The history of paramount in HD entertainment....

Then:
Although it had announced its support for Toshiba’s format, Paramount has decided to switch sides, the company announcing on Sunday that it will endorse Blu-Ray.
"We have been intrigued by the broad support of Blu-Ray, especially the key advantage of including Blu-Ray in PlayStation 3," Lesinski said in a statement. "After more detailed assessment and new data on cost, manufacturability and copy protection solutions, we have now made the decision to move ahead with the Blu-ray format", he added.
Among the studios announcing its support for Toshiba’s format, the only ones left are Time Warner and Universal, but given the circumstances, it is uncertain whether they will remain loyal to it or leave the increasingly small HD-DVD boat for Blu-Ray’s ocean liner.


Now:
"Part of our vision is to aggressively extend our movies beyond the theater, and deliver the quality and features that appeal to our audience. I believe HD DVD is not only the affordable high quality choice for consumers, but also the smart choice for Paramount."
"We decided to release "Shrek the Third" and other DreamWorks Animation titles exclusively on HD DVD because we believe it is the best format to bring high quality home entertainment to a key segment of our audience -- families,"

Paramount is like a battered woman, she will be begging to come backs soon!

Cheers,

Just like the failed DiVX format, with Microsoft playing the role of the lawyers, and Paramount playing the role of Circuit City. This'll flop so bad, and Paramount will be kicking themselves over the sales they lost while they could have been selling to all the Blu Ray owners.

thats the end of blue ray...sony will die...cue megalomaniac laughter...

this really is good news...its too early for the competition to be over this gen...we still need the competition to keep prices honest.

-c

Star Trek II: Wrath of Kahn in HD!?!?!? WOOHOO!!!!

Come on consumers... get with the program. Don't you all remember the 2005 Sony BMG CD copy protection scandal??????

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2005_Sony_BMG_CD_copy_protection_scandal

Sony cannot be trusted. HDDVD is a much more open format... which is good for us!!!!!!

Don't listen to the PS3 fanboys hyping up Bluray... they are just upset there aren't any decent games available on PS3 and want to feel better about wasting $600 bucks.

Come on everyone with a XBOX 360... go out and buy the HDDVD player for $180 and get your 5 free disks. Put a nail in the coffin of the Sony DRM machine!!!!!

What would be nice if there was a player (recorder?) that can play both HD and BlueRay. This way one would benefit from both without having to buy separate players for each.

This could be good for HD DVD.

Wow... so now the 360 owners can spend as much as they would have for a PS3? Simply put your being an Xbox 360 fan boy...

It’s great that Paramount & DreamWorks are going to go HD DVD, but where are they going to sell their movies at? a ton of companies have already stated they are removing HD DVD from the shelves.

Also HD DVD should be called a 4 layer DVD... the format is pushed to its limits, Blu ray is far superior in amount of data it can hold and expandability and flexibility. Along with that More blockbuster titles are rolling out of Blu Ray than HD DVD…

Along with that no company can be trusted, every single company back each of these formats have all lied in the past.

But I love how Paramount has become the hooker of Hi Def :)

Players emerging that play both formats mean that this will not affect consumers two or so years down the line, when the price for such players will be significantly reduced and a far larger number of consumers also have HDTVs.

With many millions of Blu-Ray Players already sold, I can't believe Paramount’s stupidity at supporting this move. When the dust settles I wouldn’t be surprised if the stock holders clean house at Paramount. At the vary least they should be watching this vary closely to make sure that all of the incentives from Microsoft ends up in the stock holders hands. I highly doubt this will resurrect HD DVD...Cheers,

This is deff not bad news for HDDVD, however, it does not take away the fact that blu-ray has a larger client base (thanks to the embedded player in the ps3), more versatility in future upgrades to content (thanks to being 50 gig disks over hd's 25gig) and blu-ray still has DISNEY, fox, and other exclusive studios of their own. This does not add a nail in either of their coffins, it just seems that HDDVD is finally making an effort to not get their butts handed to them in this market. Let the WAR begin!!!

