Format War Central

[UPDATE]Circuit City Officially For Sale?

Mehar Gill — Sat, 10 Jan 2009 23:33:14 +0000

Word from an inside source at Circuit City is the company has until January 16, 2009 to find a buyer or they will be up for liquidation. This comes months after filing for chapter 11 bankruptcy in November of 2008. We also assume this may affect The Source, the Canadian branch of Circuit City if these rumors hold any truth to them.

Keep in mind since this comes from a “inside source” it is still considered a rumor and for all we know could be completely false. If your one to dance on graves, expect to see products at significantly reduced prices if Circuit City is unable to find a buyer. We believe the term worth “more alive than dead” applies, although with the state of the world economy that saying may hold little value.

[Via Loot Ninja]

[UPDATE] It seems these rumors are true according to a press release, Circuit City states they are in talks with two parties to “secure funding”,

Presently, the company is engaged in significant discussions, meetings and negotiations with two highly motivated and interested parties concerning the terms of a going concern transaction. These interested parties are considering providing additional financing to allow the company to sustain operations and move forward with a subsequent restructuring through a stand-alone plan and/or purchasing the company or all or substantially all of the company’s assets. The parties have substantially completed due diligence and now are in negotiations with the company and the company’s major stakeholders in order to finalize such a transaction. While the company is optimistic that a transaction can be successfully finalized, no assurance can be given that this will occur.

A buyout/merge? Or a new source of funds?

Sony To Launch Video Download Service

Mehar Gill — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 21:56:55 +0000

Sony has announced that they will roll out their download service in the United States this summer, it is unknown if this will also include Canada.

Kaz Hirai on behalf of Sony stated a European and Japanese release date would follow later. Details have not been released and will be released sometime next month, possibly at E3.

Last year Sony stated they had interested to bring Divx HD videos to the Playstation store, it could be the videos in this program will be encoded in Divx HD, a perfect rival to Microsoft’s service which offers its movies in WMV HD.

Its odd Sony has interest in such a program, no doubt it will interfere with their Blu Ray initiative, could this cause PS3 owners to decrease their Blu-ray purchases and instead look towards the online service for there HD needs? Similar things happened with the Xbox Live Video Marketplace (Particularly in the United States where the catalog is much greater) many rely soley on the marketplace for there video needs.

[Via Engadget HD]

Swag Giveaway: Home Media Expo Edition

Tyler Pruitt — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 19:35:01 +0000

Like we did after CES this year, we are giving away a pile of Swag we picked up at Home Media Expo 2008.

Here is the loot that is included:

“The 6th Day” Blu-ray

“Walk Hard” Blu-ray

“DTS-HD MA Demo Disc” Blu-ray

“Jumper” 2 Disc DVD w/ Digital Copy

“Pauly Shore’s Natural Born Komics” DVD

“Ghost Hunters Live” DVD

“Semi-Pro” Flexplay DVD

“Cloverfield” Flexplay DVD

“Mad Money” Flexplay DVD

Here are the rules:

Giveaway is limited to U.S. residents only

You must post a comment to this post telling us how you found out about our site, and how long you have been a reader for.

Make sure you use a real email address (we will never give anyone your address, and will only email you if you are a winner).

The deadline for entry is Thursday July 3rd at midnight PDT.

Blu-ray Momentum Slow According to Research Firm

Dave Cowl — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 23:38:24 +0000

Video Business is reporting that Blu-ray momentum is likely to remain slow for a year to 18 months according to ABI Research.

Consumers are likely to be waiting for future players with new interactivity technology such as Web-enabled BD Live and picture-in-picture functionality, the research firm said.

Also with a slowing U.S. economy, people will likely wait until Blu-ray player prices fall closer to $200.

ABI expects that the Playstation 3 will make up over 85% of 2008 player market share, and will remain the leader until 2013.

“Blu-ray player prices remain high, and supplies are limited,” ABI Research principal analyst Steve Wilson said. “This is good for the market, because most current players do not support all the functions that studios place on the discs. Lacking support for or upgradeability to BD Live or Bonus View (picture-in-picture), consumers cannot utilize all the available options. Manufacturers would rather sell more full-featured models.”

Blockbuster Rolls Out Blu-Ray Format Across U.S. and Canada

Dave Cowl — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 23:55:59 +0000

Blockbuster is rolling out Blu-ray to all of the corporate stores in the US and Canada, as well as select franchise locations, and installing Blu-ray kiosks in over 5,000 stores.

They’re also adding a Blu-ray preference setting to the Blockbuster online rent-by-mail service.

Speaking of the rent-by-mail service, Blockbuster also have a new trial deal for this month – sign up for Blockbuster Total Access and get One Month FREE.

