Download - HDTV Magazine

titles and free up shelf space as title formats are combined onto one disc, we
encourage a one-format platform. THD appears to be the best solution for retailers
and consumers in the near term, to eliminate consumer confusion and fear of
purchasing a player for using the eventual losing format. We view it as a solution,
and so fundamentally this wasn’t done to try and create a new revenue stream.”
The disc will store Blu-ray content in one side and the HD DVD version of the “same
content and features” in the other side, with both sides capable of carrying dual
layers, a feature demonstrated at the show, it will be made by replicators of the two
formats, and will be the only high-def version that Warner will be releasing.
Warner Home Video commented that the cost of manufacturing the product “isn’t
going to be materially more” while consumer motivation in buying a player (on either
format) increased due to the peace of mind that their movie choice will play
regardless of the playing hardware.
The price was not disclosed, but was indicated that will not be “prohibitively
expensive”.
Warner mentioned that Warner Brothers, New Line, and HBO will start doing THD
discs in 2H07, instead of their HD DVD and Blu-ray disc releases, “Title names and
pricing will be announced closer to the release dates” they said. THD is expected to
motivate other studios.
Licensing fees would have to be paid for both organizations as if the discs were
manufactured in the two different formats.
Format Market Penetration – CES 2007
The HD DVD Promotions Group announced a projection of 1.8 million players sold
within 2007, and that objective was considered “a minimum target”.
Yoshihide Fujii, Toshiba Digital Media Network CEO and chairman of the International
HD DVD Promotion Group, declared at CES:
“If our resolution for 2006 was to bring HD DVD to the early adopter, then our
resolution for 2007 is to bring it to the early majority.”
In supporting that
forecast Mr. Fuji
mentioned that HD DVD
studios plan $600
million in HD DVD
revenue this year, and
he anticipates almost 50
million HDTVs installed
in consumers’ homes in
the same period, 1.8
million US players of
that total is a
reasonable forecast for
the size of next-generation DVDs.
249