Sources say Universal and Paramount are both going Blu

by Ben Drawbaugh, posted Jan 9th 2008 at 5:34PM

Rumors just won't stop about the future of HD DVD, and while we try not to post all of them, some of them seem too believable to pass up. Our friend Bill Hunt, at the Digital Bits, -- still waiting on those permalinks, Bill -- is reporting that his "second to none" sources informed him that both Universal and Paramount are in the process of going blu. But don't bother asking 'em, because the same contracts that prevent them from switching now, prevent them from confirming the rumor. In addition, Bills sources tell him that while Paramount could make an announcement any day now, Universal's won't come until February -- at the earliest -- because "their contract period with the HD-DVD camp expires at the end of January."

[Via FormatWarCentral]

Filed under: Blu-ray, HD DVD

Tags: Bill Hunt, BillHunt, Digital Bits, DigitalBits, Paramount, Universal

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)

Neutral

Pete @ Jan 9th 2008 5:40PM

If this is true, will HD-DVD finally throw in the towel? Which studios would be left in the HD-DVD Camp?

Neutral

xemumanic @ Jan 9th 2008 5:42PM

I think that pretty much all the majors, if it happens.

Low Ranked

holler @ Jan 9th 2008 5:51PM

EngadgetHD should really look into changing its name to EngadgetFUD. How about reporting actual news, rather than rumors for once?

Highest Ranked

Agathos @ Jan 9th 2008 6:07PM

Aside from the fact that you're obviously a "regular" who change their name to post that let me pont out:

1. This is a blog, not a news site, and posters are entitled to their opinions and allowed to post what they want and the readers can f'off if the continue to see something they don't like. But since you're likely someone we've seen fanboying HDDVD for a while now you've seen this before.

2. These "rumors" are being reported all over the net even on popular "NEWS" sites.

Neutral

Greg @ Jan 9th 2008 5:51PM

You will notice that depending on the reports, they may or may not go exclusive.
Wether they go exclu or not, it is easy to imagine what will happen with retailers once Blu ray has 100% (or close, depending on Weinstein hehe) of the Hollywood studios releasing for the format, and HD DVD only 15-30%.
Can't happen any time too soon too.

Neutral

Mote @ Jan 9th 2008 5:52PM

HD DVD is already done. It's not a matter of "if" Universal and Paramount switch over, just a matter of "when".

Neutral

HD Tom @ Jan 9th 2008 5:55PM

Seriously, if it's inevitable - and Tosh can learn this behind the scenes if their not afraid of reality - then they may as well end this "war" ASAP and commit to Blu. They've already lost enough, why lose more - get on the Blu bandwagon!

And this is coming from an HD-DVD-player owner!

Low Ranked

RazorD @ Jan 9th 2008 6:01PM

The problem is for me, i'm not going to buy any more HD DVD's now - I'm not going to invest in something which might well not work in the long term now.

I'm a Microsoft fanboy and have supported HD DVD from the beginning. I'm just sick of all the swinging around from which side is winning each week!

Region protection bothers me dramatically. I loved that about HD DVD. But, if Slysoft get AnyDVD working 100% with all the titles, which we all know they will - It shouldn't be too bad.

I can see why HD downloads are so popular now though. No fuss about which format, and most of them come in WMV HD for xbox playing. Cheap hard drives, Fast connections.. I'd happily pay $20 for a movie download in HD than a disk. Lets hope Microsoft can get something sorted in that space soon.

Neutral

Jason @ Jan 9th 2008 6:48PM

I weep for anyone that thinks a crappy 720P "hd lite" download is the equivelant to what either HD DVD or Blu-Ray bring to the table.

Why don't you go whack off to some upconverted SD-DVD while you're at it?

Neutral

EJNelly @ Jan 9th 2008 6:55PM

Because we all know 1080p is so much better than 720p *rolls eyes* http://www.engadgethd.com/2008/01/08/1080p-tvs-dont-always-look-better-than-720p-tvs/

On a side note, more people own 720p HDTVs anyway so 1080p does these people no good.

Neutral

Jason @ Jan 10th 2008 12:46AM

It's 720P (which does make a difference if you have a high end 1080P and sit close enough to see the resolution difference) and it's LITE.

