Seriously. People with children do not want to spend $500 on a BD player so their kids can watch Peter Pan in High Definition. I would argue that a child wouldn't even notice a difference from a DVD or VHS or even if they could notice still wouldn't care for that matter. All they want is to be entertained. I find it hard to believe that parents are buying BR players and discs for Disney movies which leads to the idea that Disney being BR exclusive is not really that important.

Because the sell tons & tons of software.

Even if they don't release much, just the PERCEPTION of Disney support would be a huge boost.

They do have a lot of fun movies. Pirates is fun, Ratatouille is a great movie.

Sony on the other hand can take Ultraviolet, Are We There Yet and Little Man go into a corner and weep.

One of the reasons is that parents want to buy a format that they can also use for their children. If Parents find a lack of titles for their kids to watch on any given format, they may choose against it. Its not really IMPORTANT to have disney, but it certainly helps.

Disney is more than just animation.

Sin City
The Chronicles of Narnia
National Treasure
Pulp Fiction
Kill Bill
The Sixth Sense

just to name a few

There's nothing I want from them until Finding Nemo, but that's not until the fall of 2008 so I'm good for now.

Sony, just keeps on releasing major crap movies that no one cares about. Only their back catalog is interesting.

My kids are 9 and 7, can absolutely appreciate HD and still like Pixar and Disney movies.

We have HD-DVD so we aren't watching any right now (although we have seen several in HD on ABC).

It would help to have Disney on HD-DVD, but I chose it because the players and discs are cheaper and they will be the first to $149, which IMO is the key to winning this battle.

If I'm wrong, I'll buy Blu-Ray when it's $250. No biggie. No suicide attempts.

are You Forgetting The Pirates Of The Carribean Trilogy?

There's nothing I want from them until Finding Nemo
I second that thought immensely.

Disney is more than just animation.

Sin City
The Chronicles of Narnia
National Treasure
Pulp Fiction
Kill Bill
The Sixth Sense

just to name a few

Pirates of the Carribbean...

Pulp Fiction would be nice. So would Sin City. Two of my favorite movies of all time.

Plus you should give the kids more credit. This is a generation that grew up with PS2, iPod, the internet, etc. They probably know more about Hi-Def than their parents.

Pirates convinced me to buy a used PS3. I still prefer my XA2, and my reds outnumber my blus 3 to 1, but I would never have gone neutral if it weren't for Disney.

I find it hard to believe that parents are buying BR players and discs for Disney movies which leads to the idea that Disney being BR exclusive is not really that important.

1. Disney makes more than kids movies.
2. Disney sells a ton of software.
3. Most people's current collections (VHS, DVD, whatever) contain a ton of Disney stuff.

They are crucial, in my opinion.

It's all perception, the mind of the consumers.

In reality it's a non-issue, regardless of how many movies they release. Few, if any, avg consumers are going to buy the version that works in exactly one of the 6 players in the house. Works in the car? No. Works in the rec room? No Works in the kids room? No. Works in the Fisher Price "little princess DVD player & makeup case"? No.

= no sale

People with children do not want to spend $500 on a BD player so their kids can watch Peter Pan in High Definition.

Yeah..but as Paramount/Dreamworks realized they probably will spend <$200. :) Methinks Disney will have to swallow some crow eventually and concede BD was a bad decision (just like the much hated and ill-fated DIVX they championed.)

I have seriously contemplated buying Blu-Ray and going neutral simply for the Disney films. My wife LOVES Disney movies, and I enjoy them as well, especially Pixar. But seriously... how much better can a Pixar movie look? Up-converted on an A2, I can't imagine Finding Nemo is going to look noticably less clear than the Blu-Ray version. Many people use movies such as Cars to review how good an LCD tv is. When a Cars DVD is reference material, can the Blu-Ray really be that much better?

Also, with all the complaining from Blu-Ray people about why Paramount went HD-DVD exclusive, I think the answer to that complaint will come in November/December when everyone with a stand-alone Blu-Ray player will be S.O.L. with Profile 1.1. I don't think Paramount would want to make 1.1 discs, then realize people aren't buying them because they just realized their player won't fully work with it. I know that the movie will play, but won't there be Java problems with menus and some features won't even work. HD-DVD is ready to go, with no major changes in site. Obviously that is important to Paramount.

