Warner Bros. has decided that it has had enough of this "one HD format" business and now plans to release some of its films in CBHD, a Chinese high-definition disc format that has so far failed to compete with Blu-ray. If other studios join Warner, perhaps the format war isn't over after all.

By Jacqui Cheng | Last updated March 3, 2009 2:42 PM CTText Size Print this article Leave a comment Remember when Blu-ray vanquished HD DVD to become the One True Physical HD Format? Forget about it. China Blue HD (CBHD) is now in the game, at least in the People's Republic. The format got a boost from a Warner Bros. announcement that it plans to support CBHD with a number of its films during the first half of 2009, including Harry Potter titles and Blood Diamond. The studio hopes that its curious decision will extend its reach to more than 70 million Chinese homes by 2011.

The main appeal of CBHD discs and players are that they are cheap to make. OMNERIC, the organization behind CBHD, says that converting a DVD production line to CBHD only costs $800,000, compared to the $3 million (or so) that it would cost to convert to a Blu-ray production plant. Combine that with low licensing fees, and you have discs and players that are more affordable to the typical Chinese customer than Blu-ray.

During the fall of 2008, the CBHD group tried to promote itself among Hollywood movie studios by touting copy protection improvements, but Hollywood was having none of it at the time. It seemed as if the studios were relieved that the HD DVD vs. Blu-ray format war had finally ended and were looking forward to focusing on a single HD format, but that has now changed. According to Warner's Chinese-language announcement, the CBHD discs will be priced between 50 and 70 yuan (roughly $7.25 to $10.15), and player prices will start at about 1,999 yuan ($290 or so).

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By Scott Nichols

In a Q & A session that followed Apple's press conference yesterday, Steve Jobs expressed concerns about including the Blu-ray format in Apple products like the new MacBook. OK, that's the sugar-coated version of it. What Jobs actually said was that Blu-ray is "just a bag of hurt," and that he's still waiting until "Blu-ray takes off in the marketplace."

But wait, didn't Blu-ray win the format war against HD-DVD? Shouldn't it have been selling like hotcakes and taking over the market by now?

Considering that Blu-ray is the dominant HD video format, it has had a pretty rough time. For the average consumer the cost of a new Blu-ray player plus the higher cost of Blu-ray movies is just too much to pay for the HD upgrade. And even with recent drops in Blu-ray player prices only 1.7 percent of American homes have jumped on board the Blu-ray bandwagon. And with news that the cost of Blu-ray discs won't drop any time soon in the current economic situation most people will opt for the cheaper DVD version. Of course, the average movie watcher probably doesn't buy many discs, but instead rents most movies. But with services like Netflix charging extra for Blu-ray rentals that option is seeming less viable than just renting the DVD.

The cost wouldn't be such an issue if the upgrade to Blu-ray seemed worth it. But to most, the jump from DVD to Blu-ray just isn't drastic enough. Sure, it looks better, but it's hard to argue that DVD's look terrible by comparison. When DVD came in to replace VHS, it offered a clear difference in both quality and features that made VHS look arcane by comparison. Blu-ray doesn't offer enough of a difference from DVD to justify the cost of the upgrade.

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Delta Electronics, Inc., a long-time industry leader in DLP(r) optics, light engine and projector development for a wide variety of applications, today announced it has completed the development of a groundbreaking full HD LED projector for the consumer market. With Delta's high throughput LED optics, 1080P resolution, plus wide color gamut, this projector provides a high image quality unmatched by any other lamp projector. It gives the viewer a completely new home theater experience with the bonus that the user is free from lamp replacement, as the life of the LED module is estimated at over 20,000 hours of normal operation.

With its experience and close partnership with Texas Instruments, Luminus Devices and other key suppliers, Delta has a unique early advantage in recognizing the feasibility of PhlatLight(r) LED and the value of LED projectors, and has commercialized this product for customers. Delta is supporting customer demonstrations of the projector at IFA 2008, Berlin, Germany, between August 29th and September 3rd, and CEDIA, Denver, Colorado, USA.

"The viewing experience is amazing. The image quality of the projector's full HD resolution plus saturated color and dynamic contrast is extremely impressive. With this product, we believe the era of the LED projector has arrived. Home theater projectors are just the beginning," said Jeff Fu, Director for Projection Display at Delta's Display Solutions Business Unit.

"The LED illumination system replaces the lamp, the color wheel and the shutter of a traditional projector. What is crucial is the need for a precise and complex control algorithm that allows the LED to work with the DMD to get high image quality. We have achieved groundbreaking improvements recently that enable us to bring this product to market. This LED projector is not only a new product; it truly opens a new horizon for the projector industry," said Fu.

