Universal and Paramount – Holding Dearly onto HD DVD, for now

by Alex Zaharov-Reutt

Monday, 14 January 2008

Page 1 of 2 ! Although the concept of one high-def video format would be appear to be of universal and paramount importance, especially after the VHS vs Beta wars, we thankfully live in a world where competition, the markets and consumers determine the winners. HD DVD has certainly received what appears to be a knockout blow – but is it truly lights out for this high-def contender? Although we’ve all seen the Variety report on Universal and Paramount set to drop support of HD DVD, both companies say they’re still releasing movies on HD DVD. BetaNews quoted Ken Graffeo, the executive VP of HD strategic marketing for Universal Studios Home Entertainment, as saying that: “Contrary to unsubstantiated rumors from unnamed sources, Universal's current plan is to continue to support the HD DVD format”. Of course, when Graffeo says it is Universal’s ‘current’ plan, he also says it as the co-president of the HD DVD Promotional Group . The HD DVD Promotional Group’s member list still shows wide support across the industry, although there can be no question that each member is wondering what the future is for the format. They’ll be wondering whether to regroup with the other members to persevere with and co-operate on the format, whether to promote dual-format players and technologies or whether to go with Blu-ray – especially those members that belong to both the Blu-ray and HD DVD associations, as had Warner. Just think, companies like Sony were able to sustain their own proprietary formats for years, and still do. Memory Stick, MiniDisc – heck, even Beta tapes – are all still being sold. Memory Sticks have evolved and are multi-card readers are in most desktop and notebook PCs, while MiniDiscs players and recorders were manufactured by a range of companies besides Sony. Ok, so the Beta tapes are the Betacam SP tapes used in professional camera equipment, and these have been replaced by digital Beta tapes and hard disks - but Beta didn't actually die, and has made Sony lots of money from it over the years. If a lot of companies continue offering HD DVD as an alternative to Blu-ray, both for high-def video and up to 30GB of data on dual-layer discs, and prices continue falling to current prices for DVD burners and DVD discs, Blu-ray will still have a lot of competition on its hands, especially in the PC market. The pressure will be on for prices of Blu-ray players, burners and discs to fall to truly wipe out HD DVD – how quickly or slowly will this happen? HD DVD hasn’t disappeared off store shelves overnight, and even if it did, Blu-ray is still challenged by the video download threat, something that is already here on PCs, Xbox 360s, TiVo’s and others. Consumers will still need a large storage format to easily store, transport and share content in high-definition. 30GB isn’t as much as 50GB but if it’s a lot cheaper it can still be successful, especially if Blu-ray remains expensive. What could happen if Blu-ray stays expensive and HD DVD doesn't quicky die? Please read onto page 2 for the conclusion... << First page <   1 2 Next page > Last page - Post your comment >>

 

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