WB To Pick Next-Gen DVD Format at CES?

Posted by Brian Leahy - Friday, December 07, 2007 11:18 AM

Rumor time! The vice-chairman of Lionsgate, Michael Burns, is claiming that Warner Brothers will soon be going over to the Blu-Ray camp.

Warner Brothers is the only studio that currently releases their movies on Blu-Ray and HD-DVD.

If they did this, it would give Blu-Ray 70% of the studios, which could lead to the end of this format war. If they go HD-DVD, however, it would bring the split down to about 50/50.

All signs point to an announcement at CES 2008 in January.

Engadet: Warner to finally go Blu-ray-only at CES?

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Tags: CES, Movies, Tech, TV

Comment(s)

Posted by realitysux21 - Friday, December 7, 2007 11:42 AM

really couldnt care less who wins
im one of the "fools" that bought the LG hd-dvd/bl-ray players

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Posted by CappinCurt - Friday, December 7, 2007 12:00 PM

Mwhahahahaha!!!

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Posted by djbfzero - Friday, December 7, 2007 12:16 PM

All I'll say is I've known for months that all 5 Harry Potters coming out this Tuesday are being brought home in blue cases.

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Posted by M_A_Cwell - Friday, December 7, 2007 12:17 PM

If only you knew the power of the DARK SIDE

NOW WITNESS THE POWER OF THIS ARMED AND FULLY OPERATIONAL PLAYSTATION 3

BLU- RAY RULES !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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Posted by banodyne - Friday, December 7, 2007 12:33 PM

Still not seeing enough of a difference between upscaled regular DVDs and the high-definition formats to warrant a the extra cost in hardware and software.

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Posted by santjnthn - Friday, December 7, 2007 12:35 PM

Does not matter, this is a Toshiba and Sony fight... Xbox 360 is still a better system for gaming... That's what matters...

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Posted by RugBurn - Friday, December 7, 2007 12:59 PM

to santjinthn

article is about a next gen format which just so happens to be the format that sony's ps3 produces it's games for exclusively. If blu-ray fails......well..their fates are pretty much intertwined.

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Posted by M_A_Cwell - Friday, December 7, 2007 1:17 PM

honestly the difference between up-scale dvd and blu- ray is much better sound quality visuals get close but are not or par at least not on my Olevia 42' inch but once Disney was backing it was only a matter for time and up- scaled porn is awesome wonder if blu- ray comeing soon

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Posted by silentbehn180 - Friday, December 7, 2007 1:29 PM

well if they wanna sell more units then uhh...blueray man

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Posted by hiclaude - Friday, December 7, 2007 1:39 PM

HD-DVD should just die.

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Posted by Narocue - Friday, December 7, 2007 1:41 PM

The cost to produce a movie on either format is the same ... initial cost of equipment is only 12% higher for blu ray. Also you can by a Blu ray reader for your pc for $149 or a blu ray and HD reader for $299. Some one here said yesterday that the cheaper format will win ... They are both about the same, but since MS doesnt want either to win out, they are losing money lower the prices on HD periphials such as the XBO 360 add on drive. Lucky for us, the film studios know whats up, and are moving to the blu ray camp. Also go on to Dells website, and any new dell you can equip with a Blu Ray reader or burner ... I dont see HD any where on there.

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Posted by santjnthn - Friday, December 7, 2007 2:17 PM

I have the HD DVD player for my Xbox and I love it.. It's great, I have no problems with it... If HD DVD does not do well, it's okay anyway. I really don't care, I know that Universal is still going to support HD DVD and Paramount and it's other studios will continue to do so. Bluray is doing well, but I see HD DVD still doing well in the long run. PS3 is only a small user base. The average non gamer is not going to buy a PS3 for movies. So Sony still has to make the players cheaper to keep up with the installed base. Well, we will see what happends in time. I still think this whole thing is still early to tell.

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Posted by vole182 - Friday, December 7, 2007 3:10 PM

time to drop some cash on the underdog- go red!

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Posted by hetman - Friday, December 7, 2007 3:27 PM

@ Narocue Micheal bay is an idiot. Microsoft is not backing HD-DVd to slow down the production of blu ray players. They only make one HD-DVD player and that is for the 360. Toshiba makes the rest. And regardless of this format war dloading games and movies is going to be the future. But that has more to do with are internet infastructure than anything else. And microsoft knows it is going to be awhile before dload speeds are capable of making it practicial do download movies instead of buying them on a disk.

