ROTTEN TOMATOES: Down but Not Out, HD DVD Soldiers On

Down but Not Out, HD DVD Soldiers On

An array of new releases expected for first quarter '08.

by Jeff Giles | January 18, 2008

The clock hasn't stopped ticking on the format, but HD DVD consumers can look forward to seeing new films on store shelves -- for at least the next few months, anyway.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, one of Warner Bros.' final HD DVD titles, a two-disc special edition of Twister, will be released May 27; meanwhile, Paramount "is expected to announce a full slate of HD DVD titles for the first quarter Thursday."

Paramount was supposed to announce those releases at CES, but the news of Warner Bros. abandoning the format led the HD DVD Promotional Group to withdraw from the show and declare a "quiet period." The Reporter article lists a number of expected titles, however, including Into the Wild, Things We Lost in the Fire, Bee Movie, The Kite Runner, American Gangster, and The Jack Ryan Collection, which bundles The Hunt for Red October, Clear and Present Danger, Patriot Games, and The Sum of All Fears.

Still, it seems like it's only a matter of time before the last few drops of HD DVD's market share go swirling down the drain -- according to the Reporter, people have pretty much quit buying 'em:

Net HD DVD sales, according to Nielsen, constituted only 15% of hi-def disc sales last week. And the top HD DVD seller, "The Kingdom," sold just 10% as many copies as the top Blu-ray Disc release, "3:10 to Yuma."

Source: The Hollywood Reporter

Related Items

Movie:	The Hunt for Red October
	The Kite Runner
	3:10 to Yuma
	Into the Wild
	American Gangster
	The Kingdom
	Bee Movie
	The Sum of All Fears
	Clear and Present Danger
	Patriot Games
	Twister
	Things We Lost in the Fire

(1-20 of 49 posts) | Reply

OperaGhost21 writes:
on Jan 18 2008 06:44 AM

I guess I just don't understand the stubborn pride behind the continued backing of a format that will ultimately disappear? Can't Universal, Paramount, and Toshiba just make the final push to Blu-Ray so that all studios can begin a collaborative effort to get people to join the HD revolution? Let's stop the fighting between the red and blue camp, and just focus on inviting others to experience the wonders of HD movies!

(Reply to this)

kubla writes:
on Jan 18 2008 06:54 AM

Easy for you to say. What about all those who bought HD DVD players? And how about all those that cringe at what a money-hungry conglomerate like Sony will do when they own a monopoly on the high definition video format? Sony has always been against other formats and stubbornly pursued their own. Seems like somewhat poetic justice that someone else is doing the same to them. But seriously, look at anything that has a Sony name on it... It is almost always more expensive than the SAME thing of another brand, sometimes absurdly so. There are some who are not so eager for Sony to win.... Well, we are eager for an end to the "war", but there's really no point to ending a war if the wrong side wins.

(Reply to this)

luvincharity writes:
on Jan 18 2008 07:09 AM

My god I am so sick of this. I bought into blu-ray right off the bat. Even if I didn't I would be investing now. I could care a less about the color of my disc or the cost of my player as long as I have a huge selection of movies to choose from. Catalogue title are great but I didn%u2019t invest into HD to revisit the past invested with excitement of what was coming. This whole thing needs to end so everyone can watch all the movies on one format. I feel bad for the average person who isnt educated on the two formats and pick up HD-DVD player expecting to watch many great movies on it and right now will get only a few titles a month. You buy into this for the movies not the format, and until Toshiba realizes that at this point they are only hurting the consumer shame on them. I mean my god I think this week Blu-ray had an 85 percent market share compared to HD-DVD's 15 percent but Toshiba on the HD-DVD website is claiming a 50 percent market share. Hate Sony all you want at least they arent blowing some up my a$$.

(Reply to this)

Slipperypick writes:
on Jan 18 2008 07:36 AM

This is the ugly side of Capitalism laid bare. Classic.

(Reply to this)

OperaGhost21 writes:
on Jan 18 2008 07:42 AM

Kubla, I own an HD-DVD player as well.

(Reply to this)

frogleg writes:
on Jan 18 2008 07:53 AM

Bah!
I'm going to skip the hi-resolution disc "revolution" and jump onboard when we get downloadable, streaming hi-def content.

(Reply to this)

pota1974 writes:
on Jan 18 2008 07:54 AM

I am very Content with my regular DVDs

(Reply to this)

kunglue writes:
on Jan 18 2008 08:02 AM

HD & Blue-Ray will both be a short lived fad. Similar to the laser-disc (remember those,) there will be all sorts of hype surrounding it but they will eventually fall short.

