HD-DVD Winning the European Race

The Sony backed Blu-ray format has been dealt a blow by the news that a number of independent European studios have decided to release films primarily on Toshiba's HD-DVD format.

[SmokeyMcBear]

interesting, sound like sony has a whatever, we're sony and you're gonna do what we tell you, and the HD-DVD camp, going out of there way to help out independant studios. Anyone know which movies are from these studios, any must haves?

[zonetrooper5]

This could prove intersting considering there are many movies from Bollywood lol i know you might be laughing at that but it could help the sales of HD-DVD.

[FordGTGuy]

Because the way Sony was talking about how Blu-Ray was winning a while ago that HD-DVD would be dead but it looks like its holding its on. Who will be the winner? I have no idea but I don't really care because i'm not investing into either until there is a winner.

[Black Republican]

hd dvd and blu-ray

should just do a
paper - scissors - rock -- LOL

because i want a damn hd player, but i wont purchase one until one is the official format/standard.

[SimmoUK]

Talking about clutching at straws, these are small independent studios with title's no one's ever heard of, the main factor is that the big studios with films that more than a handfull of people are going to buy are backing Blu-Ray...

"Sony" has never said it's winning the format race the studio's backing it and the press have said that, ever since they took over in sales figures this is going to change nothing...

[techie]

Pathe is a huge studio in France...the produce nearly everything that comes out of there. I was a bit surprised to see that personally.

[freeza]

SmokeyMcBearc did you even read the article

[SmokeyMcBear]

uh yup, all two paragraphs of it, whats your point? I was asking if there are any need to have movies from those stuidos? Me being an american, I have absolutely no idea what studios those are.

[ThaGeNeCySt]

*shrugs*

[SimmoUK]

Agreed deepbrown but there hardly worldwide studios, i meen a handful in comparison to other motion picture studios...

I'll get back to you soon deepbrown i'm on my laptop at the moment, the new heavenly sword pictures caught my eye...

[FordGTGuy]

exist that doesn't mean the movies are any good. Remember when people buy movies they aren't looking at the studios they are looking at the actually movies. Here are a few movies made by studios you would call small but are great movies:

Crank, 28 Days Later(couldn't even film in London during day they had to do all the day shots at night), Ong Bak, and Tom-Yum-Gong(you might know it better as The Protector)(I own the original versions of both Ong Bak and Tom-Yum-Gong not the American versions).

[Monchichi025]

Dude, do you just mention "28 Days Later" as a Great Movie????? That has to be the DUMBEST COMMENT ever made on this site
!!!!!!

That was the absolute WORST MOVIE EVER!!!!! I can't even express how terrible it was. Look great in previews, but when I seen it I was disgusted. First time in my life I heard everyone Boo and throw popcorn at the screen after a movie was over in the theater.

You sir, have lost all N4G credibility for that comment!!!

[Robert22388]

I know you're enjoying your random rant on how much you hate 28 days later, but did it ever occur to you that your distaste of it has absolutely nothing to do with this topic or the disaster that was HDDVD?

(Like how I snuck that in there?)

;)

[artman]

People buy HD-DVD or Bluray are expecting good quality pictures, HQ sound mastering and features... I'm not sure that these indipendent studios are meets the quality standard of High-end Home Theater~

nice try HD-DVD ... but still not on the right track.

[BlackCountryBob]

My point all along has been that if HD-DVD becomes dominant in Europe while Blu Ray takes USA how long will it take Sony, Disney et al in the Blu Ray camp to begin releasing on HD DVD in Europe? I can't imagine they would be so entrenched as to try an keep pushing BluRay with no sales in Europe which is a massive market almost as big as the USA one, they couldn't afford for their movies to not be selling here! Surely in this event the hybrid format would become an absolute inevitability.

