Paramount, Dreamworks back HD DVD, drop Blu-ray

[TOK]

I noticed in that article that they're talking about Blue Ray discs selling more, not the players. The article I read was related to player sales. That would seem a bit more important to track in the long run, since its the hardware, and not the disc sales that is important in the long run.

[patrickl]

Well it kinda makes sense to assume that the sales of the Blu-Ray players overtook the HD-DVD players too. You could argue that only Blu-ray owners buy disks, but it does not sound very likely. If the BD vs HD market share was really 1:2 and they outsell 2:1 the Blu-ray people would have to buy 4 times the number of disks HD-DVD people buy.

I'd say it's pretty safe to assume that sales of the PS3 since November 2006 has had a serious impact on the HD-DVD vs Blu-Ray market shares.

[shmokes]

Disc sales is going to be an important variable because it will influence the studios behavior with regards to releasing titles.  If I'm Columbia Tristar and I don't want to go through the expense of creating and distributing two different HD versions of a new movie, I'm going to think long and hard about which version of disc is out-selling the other by a 2:1 margin.  Twice as many potential sales is a big deal to me.  The same goes for justifying rescanning older films for release in HD.  No reason to go through the expense unless there is profit to be made and as a movie distributor there is currently twice as much profit (all other things being equal, of course) to be made with BluRay  So if brisker sales of BluRay titles cause the library total available BluRay library to grow much bigger than HD-DVD, that is going to drive hardware sales.

[patrickl]

From Sony I can understand that they will only do Blu-Ray, but Paramount is not owned by one of the HD-DVD manufacturers is it?

The rationale for the decision given in the article is:

Standalone HD DVD players have a bigger slice of the market than Blu-ray players. But when you count Sony's PlayStation 3 game console, which comes with a Blu-ray drive, there are more Blu-ray players in U.S. homes.

Rob Moore, president of Paramount Worldwide Distribution, said market data shows that people who own gaming consoles buy fewer movies than those who invest in a movie-only player.

Yet apparently more Blu-Ray disks are sold? wtf?

:edit: I found some rumours that maybe they (Paramount and Dreamworks) were "paid" $150 million (#50 for Paramount and $100 for Dreamworks) to pledge allegiance to HD-DVD. UPDATE: Desperation Move & Cash Grab? Or Bloodier Blu-ray/HD-DVD Format War?

Note how there's no mention of the money Paramount (I'm told $50 million) and DreamWorks Animation (I'm told $100 million) is receiving for "promotional consideration" from the HD DVD side to continue with what is widely recognized as the losing high-def format

[ChadTower]

Wrong Divx.  You're talking about DivX compression, they're talking about the disc format DIVX (Digital Video Express) that was circuit city's attempt to create a new video rental avenue.  Basically, you'd "buy" a movie for $4 and could watch it for 24hours.  then, each subsequent viewing it would cost them $3.25.  The players were essentially dvd players with "phone home" capabilities, and would check with the central server to get your authentication.  Much like payperview.  The first players didn't even play regular non DIVX dvd's, but the later ones did.

It died a terrible death....

[boykster]

wow, funny, very obscure, find 

[ChadTower]