LITE means that it's an extremely low bitrate encode, which means that the picture will look ok, as long as nothing's moving around. When there's action, etc, with such a low bitrate you are going to see lots of breakup of the picture (aka artifacts) which really ruin the whole enjoyment of HD in the first place.

But hey, maybe instead of responding to me, when you obviously know little to nothing about HD, kyou should go sign the petition to keep HD DVD alive.

Neutral

Marrvia @ Jan 9th 2008 6:04PM

I hope bluray wins. Simply because of the fact that I own a PS3 and don't have a HD-dvd player, and I own 1 bluray movie, and 0 hd-dvd movies.

Neutral

kcmurphy88 @ Jan 9th 2008 8:20PM

why would you care?

Neutral

Mike @ Jan 10th 2008 12:42AM

and I bet that 1 movie came with the ps3...sounds like you have no intrest in the movies.

Highest Ranked

will @ Jan 9th 2008 6:15PM

damn blu-ray taking over

Neutral

h0mi @ Jan 9th 2008 6:17PM

Exclusively or not?

There's a big difference.

Neutral

Elad @ Jan 9th 2008 10:23PM

There's no difference. If they do switch Blu Ray has every major making movies in their format. That would end it. Even if one of the two starts making blu rays exclusive or not, thats like 90% market share for blu ray. While I'll admit it isn't over yet (HD DVD is barely hanging in there) Either studio supporting Blu Ray would be the be all end all of this sensless war.

Neutral

Gus @ Jan 9th 2008 6:23PM

I guess a lot now depends on Toshiba. If they concede defeat, it's game over. If they don't concede defeat, I am sure there will be some MASSIVE offers on the table right now for Paramount and Universal to stay red. So,IF they don't go blu, what's Tosh's strategy from here?

Reduce A30 to $99 in the USA, swamp the world with cheap Chinese players, give the A30 away free with every Tosh TV sold internationally?
As crazy as it seems, if Tosh can keep these big guns in bed and have the hardware so cheap Joe Schmo isn't going to care, can HD DVD survive or better?
This is do or die for Tosh, if they loose these studios they are F'D, if they can keep them in bed and are very aggressive and are able to sell sell another million or 2 players in 08, can they then persuade other studios to go purple?
Purple could be a huge result long term for Tosh.

The next few weeks will be very interesting to watch.

Neutral

alienclays @ Jan 9th 2008 7:17PM

if they admit defeat, they can focus on being a good ce producer and try to recoup losses without making any further costly mistakes (sega did this after the failure of saturn and dreamcast, now they focus on software)

if they don't, and they try to force make the world purple (which is honestly the best they can ever hope for at this moment) with even more exclusivity payouts, what's in it for the studios? comsumers will continue to go where the content is making larger payouts nessasary to recoup the losses from not releasing on BD. consumer resentment will start to grow as some people will simply wait for their favroite titles with the unavoidable acquiescence of said studios in the dying light of hddvd. soon to be released profile 1.1 and 2.0 players take away any tech advantage for built in features, and everyone knows the FUD involved with the format war is keeping many consumers away and could doom them both . that scenario would make any amount offered for exclusivity complety vapid and short sighted. why do you think a get out door would exist in paramounts contract in the first place? because they knew they needed a lifeboat in the very real possiblity of defections making this abundantly clear.
toshiba would make money on hddvd licence fees for combo players for a short time in a purple world but nowhere near as much as they would have on discs and other manufactures making players like with DVD and with the dwindling sales that are all but certian, it will take years to recoup if at all. all the while risking the whole cart of HDM in the process. it's over, the only real smart thing for toshiba to do is know they cant relive the glory days of free DVD money and move on to making profile 2.0 BD or combo players for everyones sake.

Neutral

kcmurphy88 @ Jan 9th 2008 8:22PM

Gus --

They wouldn't do that when they could, why now? It would have been a good strategy in October 2007. Now, it's "a day late and a dollar short."

Highly Ranked

Gus @ Jan 9th 2008 8:29PM

@kcmurphy88
I agree with you, all I am wondering is what Tosh might now be thinking.
Do they quit, or do they fight on, no one knows yet.

