Paramount, Dreamworks Animation drop Blu-Ray

by Richard Mitchell on Aug 20th 2007 4:30PM

And the high definition format war rages on with Paramount and Dreamworks Animation opting to drop Blu-Ray support in favor of HD DVD exclusivity. According to Kevin Avery, president of Paramount Home Entertainment, the move was made because HD DVD offers better quality, cheaper players, and lower manufacturing costs. So, when you go shopping for the hi-def version of Transformers this fall, the only place to find it is in the HD DVD section. Furthermore, Dreamworks Animations films like Shrek 3 will also be exclusive to the format. Thus, you have one more reason to not regret buying that 360 HD DVD player (unless you hated Transformers, in which case ... um, sorry?).

Us, we're going to hide in a bunker with our DVDs and wait for it all to blow over.

[Via Major Nelson]

Source

Tags: dreamworksanimation, hddvd, paramount

Reader Comments (52)

how could you have hated transformers? a 360 turned into a decepticon!

Great News for the 'Better Format' Rock on HD?-DVD

Does Viacom not own these studios? Does Viacom also own Blockbuster? these are snippets I've picked up from other sites reporting this. but, if those claims are true that could mean blockbuster may stop supporting bluray and go hd-dvd.

hoo rah for hd-dvd

It's not going to go away any time soon. It's annoying that it's even reached this level. Considering how long it's taken Sony to drop something like ATRAC (despite its benefits, it's too proprietary), even if Blu-ray somehow 180ed into the garbage heap they won't give up on it.

The manufacturing costs, I'd say, are going to play a major part in this moreso than players. My impression has been that it's just easier and cheaper to make more HD-DVDs than Blu-Ray discs. Kind of like MS could probably make the 3 discs for Blue Dragon (granted, that's standard DVD) cheaper than one Blu-Ray disc for any given PS3 title.

Personally, I don't care about it and I'm willing to wait until it's over and whatever wins comes down to current DVD prices. I don't want to spend $20 to $40 on movies I can get for $15 on DVD the same week of release.

I just wanna see a list of what companies each side has EXCLUSIVELY, big companies at least. Anyone gotta a link, or time to write it out?

Some peronsal favorites from Paramount & Dreamworks includes:

Gladiator
American Beauty
Beavis & Butt-Head
Chappelle's Show
South Park
Event Horizon
Jack A$s the Movie 1&2
Team America
Collateral

I would love to be able to validate my huge hd dvd collection, I was banking on a win. I don't want to have to buy a BR player. Can't we all just get along and release every movie in both types of formats? Oh well, as long as HD DVD wins, I couldn't care less about sony and BR.

Everyone please Buy a Paramount/Dreamworks HD DVD to help support them on the wise decision!!! Tell your friends, wife, children, and pets!!

NOOOOOOO! 'Grease' in high def!

It should be noted that:

1) It's estimated that $150m was paid to Paramount and Dreamworks combined from the HD-DVD promotion group (Toshiba, Microsoft, Universal) for their exclusive support. HD-DVD is losing the format war - so switching from neutral to exclusive is a stupid idea unless you are getting something on the back end for it, given how small these markets are right now.

2) Fox has broken their months of silence and are announcing new Blu-ray titles.

For the record, it's now:

Sony/MGM/Columbia, Fox, Disney vs. Universal and Paramount.
Warner Bros. is neutral.

Not sure if it's a coincidence but after reading this article, I was inspired to go out and buy the "best overall high-def release on the market": http://hddvd.highdefdigest.com/hotfuzz.html

Eventually all players and/or disks will be and the only difference it'll make to us consumers is whether the boxes on our shelves are red or blue.

Oops:

Eventually all players will be dual-format and the only difference it'll make to us consumers is whether the boxes on our shelves are red or blue.

Sweet. Just when I was wondering if I'd be running out of hd dvds to watch one day.

AAAAnNNNNNNNDDDDDDDDD!!!! We get the entire Naked Gun Collection when/if it debuts!

@Simple Panda

Yes and the studios exclusive to Blu-Ray did it out of the goodness of their heart. Are you unaware of how exclusives work? Companies don't just magically decide "Hey I wanna make less money and support a specific format instead of making 2x the money and support both!"

'Hot Fuzz' and 'Shaun of the Dead' are definite MUST HAVEs. they are awesome movies in any format. as long as good movies keep getting released i'll keep buying them.

Ok dont care about the format war anymore i know who will win sony is gonna do the same thing like they always been doing since next gen started copy the competition. So any tech people in here? i wan to know how the 360 is to displays HD images in 360 games on a DVD9 format but HD DVD wont work.

simple panda:

When you say losing, it's not like they're 5 laps back with 5 to go. It's more like we're 10 laps into a 100 lap race and Blu-ray is out in front because HD-DVD pitted first. There would have been a long way to go even without this deal. With this deal we may never see the end of it. I could care less really. If both formats get players into teh sub $200 range, the market will support both.

