Germany's Constantin Film AG drops HD DVD, goes Blu-ray only
By Richard Lawler 
posted Jan 11th 2008 2:35PM
posted Jan 11th 2008 2:35PM
Since Warner announced it is ending support for HD DVD and going Blu-ray only, there has been endless rumor mongering over who would be next out the door. Surprisingly, none of those unnamed industry insiders named Constantin Film AG -- which calls itself Germany's leading independent film production and distribution company with 11 of the 25 most successful German theatrical films of the last ten years -- a company that has been releasing in both formats until now, but announced its movies will be released in Blu-ray only beginning March 1st. Citing Warner's shift and a desire to see the format war end, Constantin's Home Entertainment Director said it is "following the international trend." Obviously someone hasn't heard of International VMD Day.[Via heise online]
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oh no, clearly this changes everything
Perhaps not on their own, but I can guarantee they would not have dropped HD-DVD if it wasn't for Warners move. Warner already changed everything.
Isn't this exactly the sort of movie company that people were championing HD-DVD for? Arguably, lack of region coding provides the opportunity to see more of the less mainstream movies from around the world. But it seems from the sarcastic tone of the article (and your subsequent comment) that the "opportunity" is, in actual fact, irrelevant.
Fantastic news, looking forward to seeing Der Untergang (aka Downfall) out on BD
Great movie!
That movie is pretty awesome. By coincidence Gizmodo made funny use of it in this thread gizmodo.com/343730/universal-wont-support-hd-dvd-exclusively-blu+ray-victory-imminent-says-variety
I buy DVD's by the 100 on a spool and rent movies. I could careless which format won the movie war, I cared greatly about which one won the storage war.
It came down to one question for me. Which format holds the most data? If I buy 100 of those shiny round disks, which one can I store the most stuff on?
As a Geek, which do you own more of? Blank CDs / DVD or store bought DVD movies? In the end, which format had the most impact to the average geek at home?
- Roger
If you could care less which format won the movie war, it means you have room to care more, or simply, you do actually care.
You probably mean you *couldn't* care less, or simply, you don't give a shit which format won the war.
@ roger_huston
Store bought movies, by a wide wide margin. My most recent optical purchase was ten pack of RW discs a couple years back.
For the most part I think the salad days of optical media as an archival data format are mostly over. External drives are dirt cheap, much faster, higher capacity, far more convienent and more compatible (anything sold in the last decade will have a USB port, only a handful of machines have Blu-ray). And for smaller applications, flash drives are also dirt cheap, faster, more convienent and more compatible.
Are there some people who will want or need high capacity removable storage? Sure, but they'll be a minority. Are there more people who will want a writer to master home movies? Sure, but given the output of camcorders (even HD), a single layer of either format (or even DVD-9) would more than suffice for most people. Unless you happen to be an aspiring director shooting your home movies with lossless nine channel audio or something. :)
here is a list of some if not most of the movies that they have been involved with
http://www.imdb.com/company/co0074863/
Who???
Just one more domino in HD-DVD's dead format that has come to see the light of WB's move. Clear enough for you?
One more domino, huh?
Then I might ask, who the hell are you? I've never heard of you, oh wise one.