HD DVD vs Blu-ray war winds down with the expiration of exclusivity for Universal
By Sean P. Aune
It appears that Universal’s exclusivity with HD DVD has expired with no renewal of the contract.
It has been confirmed by Variety that the Universal contract making them exclusive with HD DVD has indeed expired. Universal does not appear ready to pull up camp yet as they still have some promotional plans with them.
Variety is also furthering the rumor that Paramount has an escape clause in their contract to leave HD DVD should Warner Brothers do so. The status of what Paramount is doing seems to change daily, so no one is quite certain what the actual truth is at this point.
Things are looking more dismal at the HD DVD camp with each passing day, but Toshiba, the main company behind the format, is refusing to say that the war is over. And with the rumors of mass returns of HD DVD players since the news started to take a turn for the worst, one is uncertain who they would be selling content to, even if they had any to sell.
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Stumble It!
January 10th, 2008
Who will be the last holding the dead cat?
Which ever it is, Paramount or Universal, they will go down in history. Forever to be known as, “The Last to Jump the Sinking ship.”
The one with the LEAST amount of vision for the future.
January 10th, 2008
What sucks is HDDVD is the better format. It’s cheaper, has better in-movie features, and should win the war. It is unfortunate that Blu-ray will probably win.
January 11th, 2008
Reagan;
HD-DVD is cheaper to produce, but no cheaper in-stores. Both HD-DVD and Blu-Ray cost AUD$34.95 to AUD$49.95 regardless.
However, other than capacity, the features of the two formats are by and large quite similar, it’s more whether or not the company utilizes said features.
January 11th, 2008
quite a few of the new hd-dvd movies have utilized the features quite well. examples that come to mind are shrek 3 and 300. it really enhances the value of the disc. neat stuff.
January 11th, 2008
seems variety has a lot of rumors. why don’t they just wait and see what paramount and universal have to say instead of putting words in their mouth about what they should do- maybe that would be more reliable.
January 13th, 2008
I’ve seen this article about Universal and Paramount switching sides in the Hi Def war so many times in the last few days it could only mean one thing – Variety has been paid by Sony or proponents of Sony are desperate they’ll spew forth any propaganda they can think of.
One thing the experts have right and that is that this Hi Def war will be decided by the consumer and not some company still lamenting the loss of their marketshare in the personal audio market to Apple and trying ever so had to corner the DVD market by forcing consumers to opt for a higher priced format thereby ultimately making the choice for them.
January 14th, 2008
The last company to hold on will be Dreamworks. I think they have the longest contract with few escape clauses except for if hddvd fully dies. I could be wrong but i think that is the state.
January 14th, 2008
ok, i’m a moron and i missed the fact that dreamworks is a part of paramount. My bad.