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By Eric Bangeman

One of the struggles Blu-ray's backers have faced in the format's march toward the mainstream is price. Blu-ray players are still considerably more expensive than DVD players that still look "good enough" for many HDTV owners, and Blu-ray discs retail for a few bucks more than their optical forefathers. But those Netflix customers have been able to add Blu-ray movies to their queues for no extra charge will now have to pay a $1 per month charge for the privilege.

A handful of readers sent in copies of an e-mail sent to Netflix customers Wednesday morning in which the mail rental giant announced that it would begin charging customers $1 per month for the ability to have Blu-ray movies in their queues. The new charge is effective November 5; the only way to avoid it is to remove Blu-ray access from your account.

"Dear [customer]," the e-mail begins. "As you may know, Blu-ray movies are more expensive than standard definition movies. As a result, we're going to start charging $1 a month (plus applicable taxes), in addition to your monthly membership charge, for monthly access to Blu-ray movies."

Since the end of the war between HD DVD and Blu-ray, Netflix has made a significant investment in the winning format, and its library of HD titles has grown as a result. The company's hope was that a ready supply of Blu-ray flicks would lure HD fans to the service from brick-and-mortar competitors like Blockbuster and from the nascent HD download market.

The imposition of the dollar surcharge may be an indicator that this strategy isn't working out. The availability of Blu-ray movies is a nice perk for subscribers who have run out and purchased Blu-ray players and/or PlayStation 3 consoles, but it is apparently not enough to draw in new customers. Indeed, Netflix CEO Barry McCarthy said last month that only a fraction of his company's subscribers currently rent Blu-ray discs and that the format's impact on the business is minimal. Hence, Netflix is now passing the additional costs for Blu-ray onto its subscribers.

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Posted by Matthew Moskovciak

Many consumers are sticking with DVD, but it's not necessarily because of mistaken "perceptions".

In our recent review of the Panasonic DMP-BD55, we offered the view that Blu-ray has almost gotten its act together, after killing off HD DVD, getting more Profile 2.0 players on the market, and offering standalone players for less than $500. However, manufacturers are anxious to get more people on Blu-ray boat as quickly as possible, which is why we get e-mails from Warner Bros. attempting to clear up "confusion" about Blu-ray. According to the press release, the company did a survey of DVD owners that do not own Blu-ray players and found they have a "persistent lack of knowledge" regarding the new format. Warner Bros. offered three main "myths" that have confused consumers, as well as the company's response:

Perception: "I'd have to rebuild my movie library from scratch because Blu-ray can't play standard DVDs."
Truth: The switch from VHS to DVD made huge libraries of content obsolete. That's not the case with Blu-ray. Blu-ray players and PlayStation 3s can play ordinary DVDs! And not only can they play them, but the "upconversion" process makes them look even better!

Perception: "There aren't very many titles on Blu-ray."
Truth: The format war is over. HD DVD (the competing format) will not be coming back. All the movie studios are now backing one format: Blu-ray. Therefore, all the movies you love will be coming out on Blu-ray soon, and all major theatrical releases since 2006 are available on Blu-ray already.

Perception: "High-definition players are too expensive and I'm not ready to invest in new equipment."
Truth: There are Blu-ray players in the market for as low as $279 and this is expected to drop to $249 by Christmas. Also, PlayStation 3s are a great value, because for only $399 you get a Blu-ray player and a game console. Plus hardware and software companies are joining to offer consumers great package deals on Blu-ray players and PS3s with Blu-ray software.

While there's some merit to Warner's arguments, there's a whole lot of fact-bending going on. The truth is there still aren't that many titles available on Blu-ray right now. According to The Digital Bits, there are 772 Blu-ray titles currently available compared with more than 90,000 DVD titles. Yes, we're seeing many more new movies and TV shows released, but if consumers are expecting the same availability as DVD, they are going to be disappointed. Warner Bros. also argues that high Blu-ray player prices are just a "perception." That's debatable, but it certainly doesn't factor in the increased price of Blu-ray movies, which is significant. Not to mention the fact that if you really want to see the benefits of Blu-ray, you'll want a jumbo (50+ inches) HDTV.

And let's not forget that plenty of this confusion is not consumers' fault. Having several different Blu-ray profiles only added to this problem, as well as the vastly different audio decoding capabilities of the players. So while there have certainly been some misunderstandings about Blu-ray, it's not fair to frame buyers' legitimate concerns (like lack of titles and high player/movie prices) as myths. I say this as someone who does own a Blu-ray player and is willing to pay an extra dollar to rent Blu-ray movies from Netflix. But let's not pretend that the format doesn't need to make a lot of progress before it's a viable successor to DVD.

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