Direct-to-DVD Releases Shed Their Loser Label
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Once a dumping ground for movies considered virtually unwatchable, the direct-to-DVD pipeline is becoming increasingly important to mainstream film franchises.
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Electronics companies are at war over next-generation DVDs
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DVDs will be harder to pirate thanks to new copy protection measures by Macrovision.
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Warner Bros., the only major movie studio to release titles on both of the rival high-definition video disc formats, has decided to drop HD DVD and exclusively back Blu-ray Disc, it said Friday.The move could prove decisive in determining which of the two formats becomes the de facto DVD replacement for high-definition content. Currently, both formats are battling to secure a lead, but neither has managed to obtain a meaningful market share due to consumer indifference as a consequence of the battle. As a result, the market for high-definition movies has seen its growth stunted, and companies like Warner have lost potential sales.Warner said the decision was made in part as a response to this situation.&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.The move comes on the eve of the Consumer Electronics Show, which kicks off on Monday in Las Vegas, and is sure to light a fire under the HD DVD camp, which is chiefly backed by Toshiba and also includes Paramount, Universal, HBO Video, Microsoft, and Intel. The HD DVD Promotion Group has a previously scheduled news conference on Sunday, and the rival Blu-ray Disc group is scheduled to speak the following day.Companies from both sides of the format battle are expected to show their latest players and talk up their own formats during CES.Last year&#39;s CES saw the unveiling by Warner of a hybrid disc called Total HD. The disc attempted to break the format deadlock by offering one side compatible with HD DVD and the other side compatible with Blu-ray Disc. However, the disc never made it to market, and Warner gave up on the hybrid format later in 2007.
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Unphased by the recent string of bad news for HD DVD, the company has gone ahead with announcements for dual-format chips for combo players.
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U.S. DVD unit sales fell 4.5  percent in 2007, marking the first big year-over-year decline  for the category since the disc format debuted in 1997,  according to preliminary estimates released on Thursday.
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The company makes another move to compete against video on demand.
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HD DVD has recently faced some head wind in its struggle to become the high-definition successor to the DVD, but its supporters are playing an ace from their sleeve with the arrival of the first discs that take advantage of its players' built-in Internet connections.
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Players and discs using a new high-def format will appear soon--but will consumers make room for yet another combatant in the HD format wars?
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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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Warner Bros. Entertainment said Friday it will release movie discs only in the Blu-ray format, becoming the latest studio to reject the rival HD DVD technology and further complicating the high-definition landscape for consumers.
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Audiophiliac Steve Guttenberg ponders the imminent demise of HD DVD and looks back over a long history of defunct formats.
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HD DVD isn't dead, at least not quite. That leaves many options and potentially expensive mistakes for consumers.
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Backers of the Blu-ray high definition DVD system receive a twin boost in their format war with HD DVD.
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Through the murk and gloom of âThe Abandoned,â a mystery emerges: Why didnât this go straight to DVD?
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To promote the format where the DVD Forum fears to tread?
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With so many popular TV  series having run their course on DVD, it would seem the stock  of marketable programs is getting depleted.