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Posted by zippysweetcheeks - Friday, December 7, 2007 3:39 PM

hurry and crown BLU RAY the winner of the hi def DVD format war so we can get on with our lives

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Posted by DJOmega6 - Friday, December 7, 2007 4:57 PM

santjnthn- actually, many of the people who bought a PS3 until recently were buying because of the Blu-Ray, since it was cheaper than a stand-alone player. That is why it's selling more discs than HD-DVD. It's only been rcently that people started buying the PS3 for the games. I'm not saying this cuz I'm a fanboy. I haven't even bought the PS3 (yet). I do work in retail and have talked to many customers about this subject.
I do believe with PS3 sales picking up recently, Warner coming on board would be a stake through the heart of HD-DVD. I can't believe I'm saying this, but it looks like Sony is finally going to win a format war.

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Posted by DJOmega6 - Friday, December 7, 2007 4:59 PM

Posted by M_A__Cwell - Friday, December 07, 2007 12:17 PM
If only you knew the power of the DARK SIDE

NOW WITNESS THE POWER OF THIS ARMED AND FULLY OPERATIONAL PLAYSTATION 3

That is the funniest statement I've ever read.

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Posted by radjac31 - Friday, December 7, 2007 6:47 PM

yeah...and we all know what happened to the death star.

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Posted by GluttonKing - Friday, December 7, 2007 7:42 PM

The ps3 is putting more bluray players in households then ALL of hddvd's combined standalone sales. For all of you that say the ps3 is not a factor, you clearly don't know what your talking about. This is why bluray is dominating it's marketing 101.

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Posted by fame_in_game - Friday, December 7, 2007 7:42 PM

i have a hddvd player is tigh...but bluray really is the future being able to support 200g's on a disk really is nex gen...im gettin a ps3 this xmas....:p...betch

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Posted by hiclaude - Friday, December 7, 2007 8:14 PM

@ DJOmega6,

Actually, most of the people who initially bought a PS3 did so because the PS2 was such a big success and decided to stand by their brand. Most of them anyway.

I'm just sayin'...

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Posted by ManbarrPDX - Friday, December 7, 2007 8:50 PM

I'm a 34-year old married man, who was able to convince my wife we should get the PS3 based on it being a combination Gaming Console/ Blu-Ray Disc Player/ DVD Upconverter.

It's also cool on Netflix if you change your account settings that you have a Blu-Ray player, each time you select a movie, if it is in Blu-Ray it will arrive to you in that format! Pretty much all of the films I have rented except for Transformers are in BD format!

It's awesome to have a top of the line gaming system and Blu-Ray player all at once. It gets a lot of use at our house by all members of the family, so it was a win-win!

And in 2008 me and the rest of the PS3 fanboys will be enjoying MGS4, and soon after God of War 3 in 1080P!

At first I thought I made the wrong choice, but he who laughs last, laughs best.

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Posted by radjac31 - Friday, December 7, 2007 10:26 PM

he who laughs last, is also alone

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Posted by TheKei - Friday, December 7, 2007 11:39 PM

"he who laughs last, is also alone"
Lame.

Did you come up with that on your own, or do you own a gerbil?

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Posted by Raiden_Loire - Friday, December 7, 2007 11:47 PM

At the moment from what i have heard and seen Blu-Ray is winning this format war... I work at a rental store and i see 3 times more blu-ray rentals then HDDVD rentals... and there are about the same amount of movies available...

and with gamers i guess it helps when the system comes with the player... and you dont have to buy the system and then buy another 100-200 doller attachment

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Posted by M_A_Cwell - Saturday, December 8, 2007 5:32 AM

yeah if Toshiba wanted to win they should paid the hell out of Microsoft to have installed in the game system people just aren't buying DVD players no more most households now have 3 T.V.'S with DVD players hooked to them. No need to pay for another dvd player I'll admitted if Sony didn't include it neither would sale at all period I own Blu-Ray dvd but only cause I own a PS3 I not buying another stand-alone player for a long time i own the 360 as well but face it attachments are gay is have the HD- DVD drive and it has to be plugged up so it loses again just cause my surge protector and socket are full just tough luck Toshiba and Microsoft sorry that was long

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Posted by M_A_Cwell - Saturday, December 8, 2007 5:39 AM

( In Sithlord voice )
If only you knew the power of the DARK SIDE

NOW WITNESS THE POWER OF THIS ARMED AND FULLY OPERATIONAL PLAYSTATION 3

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Posted by dillybar - Saturday, December 8, 2007 6:16 AM

God damnit...just get rid of one of them already....clearly it wll be HD-DVD, but it just wont die!

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Posted by santjnthn - Saturday, December 8, 2007 6:43 AM

You people have no clue. Digital download is going to be the way to go. Toshiba is not going to stop investing in HD DVD so thats not going to change. Not everyone that purchased a PS3 is using the system for bluray movies, but it's a plus, most average consumers would rather purchase a bluray player if the price is right. HD DVD is not Microsoft's problem. Microsoft is more focus on Gaming for the Xbox 360. Microsoft is making money off the video OnDemand features on Xbox live. Xbox 360 is Gaming system first and HD movies player second. PS3 is bluray player first and gaming system second. PS3 is an affordible bluray player, but not good at gaming... That's not good for the installed base. If the 11 million Plus people would have purchased an HD DVD player for movies. Toshiba would lead, but not everyone uses the system for that reason. Same goes for PS3, not everyone is using the bluray player for movies for those who don't have an HDTV. Time will tell.

