Universal confirms "no plans to support Blu-ray"

As the next generation format war between Blu-ray and HD DVD continues to rumble on, Pocket-lint sat down over email with Ken Graffeo, excutive vice president, HD DVD Strategic Marketing for Universal, the only studio to singularly back Toshiba's HD DVD format from the start.

Is HD DVD going to win over Blu-ray? What does the future hold? How does the company feel about Paramount and Dreamworks coming on board? And will it ever release Blu-ray movies?

[beavis4play]

universal answers questions like a company that's wearing a brand new 150 million dollar money hat. funny how the interviewer didn't ask about that?

[lawman1108]

Case in point, I have a PS3 and I still bought two Toshiba HD players last Friday. The A2 for $99 @ Walmart and the A3 @ Circuit City for $199 and that came with 7 free HD dvds. People care about cost bottom line, I got mine so I have each no matter who wins. I would also like to add that NEITHER format will will unless they lower the price to the $20 dollar range for the HD/BR DVDs I refuse to pay more then $20 bucks for ANY dvd. I also HATE that new 360/PS# games are $60 bucks too.

[blackmagic]

You're thinking of Paramount/Dreamworks not Universal.

[godofthunder10]

how dom can people be,i like to know the name to all the people that belives sony didn't give the movie companies any accentive and the funny part never lie to them because i like george said i have some ocean front property in arizona i like to sell them.
the people that says crap like this are just sony fans that are bias hell they lied about the ps1 and 2.they showed a game footage before the ps2 came out and said that it was the real game play footage but after the ps2 was released,the game didn't look at all like the footage,it was found out and proven to be true that it was prerendered and that's a fact.ther's no company in the world going to tell you the truth about any thing,so stop saying crap like that just because you have a ps3(i know you do by the way you talk about sony)and start having grownup conversations and debates instead of lieing your a** off because it's sony and you're bias,hell i like microsoft but i want lie for them.
if it wasn't for the ps3 then br would've lost already because they can't sell any stand alone dvd players and that's a fact and i don't care who wins the format war because neither is making a dent in the dvds sell and if they don't start selling a lot more hd-dvds and brs disks by the end of next year then they both might loose because they can't keep making them and loosing money year after year.

[Ignorant Fanboy]

"How dom can people be"

People can be really dom sometimes, but dont call them stipud, it makes you look bad.

[gamesblow]

So, basically Universal is being SMACKS about the format war... That's nice. I just own't support Universal now. Fine with me. I mean, look at it this way... Blu-ray "as of right now" has this biggest install and fan base and consumer base. < Notice I said "RIGHT NOW" Universal obviously doesn't care about 64% of the market, cause that's what the ratio is to HD-dvd right now ... 64%, that leads me to believe Universal only cares about the big pay off and not the consumers who buy their movies. Or would be willing to buy their movies. I don't care who they support and when... I just want them to be honest is all. That's what we asked of Sony, right? To be honest... well, they have been as of late. I expect these companies to not insult our intelligence any longer. Universal will not get a dime from me on dvd - HD-dvd or Blu-ray "even if they decided to support it" now.

[xbox360migs]

The so called pay-off was paramount/dreamworks so your argument is unfounded, This is Universal. The bulk of Blu-ray sales are fueled by PS3 owners and for the movie industry games consoles alone are not going to secure the future major bulk sales for the next generation movie format, hence why attachment rates per player on HD DVD are nearly four-fold. The whole Blu-ray interactive saga had been a joke until now and should not have been....maybe thats what happens when you bypass the DVD forum which is there to protect consumers from such a thing. I do think that Blu-ray for the PS3 with games in mind is great though. I think you need to seriously reconsider the Sony honesty thing though because you may be in for a shock!

[blackmagic]

64% of what? How many copies of 300 sold on DVD compared to hd-dvd and blu-ray combined? What is it, 30 to 1 for dvd vs combined hd media sales?

[ArmrdChaos]

Maybe you should do a little math. HD makes up less than 10% of the TOTAL market so 64% of that is what...around 6.5% Yeah...I would say Universal is a lot more interested in that remaining 93.5%.

[Shadow Flare]

Their loss

[dragonZ28]

HD DVD is going to win - the writing is on the wall. Blu-Ray can't compete with the prices.

