Paramount & Dreamworks HD DVD support ends March 4
By Richard Lawler 
posted Feb 28th 2008 11:11PM
posted Feb 28th 2008 11:11PM
We don't know if Jeffrey Katzenberg got a text message, fax, e-mail or smoke signal indicating the format war was over, but Video Business has confirmed Paramount and Dreamworks Animation will (rather abruptly) to stop releasing HD DVDs after next week. If you were looking forward to Bee Movie on March 11, Sweeney Todd on April 1 or the just announced There Will Be Blood, those are cancelled. Into the Wild and the appropriately-named Things We Lost in the Fire will be Paramount's last reminders of its exclusive agreement. Not specifically mentioned was Star Trek: TOS Season 2, but don't hold your breath. Blu-ray release plans are still up in the air but we wouldn't be surprised to hear something soon. As far as HD DVD movies still scheduled, that leaves two from Universal (for now) and twelve from Warner Bros, who may have been the first to leave red, but will apparently be the last major studio out the door.Read - Video Business
Read - High-Def Digest
They are re-doing the August 2007 coup reversed.
Some would call that poetic justice, I just find that terribly unfair for their customers (the HD DVD kind).
Ah well, at least the catalogue is unified now, let's get some BR releases now and end all this ! :)
WOW, now that's what I call pulling the rug from right under you.
At least you can say they're being consistent... I guess. Even though I've only had Blu-ray I personally don't like either abrupt cutoff.
@ Prey521,
Oh good heavens. So I overlooked that detail with truegamer's reply. Big f'n deal.
And now I found one of your post, so here's my reply to you:
What are you, the Blu troll enforcer!?
I haven't gotten a response from truegamer, so obviously he has to get another d-bag blu troll to do his dirty work for him.
You really should just mind you own GD business, Prey521. Besides, it was truegamer that took my original post out of context.
So I'm saying this from the cheap seat: THE WAR IS OVER YOU STUPID F'N TROLL!!!
You Blu d-bags continue to made noise over nothing. So if you wanna pick a fight with me, knock your dumba** out. There really isn't anything left to this subject of RED vs. Blu worth arguing over.
But I guess in your feeble mind, someone's got to defend the Blu Troll Kingdom!
Dude, wtf are you talking about? Who's truegamer? I think you have my confused with someone else buddy. You obviously don't know me, cuz if you did, you'd know that I'm Pro HD DVD and I despised Sony and BluRay. So get your facts straight buddy.
@ Prey521,
Oh, so now you're claiming that you didn't send this reply to me:
"Prey521
Prey521 @ Feb 29th 2008 4:04AM
You must be a noob! He doesn't have a reply option under his post because he replied to another poster. You can't reply to a reply, only to original posts, idiot."
Are you claiming that someone hijacked your account and sent it under your name?
Oh that! AHAHAHAHA! You still have sand in your vag over that? As if I remembered that it was you that I posted that message to when I posted this last reply. Why are you bringing that to this topic anyways? Get over it.
@ Prey521,
Yeah, I'm over it and it was my mistake.
But you can still go f*ck yourself.
At the very least Dreamworks Animation was willing to uphold their end of the contract. Respectfully, Toshiba let them off the hook.
Wake up. The let them off. Dreamworks wanted all the money from the deal or they would just wait it out and collect from Toshiba. Fanboys at it's best!
Wow, these two studios really have no integrity whatsoever! But at least the cancellation of the announced titles wasn't as abrupt as the Blu-ray debacle. They could have cancelled the last two HD DVD titles as well, but they still can't stand up to Warners as far as honoring a committment. At least the previously released Paramount Blu-ray titles are back on store shelves! Guess this means they finally got their settlement money from Toshiba.
Warner is the only respectable movie studio.
It's not that Warner cares to be respectable, they have a contract to do HD-DVD until May and they figure they'll make some money while they're at it. None of these companies care about who bought into HD-DVD.
Ford -vs chevy, X-box -vs- PS3 all co-exist. HD DVD and Blu-ray should have done the same. Being muniplulated by Sony, Warner, Best-buy, Netflix and the others has forced me not to buy from them. I already own 700 dvd's. Don't think the studios should stop releasing HD DVD's. I was up to 70ea. Their loss is my gain. America is based on freedom of choice. I hate to think my only choice would be driving a Chevy.
What in the hell can you possibly do with 700 dvds? Are you hoarding them for a certain event? To each his own I guess. I'm just a minimalist and don't see the need to hoard cds, dvds, etc.
Really? As a movie buff, you had fun shopping for HD movies only to find out that the title you were looking for was only available on the format you don't own?
Competition creates a healthy market, drives prices down, and improves functionality and features. This is what will happen as all the Blu-ray manufacturers compete to replace your DVD player.
