Warner speaks out about Blu-ray deal

Warner speaks out about Blu-ray deal
When Warner announced last week that it was moving exclusively to Blu-ray, many questions remained as to why the move happened, whether money was involved, and why the studio would voluntarily shun the growing HD DVD market.

Speaking to Reuters, the studio made it clear that the move was not fueled by a money exchange with Sony, but instead that the decision was based on on fears of a deteriorating U.S. economy, falling DVD sales and even rising gas prices.

"We've typically been recession proof," Warner Bros Entertainment Group President Kevin Tsujihara said. "But the thing that we saw in the fourth quarter...was gas prices beginning to affect sales. And since we're considered an impulse purchase, it's beginning to impact us."



Tsujihara also added that the decision was based in part in an effort to help end customer and retailer confusion over the HD video formats.

Toshiba, the lead proprietor of HD DVD has said that despite Warner's decision, the time for HD DVD's demise has not come yet. Both Universal and Paramount have said they are committed to HD DVD despite published rumors.

Source:
Dailytech

Written by: Andre Yoskowitz @ 11 Jan 2008 18:40
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  • 38 comments

  • Mik3h

    LOL what does it have to do with gas prices? And a failing US economy? It's a bloody format war! Not an election!

    11.1.2008 21:14 #1

  • ZimHosein

    Originally posted by Mik3h: LOL what does it have to do with gas prices? And a failing US economy? It's a bloody format war! Not an election!At least he didn't blame the War on Terror!

    11.1.2008 21:24 #2

  • Gradical

    If you apply that statement a BS filter it would read:

    People of america, we're sorry we made you believe that we had an agreement with hd-dvd, even more, we apologize for doing it in such a public manner, we also apologize for you being stuck with the losers but its not our fault its the economy taking us down.

    i apologize for Quote:its not our fault its the economy taking us down.
    that is so much BS the filter couldnt decypher

    11.1.2008 21:46 #3

  • david89

    whatever i bought the hddvd player now it's going be dieing format wasn't even out that long for sale. i should bought the blu-ray player from the start because after Warner pulls out others will follow and Blaming it on gas prices And the failing US economy what a load of S++T It's format war Not The elections!

    11.1.2008 22:23 #4

  • Ludikhris

    Those of you that think this is not an economic issue are misinformed of what is happening out there today. Sure gas prices and overall energy costs are are surging. The problem is the vast majority of people out there are feeling the squeeze and it is affecting what they will and wont buy. Impulse buys are the first hit. Starbucks, fast food restaurants, DVDs, CDs, etc are the first things that people will give up. Warner sees this and decides that people need one format. That and the fact that piracy is more rampant during recessions. Based on this Warner picked Bluray.

    11.1.2008 22:36 #5

  • spydah

    You know what would be the funniest thing people never knew. They could have created both formats and played the market (customers) into believing this whole time it was a format war and all it was, was a group of studios using people as the tester for what they would decide. They had people all excited about HD-DVD which has a lower encryption and basically what lots of people want -vs- Blu-ray the format with restrictions and encryptions. Now people done spun all this money on the format that they choose to lose and we think HD-DVD lost and it was never about that it was simply all studios playing both sides of the fence making money until they stuck the folk in it to stick with one. Now the kicker will be in like 6 months they try and revive the format because someone found their way around Blu-ray's encryptions and made it easy to burn and store their movies. This is just a thought not anything further. lol

    11.1.2008 22:58 #6

  • snowlock

    Quote:Speaking to Reuters, the studio made it clear that the move was not fueled by a money exchange with Sony...
    BWAhahahahaha
    haha
    hah

    That's a good one.

    11.1.2008 23:08 #7

  • vinny13

    Lol I don't care why they switched as long as they did so :)

    It's only better for me and everyone else with a BR player/PS3.

    11.1.2008 23:38 #8

  • MrMexican

    here here vinny, i don't care to brag that we were right but thats just it blue ray is winning so warner is going to the winning side like we did.

    12.1.2008 00:03 #9

  • jove

    but did paramount ever publicly said that they were paid to do so? to go hd dvd?

