Universal going neutral ? (News from 9th May 2007)

[hassoon]

Oh god, great news.

I hope that:

- This doesn't turn out to be false

- This doesn't turn out to be a significant sign that the format war will be over in about six months

- If true, Universal will see the light and Blu-ray sales will prompt them to go neutral, maybe switch over completely altogether.

Quick, painless and merciful .

[Jiffylush]

Originally Posted by beatboy77

Jiffy,

The date of 9.5.07 is today's date in European standards. They do the day first, then the month, then the year. The article is from today.

~Josh

I know, the title made it look like they were announcing for september 5th, and I wanted to make sure everyone was clear.

[xolan99]

Looks like the HD DVD thread was removed?

[Stevie76]

The so called 100 movies from Universal on HD-DVD has to this date MOSTLY just been a lot of crap. Maybe they´re saving the good stuff for BD

[Zissou]

Originally Posted by xolan99

Looks like the HD DVD thread was removed?

Yep don't know why.

[JuKo]

Haha. Didn't take long when the avsformus censorship hit hard The thread is not anymore on HD DVD forum! You people should believe it's not allowed to post bad news about HD DVD!

[pkde]

The source is probably "heise online". Thus I would not reckon that it's the whole truth about the story.
They often forget to mention details, for instance, they wrote that all Blu-ray player would need a AACS key update, which was not the entire true, for only updates for software players were necessary.

[Wet1]

Originally Posted by xolan99

Looks like the HD DVD thread was removed?

You didn't think it would stay did you? If something doesn't look good for HD-DVD, it often goes bye-bye.

[Jiffylush]

Originally Posted by xolan99

Looks like the HD DVD thread was removed?

DELETED!

Yet for some reason there are tons of threads about the PS3 TrueHD/HD MA all over the place.

[krinkle]

Originally Posted by JuKo

Haha. Didn't take long when the avsformus censorship hit hard The thread is not anymore on HD DVD forum! You people should believe it's not allowed to post bad news about HD DVD!

Yep and you remember how the walmart rumor was posted all over the place here, and was less reputable.

[JuKo]

Originally Posted by krinkle

Yep and you remember how the walmart rumor was posted all over the place here, and was less reputable.

And I tried to post some facts for incorrect statements in that thread. It didn't take many minutes then to get those removed

[krinkle]

Originally Posted by pkde

The source is probably "heise online". Thus I would not reckon that it's the whole truth about the story.
They often forget to mention details, for instance, they wrote that all Blu-ray player would need a AACS key update, which was not the entire true, for only updates for software players were necessary.

Wow after reading your sig, I think anyone should take a "translation" from this member with a HUGE grain of salt.

[oli61]

Okay, here's my translation, made by me (German native):


Universal reportedly leaves HD-DVD camp

In a press conference, spokesmen of Blu-ray supporter Pioneer claimed, that Universal Home Entertainment will cancel the exclusive contract with the HD-DVD camp respectively their biggest hardware company, Toshiba. They said, the contract has already been cancelled, it just didn't come operative yet. If this is true, Universal would be free (on a long term) to publish movies for the competing format Blu-ray Disc, and the HD DVD Promotion Group would lose their only supporter among the Hollywood studios, after Paramount and Warner already left.

At the end of January, Universal affirmed their support for HD DVD and announced 100 releases for the year, and rejected any cooperation with the Blu-ray camp. The exclusive Blu-ray supporters are Fox, Disney and Sony, while Warner and Paramount (including Dreamworks) publish for both formats. The strategy of publishing for both formats could be profitable for Universal: The percentage of the studio at the HD DVD sales between January 1st and March 18th was 35.6%, but only 11.1% of the total HD sales. In the same period, Warner sold 46.4% of the HD DVDs and 19.3% of the BLu-ray Discs, and is #1 in all HD sales with 27.7 percent.

Universal Pictures Germany did not comment this, while Toshiba Germany said, they don't know anything about Universal leaving HD DVD.

[Wet1]

Originally Posted by jwv651

I can see 100 pages by tomorrow.

I think this one might make 100 within two hours...

[hassoon]

Originally Posted by Jiffylush

The only reason for Universal to not go neutral is a paycheck from Toshiba.

