Paramount Set to Drop HD DVD for Blu-ray

Tue Jan 8, 2008 10:54AM EST

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UPDATE: Paramount is denying the story.

How many "death blows" will it take for Blu-ray to finally win the format war against HD DVD? I've been hearing that phrase (and writing about it) since July 2007. Well here comes another one. Following in the footsteps of Warner Brothers' abandonment of the HD DVD format, reports are surfacing that Paramount is headed to Blu-ray as well.

This is huge news not just because it would leave just one major studio (Universal, plus the mini-major DreamWorks) producing HD DVD content. It would mark the first time in the high-def war that a studio has abandoned one exclusive format and switched to another. Warner was producing both HD DVD and Blu-ray discs and merely dropped the HD DVD ones. Paramount will have to switch entirely to Blu-ray, which it has not been producing up to now.

According to the Financial Times, Paramount has a clause in its contract with the HD DVD camp allowing it to switch to Blu-ray in the event that Warner was to do so. And exercising that clause is what's about to happen. It's also theorized that DreamWorks will follow Paramount, since the studios are closely tied together.

Nothing's been announced yet, but this should be wrapped up in fairly short order. Stay tuned.

LINK: Paramount in HD DVD blow

Comments on Paramount Set to Drop HD DVD for Blu-ray

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  • 66 Posted by gwhite_1 on Thu Sep 3, 2009 4:15PM EDT Report Abuse

    As some of the others have stated, I am waiting this media format battle out. Both HD-DVD and Blu-Ray will be history in 3-4 years. This is a step tier not a permanent format, So why build up an over price collection of disk that will be sitting with the 8 tracks collections in 5 years. Anyone remember the Laser Disk Albums, very expensive, quality way better then the VHS competition, but by the time the price came down for the masses it was obsolete. Wait for the cost effective solution to come its just a few years away. I will stay with my cheap and pretty darn good standard DVD for now and wait for the technology that will replace ALL disk players. That’s right disk are old technology no matter what format.

  • 67 Posted by gumpiegreen on Thu Sep 3, 2009 4:14PM EDT Report Abuse

    I'd be all for Blue-Ray if I could ever afford one!

  • 69 Posted by slippyfrog22 on Thu Sep 3, 2009 9:28PM EDT Report Abuse

    Haha, did I just read about a lawsuit? Was there a lawsuit when they changed format from VHS to DVD? Face it, this is business and all they want to do is make money. Besides, Blu-Ray had this thing wrapped up when they made it standard in a PS3.

  • 70 Posted by karilynn345 on Thu Sep 3, 2009 4:47PM EDT Report Abuse

    i spent alot of money on my hd player it converts my regular dvds into hd for my tv i see there is no difference in the quality n picture cause we have a ps3 also and a xbox 360 if u do this wuts gonna happen to us wit hd and our money is wasted bad move for u.

  • 71 Posted by merk782003 on Thu Sep 3, 2009 7:16PM EDT Report Abuse

    Well what did everyone expect Blu Ray was a Sony backed product it was bound to beat out the HD formatted DVD's that were backed by Toshiba. Unlike what happened with the failed betamax they are a much larger company with the financial backing to push thier product on the industry.

  • 72 Posted by jammypie1 on Thu Sep 3, 2009 4:28PM EDT Report Abuse

    The companies should be spending their money on advertising and not production companies. both HD formats have been out for a long time and the average consumer has not heard of either. By the time they get their act together we'll all be streaming movies online in high defintion anyways. For a playstation 3 to have high speed internet connection and HD capability, it's really pathetic that Sony would take the risk of manufacturing a more expensive DVD and worry about having hard inventory as opposed to exspanding the console's online capabilites which has been a huge trend in home entertainment over the last 3 years. Same for Xbox and Xbox which is even worse for microsoft that they would require consumers to buy an HD player exspansion when xbox live is already the prolific online gaming community.

  • 73 Posted by mcd7804 on Thu Sep 3, 2009 7:13PM EDT Report Abuse

    Who cares anyways. I love T.V and Movies, but this is ridiculous. Blue ray this and HD that. Have we really been so shadowed by the "capitalist pigs" (jazzman90405) that we have to go and buy this crap. No wonder we have so many problems in the U.S. Why don't we all boycott them and do I dare say it GO OUTSIDE and do something. No wonder there are so many fatties here. Get off your Blue Ray, HD TV, Video game playing A@#'S and do something, besides wishing and wanting to do what you see people do on T.V, Movies and Video Games. Oh wait that's just wishful thinking for the fatties out there that have a hard time putting anything on pause long enough to pry their fat AS@#'S off the couch and go to the bathroom. Stock tip of the century. Depends undergarments. Should be selling like crazy in the next few years.

  • 74 Posted by john_ksig95 on Thu Sep 3, 2009 4:39PM EDT Report Abuse

    PS3 will upconvert your standard DVDs to HD, and you can certainly find deals on Blu Ray discs. I think 300 was the only one I paid full retail for because of it's awesomeness. You can also use your PS3 for games out of the box (obviously) and the library is definitely growing each month. You can also use it to store music/videos/pictures for viewing on the t.v. which is nice when you have a group of people over (sorry you early picture slide adopters of the 50's...try a class action lawsuit perhaps??). Two other fun features that I haven't tried out yet are 1. you can stream video/pics/music wireless from you PC through your PS3 2. you can use your PSP handheld to remotely operate your PS3 so instead of lugging around a laptop on vacation to show pictures, you can use any wifi hotspot to remotely connect to the pics/video/music on your PS3. Lastly, while seriously lagging behind Macro$oft it's online is starting to come around.

