[ort888]

Yeah, people are way to touchy about this stuff.

At any rate, a poster on another board I frequent works for Warner in their DVD authoring department.

The rumor he has heard (again, just a rumor, but it's coming from the inside) is that Warner didn't take a lump sum of cash, but rather got $350 million bucks worth of incentives to go Blu-ray.

So no, they didn't get a payout, but yes, there was a monetary reason to go exclusive.

[zerock]

anyway thanks to the warner announcement as said before, will make apple decide to go with bluray finally.

although.. i have a new mac and doubt ful i will buy one for a few years.. those lacie drives may come down in price... (wishful thinking)

[Lateralus]

Originally Posted by zerock 

anyway thanks to the warner announcement as said before, will make apple decide to go with bluray finally.

Apple has been on the Blu-ray wagon from the start.

Originally Posted by zerock 

although.. i have a new mac and doubt ful i will buy one for a few years.. those lacie drives may come down in price... (wishful thinking)

Why don't you just build your own external?

You can buy the same drive and an equally nice enclosure for $300~ from NewEgg.

[Eug]

Originally Posted by analogue SPRINKLES 

Not really champ. You bought an xbox for $400 + $200 for the Hd-DVD player and YOU NEVER PLAY GAMES ON IT!
You spent more on that glorified HD-DVD player than it would have cost you to get a PS3.

You don't get it. I want a standalone, because I'm less than enthused about using a console as my primary player.

P.S. I bought the Xbox 360 initially not because of HD DVD, but for:

1) iTunes streaming and iPod music playback
2) Xbox Live Arcade
3) Xbox 360 gaming.

...and because I got a whole bunch of Future Shop gift cards on my birthday. (Remember, I bought my 360 in the spring.)

I didn't get HD DVD until 8 months later, because it came out for, you guessed it, $199. Otherwise I wouldn't have bothered.

I don't see what is better about that sorry.

Apparently.

[Kerrigan]

Not only is one a loser for caring this much about high def formats, but the least one could do is pick the winner instead of becoming a loser again on yet another level.

[Oversoul]

I think we need to stop trying to sell Eug on a PS3. He's already stated he'll go Blu when a Profile 1.1 or 2.0 player is available for $199. Even with the added clarity following Warner's announcement, there are going to be people still on the fence waiting for the right specs, price, or titles. It's just a matter of time.

[goMac]

Originally Posted by PaperNotes 

Oh shut up. They didn't need payment. They looked at the sales and it was always getting better for Blu-ray. Please go back to your Nintendo and never buy a Mac with Blu-ray in it if you hate it so much.

Care to revise that statement in light of the other information posted in this thread? I don't think the payment was Warner's primary motivation, but what you are suggesting is they were stupid enough not to take the money offered to them.

Today I wrote Warner and told them that I won't be buying any Bluray discs from them. I actually don't plan on buying Bluray discs at all. In fact, I wouldn't have supported HD-DVD if it wasn't for managed copy. With all this I'm back to digital downloads. I don't plan on putting up with Sony when they start re-enabling region coding, and when managed copy dies a quiet death. Have fun repurchasing all your content next time around, everyone.

Edit: Hey! Look's like it's already started. Sony has raised the price of the BDP-S300 back to $400.
Category Page Blu-ray Disc Players

[starman]

LOL. You actually wrote to them to tell them that? I'll bet they frame it.

[Oversoul]

Originally Posted by goMac 

Care to revise that statement in light of the other information posted in this thread? I don't think the payment was Warner's primary motivation, but what you are suggesting is they were stupid enough not to take the money offered to them.

All I've seen are rumors and hearsay from someone with a supposed trusted inside source who was allegedly close to the negotiations. On the other hand, Warner's president is on record as denying that anywhere in upwards of $500M was exchanged for Blu-ray exclusivity. Contrast this with Paramount promptly acknowledging that cash was given as "promotional consideration" for their exclusivity.

Even if cash was given to Warner, it's really a matter of HD DVD calling the kettle black because (1) they were the ones to do it first with Paramount and Dreamworks, and (2) if the rumors are to be believed, then HD DVD was courting both Warner and Fox with offers (likely in the form of more payments) to go red. HD DVD just got beat at their own game and now they're crying sour grapes.

I'm inclined to believe Warner's president when he's on record as saying no cash was exchanged in the deal over vague rumors and hearsay. Especially so because as a publicly traded company such a payment would be reported on its financial statements. Again, I'm not saying no incentives were given to Warner (I fully expect there were), but stop believing every desperate bit of speculation out there and spouting it as fact.

