The Energon Pub

News Credits: 3599 · by **Seibertron** » Wed Aug 22, 2007 9:27 am

The NY Times has posted a very interesting follow-up article to all of the drama from the past day or two regarding the HD-DVD / Blu-Ray battle. The article states:

"Paramount and DreamWorks Animation together will receive about $150 million in financial incentives for their commitment to HD DVD, according to two Viacom executives with knowledge of the deal but who asked not to be identified."

You can read the full article at NYTimes.com.

News Credits: 1 · by **QuietStorm** » Wed Aug 22, 2007 9:33 am

Toldja, it's all about the dough. Dollars that is....

Word.

News Credits: 1 · by **NebulanFree** » Wed Aug 22, 2007 9:41 am

...and the ghost of Betamax wailed in agony...

by **Jazz-935** » Wed Aug 22, 2007 10:03 am

This is getting sadder and sadder by the minute.

News Credits: 1 · by **Hoistimus** » Wed Aug 22, 2007 10:24 am

yep.. I refuse to get either HD as my little 27 inch TV wouldn't know what to do with it anyway.

by **Noisemaze** » Wed Aug 22, 2007 10:36 am

Whatever, why anybody even gives a rat's ass is beyond me!

by **metalformer** » Wed Aug 22, 2007 10:45 am

That explains it all. :-?

That and the so-called savings they will have manufacturing the DVDs is enough incentive for anyone to support any specific format! :-P

News Credits: 3 · by **Archanubis** » Wed Aug 22, 2007 10:49 am

I'm still not convinced Blu-Ray is the "next best thing," especially since most of the stores in my area that sell or rent movies are wall to wall DVDs.

by **Hanch Prime** » Wed Aug 22, 2007 10:49 am

Noisemaze wrote:Whatever, why anybody even gives a rat's ass is beyond me!

dude have you seen a movie on a blue ray player? Its crazy, just like the difference between dvd and vhs. go back and watch a movie on vhs it looks terrible. people said the same thing when dvd came out, "i can't tell the difference" you must be blind. Its a huge difference. If you have a home sound system like me that is 7.1 sound it sounds unbelievable too. I would rather watch it at home than the theater. (course having a 70inch protection lcd doesn't hurt either)

News Credits: 15 · by **Ravage XK** » Wed Aug 22, 2007 10:51 am

If only Sony would allow other companys to produce Blu Ray discs then I am sure this could be solved.

I have Blu Ray and dont want to have to buy another box, besides I dont have any more HDMI ports on my Tele.

I also know that should I decide to go buy a new player that the instant I paid for it, Paramount would announce that it would support Blu Ray.

Should Blu Ray get into the position of being the obvious winner in the format war then these non supporters will change their tunes as I am sure that the cost of having to use a rivals format would be tiny compared to lost sales.

Its given me an idea for the next TF line "Transformers: The Format Wars".

by **Rat Convoy** » Wed Aug 22, 2007 11:13 am

No way I'm buying either HD-DVD or Blu-Ray until this whole silly "format war" thing is sorted out. I'm not buying a player that only plays half the movies. Bad enough we do that for video games.

News Credits: 10 · by **HighPrime** » Wed Aug 22, 2007 11:21 am

150 million? C'mon people... that's a drop in the bucket for Paramount... This is a HUGE corporation... Financial incentives don't necessary mean 150 million in cash was exchange, either... you can equate to a tax break or other financial means to spur growth. Like Sony didn't do the same thing for Blockbuster, Disney, etc. It's all about leverage. It's business. I think this is great, personally. Good to see a conglomerate that gets too big for its britches (read Sony) be brought back down to earth.

On a another note - Trust me, you can see the difference between HD-DVD/Blu-ray and standard DVD... it's night and day. I won both players (PS3) and HD-AX2. I've stopped buying standard DVDs, now. personally, I'm an HD-DVD supporter, but I've hedged my bets by purchasing (actually traded in my Xbox360) a PS3 (when it dropeed $100.)

Sound and picture is night and day difference, even with an less than optimal setup. You'll get the best quality using Component or HDMI cables, but watch out for copy protection. the flag hasn't been enforced yet, but it exists for component cables. if the copy protection bit is set, your picture will downgrade to standard 480i/p definition. Only HDMI cables will work, then.

News Credits: 2 · by **Sid Burn** » Wed Aug 22, 2007 11:22 am

I mentioned this 150 mil deal in the previous thread on this subject.