Both formats will eventually lose out to downloads. Believe it or not the revolution has already begun. Xbox Live has already made movie downloads in HD quality available.

In a few short years, households will have a central server which connects to TVs and stereos throughout the house. All of your music, movies, and pictures will be in a library on a computer. You will be able to access this library from anywhere a connection is established.

No more bookshelves full of DVD and CD cases. Everything will be electronic.

The biggest thing holding this up is a way to prevent pirating.
Once this is resolved... say good by to hard-copies of movies.

My advice... don't invest in HD or Blue-Ray movies. YES! they do look spectacular and have outstanding picture and sound... but the same thing will be available via download soon. When this happens you'll have a bunch of plastic that you spent hundreds of dollars on.

(Reply to this)

dayfalljesse writes:
on Jan 18 2008 08:23 AM

In reply to this comment (#1487105)
If you think this, you are literally insane.

Digital downloads of movies will never, EVER replace physical discs for a variety of reasons:
1) People like owning a physical copy
2) People like bonus features
3) Current connections are nowhere even near allowing the HD streaming of movies that will look correct on the large displays they are intended to play on...file sizes are too high, and we arent even 10 years close to the speed we need...literally 15-20 mb/sec.
4) You can easily take your digital download to watch at someones house

There are more, but the fact is that "Media Center" households will not become common...they will be the few and far betweens.

(Reply to this)

dracus writes:
on Jan 18 2008 08:34 AM

Things that die a slow death usually have a sudden spark of life before taking that last desperate gasp. R.I.P HD DVD.

(Reply to this)

daveyhatton writes:
on Jan 18 2008 08:45 AM

I chose HD-DVD because of the lower price point, their willingness to allow dual-format DVD/HD discs, ala WB combo (not sure if it%u2019s technically possible with Blu-Ray or if this is just stupid Sony stubborness), and the fact that I%u2019ve always had great luck with Toshiba products (Sony, not so much). People don%u2019t realize how great it is to have the combo discs; case in point, I picked up StarDust last week, but decided on the DVD version simply because I knew my daughter would want to watch it in her room. There%u2019s no way in heck that I%u2019m going to buy multiple Blu-Ray players at $400 a pop, nor multiple HD-DVD players. At first, I cursed the more expensive version of SuperMan Returns combo disc, but after having a difficult time with choosing which StarDust to pick up (I really, really, wanted the HD-DVD version), I realized how important the combo disc will be to the mainstream consumer, not to mention, much cheaper prices for the players. I could give a poo about the extra space Blu-Ray offers, as long as I can see my movies in HD%u2026 (HD-DVD should%u2019ve won from a mainstream consumers perspective)

(Reply to this)

kunglue writes:
on Jan 18 2008 08:56 AM

In reply to this comment (#1487171)
1. Sure they do... that's why digital music hasn't taken off
2. I wasn't aware that bonus features couldn't be downloaded.
3. I bought an 80GB external hard-drive last year for $100. I bought a 500GB hard-drive for $150 this year... HDMI cables have also dropped in half in the past 2-years... Boy! technology sure is slow.
4. You are correct, you CAN take your digital downloads to a friends house via portable storage devices. hmm... travel with a small cube with 50 movies or take a big plastic bin with 50 movies in it... decisions, decisions.

(Reply to this)

ledjam13 writes:
on Jan 18 2008 08:58 AM

In reply to this comment (#1487171)
wow dude, you are really far off, downloadable is coming and within 5 years.

1) People like owning a physical copy

- yeah some people love to have their physical dvd collections just like are still people who love their record and cd collections but ever heard of a thing called the ipod, people are moving away from disc collections in favor of mass portal storage devices with music and movies are the next thing

2) People like bonus features

- Everything thats on you physcial dvd will be available downloadable including the dvd menu and bonus features and probably a constant update of them since you will be hardwired to receive updated and new features. Bonus features and naavigation menus arent tied to a physcial disc, they are data written to it and can be written to a hard drive just as easily

3) Current connections are nowhere even near allowing the HD streaming of movies that will look correct on the large displays they are intended to play on...file sizes are too high, and we arent even 10 years close to the speed we need...literally 15-20 mb/sec.

- Yes current speeds prob wont produce a consistantly solid stream of HD video, thats why you will download it one time and its then stored on a "movie ipod box" near your TV, you dont stream everytime you want watch, thats retarded.