    12.1.2008 00:20 #10

  • tribbb

    who cares ? i dont. Samsung and Toshiba have announced plans to create a hybrid HD Player , both blu-ray & hd-dvd compatible. Chill out.

    12.1.2008 01:14 #11

  • sk8flawzz

    Originally posted by tribbb: who cares ? i dont. Samsung and Toshiba have announced plans to create a hybrid HD Player , both blu-ray & hd-dvd compatible. Chill out.HEY where'd you hear about a Toshiba one? Not because I think you're lying but I wanna check it out

    12.1.2008 01:16 #12

  • ripxrush

    okay say it may possibly just a little had to do with gas prices, well how is the blu ray format getting around these gas price problems? & how does moving t bluray make the economy better? are you trying to force 1 format & giving up on your HD DVD format to help customers be able to buy 1 final format? Wow What a crock! lmfao! this is the biggest pile i have ever heard! are you going to run for president next?

    12.1.2008 01:18 #13

  • jove

    http://gizmodo.com/341371/prediction-hd-...rmat-hd-players *prediction*

    12.1.2008 01:19 #14

  • tribbb

    Quote:http://www.xbitlabs.com/news/multimedia/display/20070413070605.htmlit will be available someday, no doubt about that.

    12.1.2008 01:22 #15

  • 2colors

    If your going to blame gas prices for going BR only, what about the higher cost of the hardware? HD DVD hardware is lower in price.

    12.1.2008 06:54 #16

  • emugamer

    Originally posted by Ludikhris: Those of you that think this is not an economic issue are misinformed of what is happening out there today. Sure gas prices and overall energy costs are are surging. The problem is the vast majority of people out there are feeling the squeeze and it is affecting what they will and wont buy. Impulse buys are the first hit. Starbucks, fast food restaurants, DVDs, CDs, etc are the first things that people will give up. Warner sees this and decides that people need one format. That and the fact that piracy is more rampant during recessions. Based on this Warner picked Bluray.I totally agree with you Ludikhris. The economy would play a part in their decision. And it's not a matter of bluray getting around the gas price squeeze. Switching to bluray would help minimize their risk (since according to all of the "surveys" and "studies", it's the better selling format). They are still going to feel a hit though. We all are. And if you think otherwise, it's time to open your eyes and read the Wall Street Journal. The US economy is being dangled over the $#@can right now. It's not just gas prices. They mentioned that typically, they are "recession proof" and that the gas prices were beginning to affect sales. In other words, in their year-end analysis, where they look at all of the factors that may affect sales, the trend in gas prices stood out for the first time. And the only direction they are heading is up for 2008 and the foreseeable future. The US housing market dive-bombed and is still trying to recover. If people can't afford their inflated balloon mortgages, why would they even be concerned with a format war? News of the Fed making another interest rate cut is another indication that the US Government is worried and trying to stick that band aid back on a gaping head wound. When major investment banking firms record 0 profit in a year, and need to rely on oversees investors to pay their employees, you know you have a problem. When Utility EPS drops (one of the most stable stocks you can invest in), you know there is a problem. The overall cost of living in the US is rapidly increasing and I can say for a fact that my impulse buying has dramtically decreased.

    All I'm saying is that it is very likely that the overall state of the US economy (with the price of oil increasing on a regular basis) and the direction it is going (down) played a factor in their decision. Not just gas prices. If there is only one choice in a format, they minimize their risk. I have friends who have not been following the "format war" at all, who came to me saying "blu-ray won!!" - just because Warner made this decision. And that may be why Warner did this.

    12.1.2008 08:23 #17

  • hughjars

    Warner took the biggest pile of cash on the table, that's all.

    The rest is all flannel & self-justification
    (accompanied - if the rumours are true - by an almighty row at board level, the majortiy of whom were of the view that it had been decided that Warner were going HD DVD; but that is another story).

    Warner hoped going for one format would end the format war.

    We can now see from Universal & Paramount's decisions that they were mistaken.

    Hollywood remains deeply divided.