That is precisely what I'm afraid of.

A generous paycheck from both Toshiba and Microsoft may be enough to keep Universal from jumping ship. However, it doesn't take a lot business know-how to know that it is a much financially safer bet to go for a larger user-base that only continues to grow, which will generate a steady stream of revenue down the line.

C'mon Universal....

YOU CAN DO IT!!!

[krinkle]

Originally Posted by oli61

Okay, here's my translation, made by me (German native):


Universal reportedly leaves HD-DVD camp

In a press conference, spokesmen of Blu-ray supporter Pioneer claimed, that Universal Home Entertainment will cancel the exclusive contract with the HD-DVD camp respectively their biggest hardware company, Toshiba. They said, the contract has already been cancelled, it just didn't come operative yet. If this is true, Universal would be free (on a long term) to publish movies for the competing format Blu-ray Disc, and the HD DVD Promotion Group would lose their only supporter among the Hollywood studios, after Paramount and Warner already left.

SWEET!!!

[pkde]

Originally Posted by Jiffylush

To sell movies to the larger side of the high def market?

Why is that so hard to understand?

The only reason for Universal to not go neutral is a paycheck from Toshiba.

The market is still so small with the HD discs.
Universal doesn't need the spare money which they would gain by selling Blu-ray discs.

You saw it by yourself, on the HD DVD buy day some hundred users could manipulate the sales at amazon.com. Just try that with the regular DVD, how many percentage points you think that you could move the graph.

[Jiffylush]

Originally Posted by oli61

Okay, here's my translation, made by me (German native):


Universal reportedly leaves HD-DVD camp

In a press conference, spokesmen of Blu-ray supporter Pioneer claimed, that Universal Home Entertainment will cancel the exclusive contract with the HD-DVD camp respectively their biggest hardware company, Toshiba. They said, the contract has already been cancelled, it just didn't come operative yet. If this is true, Universal would be free (on a long term) to publish movies for the competing format Blu-ray Disc, and the HD DVD Promotion Group would lose their only supporter among the Hollywood studios, after Paramount and Warner already left.

At the end of January, Universal affirmed their support for HD DVD and announced 100 releases for the year, and rejected any cooperatoin with the Blu-ray camp. The exclusive Blu-ray supporters are Fox, Disney and Sony, while Warner and Paramount (including Dreamworks) publish for both formats. The strategy of publishing for both formats could be profitable for Universal: The percentage of the studio at the HD DVD sales between January 1st and March 18th war 35.6%, but only 11.1% of the total HD sales. In the same period, Warner sold 46.4% of the HD DVDs and 19.3% of the BLu-ray Discs, and is #1 in all HD sales with 27.7 percent.

Universal Pictures Germany did not comment this, while Toshiba Germany said, they don't know anything about Universal leaving HD DVD.

Thanks for the translation oli61

[Canary_Jules]

Originally Posted by xolan99

What's funny is that the HD DVD camp will shoot this down hard...while meanwhile, they've taken the Chinese HD DVD player rumor to heart just as bad.

Well we should observe that there is a qualitative difference between the two 'rumours' for a start. The Fuh Yuan 'rumour' was started by Fuh Yuan themselves and even though they clarified it they nevertheless confirmed that Walmart were indeed in negotiations with them for potentially over 2 million HD-DVD players. There is clearly substance to the 'rumour'. This other 'rumour' about Universal going neutral has come from some people at Pioneer, a Blu-Ray supporting company. Do the math! In all probability (because it would be silly to totally discount the 'rumour' entirely when no one on this forum really knows the truth) the latter 'rumour' is more smoke and mirrors from the BDA camp.

[Wet1]

Originally Posted by oli61

Okay, here's my translation, made by me (German native):


Universal reportedly leaves HD-DVD camp

In a press conference, spokesmen of Blu-ray supporter Pioneer claimed, that Universal Home Entertainment will cancel the exclusive contract with the HD-DVD camp respectively their biggest hardware company, Toshiba. They said, the contract has already been cancelled, it just didn't come operative yet. If this is true, Universal would be free (on a long term) to publish movies for the competing format Blu-ray Disc, and the HD DVD Promotion Group would lose their only supporter among the Hollywood studios, after Paramount and Warner already left.