[Shadow Flare]

And thats exactly why HD-DVD is in the lead at the moment

-sarcasm-

HD-DVD can't compete with bluray's selection. In HMV in Uk the HD-DVD section is about a 1/3 the size of the bluray section. Let alone every single ps3 sold is another bluray player sold. Why do you think Michael Bay and Steven Spielberg wanted their films on bluray? Why do you think the Warner VP favoured Bluray much more? Cos it's losing???

[Vertius]

HMV here in Ireland don't even stock HD DVDs...

[duarteq]

The prices, hummm, are they making dumping ? ... Someone in USA should check that

[pornflakes]

Since years the price always wins.

[Vip3r]

I think selection play are more important roll than just the price. Anyway BDs are supposed to be coming down in price thanks to new manufacturing techniques.

[bumnut]

i will wait for a clear winner before i buy a hd player.

also, the films are way too expensive at the moment.

[EZCheez]

But off topic, if people expect Sony to manufacture the cheapest blu-ray player, then they will be waiting a while. Another manufacturer will beat Sony to the sub $200 price point for blu-ray, and that will help.

Look in the electronics section right now. Sony equipment is not in the bargain section.

[TheExodus]

Sony can't afford to have anyone manufacture a Blu-ray player that undercuts them because they're using profits from the electronics division to offset loses in gaming.

I'm sincerely hoping that it was simply arrogance that put the Blu-ray player in the PS3 & pride that's causing Sony to continue to cut prices, but to be honest as sales of the PS3 continue to falter I'm beginning to view Sony more as a drug dealer than a friend, "Don't worry about it buddy, first rock's on me!"

[EZCheez]

And regardless of who makes a blu-ray player, Sony will profit regardless because they helped engineer the technology.

[brothersimon]

HD wins, BR loses.

LAWLLLL

[WafflesID]

brilliant commentary there. Idiot.

[dragonZ28]

Up until last weekend, prices were too high on both formats. After the $98-$199 player prices, sales of HD DVD players have surged. Blu-Ray will feel the onslaught if they continue to be arrogant and ignore that this is bad for them.

Your mainstream consumers can now afford HD DVD, but not Blu-Ray.

[Ashta]

People still buy more Blu-Ray movies and considering that every PS3 sold is a Blu-Ray player I would say that HD-DVD is doing nothing to gain ground.

PS3 install base is nearly 6 million world wide and BR purchases and rentals completely stomp the hell out of HD-DVD purchases and rentals. The only place people have shown interest in HD-DVD is Netflix and ,despite what that company will claim, their actual market share is next to nothing.

As for the price of HD-DVD's? I kinda fell they have finally lowered the price to what the product is actually worth. I always felt it was a little steep to ask people to pay so much for something when it isn't really High Definition.

I can understand the more expensive Blu-Ray price because it actually supports uncompressed high-def digital audio and will produce a much clearer picture than HD-DVD. Sure, the interactivity is a bit lower than HD-DVD but Blu-Ray is the only real High Def format out there for consumers to purchase.

[EZCheez]

The A-2's are probably gone now, and the A-3's retail for $299. The A-2 at $99 was a steal, but not all of the players are that cheap. In fact now that the A-2's are all gone, there aren't any more HD-DVD players that cheap.

And regardless of how much the players are, the movies are still expensive for both formats. Expensive being translated as higher priced than a regular DVD.

[TheExodus]

Toshiba has to move a lot of product this Christmas, so I wouldn't be so quick to assume that the $99 price point is gone. Problem for Sony is that they're not going to be able to sustain the two-front war declared when Blu-ray was bundled with the PS3. Right now they're saddled with an ongoing fire sale in gaming that's being funded by uncompetitive prices in electronics. Blu-ray needs a substantial price-cut if it's going to continue to compete, but Sony needs the cash to try to save gaming.

[drewdrakes]

And the award for the stupidest comment ive ever read goes to...Ashta..stand up and take a bow.

"I can understand the more expensive Blu-Ray price because it actually supports uncompressed high-def digital audio and will produce a much clearer picture than HD-DVD."

Yes, Blu-ray's 1080p resolution looks so much better then HD DVD's 1080p resolution, way to go. From what ive seen on blu-ray there are unexplained pink blocks in the middle of a blu-ray movie, as well as artifacts. Ill give it the benefit of the doubt because its a store model, but i have to bust it out when you make stupid comments like that.

[lawman1108]

If the 360 had a HD player that format would be in the lead. The issue is price, just like people will not pay $600 bucks for a game system (hello PS3) people are NOT going to buy $400 BR dvd players when they can get a $99-$200 dollar HD DVD player. BOTTOM LINE....sorry fella

[xplosneer]

True about Xbox 360 would lead HD sales if a player was in there, but PS3 $600? Get out of July. I don't know many people who would buy a $299 HDDVD player over a 40GB PS3 if they were that tight.

