Breaking: Paramount/Dreamworks go HDDVD exclusive

08-20-07: Rysa4
I think that this is a retread of an old article. Is this new news...I don't think so.

This article refers to the press release in question as "this morning's shocking revelation," which, if you'll notice, is dated today.

Plus, the article specifically mentions a reversal of policy for the format release of Blades of Glory. It also means that two of the biggest grossers this year will be released exclusively on HD DVD.

Some of the HD DVDs are hybrids and can be played on both std. DVD players and HD DVD players. My Letters from Iwo Jima is this way and I've seen others.

This would enable studios to support hi-def releases while having just one SKU per DVD title. Can Blu-ray do this too? If they can, so far they're not.

And if there are millions of owners of Chinese HD DVD players, I would suspect some percentage of them would start screaming to the suppliers to put out more HD DVD titles.

If the HD DVD customer base grows large enough, creating the demand, that should supersede questions of ownership, who pays royalties to whom, and studio alliances.

After all, even Sony eventually threw in the towel and started making VHS machines in 1989.

The requirement to make this scenario happen is that the Wal-mart HD DVD players have to work well and reliably.

Again, HD DVD also has the advantage of making hybrid disks, so one SKU covers both the standard and hi-def markets.