Griffith, As I understood it HD-DVD died because Sony
paid off the studios to go with their format, with Paramount being the last to jump onboard, plain and simple. HD-DVD was owned and developed by Toshiba, I was unaware of any royalties WB received from that format.
Hey Jake any thing you heard about Blu Ray paying anyone off is kinda true. But hugely exaggerated by Toshiba or someone else mad about Blu winning. First of all Microsoft paid Paramount 50 million to drop Blu Ray Toshiba matched that. And I don't mean eventually I had received stuff to review. Finished product and it never made on the shelves. Because Paramount had to pull all its releases to get the first half of its money. And do you know why Paramount got paid off? Because they was about to go Blu exclusive which would of ended the format war. But Microsoft wanted to keep it alive so rather than just buy support, they bought exclusivity. And do you know why Microsoft did all of that? So that Blu Ray and HD DVD would both die. There are interviews with the top executives were they admit it. You see Microsoft made hardly anything with HD DVD they knew keeping the war alive would make downloading movies a easier choice for people.
Now why did Fox and Warner go Blu simple the PS3, the PS3 was already in twice has many homes as HD DVD. Plus stand alone Blu Ray players were at a 2 to 1 ratio against HD DVD. Did Fox get some loving from Sony for going Blu only, sure but Fox called them. And Warner got nothing they lost billions in potential sales if HD DVD won
And the reason why some HD DVDs looked better than the Blu Ray is because Microsoft was paying for new hi def transfers on HD DVD. But studios had to use 5+ year old DVD transfers for the Blu Ray. Heck it makes sense, why spend your own money just double dip later. Screw the customer
Just wanted to add that Fox choose Really early on. My post made it seem like they came late, but they was on the wagon pretty early.
