Universal: HD DVD Plans in Flux

[teamerickson]

Universal: HD DVD Plans in Flux | High-Def Digest

 

[mike123abc]

Surely they will release some on HD-DVD that they have already authored. If they are not ready to release on BD, they will need something to cover until they get to BD.

 

[bhelms]

There's an interesting point that I haven't seen raised elsewhere yet, and perhaps this isn't the right thread for it:

Even tho' the war has been decided, meaning that nobody will be making HD DVD players anymore, does that mean that the market for HD DVDs dries-up completely at the same time? Other posts/polls indicate that many in the HD DVD camp like me won't be making any immediate transition to BD, particularly in my case until the BD player prices drop considerably. So in the meantime I have bought, and will continue to buy, HD DVDs. I'll probably be in that mode until my player breaks and can't be replaced, or there is a newer technology that also leaves BD in the dust. In the meantime there could still be a defined (albeit limited) market for HD DVDs for quite some time given the current "installed base". Why would the movie producers ignore that?

Any other thoughts...?

 

[jayn_j]

When Laserdisc died, Pioneer promised 18 months of new releases. However, none of them ever got to the stores. A couple new titles that were in the pipeline showed up in the mailorder houses like Ken Cranes. Everybody else went into clearance mode and didn't order any new stock. Within a month you couldn't find a disc anywhere.

I mentioned elsewhere that Borders cleared out their HD-DVD section this week. I expect others to follow shortly. I would normally expect Amazon to hold out the longest, but they did announce phasing back as well.

 

[Peter Parker]

Actually LG will still make combo players---or so they say.

 

[Chucky Cheese]

or just try and get rid of the ones they have in warehouses.

 

[diogen]

Even tho' the war has been decided, meaning that nobody will be making HD DVD players anymore, does that mean that the market for HD DVDs dries-up completely at the same time?

Most probably.
Only in an ideal (utopian?) free market economy demand would be the one and only factor in defining product availability. But since it looks like most (every?) studios have some sort of arrangement with Sony, the option to release in anything but BD would probably be taken away first. And this would be nothing but "business as usual"...

For example, replication subsidies.
Until Warner went Blu, there were essentially 2 companies - Sony and Cinram - that run BD replications in volume. As has been confirmed recently by an insider, Cinram's replication lines came free from Sony. Cinram is planning to install new BD lines from Singulus (different from Sony technology) that won't go live until about October. Therefore, Sony has a tight grip on studios' decisions utill at least that time...

Diogen.

 

[bhelms]

Tks for the explanation. Actually, by what I'm saying I don't think the potential market goes away immediately, but you have detailed some compelling reasons why the supply will evaporate. Oh, well - wishful thinking on my part I guess! But as I've mentioned elsewhere, with 500+ titles out there and probably plenty of folks wanting to dump them, now and later, I probably won't run out of HD DVDs to purchase on the second-hand market for quite some time...!

Have a good one, and BRgds...!

 

[diogen]

...well - wishful thinking on my part I guess!

I asked on AVS a somewhat related question: is there a chance that Toshiba opens up their player specs
to attempt a firmware update that converts them into IPTV boxes?
Toshiba HD DVD player as IPTV receiver/extender: Possible? - AVS Forum
I thought it made sense: a hidef extender for under $100.
But not much optimism in that regard either... Well, it's life.

Diogen.

 

[mike123abc]

Considering the costs to make a HD disc, and the small potential market to sell it to, it will pretty much quickly convert to BD only. They are not going to spend all the money authoring, pressing, shipping, stocking, etc for a small market that is only going to shrink. They did it before because there was a chance the market would continue to grow and they could sell the back stock for years to come. They were not making a profit on this that will show up on the bottom line, if it does not add to the bottom line it is not worth the company's time and effort.

Laser disc collapsed, Pioneer had a blow out sale of the warehouse one weekend and it was over. No one was going to make stuff for a shrinking market.

 

[BlackHitachi]

Considering the costs to make a HD disc, and the small potential market to sell it to, it will pretty much quickly convert to BD only. They are not going to spend all the money authoring, pressing, shipping, stocking, etc for a small market that is only going to shrink. They did it before because there was a chance the market would continue to grow and they could sell the back stock for years to come. They were not making a profit on this that will show up on the bottom line, if it does not add to the bottom line it is not worth the company's time and effort.

Laser disc collapsed, Pioneer had a blow out sale of the warehouse one weekend and it was over. No one was going to make stuff for a shrinking market.

This would seem to be the best bet. Oh well hurry up and switch already!