4) You cant easily take your digital download to watch at someones house.

- you pick up your "movie ipod box" and bring your entire move collection anywhere you want, just like you dont bring your cd rack to a friends house, you bring your mp3 player

(Reply to this)

kidnova writes:
on Jan 18 2008 09:36 AM

I just wanted to chime in real quickly on the digital download debate. I don't believe downloading of movies will become the norm for many years mainly because of some of the points already addressed: the desire for many users to have a physical copy and limits on download speeds.

My point however is regarding the comparisons being made to music downloads. This is an invalid comparison for a couple of reasons:

1) The size of the files is DRAMATICALLY different and the time required to download the files differs accordingly

2) Music downloads have taken off because they give users the option to buy an individual song at a reasonable price as opposed to purchasing the whole album. I don't have any stats to back it up, but I'd bet this accounts for 95% of music downloads. How many people do you know that will want to download 1 chapter off a movie? I can't think of any. With movies it is all or nothing, which is not the case for music.

So, if you want to make a case for downloading movies, please leave the ridiculous comparison to music downloads out.

(Reply to this)

ninjaandy writes:
on Jan 18 2008 09:38 AM

I don't think Ipod is a good comparison to what movie downloads may eventually look like. Music is generally something people do WHILE they do something else: driving, working, dancing, exercising, whatever.

When movies play, on the other hand, they are the focus of your attention.

Why is this distinction important? Because of the nature of portability. Music is readily snapped up in portable format because it's something you always want with you. But very few people want movies with them in all places and at all times.

Movies can't be compared easily to video games either. Video games, like books, can be put down without finishing them, to be finished later, and most people are fine with that. So they have an element of portability as well. The factor they have in common with movies is the reason you won't see any DS or PSPs being used for gaming in the same numbers people use portable music devices: sure, you can play games on a bus or waiting in line, but since they require your attention (like movies), you can't do anything else while you do that. So they aren't multi-task friendly.

Who wants to watch half an hour of their favorite movie on a bus, on a screen smaller than their palm? Very few people.

Now move it into the home realm. What motivation do people have to switch over to full downloads? They get to put away their shelves? Yippee. Physical storage space is not at that much of a premium. And if your hard drive crashes, there goes your collection. Sure you could download it again for free, but who wants to download hundreds of huge files more than once? As for transport, does anyone really care about taking 50 movies to your friends' houses? Some teenagers and college kids, maybe. That might be enough of a demographic to drive some sales, but won't encourage a society-wide change in thinking.

And ultimately, it just gets down to the visceral sense of ownership you get from seeing a collection of stuff. That's part of the reason we still have, and will always have, a physical library of books in a fully digital age.

I could see us going with majority digital downloads maybe once the next generation of kids is born and grows up with the idea of it. But there will always be a market for physical ownership of stuff.

(Reply to this)

darrinsgoodman writes:
on Jan 18 2008 01:36 PM

downloading will not replace discs - hurt their sales yes - but will not replace

(Reply to this)

Marktime writes:
on Jan 18 2008 01:55 PM

Oh how much I love my standard non-HD dvds.

(Reply to this)

Bane Of Anubis writes:
on Jan 18 2008 02:26 PM

Downloading won't replace discs, but in the next five years, it will surpass it.. and the storage format for physical copies will not remain on disc anyway.

Music may not be the exact analogy, but it's close enough -- People tend to take the path of least resistance and that path will be through fiber optic cables.

Anybody that thinks that dvds will be the mainstay for the next several years hasn't been paying attention to the technological trends of the past generation.

(Reply to this)

gee4411 writes:
on Jan 18 2008 08:00 PM

i dont just see why all the companies cant just come up with one HD-DVD player and then copy off that sort of thing.... bringing out the dodgy cheapo's or the really expensive ones... or just improve the quality of regular dvd players to play better dvd's

(Reply to this)

luvincharity writes:
on Jan 18 2008 08:20 PM

This argument is absurd. A 50 gig movie would take a crapload of time to download. There are millions of people in the country that dont even have high-speed internet. Maybe if they really want to watch their huge movie download they should plan a couple months ahead. Plus maybe I want to watch my movies when I cant access my internet when I'm bored and have nothing else to do.

(Reply to this)

Related Links

Betaville

Related Articles

Most Discussed

Latest News

Latest Interviews

Latest Features

Sponsored Links