This war just got extended another few years. I mean, sure, as a 360 supporter it is good news, but now I have wait even longer before we get a definitive winner. Meh, upscaling, FTW!

@Simple Panda

Actually, Fox my be going to HD DVD because they have not released a Blu-Ray Title since April and have not announced any new BR titles

#17... " i wan to know how the 360 is to displays HD images in 360 games on a DVD9 format but HD DVD wont work."

...seriously? having a hard time with that concept?

@ Simple Panda
Did you not see E3, didn't microsoft announce Disneys huge microsoft deal and stuff, I dont recall exaclty if he said itd be on HDDVD but its gonna be on marketplace so he had to have said HDDDVD right?

@ 21

I'm just having a hard time with his grammar. But that's nothing new either

"Actually, Fox my be going to HD DVD because they have not released a Blu-Ray Title since April and have not announced any new BR titles"
Random predictions FTL!

Fox will be announcing their BD releases fairly soon.

http://www.highdefdigest.com/news/show/MGM/Fox/Disc_Announcements/Fox/MGM:_Silver_Surfer,_Live_Free_Die_Hard,_Extensive_Catalog_Coming_to_Blu-ray/876

I am quite surprised by this news, but it doesn't personally affect me all that much since Netflix rents both formats out.

Quality is better? The quality is frigging identical, if you use the same codecs. In theory, BluRay's can only be better, given that they can increase the bitrate with more space.
The only reason there's a quality difference is because h.264/AVC or whatever is optional with bluray, and required for HD-DVD, which means a lot of studios take the lazy way out on BluRay, using MPEG-2 Transfers.

@DaMan09,

Fox has announced a boatload of new Blu-Ray titles today so I don't see them going HD-DVD anytime soon.

BTW I think this is pretty bad news for neutral movie fans. With the format war between HD-DVD and Blu-Ray picking up again, the vast majority of consumers will remain on the sideline and avoid both formats. If this stupid war goes on long enough, it may well be that both formats will stay niche products like laserdisc, SACD and DVD-Audio. Or even die altogether when movie downloads take over from DVD.

those of you that think hd dvd is better maybe you should do a liile homework. in no category does hddvd beat blu ray. th same cannot be said the other way around. this site basicly sums it up. http://www.sonystyle.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ContentDisplayView?cmsId=content/TVandHomeEntertainment/BlurayDisc/BlurayVersusHDDVD&hideHeaderFooter=false&storeId=10151&catalogId=10551&langId=-1

Upscaling and DVDs are for people in trailer parks. HD wins.

Ok? How does DVD9 support 720p and 1080p games. wouldnt that make DVD9 and HD format? How is this possible i though HD DVD and Blu ray was the only disc fromats that does that. SOMEBODY WHO UNDERSTANDS WHAT IM SAYING PLEASE EXPLAIN I DONT NEED BASHING I NEED UNDERSTANDING SO MANY PEOPLE CAN GIVE ME THE SPECS ON THE CELL AND XENOS AND HOW THEY WORK BUT CANT TELL ME THIS. PLEASE IF YOU CAN MAKE IT SIMPLE ENOUGH FOR ME AND OTHERS TO UNDERSTAND

LMAO at jp linking to a Sony website to "prove" Blu-Ray is better. Nice homework!

How's that Blu-Ray java spec coming along? How about that online connectivity? Still sticking with that tired old MPEG2, or is Blu-Ray finally going to throw in the towel on that archaic codec and go with VC-1 like a respectable company?

Blu-Ray's attach rate it shit. As HD DVD players become cheaper, studios will realize they can make a ton of money on the format. Neutrality/exclusivity towards HD DVD follows.

"Ok? How does DVD9 support 720p and 1080p games. wouldnt that make DVD9 and HD format?"

I believe it has to do with the original hardware spec. DVD players weren't originally made to output video at those higher resolutions (upscaling is a half-assed workaround, but obviously that is not real HD). You could put 1080p on a DVD no problem, but you'd need something special to play it, and it wouldn't hold nearly as much content as an HD DVD or BRD.

These new formats are spec'd to run at 1080p (or lower).

Oh, and games are not bound by the same "rules" DVD video is. It's just like running a PC game at different resolutions. The console can handle whatever you select.

#29: MYPS3KilledMy360

You don't need Bluray or HD DVD for HD material. You can have it on a DVD if you want to, the problem is only that a complete movie would not fit. The format it is on doesn't matter. Hey, check out the Xbox Live Marketplace. Loads of HD stuff, but no HD DVD or Bluray there.

Blu-Ray will still win.
Why...
Two Words...

Star Wars...