Neutral

JimC @ Jan 9th 2008 8:50PM

Toshiba had practically given away cheap players for $99 and it gained them little ground on blu-ray. The key to winning the format war clearly is not hardware but software and HDDVD didn't have enough or the right software that people wanted.

Highly Ranked

Gus @ Jan 9th 2008 9:10PM

@JimC
I don't disagree with you, all i am saying is, what are Toshiba thinking?
The A2 at $99 sold a boatload of players as we all know, if that became their permanent retail price, could they claw there way back into the market?
As a red supporter, i am not clutching at straws, i concede defeat, but has Toshiba?
If $99 became the norm and they moved a couple of million players in the shortish term, is purple a possible scenario for them? I think it is possible, but certainly not probable, but it all depends on what Tosh does from here.
If they lie down it's game over, but they might come out swinging,and it might be to little to late, but despite our best opinions, none of us here know yet.

Highly Ranked

will @ Jan 9th 2008 6:27PM

Gus

Dont forget money talks
bullshit walks

Highest Ranked

Gus @ Jan 9th 2008 9:12PM

Money talks, cash screams!!

Neutral

alienclays @ Jan 9th 2008 6:29PM

honestly, i supected this would be the case for universal and paramount. my personal question is will paramount have to refund any of that 150 mil they got from toshiba or will they have made off like bandits?

Neutral

Mike @ Jan 9th 2008 8:41PM

But how much will Universal and Paramount get from blue ray...do they get as much as Warner? If blue low balls them then hd dvd needs to step up...and it's not to late for $99 A3's and $160 A30's..they can get 3-5million by end of 2008....keep Universal and paramount ahead of Warner and fox, etc with bigger release weeks (aka Transformers) and wait for bd contracts to expire. But Toshiba needs to have press meetings soon. This we still believe tag line isn't good marketing.

Neutral

Legolas6669 @ Jan 10th 2008 6:09PM

@Mike
How much Universal and Paramount get from BDA? What do you think for future and what will be economic? Are you going to buy a HD-player from a camp, that releases 1 of 4 Movies exclusively or will you buy one from that camp which releases 3 of 4 exclusively? HD DVD ist dead!

Neutral

Justin @ Jan 9th 2008 6:30PM

Bill Hunt & Ben Drawbaugh for President and Vice President!!

Highly Ranked

Tye @ Jan 9th 2008 6:33PM

@ RazorD

"I'm just sick of all the swinging around from which side is winning each week!"

That's a pretty red-optimistic view of the situation I'd say. This is already over..

@ Everyone else
.. for all the negative crap I see about Sony around here there are some things that should be said of Toshiba in this situation;

- You'd either have to be an idiot or lying at Toshiba if you were totally blindsided by the Warner move... I'd have to guess lying.
- You'd either have to be an idiot or lying at Toshiba if you "really" believe you still have a shot at winning. I'm gonna go with lying here too - - so you are therefore trying to get out of the situation losing the least amount of money in the process - which isn't helpful to the consumer who bought into your format.

I'm not too impressed with Paramount either - because when they took their bribe and accepted the red contract, they knew that wouldn't be a deathblow to Blu Ray. At the same time, they could have dealt a huge blow to Red by going Blu at that point, and would have prevented a lot of holiday HD-DVD purchase mistakes. The move extended the war if anything.

Don't worry Paramount, I'll still buy Star Trek on Blu.

Highest Ranked

EJNelly @ Jan 9th 2008 6:50PM

I was a bit blindsided by Warner's announcement, because the BDA spouts crap all the time and I expected that Warner would make no announcement.

I must say though, my first Blu-Ray player might be a Toshiba. My experience has been A3>S300.

Neutral

exStrat @ Jan 9th 2008 6:54PM

If and when Toshiba switches to BluRay they will be the ones that
profit the most. Toshiba was able to sell mass amounts of HD-DVD
players almost exclusively, that no matter how minute brought them
profit. But they will also be able to create new BluRay players that
can be sold at prices higher than what they are currently chucking
out HDDVD players. $100 players on Christmas sale bring a lot less
profit to home than a player that can be sold at $300. This golden
period will last no longer than a year after the end of the
war(whenever that is) before BD players reach the 200 minus mark. But
regardless, profit is profit.