[andy001]

Hmm, its not as if Universal has anything really compelling other than Bourne and Transformers at the moment.

When you look at what they have lined up for 2008 there is not a lot to impress, with only Hulk, Hellboy2, and Mummy 3 really standing out. That is 5 movies, big deal.

As Microsoft are so fond of saying, its all about choice, and no matter how cheap the players are, the choice isn't there. The other thing is that if the price for HD DVD is so low, then how can any other manufacturers come in and make a profitable player? I don't think Toshiba is doing HD DVD any favours at all with these tactics.

[Ashta]

You make a good point about the fact that Toshiba is slashing prices and there is no way that any manufacturing investment would make any profitable return. I may think that HD-DVD is worth jack **** but it's still an expensive technology.

What I find really funny is that the HD-DVD supporters (who just so happen to be 360 supporters) are praising this rabid string of price-cuts and claiming it to be "good business practice" yet when the PS3 took two price cuts to get down to $399 they saw it as an "act of desperation".

Whats the difference between the two scenarios? Well, the PS3 worldwide install base has already surpassed the 360 worldwide install base within the same 11 month time frame. The PS3 hasn't made an act of desperation despite the news spin that the gaming division had taken losses. You see....Sony isn't primarily a game company and has thus remained profitable even during the PS3 "lackluster release". However, Toshiba and the HD-DVD backers have had to rely on financial benefactors (Microsoft) to be able to keep up the format war by using millions of dollars in payouts to drop support of the Blu-Ray.

I would hope that intelligent people could see the difference in desperation and actual price reduction due to manufacturing costs but the HD-DVD fannies will just keep on swinging blindly until they realize they haven't hit the mark on anything.

[resonate]

I'm sure if you throw 150 million their way, you could get them to support vhs all over again.

[kingme71]

Now it's 70% of PS3 owners are clueless their player can play blu-ray movies? Last week an HD-DVD pundit said 60%. I guess a handful of PS3 owners forgot in the interim?

I would say those numbers are totally fabricated and since the 40GB model now comes with SpiderMan 3, all the new PS3 buyers will either think they have a neat new drink coaster or that the PS3 can play blu-ray movies.

I would say gamers are also movie watchers believe it or not, although considering the onslaught of holiday games coming out and into winter '08 there might not be enough time to watch movies :)

HD-DVD has an uphill battle. There is just no way to compete with the PS3 having a built in player.

[WafflesID]

Biggest reason I bought a PS? Blue-ray. I'm not going to lie. There aren't enough games for the PS3 to justify a purchase based on games alone. But the added ability of a blu-ray player (And I'm REALLY crossing my fingers that they introduce BD-Live compatibility down the road) makes it a great purchase.

[lawman1108]

I will use it as a drink coster thank you.

[dragonZ28]

The A3 player is $199 at Best Buy and Circuit City right now with 10 free movies. 2 in the box, 3 in store, and 5 by mail. Many retailers have sold out of the A3s since the public has gotten wind of the price drops, and Wal-Mart's advertising campaign.

[TheExodus]

$199 is really when DVD sales (players/software) blew through the stratosphere & that was Christmas '01. Seems that Toshiba has positioned HD-DVD to do the same this Christmas. I know not all studios are on board, but that really doesn't matter because in the end they'll publish their content on whatever format consumers chose & I find it extremely difficult to believe that anyone is going to leave a 5 year-old alone with a $399 slot-loading Blu-ray player, a stack of Disney BD-ROMs & a bag of "army men."

EDIT: @blusoops: LOL, but that wasn't my point. You can turn around for a split second to pick up the phone & by the time you refocus on those little buggers find the cat's tail sticking out of the VCR!

[blusoops]

I wouldn't leave a 5yr old alone at all!

[quen_gta2]

This is a business of making snap decisions for top dollar. Paramount and Dreamworks had NO PLAN to drop support of Blu-Ray, but they did.

[atlys]

i can't believe how many people have swallowed the pr bullsh1t. 11.1-> "As for the price of HD-DVD's? I kinda fell they have finally lowered the price to what the product is actually worth. I always felt it was a little steep to ask people to pay so much for something when it isn't really High Definition." all i can say is wow. since when hasn't 720p/1080i/1080p been high def? both hd dvd and blu-ray are based on the same blue laser technology, the only difference is in the disc. if somebody put a gun to your head and told you to accurately pick the blu-ray version from the hd dvd version running on two identical hdtv setups, you'd be screwed.

