be able to make money from it, letting them fund new projects to develop their talent.

I know a good friend of mine would have wished this program had existed two years ago. He spent $400K of his own money, shot the whole movie in HD, just to get out of film making business because he couldn't get people to carry his movie.

There is also another dimention of productivity not available to filmmakers before. With HDi interactivity and mandatory network connectivity, these film makers will be able to connect with their fans/customers directly and get valuable feedback on which direction to pursue, enrich the content with extras, and connect the customers who have similar interests together (see the review of the movie Blood Diamondon networked community features: http://hddvd.highdefdigest.com/blooddiamond.html.

Keep in mind that due to sharp reduction in the cost of HD production, many of independent movies are shot in high-def already but currently reduced to DVD resolution. With this program, they will be able to distribute their content in original resolution.


3. For HD DVD, this is an amazing vote of confidence from the top retailer in this space. Amazon sees the strength of HD DVD, both from technology point of view, and the fact that their own numbers show it to be the highest sales ranking of any HD optical format (Toshiba HD DVD players are always in top-10 list of DVD players). They are also an active participant in DVD Forum so they are very familiar with HD DVD specifications. So for them it was natural to use HD DVD for this program.

What's more, this announcement shows more innovation yet again from HD DVD camp. We pushed the envelope on interactivity better than any other. And now, with manufacturing on demand, we pull ahead with new ways of getting HD content distributed to consumers.

Using this process and HD DVD, Amazon is able to get a competitive advantage as compared to traditional stores because they willl be able to essentially have limitless amount of content. By working with us to produce a highly optimized and automated process using VC-1/HDi, Amazon is able to cut costs and run programs like this. No other format would enable them to do it this as well.

Note that discs produced this way will look no different on Amazon than any other commercially produced HD DVDs. In other words, in a few months you will see 1000+ HD DVDs in Amazon inventory with no distinction between MOD and mass replicated content. As such, customers are going to see the incredible depth of offerings in HD DVD, all presented to them in a familiar setting. The only notable difference being that titles get produced on demand after the order, making every title "available in stock" regardless of demand. Such a system removes any cost a retailer may have in stocking "two formats" as there is no shelf space wasted. Yet, the breath and quality of the content increases substantially.

Personally, I am exceptionally pleased to be associated with this effort. In our foray in Digital Cinema with VC-1 a few years ago, we sponsored Sundance film festival and had the pleasure of meeting Robert Redford and seeing his passion around getting new creative talent into film making. I got to meet a number of the directors/producers of indie content, hearing their concerns about getting distribution. Digital cinema allowed them to reduce the cost of projection, but not retail distribution. This announcement removes that final barrier between them and the movie buffs who enjoy content that makes them think, as much as entertain. It is a great win-win-win situation for everyone involved.

Now, how to find the time to watch 1000+ movies! I guess this is a good problem to have."
=====

In the end, also, some Drive Cleaner crap that the article from Variety you sourced is trying to install itself on user's computer. AWESOME!
]]>Jul 20th 2007 10:00AMhttp://www.engadgethd.com/2007/07/17/pressure-mounting-on-universal-to-support-blu-ray/http://www.engadgethd.com/2007/07/17/pressure-mounting-on-universal-to-support-blu-ray/Jul 20th 2007 10:06AMhttp://www.engadgethd.com/2007/07/17/pressure-mounting-on-universal-to-support-blu-ray/http://www.engadgethd.com/2007/07/17/pressure-mounting-on-universal-to-support-blu-ray/Jul 21st 2007 9:43AMhttp://www.engadgethd.com/2007/07/17/pressure-mounting-on-universal-to-support-blu-ray/http://www.engadgethd.com/2007/07/17/pressure-mounting-on-universal-to-support-blu-ray/Jul 21st 2007 9:04PMhttp://www.engadgethd.com/2007/07/17/pressure-mounting-on-universal-to-support-blu-ray/http://www.engadgethd.com/2007/07/17/pressure-mounting-on-universal-to-support-blu-ray/
It sounds like MS is going Blu-ray.

Likely, till this war is over, you probably won't see a dedicated Drive in the 360, and it's starting to look like it might be a Blu-ray drive, not an HD DVD drive.]]>Jul 24th 2007 4:52AMhttp://www.engadgethd.com/2007/07/17/pressure-mounting-on-universal-to-support-blu-ray/http://www.engadgethd.com/2007/07/17/pressure-mounting-on-universal-to-support-blu-ray/Jul 24th 2007 11:48AMhttp://www.engadgethd.com/2007/07/17/pressure-mounting-on-universal-to-support-blu-ray/http://www.engadgethd.com/2007/07/17/pressure-mounting-on-universal-to-support-blu-ray/
R]]>Aug 1st 2007 4:01PM