The 150 million is only for 18 months of exclusivity, Transformers WILL find its way onto Blu Ray

this is a last ditch effort by HDDVD to save their asses.
The recent release of 300 on Blu Ray is outselling the HDDVD version 3-1. Standalone Blu Ray players are also selling better than HDDVD players regardless of the price difference.

HDDVD is desparate, and this under the table deal is a big warning sign to HDDVD supporters

by **dinoignacio** » Wed Aug 22, 2007 11:23 am

they can conspire and bribe all they want. the clear winner in the format wars will be INTERNET DOWNLOAD. its come to a point where you no longer need to physically own media. with the way internet video is pushing forward (youtube, veoh, joost)... in 5 years all you need to own is a box that will download hd movies from a virtual library you have rights to and play it on your tv. this box will... wait a minute i already own this box, its called a pc.
here's a peak into the future:
http://www.last100.com/2007/07/24/8-int ... n-8-weeks/

News Credits: 10 · by **HighPrime** » Wed Aug 22, 2007 11:26 am

oh, and for those sitting on the side lines, a few companies are not producing players that play back both HD-DVD and Blue Ray. LG is one, Samsung will have one soon. I think there's another company, but can't remember who. Also, Warner Corp. has inventd a Hybrid disc.. check here http://www.engadget.com/2007/01/09/warn ... brid-disc/

If you can afford Hi-Def, go for it..

I have a feeling this war will end up similar to the DVD-R,DVD+R... that's a format war that was settled by incorporating both formats into one player (the + or -)..

by **Bumblekid** » Wed Aug 22, 2007 11:58 am

HA!

by **polymorphic** » Wed Aug 22, 2007 12:11 pm

The only people who should give a darn about this, and subsequently be upset at themselves, are the early Blu-Ray adopters. I respect them for spending loads of cash on hardware that will be obsolete in a year or so so that others may purchase standardized HD players on the cheap later on.

Meantime, I'll get the DVD and play it on my upscaling player.

News Credits: 1 · by **jgilkinson** » Wed Aug 22, 2007 1:34 pm

why is there this much of an issue... just release it

by **grimstang** » Wed Aug 22, 2007 3:05 pm

It is going to still come out on regular DVD, right? Sorry I showed up to the dance late.

by **Talon523** » Wed Aug 22, 2007 3:34 pm

Blu-Ray is the better format. The disk itself has more storage capacity. Go to best buy and watch something playing on it. I have a 37" Toshiba LCD HDTV. My cable is brodcast in 1080i. My HD cable looks terrible compared to the Blu Ray player. Blu-ray should win, unless HD-DVD makes a bunch of deals like this to block the market.

News Credits: 8 · by **NuclearConvoy** » Wed Aug 22, 2007 3:40 pm

I'm still behind blu-ray as a next gen medium, the data storage capability is vastly superior.

However, as far as media goes, I'm actually vastly sick of these upgrades. I don't want to have to get all my movies again in HD format because the regular DVDs just don't look nice any more...

Companies should bloody offer trade-ins for the thousands of dollars I've spent on VHS and DVDs over the years, and they still haven't gotten around to releasing all the stuff that was on VHS on to DVD (One-Armed Swordsman, anyone?)

News Credits: 2 · by **Sid Burn** » Wed Aug 22, 2007 3:54 pm

The memory capacity between HDDVD and Blu Ray is what should turn people towards Blu Ray.

Who wants to own a HD system cant accomadate the best HD transfers.

HD content is a memory guzzler, and 30 gigs per disc isnt going to cut it.

Blu Ray has 50 gigs, enough room for the best transfers and extras.

I personally will wait the 18 months until the exclusive deal between paramount and HDDVD ends, I bet is then we will get a double dip of TF with the Ultra Edition or something like that on Blu ray

by **fairplaythings** » Wed Aug 22, 2007 4:06 pm

Sid Burn is right that it seems to be a last ditch attempt to save a format that is, by all indications, losing the format wars.

And $150M is important to Paramount. Otherwise, they never would have agreed to sign the agreement. Of course, now that only the standard DVDs will be picked up by the likes of Blockbuster and Target, I bet they are reconsidering things...

And a shout out out out out to dinoignacio - you have it there. The big companies are so busy fixating on the next "format" that their profits and businesses are being eroded by the download.