Combines the best of HD-DVD and Blu-Ray in a purple package. Green-Disc... for its production using green processes and materials. It uses dual lasers to read video and audio separately with different wavelengths. The disc is flexible and actually can be folded into ones pocket without damage. Capacity is currently at slightly above regular DVD. Unfortunately it purely for a/v and suboptimal for data (since it has separate audio/video).

Well... the high-definition format war just got more confusing for consumers, and you can thank the hubris of the folks at Microsoft for it. Their HD-DVD format (because I'm sorry, can anyone really say it still belongs to Toshiba at this point?) badly needed a shot in the arm going into the holiday season, and just got it thanks to suitcases full of cash from the Microsoft camp. You ready for this? Here it is:

Microsoft has paid DreamWorks and Paramount so much money that they've decided to join Universal in the HD-DVD exclusive camp. No kidding.

None of the participants in this deal are willing to openly disclose just how MUCH money was exchanged, but the L.A. Weekly is reporting (based in part on a confidential report from media analysis firm Pali Research) that it was in the neighborhood of $50 million in "promotional considerations" for Paramount and $100 million for DreamWorks. I'm sure they're also getting lots of free or discounted VC-1 compression and HDi authoring services, along with prime placement on Xbox Live too. Is anyone else just disgusted by Microsoft's naked, shameless financial influence in this thing? That Hollywood is a greedy place should be obvious to all by now, if it wasn't already. The HD-DVD format can't win any other way than for Microsoft to PAY studios off to stay exclusive. And then they have the balls to claim the Blu-ray Disc camp is involved in antitrust violations. Cheers.

blu-ray rocks and ps3 is the ultimate digital video player. i still have not bought a single game for ps3, why would i when i have a wii and a 360? .. and supreme commander is only available on pc.

i never intended to play games on a ps3, but for 375$ how could i resist it as a dvd/blu-ray player. my standard dvds look great, and blu-ray is such an amazing picture. i just started queuing up blu-ray movies in my amazon account.

I do not know what these companies are thinking when they support hd dvd, 300 on blu-ray out sold hd dvd 2:1. Ultraviolet on blu-ray looked better on my 1080p display than it did in the theater. I also like how most blu-ray discs have uncompressed audio.

I can't wait for 300 to come in the mail, with the new version of blade runner. ooooohhh my blu-ray is sexy.

Gotta love the "I'm a l33t h@xsor" like responses from people to this.

Yes this is a huge bonus for HD-DVD. Especially an exclusive release for Transformers. But the format war is still far from over. I think this holiday season will be a major battlefield in the war for dominance.

However, I think HD-DVD has a decided advantage. Toshiba can push its player prices down into the $100-150 range most likely while Sony cannot do the same with Blu-ray. And all the Walmart trailer trash will buy the cheapest thing they can find. The average consumer doesn't know shit on HD-DVD vs. Blu-ray. They see the pretty picture and go "OOOOOO.....AHHH.......". So they'll take the cheapest thing they can find and likely buy HD-DVD.

That said, I support HD-DVD. I don't likely Blu-ray for movies. It has a much more restrictive DRM implementation which does everything it can to fight managed copy. And I'm sorry but I just don't trust Sony. The extra space of Blu-ray just is not needed for movies. It's great for PC backup though. Thats the only thing I'm interested in it for though.

Paramount Home Entertainment will issue new releases day and date as well as catalog titles exclusively on HD DVD. Today's announcement does not include films directed by Steven Spielberg as his films are not exclusive to either format.

How do you like THEM apples? Not exclusive to either format? Spielberg's decided his first film on high-def disc is coming out on Blu-ray Disc only. So what do Paramount and DreamWorks do? They bury that little factoid at the tail end of their press release. Nice. Okay, Spielberg hasn't made any kind of public statements to that effect that he supports only Blu-ray. But why then isn't Universal able to release any of his films on HD-DVD? Why then does this deal with Paramount and DreamWorks NOT include Spielberg titles? Because Spielberg wouldn't allow it is the only thing that makes any sense.

