HD DVD's marketing campaign having an affect already? Image Entertainment thinks so

Image Entertainment recently announced they are bringing a few items from their concert library to HD DVD this year, however potentially more interesting is their reasoning why. According to VideoBusiness, VP John Powers specifically cited the HD DVD camp's courting of their library, lower production costs and upcoming $150 million "The Look and Sound of Perfect" advertising campaign that they decided to move up their release schedule and get titles out now. Of course, there is also a possibility this has to do with the company fending off a takeover attempt by Lionsgate, but still it highlights one of the main points of contention in this high definition format war. Each side has to not only sell to end users, but hopefully convince content providers to release on their format so consumers have a reason to buy the players. It's a bit of a chicken-egg scenario where they have to convince both sides the other is either coming or already here, and in this case it seems to have worked for HD DVD. The HD DVDs featuring Barry Manilow, Chicago/Earth Wind & Fire and Heart are now listed for release November 14.

[(Unverified) Posted Aug 21st 2006 11:21AM]

If the video and audio quality is done well, then I'm a buyer. 6-channel is awesome when well-engineered and is always welcome in my home (HD)DVD library. With the upcoming 2.0 firmware release allowing 6-channel lossless audio, I hope the concert HD-DVD's will be released with the better Dolby TrueHD & DTS-HD Master audio formats, or they will missing a golden opportunity.