HD DVD Format war bombshell
Just real quick before I run out of the office here. Both Paramont and Dreamworks animation have announced exclusive support for Toshiba's HD-DVD format.
Check it HERE
UPDATE: OK, now I have a minute to post. My take on this is: I hate it. I own an HD-DVD player. I love the format. What I hate is this STUPID format war. It looked as though Blu-Ray was winning the war recently and I was fine with that. I just want a single format to become domanant. So that we can move on. This just throws another wrench into the works.
So why would Paramont / Dreamworks do this? Well, they are both businesses that exist to make a profit. So based on that we can make the following assumptions:
UPDATE 8-22: Well it looks as though my last bullet item there is true. The New York times reports that Paramount / Dreamworks Animation did indeed receive $150M as an incentive to provide exclusive support for HD-DVD. Check out the article HERE (you have to sign up but it's free).
Check it HERE
UPDATE: OK, now I have a minute to post. My take on this is: I hate it. I own an HD-DVD player. I love the format. What I hate is this STUPID format war. It looked as though Blu-Ray was winning the war recently and I was fine with that. I just want a single format to become domanant. So that we can move on. This just throws another wrench into the works.
So why would Paramont / Dreamworks do this? Well, they are both businesses that exist to make a profit. So based on that we can make the following assumptions:
- The Toshiba players are significantly cheaper than Blu-Ray so maybe there is greater market penetration for the HD-DVD format (this was not what I had heard but the low cost of the players is not to be ignored).
- The phantom $150M incentive to the studios is true
I am not really sure what to make of it at this point. It flies in the face of everything that we have been hearing about Blu-Ray becoming the dominant player. They need to just kill off one or the other and move on. The stories of the PS3 being the main reason that Blu-Ray was the bigger player made sense to me.
UPDATE 8-22: Well it looks as though my last bullet item there is true. The New York times reports that Paramount / Dreamworks Animation did indeed receive $150M as an incentive to provide exclusive support for HD-DVD. Check out the article HERE (you have to sign up but it's free).
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