Originally Posted by goMac 

Today I wrote Warner and told them that I won't be buying any Bluray discs from them. I actually don't plan on buying Bluray discs at all. In fact, I wouldn't have supported HD-DVD if it wasn't for managed copy. With all this I'm back to digital downloads. I don't plan on putting up with Sony when they start re-enabling region coding, and when managed copy dies a quiet death. Have fun repurchasing all your content next time around, everyone.

Digital downloads don't have their own form of proprietary codecs and DRM?

Personally, I'd rather not have to keep buying hard drives on top of the movie download price (which Hollywood studios are likely to insist to be comparable to their physical media, as in the current bruhaha over iTunes pricing) to store a growing digital library especially with movies topping 10GB at a minimum. Or, for that matter, lose my entire library if I ever suffer a hard drive crash. That, and I'd actually like to have a physical copy of a movie I buy.

As for managed copy, it's party of the Blu-ray spec. Will Blu-ray support mandatory managed copy?. Yes, it's mandatory for Blu-ray movies and voluntary for hardware, but that hardly is the fault of Warner. Even so, I'm sure some crafty kid out there will figure out a way to crack Blu-ray's DRM sooner or later if making copies of your disc is that important.

Originally Posted by goMac 

Edit: Hey! Look's like it's already started. Sony has raised the price of the BDP-S300 back to $400.
Category Page Blu-ray Disc Players

Who buys from SonyStyle? That's Sony's official store, so of course they'll stick close to their MSRP. The player is available much cheaper elsewhere (Amazon, $316; Costco's BDP-S301, sub-$300).

[Chongo]

I'm going to wait for the 2.0 players to hit the stores before I buy a BD player. Like all the 1.0 player owners, I don't want to get stuck with a player that won't run the newest disks.

[Eug]

Originally Posted by exca1ibur 

When you put the disc in it automatically powers on so that's not an issue.

You don't want to think about leaving it on all the time.

[UPDATE: All the info I can find on the 40GB, says it uses 32.5% less power than these numbers. I calculated those numbers in bold. Link]

Regardless... Still you wouldn't want to leave that sucker running 24/7.

Average power consumption while playing games:
Wii - 17.8 watts
XBox 360 - 185.1 watts
PS3 - 193.6 [130.68]

Average power consumption (idle):
Wii - 13.5 watts
XBox 360 - 157.54 watts
PS3 - 177.17 [119.59]watts

Average power consumption (standby):
Wii (Connect24 off) - 1.3 watts
XBox 360 - 2.5 watts
PS3 - 1.9 [1.28]watts <- My personal option

Power Consumption Report

Holy crap. The Wii rocks.

And holy crap the Xbox 360 and PS3 waste energy. I'm impressed that the PS3 is as quiet as it is, considering the previous version actually uses more watts than even the power hungry 360.

My A2 uses 37 watts at idle, and not much more during playback. I keep it off though since when off it's less than 1 watt.

[goMac]

Originally Posted by Oversoul 

All I've seen are rumors and hearsay from someone with a supposed trusted inside source who was allegedly close to the negotiations. On the other hand, Warner's president is on record as denying that anywhere in upwards of $500M was exchanged for Blu-ray exclusivity. Contrast this with Paramount promptly acknowledging that cash was given as "promotional consideration" for their exclusivity.

Warner hasn't said they weren't paid off, and there are certainly a lot of rumors from different corners that they were.

Originally Posted by Oversoul 

Even if cash was given to Warner, it's really a matter of HD DVD calling the kettle black because (1) they were the ones to do it first with Paramount and Dreamworks, and (2) if the rumors are to be believed, then HD DVD was courting both Warner and Fox with offers (likely in the form of more payments) to go red. HD DVD just got beat at their own game and now they're crying sour grapes.

I realize that. I just am tired of this "holier than thou" attitude from the Bluray fanboys.

Originally Posted by Oversoul 

I'm inclined to believe Warner's president when he's on record as saying no cash was exchanged in the deal over vague rumors and hearsay. Again, I'm not saying no incentives were given to Warner (I fully expect there were), but stop believing every desperate bit of speculation out there and spouting it as fact.

He said the cash wasn't the reason that they switched, not that they didn't accept any cash.

Originally Posted by Oversoul 

Digital downloads don't have their own form of proprietary codecs and DRM?

I have confidence that something will be worked out. I hope that the movie studios learned from the experience of the music studios and DRM, and will hopefully come up with one shared format. Part of me hopes it will be something based on HDi.

I currently have investments in both iTunes and XBox Live. I'll be evaluating over the next several weeks what I want to do. Currently it's down to iTunes + Apple TV vs. Windows Media Center + XBox vs. Amazon Unbox + TiVo. I hate to say it but Apple is kind of behind on this. Unbox is already compatible with Windows Media Center and the XBox. I really would hate to get a Windows machine, so I'll see what Apple has in store...