The promotion is set to end May 8th and includes 2 DVDs per month, 1 at a time, with up to 2 In-Store Exchanges per month. The price after the trial will be $9.99 per month for this level of service.

Via Gizmo Lovers

Sony To Launch Video Download Service

Men in Black and Bone Collector Get UK Blu-ray Release Date

Dave Cowl — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 22:37:45 +0000

Men in Black is now listed for release in the UK on June 16th 2008, along with So I Married an Axe Murderer.

The Bone Collector will be released by Sony on June 2nd, 2008 – this title is a Universal Studios HD DVD only release in the USA.

For further releases and Amazon UK links see the article at Blu-ray Stats.

Amazon UK has Three for the Price of Two Deal

Dave Cowl — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 05:36:17 +0000

Amazon UK is running a deal that might be enough to get the importing ‘fence sitters’ to finally grab some tasty foreign titles.

The 3 for 2 deal is available now until April 6th (nice of them to tell us when it ends – Amazon.com never seems to bother!) and if you buy 3 Qualifying Items, you will get the cheapest title free.

For a ‘distilled’ list of titles that make sense to import to the US, see the posting at Blu-ray Stats.

Splended to Bring Soderberg’s Traffic to Blu-ray in Germany, EMS Brings Monster

Dave Cowl — Wed, 02 Apr 2008 18:36:58 +0000

We see that Splendid Entertainment will be releasing Traffic on Blu-ray in Germany on May 30th 2008. Steven Soderbergh won an Oscar for Best Director and Benicio Del Toro won Best Actor in a Supporting Role for his performance in this film.

This release is interesting on a number of levels. Firstly Traffic is a Universal Studios title in the USA, which means no Blu-ray – in the near future at least. Secondly the HD DVD release of Traffic was widely criticized and was demonstrated to be clearly less sharp than even a 720p broadcast version, with many claiming that it was not true high definition but rather an upconverted standard definition master.

It will be interesting to how the German version on Blu-ray will compare to the HD DVD and whether it will be coded for all regions or Region B only.

May is also a busy month for distributor EMS, who have a slate of 10 titles coming out on May 5th 2008. The titles cover a range of titles, notably the Academy Award winning performance ofCharlize Theron in Monster, the Christian Bale film The Machinist and Jean-Claude van Damme in Until Death. The other titles are The Contract, Revenge of the Warrior, Running Scared, Born to Fight, Lady Vengeance, Highlander – The Source and Sky Fighters.

Via Blu-ray Stats

No related posts.

Blu-ray Highlights for March 6

Dave Cowl — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 03:27:42 +0000

As some of you know I am also writing on the Blu-ray Stats site and often if it makes sense I repeat the stories on this site.

To reduce the redundancy I have decided to essentially summarize the Blu-ray news reported there with links for those who are interested in more detail.

New title 27 Dresses has been announced for Blu-ray on April 29

In new pre-orders we see that The Orphanage and Short Circuit are now available for pre-order in the USA, the James Ivory film Maurice has been added in the UK, while Dune (the David Lynch version) has been added for pre-order in France.

In site news, Deep Discount has been added to the stats page, offering a price comparison with Amazon for those who like to shop around.

In promotions, Sony Style is offering discounts on various home theater systems.

Men in Black and Bone Collector Get UK Blu-ray Release Date

Only One Third of Domestic Blu-ray Discs are Region Coded

Dave Cowl — Sat, 23 Feb 2008 22:12:09 +0000

Region Coding was been a contentious issue in the format war, with the benefits and disadvantages often argued. While HD DVD had no region based restrictions, allowing importation of titles from anywhere on the map, some say that the lack of region coding cost HD DVD studio support from the likes of Fox and Disney, and especially New Line who went on record as saying that they would hold back HD DVD releases due to lack of region coding on the format.

Today Blu-ray Stats is reporting that, after updating their region code database to 90% of US domestic titles, only 1/3 titles are restrictively region coded. Fox is the biggest fan with all of their discs coded Region A, and New Line only has one title coded for all regions. At the other end of the spectrum, studios that released on HD DVD, namely Warner, Paramount and DreamWorks have unrestricted Blu-ray titles also. Sony, Disney and Lionsgate have a mix, with typically the DVD Day and Date releases being Region A and the catalogue titles being unrestricted.

It will be interesting to see if the ‘end of the format war’ will result in any studio policy changes with regard to region coding.

HD DVD Market Penetration Revealed

Dave Cowl — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 18:18:41 +0000

In comments following the Toshiba press conference, there are some interesting sales numbers for HD DVD players.

Toshiba stated sales of 600,000 players in the US and 300,000 Xbox 360 HD DVD drives. 100,000 units were sold in Europe. And about 10,000 players and 20,000 recorders in Japan. So about 1,030,000 units worldwide.