I'll tell you what... I'm betting Fox and MGM start making Blu-ray Disc exclusive announcements and soon. You just watch. The reaction will be swift...

Fox responds with:

TITLE N.A. RELEASE INTERNATIONAL RELEASE
MASTER & COMMANDER OCT. 2 OCT.
THE DAY AFTER TOMORROW OCT. 2 NOV.
FROM HELL OCT. 9 OCT.
THE FLY (1986) OCT. 9 Q1 08
EDWARD SCISSORHANDS OCT. 9 NOV.
28 DAYS LATER OCT. 9 North America Only
ROBOCOP (MGM) OCT. 9 DEC.
AMITYVILLE HORROR (1979) (MGM) OCT. 9 North America Only
BATTLE OF BRITAIN (MGM) NOV. 6 Q1 08
A BRIDGE TOO FAR (MGM) NOV. 6 Q1 08
I, ROBOT NOV. 13 Q1 08
DIE HARD NOV. NOV.
DIE HARD 2: DIE HARDER NOV NOV.
DIE HARD WITH A VENGEANCE NOV. NOV.
RED DAWN (MGM) NOV. Q1 08
MR. AND MRS. SMITH DEC. 4 DEC.
INDEPENDENCE DAY DEC. 4 DEC.
CAST AWAY DEC. 4 North America Only
RONIN (MGM) DEC. 4 DEC.

by Mathew Everett

"Also HD DVD should be called a 4 layer DVD"

obviously you know very little about modern technology...both hd and bd use blue lasers...hd-dvd however did not radically redesign the formatting of the disk unlike bd.

"With many millions of Blu-Ray Players already sold, I can't believe Paramount’s stupidity at supporting this move."

actually i am not sure a million blu-ray players have sold...but i know that 4 million ps3's have sold...quite a difference. compare that to the number dvd players sold and try to tell me that this battle is over...

-c

It's funny that BD trolls came out with guns blazing...LOL!

Toshiba understands that nex-gen players will be hot this holiday season, and I'm sure they are plotting and planning a killer deal that BD will simply NOT be able to deal with. Sony is already losing money like crazy on the PS3 and with GTA delayed...ouch! I'm getting me a HD-DVD player this holiday season, and I've already gotten my HD player for my 360. Transformers, Shrek, and Blades will provide strong numbers for HD, and my gut tells me that Fox will go dual format soon...very soon. That'll leave the formats equal on release from major studios, and leave Blockbuster looking like a clown.

This is just the start.
Warner next?
The industry aren't stupid, they can see the pitiable PS3 attachment rates (the no amount of freebies has budged either) and the far higher movie buying HD DVD market.
It's all just a matter of time now as HD DVD expand it's installed user base and get some decent numbers up.
PS3 = Blu-ray has not been a good long-term strategy, even if it did give an understandable short-term boost to the format.
They clearly are not going to sell another 4 million or so PS3s again anytime soon.

If anyone thinks this has any effect on the overall future of Paramount or Dreamworks because of any possible loss in HD sales, you clearly don't have a clue.

Total Blu-Ray movie sales... somewhere around 3 mil.

Total HD-DVD sales... somewhere around 1.6 mil.

Within the first month, Shrek on DVD sold 5.5 million copies. That's one single movie on DVD that has outsold all of the HD movies combined.... and that's only 1 month worth of Shrek sales.

At this point, HD sales (Blu-ray or HD-DVD) are simply a joke compared to DVD's. Regardless of which format these companies choose to support means nothing to their annual income right now. This isn't going to be a factor for many years to come and the final commitment will be made when one or both formats have been completely accepted.

Doesn't sound exclusive to me. And who would go down with a sinking ship? Not Speilberg

They can already fit a full movie on one HD-DVD, so why is capacity in question and/or a deciding factor?

oh...and to that post earlier today regarding HD-DVD's with picture in picture...your TV doesn't have to support it, it's done via the DVD player itself...it has nothing to do with your TV.