Paramount/Dreamworks has nothing to loose, they already got paid. It would also appear they left themselves a hidden back door in case of a fire in their contract. The only real losers in this drama will be Universal, who showered money at Toshiba for developing HDDVD and stuffing free movies in your pockets with player purchases (yes, I know Sony did the same with BluRay but they aren't the ones who are looking to fold in the war).

This was all staged simply to increase consumer interest and give
rebirth to media players which were suffering from all time low sales
records (There weren't that many $50 DVD players under the Christmas
tree this year). With the spread of the internet which was not as
popular and not as widely used during the introduction of DVD, this
soap opera has reached more homes than Days of Our Lives or dare I
say American Idol.

Bravo blue & red, I tip my hat to you both. A well played out drama
that not only stuffed both their pockets full of $$$ and help introduce
the next media format that can only bring more profit. You deserve
Oscar's.

Bravo -clap-

Neutral

Justin @ Jan 9th 2008 6:55PM

exclusivity or dual format adoption is immediate question that comes to mind, but in actuality all universal and paramount have to do is open the door to the opportunity of films on both formats to seal the deal.

for what its worth, what a great weeks worth of tech news! regardless what side you're on.

Highly Ranked

Gus @ Jan 9th 2008 10:24PM

You obviously support blu

Neutral

Gus @ Jan 9th 2008 10:24PM

You obviously support blu

Neutral

Eddie @ Jan 9th 2008 7:35PM

It was a great week for Blu. When it rains it pours, and now as an HD DVD owner and supporter, it just feels like piling on now. I'm expecting a special report any day now that Blu was the winner of the New Hampshire primary, the new undisputed heavyweight champion of the world, and spurred by an announcement that the NE Patriots have gone Blu exclusive. I'll keep rolling my eyes and looking past all the BS (which I think is a founding member of the BDA) and recognize that HD DVD will only be dead when I can't find titles to buy.

Low Ranked

zargon @ Jan 9th 2008 7:36PM

Bill Hunt is a biased, lies spreading pile of shit. I don't doubt it will eventually happen, but I wouldn't believe anything Bill Hunt says.

Neutral

DEEZNUTZ @ Jan 9th 2008 8:49PM

And that makes you exactly what? You are the worse HD-DVD fan-douche. Get a life.

Neutral

DEEZNUTZ @ Jan 9th 2008 10:02PM

ACHIEVEMENT UNLOCKED: SUCCESSFULLY BAITED ZARGON

You prove my point about you with every reply.

Highly Ranked

zargon @ Jan 9th 2008 10:06PM

@DEEZNUTZ

Whatever you pathetic blind sheep zealots have to do to sleep at night...

Neutral

James @ Jan 9th 2008 8:04PM

Bill Hunt is a fanboy through and through. He might as well change his website to Blurayfanboy.com and join the Weblogs network.

Highly Ranked

kcmurphy88 @ Jan 9th 2008 8:26PM

It might be true, but coming from Bill Hunt, whose site was a hotbed of bluboys posting junk about HD DVD during the war, it's not all that convincing. This is where traditional journalists are supposed to look for a second source before they publish.

Neutral

Ron @ Jan 9th 2008 8:07PM

I wouldn't hesitate to buy a Tosh blu-ray player once they start making them, always had good luck with their players.

It would be funny if by June Tosh had BR players rolling out the door heh heh...

Neutral

Josh @ Jan 9th 2008 8:13PM

Their DVD players and most other hardware seem pretty solid, however the actual hardware that HD-DVDs play on (exclusively made by Toshiba) is incredibly buggy...all of them. I've been in retail for quite some time and have used all the HD-DVD players thus far at one point or another for extended periods of time. Every one of them has developed disc read errors, the functionality has been clunky at best and they fail to perform even the most simple tasks...if I stop the disc to go to the setup menu it should resume play (maybe that's what that resume buttons for? I don't know, half the buttons on the remote do nothing). Also, it's nice to be able to put a disc on repeat...that's another non-functioning function.

