Warner Bros. to Release Its High-Definition DVD Titles Exclusively on Blu-ray

[Shane]

In response to consumer demand, Warner Bros. Entertainment will release its high-definition DVD titles exclusively in the Blu-ray disc format beginning later this year, it was announced today by Barry Meyer, Chairman & CEO, Warner Bros. and Kevin Tsujihara, President, Warner Bros. Home Entertainment Group.

Warner Home Video will continue to release its titles in standard DVD format and Blu-ray. After a short window following their standard DVD and Blu-ray releases, all new titles will continue to be released in HD DVD until...

[url=http://www.hdtvmagazine.com/news/2008/01/warner_bros_to_release_its_high-definition_dvd_titles_exclusively_on_blu-ray.php]Read the Full Article[/url]

[DavidEC]

My main question being a HD-DVD supporter is:
Is this USA only as Warner's International groups has released a number of HD-DVD's that are not for sale in the USA to date or the USA release was delayed by close to six months such as "Harry Potter", which even has better features and reported better image than the USA release.
So will I still be able to import Warner HD-DVD's?
And what about China's HD-DVD/C which is reported to be the same format with a added region code to help crack down on piracy in China, but playable on all HD-DVD machines on the market now and 'Blu-Ray' is not even sold there.

Side Comment: Right now other than "Twister" from the announced "HD-DVD" from Warner I was not planning on purchasing from their studio any way.
Now future not announced releases I was looking forward to on HD-DVD were 'I AM LEGEND' and 'DARK KNIGHT' but those are close to six months to a year away.

--David

[richardarm]

["In response to consumer deman" ] Did the consumer deman they drop HD-DVD. What happens to the 1/2 million consumers with HD-DVD players. I guess they aren't going to be buying WB disks.

[film11]

Actually (given that 750,000 Hd-DVD players were sold as of 11/30), that number is probably closer to 1 million consumers. The Warners decision had nothing to do with "consumer demand."

[Shane]

Toshiba announced about an hour ago that there were now over a million dedicated HD DVD players sold across the various manufacturers.

I've seen a lot of rumors as to WB's reasons for abandoning HD DVD, but I will not report on them here until they are know facts.

The next few days will be interesting.

- Shane

[BobDiaz]

This is just a guess, but I'll bet that Blu-ray (Sony) paid WB big bucks to drop HD-DVD.

Even if I'm wrong, WB just screwed all the HD DVD owners.

Bob

[Shane]

Rumors abound: viewtopic.php?p=29863#29863

- Shane[/b]

[Richard]

This was shared with me by a friend and I found it hilarious. The author took the fall of Berlin, Hitlers Bunker, providing english sub-titles for this german language film twisting this into the fall of HD DVD instead. One heck of a job in my book deserving kudos for milking every scene to perfection. In fact if you know german there are a lot of parallels to what Hitler says in german and the HD DVD translation. My Dad who is familiar with the movie found it a hoot!

If you are still upset or sensitive over the format war then you might want to skip this. Those who are not vested in either format should find a good laugh and more. There is foul language.

HD DVD losing the High-Def War vs Blu Ray
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ywWfmRdOmJ0