Personally I found those numbers quite surprising – in that I thought there were more standalone players sold in the USA (and I am sure that some HD DVD supporters believed that there were many more, over 1 million was often seen on the forums).

So while Warner may have sunk the boat with their shot, it is clear that with only 600k units sold in the USA, Toshiba’s targets for HD DVD penetration were not being met…

Wal-mart to Phase Out HD DVD

Dave Cowl — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 17:21:43 +0000

We read over at Check Out Blog today that Wal-mart is moving to phase out HD DVD and to carry Blu-ray Discs and DVDs only.

The move will be reportedly in place by June 2008.

According to the recent NPD report, Wal-mart is the third largest seller of HD Media in the USA.

Check Out Blog claims to be "Dedicated to bringing you the latest in gadgets, green, gaming, and more, Check Out is written by a group of expert Wal-Mart Associates." – so while informal, this would seem to be a fairly official word from Wal-mart.

No related posts.

Best Buy to Favour Blu-ray Disc?

Dave Cowl — Mon, 11 Feb 2008 22:16:54 +0000

We read over at StreetInsider.com that Best Buy is taking a step forward in addressing consumer confusion about high-definition formats.

Beginning in early March, the leading consumer electronics retailer will prominently showcase Blu-ray hardware and software products in its Best Buy retail and online channels in the United States.

"Consumers have told us that they want us to help lead the way. We’ve listened to our customers, and we are responding. Best Buy will recommend Blu-ray as the preferred format," said Brian Dunn, Best Buy’s president and chief operating officer.

Dunn continued, "Best Buy has always believed that the customer will benefit from a widely-accepted single format that would offer advantages such as product compatibility and expanded content choices. Because we believe that Blu-ray is fast emerging as that single format, we have decided to focus on Blu-ray products."

The company noted that it will continue to carry an assortment of HD DVD products for customers who desire to purchase these products.

The Euro Trend to Blu-ray Exclusivity Continues…

Dave Cowl — Thu, 07 Feb 2008 17:18:20 +0000

We read over at Blu-ray.com of three more European distributors opting to release HD only on Blu-ray Disc.

Firstly, in Sweden, both SF and Scanbox have announced that they are scrapping all plans to release films on HD DVD, and will release exclusively on the Blu-ray format. We should see the first titles from Scanbox in the April time frame.

In Spain we read that Filmax will also release exclusively on Blu-ray Disc. While no release dates have been made public, Filmax is working on titles including ‘Resident Evil’, ‘Flyboys’, and ‘Million Dollar Baby’.

With the trend in Europe towards Blu-ray, and Japan having always been firmly in the Blu-ray camp, one has to wonder if the US will be the only market where HD DVD has any hope of survival…?

German Distributor Highlight Video to Become Blu-ray Exclusive

Dave Cowl — Mon, 04 Feb 2008 20:13:03 +0000

While my German is not great, this article at Cinefacts apparently says that German distributor Highlight Video will become Blu-ray exclusive.

Starting March 1st, the distributor will only release new titles in Blu-ray format and will also cease production of HD DVD titles currently in circulation.

It appears that the Warner decision to drop HD DVD was a major factor in this move.

Highlight Video has some titles on HD DVD that are Blu-ray exclusive in the USA – now might be a good time to grab these titles if you want them on HD DVD.

No related posts.

TDK to Discontinue HD DVD Recordable Media?

Dave Cowl — Fri, 01 Feb 2008 23:13:32 +0000

We read over at Warren Communications News that Imation will discontinue HD DVD media for their TDK brand. This will effectively make TDK Blu-ray exclusive.

While recordable media has not played much of a role in the USA, in Japan most of the ‘players’ sold are also recorders.

Warner Blu-ray and HD DVD Titles For Europe to Mid 2008

Dave Cowl — Tue, 22 Jan 2008 19:14:14 +0000

We read (as best we can) on areadvd.de some of the planned Warner releases in Europe between now and June.

For both formats we see Golden Compass, I am Legend, and the Dirty Harry series. This could be of interest to US HD DVD buyers since Golden Compass will probably not be released on HD DVD here in the USA.

We also see some ‘catch up’ titles for Blu-ray Disc including Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, V for Vendetta, Constantine and Batman Begins.

I expect that these catch up titles will get US releases also.

The Euro Trend to Blu-ray Exclusivity Continues…

CES HD DVD/Blu-ray Swag Giveaway

Tyler Pruitt — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 23:02:47 +0000

For those that didn’t attend CES 2008 with us, here is your chance to take home some great HD DVD/Blu-ray related Swag from the show.

