Source: Tom's Guide US | Keywords: ces, blu-ray | Themes: Home Theater
After its chief rival was dealt a potentially fatal blow several days ago, the Blu-ray Disc Association appeared quite confident at its CES press conference Monday night, and although the group did not say the high definition format war is over, members did say that Blu-ray’s victory "is inevitable."
"Blu-ray’s emergence as the format of choice is inevitable," said Steve Beeks, president of Lionsgate Studios, who added that the hi-def format war "appears to be over." The Blu-ray Disc Association (BDA) members didn’t exactly gloat or stomp on the throat of their competitors, but there was no question that the group, which included executives from Disney, 20th Century Fox, and Sony, was feeling good about its prospects for 2008.
The fortunes of Blu-ray’s chief rival, HD DVD, were dashed on Friday when Warner Bros. made the surprise announcement that it was dropping HD DVD and backing Blu-ray exclusively. The announcement forced the HD DVD Promotional Group to cancel its Sunday evening CES press conference. Adding insult to injury for HD DVD supporters was that fact that Warner Bros. - originally slated to appear at HD DVD’s press conference - showed up at Monday’s Blu-ray press event.
Ron Sanders, worldwide president of Warner Bros. Home Video, spoke at the press conference and stated that the decision to support Blu-ray exclusively was based purely on the numbers. "The consumer is really what influenced us in the end," Sanders said. The BDA cited numerous research reports that show Blu-ray discs were outselling HD DVD movies at an average of 2 to 1.
Ron Sanders, president of Warner Bros. Home Video, backed Blu-ray after dropping HD DVD less than a week ago.
During a question and answer session with the audience, Sanders was asked if Warner Bros. received any monetary benefits from the BDA to drop HD DVD, which referenced reports that Paramount and DreamWorks Animation were paid millions by HD DVD supports to drop Blu-ray. Sanders humorously replied, "I wish."
Blu-ray has also received a boost from the resurgent PlayStation 3, which has seen healthy increase in sales in recent months after some aggressive price cuts. "One of the things that made the difference was having the PlayStation 3 in the market," David Bishop, worldwide president of Sony Pictures Home Entertainment. Bishop added that bundling the PS3 with a Spider-Man 3 Blu-ray movie helped increase brand awareness for the format.
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I'm keeping my HD-DVD player-has more features and most HD-DVD's include a DVD on back so if your player ever goes bad you can still play disc on your old dvd player. If your blu ray goes bad you have to buy a new blu ray player just to watch movie.
Way to go Blue ray as to the other comment why would your hd player go bad unless it was junk to begin with also you can play regular dvds in any blue ray I am so glad i have blue ray woo hoo
Force X,
You've never had a DVD player die on you?
"One of the things that made the difference was having the PlayStation 3 in the market,"...ONE? Try the only difference that mattered.
Heavy studio exclusivity is not exactly "winning". You can "win" a race by shooting the other guy, you know. Ask Electronic Arts. Millions of PS3s sold with free movies and 70% of the film studios exclusively suppporting BR, and you wonder why BR has a 2:1 sales advantage? I wonder why it isn't MUCH bigger...
From what they (Warner) would leave you to believe, Warner is throwing away a third of it's HD disc revenue (2:1), for no monetary compensation or incentives, in the hopes that millions upon millions people have been waiting in the wings to buy ONE HD-disc player format?
BR and HD-DVD COMBINED for what, 2% of movie discs sales?!? That's with millions of PS3s sold. Most likely scenario; BR fails right along with HD-DVD, DVD continues to go strong, and in the meantime, digital downloads come to the forefront, and a new physical disc (HD-DVD 2.0?) appears with features that justify the jump from DVD for consumers.