Wednesday, November 21st 2007
Warner to Abandon Total HD Project
Apparently the "why can't we all get along" mentality does not apply to the current HD format war. While Blu-ray admits a stalemate and HD-DVD players get cheap, Warner Brothers was hoping to promote a "Total HD" format, which would play on both players until either Blu-ray or HD-DVD was chosen. However, without many other studios supporting this format, Warner Brothers felt like this project did not have much merit. And so, they have at this point abandoned it, and plan to simply release their movies in both formats, a move most other studios refuse to do. Jim Noonan, Senior Vice President of Warner Brothers Entertainment Group, explains the economics of this move in Layman's terms.
Source:
Xbit Labs
For the moment, the [Total HD] is on hold. We're the only studio producing content in both formats. If we were to put out Total HD with just our titles, it wouldn't really provide the solution to our retail partners that it was intended to provide. If anything, at this point, it would further complicate their life, because there would be another product looking for shelf space. Our job is not to further complicate the lives of our retailers.
6 Comments on Warner to Abandon Total HD Project
Probably a smart move in the long run, it will be easier for manufactures to create a dual format (technically quad if you include cd and dvd) player.