11.1->"[What I find really funny is that the HD-DVD supporters (who just so happen to be 360 supporters) are praising this rabid string of price-cuts and claiming it to be "good business practice" yet when the PS3 took two price cuts to get down to $399 they saw it as an "act of desperation".]" total flamebait, and utter rubbish. hd dvd has steadily come down in price during its lifespan due to competition from blu-ray and because of decreased manufacturing costs. the ps3 on the other hand, in 11 months has discontinued two models and dropped the price on existing models due to lack of consumer adaptation. that is desperation, don't get it twisted.

honestly, its way to early to be slinging mud like this. dvd9 is still king and will be until people feel comfortable taking the risk of upgrading. the same thing happened with dvd in its infancy and you know when people upgraded? when the price was right. that's what the $99 price tag on the A2 is all about. lowering the risk in order to get consumers to switch. and guess what, its working.

on a completely different note, can someone explain to me why so many people were giving paramount sh1t over not having 7.1 uncompressed audio on the transformers hd dvd when sony didn't include it on the spiderman 3 blu-ray or the trilogy package. http://bluray.highdefdigest...

[andy001]

I have the PAL version of Spiderman 3 and it includes an uncompressed soundtrack, so I am not sure that you read the article correctly. The other two movies in the trilogy do not have uncompressed soundtracks.

Here is the quote

"Although all three films receive Dolby TrueHD options, 'Spider-Man 3' is the only one to also include an uncompressed PCM track. Additionally, technical information provided to us by Sony reveals that although the TrueHD tracks for all three films are encoded at 48kHz/24-bit, the actual master sources for 'Spider-Man 2' and 'Spider-Man 3' are 48kHz/24-bit, while the original 'Spider-Man' is and 48kHz/16-bit. (In other words, the first film is an upconvert.)"

Personally, I am not too fond of buying the older movies and seeing them on Blu Ray, partly because I am not sure that the masters they are working on are good enough quality. I would reather just concentrate on the new movies which will hopefully have the quality which makes Blu Ray so great. Similar with upscaling, if the information isn't there on the film or in the soundtrack, you can't put it in afterwards, and therefore I believe you will get movies of lesser quality.

The issue with Transformers isn't whether they included the track or not, it is that they used the excuse of not enough space, which does not bode well for the future when you consider movies like LOTR extended versions.

[lilwingman]

So Universal is not supporting Blu-Ray... wait a sec, is this news?

[ironwolf]

Could it be because......it didn't manage to even match Transformers first day sales? In fact its overall first day sales were only a third of Transformers'. Yup, thats gonna shift some units, right there, I tell ya.

[cr33ping_death]

ah but the majority of the transformers sales where from dvds not HD DVDS

[andy001]

I'll bring it up for you. Spiderman 3 was available in the UK weeks before the states, and therefore will have effected first day sales (assuming they are talking worldwide with their numbers).

Also, Spiderman 3 had two releases at the same time, as part of the Spiderman trilogy and also the Spiderman 3 release. This will obviously split the numbers.

Other than that, what can I say? Still waiting for Die Hard 4 to arrive, and waiting for the release of Pirates 3 and Harry Potter 5, so I am doing my bit :o)

[chester]

also, spiderman 3 was an absolutely brutal end to the trilogy and most people hated it. so that could have something to do with it.

[ApocalypseShadow]

but to those that say that sony did the same thing by discontinuing 20 and 60 gigs and drastically dropping prices to compete with toshiba and hd-dvd:

sony did not discontinue the 20gig and sell it for $99.
sony did not discontinue the 60gig and sell it for $99.

show me anywhere with links that show sony dropped their systems to bargain bin prices?show me FUD pushers.....

high end ps3(60gig) at launch-$599
low end ps3(20gig) at launch-$499

high end ps3(80gig) now-$499
low end ps3(40gig) now-$399

seems the systems only dropped by $100 dollars.sony obviously couldn't sell the low end and high end for the same price.

sorry FUD pushers,this is different than RETAILERS selling an hd-dvd player for $99 at best buy.then when they run out,they replace it with a $299 version and sell it for $99 too.that is dumping.plain and simple.and nowhere near what sony has done with mass manufacturing and removal of parts to obtain current prices.

mag lev..................you lying FUD pushers...............