Lost

Disney's been by far the best exclusive Blu-ray studio thus far. AVC codec, 24-bit PCM audio, and most if not all of the DVD extras ported over. Plus only $34.95 list prices for day-and-date titles.

The HD-DVD format would be very lucky to have their support.

Obviously that is important to Paramount.

seems like $150,000,000 is too

Because the sell tons & tons of software.They aren't going to sell a ton of the software that is already out there on DVD. Pirates was proof of that.

Disney is more than just animation.

Sin City
The Chronicles of Narnia
National Treasure
Pulp Fiction
Kill Bill
The Sixth Sense

just to name a few

I would love to see National Treasure, Chronicles, & not to mention Pirates all on HD DVD!!!

Disney is a big deal and needs to go neutral.........IMO

Seriously. People with children do not want to spend $500 on a BD player so their kids can watch Peter Pan in High Definition. I would argue that a child wouldn't even notice a difference from a DVD or VHS or even if they could notice still wouldn't care for that matter. All they want is to be entertained. I find it hard to believe that parents are buying BR players and discs for Disney movies which leads to the idea that Disney being BR exclusive is not really that important.
If it was just animation, I would agree with you. Kids don't really care about HD. And if the parents are buying HD for their kids, well, they have too much money and should send some to me. :D

However, Disney includes Buena Vista, Touchstone Pictures, Mirimax, and Hollywood Pictures, all of which produce adult-oriented pictures. That's why Disney is important. Wikipedia lists a lot of the major titles for each of those studios, in case you need to convince yourself.

Walt Disney (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disney#Studio_Entertainment)

That's funny, because I have a child and actually considered the fact that Disney is on Blu-ray when I made my decision. Yes, I might not be J6P, but still. Knowing I can eventually show her Finding Nemo on a 106" screen makes me a happy man.

Three words:

_The Black Hole_.

(ok.. Maybe I covet some of the Pixar releases, and the classic Disney films like _Fantasia_ or _Snow White_...)

What comes to mind when I think about Disney. I think they are in the wrong camp for their main target audience. Families with 1 or more children might be attracted to buy the Disney offerings, no question. But those same families are notoriously short of money, so the lesser priced HD DVD players from WalMart etc. would be their choice of heart. Plus, combo discs might have some charm to them because they could use the disc with the DVD player in their family car to entertain their kids during a long trip, or in the DVD player of the childrens room, and on the other hand watch the HD side on the shiny new HD DVD player in the living room. On the other hand I don't want to figure out the trouble an average head of a family gets from the better half if he had to argue why he just spent $500 or more on a BD player...

I'd like to have some HD movies from Disney-- I've got two girls (3 and 1) and every so often I like to take their DVD collection and throw it in the XA2 and watch it with them.

Disney makes more thatn just kid movies--- would be great to see them go neutral.

Disney's been by far the best exclusive Blu-ray studio thus far. AVC codec, 24-bit PCM audio, and most if not all of the DVD extras ported over. Plus only $34.95 list prices for day-and-date titles.

Not if you're a Liar's Dice afficionado ;)


The HD-DVD format would be very lucky to have their support.

I dunno, I think Warner's done pretty well by HDDVD, combos notwithstanding. The Universal catalog releases have been a bit slim, but there's absolutely no complaints about the extras packed into Warner discs like _Enter the Dragon_ or _V for Vendetta_...

Disney's been by far the best exclusive Blu-ray studio thus far. AVC codec, 24-bit PCM audio, and most if not all of the DVD extras ported over. Plus only $34.95 list prices for day-and-date titles.

The HD-DVD format would be very lucky to have their support.
What parent is going to pony up $34.95 for movies that work in exactly one player again? Maybe some from AVS but the general public?

Pirates was proof = it will sell little.

And they can shove the PCM, I'll pass on that out dated non-compressed track thank you.

Disney has also been the most consistent at putting out quality HD releases.

Disney has also been the most consistent at putting out quality HD releases.

