Disney's Cars & Pirates of the Caribbean miss Blu-ray until '07
By Richard Lawler 
posted Aug 10th 2006 12:35AM
posted Aug 10th 2006 12:35AM
Our fears have been confirmed, Disney will not release their two biggest summer movies, Cars & Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest on Blu-ray until next year. In contrast to the statements made by a Warner exec about a big HD fourth quarter, they predict a slower adoption for the high definition formats than DVD enjoyed. That isn't to say they're entirely pessimistic about the situation, but CEO Bob Iger just thinks it's too early to predict anything...of course if his company supported HD DVD also and had been already shipping high definition discs for several months at this point maybe he would feel like they have a better handle on things. Still, we should remember that despite a strong summer, Disney is in the middle of restructuring to cut costs, spend less on marketing, and may not want to undergo the expense of shipping such high profile titles to a small, unproven market, instead opting for a low-profile release schedule to start.
WTF is up with Blu-ray? NO Pirates or Cars this year? This is NOT something Blu-ray owners want to hear. What good are they if all we get is crap like 8 Below. Now it looks like HD DVD is soon to be getting Harry Potter, Batman Begins, The Sopranos, all 3 Fast and The Furious movies, and Terminator 3. We're getting left out in the cold big time here. Friggin Universal is putting 60 titles out on HD DVD this year alone. Granted they have a 2 month headstart but Disney isnt even releasing they're first titles till September. Gimme a break man. I'm seriously looking at purchasing an HD DVD player to get me through these Blu-
Ray winter blues. Pun intended.
Don you won't regret it. Blu-Ray looks like something to put off until the 50GB DL discs are ready.
HAHA BLURAY... ALL THESE PROMISES...
I'LL GIVE THE SHAME ESPECIALLY ON SAMSUNG, THEY DO MAKE CRAPPY ELECTRONICS.
so what's there to watch RIGHT NOW ON BLU RAY?
ESPECIALLY ON A CRAPPY SAMSUNG PLAYER?
IT'S HD DVD'S TIME TO SHINE.
SORPANOS... one of the biggest to hit the market for HD DVD THIS YEAR! CHEERS
TaiwaneseSTUD:
Writing in capital letters makes you look stupid.
Blue-Ray, HD-DVD...who needs it? It's a shame that I feel this way being known as an early adopter. I think Disney is taking the right approach!
Stop the pissing contest and rally around ONE standard.
Well with No possible HD-DVD for Disney Movies, (two small kids = need) Looks like its time to look/pray for ways to rip Blue Ray Disk to HD-DVD disks (better then Print screen).
Possible Work Flow Example/wish: acquire Boo-Ray (miss spell intentional) rip too hard drive, encode to WMV9 (if needed), enjoy copy via Xbox 360, burn to HD-DVD once burner available. Yes I am a Sony Hater; their stuff breaks on me and their egotistical proprietary ways will be their downfall! JMO
I see the irony of complaining about "egotistical proprietary ways" while gushing over proprietary Microsoft codecs and machines, and a format that is supported only by Toshiba and Microsoft at the moment
is lost on you.
Welcome AVS Forum members! Be sure to report back to Amir about how "biased" this site is. And don't forget that all caps, bad spelling and grammar, and poor punctuation make you look good.
That's sad. Pirates was a big reason I was going after a PS3 this Christmas. Well, if I have to wait until next year for Cars and Pirates in high def, at least I won't feel so bad if I can't get a PS3.
Disney is looking into HD DVD. They like what they see.
zombie your're an idiot
HD DVD supporters
Toshiba
Intel
Microsoft
HP
Apple
Fujitsu-Siemends
LG
Onkyo
Denon's parent company
Acer
and more. Amir has forgotten more than you know. Which is obvious by the blatant ignorance you routinely display.
hmurchison: And how many of those have released or announced products? Perhaps I should have said "manufactured", but as it stands now, Microsoft and Toshiba are the only ones in the game. Seriously, when it comes to Disney and LG and the like, it's as if they're already making HD DVD hardware and software, but as soon as anything is mentioned about Blu-ray it's all Sony's fault (and never praise, for them or anyone else).
Of course, I always take any comments by Toshiba reps like yourself on this format war with a huge grain of salt.
Hey then you take the truth with a "grain of salt"
Seriously though Compusa has the new Acer 20" laptop with a HD DVD drive in it. It's wild! Of course that's pushing the notion of portability but they had Million Dollar Baby playing on the 1680x1050 screen and it looked great. Acer will also be shipping Blu-Ray capable desktop/laptops as well.
Actually if we follow your model not even Microsoft is in the game because the Xbox HD DVD add on hasn't shipped.
In the beginning is it really necessary to have a bunch of players? I don't see much product differentiation beyond the casing in the upcoming Sony, Pioneer and Panasonic units.
ok back OT
It sounds like Disney scuttled plans for PotC and Cars because these will likely be on 50GB DL discs and they don't want to be limited by SL25GB discs.