http://hd.engadget.com/2008/01/05/disney-begins-2008-blu-ray-rollout-with-a-bang/ Engadget HD Comments for Disney begins 2008 Blu-ray rollout with a bang http://hd.engadget.com/media/feedlogo.gif http://hd.engadget.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://hd.engadget.com/2008/01/05/disney-begins-2008-blu-ray-rollout-with-a-bang/http://hd.engadget.com/2008/01/05/disney-begins-2008-blu-ray-rollout-with-a-bang/Jan 6th 2008 12:10AMhttp://hd.engadget.com/2008/01/05/disney-begins-2008-blu-ray-rollout-with-a-bang/http://hd.engadget.com/2008/01/05/disney-begins-2008-blu-ray-rollout-with-a-bang/Jan 6th 2008 12:24AMhttp://hd.engadget.com/2008/01/05/disney-begins-2008-blu-ray-rollout-with-a-bang/http://hd.engadget.com/2008/01/05/disney-begins-2008-blu-ray-rollout-with-a-bang/
weaker? hahah you make me laugh.
1) Blu-ray holds >60% more data per layer/disc. 25GB v 15GB, 50GB vs 30GB
2) Blu-ray has a >60% higher total audio+video bitrate. 48Mbits/s vs 30Mbits/s, which means higher video quality due to higher bitrate encodes.
3) Blu's subsystems and components are higher quality made of custom ASICs vs the budget intel celeron chips running the HDDVD.

Seriously why do people like you keep spreading FUD. blu-ray is *technically* SUPERIOR!
You can root for whoever you want, but don't spread lies...]]>Jan 6th 2008 7:50AMhttp://hd.engadget.com/2008/01/05/disney-begins-2008-blu-ray-rollout-with-a-bang/http://hd.engadget.com/2008/01/05/disney-begins-2008-blu-ray-rollout-with-a-bang/
... And To think they were "rumored" to go Red eh? ;) lol]]>Jan 5th 2008 9:46PMhttp://hd.engadget.com/2008/01/05/disney-begins-2008-blu-ray-rollout-with-a-bang/http://hd.engadget.com/2008/01/05/disney-begins-2008-blu-ray-rollout-with-a-bang/Jan 5th 2008 10:02PMhttp://hd.engadget.com/2008/01/05/disney-begins-2008-blu-ray-rollout-with-a-bang/http://hd.engadget.com/2008/01/05/disney-begins-2008-blu-ray-rollout-with-a-bang/Jan 5th 2008 10:15PMhttp://hd.engadget.com/2008/01/05/disney-begins-2008-blu-ray-rollout-with-a-bang/http://hd.engadget.com/2008/01/05/disney-begins-2008-blu-ray-rollout-with-a-bang/Jan 5th 2008 11:41PMhttp://hd.engadget.com/2008/01/05/disney-begins-2008-blu-ray-rollout-with-a-bang/http://hd.engadget.com/2008/01/05/disney-begins-2008-blu-ray-rollout-with-a-bang/Jan 5th 2008 11:47PMhttp://hd.engadget.com/2008/01/05/disney-begins-2008-blu-ray-rollout-with-a-bang/http://hd.engadget.com/2008/01/05/disney-begins-2008-blu-ray-rollout-with-a-bang/Jan 6th 2008 12:14AMhttp://hd.engadget.com/2008/01/05/disney-begins-2008-blu-ray-rollout-with-a-bang/http://hd.engadget.com/2008/01/05/disney-begins-2008-blu-ray-rollout-with-a-bang/
If you think that HD DVD will stand still and with Universal, Paramount, Dreamworks still at bay with over 40% of catalog market share and Toshiba now furious don't be surprised if you see a lot of incentives and changes of at least one of the Blu-Ray exclusive studios to neutral status as a response to WB. Do you really think that the other guys weren't impressed by Warner's $500 million milking strategy? They'll do the same, it's gonna be either Fox or Disney but Lionsgate is aching for money too. They've all shown so far they are not immune to it.

HD DVD IS THE FUTURE of HDM for it's capacity to replace DVD quickly and this fight is FAR from over. I find it hilarious how still the only people who recommend HD DVD people to sell their HD DVD players are Blu-Ray tools again LOL.