Again, I think Warner's been pretty darned good for HDDVD, and Universal's product is excellent (if they've been a bit stingy on extras for catalog releases, basically carrying over the DVD stuff and rearranging the initial menu). I guess it depends on your (or your kids') tastes.

And Warner was the good guys when DVD first started out, while Fox was the evil villain (and Disney was no great shakes either back then, you'd think Bill Hunt would have considered history before declaring allegiances)..

I have a list of 24 movies I want from Disney in HD and I could care less what format they choose to offer them in. Of course at the snails pace they are launching stuff from their vault, I will be dead by the time I receive number 6 of the 24!:mad:

I would argue that a child wouldn't even notice a difference from a DVD or VHS or even if they could notice still wouldn't care for that matter. All they want is to be entertained.

lol...I had to call my 9 year old boy over to read this entry. He said, "I know more about HD than him!" lol

Before we got the A2, he would always point out to him mom that she should not play movies in full screen, only widescreen. Now that we have gone HD, he does not like to watch movies in his bedroom. And everytime he watches a movie he points out the details to our 1 year old boy (not that he cares).

Believe me, if I still can't watch any of the Disney movies on HD DVD by Spring next year, we are getting a BR player.

are You Forgetting The Pirates Of The Carribean Trilogy?


I forgot Pirates of the Caribbean after the second movie.

Walt Disney Pictures
Touchstone Pictures
Hollywood Pictures
Miramax
Walt Disney Animation Studios
Pixar Animation Studios
ABC Studios
ESPN

Disney is insignificant. Dreamworks will release the Shrek trilogy soon.

Disney is insignificant. Dreamworks will release the Shrek trilogy soon.

Yes, and then what? Disney has a 70 year movie catalog, DreamWorks a bunch of B grade animated films (Shrek 1 and 2 (but not 3) excluded).

I think writing Disney off as insignificant is taking as biased a stance as some of the bluray supporters do. I probably have at least 40-50 titles from Disney companies, and I don't have any kids. As of now, the only reason I don't own any Disney HD stuff is because I'm not willing to shell out the price for the bluray players. Those hit the magic $250 mark for me, and I won't care what comes out on which format. If Disney hasn't gone neutral by them, I'll buy them on blu.

I buy all Pixar / Animated films on regular DVD. Some of the Miramax stuff however, I want in HD.

Even if they don't release much, just the PERCEPTION of Disney support would be a huge boost.

A huge boost?!?! More like nail in the coffin. If Disney, Fox or Warner go HD-DVD, this format war is over, period.

I hate Disney. I just can't stand anything Disney in any way shape or form. I am talking about Disney disney here, not their more adult oriented endevors that have brought us Pulp Fiction et al. However, I still F'n HATE Disney.

That said, you gotta be blind not to see how big they are are and how important they are to this little skirmish. Seriously, they are a huge deal, just because I despise them with every atom in my body doesn't mean other people do, or even should.

lol...I had to call my 9 year old boy over to read this entry. He said, "I know more about HD than him!" lol

Before we got the A2, he would always point out to him mom that she should not play movies in full screen, only widescreen. Now that we have gone HD, he does not like to watch movies in his bedroom. And everytime he watches a movie he points out the details to our 1 year old boy (not that he cares).

Believe me, if I still can't watch any of the Disney movies on HD DVD by Spring next year, we are getting a BR player.

Off topic, but I had to say something... My son was just born 6 weeks ago, and he damn well better be like that when he is 9, his dad sure is!!! :)

To OP: you cant just easily downplay the importance of Disney as a format supporter. Through their various arms and companies they hold a nice catalog, one of which I may remind you is 1982 mega-ton movie hit "Tron" :D, but back to subject anyone would be a fool to downplay them. However knowing how Disney is now run like any other corporation, they will see that they can make double the money if they were to support both formats. And if they ever do support both, then along with Warner Bros also going HD DVD exclusive, the war would be over. To me it looks like Sony's money is the only thing holding back Disney.

Tron in HD... <drool>

Uhhhhh, Uhhhhhh I don't have kids and never will and Disney is way big to me.
Had me going format neutral more than any other single thing.