Multiple standards and formats (which is what this battle was) just confuse the hell out of everyone, and stifles consumer adoption. Less consumer acceptance means that all of these same companies focus fewer of their resources on getting the price down and adding new features, because it isn't a proven market for them to invest in yet.
Believing that things were better with two incompatible formats is just sour grapes on your part for picking the side that lost.
The car analogy would only work if all studios were purple. Ford and Chevy use the same type of gas, and the same roads, and do the same job. Then the consumer could "choose" freely between Blu-Ray and HD DVD based on hardware alone.
Ummm, your talking about Sony manipulating Warner and Best Buy? You do know that Toshiba paid off movie studios to go HD-DVD exclusive don't you??
LOL, I cannot believe the pace things are moving at. 4 DAYS!!!
I was expecting this stuff to take months and years, yet in just a month, it went from 'anybodies game' to 100% done and over.
Thank god, we just need to move on.
Truth Teller and Nfinity throwing a fit in 5, 4, 3, 2, 1...
You need to STFU about them in 5,4,3,2,1.....
Yeah seriously, get over them dude. It's just sad that people still keep bringing them up.
MOVE ON.
what i don't get is you know bee movie has already been printed why not let somebody buy them instead of destroying them??? i don't get it at all
Welcome to how BLU Ray users Felt. Ya Ya, we switch because of production etc.. Hahahah. Feel how we felt! They switch because of the cash and the it was proven they took money. But But they changed over to HD because they loved us. Hahahaah.
@truegamer that was a different situation the war was still on and toshiba paid them to inflict some damage on the blu camp... war is over now nothing strategic to gain from destroying those discs now that's why i don't get it.
LOLOLOL didn't even make it till May!!
It was about time already!
@ truegamer,
For f**k sake, the only fanboy here is YOU. Engadget (or any online forum) doesn't need another d-bag like yourself making assumptions over every post just because you think it's written improperly or doesn't meet your beliefs.
Besides, you're 7 weeks late to try to flame anyone on this subject you stupid a** troll!
(Also, why isn't the reply function enabled on your profile? Are you too afraid to "man up"?)
You must be a noob! He doesn't have a reply option under his post because he replied to another poster. You can't reply to a reply, only to original posts, idiot.
The reason truegamer doesn't have the reply function on that post is because it is a reply to another post. You cannot reply to a reply! Nothing to do with him being afraid to man up, jack ass!
talking about setting the record straight between BD and HD DVD fans. I see same thing happening here as August 2007, except its the exact opposite. That is exactly what we BD fans felt back then. IMO, they should release HD DVD first as they currently unable to offer BD till summer.
F' em - I just won't buy their product...
And guess what?
They don't give a sh*t. You're just 1 bitter HD DUD fanboy...
HD will move without you..trust me on that.
Sorry asslick - I actually own both format(s). I think it sucks all the way around.
"HD DUD"? Yeah, great way to take the high road there.
{rolls eyes}
If paramount hasn't pressed the hd-dvd discs, I see it as making sense to cancel them. If however they pressed the discs, they should ship.
Ship them where, numbnuts? To your house? No retailers want them.
i wonder if retailer orders for hd-dvd discs are drying up and the outlets for hd-dvd shrinking to a point where they can't ship. i have a feeling that even if warner goes untill the end of may with hd-dvd releases, that the only place to get them will be from a few obscure online shops.
maybe some movies are already printed, but somehow it would cost more to ship them out then destroy?
I can understand if they are stopping HD DVD and putting out Blu-Ray discs. But no high definition for about 6 months? They are losing revenue. It does not make sense. Something else is going on.
rg23, the simple answer is they can't. My guess is they transitioned or laid off the folks doing blu and it will take some time to get people transitioned back to the team. BD Live isn't exactly easy work.
I just wish they would have at least followed Warner's lead and released announced titles. I can understand what the blu only crowd went through when they went cold turkey last year. Just goes to show Paramount won't do anything without a check.
It's ironic that the studio that decided the war (Warner) is also the only one with enough class to keep their word. Of course you can tell by the quality of their restorations and transfers that they love movies at least as much as money.
@WebDev511
Yes, it is highly possible that they don't have the manpower to put out blu-ray discs. I agree they should have transitioned like Warner. The puzzling thing for me is the loss of revenue. 50% yes, probably acceptable to them (like when they went exclusive to HD DVD). But 0 hi-def revenue? It is better to use up all of the remaining HD DVD supplies and use (as long as they can) the equipment they bought to manufacture HD DVDs to recoup losses.
Can anyone with real information predict (with some accuracy) when big titles/series (say, for example, the James Bond movies) will be released on Blu?
@ Andrew
Yeah! Second that.
Keep an eye on thedigitalbits.com. Bill Hunt seems to have some good studio contacts, and he might be able to get some insider info. It'll be very general, but he's good at that.