Swag included in giveaway:

Dolby TrueHD Demo Disc (both HD DVD and Blu-ray versions)

DTS-HD MA Demo Disc (both HD DVD and Blu-ray versions)

Freedom 2 Anime HD DVD/DVD Twin Format Disc

Blu-ray Logo USB thumb drive (512 MB)

High Quality HD DVD/Toshiba Pen

Blu-ray Disc fold out pen

Blue LED THX flashing magnetic pendant.

Rules Rules Rules :

To enter giveaway you must make a comment in this post.

For fun tell us what format you support, what player(s) you have, and how many discs you own.

You must live in the US only, sorry but we hate waiting in line at the post office.

You must reply by Sunday night (Jan 20th) at Midnight Pacific Time.

IF you enter more than once, your entries will be voided! don’t cheat!

Winner will be picked at random via Random.org and contacted via email address used for comment.

No related posts.

European Distributor Senator to Cease HD DVD Distribution

Dave Cowl — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 19:57:22 +0000

We read over at EngadgetHD that Senator Entertainment will follow Constantin Film and will cease releasing HD DVD titles later this year.

While this has no direct impact on the US market, it was often touted that distributors like Senator offered region free HD DVDs of titles that were not available on the format in the USA.

No related posts.

HD DVD: A Chance to Speak “Clearly”

James Segars — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 18:37:41 +0000

While many are quick to call off the format war, HD DVD is not dead by any means. With over 1 Million players in the US, I think the underdog format still stands a chance, regardless of whatever current rumor is currently making its rounds.

As everyone sits and waits for an official response/retaliation from the HD DVD crowd, in addition to an official release slate for 2008, conjecture and speculation continue to run rampant.

Some will say that it is all for not. Others will say that there is still hope. If you feel as though you fall into the latter category, then here is your chance to prove it and demonstrate to the powers that be that YOUR voice has not been heard and that you have NOT "clearly chosen Blu-ray" as your format of choice.

No one likes being spoken for, so why should you?

Sign the petition, here.

[via EngadgetHD]

No related posts.

HBO to Follow the Warner Lead

Dave Cowl — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 02:42:25 +0000

Much as expected, HBO will follow the Time Warner line and wind down HD DVD production in 2008, according to this article at the Hollywood Reporter.

This leaves the BBC as the remaining unspoken for content from Time Warner in the USA, notable for the Planet Earth series which has been nothing short of remarkable in its sales on HD DVD.

Via HighDefDigest.

No related posts.

Toshiba Responds to the Warner News

Dave Cowl — Fri, 04 Jan 2008 23:54:30 +0000

Toshiba has responded in a press release to the news (see below) that Warner will stop releasing new titles on HD DVD in mid 2008.

In the press release Toshiba reaffirms their support of the HD DVD format and states that it is surprised by Warner’s decision.

Curiously they say that "HD DVD players and PCs have outsold Blu-ray in the US market in 2007", which perhaps needs some clarification since the sales of PCs would seem to dwarf the sales of HD DVD and Blu-ray altogether.

In any case it will be interesting to see what the HD DVD PRG and Toshiba do in the days ahead.

Sony Announces $399 40GB PS3 for the US Market

Dave Cowl — Thu, 18 Oct 2007 18:12:20 +0000

It is finally official. After international announcements of such a beast, Sony has formally announced the release of the non-PS2 compatible 40GB PS3 for the US market.

The new model will launch November 2nd and in will include a Blu-ray Disc of Spider-Man 3 in the box.

Sony also announced a $100 price reduction for the 80GB model, which now has a $499 MSRP.

Blu-ray to HD DVD Sales Ratio in Japan up to 9:1?

Dave Cowl — Tue, 02 Oct 2007 23:51:08 +0000

News from CEATEC 2007 in Japan indicates that the Blu-ray sales are as high as 9:1 and that there are no HD DVD titles in the top 10 titles.

Other slides in the presentation show increasing hardware support internationally for Blu-ray but little for HD DVD, and also indicate that Fujitsu has ended support for laptops with HD DVD in Japan.

It will be interesting to see how things continue in Japan, and how long Universal and Paramount decide to stay out of the Blu-ray market there. Being in the same region as the USA, Japan could be an interesting source of movies if the HD DVD exclusive studios decide to release in Blu-ray in Japan.

Warner, Why No HD DVD/DVD Combos in Japan?

Tyler Pruitt — Mon, 13 Aug 2007 20:15:21 +0000

We have a question for Warner Home Video. Why are you forcing us in North America to buy expensive HD DVD/DVD combo discs on your new releases? This situation is much different in Japan, as WHV Japan has both the Blu-ray and HD DVD priced the same as they are not using the Combo disc on any releases. We wonder how much of a difference this would make on the U.S. sales figures for titles like “300” and “The Departed“.

WHV Japan

Japanese Coverart: