Hollywood studios voice Blu-ray, PS3 support

by Nick Doerr { Oct 31st 2007 at 8:00PM }

It seems that the movie industry is getting tired of the next-gen format war. Or the now-gen format war. Whatever you want to call it, the battle between Blu-ray and HD DVD has gone on too long, according to multiple studios. Besides this, backers of Blu-ray have a lot to say about PS3 and their upcoming plans to support the Blu-ray format, including a long overdue update allowing to audio and video tracks to run at the same time. Let's listen in.

20th Century Fox's VP Steve Feldstein spoke highly of both Blu-ray and PS3, saying "PS3 is an incredible gaming platform that just happens to be a really great Blu-ray player, too ... Interestingly, there is a lot of crossover between the early adopter, the PlayStation 3 purchaser and the products that are being released early in Blu-ray's life cycle. A lot of the more male-oriented titles that we're releasing, the sales numbers indicate they're being played on PS3s."

Lionsgate Home Entertainment VP Ron Schwartz added his two cents as well. "I think PS3 is going to be a gift people are going to be giving this Christmas ... The great thing about PS3 is that it's a multipurpose media device that can play in the living room without the purchase of any additional components."

Even Gordon Ho of Walt Disney Studios put the studio's support squarely in the Blu. "High definition on PS3 is really pretty simple ... If you're going to hook up your PS3, take advantage of the movie capabilities." He also said that movie studios need to take the initiative to really educate consumers about Blu-ray and the PS3's ability to play them excellently. We're glad to see more studio heads coming out and voicing support. Not that the HD DVD exclusive studios wouldn't say the exact opposite, but at least there are clear voices on both sides of the fence.

Tags: blu-ray, fox, hd-dvd, lionsgate, walt-disney

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

ruibing @ Oct 31st 2007 8:15PM

Strong words from powerful supporters. Please end the format war already so we can get back to the more important console war.

RPGJock @ Oct 31st 2007 9:19PM

Talk about Hollywood influence, go check out the new commercial ads starting this weekend at the Playstation Blog. Hot stuff, and they don't have crying baby in them either!!

Killer @ Oct 31st 2007 9:22PM

Yes, please and make it a tie.

Ps. Before you go all "fanboyish ape crazy" (of course I'm only talking about a few) I do own a Blu-ray Player and I own the HD DVD add on for the 360. From my stand point none of these formats should die, so If you spit out a bunch of rederich about Blu-ray being the best because it's in a console you bought, just sit back now. Blu-ray won't die even if it random loast the movie format war...Games would still be using Blu-ray....and personally I only see HD DVD and Blu-ray being for the gaming world. Movies you only do so much. I'm a person that wants to watch the movie in HD and With Great sound! I don't care about EXTRA Features! ZOMG CARS HAS A FIND IT GAME! WHY!? IT'S A MOVIE NOT A VIDEO GAME! That goes for all the HD DVD releases as well.

Getting to the point. I hate the format bickering. "Blu-ray is better" "No HD DVD is"
Give it a f-ing break all ready. Just be happy you have movies in HD and with better sound! I mean if you're going to whine about having to buy another player well boohooo! WE already see extreme price drops from both sides. If you can afford a 600-500 dollar player you can afford a 300-200 dollar player. or a combo.

That's just my two cents, I don't expect many of you to agree with my statement and you don't have too, I just wanted to express my hatred of this whiny @$$ fighting all the time.

Thoas @ Oct 31st 2007 10:20PM

Blu-Ray FTW!

chillwill @ Oct 31st 2007 10:26PM

I knew Blu-Ray would win, it just has more storage space and thats what people want now. More space, more content...I uploaded my 10 digit code from my mcdonalds monopoly game piece at weplayatmcd.com it increases your odds of winning!

Zombie Huggles @ Oct 31st 2007 10:49PM

I liked the Crying Baby commercial...it didn't make any sense and told people absolutely nothing, but...it was entertaining.

Byron517 @ Oct 31st 2007 11:03PM

Yes some new support!! Thank you Hollywood!

joe @ Oct 31st 2007 11:26PM

i don't think blu ray is best because my system supports it. is it such a crazy idea to prefer blu ray because it is better? these are storage formats, and unlike previous wars, everything about these 2 are pratically the same except how much each can store. if blu ray and hddvd's are so similar but blu ray has more storage... ehhh i'll go with hd dvd cause it has less storage. why?? geez, there's even news recently that they may find a way for current blu ray players to support 100gb blu rays! so it isn't just about the consoles douchebag.
and you bought the 360 add on when it's the WORST hd dvd player out there. you should've done your research and bought a stand alone hd dvd player at least. that tells microsoft, "i really don't care that your products are low quality as long as their more popular than their competitors."

you may prefer hd dvd, but you lost your credibility when you bought the worst player for that format. goes to show that quality isn't your concern.

