http://www.engadgethd.com/2007/08/31/following-the-money-in-the-format-war/ Engadget HD Comments for Following the money in the format war 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/2007/08/31/following-the-money-in-the-format-war/http://www.engadgethd.com/2007/08/31/following-the-money-in-the-format-war/Aug 31st 2007 3:33PMhttp://www.engadgethd.com/2007/08/31/following-the-money-in-the-format-war/http://www.engadgethd.com/2007/08/31/following-the-money-in-the-format-war/do you have a source for this article?

From this blog (by someone actually in attendance)Execs stated "no comment" except for Fox, who said: "We were given very good content protection" (smiles).

http://www.dvdtimes.co.uk/content.php?contentid=65741

]]>Aug 31st 2007 3:34PMhttp://www.engadgethd.com/2007/08/31/following-the-money-in-the-format-war/http://www.engadgethd.com/2007/08/31/following-the-money-in-the-format-war/Aug 31st 2007 3:53PMhttp://www.engadgethd.com/2007/08/31/following-the-money-in-the-format-war/http://www.engadgethd.com/2007/08/31/following-the-money-in-the-format-war/Aug 31st 2007 4:00PMhttp://www.engadgethd.com/2007/08/31/following-the-money-in-the-format-war/http://www.engadgethd.com/2007/08/31/following-the-money-in-the-format-war/
Maybe they just ran out for Paramount....]]>Aug 31st 2007 4:01PMhttp://www.engadgethd.com/2007/08/31/following-the-money-in-the-format-war/http://www.engadgethd.com/2007/08/31/following-the-money-in-the-format-war/Aug 31st 2007 4:28PMhttp://www.engadgethd.com/2007/08/31/following-the-money-in-the-format-war/http://www.engadgethd.com/2007/08/31/following-the-money-in-the-format-war/This article also surfaced on highdefdigest.com

But the difference in incentives are, that Paramount and Dreamworks aren't the board of directors, while Disney, Sony are (2 of the 4 asked about incentives) are... Warner is neutral, not much to say about that.

]]>Aug 31st 2007 4:25PMhttp://www.engadgethd.com/2007/08/31/following-the-money-in-the-format-war/http://www.engadgethd.com/2007/08/31/following-the-money-in-the-format-war/Aug 31st 2007 5:08PMhttp://www.engadgethd.com/2007/08/31/following-the-money-in-the-format-war/http://www.engadgethd.com/2007/08/31/following-the-money-in-the-format-war/Aug 31st 2007 5:52PMhttp://www.engadgethd.com/2007/08/31/following-the-money-in-the-format-war/http://www.engadgethd.com/2007/08/31/following-the-money-in-the-format-war/Aug 31st 2007 5:52PMhttp://www.engadgethd.com/2007/08/31/following-the-money-in-the-format-war/http://www.engadgethd.com/2007/08/31/following-the-money-in-the-format-war/
Why is this sooooo hard to comprehend?

To get to a single HDM format (which is everyone's goal right?) we either need all studios to switch to neutral or all the studios to support one format.

Yes, it sucks that, studios started exclusive, including Sony, Universal, Fox, Disney, and Weinstein.

The Paramount deal is different though. They went from exclusive to neutral (what everyone should want) back to exclusive again.

They went the wrong way, and I'm not talking about not going Blu either. Studios should be breaking their exclusivity. Instead we are going backwards by having a neutral studio go exclusive.

Yes, HDDVD fans are happy because it increases the chance HDDVD will prevail, but it drags the format war out longer. So it was good for HDDVD but bad for the ultimate goal of getting a single HDM format.

Though unlikely, if Warner went Blu, that would be just as bad. Yes Blu would benefit, but again the single format goal would suffer.

Now if all studios went either HDDVD or Blu from a payout that would be fine, but a single one going from neutral to exclusive is assinine.

I think the only people truly cheering the Paramount deal are fanboys who certainly don't care about single format adoption unless it is their chosen format.]]>Aug 31st 2007 6:39PMhttp://www.engadgethd.com/2007/08/31/following-the-money-in-the-format-war/http://www.engadgethd.com/2007/08/31/following-the-money-in-the-format-war/
]]>Sep 5th 2007 11:59AMhttp://www.engadgethd.com/2007/08/31/following-the-money-in-the-format-war/http://www.engadgethd.com/2007/08/31/following-the-money-in-the-format-war/
This is hardly news -- when Sony bought MGM, Tristar and the rest of the Culver Studios back in the 80's, they made it clear that they were NOT going to lose another format war, and were going to use exclusive content to do it. The current war was planned almost 20 years ago.]]>Aug 31st 2007 10:01PMhttp://www.engadgethd.com/2007/08/31/following-the-money-in-the-format-war/http://www.engadgethd.com/2007/08/31/following-the-money-in-the-format-war/who the hell is subsidizing the losses on the ps3? sony and only sony, they're the ones the huge losses for the ps3 division of SCE. The only division of sony not to post a profit. Check the papers...

@Tom you make a lot of good points. It would have been best for all the studios out of the gates to be neutral, when we could have seen what format truly sells better. But since that period has come and gone, if all studios went neutral, it may only prolong this struggle. ]]>Aug 31st 2007 10:10PMhttp://www.engadgethd.com/2007/08/31/following-the-money-in-the-format-war/http://www.engadgethd.com/2007/08/31/following-the-money-in-the-format-war/Aug 31st 2007 11:20PMhttp://www.engadgethd.com/2007/08/31/following-the-money-in-the-format-war/http://www.engadgethd.com/2007/08/31/following-the-money-in-the-format-war/Aug 31st 2007 11:57PMhttp://www.engadgethd.com/2007/08/31/following-the-money-in-the-format-war/http://www.engadgethd.com/2007/08/31/following-the-money-in-the-format-war/
The quickest way to 1 format is a clear adoption of 1 format...the ps3's didn't give blue ray that. There were articles and studies on how many are used for movies. But HD DVD playes don't have that problem. Their low price allow high volume of purchases..and we all know what they are being bought for.]]>Sep 1st 2007 5:22AMhttp://www.engadgethd.com/2007/08/31/following-the-money-in-the-format-war/http://www.engadgethd.com/2007/08/31/following-the-money-in-the-format-war/
The cheapest now may not be the cheapest in 1-2 years.

The reason HD DVD has momentum in studio adoption now is that it's cheaper for the companies to make discs. I don't know if you noticed, but that certainly doesn't mean cheaper movies for consumers. Both BD and HD DVD are still $25-30 per film.

The real format winner will be determined when the middle class people have HD TVs and both HD content and players are inexpensive. Neither has happened yet, and probably won't for some time.

I also really like that BD hasn't been locked into a spec. There's so much more developers could do with DVD menus nowadays if the spec wasn't locked down 10-15 years ago. BD's spec-less platform enables additional features to be added in the future, with only a simple firmware update (becoming a standard) installed by the user.]]>Sep 11th 2007 4:24PMhttp://www.engadgethd.com/2007/08/31/following-the-money-in-the-format-war/http://www.engadgethd.com/2007/08/31/following-the-money-in-the-format-war/Sep 4th 2007 10:04AMhttp://www.engadgethd.com/2007/08/31/following-the-money-in-the-format-war/http://www.engadgethd.com/2007/08/31/following-the-money-in-the-format-war/Sep 5th 2007 11:05PM