Stan Beer
Sunday, 06 January 2008 04:37
Opinion and Analysis
Page 1 of 2
Warner Bros' decision to go exclusively Blu-ray raises many questions. The overarching one of course is whether this means the end of the much publicised HD format war. Has the bell tolled for HD DVD?
Of course Warber Bros is not the only studio in
the game. However, with the largest library of movies and its massive
market influence, Warner the fence sitter was considered by both HD
video camps as the tipping point.
The HD DVD camp is now looking increasingly isolated, with just
Universal, Paramount and Dreamworks in its corner. What's more, the
Paramount and Dreamworks exclusivity, bought for a purported US$150
million, only runs for the remainder of 2008.
The dismay and importance of the Warner Bros decision was all over the
face of the HD DVD camp at the Consumer Elelctronics Show. A media
party celebrating supposedly important developments in the HD DVD
campaign has been cancelled.
The growing dominance of Blu-ray over HD DVD demonstrates that this war
was never really about the hardware - at least not the standalone
hardware. If it had been, then HD DVD, with the much lower cost player
technology, would have won hands down.
There were a number factors that have tipped the scales towards Blu-ray.
From the outset, the Sony developed format had the support of most of
the major studios, including of course Sony Pictures. As a result,
there were more exclusive Blu-ray titles being released than exclusive
HD DVD titles.
