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| Registered: March 13, 2007 | Reputation:  |  Posts: 1,911 |
| | Posted: | | | | Quote:
FEB. 28 | The March 4 releases Into the Wild and Things We Lost in the Fire will be Paramount Home Entertainment’s last titles in the HD DVD format, the studio confirmed.
The studio pulled the plug on the HD DVD versions of other titles that had been announced for the format, including DreamWorks Animation’s Bee Movie, due March 11, and Sweeney Todd, due April 1. Their standard DVD versions will come out as planned.
Paramount also has slated There Will Be Blood, starring Oscar-winning Daniel Day-Lewis, for standard DVD release on April 8. Online retail sites last week also listed the title as available in HD DVD, but that information has since been taken down.
The studio has not yet said what its first Blu-ray Disc releases will be.
Paramount last week said it would stop producing titles in HD DVD and switch to Blu-ray, after Toshiba announced its decision to stop marketing HD DVD hardware.
Earlier this week, DreamWorks CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg appeared committed to HD DVD, saying that what the studio would do about Bee Movie was Toshiba’s call. “We have a partnership with Toshiba and have an obligation to see this through,” he said. http://www.videobusiness.com/index.asp?layout=article&articleid=CA6536681&desc=topstoryQuote:
Paramount Home Entertainment will end its HD DVD releases with Things We Lost in Fire and Into the Wild on March 4, the studio confirmed Feb. 28.
Planned HD DVDs from the studio that will not be released include The Kite Runner, a re-release of The Jack Ryan Collection, and Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street.
It is not known what DreamWorks Animation SKG’s plans are for the scheduled March 11 HD DVD release of Bee Movie.
In total, Paramount released 42 HD DVDs, while DreamWorks has released 13, not including Bee Movie.
The last HD DVD release currently planned from a major studio is Twister, from Warner Home Video, in late May.
DreamWorks Animation CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg told Reuters news service Feb. 26 that his company was unsure of the movie’s HD DVD status.
“We said [to Toshiba], ‘we have a release coming up on ‘Bee Movie.’ What would you like us to do?” Katzenberg told Reuters, regarding the HD DVD exclusivity contract the studio has with Toshiba. http://www.homemediamagazine.com/news/html/breaking_article.cfm?sec_id=2&&article_ID=12199 | | | | Signature banned: Reason out of date... |
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| Registered: March 14, 2007 | | Posts: 1,338 |
| | Posted: | | | | just beat me to it again... kudos
Bill Hunt over at thedigitalbits is reporting that bee movie is indeed canceled on hd--dvd | | | | -JoN | | | | Last edited: by ruineddaydreams |
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| Registered: May 19, 2007 | | Reputation: | | Posts: 585 |
| | Posted: | | | | I guess this would explain Paramounts fire sale (sort of) price drop that I posted earlier. | | | "Rules are for the obedience of fools and the guidance of wise men" - Douglas Bader
"A common mistake that people make when trying to design something completely foolproof is to underestimate the ingenuity of complete fools." - Douglas Adams |
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| Registered: June 27, 2007 |  Posts: 2,049 |
| | Posted: | | | | That'a all really happening too fast. I honestly don't understand the companies. There still is money in hd-dvd. They sell a whole lot more with the cheap prices. They should come out fine. They sell at least 3 times as much as they did before (at least when it looks like that when you check the charts at amazon.de). And to produce an hd-dvd only cost about $1,5. So why not continue to produce HD-DVD's and make 'em a little cheaper. | | | | Check out my Youtube channel under https://www.youtube.com/user/alittleolder |
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| Registered: March 13, 2007 | | Reputation: |  Posts: 3,195 |
| | Posted: | | | | Yeah, but at this point it only hurts BD sales. You think people with both systems will buy the BD at regular price when we can get the same titles for half or less on HD DVD? Hence the quick switch to BD, it will force people to make the switch faster and make more money for the studios in the end. Also, it always costs more to produce in two formats (or three, as it is). | | | | First registered: February 15, 2002 | | | | Last edited: by Nexus the Sixth |
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| Registered: March 24, 2007 |  Posts: 240 |
| | Posted: | | | | Quoting Stephan.klose: Quote:
I honestly don't understand the companies. There still is money in hd-dvd.
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And to produce an hd-dvd only cost about $1,5. So why not continue to produce HD-DVD's and make 'em a little cheaper. It may be $1.50 to produce the disc, but with the exception of the Fish Tank disc you are also going to have to pay royalties, licence fees etc. for the content. So the total cost is a lot more then $1.50. Even if they can make some profit at $10 why would they want to when they can sell the DVD at $20? The only thing I don't understand is why the instant fire sale for HD DVD software in some locations (no fire sale in Canada, Transformers is still $34 at Futureshop, amazon.ca just started a 50% off sale.). Without the fire sales (if the price had stayed about equal with DVD) HD DVD may have just slowly faded like laser disc. With the fire sales HD DVD is DEAD, no one is going to make new content just so they can sell it at half the price of the DVD version. | | | | Tom. |
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| Registered: May 19, 2007 | Reputation:  | | Posts: 5,917 |
| | Posted: | | | | Quoting Patsa: Quote:
Yeah, but at this point it only hurts BD sales. You think people with both systems will buy the BD at regular price when we can get the same titles for half or less on HD DVD? I thought I would be able to take advantage of HD-DVD and it's currently slashed prices but I couldn't bring myself to do it - the fact I would be throwing the money away if my HD-DVD player dies weighed strongly because I predict that HD-DVD players are going to go WAY UP in price on the auction sites once they are no longer available through retailers. |
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| Registered: March 13, 2007 | | Reputation: | | Posts: 3,195 |
| | Posted: | | | | I doubt that happens. Are LD players that expensive today? | | | | First registered: February 15, 2002 |
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| Registered: March 13, 2007 | | Posts: 844 |
| | Posted: | | | | Quoting Patsa: Quote:
I doubt that happens. Are LD players that expensive today? I paid $35 for mine...including shipping...and it works great. |
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| Registered: March 13, 2007 | | Posts: 811 |
| | Posted: | | | | Quoting Stephan.klose: Quote:
That'a all really happening too fast. I honestly don't understand the companies. There still is money in hd-dvd. They sell a whole lot more with the cheap prices. They should come out fine. They sell at least 3 times as much as they did before (at least when it looks like that when you check the charts at amazon.de). And to produce an hd-dvd only cost about $1,5. So why not continue to produce HD-DVD's and make 'em a little cheaper. Exactly, and yet they cancel or withdraw a title like The Bee Movie that was sitting in the warehouse, and ready to ship !  |
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