Universal Studios boss gives thumbs down to Blu-ray, but...
by Nick Doerr 
{ Sep 18th 2006 at 9:30AM }
Before you think this is going to be an article hailing the downfall of Sony, let us assure you that it's not. We're going to shake our heads and furrow our brows at the head of Universal Studios, Craig Kornblau and his early decision to backhand Blu-ray in the face. Kornblau bases his decision on a couple of head-to-head comparisons that have floated around the net for a while. One of which had early editions of Blu-ray DVDs running the videos on a MPEG-2 format (which isn't quite as good as the VC-1 the HD-DVDs had employed at the time of comparison). We've previously discussed how Blu-ray is now incorporating MPEG-4 into many movies, at least from 20th Century Fox. MPEG-4 is the best of the best and can be used by both Blu-ray and HD-DVD, so says the great Wikipedia.As far as pricing and availability go, Kornblau is fairly right -- HD-DVD is ahead for now. But hey, didn't the PS2 help ease the DVD format into millions of households? It wasn't the sole cause, but it sure helped. Perhaps Blu-ray needs that final push to get it out of the shadows and into some kind of spotlight. Universal was never a supporter of Blu-ray, so we'll take this with a grain of salt, sit back, wait, and watch as the battle ensues (as soon as HDTV's become the standard entertainment medium). For your homework, if anyone can find a head-to-head comparison of Blu-ray vs. HD-DVD where both are using the same playback medium, TV, and MPEG4 encoding, let us know and we'll write up a nice report on it.
[see also Joystiq's take on the news]
[Thanks to Wes for this article!]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Brian @ Sep 18th 2006 10:07AM
When was the ;last good movie Universal made anyway. It's not like Sony will lack for studios releasing movies on Blu-Ray between themselves, 20th Century Fox, Miramax, and MGM they have a good catalogue.
Brian @ Sep 18th 2006 10:10AM
http://imdb.com/company/co0021294/
Butterball @ Sep 18th 2006 10:43AM
"didn't the PS2 help ease the DVD format into millions of households"
At the time DVD format was the only format in town. There wasn't a war between competing formats going on. So in effect...purchasing a PS3 may have the opposite effect...that is to say that instead of reasuring folks that they are buying into the future...it may give someone pause as no-one wants to buy something that may become obselete months down the road.
xbox360dsPSP @ Sep 18th 2006 10:49AM
The reality is that the Sony delay and forecasted limited availability of the PS3 has really hurt the Blu-Ray format. The $600 PS3 pricepoint, while cheaper than competing players, it is far from accessible to the "everyman".
HD-DVD has a unique trick up its sleeve as it is possible to produce a single DVD disk that has DVD content on one side and HD-DVD content on the other side. You can expect that configuration to become a favorite for store rentals.
It's just a matter of time before Sony Pictures begins producing films for HD-DVD. My household lived through the BetaMax experience. Historically, the better format is seldom the winning format -- see BetaMax vs VHS, DAT (audio) vs CD, MiniDisc vs Flash-based/HD devices, MemoryStick vs Everything. Do you notice a trend here?
SuicideNinja @ Sep 18th 2006 11:37AM
I've written way too many posts on my site about this.
HD-DVD is simply more consumer-friendly than Blu-ray. Less copy protection, friendly hybrid discs, familiar name, cheaper players, and it already outsold Blu-ray in its respective first few months on the market.
Blu-ray is more corporate friendly (which is why more companies back it). More copy protections, higher-priced players, costs more to manufacturer (so more companies make money in the manufacturing conversion process), and it's run by multiple companies to boot. The BIG point is that moving to Blu-ray means they will no longer have to pay royalties to Toshiba for DVD. That's why even though JVC already made Blu-ray-DVD hybrid discs, they won't see the light of day.
But before I get accosted; my true opinion is that we still don't need either format. If either format gains steam (for movies), it'll probably be at the time when the PS3/360/Wii generation will be fading.
Gazbin @ Sep 18th 2006 12:31PM
Who cares.
I watched a few movies at a mates place last week. This guy has a major department store as his last name so he's not lacking dosh.
So what would someone with vast cash be using? He has this thing called an "Oppo" and it upscales his DVD's to 1080p and I have to say it is incredible. OK but how much right? He paid (Australian) $390.
Im buying one of these and plan to sit this next gen thing out for another two or three years.
tom @ Sep 18th 2006 12:36PM
Suicide Ninja is correct. These formats aren't going to take over DVD, so it's a war over a tiny fraction of the market, rather than the entire thing, like DVD was.
The PS2 came out YEARS after DVDs were widely available. DVDs offered a considerable and immediate bennefit over VHS for 100% of the population. HD-DVD and BlueRay offer bennefit to around 10% of the population. The PS2 was the cost of a mid-range DVD player at the time, and it was the appeal of having a cheap DVD player that drove sales of the PS2 (how many people did you know that bought a ps2, 1 game and like 10 DVDs?), rather than the console driving the adoption of the format. That's why this is all different now, and comparing the two is daft.
Brian @ Sep 18th 2006 1:16PM
I will agree that the format war is really a war over a niche market of videophiles. Although I really do have to admit that Blu-Ray is one tasty piece of tech, if nothing else than for its back-up capabilities. And there are a few movies I would love to have encoded in MPEG-4 at 1080p (Star Wars, Pulp Fiction, Sin City, basically anything loud with explosions - this isn;t a format for grainy 8mm Kurosawa transfer, no matter how much I love them).
Anyway, I have said many times that even if Blu-Ray never catches on for movies it is the PERFECT media for games. It is not only scratch proof it is damn near invincible not to mention its massive size.
In any case not only is this not news (he said this months ago, he's just reiterating) this isn't even a big deal. The fact is that Universal is the ONLY exclusive studio HD-DVD has. Blu-Ray has Sony (duh), 20th Century Fox, and Disney (which includes Miramax) - and I might be forgetting some. Everyone else supports both. If anyone is causing the format ar its Universal, if they give up on HD-DVD there is no format war.
Brian @ Sep 18th 2006 1:23PM
Wait, I was wrong on my last comment, it's just Sony Fox and disney exclusively behind Blu-Ray and for what ever reason I forgot that Disney does not own Miramax they just distribute some of Miramax's films. So, depending on how the video distribution is handled it could be either Blu-Ray exclusive or on both formats if the movie is from Miramax.
the_pwnerer @ Sep 18th 2006 5:41PM
Brian,
Don't worry about Miramax, Sony owns MGM, Tristar and Columbia Pictures, so there are even more studios for you to add to the exclusive list; those studios + Disney + Fox add up to more than half of the movies in the market (and that's assuming all movies are equal; how many must have titles does universal have though when compared to all the exclusives that Blu-ray will have? Yeah, that's what I thought).
This Universal Studios boss is a moron; not for saying that HD-DVD has won already (or at least not only for that), but for saying that the war is over already. Blu-ray has even more features than HD-DVD that have yet to be unleashed, such as BD-Java; more storage means that in the future, Blu-ray could offer a lot more than HD-DVD offers, so that's another beast that has to be unleashed. The atomic bomb has to be dropped though... it's known as "PS3". The power of that bomb has yet to be determined, but it shouldn't be underestimated.
HD-DVD is to 360 what Blu-ray is to PS3; "cheaper", but not so "next-gen" as the later.