Disney Sides With The Blu-ray Disc Assocation
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The Blu-ray Disc Association (BDA) today announced that The Walt Disney Company will become a member of the Board of Directors of the BDA, and will begin releasing content non-exclusively in the Blu-ray Disc format when Blu-ray hardware launches in North
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InfoWorld - Under a licensing agreement in its final stages, consumers may get the right to make several legal copies of HD DVD and Blu-ray Disc movies they&#39;ve purchased, a concession by the movie industry that may quell criticism that DRM (digital rights management) technologies are too restrictive.
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Not following Warner Hollywood-based Paramount Studios has denied claims that it will be dropping the HD DVD format and returning to Blu-ray Disc.â¦
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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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Walt Disney Co. said on Wednesday it would support the Blu-ray standard for next-generation DVDs backed by Sony Corp., but kept open its options for a rival format championed by Toshiba Corp.
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Movie rental giant says it sees a clear enough trend among its customers to pinpoint Blu-ray as its format of choice, adding clarification to the DVD wars.
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A HARDWARE from the Land of the Rising Sun, JVC, has signed up to the Blu-ray format and joined the Blu-ray Disc Association. Although the public commitment to the next generation DVD standard is new, JVC
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The Walt Disney Co. said Wednesday it will release its movies and other content in the Blu-Ray format, one of the two major contenders for next-generation DVDs that will deliver high-definition images to TV sets.
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Wal-Mart Stores Inc has decided to  exclusively sell high-definition DVDs in the Blu-Ray format,  dealing what could be a crippling blow to the rival HD DVD  technology backed by Toshiba Corp.
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A licensing agreement currently in the final stages of negotiation may provide consumers with the right to legally make copies of HD DVD and Blu-ray Disc movies they've purchased. Such an arrangement would address a primary concern of DRM critics, who argue that consumers deserve the right to create backups without being accused of piracy.
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JVC has joined the Blu-ray Disc Association (BDA), the group responsible for promoting the Blu-ray Disc optical disc format. The medium is being positioned as a successor
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The battle for supremacy in the realm of the next-generation DVD heated up Thursday as The Walt Disney Co. announced that it will distribute its features on the Blu-ray format.
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The Walt Disney Company and its home video division, Buena Vista Home Entertainment, said yesterday that they would release films in the next-generation high-definition DVD format being developed
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BURBANK, CALIF: The Walt Disney Co. will back the high-definition Blu-ray disc developed by Sony over a competing HD DVD format, setting in place a high-stakes battle between Hollywoodâs leading studios with only one format likely to survive.
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THE fight over what&#39;s going to replace your DVDs has heated up as three major movie studios announce support for one of two competing next-generation formats.
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It's clearly a blow, but retailers were divided on whether the move actually amounted to a death knell to the format, which is battling Blu-Ray.
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The Walt Disney Co. will back the high-definition Blu-ray disc developed by Sony over a competing HD DVD format, setting in place a high-stakes battle between Hollywood&#39;s