CES 2008: HD Format War Update - Paramount Going Blu?, Porn Goes Blu, PSP Loves Blu!
It seems everything in the Blu-ray camp lately is coming up spades, and today is no exception: The Financial Times reports that Paramount's contract with HD-DVD, which guarantees Paramount's exclusivity with the format, has a tiny little clause in it that has suddenly become very important with the recent news of Warner Bros.' defection:
However, Paramount, which is owned by Viacom, is understood to have a clause in its contract with the HD-DVD camp that would allow it to switch sides in the event of Warner backing Blu-ray, according to people familiar with the situation.
That clause sure looks mighty nice now to the executives at Paramount, I'm sure, and if Paramount does choose to invoke it, it would truly and completely kill HD-DVD dead.
That's not the end of the good news for Blu-ray; however. If anyone remembers the last great format war between VHS and Betamax, a decisive battle in the war came in support from porn companies - VHS had the hot sex, Betamax didn't.
Digital Playground, a leading producer of pornographic films, announced today they are going Blu this year, with a planned eight titles coming out on Blu-ray (no word yet from the gay porn studios, but I've shot a couple of e-mails off.)
To top it all off, Sony announced new upcoming features in the Blu-ray format that increase the interactivity between the PS3 and PSP: the PS3 will be able to take a Blu-ray movie and automatically make a portable PSP version of it for you to easily take with you on the road. (Anyone else find the feature a little funny, seeing as if anyone other than the movie studios added this feature, Sony and the rest of the MPAA would cry and sue them to oblivion because this second copy would be "illegal"?)
With all of this great news coming out in support of Blu-ray, its no wonder the HD-DVD camp has remained tight-lipped on its reactions.
Maybe they're searching through the phone book for a lawyer to make their will.
Den Den Boy
Posted to Hot Stuff, In Your House, In Your Pocket, In the News, In the World on 8 January 2008
· Comments (7)
Other stuff like this: Blu-ray, CES, CES 2008, format wars, HD-DVD, Paramount, porn, PS3, PSP, Sony, Warner Bros
3D iPhone glasses. Why?
"shot an email off"…
@blackboy:
Glad you caught that =)
Maybe this will also mean the death of UMD video, if you can make a PSP copy from a Blu-ray disk.
@Mike C.
The UMD Video has been dead. For a good while.
While all the other news for Blu-Ray certainly points to their win over HD DVD, I can't say that the porn industry's move really helps. In the VHS/Betamax days, that was the primary way to consume porn, which is why it's cited as the deciding factor. But today, the most common way to buy/view porn is digitally.
Porn going to Blu-Ray is more a reaction to the tide of the industry, I think.
As a side note, the announcement of the PSP Blu-Ray conversion thing... awesome! That seals the deal for me, honestly, on Blu-ray. I had no vested interest in either format, but how can I resist that kind of interoperability?
Of course, all the pieces have to fall into place, chiefly the price issue. I can't wait to be able to afford a 1080p TV, a PS3, a PSP, a 16 gig mem card and Blu-Ray discs, but when I can, I'm so there!
"(Anyone else find the feature a little funny, seeing as if anyone other than the movie studios added this feature, Sony and the rest of the MPAA would cry and sue them to oblivion because this second copy would be "illegal"?)"
well isn't that kind of the point? the owner of the copyright has the right to do what ever they want to with their copyrighted material.
personally i was hoping blu-ray would fail like all of sony's other proprietary formats.