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HD DVD: Stumbling out of the Gate

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Warner Home Video, the only studio which had a firm release date for any HD DVD titles — March 28 — has now told retailers that the date isn’t so firm after all. Worse yet, they really aren’t sure when they’re gonna release those titles.

“To be honest, the outlook is tenuous — we’re still coming out with an initial slate, but we may be a week or two later; we just don’t know,” division president Ron Sanders said.

Translation: don’t look for any HD-DVD movies before Easter, or maybe even Memorial Day. Fourth of July? Meanwhile, the big mass market retailers are reportedly canceling pre-orders and changing ad campaigns to compensate for the lack of product. And no other studios had even announced actual release dates. Even without the format wars, this would be a less than auspicious beginning.
Meanwhile, Toshiba, the only manufacturer to even make the players right now (though LG just announced their dual player), is going to be all dressed up with nowhere to go.

And nowhere seems to be where the format is headed right now.

Hi Def DVD Roundup: March 05, 2006

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Because we love nothing more than to watch major corporations kill a good idea with a bunch of petty squabbling, here is some of the recent news on the HD DVD front . . .

Philips to Introduce Blu-ray Disc Products and Media – Philips is, of course, one of the big Blu-ray heavyweights, and they are going to announce a player, a PC drive and new writable media. None of which, of course, will be inexpensive.
Subpar wars: high-resolution-disc formats fight each other, consumers push back – Here’s a hardcore techhie look at both formats, the issues surrounding the formats, and why the copy protection schemes could sink both.

Toshiba Plans HD DVD Marketing Blitz: Because nothing says “please choose our next generation HD DVD format over Sony’s” like a tour of the United States. Tickets are available at Tickmaster, I guess. This major corporation’s tour is sponsored, strangely enough, by The Rolling Stones.

LG Kills Blu-ray model, considers combo player – Just two months after showing it off at CES, LG has decided to kill its Blu-ray only HD DVD player, considering a dual-format player, instead. This might be the type of thinking that will actually save HD DVD: keeping the fallout of the format wars away from the consumer. Y’all remember the consumer, right? Right?