Everything else that is not Blu-Ray I will watch on DVD that gets up converted to 1080p by my PS3.
I used to use my 360 for DVDs but I couldn't get Microsoft to fix their Aspect Ratio Problem. I don't know if it is fixed now but 480p playback of movies on my 360 would be stretched Vertically???

I think this whole format war is bad for all of us consumers. It usually means that neither format will go because everybody will be waiting for a winner so they don't end up with another Betamax or LaserDisc Player...

"Still sticking with that tired old MPEG2, or is Blu-Ray finally going to throw in the towel on that archaic codec and go with VC-1 like a respectable company?"

....BluRay supports VC-1. It's just not required. It isn't BluRay's fault studios are frigging lazy.

Gerrrr...

Fuck sony for starting this stupid war. I want one format now or a dual format player for 200 bucks.

that isnt the only place i could have found i didnt want to waste the time of looking them all up i figured you could do that on your own.

a respectible company? like toshiba or hitachi i blame them for this war of formats.

by the way the codecs are the same for both only blu ray disks are better with everyone o them.

how bout hddvd's transfer rate got nothin on blu rays, or maybe it's capacity you like yeah blu ray is waaay better at that obviously.

yeah blu ray might be a little more expensive but with the hard coating it's alot more scratch resistant (steel wool)

blu ray wins in every way and the rest of that crap will be coming along.

i think your just mad that you bought an inferior console and cant afford to buy the better one. as for me i've got both next gen systems and love that blu ray comes right on my ps3, dont have to clutter my entertainment center with another peice of electronics or the hd dvd add on which with that and everything else you have to buy makes 360 more expensive than a ps3.

if you even look on wikipedia at the compairison it seems obvious to me that blu ray is the winner.
http://www.engadget.com/2005/09/19/blu-ray-vs-hd-dvd-state-of-the-s-union-s-division/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HD_DVD

Oh just GG to all.
This format war is stupid and is doing nothing but hurting the adoption of high def technologies. As much as I want a high def player I refuse to buy one until this is all sorted out and I'm pretty sure a significant portion of the population will be doing the same.

A devastating blow to blue ray and the ps3 no doubt.

I was about to leave another comment on this stupid bluray (ps3) vs. hd dvd (xbox) flame war, but then i realized I'm going to play my xbox instead of making comments to justify it.

@20

lol.....reminds me of "omg we're getting MGS4!!!!"

Umm, yeah. I saw the words "hated" and "Transformers" in the same sentence. Thats not right.

@34

George Lucas owns the distribution rights to Star Wars. Not Fox. He chooses to use Fox as his distributor.

Lucas has already said several times he doesn't want to support either HD format. He'd rather wait for digital distribution to finally catch up.

THANK YOU SO MUCH! i get it now thanks i didnt actually know that HD was possible on DVD but now that i know, it clears up a lot of things that i found kind of funny.

HD downloads and a direct feed to my TV FTW!

Another nail in the Blu-ray coffin...

lol. they actually had Transformers on Blu-ray at the factory "primed" and ready to go, then they cancelled it...lol

Wow did this bring out the Blu-ray fan boys in droves. They have been dying for Universal to jump ship so to have Paramount flip the other way is a shocker to them. In the end, I like my HD DVD add-on to my 360 and I am glad to see the great Paramount titles coming to it. I love it when they release both DVD and HD DVD on the same disc. Makes sense as they can make both with the same equipment unlike blu ray. The dirty trith is that neither format is really winning as wide spread adoption is not there for either format. Cheaper players and cheaper movies will fuel that. The cheaper players are on the way especially from HD DVD but $35 for movies is too much when $25 or less should be the norm. Paying a small premium over DVD is understandable but not as much as the pricing is now.

"a respectible company? like toshiba or hitachi i blame them for this war of formats."

That's pretty funny, considering it was SONY who splintered from the DVD Forum to make their own format (and thus get more royalties than they would from HD DVD). My main objection with Blu-Ray is that it would give Sony the trifecta -- Hardware, Software, AND the format, all in one company. That's not good for consumers, so I vote with my wallet to support HD DVD.

@47: "but $35 for movies is too much when $25 or less should be the norm."

The retail stores do screw you on price for some reason, but if you look at Amazon.com (or other online retailers), the prices of regular HD DVDs are generally $19.99 and the "combo" disks (HD DVD and regular DVD on one disk) are generally $27.99. Yes, some people hate the combos, some love 'em. I'm neutral, don't care either way. Granted, regular DVDs are cheaper on Amazon as well, but the price isn't as high as lot of people think.

@48 i would have made my own format too if i was screwed out of royalties they should have recieved from dvd. it had nothing to do with being in control or about them becoming rich, they just wanted the money they should have recieved for research and development of dvd. click on my engadget link for a little back ground info, there is more i you need it, google it for yourself.

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Paramount, Dreamworks Animation drop Blu-Ray

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