HD DVD and Blu-ray releases on Janurary 16th, 2007
By Ben Drawbaugh 
posted Jan 15th 2007 9:51PM
posted Jan 15th 2007 9:51PM
Now that CES is over and we are back in the real world where the format war still exists and HD DVD has more movies than Blu-ray it's time to tally up the totals. HD DVD pulls ahead by one more this week, but we can finally make a good prediction about when Blu-ray will surpass them in total titles for sale. Of course this can change as new announcements happen almost instantly and without warning. We are still a little surprised that HD DVD's ace in the hole Universal didn't make any announcements during CES like everyone else, but maybe they don't give in to peer pressure and they choose to announce on their own schedule. If not then Blu-ray will pass HD DVD during the first week of February. Until then HD DVD has Clerks II on tap as well as Poseidon -- Blu-ray finally gets GoodFellas and both camps can enjoy Scooby-Doo.HD DVD 154 vs Blu-ray 137.
Blu-ray
- Employee of the Month (Lionsgate)
- GoodFellas (Warner)
- Gridiron Gang (Sony)
- Resident Evil: Apocalypse (Sony)
- Scooby-Doo (2002) (Warner)
- Winged Migration (Sony)
- Clerks II (Weinstein)
- Lucky Number Slevin (Weinstein)
- The Mummy Returns (Universal)
- Poseidon (Warner)
- Pulse (Weinstein)
- Scooby-Doo (2002) (Warner)
- The Sting (Universal)
Woohoo - Slevin finally comes out!!!
It's a shame that Winged Migration is held by Sony Picutures. Would have loved to see that movie in HD-DVD.
I read something interesting in the CES reporting last week. Only Sony and Disney have facilities that can produce BR discs. Neither company is interested in producing porn titles. HD-DVD titles can be produced by modifying existing production equipment. If the above is thrue then, in my mind the war is over. Anyone remember what was the first and still most profitable business model on the internet? BR's only opportunity to even remain a nich supplier will rest on the success of any multi-format players. The marketplace is a harsh, unforgiving place. Stick a fork in BR, it's done. Format war over.
@doug
Porn won't have an impact this time. The vast majority of porn consumers won't care if the pussy is in hd or not. It was a big difference back in the 80s, when suddenly you could store flicks in you own home - of course you picked the format with porn on it. This time around, regular DVDs are cheaper=better. Porn won't be big in HD until the HD war is over.
Currently, blu-ray has all the momentum. They've caught up with hddvd sales in just three months, has more studios and more coming up titles. HD-DVDs very existance hangs on a very thin thread called universal. The the HD-DVD only deal with universal runs out this month, the war could very well be over. If universal does not start releasing BD this year, BD won't have won until next year.
@0ndsk4
Right on man.
Doug There is already HD porn on-line anway. You are right about one thing though the format war is over, but your worng about the winner. Check out the new movies thread and click on one of the HD-DVD movies, then notice the Video Resolution/Codec, they are in 1080p anyway, which if I'm not mistaken is the native res. for blu-ray not HD-DVD. Even the one's that are exclusivley HD-DVD. Sounds like they just wanted to save money and get ready to make them on BD when there is no more HD-DVD's to exclusivley put movies on.
@Zed - Sorry to disappoint, but the native res on HD-DVD is also 1080p.
To those who say porn doesn't matter -- it had $4.3 BILLION in sales and rentals of movies. If I recall, that's more than any studio (or maybe all studios combined?) It will have an impact.
Also, do you really think companies like Onkyo and Meridian are stupid and just want to throw money away on HD-DVD players that won't be worth anything in a few months? I didn't see ANY new support for BD at CES - no new studios (HD-DVD got a few), no new CE manfuacturers (HD-DVD got a few). All they did was announce titles. That's it.
The war is a long way from over.
I just did: http://www.petitionspot.com/petitions/HD_DVD_Studio_Support
I will get the HD DVDs from torrents ;)
For those who dont know yet:
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20070115-8622.html
Zed - Sorry to disappoint, but the native res on HD-DVD is also 1080p
Ya now. But if you bought a HD/DVD player you will have to get a new one to view it at that res. which is what BD has always been.
"To those who say porn doesn't matter -- it had $4.3 BILLION in sales and rentals of movies. If I recall, that's more than any studio (or maybe all studios combined?) It will have an impact."
An impact yes, but they will wait untill the war is over. The fact that you can get it HD on the net already points to this. And all studios combined, seriusly man look intto that, but your right about that porn indistry being 4.5 billion in total. But seriously nice try.
"Also, do you really think companies like Onkyo Also, do you really think companies like Onkyo and Meridian are stupid and just want to throw money away on HD-DVD players that won't be worth anything in a few months? I didn't see ANY new support for BD at CES - no new studios (HD-DVD got a few), no new CE manfuacturers (HD-DVD got a few). All they did was announce titles. That's it.
are stupid and just want to throw money away on HD-DVD players that won't be worth anything in a few months? I didn't see ANY new support for BD at CES - no new studios (HD-DVD got a few), no new CE manfuacturers (HD-DVD got a few). All they did was announce titles. That's it."
That's becasue as I stated before there needs to be new ones to support 1080p, which BD were right off the start, which means that they don't need to flood the market right now because all the players are good. Your right about Onkyo and Meridian not being stupid though why would they wast there money on an HD/DVD drive when HD/DVD will be obsolete soon. Those were your words. Also Universal is the only remaing HD/DVD exclusive company and they have no 2007 realease slated. And like you said all they were talking about were BD realeases at CES. So I'm not sure whose bubble your bursting but it's not mine friend.