    The truth is that high def (if HD DVD does not recover from this) optical disc is never going to replace SD DVD now.

    Blu-ray simply cannot get up to full spec fast enough nor cheap enough fast enough.

    They can't even be certain of any products this year becoming available with the final (profile 2.0) spec, nevermind a range of products offering high quality audio specs etc etc.

    (and no, the PS3 does not offer everything, it is pretty limited in places, it's audio performance particularly)

    The fanclub can pretend that does not matter, but it does
    (for an age they pretended that any such questions were just 'HD DVD FUD').
    We can now see from the BDA's own recent comments that this is not only true but has very serious implications for all existing Blu-ray owners
    ('profile 1.0' & 'profile 1.1' players may indeed not be able to play 'profile 2.0' disc properly, or at all.......and that those 'profile 1.0' & 'profile 1.1' owners effected are on their own, "they knew what they were getting into".
    Tough luck guys, huh?
    Not exactly a nice way to be treating their early adopters, eh?)

    So much for this just being about whether or not people wanted those so-called 'advanced extras'.

    What a contrast.
    Not a peep from the fanclub hypocrites about this and yet they whined & cried they little eyes out (so they'd have us believe) over whether the relative handful of 1st gen Toshiba HD A1 owners might (note the word 'might') not be able to 'see' & use the 3rd layer on the 51gb TL HD DVD discs.

    So only the most ill-informed or the blind nutter element would buy a Blu-ray stand-alone that was not 'profile 2.0' after what the BDA has recently said.

    This means hardly anyone will be buying Blu-ray stand-alones this year
    (they claim Oct might see the 1st 'profile 2.0' player - but if they delay like they did with the 'profile 1.1' stuff then don't count on it.....and God knows when an affordable decently/well spec'd one will appear).

    So that means yet another year where Blu-ray stays stuck in the game console niche and does not stand a hope of crossing over into the mass-market.

    3+ years and counting.

    It's all too little too late.

    Blu-ray will not be taking over as the 'new DVD'
    (HD DVD could/can cos it is the only one fully spec'd & able to be cheap enough fast enough; whether it gets the chance remains to be seen).

    HD TV services via satellite & cable with a DVR will take the majority this time around.
    Downloading will grow fast too (whatever happened that was bound to be the case)

    HD on your HD TV all the time is the big attraction HD TV services offer that the occasional expensive Blu-ray optical disc on a poorly spec'd expensive player cannot match.

    12.1.2008 12:04 #18

  • vinny13

    It's not going to replace DVD this year, or next year, or even 2 years from now but as more people buy HDTVs I'm pretty sure that they'll be attracted to at least 1 HD player, wether it is BR or HD-DVD, probably BR as even when I just bought my new LCD they asked me if I wanted a BR player and I said why not HD-DVD and they just said because there was more support behind it. Like it has to change sometime just based on the fact that all of these big companies don't like how it's CSS or whatever has been ripped apart.

    I don't really think that downloading or recording and watching will take over because what if you get all of these movies and then your HDD dies? That's a little too frustrating, where as with discs as long as you don't scratch them up and whatever they should be ok. It'll be discs until they can find a way to keep these methods more reliable for a longer period of time...

    12.1.2008 12:14 #19

  • djkrishna

    HEY
    spydah is right in some

    You know what would be the funniest thing people never knew. They could have created both formats and played the market (customers) into believing this whole time it was a format war and all it was, was a group of studios using people as the tester for what they would decide. They had people all excited about HD-DVD which has a lower encryption and basically what lots of people want -vs- Blu-ray the format with restrictions and encryptions. Now people done spun all this money on the format that they choose to lose and we think HD-DVD lost and it was never about that it was simply all studios playing both sides of the fence making money until they stuck the folk in it to stick with one. Now the kicker will be in like 6 months they try and revive the format because someone found their way around Blu-ray's encryptions and made it easy to burn and store their movies. This is just a thought not anything further. lol

    sony doesn't want repeat history
    i think all the studios are on the same page(bluray)
    lets face it we are the testers to their elctornics with our expense

    12.1.2008 12:26 #20

  • DXR88

    Help the economy by going blu-ray thats bolder-dash. help there Profits thats more like it.

    while america is in a spiral down an people start making 3.75 an hour
    there going to charge us $60.00 a disc. this is because USA econemy is failing. dosent effect china or any other place just USA. so knowing that. this american corperation is going to dig them selfs a nice shallow grave. a nice spiral to by the way.

