If the format war is truly accepted as over soon, can we expect to see a more robust release schedule from studios on Blu-ray?

I'm hoping Warner wasn't just peeling $500 mil of Blu-ray because they surmised a bird in the hand was worth more than royalties it would have received had it stuck with HD DVD. It's possible that taking the money up front is a "no-confidence" vote on HDM in general. Likewise did FOX take the check because they wanted BD+ or nothing, and since BD+ is problematic they chose nothing (with another BDA check)?

Also, is there enough motivation given HDMs slow sales for Universal and Paramount to change their spots to stripes, and crank out BD? If the BDA was arificially lowering the price of pressing on BD, will they still do so?

My hope was that even though it wasn't my format of choice that will remain standing, that the war's end would just naturally move things along and get more product out there, but I can also see arguments for why we might see less, or no more than we have. I think how many releases we see now on Blu-ray will be the only test of the studios sincerity.

I predict that 2008 will still be uber-slow/light, but that we'll start seeing more releases in mid-2009 or so.

The release schedule is SUCKING right now for sure, especially since I'm abstaining from Fox's high prices on catalog titles.

I don't see how anyone can surmise that releases will be light.

It doesn't seem like a banner year for new releases to me, so perhaps studios will open the catalog floodgates to compensate.

I usually expect spring to be slow, but when I heard that their was one Disney title I wanted, and not until October, I was pretty put off.

Nope, actually blu ray group will stop releasing movies because war is over and they will effectively raise all current players prices by 200%.

I don't see how anyone can surmise that releases will be light.

It doesn't seem like a banner year for new releases to me, so perhaps studios will open the catalog floodgates to compensate.

Nothing would give me greater pleasure, but they could also sit on their hands until 1.1 is the norm. I suspect Disney's SLEEPING BEAUTY is pushed til fall more because of profiles than any other reason.

I'd rather they take their time and get the HD transfer done properly with the best possible PQ/SQ than release a bunch of stuff with half-baked encodes (a la Universal releases in 2007).

about the same unless hardware sales significantly increase.

about the same unless hardware sales significantly increase.

Yep, I agree..

Nothing would give me greater pleasure, but they could also sit on their hands until 1.1 is the norm. I suspect Disney's SLEEPING BEAUTY is pushed til fall more because of profiles than any other reason.

I expect the first half of this year to be like the previous year, then once we hit 3Q, it will blow up, and by the time we hit 4Q, it will be just too many good movies for any movie lover to handle. LOTR, Se7en, Heat, Indys, Pulp Fiction, Contact and SO MUCH MORE. New line is really going to surprise us IMHO, they are going to really push Blu-Ray to the limit. If Shoot Em Up is any indication, anyway.

My hope is that Universal will now go Blu and not just wash their hands of HD media, if people think the war slowed growth, Universal saying "disks are dead, downloads are in" is gonna really kill it.

I think 2008 will be a transition year as Universal and Paramount move towards BD. I expect Q4 to be huge though. 2009 will be the year where we see some huge catalog releases IMHO.

Q1 2007 Blu-ray releases: 72
Q2 2008 Blu-ray releases: 70 confirmed, more expected

Looks like as much or more content to me.

Q1 2007 Blu-ray releases: 72
Q2 2008 Blu-ray releases: 70 confirmed, more expected

Looks like as much or more content to me.

As long as they aren't FOX titles, they have a way of hiding.

Unless Paramount and/or Universal go blu relatively soon, I don't really see content changing much. Not a big enough customer base yet. We'll get lots of promises, we'll have to see what's actually delivered.
J

More, of course. Volume will increase and prices will drop and small-volume titles will become financially viable. Not immediately, but soon enough.

Well there better be greater releases not lesser otherwise they'll get a significant backlash. Imagine, once HD DVD is permanently put out of its misery that the Blu Ray studios release less content. That would not sit well with many adopters and is a sure fire way to burn your bridges and make it appear that all the propaganda about one format was just macho talk.

I think we will plod along until Q4, when we will have a slew of releases from all the studios on blu-ray.

Well there better be greater releases not lesser otherwise they'll get a significant backlash. Imagine, once HD DVD is permanently put out of its misery that the Blu Ray studios release less content. That would not sit well with many adopters and is a sure fire way to burn your bridges and make it appear that all the propaganda about one format was just macho talk.

I'm sure Warner's move "didn't sit well" with a good sized chunk of adopters.;)

I think it's pretty clear the studios don't act in a way that suggests they owe us anything. My hope is that they still have plans for Blu-ray, and didn't just take a bunch of checks so they can only kick out a handful of high-profile day and adte titles, and then dump the works claiming there was never enough interest in a few years.