At the end of January, Universal affirmed their support for HD DVD and announced 100 releases for the year, and rejected any cooperatoin with the Blu-ray camp. The exclusive Blu-ray supporters are Fox, Disney and Sony, while Warner and Paramount (including Dreamworks) publish for both formats. The strategy of publishing for both formats could be profitable for Universal: The percentage of the studio at the HD DVD sales between January 1st and March 18th war 35.6%, but only 11.1% of the total HD sales. In the same period, Warner sold 46.4% of the HD DVDs and 19.3% of the BLu-ray Discs, and is #1 in all HD sales with 27.7 percent.

Universal Pictures Germany did not comment this, while Toshiba Germany said, they don't know anything about Universal leaving HD DVD.

Thank you!

This should be added to the first post...

[Jiffylush]

Originally Posted by pkde

The market is still so small with the HD discs.
Universal doesn't need the spare money which they would gain by selling Blu-ray discs.

You saw it by yourself, on the HD DVD buy day some hundred users could manipulate the sales at amazon.com. Just try that with the regular DVD, how many percentage points you think that you could move the graph.

So you think they should stop making high def discs available altogether?

Right? Market is small, why bother?

Any reason that exists for them to make HD DVDs also exists for them to make Blu-rays (and then some), except for the paycheck from Toshiba.

[tqlla]

While this could be great news.... lets not go overboard. Wait for confirmation.

[krinkle]

Originally Posted by Wet1

Thank you!

This should be added to the first post...

OP can you please add this to the first post??

Originally Posted by oli61

Okay, here's my translation, made by me (German native):


Universal reportedly leaves HD-DVD camp

In a press conference, spokesmen of Blu-ray supporter Pioneer claimed, that Universal Home Entertainment will cancel the exclusive contract with the HD-DVD camp respectively their biggest hardware company, Toshiba. They said, the contract has already been cancelled, it just didn't come operative yet. If this is true, Universal would be free (on a long term) to publish movies for the competing format Blu-ray Disc, and the HD DVD Promotion Group would lose their only supporter among the Hollywood studios, after Paramount and Warner already left.

[Jiffylush]

Originally Posted by Canary_Jules

Well we should observe that there is a qualitative difference between the two 'rumours' for a start. The Fuh Yuan 'rumour' was started by Fuh Yuan themselves and even though they clarified it they nevertheless confirmed that Walmart were indeed in negotiations with them for potentially over 2 million HD-DVD players. There is clearly substance to the 'rumour'. This other 'rumour' about Universal going neutral has come from some people at Pioneer, a Blu-Ray supporting company. Do the math! In all probability (because it would be silly to totally discount the 'rumour' entirely when no one on this forum really knows the truth) the latter 'rumour' is more smoke and mirrors from the BDA camp.

spin it brother!

[Jiffylush]

Originally Posted by tqlla

While this could be great news.... lets not go overboard. Wait for confirmation.

This could just be a bargaining tactic to increase the payouts from Toshiba.

[pkde]

Universal reportedly leaves HD-DVD camp

That translation of the headline by oli61 is wrong. It implies that Universal announced it and thus would be definite.
The headline says in English:

Universal supposedly wants to leave HD DVD camp

And don't tell me you don't see the difference.

[SimpleTheater]

Originally Posted by pkde

Come on, in January Universal announced 100 titles for this year. Why would they now jump of the HD DVD train. I think Toshiba would try anything to keep Universal. They probably know that HD DVD will perish w/o Universal.

Because Sony just moved 100,000 copies of Casino Royale, and they've got the Bourne series. Plus Universal is already planning on taking a bath on Evan Almighty which will put the studio into a cash crunch. They need cash and they need it now.

[soremekun]

If at all, Universal will not announce anything before 2008 I believe.

[beatboy77]

Originally Posted by Jiffylush

This could just be a bargaining tactic to increase the payouts from Toshiba.

I do not think a Pioneer spokesman would help Toshiba in this way

~Josh

[ravenous]

I think it's very suspicious that pioneer is leaking this information in direct correlation to the release of their (overpriced 2000 USD)BD Player in germany.

Let's just wait for statements from Universal.