Studio canal make some great movies but Pathe is an interesting one as most of their movies are distributed by Fox or Lionsgate in the US such as Resident Evil, The Descent and Sleepy Hollow, I guess they will get a release on a second format! Cool

[overrated]

Studio Canal and Filmax

there some of the big hitters, ive never heard of them -.-

[techie]

Oh studio Canal as well. Well they are quite big heavy hitters in Europe...shame some of you guys only think American studios are the ones that matter....perhaps in sales...but the quality of European films are great. Beyond this Hollywood stuff we get.

Anyway sounds like they're on the fence and would go either way...

[Hayabusa 117]

Exactly. Bollywood makes more movies than Holloywood. Fact! This is about which Format will become then norm. And, hasn't Hollywood film sales been declining of late? (Their quality certainly has)

I'm not saying HD DVD will win, only that it's not all about Fox and Warner Bros.

[HokieFan]

Deepbrown - Since you're in Europe, can you give me some insight into the percentage of movies in theaters that come from US studios vs European / Other studios? I was in Paris on my honeymoon a few months ago and every theater I passed seemed to have basically the same movies that were in the US theaters. Unfortunately at the time in was "Snakes on a Plane"...and this made me realize why many people around the world think American cinema is crap. Anyway, I know there are countless quality movies that come from France and the UK...I'm just wondering what you would estimate the percentage to be.

[techie]

Sadly I'm in the UK and the tastes here are very Hollywood. We generally don't get the independent European films...if we do they are few and far between. There are lots of art-house cinemas that show the best from Europe and Bollywood. Oh we do get lots of UK films though...well most of the good ones.

It's funny...in the past before the rise of Hollywood...European films used to have the monopolly. I will say this though...these studios will not win the format war. As the sales will be minimal. People do buy European films on disc, but not as much as American films...and they are always very hard to find...If you want to find out just look at the sales of DVD's in Europe, you'll find your answer of how much of a impact this will make there.

Also form the sounds of the interview it seems they are just jumping on what came first, but they are flexible to move onto the other format. So there we go...America will be the country that decides the winner of the format war and the rest of the world will follow suit. Sadly, that's the way it goes.

But remember, Universal is the biggest studio in the States (is it not?)

Damn I'm rambling.

[HokieFan]

So, as a general statement, the UK has similar tastes in movies to Americans. That's too bad...Hollywood has gone way down hill...especially in the last several years. I think Snakes on a Plane is just a perfect example of how sad the state of American cinema is. I don't blame the studios though, it's a business and those are the types of movies that people pay to see. (No, I have not seen Snakes...I guess I can't bash it until I've seen it)

As for studio size, it depends on how you rate them. Universal probably has the largest library of movies, but recently Warner, Sony, and Disney (Buena Visa, MGM, etc) probably have most of the biggest box office movies. Universal tends to have smaller budget movies that are often very good, but not box office hits. Children of Men is a perfect example.

[kmis87]

It says that HDDVD is winning but gives no indications about sales figures? Give me a break. Casino Royale alone will sell more discs in Europe than all HDDVD releases to date combined.

However, it is still beneficial for HDDVD, as Studio Canal does have distribution rights for many Hollywood films in Europe.

[FeralPhoenix]

I've heard the Blu-ray camp/sponsors say so many times that HD DVD is dead and yet this suggests the war has many battlefronts left (old marketing trick, declare you've won and people might believe it=you've won).....hmmm, I wonder "if" and how long before digital distrubution can become mainstream? -I bet that would go a long way to both of them compromising with some kind of hybrid or whatever and the prices we definitely come down quickly.....thus, ending the WAR. -hey, I can dream, can't I -never say never...'cause you never know. -lol, damm I have to stop laughing at my own jokes. END.

[Dragonopolis]

This won't be a huge blow but it does slow down HD-DVD's death. Problem is is Europe will purchase both Hollywood/Bollywood Movies where Bollywood is not so popular in Americas. Asia area has their own but I believe Blu-ray will be strong over there. Also have to add the fact that Universal has made some poor early HD-DVD release decisions (come on Universal - Waterworld before Jurassic Park?) Pretty much sets the tone for where HD-DVD is going - the way of Betamax. (This was Sony's problem with betamax - no major studio support).