[HarryEtTubMan]

By just the end of this year there will be over about 7 million blu ray players out just because of PS3. Not even including Stand alone players... You guys are delusional... HD DVD will never outsell the PS3 in sales... and PS3 sales are skyrocketing and imagine next year... and the next and the next... when the PS3 is done selling there will be almost 100 million Bluray players in the world... we don't know maybe more. No little standalone HD DVD player ca do that. Universal loss if they don't want to change but they will be FORCED to in not that long... give it a few more years.

[PimpHandHappy]

for 17.99 on blueray

thats a deal

also got Spidey for 30

[WafflesID]

The hd-dvd drive for the 360 is nice to have, but I REALLY want my uncompressed PCM and Dolby TrueHD for my hd-dvd movies.

[Marty8370]

The 360 HD DVD Drive does'nt support uncompressed PCM & Dolby TrueHD. Anyone wanting that audio support should have bought a PS3. That simple. :)

[tk]

The PS3 will ensure a steady stream of BR players. There will be a market for BR disks as long as the PS3 is being sold. HD-DVD on the other hand is a bit in the doldrums. Except for a few titles compared to DVD - and compared to exclusives on BR, it has little going for it.

Universal will move when the market for HD-DVD becomes too small. It will be a very short time frame difference for them to write the content to BR instead of HD-DVD. All they can argue is which side they favor - not which side will win outright - because BR will not loose outright to HD-DVD. There is three options open -
1) BR wins outright - all publishers move to BR
2) HD-DVD and BR co-exist for the duration of the format war
3) Dual format players unifies the two formats

There is not the chance of HD-DVD winning outright.

[Mwaan]

You're a little biased. Pretty much everyone here is. It could still go either way. What if HD DVD came standared with PC's? What if HD DVD continues to stay one step ahead of Blueray with their price point? What if other studios are persuaded to go HD DVD exclusive? Sony hands out the money hats too. That's how they got so many exclusives so fast. How many PS3 owners are actually buying Blueray movies? That's a legitimate question. I don't care who wins. I just want it to be over.

[Pain]

Wait and see If PS3 is 400 and that plays game and all that stuff then 200 for a stand alome BD player
is inevatable that and therr the 200 sweet spot thing for players >.> and wee all KNOW therrs going to be one.

place yur bets kids "Hi-Rez dvd" is dead by spring and yes i said Hi-Rez Dvd Not Hi-def cuz thats all
hddvd is 1080i wooooooooo........

[ironwolf]

The sub-$200 players are 1080i. The high end players are 1080p with more features than blu-ray and are STILL cheaper.

[Pain]

Cuz as long as therr is a deference between ther -200 and +200 Hd player And most people r cheap
they will be getting the 1080i machine.

and these more feature hddvd has can u list them? cuz i cant think of any aside from price for time bieng and lack of bieng good.

[pwnsause]

http://gghd-dvd.ytmnd.com/

hahahahahahahahaha ROFL!!111

[Primetimebt]

The truth is Mircosoft and Universal both share NBC together so Universal will never support Blu Ray as long as M$ isn't supporting it.

[predator]

still havent decided which one to get

[Mars Attacker]

Being gamers this may come as a surprise to some here, but the vast majority of people don't want to use a game console to play movies on. Given a choice between a video game console and a dedicated (appliance) player the dedicated player is a no-brainer.

The PS3 will have little or no effect on the final outcome of this battle. Right now the combined sales of BR and HD DVD is a fart in a windstorm compared to regular DVDs. Sony must start selling cheap dedicated players FAST.

The Chinese have rejected BR completely and they are about to drop the HD DVD bomb. By next fall every $75+ Chinese DVD player will also be an HD DVD player with HDMI 1080P at no extra cost. We'll see who's winning the HD disk sales at that point.

[Gahigiddy]

"No plans to make money"

[Megaton]

Edit - *deletes incorrect post*

lol @ me for mixing up movie corporations.

[Baron79]

That was Paramount\Dreamworks that got a "rumored" $150 million dollar payoff not Universal. Universal was always HD-DVD exclusive , they picked the winning format years ago. Do you have any idea what your talking about?

[Megaton]

Apparently not. My bad, wrong company.

Edit - Oh, but you can clear out the "rumored" part of your post, as well as the "they picked the winning format years ago" part.

[Shaka2K6]

Who cares about universal.

[darkvenom]

Blu-Ray is in a commanding lead and shows no sign of giving up first place,Universal better rethink their strategy or else they're going to lose money.