Disney has a ton of clout, this may have been posted elsewhere in this forum, but a good example is the travelling Disney/Blu-ray kiosk. -----> http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/format-war/blu+rays-atomic-bomb-in-the-format-war-292391.php

Now if only HD-DVD would do the same, get into those malls and have people just see more of it!

That's funny, because I have a child and actually considered the fact that Disney is on Blu-ray when I made my decision. Yes, I might not be J6P, but still. Knowing I can eventually show her Finding Nemo on a 106" screen makes me a happy man.

I can show my son Finding Nemo now on my 115 inch screen and it looks fine. I don't have to wait for next year to see it and I don't have to pay $35 for the privlidge to own it. :-)

Seriously though. The only complaint I have with Disney BD is the stupid practice of forcing me to watch 20 minutes of trailers and bs. For the premimum price of the software, they can at least give me what I had with laserdisc. NO FORCED ADS!!!!!!

BTW, I like Disney.

I would love to see Disney on HD if only for Alice in Wonderland :) Forget Pirates...

A huge boost?!?! More like nail in the coffin. If Disney, Fox or Warner go HD-DVD, this format war is over, period.

Why isn't it over now? What's the difference between 2 exclusive studios or 3? If Universal alone were enough to keep the format war alive, why would Sony plus Fox or Disney lead to the instant death of Blu-Ray?

Cars and Ratatouille > Shrek 3.

There's no announcement of Shrek 1 and 2 on HD DVD. Might come, might not. Until it's announced, we can only hope. Certainly, would be better than Shrek 3.

just because I despise them with every atom in my body doesn't mean other people do, or even should.

thanks.. what a relief...

seems like $150,000,000 is too

This claim has been categorically denied by Microsoft, and none of the news articles that reported on it can actually reference a real source. Stop embarrassing yourself.

Disney is very important... Its one of the reason why I haven't purchase a HD DVD player yet. Of course there are other reasons, but Disney is indeed one of them. If they were to go neutral, I may just purchase a HD DVD player very very very soon.

Hmm, all I see on my DVD shelf is some Dimension and Miramax flicks, and that's Kevin Smith and Robert Rodriguez (well, with Taratino) movies including Sin City and From Dusk Til Dawn. That's it. Sin City would be cool, heck I'd do From Dusk Til Dawn too, still a cult classic for me.

But not a lot of my collection really about 5 out of 200, so I rather have Fox or MGM switch over.

Pirates of the Carribbean...

Part One of Pirates was Good but Parts 2 and 3 SUCKS MAJOR DONKY DINK. I fell asleep on both and glad I saw it on a, " friends " boot leg copy. Kids like it but People with a brain should stay away from CRAP like the Pirate trilogy. Stones turning into crabs that carry a friggin huge ass boat over the desert? The writer was on crack and so was Johnny Depp. (OVERATED ACTOR)

I love HD DVD but It would be awesome to get Disney and it's other companies Like Touchstone to make my library even bigger.

One of the reasons is that parents want to buy a format that they can also use for their children. If Parents find a lack of titles for their kids to watch on any given format, they may choose against it. Its not really IMPORTANT to have disney, but it certainly helps.
Can't they just buy the DVD and play it on their HD player?

Cars and Ratatouille > Shrek 3.

There's no announcement of Shrek 1 and 2 on HD DVD. Might come, might not. Until it's announced, we can only hope. Certainly, would be better than Shrek 3.

Do you think that Dreamworks is that stupid to leave BLURAY and not release it's major movies? Ratatouille was AWESOME but CARS SUCKED !!! Dreamworks has Animations like Over the Hedge, Wallace and Gromit, Flushed Away, Bee Movie, Madagascar, Shrek trilogy, Ants, Shark Tale and Kung Fu Panda (Coming Soon) !!! Disney would be great but HD DVD has good Animation coming out TOO !!!

You don't have to be a child to enjoy some of the classic Disney animation. In the short run it's not the end of the world to not have them, but my collection will not be complete without some of the disney classics.