Trust me, Toshiba's answer will be swift. The dust will settle, $99 players will be everywhere as standard pricing, increased title releases from HD DVD exclusive studios and a purchase of another studio to go neutral. You'll be wondering why Iron man, Incredible Hulk, Spiderwick Chronicles, I am Legend, American Gangster, Hellboy II, Johnny Blaze, Sweeny Todd and a lot more are selling so well on HD DVD.

But I'm sure you'll be saying how HD DVD has nothing left LOL. The ratio is somewhat in Blu's advantage now (60:40 for catalog market share between studios) but it's HARDLY over and it's hardly that HD DVD has nothing.]]>Jan 6th 2008 5:39AMhttp://hd.engadget.com/2008/01/05/disney-begins-2008-blu-ray-rollout-with-a-bang/http://hd.engadget.com/2008/01/05/disney-begins-2008-blu-ray-rollout-with-a-bang/
What bothered me the most about this whole Warner thing is, that the future HD format was decided in a Board room, and not by the consumer. I think that the consumers are the ones who should decide what is the best for them, not some greedy Hollywood buffs. That's the most thing i'm upset about in this Warner case, and Paramount/Dreamworks was just as dirty!!

I've always said that ALL the movie studios should have released in both formats, let the consumer choose! Why is it the consumer that has to pay for the studios' incompetences in to agreeing to one format? God only knows, but when the next "Next Generation" format comes out, i hope they will not make the same mistake again!!

]]>Jan 6th 2008 6:58AMhttp://hd.engadget.com/2008/01/05/disney-begins-2008-blu-ray-rollout-with-a-bang/http://hd.engadget.com/2008/01/05/disney-begins-2008-blu-ray-rollout-with-a-bang/
At least Toshiba's strategy was beneficial for us. We had consumer friendly players with the ability to bridge DVD/HD DVD transition easy and painlessly, already existing mass level replication factories, dirt cheap prices. HD DVD was a strong format and the only who can replace DVD rapidly (within a year or two).]]>Jan 6th 2008 8:00AMhttp://hd.engadget.com/2008/01/05/disney-begins-2008-blu-ray-rollout-with-a-bang/http://hd.engadget.com/2008/01/05/disney-begins-2008-blu-ray-rollout-with-a-bang/Jan 5th 2008 10:43PMhttp://hd.engadget.com/2008/01/05/disney-begins-2008-blu-ray-rollout-with-a-bang/http://hd.engadget.com/2008/01/05/disney-begins-2008-blu-ray-rollout-with-a-bang/=/
where the hell are you?!?!
arrrggggghhhhhh]]>Jan 5th 2008 11:53PMhttp://hd.engadget.com/2008/01/05/disney-begins-2008-blu-ray-rollout-with-a-bang/http://hd.engadget.com/2008/01/05/disney-begins-2008-blu-ray-rollout-with-a-bang/Jan 6th 2008 12:26AMhttp://hd.engadget.com/2008/01/05/disney-begins-2008-blu-ray-rollout-with-a-bang/http://hd.engadget.com/2008/01/05/disney-begins-2008-blu-ray-rollout-with-a-bang/Jan 6th 2008 12:48AMhttp://hd.engadget.com/2008/01/05/disney-begins-2008-blu-ray-rollout-with-a-bang/http://hd.engadget.com/2008/01/05/disney-begins-2008-blu-ray-rollout-with-a-bang/Jan 6th 2008 6:25AMhttp://hd.engadget.com/2008/01/05/disney-begins-2008-blu-ray-rollout-with-a-bang/http://hd.engadget.com/2008/01/05/disney-begins-2008-blu-ray-rollout-with-a-bang/Jan 6th 2008 6:59AMhttp://hd.engadget.com/2008/01/05/disney-begins-2008-blu-ray-rollout-with-a-bang/http://hd.engadget.com/2008/01/05/disney-begins-2008-blu-ray-rollout-with-a-bang/Jan 6th 2008 9:41AMhttp://hd.engadget.com/2008/01/05/disney-begins-2008-blu-ray-rollout-with-a-bang/http://hd.engadget.com/2008/01/05/disney-begins-2008-blu-ray-rollout-with-a-bang/
Good to see you back.

Yes the Warner move was a bit of a shock
(but we all knew it was a bit of an auction and until the beginning of last week it was all done & dusted for HD DVD to get Warner but there you go, these things sometimes happen).