  • 75 Posted by ulm_atms on Thu Sep 3, 2009 10:27PM EDT Report Abuse

    Um.... #1....what are your basis for your comment "my friends both have one and it is a great format." Are you meaning the picture format or actual techonology format? If picutre is your only concern, then both HD-DVD and BlueRay are 100% identical. The same encoding type, encoding bit rate, and, the same audio are on both BlueRay and HD-DVD. Interactive wise, the HD-DVD is up on the BlueRay but that is completely independent of the actual drive....that's just software on the unit. I'm willing to bet there won't even be a distinction in the next 6 months of the two. Now, for the techonology format, BlueRay is far superior to HD-DVD, abit more expensive, but hey, all new techonology starts out that way. HD-DVD basically used the same DVD techolonogies, ie cheaper startup, and crammed more data onto the same size disc. BlueRay, however, redesgined the disc to allow ALOT more data to be writen to the same surface area. The actual techonology is a little complicated to explain, but in a nut sheck the BlueRay disc can, at the moment, hold 2/3 more data then the HD-DVD player....Why is this important you ask? Well, who remember when everyone starting getting 10G hard disks and thinking.....wow, i'm never going to be able to use all of this space. Now we have people with terabytes of disk space. The story? MORE SPACE = MORE ROOM TO GROW before the technology must again be upgraded. This is where BlueRay shines. HD-DVD has enough space for standard HD 1080p videos. But wait a couple of years when UHD (Ultra High Def... 1080p) comes out. Now you have a techonology that can't handel the data requirements and you have to use something else...can we all say time to buy another player? With BlueRay, it has the extra head room to accomidate the techonologies on the horizon. Hope this helps clear some things up on the two techonologies.

  • 76 Posted by afleetfeet on Thu Sep 3, 2009 2:46PM EDT Report Abuse

    LOL. Just bought the cheapest HDDVD player I could find ($249). But who gives a rat's tail. With Netflix preparing to offer on-demand video, BR and HD will be dinosaurs in a couple of years.

  • 77 Posted by sharpbj on Thu Sep 3, 2009 9:17PM EDT Report Abuse

    But everything that I’ve read shows that movies on HD DVD look far better than those on Blue Ray DVD. It’s all about the money and big brother Sony than it is about the consumer and quality. FIGURES!! They’re losing their a$$es on the PS3, where as Microsoft is blowing up servers from all their new XBOX LIVE customers, so they(SONY) decide to put their efforts in owning a dvd format that their little game box happens to support.

  • 78 Posted by cardman51 on Thu Sep 3, 2009 3:18PM EDT Report Abuse

    blu ray players can play standard format dvds in fact they up convert the quality

  • 79 Posted by leonmexgerber on Thu Sep 3, 2009 6:49PM EDT Report Abuse

    I just read Pogue that the last sales figures switched to favor HD over Blu Ray. Now who can understand this? If this happens I will remain with regular DVD as long as possible and many people will do the same.

  • 80 Posted by prettylittlelexi on Thu Sep 3, 2009 8:18PM EDT Report Abuse

    I have a PS3, and it plays regular DVDs, HD, and Blu-ray. I got it for the games, but the the dvd/hd/blu-ray feature is awesome! :) And you can totally see the difference between the blu-ray and plain HD dvds. I am glad that they are going to go to blu-ray, because there are a lot of movies that I would like to see, and I prefer to watch them with the quality of blu-ray. Bring it on!!! :)

  • 81 Posted by blizzted71 on Thu Sep 3, 2009 3:09PM EDT Report Abuse

    Well i waited long and did tons of research before i bought my player(or in my case ps3) And i am so glad i did my brother-in-law tried to convince me into hd-dvd on the xbox i opted to go for the blue ray running with an hdmi cable in 1080p the picture looks great i am more than happy plus i gota game system to boot...Go Sony

  • 82 Posted by williamrohrabaugh on Thu Sep 3, 2009 10:46PM EDT Report Abuse

    wat the heck are you people talking about.will any of this bother my rabbit ears.

  • 83 Posted by coy_damon on Thu Sep 3, 2009 3:30PM EDT Report Abuse

    How can you have a class action law suit? Where was it even implied that there would always be HD-DVDs? We all knew the risk. You can't have capitalism AND class action law suits of this nature. Besides, the only winners in class action law suits are the attorneys. Even if HD-DVD won a suit, the most you might get is a $2 coupon off of a Blu-Ray disc. The only hope for HD-DVD is the adult video business. Fans of adult videos didn't have the internet when VHS won over beta because of adult VHS videos. Besides, you can still get regular adult DVDs. A person has a serious problem if they have ever watched a regular adult video DVD and thought, 'This isn't enough for me, I need this in HD or Blu-Ray'. Once Blu-Ray has driven the last nail in HD-DVD's coffin, Blu-Ray will be used in the adult industry too. HD-DVD should have invested all those millions in saving themselves by heavily discounting HD-DVD players. Now it's too late.

  • 84 Posted by mendocenter55 on Thu Sep 3, 2009 7:16PM EDT Report Abuse

    The only factor that should ever influence anyone is which format are your favorite movies on. That is the reason why i chose HD DVD.If people wan to let Sony win and own the market completely on this( which it looks like thats whats being done) then so be it. I haven't really started my library yet and ill have to go by a PS3. And hidari_07, sony is backing blue ray because Sony owns and has developed blu ray.

  • 85 Posted by superdat2000 on Thu Sep 3, 2009 9:48PM EDT Report Abuse

    I find it funny that people are complaining about prices on the blu ray movies. Ive seen people claiming movies cost 40 dollars? no way. Right now there is a sale at bestbuy, if you buy any blu ray player, you get 5 free blu ray movies instantly and then 5 more free by way of mail in rebate. Its a great way to start off the collection and enjoy the HD quality

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