Snuffulufugus @ Nov 1st 2007 12:27AM

@3 & 8

Learn to write with paragraphs. No one wants to read through your garbage.

With that said, I'm personally glad for the open support against HD-DVD.

Andy @ Nov 1st 2007 1:11AM

With those slick new ads and the new pricepoint this war is close to being over.

Just get those standalones to $200 and this war will be done!

animekid3515 @ Nov 1st 2007 2:07AM

i totally agree with killer on this one, until some like super codec that is the best quality but not able to fit on a 4-10 gigabyte disc with an hour and a half of vidoe, blu ray and HD-DVD are for videogames, although, games arent on HD-DVD...

konajinx @ Nov 1st 2007 3:41AM

@3, The word is "rhetoric," not "rederich." Learning is fun! See?

@8, No one has credibility when they buy a DelayStation 3.

Pulse-Wave @ Nov 1st 2007 3:50AM

So let it be written. So let it be done.

mccomber @ Nov 1st 2007 3:59AM

DelayStation 3? How clever, did you come up with that yourself? I love how you are able to come in and not actually make a point, instead just making two snide remarks about people who did. Although, judging by your past comments, that's what you prefer to do anyway.

Back on topic, at this point I don't care who wins, as long as one of the two does sooner rather than later. I'd prefer BluRay of course, since I own a ps3 and about 20 movies, and I'd like to have all that space in the future when the drives find their way into my next computer for back-up purposes... but anymore the whole damn thing is just annoying, not to mention confusing and intimidating for most consumers. I know plenty of people who want to buy into the HD movie format, but are waiting for one to win; not just for one to come down in price.

HAAS599 @ Nov 1st 2007 9:43AM

I own a PS3. My friend owns an xbox360. I enjoy his games and he enjoys mine.

WE BOTH AGREE THAT BLU-RAY IS BETTER.

HD-DVD doesn't suck, if thats the player you have then you can watch hd movies and it looks great. but if you had to choice one or the other and you could never go back we both agree that blu-ray is the way to go.

this doesnt mean PS3 is a better console than xbox. It means that blu-ray is a 10 where hd-dvd is an 8 or a 9.

alienclays @ Nov 1st 2007 10:00AM

all i have to say is you guys need to go read the comments happening at engadgethd

serious stuff happing like 100$ hd-dvd players.

Popfrogs @ Nov 1st 2007 10:33AM

@16: A last ditch effort by a failing industry. I pity HD DVD owners.

Tru-blue @ Nov 1st 2007 11:58AM

True-blu-ray indeed

Consolcwby @ Nov 4th 2007 10:25PM

As I've said before, HD-DVD is more of a stop gap measure instead of a possible 20 year lasting tech due to storage space capacity versus Blu-Ray. The consensus in Hollywood is the same, with rumors that Warner is about ready to go with Blu-Ray exclusively and BD sales still being higher overall than HD-DVD. It's not fanboyism that makes this so, it is the benefits and limitations of each format compared to the other. It's too bad that one format will have to suffer, but consumers hate having too many choices when it comes to this kind of thing. I find most comments in this thread amusing to say the least... =D

Eddie @ Nov 1st 2007 3:06PM

Notice Warner is not one of those studios.

Notice too, that no one has pointed out that the reason there are so many supporters of HD DVD hinge on two very important factors:

1) HDVD has done away with preemptive DRM such as Region Coding

2) HDVD costs less to upgrade and adopt, less to manufacture, and less to sell. All of which translate into:

a) Higher profits for the companies involved
and
b) Lower costs for the average consumer (which outnumbers all of us early adopters and have a lot more collective $$ to spend)

I'm very interested in seeing who wins, because Sony is betting all the marbles that the high end consumers have more pull in this market than the rest of the late adopting mainstream. This will have major implications for the entire entertainment industry, but unfortunately I have to say history is on HDVD's side.

cap @ Nov 1st 2007 7:11PM

@ 19 you obviously do not keep up with the news do you?

tdk recently announced a new bd process that reduces costs to lower than hd-dvd costs.

also the most expensive part of bd & hd-dvd is the blue crystals production which has been reduced in costs recently by both sony & toshiba so expect price drops soon for both formats.