If Samsung's dual format player is as good as everyone hopes, and LG's 2nd generation player fixes the deficiencies of the first, they have an opportunity to make a killing in sales on all the people lying in wait, like myself.

The first format to start selling the individual movies at a reasonable price will win the war. Neither format is selling as well as expected because of the initial hardware cost and who really wants to pay 30 dollars per movie? Maybe they are already selling cheaper but I haven't seen it. If HDDVD were sold at the same price as regular DVD movies they would destroy Blu-ray.

many people have invested in blu ray players(ps3) and why would they want to buy a hd player paramount and dreamworks are going to loose cash over this deal

Dude... you missed my point. Sony/Bluray sucks because of their DRM... where is your response to that?

Still waiting...

I want more open formats, that is the only path that will succeed long term in the market. Sony's DRM is too restrictive. Get a clue.

And what is wrong with educating and mobilizing XBOX owners to MAKE A CHOICE about whether they want to go HD instead of having it forced upon them.

So capacity is all you got? THAT is the reason you give to go Bluray over HDDVD?

So very sad. I trust that consumers will make the right choice and choose LESS DRM.

Doesn't the lack of sales for the HD-DVD drive on the 360 say something about what most gamers want to do with their consoles?? Yep u guessed it, play games. I don't really care which format wins but I think this proves the PS3 and 360 are not that instrumental in this war.

I wish they would just publish the standalone unit sales because to me that's where this war is going to be won or lost. Not the PS3 or 360.

I do not think anyone here can dispute that a disk that hold 50 gigs verses 30 gigs is the superior format. The peck data rate of HD dvd is 19 megs a sec verses 38 for Bluray. You can see a difference. Especially when 3d HDTV comes out. Ther is really no contest.

I like the HD DVD format just to have market competition. That is what will bring prices down for everyone.

using the sales of ps3 as the reflection of blu-ray sales can be somewhat useful to totally pointless. It obviously doesnt reflect the amount of ppl who actually will buy BD-disc to watch a movie on a ps3.

In response to Paramount's decision to exclusively support HD DVD, Andy Parsons, Chairman, Blu-ray Disc Association US Promotions Committee had this to say: "The decision seems oddly timed given Blu-ray's tremendous momentum both with consumers and with retail. Blu-ray title sales continue to outpace HD-DVD sales by nearly a 2 to 1 margin, and major retailers have expressed a strong preference for Blu-ray. Moreover, the price delta between HD DVD and Blu-ray players has been greatly reduced in the past few months, a trend that is on its way to eliminating any perceived cost advantage the HD DVD format has claimed to have. Under these circumstances, we can only imagine what could have enticed them to walk away from a format that is clearly selling significantly more software than the ailing HD-DVD format."

Dual format players are were it's at. Who cares if one studio supports Blue Ray and the other HD-DVD if whatever player you have can play them both. Also, if a teenager could crack the orginial encryption behind DVD's, and every single DRM implimentation created thus far to protect both DVDs and CDs is cracked within 48 hours of release, again who cares. After the format is published someone will crack them both. Therefore Sony, Toshiba, Microsoft, and all of the movie studios, stop screwing over people who actually pay for this crap and realize your wasting stareholders' money by dumping it into DRM. Its a senseless game that they are guaranteed to lose. Blue Ray does have the better storage capacity, but the hell with both of these formats bring on the holographic storage discs...

I'd be willing to bet that all the guys selling HD-DVD movies hope the format fails. Why? So they can sell you the same movies again on Blu-Ray.

You can reverse HD-DVD and Blu-Ray in the previous statments if it'll make you feel better, either way somebody (consumers... US!) loses.

Holy shnitzel I'm a sad old cynic!!!

:P

Drm should only be an issue if you want to do illegal things with your media like oh i dunno rent the movie and burn it for yourself to keep...Thats like complaining that a liscense key on a pc game or software package is to hard to crack illegaly ... "how dare they make their stuff less pirate-able...I want to pirate it" That is a very immature complaint. If you are some sort of conspiracy nut and think it has some form of data collection embedded then simply unplug it from any external communication ie the internet.

