Warner paid 500$ to be BR exclusive !!!

[Borkachev]

It may have won the battle between the two hd formats, but I still think it does not have a future. As someone who has bought around a thousand dvds over the last decade, I can tell you in all certainty I will be damned if I ever buy a BluRay product. Not only because of my disdain for Sony, but having purchased quite a few HDDVD's I have realized that HD is just not worth it (and yes, I've got 1080p). I am not replacing my movie library again just so I can see moles on peoples skin and such - dvds are most certainly good enough. Considering I actually took the plunge and have come up with this conclusion, I can imagine that it will be rejected by most casual dvd buyers. I know quite a few people who did not give up on their vhs until the last couple of years. To convince them that they have to start all over again for not that much advancement is folly. I feel quite confident that by the time the dvd market has played out, the technology for downloading will be in place. I think there are other factors at play here such as the world's march towards going green. The millions upon millions of plastic wrapped paper and plastic cases that will not have to be manufactured and shipped, not to mention that our gas prices keep going up and when one can save a trip to the store with a few clicks over the internet, I absolutely think a push for downloading will be embraced. Also with a likely recession in place or on the way, I think this will futher impede any embracement of higher priced HD product, not excluding the big tvs and perhaps the more expensive of the video game consoles. Temporary - yes, but any delay of full embracement of the hd format is just another day closer toward downloading.

And you are correct to point out the cd vs. downloading market. Yes cd's still sell millions, but the argument should be that it is actually dvds that will continue to sell millions during the period of the physical distribution's decline. The decline is already beginning. Look at the video rental stores closing left and right, the vast bargin dvd bins in most stores. I think the dvd industry is just grasping at straws in hopes of avoiding what the music industry is going through now. I am sure 10-15 years ago, very few, myself included would believe the state the music industry is in right now. I thought when I first starting hearing about music downloading that it would be a fad and who would want to give up the liner notes and album art. The movie industry doesn't even have that going for them - it is just a matter of time.

The HD formats are never going to be as popular as DVD, no. But that doesn't mean there's "no future" for them. A significant number of high-end consumers are going to want hi-def movies, and when prices drop to the level of DVDs over the next few years and HDTV penetration becomes total, many casual consumers will make the move too. 25% of the home video market is realistic, I would guess, and they may well do better than that in the end. That would be a huge success, and everyone involved would profit. Remember, laserdisk was considered a successful (if niche) product, and the HD formats are already more mainstream than that ever was in terms of things like retailer shelf space. They have nowhere to go but up.

And DVDs aren't in "decline." Not even close. Yes, DVD sales in the US in 2007 dropped a whole 4.5 percent after plateauing for the last few years, but that's easily explained between the drop in the US economy and the shifting of sales to the HD formats. DVDs being available in every store and in bargain bins for cheap is a sign of their success, not their decline.

As for downloadable solutions, they're coming, but not as fast as you imagine. I expect downloadable movie rentals will become the norm before long, but for actual purchases, most people aren't ready to give up their physical format. We like to have a piece of plastic to hold and read and put on the shelf. That won't change in the foreseeable future -- at least a decade, probably two. BluRay will have run its course by then.

Now, about WB's payoff, I seriously doubt it. 500 million is a ludicrous amount of money, which the bribers would have little hope of ever recovering. And why bother, when BluRay already seemed to be on course to win this war?

According to this report, Warner has been promised $500 for their support of Bluray and dropping HD DVD! Yes, that's HALF A BILLION DOLLARS!!

Actually, that's half a thousand dollars. That's an amount I'm more inclined to believe, come to think of it. But this mistake, and the generally childish, tabloid-esque writing style of the post confirms that I shouldn't put a lot of faith in this source.

Them denying it makes it fake? Boy there are a lot of innocent people in jails around the world then.

This wouldn't be an illegal transaction if it happened. WB aren't criminals, they're a publicly traded corporation, meaning that hiding a deal like this would be illegal. 500 million dollars doesn't just show up in a major corporation's bank account without anybody asking questions.