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January 8, 2008

business

Paramount rumored to follow Warner Brothers. Is HD DVD on the way out?

Posted Jan. 8, ’08, 11:10 AM PT by Aayush Arya
Category | Business

Blu-ray vs. HD DVDIn the ongoing war for market domination between the two HD formats, Warner Brothers’ decision to release its titles exclusively on Sony’s Blu-ray format delivered a huge blow to Toshiba, the owner of the HD DVD format. Blu-ray already commands around 70% of the Hollywood output right now and if the rumors are to be believed, Paramount’s impending decision to release its titles exclusively on Sony’s format might drive the proverbial nail in HD DVD’s coffin.

The Financial Times reports (free registration required) that Viacom, the parent company of Paramount Pictures, is supposed to have had a clause in its contract with Toshiba that gave it the freedom to choose Blu-ray over HD DVD in case Warner Brothers ever chose to do so.

If the report turns out to be true and Paramount chooses to side with Blu-ray on an exclusive basis, we will most probably see Dreamworks Animation accompany them because Paramount serves as the distributor of the latter’ films. As Sony has already scored the support of Walt Disney, 20th Century Fox, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and, most recently, Warner Brothers — Universal will then be the only major distributor that has not made a stand yet.

From where I stand, it looks like Blu-ray is going to emerge as the winner in these HD format wars and HD DVD might just have to go the way of Sony’s Betamax format in the 1980s. And in my expert professional opinion, we’re going to hear Steve Jobs get up on stage at Moscone West and talk about Blu-ray (Apple is on the Board of Directors of the Blue-ray Disc Association) a week from now. Let me know if someone dares to disagree with me.


5 Comments

Anonymous said:

I think that you hit the proverbial nail on the head. Apple is listed as one of the Blue-Ray supporting companies, so I would be extremely surprised if Steve Jobs doesn't have at least some tidbit of HD goodness in his keynote notes (Blue-Ray Apple TV anyone?).

January 8, 2008 12:58 PM
Goobimama said:

As sad as I am for Toshiba (is it really the 'owner' or merely a prime backer?) I'm glad that this format war is over. Still, I think it will last at least for another 4 years or so until HD DVD finally dies out...

January 8, 2008 1:40 PM
macbot said:

The way I understand it, the HD DVD hardware is essentially a Pentium 4 PC running some form of embedded Windows. Which is pretty silly when you think about it.

January 8, 2008 7:52 PM
Well Author Profile Page said:

Now that you mention it...

Could this be the time when Jobs announces that Super Drives will replace Combo drives on the low end machines and Blu-Ray will be standard on the machines that used to be Super Drive machines?

January 9, 2008 7:26 AM
Aayush Arya Author Profile Page said:

Oh, that's impossible. Blu-ray drives are far too expensive right now for Apple to include them on almost every Mac.

If it happens, then only the Mac Pro, 17-inch MacBook Pro and 24-inch iMac will be blessed with the Blu-ray option, in my humble opinion. :)

January 9, 2008 7:52 AM

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