Yawnnnn. New story

[snoop_dizzle]

Its very possible that HD-DVD is doing good over there, and doing bad over here. But like deepbrown said, we might decide who wins the format war, so bluray might grab a hold of the European market. I say, forget the PS3 for bluray, or the 360 HDDVD drive get that LG(i beleive) multi blue player. Then agian thats just me, i have had bad experiences with console dvd players.

Oh deepbrown, ill give you a bubble cause you made a good point and my mom was born and raised in england.

I still want to know the ratio between DVD and Blu-ray though. I heard one anylist say that this is almost like the SACD and DVD audio war. Both were very good quality, but it didn't really take off. In fact it will probably be done by digital distribution in a few years. But who knows.

[xfrgtr]

European studios are nothing compared to Hollywood,europeans watch hollywood movies.
"However, “I am totally agnostic," he continues. "All the work we are doing on High Definition will be useful for making Blu-Ray discs if the Blu-Ray standard wins. It will be easy to change position."

[Laka]

Good news for HD DVD, bad news for Blu-Ray for sure. Stop twistng thing around. HD DVD and Blu-Ray can coexist. I think HD DVD will still hanging around and give Blu-Ray a run for their money.

[Babylonian]

That this is a bunch of ass crap. Blu-ray is going to come out as the winner in Europe, solely because of the PS3. Many people here don't even know that there's format war going on. Just wait and see what will happen, I think the most obvious is going to happen ;)............

[BIadestarX]

This can be translated to bad new for Sony in europe. One of the primary reasons why people are buying the PS3 is for blu-ray playback. The PS3 price tag is too high if blu-ray is out of the picture.

[JasonPC360PS3Wii]

I have alot of films from over seas they make up at least half of my collection.

[Loopy]

I used to live in France, and I know the market.
From a major retailer in France (fnac), I can see that there are more blu-ray titles than HD dvd title, to be exact, 121 over 109. Not exactly mindblowing, but it's a good start for blu-ray. And from what I browsed, those titles on blu-ray were better than those on hd-dvd.
So hd-dvd winning the market in europe? I think not.

[zonetrooper5]

I also thought that the P0rn industry was supporting HD-DVD instead of Blu-Ray or am i wrong?

[ITR]

I believe your correct.

I remember some porn owners trying to get their stuff pressed in blu-ray and they got told NO!.

If the Adult industry supports HD-DVD then most of everyone else will too. I can't see folks giving up p0rn.

I'm surprised MS didn't inlcude the HD-DVD player in with the Elite 360.

I think once the HD-DVD player drop's into the $200-300 range you'll see more adoption of the format.

[gta_cb]

im glad HD DVD arnt being pushed over by BluRay

[Robert22388]

"Independent" film studios? I bet half the people on here can't even name 5 AMERICAN independent studios let alone 5 EUROPEAN ones. Give me a break.

The HDDVD camp is digging up any and all news that involves its format without "losing to Bluray" in it, and spinning it like they are actually still involved in this race.

What's next?!

"An HDDVD player wins award, Bluray looses" - Oh wait, ALREADY SAW THAT ONE

How about

"HDDVD player sold in Best Buy next to subdivision in which a person was saved from a burning building, HDDVD WINS!!!"

Give me a break people.

[Says you]

HD DVD ass 9.2.

[xbox360migs]

things are swinging back again!! check out up to date statistics!

[Robert22388]

Your "Up to date statistics" are the ones the poster above us just mentioned.

All studies and statistics show that Bluray is outselling HDDVD by 9:2, or 4.5:1 if you want to be "exact."

Next time you tell people to look at "up to date statistics", post them to prove your point. (but since you obviously can't since there is a consensus among all these firms that Bluray is kicking HDDVD @ss on every level.

[gooner]

why?????????

[Robert22388]

I'm sorry, but who the hell buys physical porn anymore? It's called the internet people.

[gooner]

nvm

[Marty8370]

PS3 is seeing to that.

[kewlkat007]

Never heard of them...really