I love it when people ask why do we need more space when HD-DVD can fit an entire movie on it. Well, let me ask you this, why even bother with HD-DVD since DVD already fit an entire movie on it? More space = higher bit rate. Higher bit rate allows for higher picture quality. And more space allows for more audio soundtrack space.

Also dont give me the "I only want to be able to back up my movies" excuse either..that is a load of BS ...I own some 300 or so dvds and I have yet to need to back up a single one due to "potential dmg it might incur."

You want to know why space matters in the HD arena of watching movies? Let me spell it out for the uninformed who have never tried their hand at video editing or authoring on a semi-professional level or beyond:

THE CLOSER YOU GET TO UNCOMPRESSED THE MORE SPACE IT REQUIRES. FOR DIGITAL "PERFECT" QUALITY YOU HAVE TO STAY UNCOMPRESSED.

The difference is that the Blu-Ray drive in PS3 is already there. Even if you don't want it, you have to buy it to play the games. At that point, you might as well buy a movie or two.

As for the 360, people don't want to shell out the extra cash for the HD-DVD player. Many are afraid the format will go away like Betamax and DivX, and then suddenly all their movies will be useless.

Personally, I own both the PS3 and 360 HD-DVD. I prefer and support HD-DVD. I have bought a couple Blu's. I rent with HD-DVD if there is a choice.

If you would read, both HD-DVD and Bluray uses AACS for copy protection. I dislike DRM as much as the next person, but I wouldn't let it be the only thing affecting my decision.

With that said yes you can fit a "hd" movie on a 30gig disc...however its more compressed than what it has to be. With a 50gig disc they potentially have more freedom,
(even if it hasnt been implemented yet),
to keep the footage as pure as possible. So yes, it is very possible to fill a 50gb disc with an avg movie and in theory it will yield a higher quality image than that of the lesser disc. Like I said it all depends on how the company uses its source footage...if they encode it badly you get all kinds of jagged edges, artifacts, picture graininess,etc in your picture...and yes even though the image will be output in 720 or 1080p if the artifacts are there they will most definately show up on your "hd" experience..."garbage in= garbage out" as the saying goes.

Ha ha, keep cryin Blu-boys! The walls of Atlantis are crumbling down around Sony......again.......

The only argument I have ever seen in hddvd's favor is Price advantage and a "cool" menu. I dont use the menus as is on regular dvds...why would I give a damn about "interactive" menu's...I want to watch HD movies not a 18hr commentary or a map of a carchase as I am watching it...I could care less...if you want to know how directors do it go to film school. Lets not forget that all those"cool" features eat up unnecesary space on your disc that could be further used for more uncompressed video and audio.

That brings me to another point that everyone keeps overlooking, the audio aspect of HD. Blu-Ray is for the most part uncompressed audio...HDDVD is not(another reason why having a larger disc space matters) why have a beautiful picture without sound to match it? As far as picture goes it may not be a "huge" leap over an upscaled dvd player but the audio is undeniably leaps and bounds ahead....assuming you have a good surround sound system to enjoy it on.

Blu-ray is more expensive but i recall dvd players running the same price gauntlet as blu-ray when they came out starting around $1000 and then petering down to the $200-$500 area. Cheaper is not always better you usually get what you pay for. Oh and lets not forget one of the main reasons dvd succeeded after a slow start was in fact due to the PS2...people were buying it as a standalone player for their dvds....not for games...Ya know thats funny because I could have sworn that is exactly what many people who bought a ps3 are doing right now...buying a ps3 not to play games but as a standalone blu-ray player, heck even audio/video-file mags have given it rave reviews....aaaand should they decide to later, they can play a game or two on it...unlike your toshiba hddvd. One final note lets not forget that on top of movie and game use blu-ray also has the software side advantage as well....storage backup for pcs...