Do you think that Dreamworks is that stupid to leave BLURAY and not release it's major movies? Ratatouille was AWESOME but CARS SUCKED !!! Dreamworks has Animations like Over the Hedge, Wallace and Gromit, Flushed Away, Bee Movie, Madagascar, Shrek trilogy, Ants, Shark Tale and Kung Fu Panda (Coming Soon) !!! Disney would be great but HD DVD has good Animation coming out TOO !!!

Most of the titles you've mentioned are mediocre at best. When it comes to animation (both hand-drawn and CGI), nothing and no-one beats Disney.

Actually, you want a real good reason why it'd be nice for Disney to go neutral? It'd make my wife happy :). Which then makes it easier, because I don't have to explain why she can't have that movie in HD.

Seriously. People with children do not want to spend $500 on a BD player so their kids can watch Peter Pan in High Definition. I would argue that a child wouldn't even notice a difference from a DVD or VHS or even if they could notice still wouldn't care for that matter. All they want is to be entertained. I find it hard to believe that parents are buying BR players and discs for Disney movies which leads to the idea that Disney being BR exclusive is not really that important.

There marketing has paid off, there Blu Add on some of there new releases is pretty cool.. Parents are buying into it now because now they have HDTV to view it on. Disney loves it when parents re-buy there movies.. ;) And yes it is important because I see families walking into stores together walking out with kids HD movies in there hand, the PS3 even had a task at getting these movies to parents. Well a 1-6 year old maybe might not even care.. But 7 and up look out.... ;)

Wallace and Gromit Rules !!! Don't get me wrong, I love Nemo and Ratatouille. Monsters INC, Cars, Blew chunks. I know that those are just Pixar titles. I'm a big Aladdin and Lion King Fan but what can I do other than pray to God that Disney would change their minds. Buying Bluray is in the distant future when they bring down their price. Till then Disney on DVD is still great upconverted for my Plasma. HD DVD RULES !!!

I am a big Disney fan, but I think Disney's impact on the hd-dvd blu-ray war has more of a mental impact than the real importance it had years ago when the studio decided to release their movies on sd-dvd. Most Disney affair looks very good on sd-dvd and I am sure most people (not me included) will be very happy for many years to come with the copies they now have. Most houses with children you walk into have all of the Disney animated movies on dvd, I don't see those parents rushing to the stores to buy those tittles again in HD even if they were available today. It will take years for Disney to re-release their strong catalog tittles in HD, Their support for either format won't be crucial, as a winner would have emerged by then.

It's one of the most instantly recognizable and prestigious names around. Probably 95 out a hundred random people have no idea who Lionsgate are but 100 would know Disney. Just their presence alone is a quality 'chess piece' as some say.

...But seriously... how much better can a Pixar movie look? Up-converted on an A2, I can't imagine Finding Nemo is going to look noticably less clear than the Blu-Ray version. Many people use movies such as Cars to review how good an LCD tv is. When a Cars DVD is reference material, can the Blu-Ray really be that much better?

You're kidding, right? ABC Network broadcasted Beauty and the Beast, Lion King, Aladdin, Monsters Inc, and Finding Nemo over the past 3 years. Macroblocking was noticeable (due to my local KABC/7 multicasting weather and news subchannels), and commercial interruptions bordered on insanity, but the difference was night and day between the NTSC DVD and ABC's 720p (ATSC) broadcast. Monsters Inc, especially -- Sully's fur never looked better!

I can only imagine what further improvement 1080p would bring over the 720p broadcast.

Disney is super-important for several reasons:

-Perception is worth plenty. Disney is synonymous with "entertainment for kids", no matter that there are plenty of other, often better, choices for children.

-In addition to their reputation as the top supplier of entertainment to children, or maybe directly because of it, there are huge numbers of rabid Disney fans who could have defined the term "fanboy" (or even more likely, "fangirl" :) ) years before it existed.

-Mix the two items above together, and you get plenty of adults who will buy Disney movies "for their kids" (and watch them even when the children are sleeping).

Lost

That would be nice. We can take comfort in the fact that MI:III and the upcoming Cloverfield/Cthulhu project are now HD DVD exclusive.

That's a nice JJ Abrams content advantage for HD DVD and we can probably add the new Star Trek series to that list if it gets going.