    12.1.2008 14:09 #21

  • snowlock

    Originally posted by vinny13: I don't really think that downloading or recording and watching will take over because what if you get all of these movies and then your HDD dies? That's a little too frustrating, where as with discs as long as you don't scratch them up and whatever they should be ok. It'll be discs until they can find a way to keep these methods more reliable for a longer period of time...
    Let me count the HDD "deaths" I've experienced...zero. I've literally broken at least 4 discs into pieces (albeit one was on purpose, but the others just got stepped on, etc.)

    The only reason HDD recorders and things like solid state aren't taking over is because these companies don't want them to. The way I see it, that's the only reason you can't program a DVR just like a VCR. Instead you have to pay TiVo a monthly fee to do it for you, and that plain doesn't make sense.

    12.1.2008 14:33 #22

  • vinny13

    Wow $60!?

    Here most of them are like $25-$30... A lot of them are cheaper then the HD-DVD prices lol

    12.1.2008 14:36 #23

  • vinny13

    Quote:Originally posted by vinny13: I don't really think that downloading or recording and watching will take over because what if you get all of these movies and then your HDD dies? That's a little too frustrating, where as with discs as long as you don't scratch them up and whatever they should be ok. It'll be discs until they can find a way to keep these methods more reliable for a longer period of time...
    Let me count the HDD "deaths" I've experienced...zero. I've literally broken at least 4 discs into pieces (albeit one was on purpose, but the others just got stepped on, etc.)

    The only reason HDD recorders and things like solid state aren't taking over is because these companies don't want them to. The way I see it, that's the only reason you can't program a DVR just like a VCR. Instead you have to pay TiVo a monthly fee to do it for you, and that plain doesn't make sense.    I've just bought my first external and it's running great. I myself have never had any problems but if you just look around you see people who have lasted 3 months, some just over a year, some haven't experienced yet. Unlike HDDs, discs will last longer depending on how you take care of them, or at least more reliable in some people's cases. They're not gonna live if you leave them on the floor. Then you step on them :P

    Adding to your comment to the DVRs, they're just like VCRs. That's why they don't want them. VCRs were never supposed to happen. According to the movie industry back then they said with the recording ability ect. all the copying would ruin them. That is why you have to pay for TiVo. So you can have a virtual VCR and they can get their money.

    (+[PSP]%) = 3.52M33-4

    "I get no respect, I tell ya!"

    12.1.2008 14:46 #24

  • pomelo

    I think all companies should release on both formats and let the customer make their own choice on with one to buy.

    12.1.2008 18:53 #25

  • vinny13

    The consumer made their choice, right? They chose Blu-Ray... Right? It's been outselling HD-DVD for the past year. It's not like we were forced to. They could have chosen HD-DVD but Blu-Ray actually advertises... I haven't seen an HD-DVD add anywhere accept in a movie theatre commercial with Toshiba advertising a laptop with a HD-DVD player :P

    I really think if HD-DVD advertized its cheaper players and whatever they probably could have "won", but they didn't, which is really odd :S

    12.1.2008 19:09 #26

  • snowlock

    Originally posted by vinny13: I've just bought my first external and it's running great. I myself have never had any problems but if you just look around you see people who have lasted 3 months, some just over a year, some haven't experienced yet. Unlike HDDs, discs will last longer depending on how you take care of them, or at least more reliable in some people's cases.I'll give you that some are going to be more reliable than others, but I don't see drives dying as a possible widespread problem. I'd also say that hdd, just like discs, will probably last longer if you take better care of them.
    Then again, maybe I'm just biased by the anecdote that is my current hard drive. Treated like trash for at least 3 of its 6+ years, no problems yet. -knocks on wood-

    Originally posted by vinny13: I really think if HD-DVD advertized its cheaper players and whatever they probably could have "won", but they didn't, which is really odd :SThat's probably very true.
    Sony's the one with all the money for ridiculous ad campaigns, though. =P

    13.1.2008 05:40 #27

  • jove

    Originally posted by pomelo: I think all companies should release on both formats and let the customer make their own choice on with one to buy.no disrespect but that sounds incredibly naive, since the begining of time its never been like that. look up on wikipedia about the great american streetcar scandal. its not like people actually have a choice. its all money. otherwise there would be no corruption and bush wouldnt have won his first elections. many other examples could be used...