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Posted by hiclaude - Saturday, December 8, 2007 7:00 AM

I take it you're an 360 fanboy. What would givce me that idea...

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Posted by santjnthn - Saturday, December 8, 2007 7:36 AM

I'm an electronics fanboy. PS3 is an okay system to me. Not all that is hyped up to be. I'm more of a gamer and PS3 is not there yet. Looking forward to god of war 3 though.. I know I do more with my Xbox 360 and Xbox is far ahead in the gaming field. Hey, lets be truthful. Bluray is great and maybe Sony made a good choice to corner the HD movie market, but the gaming market is every different. Wii does not have any movie playback and they are doing very, very well. Nintendo's main forcus for Wii is gaming. Microsoft has the same focus and it's the reason why they are doing very well. So you have to ask your self. Did you buy a bluray player that play's games or did you buy a gaming system that plays movies? Sony really has to be clear about where PS3 is going and how it's being marketed.

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Posted by maque - Saturday, December 8, 2007 12:41 PM

People who think the PS3 is selling bad need a wake up call. It just passed its first year on the market and is 100,000 systems ahead of the 360 in its first year and it hasn't had "any good games" ami rite. It will be interesting when all its exclusives come out next year just like Halo boosted 360 sales so will games like MGS4, FF, GoW3. Also I bought mine to play the occasional game as I'm more of a PC gamer. But I also bought it with the future potential for Blu-ray movies. It was an investment not a purchase.

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Posted by littleboostedscooby - Saturday, December 8, 2007 3:07 PM

no matter who wins i will still buy blu rays .

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Posted by zurdokman - Saturday, December 8, 2007 6:11 PM

everybody know this,B.R is going to win this format war.

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Posted by ShinGino - Saturday, December 8, 2007 8:49 PM

SO, EITHER WAY, BLU-RAY CAN'T LOSE.
Like G4 said, Blu-ray either wins by 70% or ties 50/50.

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Posted by ColinB23 - Saturday, December 8, 2007 10:56 PM

Any Good Politician who was in war would want to end a war. Warner can end it and have a winner (blu-ray) or make the war go on by going HD DVD

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Posted by Ps3nation - Sunday, December 9, 2007 9:13 AM

Why does this remind me of what the dreamcast went through before it went out of business? Dreamcast had no DVD the latest format and everybody floated towards the PS2 because it had a DVD and thus putting the Dreamcast out of business even though the dreamcast was a solid system. The Xbox 360 does not have the format that everybody is buying which is Blue ray plus it's over 30% failure rate will put the Xbox out of business.

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Posted by IKB - Sunday, December 9, 2007 12:45 PM

Digital downloads, eh?

Here is a hypothetical situation:

So I'm sitting around one night and decide that I want to watch Star Wars Episodes 4, 5 and 6 in high def. My kick ass home theatre set-up means I prefer movies in 1080p video and lossless audio. So I spark up my 360 and all three movies are available in the quality I desire. Total amount of data for all three movies: 45 to 75 GB (this is a minimum range). Hmmm... But I am on a mediocre DSL AND my ISP conveniently restricts the amount of data I can download. If I go over my monthly limit, I get dinged $ for the number of KILOBYTES I go over my limit. Also, it would probably take three days to download all three movies at my current DSL speed. I would then have to pay to watch the movies (are there limits on the number of times I can watch the movies before I have to pay again?), and I would probably have to pay extra for going over my data limit.

Wow! Digital downloads sound awesome!!!

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Posted by bullet53 - Sunday, December 9, 2007 4:32 PM

dude people that has dsl is the kind of people that doesnt know that xbox is hd or ps3 has blu-ray, i dont have an amazing connection and last week i downloaded a movie in xbl without any problems, it was cheaper, looked just fine and i didnt have to wait for it to download, im not really gonna buy a hd player, im pretty happy with dowloads. and the movie was 1.7 gb

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Posted by bullet53 - Sunday, December 9, 2007 4:45 PM

i mean 4.7 gb

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Posted by ManOfTeal - Monday, December 10, 2007 6:25 AM

@M_A__Cwell

I'm sorry but your Star Wars comment was retarded......

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Posted by antiburgerjob23 - Monday, December 24, 2007 10:09 AM

I dont care about Blu-Ray or HDDVD. Why? Well, I CANT AFFORD EITHER ONE!!! Besides, I dont see the point in either one of them when I can just watch my DVDs on a bad ass Plasma TV.

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