You're right, it's not over.

Not when HD DVD still has the 2nd & 3rd largest Hollywood studios exclusively
(as well as a stack of smaller & independent studios - as well as the importing options for many of those supposedly 'Blu-ray exclusive' titles which turn out to be nothing of the sort).

There's still an excellent, large and growing HD DVD catalogue to be had.

If Warner thought their move would bring about a united high def that could then begin to smoothly and easily take over from regular DVD then they are deeply wrong......but my guess is that they don't really believe that themselves.

They seem to believe that a divided high def cannot break out of the niche and, faced with Blu-ray studios who refused to go neutral (s'funny how terrified they are of letting the consumer genuinely decide this......and yes, I'd love everyone to go format neutral), they simply went for the biggest wad of cash on the table and the larger game console sales.
For now.
Those rumours of no contracts being signed are unusual to say the least.

Those new Chinese players are still coming.
They may even to be sold (mainly) as regular upscaling DVD players replacing the current extremely well selling lines of regular upscaling DVD players with little made of their HD DVD capabilities.
That will still means millions of HD DVD potential owners soon.

Potential owners is how Blu-ray did it with PS3 (and then enticed those potential owners to buy Blu-ray movie discs with BOGOs etc).
There is absolutely no reason why HD DVD cannot repeat that trick (but with vastly larger numbers than the game console brigade).

HD DVD China launches in march no matter what has just happened = lots of the current nice inexpensive upscaling DVD manufacturers in China switching production to making nice inexpensive upscaling DVD players that also happen to play HD DVD very well.
That's a fact.

This is still very far from over and, as I said, that very odd position regarding no actual contracts being signed with the BDA suggests Warner are aware of this and keeping their options very much open.

(and yes, I'd expect a response in kind from the HD DVD side in the next few weeks if not at CES itself)

You can be sure of this much though, with current practises & at current prices (and noting that Blu-ray prices have edged up following this news - by a cool 33% on the Sony BDP S300 no less) Blu-ray will not be moving in to the mass adoption and repeating the DVD experience.
Which is nice.]]>Jan 6th 2008 9:42AMhttp://hd.engadget.com/2008/01/05/disney-begins-2008-blu-ray-rollout-with-a-bang/http://hd.engadget.com/2008/01/05/disney-begins-2008-blu-ray-rollout-with-a-bang/
Well.. i dont have kids... and i'd buy em. Am I alone on that?]]>Jan 6th 2008 11:08AMhttp://hd.engadget.com/2008/01/05/disney-begins-2008-blu-ray-rollout-with-a-bang/http://hd.engadget.com/2008/01/05/disney-begins-2008-blu-ray-rollout-with-a-bang/
HD-DVD has nothing left. Players mean nothing without studio support, but I know I'll never convince you. Your optimism is mere denial, it's part of the death cycle.

If they had other cards to play, they would NOT have cancelled their CES press event. You always have a backup plan for things like this. They could have easily talked about those fictitious $98 players you keep ranting about. They could have talked about those exclusive titles from UNIVERSAL and/or Paramount. But they didn't, cause they have nothing left, nothing. Universal and Paramount have not made a strong commitment to HD-DVD... hell WB has made a better effort for HD-DVD than their exclusive counterparts. Universal and Paramount have yet to step up and theres a reason for that. Naturally, they will at least be going neutral very soon, and Blu exclusive eventually.

Folks, don't believe a dying format's fanboy rants about the war not being over. Hope is a dangerous thing when facing the inevitable. Take that as truth people, the writings on the wall, floor and ceiling. HD-DVD is dead...]]>Jan 6th 2008 1:28PMhttp://hd.engadget.com/2008/01/05/disney-begins-2008-blu-ray-rollout-with-a-bang/http://hd.engadget.com/2008/01/05/disney-begins-2008-blu-ray-rollout-with-a-bang/The format war had to be decided in the board room because the consumers would not decide it.

The studios like Warner have seen year over year drops in the sales of media SD and HD. Many people have stated that no clear winner in the format war was stopping them from purchasing new disks.

"Why buy SD disks when there is an HD format? Why buy HD disks when I can pick the wrong format?"