    13.1.2008 05:48 #28

  • DXR88

    Im just waiting for a magical hardware drm by sony. its coming mark my words. BD+ + HDCP = complete screw the consumer salution.

    ah just glad its almost over. cant wait to start cracking more bd+ DRM. as for hardware DRM its called a decipher chip its a EPRoM with hardware codes. it deciphers codes on the fly from your HDCPed TV to your drm crippled blu-ray box. an example would be for instance lets say the HDCP device im playing wants to decrypte those nasty BD+ codes that slysoft got rid of oops no go HDCP box cant decipher the codes cause theres nothing there. so i put in my magical BD+ codes into whats say a EEPRoM. bing bing bing it found the codes and now it plays. and if someone accomlishes on the fly code deciphering it dosent mater how many codes there are. or the bd+ disc spins backwords *cough* *cough* Gamecube.

    anyone remember how to flash nintendo cartdriges same concept deferent erea

    13.1.2008 22:04 #29

  • sciascia

    I saw a report on the ten o'clock news stating that Universal and Paramount are both switching to Blu-Ray exclusively. I don't know if they are just going off of rumors or if AfterDawn just hasn't updated us yet. The station's call letters are WPXI.

    13.1.2008 22:20 #30

  • hughjars

    Originally posted by sciascia: I saw a report on the ten o'clock news stating that Universal and Paramount are both switching to Blu-Ray exclusively. - Wrong.

    Universal & Paramount are both staying HD DVD.

    14.1.2008 09:49 #31

  • sciascia

    Quote:Originally posted by sciascia: I saw a report on the ten o'clock news stating that Universal and Paramount are both switching to Blu-Ray exclusively. - Wrong.

    Universal & Paramount are both staying HD DVD.    I never said I agree with the report, just that they reported it. They were probably going off of rumors from last week.

    14.1.2008 13:02 #32

  • hughjars

    sciascia don't take it personally, I wasn't making a negative comment aimed at you or anything; I was merely saying those reports are wrong.

    In fact quite the opposite is true.

    Today we have the begining of the fightback with Toshiba, Universal & Paramount launching reduced prices on their movies and hardware.

    14.1.2008 13:36 #33

  • vinny13

    Lol I went to Wal-Mart and asked why they had gotten cheaper just for fun and they're like,"It's a sell-out!" :P

    14.1.2008 17:17 #34

  • borhan9

    See i have said this once before and i will say it again. It all boils down to cost effectiveness. People are not going to put money in something that has no benefit for them and they do not see a return in for their investments.

    25.1.2008 17:20 #35

  • jove

    go on truth teller, tell us what really happened... oh and yeah how many billions is the world wide home entertainment market??? 150 million enough to make a difference? warner got payed? please tell us of all those conspiracy theories you know so much about... evil sony, drm! this and some more of that!

    26.1.2008 06:09 #36

  • alarson5

    Who cares! Honestly have you not compaired blu-ray to hd, who even uses hd, HD-dvd was EPIC fail! Read this article.

    http://blurayxp.wordpress.com/2009/05/31/hd-vs-blu-ray/

    Blu-ray dont even cost much more than dvd's now if you order them online from sites with big blu-ray deals like http://www.blue-ray-deals.com .

    I just dont understand the big fuss. As long as blu-ray lives on im ok with it.

    7.6.2009 14:32 #37

  • DXR88

    when someone digs up an ancient article to place spam in,you know your trying to hard.

    7.6.2009 19:06 #38

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