Warner puts Blu-ray, HD DVD combo disc 'on hold'
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Studio insufficiently interested in 'glu-ray disc' Will Glu-ray Disc ever make it to market? It's certainly looking less likely that the Blu-ray and HD DVD single-disc combo product from Warner Home Video (WHV), dubbed TotalHD, is going to happen.â¦
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Here's a timeline of the format battle between HD DVD and Blu-ray Disc.
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Fears of a deteriorating U.S. economy  and falling DVD industry sales helped drive Warner Bros's  decision to back Sony's Blu-ray next generation DVD format  exclusively, a top executive told Reuters on Monday.
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The high-definition DVD format war has not been won, at least not in the minds of the retailers. Last week, Time Warner Inc's  Warner Bros studio said it would exclusively release high-definition DVDs in Blu-ray format instead of Toshiba Corp's  competing HD DVD technology.
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A three-layer HD DVD disc is still under development and hasn't been submitted to the standard's governing body despite some reports, Toshiba said today.
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While clearly a blow, retailers are divided on whether the move actually amounts to a death knell to the format, which is battling Blu-ray.
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A key Warner Bros. executive late yesterday blamed the state of the US economy for having driven its decision to back out of the HD DVD group and publish high-def movies on Blu-ray exclusively.
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General Electric Co's   Universal Pictures, one of a few studios using the Toshiba  Corp-backed  HD DVD format, said on Tuesday it will  switch to the rival Blu-ray format now that Toshiba has  officially pulled the plug on HD DVD.
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Warner Brothers is dumping HD DVD and going Blu-ray exclusively. Does this spell the end of the format war?
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As the skirmish between Blu-ray and HD DVD drags on, with Blu-ray gaining more momentum from movie industry supporters, you should continue to be patient and wait -- not for Blu-ray, but for systems that can store video-on-demand movies and TV on spinning disk and flash memory.
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The Blu-ray format has gained the upper hand in the battle for next-generation DVD supremacy, Japanese press said Sunday, after Warner Bros. said it would only support the technology developed by Sony.
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Total HD release slides? Warner Home Video may not release dual-format HD DVD/Blu-ray Disc media - launched in January this year under the Total HD brand - until 2008 and not late 2007 as originally planned.â¦
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The online movie rental service's choice to go exclusively Blu-ray doesn't bode well for the embattled HD DVD format.
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The DVD Format war continues as Disney gave their support for the Blu-ray format without ruling out possibilities on the HD DVD format discs.
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The decision by&#160;Warner Bros. to drop HD DVD in favor of Blu-ray Disc&#160;for high-definition movies has set the electronics industry abuzz. Announced on the eve of the Consumer Electronics Show, the move put a single question in the minds of thousands of industry-insiders heading to the show in Las Vegas: Could the high-definition format wars be over?Since both formats launched they have been locked in a battle that pitted some of the industry&#39;s biggest consumer electronics companies against each other. Backing Blu-ray Disc has been Sony, Panasonic and Samsung, while HD DVD&#39;s main supporters have been Toshiba, Microsoft and Intel.The battle also divided Hollywood and left consumers with a difficult choice: their favorite movies were likely split between the two formats and there was a risk the player they bought would become irrelevant. As a result consumers kept away from the formats and sales have been sluggish.Warner&#39;s decision will give Blu-ray Disc an advantage in terms of content. With the move, five of the big seven Hollywood studios now back Blu-ray Disc with only two, Paramount and Universal, backing HD DVD.The Warner announcement certainly put the HD DVD Promotion Group&#39;s CES plans in disarray. Within hours of the announcement, the group cancelled its scheduled Sunday-evening news conference and subsequent media interviews at CES.&quot;They&#39;re definitely regrouping and considering their options at the moment, this could be extremely important,&quot; said Tom Coughlin, a storage analyst at Coughlin Associates. &quot;This could be the beginning of a major pivotal turning point in the high-def format war, which if we could define the format which is going to win would be extremely important for the industry because this would free up consumers to start making decisions on the purchase of their systems.&quot;Better sales would help consumer electronics manufacturers increase production and that would in turn lead to lower prices, said Coughlin. Those lower prices would then lead to better sales and that would help the entire industry, he said.Warner touched on the format battle&#39;s impact on the consumer electronics industry in a statement announcing its move.&quot;A two-format landscape has led to consumer confusion and indifference toward high definition, which has kept the technology from reaching mass adoption and becoming the important revenue stream that it can be for the industry,&quot; said Kevin Tsujihara, president of Warner&#39;s home entertainment group in a statement.Whether or not the fight is really over remains to be seen.Toshiba said it was &quot;quite surprised&quot; by the announcement from Warner &quot;despite the fact that there are various contracts in place between our companies concerning the support of HD DVD.&quot;&quot;We will assess the potential impact of this announcement with the other HD DVD partner companies and evaluate potential next steps. We remain firm in our belief that HD DVD is the format best suited to the wants and needs of the consumer,&quot; Toshiba said in a statement.For some, the Warner decision marks the end of the format battle.&quot;I think the war is over. HD DVD has lost. It really is game-over for Toshiba and the other vendors,&quot; said Robin Harris, an analyst with Data Mobility Group. &quot;The basic issue is not technology. It&#39;s about distribution, it&#39;s about marketing, it&#39;s about content and Blu-ray has been winning the content war for sometime. I don&#39;t know why [Toshiba] keeps pouring money into it, it&#39;s time to stop.&quot;Harris credited Sony&#39;s inclusion of Blu-ray Disc in the PlayStation 3 with being one of the instrumental moves in winning the fight for Blu-ray Disc.&quot;I think Sony&#39;s brilliant move and one of the few they have made in this effort is putting Blu-ray into PS3,&quot; he said. &quot;Even though PS3 hasn&#39;t sold so well in the console wars, in terms of being a platform for Blu-ray distribution it&#39;s been a success for them and I think that&#39;s what really put Blu-ray over the top.&quot;The praise comes as Sony has finally started to see PlayStation 3 sales pick-up after a year of sluggish sales. Ironically the company has been often criticized by analysts and the media for the inclusion of Blu-ray Disc in the device as that contributed to a high price that put many consumers off buying the high-def games console.&#160;
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Blu-ray and HD DVD -- will be costly to everyone concerned, analysts say. The availability of two rival formats will raise prices and confuse consumers.
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Once the backer of both high-def DVD formats, Warner Bros. is now exclusively backing Blu-ray Disc. Warner Bros. is Hollywood's biggest seller of DVDs, representing about 18% to 20% of sales in the United States.