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Paramount denies its dropping HD DVD

Paramount Pictures has publicly denied The Financial Times' report that it is following in the footsteps of Warner Bros. and abandoning HD DVD.

"Paramount's current plan is to continue to support the HD DVD format," Brenda Ciccone, a spokeswoman for Paramount, said in an e-mail.



Paramount however, can defect if it so chooses to due to a clause in its contract with HD DVD that allows the studio to switch if Warner Bros. ever decided to. Warner made their decision last week.

Toshiba and Sony declined to comment on the original report.

Source:
Bloomberg

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Written by: Andre Yoskowitz @ 9 Jan 2008 16:04

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• 18 comments

• goodswipe

  So the rumors are smashed!

  9.1.2008 16:22 #1

• sharks06

  Warner dropping out was probably the end of HD DVD, but it absolutely will be all over for the HD DVD camp if Paramount drops out.

  9.1.2008 16:25 #2

• sciascia

  I don't think they will make any real decision until they see first hand if their products still sell after May.

  9.1.2008 16:29 #3

• tavek

  Didnt WARNER Bros say they werent dropping HD DVD, oh yeah, THEY DID.

  9.1.2008 16:30 #4

• red2tango

  Originally posted by goodswipe: So the rumors are smashed!warner also denied it but switched.everyone denies because they want to stir up rumours and attract more and more attention to the subject!

  9.1.2008 16:59 #5

• domie

  I think it's probably the very opposite, they are probably already planning how to slip away quietly but for the moment are denying it to take the heat and attention away from themselves until they announce it in public.

  9.1.2008 17:23 #6

• chaos_zzz

  same as warner, we all know the final desition is

  9.1.2008 17:41 #7

• vinny13

  Lol they better make some good movies :P

  9.1.2008 17:56 #8

• Chavo

  Paramount, resist the dark side.

  9.1.2008 18:44 #9

• sgriesch

  I'm glad that everyone isn't jumping ship just yet.

  9.1.2008 19:06 #10

• camaro17

  ok warner did the same, hell everyone does this, even if they have plans for it, they will switch, it mat not be for a while, but by the time their contract expires they'll already have it planned out perfectly.
  
  Peace

  9.1.2008 20:14 #11

• newcloud

  its only a matter of time before they change sides because they no
  there fighting a losing battle

  9.1.2008 21:20 #12

• glasssd

  They already have most of the movies in their warehouse. Isnt this the same thing WB said???

  9.1.2008 21:57 #13

• Leningrad

  Quote:Warner dropping out was probably the end of HD DVD, but it absolutely will be all over for the HD DVD camp if Paramount drops out.Paramount will support blu-ray sooner or later, Toshiba is just manipulating them temporarily. As you have stated in your post
  if paramount abandons HDDVD , it will mean a end to this format. And it will. It will not be long before paramount drops out HDDVD completely in
  favour of the blu-ray medium. When paramount drops out HDDVD which I estimate to occur in 3 months, NIC and Toshiba will have to somehow
  manage to solve the problem it made itself with tons of consumers that
  have stupidly purchased a player in the format-war. No one likes to keep
  a dead medium. We are reaching the conclusion of this worthless competition, and when It does blu-ray will embark in a similar life-cycle in which the former DVD had. It will have its ACSS decrypted, just as DVD's CSS was shattered, and it will have a successor perhaps the holographic disc. The future of data mediums will not be clear, and what about Toshiba how will they clean up this problem at most I can only say Time Will Tell.

  9.1.2008 22:28 #14

• mspurloc

  If I had as big an inventory of expensive boxed sets as Paramount, I'd drag my feet a little, too.
  Besides, nobody said they were dropping it immediately. Just that they were looking to get out of their contract.
  Since they have a free pass from Warner to drop the agreement with them, it's only the hardware aspect of it they have to worry about now. That and cutting their losses.
  As for the denial, as has been said here, Warner and New Line said the same thing, right up until they did it.
  HBO has dropped it now and BBC Video will be next.
  The inferior format wins again.

  10.1.2008 00:10 #15

• ripxrush

  I am a little bummed about the whole HD-DVD WB thing (especially cause i hae HD) I really think with the technology that is out today that they should have tried harder for the dual format HD-DVD & Bluray disk like the SD-DVD & HD-DVD combo disks (btw those are great!) i mean beta max vs VHS well you couldn't just flip over the tape for another format but in this situation you can & what would it cost another $5? I would pay 35-40 for a movie that has both knowing that i can play it on any player i may run into!

  10.1.2008 02:14 #16

• eatsushi

  It could mean something but of course it could also mean nothing but:
  
  Quote:Paramount Delays 'Into the Wild,' 'Things We Lost in the Fire' HD DVDs
  Thu Jan 10, 2008 at 01:24 PM ET
  
  Paramount has announced a street date delay for its HD DVD releases of 'Into the Wild' and 'Things We Lost in the Fire,' pushing both titles back to early March.
  
  As we've previously reported, the studio originally announced the two HD DVD releases for February 12, day-and-date with their standard DVD counterparts. This new street date bump will now see the high-def versions hit store shelves three weeks later, on March 4.
  
  No reason was given for the delay, but specs remain unchanged for both titleshttp://www.highdefdigest.com/news/show/P...re_HD_DVDs/1353
  
  I hope though that Paramount's HD DVD of Beowulf gets released on time (Feb 26). I missed the theatrical run but would like to see it in HD.
  
  Update: They're also be delaying the regular DVD versions so it could be nothing.

  10.1.2008 14:00 #17

• borhan9

  Nothing big here it really will come out in another article and either say we support it fully for the time being or get rid of it atm they are siting on the fence.

  10.1.2008 19:14 #18