Warner Bros. has officially announced that they are pulling support from HD and going BluRay exclusive. This leaves only two studios (that matter) supporting HD-DVD, Universal and Paramount/DreamWorks. BluRay has the gamut of the rest, with Fox/MGM, Disney, Sony, and Warner Bros. tied to the other format. This is multiplied by the fact that Disney alone brings a massive share of family-friendly titles to the format, a market that has been sorely lacking on the HD-DVD front.
I have supported both formats in an effort to get titles I love onto my 118” screen, and both are excellent indeed. It is no secret to those around me that I was personally rooting for HD-DVD to win, and with Paramount signed over to the format, and with the best of Warner’s titles released HD-DVD only, the war was beginning to tilt in their favor. HD-DVD has the consumer in mind. This last Christmas HD-DVD players were unleashed at Wal-Mart and other retailers for a measly 99 dollars, giving the “Little Engine that Could” a massive boost. No one expected Warner to eat their words and go BluRay exclusive. It shut down all announcements and presentations for the CES show by the HD-DVD camp. The war is over, and now they know it too. The only response to this blow has been from Toshiba, saying they need to regroup with their studios to see what they want to do next.
Those studios are going to go Blu, and I imagine it’s going to happen sometime this year. Toshiba is undoubtedly going to release BluRay players, and I imagine there will be offers of some kind for rebates for current HD-DVD player owners. Whatever you do, buy no more HD-DVD.
I know a lot of people are relieved, but they are mistaken. I have long held that a format war has helped the industry’s speedy adoption rate, not hindered it.
Here’s the problem: Expect to pay WAY more for your BluRay. Sony has never hidden the fact that they want more for their product. It’s been the competition with HD that has forced them to lower their prices. These prices will WITHOUT A DOUBT, slide back up. Retail on these films is going to be like Laser Disc. Expect to pay 45-50 dollars for your titles now, instead of the 27-35 you are paying now. Yes, I know these amounts can be adjusted by Amazon’s great low prices, but mark my words, the days of paying 16-27 dollars for your high def will soon be at an end, at least for a few years. Players are NOT going to drop beneath the 400 dollar mark, and the only good unit under a thousand bucks is the PS3. This was by design. They absolutely intend on getting the PS3 out there, they need to win against Microsoft, and they can’t with the games they have out now: there are no real A-list titles out yet.
So YAY! Sony wins! They now own your living room. But not yours, exactly. Soon, expect to only be able to play movies on Sony Receivers with proprietary Home SDDS being the only sound format available; expect a new Sony branded version of HDMI that only Sony projectors costing Tens of Thousands of dollars can offer, and expect no one to have home theaters in their living rooms except the super rich. This is how the marketing model for Sony works, and it’s how it will always work.
Is there hope for HD-DVD? Not really. It would take a miracle, one that I would love to see happen. We need the competition, folks. It’s good for the economy. You can get both formats for under a thousand, and the movies were relatively inexpensive for the two formats, especially through an online retailer.
The miracle would be if one of the Blu studios gets wooed into coming over to the HD camp. It would need to be either Disney or Fox. Money would be sliding under the table for this to happen. I almost could see Fox doing it, as their BluRay support has been extremely lousy. They have no A-list titles out, and have released fewer than 20 films this year in Blu. They postpone every title they announce into oblivion. HD really needs Disney and Wal-Mart support at this time, however. Disney has that Kid’s catalogue, and Wal-Mart is the exposure machine.
Unfortunately, I don’t think this is going to happen. Toshiba has tucked the proverbial tail between their legs. The white flag is up at this point. It’s a sad day in the world of home theater. Baltar has won the election. Don’t expect roses to grow on New Caprica any time soon.