In what could be a telling moment in the high definition format war, a high level executive from a major movie studio has publicly come out in favour of the HD DVD format, developed by Toshiba and backed by Microsoft.

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Comments supporting HD DVD last week by Craig Kornblau, president of Universal Studios Home Entertainment, at the electronics design show CEDIA EXPO 2006, have dealt a serious a blow to the Blue-ray camp, led by Sony.

“The reviews are in and HD DVD is hands down the leader in picture quality, audio experiences and interactive capabilities that have never been seen before,” said Kornblau.

“Look at the blogs, look at the reviews by the early adopters and even look at the mainstream media – HD DVD has maintained its first-to-market advantage and delivered on the promises of providing the best high definition image and sound quality at the best value for consumers today. Take today’s announcement of new players from Toshiba, new PC hardware from Niveus and new titles like ‘The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift,’ and add the hardware and movies that are coming this Fall and you can see why HD DVD is poised for a strong holiday.”

According to the the North American HD DVD Promotion Group, with more than 60 of the latest titles available from major studios, HD DVD offers the most titles of any high definition format, with nearly 150 titles expected by the end of 2006.

Originally, nearly all the major studios lined up behind the Blu-ray format.

However, HD DVD now has the backing of Universal Studios Home Entertainment, Warner Home Video, Paramount Pictures Home Entertainment, HBO, New Line Home Entertainment and The Weinstein Company.

Meanwhile, the higher priced Blu-ray format, which was later to market, received a serious set-back two weeks ago. Sony announced that the production of its PlayStation 3 games console, which will offer a way for consumers to get a lower priced Blu-ray player, has been delayed by four months.

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Universal, Warner, Paramount and New Line are the biggest movie producing companies. What heppens if they choose HD-DVD in favour of Blu-Ray?

Well.....Shit happens all the time!!!

I dont quite get it, so this are news why??? Universal has always been in the HD-DVD side as Paramount and Warner Bros. wich later joined the Blu-Ray side, its not like HD-DVD has been peeling away studio support from Blu-Ray, quite the reverse, rigth now Blu-Ray has the uper hand in support

ORIGINAL: fernandino

I dont quite get it, so this are news why??? Universal has always been in the HD-DVD side as Paramount and Warner Bros. wich later joined the Blu-Ray side, its not like HD-DVD has been peeling away studio support from Blu-Ray, quite the reverse, rigth now Blu-Ray has the uper hand in support

Ofcourse Universal has always backed HD-DVD but with faith in Sony' s format being lost as well as the current diode shortage (which obviously affects both companies), Blu-Rays future isn' t looking pretty.

This is in the news, so it gets posted.

What happens if Warner, Paramount and New Line decide Blu-Ray isn' t worth supporting and release exclusively on HD-DVD?!

rigth now Blu-Ray has the uper hand in support

I hope you can explain exactly what you' re talking about...

Nothing important actually - check those WISE comments below the original story :

The statement that " originally, nearly all the major studios lined
up behind Blu-ray" is incorrect. It is the Blu-ray format that has been peeling away studio support from HD DVD, not the other way around. Universal has always been an HD DVD-exclusive studio. This latest statement by them is not newsworthy. On the other hand, Warner Brothers (originally HD DVD exclusive), is now supporting Blu-ray. Paramount (originally HD DVD exclusive) is also now supporting Blu-ray.
Other major studios, such as Fox, Sony, MGM, Disney, and mini-major Lionsgate are Blu-ray-exclusive studios. A Universal death blow? Hardly.
???
Written by pheew on 2006-09-17 14:32:02
wtf.. slow news day in anti-sony land?

universal have been hd-dvd exclusive since day 1 and is the only studio that is so

HD-DVD:

Universal
Paramount
Warner Bros

Blu-ray:

Sony Pictures
Paramount
Warner Bros
MGM
Disney
20th Century Fox

basically hd-dvd got 50% support while blu-ray have 90% support

this is not news

This story is pretty stupid to post something like that.It is a mistake - they were HD DVD supporters right from the start.

ORIGINAL: Majikdra6on

What happens if Warner, Paramount and New Line decide Blu-Ray isn' t worth supporting and release exclusively on HD-DVD?!

rigth now Blu-Ray has the uper hand in support

I hope you can explain exactly what you' re talking about...

Well if Warner and Paramount decided to support only HD-DVD thoese would be news worth posting but until then

what meant was that rigth now SONY has an advantage in support from the hollywood studios.

Not true. Only Universal and The Weinstein Company were exclusively supporting HD-DVD. Warner Home Video, Paramount Pictures Home Entertainment, HBO and New Line Home Entertainment supported both formats " to give consumers an option" , but it' s well known that both Warner and Paramount (who were one of the first to support HD-DVD and who then backed off and moved into the Blu-Ray camp) previously favoured Sony' s format and have since changed their minds.

Sony' s bad publicity in the past 12 months hasn' t helped their situation.

I say FUCK this stupid war - I' m using DVDs untill one of them wins (I hope it' s HD DVD).

It' s just as bad as with those damn TVs (LCD killed plasma and now SED is going to kill everything) - it seems like all those technologies have expiration date of 2 years.

I know, it' s getting rediculous. The thing is, how can they expect people to buy these HD versions of movies when DVD' s are so cheap now?!

The money you would spend on buying either a HD-DVD movie or a Blu-Ray movie would obvioulsy be far better spent buying 5 normal DVD' s, ...wouldn' t it?!

ORIGINAL: ]GaNgStA[

I say Forget this stupid war - I' m using DVDs untill one of them wins (I hope it' s HD DVD).

It' s just as bad as with those damn TVs (LCD killed plasma and now SED is going to kill everything) - it seems like all those technologies have expiration date of 2 years.

I want hd-dvd to win to me it' s the natural progressor, I don' t mind blu-ray but I think they may still be in the experimental stages. However I haven' t been watching much dvd' s lately anyway so by the time things go down I might get back into it.

I know, it' s getting rediculous. The thing is, how can they expect people to buy these HD versions of movies when DVD' s are so cheap now?!

I know. I saw some pretty cheap stuff in hmv I think something like £5 a piece.

I too want HD DVD to win, namely becuase its main focus is affordability. Sure blu ray has the size advantage (well not against holographic media), but i' m pretty sure the general public want HD and they want it cheap so they can get more movies for their money.

BTW though HD DVD holds less its cheaper manufacturing costs IMHO could be the real draw card. They could release ' 2 HD DVD special edition' , with one disc for movies (1 HD DVD dual layer)and another for extras(1 HD DVD single layer) for the same price or even cheaper then a single blu ray disk. I know when i look for dvds i always look for the 2 (or more ) disc special edition boxed sets.

I mean think about it, if a customer sees 2 versions of the same movie, one blu ray and the other HD DVD, but the HD DVD says 2 disk special edition and cost slightly less which one do you think is more appealing to the general consumer?