Originally Posted by Oversoul 

Personally, I'd rather not have to keep buying hard drives on top of the movie download price (which Hollywood studios are likely to insist to be comparable to their physical media, as in the current bruhaha over iTunes pricing) to store a growing digital library especially with movies topping 10GB at a minimum. Or lose my entire library if I ever suffer a hard drive crash. That, and I'd actually like to have a physical copy of a movie I buy.

People said the same thing about digital music when that started up. In a few years, hard drives will be pretty standardly in the 4-8 terrabyte range and it will be a foregone conclusion. I'm already planning on buying a Mac Pro with 4 drives. Before I was going to work out a way to rip HD-DVD's onto it, but now I'm going to have to change content sources. If managed copy software ever gets released on the HD-DVD front for Mac, I'll buy some HD-DVD's and rip those, but that doesn't look so likely anymore...

Originally Posted by Oversoul 

As for managed copy, it's party of the Blu-ray spec. Blu-ray.com - Blu-ray FAQ. Yes, it's mandatory for Blu-ray movies and voluntary for hardware, but that hardly is the fault of Warner. Even so, I'm sure some crafty kid out there will figure out a way to crack Blu-ray's DRM sooner or later if making copies of your disc is that important.

I have a feeling it will quickly be buried. The only reason they put it in the spec is because they were competing with HD-DVD. With HD-DVD gone I don't think they'll complete it. If they do, I'll reconsider.

Ripping for me is not a great solution. The advantage of managed copy was you got the entire disc, including menus and extras. The only advantage to ripping is I'd be getting the 1080p version of the movie, but digital downloads would save me a trip to the store while providing me with the same content.

My wish list to Apple at this point basically consists of:
• 720p with 5.1 just like XBox Live.
• Downloading of content from the AppleTV.
• Automatic downloading of season passes on the AppleTV.

[Eug]

Originally Posted by Chongo 

I'm going to wait for the 2.0 players to hit the stores before I buy a BD player. Like all the 1.0 player owners, I don't want to get stuck with a player that won't run the newest disks.

I figure we'll be waiting forever if we wait for a half decent low-priced 2.0 player.

Originally Posted by Oversoul 

All I've seen are rumors and hearsay from someone with a supposed trusted inside source who was allegedly close to the negotiations. On the other hand, Warner's president is on record as denying that anywhere in upwards of $500M was exchanged for Blu-ray exclusivity. Contrast this with Paramount promptly acknowledging that cash was given as "promotional consideration" for their exclusivity.

Even if cash was given to Warner, it's really a matter of HD DVD calling the kettle black because (1) they were the ones to do it first with Paramount and Dreamworks

True story (from several months ago):

Reporter: Did you accept promotional incentives from Blu-ray for your exclusivity?
Disney: I'm not gonna comment on that.
Reporter: So does that mean you're denying you got incentives?
Disney: I didn't say that. I'm not denying it. I'm just not commenting on that.

[Oversoul]

Originally Posted by goMac 

Warner hasn't said they weren't paid off, and there are certainly a lot of rumors from different corners that they were.
...
He said the cash wasn't the reason that they switched, not that they didn't accept any cash.

Except that they have said they weren't paid off.

From Warner: No Payoff for Move to Blu-ray | High-Def Digest

Warner Home Entertainment President Kevin Tsujihara says the studio took no pay-offs to exclusively back Blu-ray.

In a post-announcement conference call, Tsujihara flatly denied rumors that studio had accepted anywhere from 250M to $500M in exchange for dropping its HD DVD format support.

And from Engadget HD

[O]n a recent conference call when asked about any "compensation" Kevin Tsujihara, president, Warner Bros. Home Entertainment Group said that it "was not a bidding war" and that it really came down to Q4 sales, specifically in the International markets -- then he wanted to know if we had any idea where they could collect the $500 Million.

Originally Posted by Eug 

True story (from several months ago):

Reporter: Did you accept promotional incentives from Blu-ray for your exclusivity?
Disney: I'm not gonna comment on that.
Reporter: So does that mean you're denying you got incentives?
Disney: I didn't say that. I'm not denying it. I'm just not commenting on that.

See, that's what I mean. If Warner did accept a pay-off, they could just say "No comment." It's neither an answer nor denial and it's always done by company officers and their PR people. But Warner's president went on record denying that Warner took no pay offs for their exclusivity. I'll give that a little more veracity. Note, however, Tsujihara denies Warner accepted any pecuniary pay off, but this doesn't mean Warner isn't getting some sweet incentives that will save Warner the same cash equivalent.

[icruise]