Paramount done with HD DVD next week
FEB. 28 | The March 4 releases Into the Wild and Things We Lost in the Fire will be Paramount Home Entertainment’s last titles in the HD DVD format, the studio confirmed.
The studio pulled the plug on the HD DVD versions of other titles that had been announced for the format, including DreamWorks Animation’s Bee Movie, due March 11, and Sweeney Todd, due April 1. Their standard DVD versions will come out as planned.
Paramount also has slated There Will Be Blood, starring Oscar-winning Daniel Day-Lewis, for standard DVD release on April 8. Online retail sites last week also listed the title as available in HD DVD, but that information has since been taken down.
The studio has not yet said what its first Blu-ray Disc releases will be.
Paramount last week said it would stop producing titles in HD DVD and switch to Blu-ray, after Toshiba announced its decision to stop marketing HD DVD hardware.
Earlier this week, DreamWorks CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg appeared committed to HD DVD, saying that what the studio would do about Bee Movie was Toshiba’s call. “We have a partnership with Toshiba and have an obligation to see this through,” he said.
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| Submitted by: | Bob Black (amexcam600@yahoo.com) 3/3/2008 6:38:18 AM PT |
| Location: | New Hampshire |
Bob Johnson, Despite what you claim about your store's Blu-Ray increases (and I'm sure sales of hardware have picked up since Toshiba dropped the format), I find it quite telling that the HD DVD title American Gangster outsold the top selling Blu-Ray disc by nearly 2:1! That's a pathetic scenario when the now-defunct format's top seller for the week crushes Blu-Ray day & date titles like Michael Clayton and In the Valley Of Elah, as well as everything else! Fact is the end of HD DVD was NOT a good thing for hi-def media -- it has only served as encouragement for Blu-Ray to keep prices high and do away with all the aggressive BOGO sales they ran throughout 2007! They no longer need to "pad their figures" as they've done for months, and look where their sales go -- DOWN! The consumer never really had a choice between these formats. HD DVD offered more, cost less, had fully-functional players from day 1, and had equal quality. Yet the coalition of studios and CE companies refused to budge, seeking the higher profit margins of Blu-Ray, and ultimately Warner also gave in to the BDA's payoffs. Now we're stuck with the format that STILL doesn't have 2.0 profile players available, costs nearly twice as much, and requires a brand new, multi-billion dollar infrastructure built if the format ever goes mainstream. Sometimes it's not good to get what you wish for.
| Submitted by: | Bob Johnson (pressbooks@yahoo.com) 3/2/2008 2:01:55 PM PT |
| Location: | Minnesota |
| Occupation: | video retailer |
To the person commenting on Paramount only caring about money, money money (earlier post), what does he expect? That's what makes the world turn my friend. Do you think the movie studios really care if you are mad? So they will sell a few copies less of a few movies. Paramount did the exact same thing with blu-ray back in August. It's just business, get over it. I applaud this quick move by Paramount. Toshiba is stopping in weeks producing anything hd-dvd. Why should the movie studios continue to produce product when they won't be able to have them rented at stores like Netflix and won't be able to sell them at Best Buy or Walmart or Target? This will begin a move to one format and mass-adoption that's going to take some time but I believe it will happen. People are seeing the type of quality their new HDTV sets can produce, are used to physical media discs, and will want to own high quality movies in 1080p with uncompressed soundtracks. Our stores sales of blu-ray players, PS3 and blu-ray movies (11 stores in Minnesota) has increased 16% since the Warner announcement, and increased another 23% after Toshiba's hd-dvd death news release. The format war is over and we are already seeing huge percentage increases. I am glad the spoils of a dead format ended quickly for the sake of all video retailers. Those who purchased a hd-dvd player did so on their own accord, knowing there was a format war, and took the same risk as blu-ray buyers did. Accept it, move on, get over resentments, and enjoy movies in hd on blu-ray disc.
| Submitted by: | Tom connolly 3/2/2008 1:31:16 PM PT |
| Location: | New York |
Once again it is evident that all the hollywood studios care about is money, money, money. Screw the film loving consumer. Everyone should stop buying any form of dvd from the major studios for the remainder of 2008 and either download of rip copies and share them with each other. Maybe the studios and big box CE stores can find their money somplace else. STOP SCREWING OVER THE PUBLIC!!!
| Submitted by: | Jim Moyer (jimdm2@comcast.net) 2/29/2008 5:02:12 PM PT |
| Location: | Salem Oregon |
| Occupation: | Facilities Support |
Well What about Star Trek Remastered Paramount? I've got season 1 and if it had stayed on course season 2 would be coming out on March 25th. You need to say something about this as I'm sure I'm not the only one wondering.
| Submitted by: | Simon Meredith 2/29/2008 3:04:43 AM PT |
| Location: | Australia |
| Occupation: | Sales |
I think this is a joke, he said he would leave it up to Toshiba, I am sure this wasn't their decision, they won't be getting any of my $$$ for a long time. I don't intend on going blu ray like many others until version 2.0 players are released and drop down around the $200 to $300 price point like HD DVD did before the Toshiba exit! I think the strange thing they forget is LG and Samsung are still supporting it and continuing to develop multi format Blu Ray and HD DVD players.
| Submitted by: | Ralph 2/28/2008 9:37:19 PM PT |
| Location: | Waterbury, CT, USA |
| Occupation: | Manager |
Wow! I definitely didn't expect Paramount to totally drop HD-DVD so fast. Warner is actually carrying it longer than them, and Paramount was exclusive. You know what, now that I think about it, we shouldn't be surprised; they dropped Blu-Ray just as fast last fall.
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