It's really unlikely that studios will switch sides now. Hd-dvd needed to make the big plays before. Studios wanted this war over, they want to sell disks.
]]>Jan 6th 2008 1:29PMhttp://hd.engadget.com/2008/01/05/disney-begins-2008-blu-ray-rollout-with-a-bang/http://hd.engadget.com/2008/01/05/disney-begins-2008-blu-ray-rollout-with-a-bang/Even at the Toshiba conference, they had a slide showing that Blu Ray caught up the since inception market share, with toshiba falling down to 49.x % of the HD STANDALONE market. That is -BEFORE- the Warner anouncement, and the slew of affordable BD 1.1 players coming our way (Funai already has one coming Q2 for under $300).
http://funai.us/bluRayDiscFunai.aspx

Wether you like it or not, the consumer -DID- decide in 2007.
Despite slashed prices on hardware and firesales, despite bogos at the end of the year, Blu Ray did better.
Time to have one format battling it vs DVD.]]>Jan 6th 2008 3:04PMhttp://hd.engadget.com/2008/01/05/disney-begins-2008-blu-ray-rollout-with-a-bang/http://hd.engadget.com/2008/01/05/disney-begins-2008-blu-ray-rollout-with-a-bang/
Disc Capacity:

Blu-ray supporters cite the format's higher capacity, yet 49.65% of discs release don't even use the 50GB higher capacity format. HD-DVD discs using the higher capacity 30GB dual-layer format: 85.79%

Codec/Video Quality:
36.09% of Blu-ray discs use the older (and inferior) MPEG-2 video codec. HD-DVD discs released using MPEG-2: 3.19%. Thus, only 63.91% of Blu-ray use modern codecs compared to 96.81% on HD-DVD.

54.46% of Blu-ray releases on single layer 25GB discs use MPEG-2 compression. What this means is that about 25% of Blu-ray releases are trying to combine an outdated codec with low disc capacity, resulting in a poor quality viewing experience.

Capacity Comparison with DVD:

If the average DVD movie uses 4-6 GB for its data (this is typical), and HD resolutions are 6x larger, a feature length movie in HD should use at least 24-36 GB if the same MPEG-2 codec is used. The two MPEG-4 variants supported by HD-DVD/Blu-Ray are about twice as efficient as MPEG-2 for equivalent image quality, so the same feature length movie in one of these codec should use about 12-18 GB. Thus, if AVC/VC-1 is used, both HD-DVD and Blu-ray have more than enough capacity for excellent image quality. MPEG-2 shouldn't be used at all with single layer discs (and yet it is for many Blu-ray titles).

Features:

Features of HD-DVD not supported by Blu-ray:

* Managed copy: Allows users to copy titles to computer or media servers for playback without the physical disc media.

* No region coding: Import titles from anywhere in the world without worrying about whether it will play on your player or not.

* Less anti-consumer with one less layer of copy protection: Both formats use the same underlying copy protection layer, but Blu-ray adds one additional layer on top of that.

* More scratch resistant discs: The data layer of Blu-ray is very near the surface and can be easily damaged permanently. HD-DVD, like DVD, places the data layer deeper into the disc to resist damage. (Blu-ray has a special coating to resist scratches, but these sorts of things have never worked in the past and I don't have much hope for the BD implementation either.)

* Dual-sided combo discs: Many HD-DVD titles are released in a dual-sided combo format, with regular DVD on the reverse side. This means you can watch your purchased titles on the conventional DVD players you already have in your bedroom, laptop, car, etc.

* Better interactivity (though this changes with new BD players with Profile 1.1 which are just starting to ship) - HD-DVD supports a secondary video stream that can be laid on top of the primary video screen, Picture-in-Picture style. There are many such uses for this, such as video commentary by a director/actor, an alternate angle of a scene, behind-the-scenes footage, and sign language for the hearing impaired.

Limitations of both formats:

Both formats are just plain too expensive, both players and content. Neither will do well (even with a monopoly on the HD front) until the prices start to align a little better with DVD.

Just my two cents.
]]>Jan 7th 2008 12:06AMhttp://hd.engadget.com/2008/01/05/disney-begins-2008-blu-ray-rollout-with-a-bang/http://hd.engadget.com/2008/01/05/disney-begins-2008-blu-ray-rollout-with-a-bang/Jan 11th 2008 3:20AM