Those of you Blu-Ray people can address your thank-you notes here: mike@amikelife.com. I will accept any kind of donation you feel is appropriate, whether it be monetary or even free Blu-Ray stuff.
I’m just curious whether or not my new 11-disc collection of HD-DVD coasters can get more than a buck or two on Ebay.
Alright, maybe it’s not that serious, but yeah, I think it is. Let’s start off with a list of events that led to this:
- Mike wants a high-def player, but waits like a year to see where things go
- Mike sees HD-DVD sales going nuts and their prices finalling
- Mike loses patience, sells his 360 and gets a sweet HD-DVD player in December that comes with sweet free HD-DVDs
- Immediately news appears all over that despite the high sales, Blu-Ray is still winning
- Rumors pop up that Warner is going to go ALL Blu-Ray
- Warner denies rumors
- Warner announces January 4th that it’s going ALL Blu-Ray
- Mike cries
Point number 3 above is what you need to be thankful over. I truly believe that my decision to go ahead and purchase the HD-DVD player was the catalyst.
By now you may be asking what the heck this blog post is in reference to, so here it is.
Out of nowhere today, Warner Brothers issued an official press release that starts off something like this:
(January 4, 2008 – Burbank, CA) – 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.
I never read the rest of it…the tears clouded my vision. I love the little logo made by EngadgetHD today, it’s like a slap in the face:
Basically, before this announcement, the studios supporting both formats was kind of at a dead heat. You had Sony, Disney and Fox in the Blu-Ray corner, while Universal, Viacom and Warner were backing HD-DVD.
Well, come May 2008, Warner’s slide over to the Blu-Ray group seems like it could probably be the move that could eventually end the format war.
Toshiba, the chief-supporter of HD-DVD was shocked today and issued their own press release, and here’s an excerpt:
TOKYO, Jan. 4 /PRNewswire/ — Toshiba is quite surprised by Warner Bros.’ decision to abandon HD DVD in favor of Blu-ray, despite the fact that there are various contracts in place between our companies concerning the support of HD DVD. As central members of the DVD Forum, we have long maintained a close partnership with Warner Bros. We worked closely together to help standardize the first-generation DVD format as well as to define and shape HD DVD as its next-generation successor.
Well, it looks like Warner saw something that maybe I should have seen if I had looked a bit closer before pulling the trigger on the great offer Amazon.com had going.
Either way, it will be interesting to see the fall-out from this in the coming days and weeks. I’m really not as upset as I thought I’d be…mainly because this stuff just happens and it was fun to be a part of it, no matter what side I was on.
Besides, I have a follow-up blog to this on that kind of makes me wonder if the high-def DVD war has taken so long that it ended up killing itself.
Sorry Mike – who ever thought that Red could make you Blu?
You should write greeting cards…
“Red could make you Blu…”
“Blu-raycism…”
[...] About “We may look all exotic, but we’re just two Goths from Louisville.” – Kynt from The Amazing Race « Warner chooses Blu-Ray, Toshiba is shocked, Mike is getting upset [...]
Thanks – I’ll take that as a compliment.
And now…wait for it…New Line is following big sister Warner Bros. lead and has announced that they are moving to Blu-ray exclusivity as well.
http://www.blu-ray.com/news/?id=808
I wrote this back in early December, but thought it fitting for you now.
Sung to the tune of Elvis Presley’s Only You
Only blu
Can make all this world seem right,
Only blu
Can make the darkness bright,
Only blu, and blu alone
Can thrill me like you do
And do fill my heart with love for only blu.
Only blu
Can make all this change in me,
For it’s true
Blu’s my destiny.
When blu plays my film, I understand
The magic that you do,
Blu’s my dream come true,
My one and only blu.
Only blu
Can make all this change in me,
For it’s true
Blu’s my destiny.
When blu plays my film, I understand
The magic that you do,
Blu’s my dream come true,
My one and only blu.
