Was Warner Bought Off, Too?
January 6th, 2008 -- by Augie De Blieck Jr.
The real reason why Warner went Blu? - Engadget HD
We knew this wouldn’t take long — just like when Paramount made the switch to HD DVD, rumors are swirling that a sum of $500 Million was involved in the decision to make the switch. The rumor goes on to say that Fox’s allegiance to Blu-ray was a factor as well, but when it refused to defect from the Blu camp and accepted an undisclosed amount, Warner (owned by Time Warner, which also owns Engadget’s parent companies) had no choice; because at this point, without another studio going red it would’ve only put the war into more of a stalemate than it already was.
January 7th, 2008 at 1:19 am
In all honesty, the format “war” was over the minute Disney went Blu-Ray exclusive (and they ain’t going back… Jobs is a Blu-Ray fan). All those family films, animation, children’s television series, etc. comprise a HUGE portion of the home video market. Warner’s exclusive status is the final nail in the coffin.
Many are speculating that if Microsoft had included HD-DVD capability in the Xbox 360 from the get-go would probably have tilted the war in HD-DVD’s favor from day one. But then, MS would have had to have take HUGE losses in order for Toshiba to prosper. That wasn’t going to happen.
Me, I’m just glad I *didn’t* invest in the HD-DVD add-on for mine. While HD-DVD seemed to have a better philosophy behind it (no region coding, cheaper hardware, interactive concent) Blu-Ray was always the superior technology (in theory, if not necessarily in practice). I’m glad I sat this war out… for now.
January 7th, 2008 at 9:33 am
I don’t know if this is true or not, but I heard one of the reasons that Warners stayed with HD-DVD was because it co-owned some of the original DVD patents developed by Toshiba.
January 7th, 2008 at 10:40 pm
You’re probably right re: Disney, but I didn’t want to jump to any conclusions until there were more nails. Warner Bros helped create the DVD format, even though it meant giving up a small fortune in patents on the format, itself. I trust WB on this kind of thing, even if Warren Lieberfarb is long gone now.
Sony is so annoying, sometimes. They do great stuff with their cameras and their TVs and Blu-Ray, and then screw up music distribution and the PlayStation and so many other things. I really do want to like them.
January 8th, 2008 at 1:58 am
The funny thing is, the PS3 is widely considered by many enthusiasts to be the best BR player on the market. I wonder if Sony sacrificed its standing in the video game market in order to prop up its proprietary HDM format.
January 8th, 2008 at 2:54 pm
I have to say that I jumped on the Blu-ray bandwagon when I bought a PS3. But it still took me a long time before I started buying my own movies. I had previously just rented from Netflix. When it became apparent that Blu-ray might have a chance of winning, I then jumped in and started buying some movies. I typically wait for the buy one get one deals, but I haven’t regretted it since.
I have a feeling it won’t be too much longer before Paramount and Universal start releasing on BD. Especially since Universal has a nice catalog of Spielberg movies. And Steven has been very adamant about wanting hims movies released on BD. Should be a very interesting year. I know the forums have been buzzing since Warner’s announcement.