Neutral

Hans Martin @ Jan 9th 2008 8:22PM

I'm amazed at the amount of wishful thinking that goes on amongst some despite-all-odds HD DVD-backers. The fat lady sang on Friday with the voice of Time Warner. No amount of dual support from the remaining studios or cheap combo-drives can save HD DVD. It's as dead as last thanksgiving's turkey. No offense.

As an early adopter on the blu side (tho with a modest 20 title compilation), I always felt Blu had everything going for it, but was constantly impressed by the fighting will of the Red camp, Toshiba in particular. For having had the deck stacked against them from the start and competing with an inferior specked disk, they sure put up a good fight. Loose wallets goes a long way.

But now that the end has come, there is just no point in continue throwing good money after the bad. And for Paramount and Universal, there now does not exist any viable business plan for continued support of physical distribution of HD media without adopting Blu-Ray. You just can't be a player on the marked without reaching over 70% of the buying public.

Last year was a good year for HD DVD supporters. Lots ow willing wooers sprinkled gift bags of heavily subsidized hardware and lots of free software in an attempt to dam up the onslaught of Blu-Ray. But now the party is over, the engagement got canceled by warner who found a new partner.

Yes, HD DVD-disks was cheaper to manufacture. But Blu-Ray disk didn't cost more in retail. Yes, the players was much cheaper. But many consumers could smell a rat, as in the end even Blu stand-alone players outsold red. Yes, HD DVD had better interactive features. But in the end, it didn't seem to impress consumers notably. Yes, the HD DVD players was completely specked from the get go. But how many early adopters hold on to their firs gen hardware all that long?

HD DVD started to send out the wrong signals the moment they adopted the triple layered 51GB disk. How desperate an act was that? ONE GB more than Blu -- after ALL that FUD about Blu's 20GB advantage was just wasted space?

The writing was on the wall.

Highly Ranked

Xyzzy @ Jan 9th 2008 9:44PM

"Yes, the players was much cheaper. But many consumers could smell a rat, as in the end even Blu stand-alone players outsold red."

You're making stuff up in your little soliloquy. Show me one source that shows BD standalones outsold HD DVD standalones. There's nothing there -- on a standalone basis, HD DVD kicked BD's butt.

And remember, we were all a few hours away from oppositeland -- where BD would be the one on life support and HD DVD the winner.

Neutral

Matt @ Jan 9th 2008 9:32PM

Well I've been with HD-DVD since the beginning (mostly because I despise Sony) and own about 20 or so HD-DVDs now. Another Engadget story earlier shows each major studio's stake in the formats (http://www.macrumors.com/2008/01/04/hd-dvd-vs-blu-ray-battle-over-warner-switches-to-blu-ray/) and if Universal and Paramount go, only Weinstien and Focus Films are left in the HD-DVD camp (at least with studios currently releasing HD movies on either format). This would effectively destroy any studio support that exists for HD-DVD and make it go the way of Betamax. If this does indeed happen, I hope hardware manufacturers do the right thing and release drives with dual-format capabilities so as to not leave anyone out in the cold (even if HD-DVD movies aren't in production anymore). Someone please correct me if I'm wrong but isn't the difference between the two formats as far as 0s and 1s are concerned simply in the way the data is stored on the medium? They both use the same blue laser so why can't manufacturers just develop HD-DVD "backwards"-compatible firmware to support the existing HD-DVD films if Blu-Ray is indeed victorious?

Highly Ranked

Andy Sullivan @ Jan 9th 2008 9:53PM

I consider myself a reasonably up to date person and I've been around video since well before Beta and VHS threw down. I just do not understand why Blu-Ray is beating HD DVD. If a dual layer HD DVD offers 50+ capacity and offers a less expensive blank to manufacture, offers equal PQ and SQ, how the hell can anybody prefer Blu-Ray?

Neutral

Gus @ Jan 9th 2008 10:40PM

It all comes down to Benjamin's, who got how many, that is why BR has won.

Neutral

Gus @ Jan 9th 2008 10:41PM

It all comes down to Benjamin's, who got how many, that is why BR has won.

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