These companies have alot of money why don't they just put out movies in both formats, its not like they can't afford it.

This move isn't about the price of consumer players, it's about the cost of pressing hundreds of thousands of discs.

Paramount must be content with the amount of storage and features available on HD-DVD and believes that given the volumes they want to move, HD-DVD also gives them the ability to keep shelf prices low and still make money.

How long you worked for Sony? You sure have drank the corporate koolaid.

If I own a copy of a movie and want to be able to transfer that data to my laptop, or portable hard drive HD Movie player... or whatever the I want to transfer it to... I want to be able to do it. The music industry has shown us that copy protection does not freaking work... the people that pirate media are still going to be able to pirate.

DRM makes the paying customer suffer. Sony just does not get it. They will fail for this one simple reason.

I will never support Sony after they secretly installed the root kit software on my computer when I played one of their CD back in 2005. They don't deserve my business.

I hope HD format wins as very early in the piece all the reviews said that HDDVD disk are a lot harder to scratch.
They also commented that the Bluray disk scratch very easily. Not sure if thinks have changed, but I would want my brand new disk at risk cause the makers don't care about scratch protection.

ok.. lets face it.. yes.. 50 gigs is larger than 30 gigs.. but what happens with more layers are added? Fact is barely any BLU RAY movie uses more than 30 gigs of its potential 50. Even worse, BLU RAY uses a bloated compression method that requires all that access space. AS a storage medium.. BLU RAY WINS.. but as a DVD movie format... its still too close..

Sony stated recently that Blu-Ray outsold HD-DVD 2 to 1. But, the real figures are 2.2 million Blu-Ray to 1.5 million HD-DVD. My bad math still tells me that's closer to 3 to 2 rather than 2 to 1. So why does Sony need to "twist" these figures? What are they trying to hide? Hmmmmmm...

Blu-Ray HD movie content is 9 hours. HD-DVD movie content is 8 hours. Where's the big difference in storage? Get this: SD content - Blu-Ray 24 hours, HD-DVD 25 hours! So much for Blu-Ray holding more! LOL!

I like some others who have both a PS3 and the 360 HD DVD drive. I can't tell a difference in picture quality or sound between the two. But I prefer the HD DVD menu's a lot more. But I think both formats will survive and hybrid players will be the norm.

Who *really* cares about HD? It's video is crisper/clearer/more detailed, who cares? Not Me, its got to be about the quality of the movie. If its a great movie, I'd watch it on VHS and be happy! Where is the *real* benefit, apart from departing with your hard earned cash? All this hype is just about companies getting richer, and we are just the suckers that help them do that!

I know, I know...flame away!

Can anyone see that this is only going to prolong the war? Look at it objectively, can you honestly see HD-DVD turning it around, not only so they are ahead of Blu-ray but so that Blu-ray dies, which is what must happen to get us to the format.
Look at the facts. HD-DVD is 2-1 down, retailers WANT to move away from it. And Sony own a movie company, which is throwing out blockbusters at a good rate. HD-DVD cannot kill Blu-ray under a best case scenario for a good many years.
Now imagine you have both players - be objective and you want to see a format settled upon ASAP. Now look at this decision. Some greedy executives took some cash and made everyone else suffer longer than they need to. That's what this about; prolonging a war nobody needs.

so evntually the best will survive..!!
so let them fight it out!!

Honestly I love how people have turned this into a microsoft issue like MS threw there money into this. This couldnt be further from the truth. Here is the truth.

1. HD-DVD is an open consortium of movie studios where no favorites are played and it is a mutual group studios deciding accepted formats and practices. Not one party holds more stake or collects royalities from its sales.

2. Blu-Ray which is designed Sony as an identical fomat in which they can collect royalties of each disc and they also set the standards for how the group works. It is not an open consortium as many say it is as sony is the ultimate ruling figure. Prices are completely subject to what royalties sony puts on the discs so competition is not a factor.

Interesting side not DISNET FOX and SONY where all part of the launch companies for DIVX Making HD-DVD more like well.... DVD