Thank you, thank you very much….
A few words come to mind…like buttmunch, asshat…
[...] Line follows Warner Brothers After Warner Brothers declared to go exclusively Blu-Ray, it didn’t take long for New Line to follow. Looks like the end of the format war is [...]
Don’t worry, Mike. Just set that HD-DVD player next to your BetaMax and show them with pride!
I waited. Now I’m glad. Jason laughs. HAHAHA!
Jason A Clark’s last blog post..“The Bucket Listâ€? Poster and Trailer with Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman
Mike- follow these simple directions. Take HD DVD player, put back in box, print return invoice from Amazon, go to UPS store and ship HD DVD player back to Amazon. Take HD DVD’s and sell them on eBay. Problem solved and you’ll actually come out a little ahead.
PS -that’s what I did.
Scott’s last blog post..Assigned Reading; Esquire
Yeah, but you did it because you couldn’t get the sound to work
We’ll see…I still have HD-DVDs to watch and there are more out there…I’ll just wait until the combo drives come down in price.
You call it ‘sound not working’, I call it divine intervention.
Scott’s last blog post..Assigned Reading; Esquire
That’s for sure Scott
Divine intervention – classic!
…and what did the Cap’n tell ya? But nooooooooooo, ya had to keep the HD-DVD instead of taking it back…. =)
[...] let’s me tell you, for those of you lucky enough to be in the Blu-Ray camp, it looks like a great week to not be [...]
Yeah Ape there are more sources, heres another about the impending doom of HD-DVD
http://tech.yahoo.com/blogs/null/64393
Doesn’t matter, we’ll all be downloading movies in a year anyways!!!
@ Cap’n – yep, I’ve found a bunch more since asking the question, but I didn’t want to bury Mike’s blog with them. They are still inconclusive, but it looks like it just might happen at some point.
I think we really need a forum on this blog
Why? Just because Cap’n and the Trouser together have 100 comments and it’s only the 8th day of the month? Let’s not do anything rash…
Yay for forums!
haha
Pretty soon we’ll have to resort to one word comments just to gt the most!
If it was quality over quantity, Jason would win my vote!
I always knew I liked the Cap’n.
I’d have as many as you guys but it takes me longer to think of witty replies…
Yeah but ,ALL of yours are whitty, me, I’m a half-wit…. and ape… he’s a fast-wit, crimany 71 already!! Pretty soon MO’s gonna have to blog about your breakfast!
The technical term for that is “post-padding” Cap’n….
71…heck, that’s enough for a Twitter blog all by itself!
71 – that’s how old I am in dog years…
So….you’re 10?
Something like that…lol
Not so witty anymore huh Ape?
Jason, Twitter blog? Never have gotten into Twitter…
Just ‘cuz I don’t know what a Twitter is doesn’t mean I’ve lost my edge Olbinski.
I meant the dog years comment
woof
Thats ok, MO didnt get the Rumors reference…. =P
I’m not exactly a Twitter fan. 71 short comments is pretty much all a Twitter blog would have…they don’t make much sense to me.
An attempt to prolong the inevitable? http://www.engadget.com/2008/01/08/paramount-current-plan-is-to-support-the-hd-dvd-format-curre/
Not sure, but interesting.
Yeah, but like the article said, Warner denied the rumor that they’d switch and then a month later, they did it.
You never know.
Just trying to keep your spirits up.
I kind of just want it to end now
[...] going to HD-DVD, despite the rabid sales and price slashing at Christmas. But once Warner Brothers announced their choosing of Blu-Ray, that market share jumped to 93% for [...]
There always seems to be someone out there trying to capitalize on the name and music of Elvis Presley. Well it must work or they wouldn’t do it, but if you are a true Elvis fan than take a minute and visit Elvis Presley Movies.
Seems that they should have a better plan of marketing. Not too many places I see this talked about. Should have some big incentive.