By Andy Rathbun
Herald Writer

Photo courtesy of Theater Xtreme

Scott Fehr's customers get excited about the butt kicker.

The oddly nicknamed chair connects to an audio system's subwoofer, letting the bass line from movie soundtracks vibrate the seat.

As owner of Theater Xtreme, Fehr installs the specially equipped chairs -- along with projectors and big screens -- into private homes.

His six-month-old Lynnwood shop plans to showcase its home theater designs at the Everett Home and Garden Show.

The screens installed by the shop aren't really big screen TVs -- they use a projector, after all -- nor are they the size of an actual movie theater screen. Rather, they fit somewhere between the two, starting at 80 inches and going past 144 inches, Fehr said.

While those supersized screens are a big attraction, the company also drums up interest with its selection of seating, such as that aforementioned butt kicker.

...

Interview: Universal EVP Ken Graffeo says HD DVD is here to stay
By Nate Mook, BetaNews

January 21, 2008, 4:40 PM

In an exclusive interview with BetaNews, Ken Graffeo, executive vice president for Universal Studios and also the co-president of HD DVD, provided a behind-the-scenes look at the high-def industry and said that, despite the rumors, HD DVD is here to stay. But he does leave the door open to ending the format war by coming to some sort of an agreement with Blu-ray.

Nate Mook: Let's start with a little background. You work for Universal, but you are also the co-president of the HD DVD Promotional Group. Does this create a conflict of interest?

Ken Graffeo: I am the executive vice president of high-def strategic marketing. So my role at Universal is in the high-def format, and being that we're in HD DVD exclusively, that's where I'm concentrated. We setup the Promotional Group in the early summer of 2006, and board members include Microsoft, Toshiba, HP, Intel, Paramount, Universal and Warner Bros. It's very similar to the Blu-ray Disc Association -- we have committees and our goal is to work together educating the consumer and our retailers on the format.

Nate Mook: How does it change things in the Promotional Group now that Warner Bros. has stated its intention to go Blu-ray exclusive once its contract obligations end?

Ken Graffeo: Well, we heard about the whole move when everyone else did -- when a lot of us were on planes flying to CES in Las Vegas. To be very honest with you, we have not addressed that yet -- Warner is still releasing HD DVD titles up until May. Warner has always been in two formats, and prior to Paramount's switch, they had been in two formats, so now that Warner is exclusive... we just haven't addressed it yet.

NM: There was a lot of surprise when you canceled the CES press conference and meetings after Warner jumped ship. It appeared to many that you were simply giving up. Two weeks after the fact, do you regret canceling everything?

KG: It's very easy to look back and say "I could have" because you always know the result. But at the time... imagine the orchestration of a press event with the presenters, the scripts, the entire presentation, videos that were produced -- everything. The crew was already setting up and we were on a plane on Friday, so not being able to get back to everyone to say "how do we make a change for Sunday" was very difficult. And what are the answers? We had no idea because we were reading and hearing about Warner's move the same time everyone else was.

If we had our press event on Monday, it would have been different, but because it was right there on Sunday and we heard Friday afternoon we couldn't even get to everybody. If I had to go back, it was probably the right thing to do. The entire flow of the presentation would have had to been changed. When we found out at the last minute, we had to regroup and say "Toshiba, what are you doing?" and we didn't have any answers. I hate to stand in front of someone and say I don't have an answer, I don't know what's going on.

At that time, not knowing and being so last minute, we had to make some changes. I will say that Toshiba went forward with their press event, which I applaud them for.

NM: After Warner essentially stabbed you in the back, speculation was rampant that Universal and Paramount would do the same, effectively killing HD DVD. There was also a lot of talk about the phrase "current" being used in the statements. Where does Universal stand on this -- are you willing to say you have an ongoing, future commitment?

KG: First of all, I want to say that none of those rumors were substantiated. Nobody ever talked to us. I know nobody talked to Paramount because Brenda, their PR person, sent out a statement immediately. This is business as usual for us and there are no plans to make any changes. We just made an announcement of our new HD DVD titles yesterday, with American Gangster. We also have a lot of other things planned. It's business as usual.

NM: Sony claims that the PS3 has given Blu-ray the market lead -- is this just posturing so Blu-ray can tout higher sales numbers? Is the PS3 really seen in Hollywood as a device that sells movies?

KG: I'll go back to what we've said over and over: the set-top player is the primary movie device. If you look at the attach rate of how many movies are bought for dedicated HD DVD players versus how many movies were sold for the PS3 and the Blu-ray set-top players combined, it's a 4 to 1 gap. Which says that people who own game machines are not buying at the same rate as someone who owns a set-top. And on the DVD side, your primary player is a set-top.

If you go to a store -- let's say a Best Buy or a Circuit City -- and buy an HDTV and then you want to get your movies to look better, you go to the DVD section -- you don't go to the game section. We have always been believers, not only historically but looking at a lot of recent research that has been done, that for the consumer their preference is a set-top.

The one thing that's different now compared with VHS is that when you bought a DVD player, you could not play your VHS on it. People didn't really have libraries in the days of VHS, because movies were really rented -- 80% of the business was rental. Today it's different because both Blu-ray and HD DVD are backwards compatible, so you have to take that into consideration. In turn, people want a set-top player that lets them play their current movies just as they do now, not on a game console.

[...]

Here are the latest numbers for the online petitions for and against HD-DVD survival...

- "We endorse the Save HD-DVD! (Warner Brothers, The Consumer Has Not "Clearly" Chosen Blu-Ray) Petition to Warner Brothers, Universal Studios, Paramount Pictures."

Current signatures: 13345

- "We endorse the Let HD DVD Die Petition to DVD Forum, Movie Studios, CEMA, and related companies."

Current signatures: 5221

A story to follow...

http://www.petitiononline.com/mod_perl/signed.cgi?SAVEHDD

http://www.petitiononline.com/mod_perl/signed.cgi?HDVDeath

By Greg Tarr -- TWICE, 1/21/2008

WAYNE, N.J. —Toshiba came back from International CES with the gloves off, stepping up its marketing campaign in the light of what it called "record-breaking unit sales in the fourth quarter of 2007."

Although Warner Bros. announced on the eve of the show that it had decided to ditch HD DVD and back Blu-ray Disc exclusively beginning in May, Toshiba vowed to continue the fight with its remaining studios, Universal, Paramount and DreamWorks SKG.

A report in TWICE sister publication Daily Variety said that Universal's contract with Toshiba to exclusively back HD DVD has expired, and Paramount has an escape clause in its HD DVD contract allowing it to release titles on Blu-ray after Warner's decision to back that format exclusively.

But neither studio had announced any such defection at press time. In fact, Universal's Ken Graffeo issued a statement saying: "Universal's current plan is to continue to support the HD DVD format."

Toshiba then announced it will run major initiatives, including joint advertising campaigns with studios and extended pricing strategies set to begin in mid-January.

The efforts are "designed to spotlight the superior benefits of HD DVD as well as the benefits HD DVD brings to a consumer's current DVD library by up-converting standard DVDs via the HDMI output to near high-definition picture quality," according to a statement.

During CES, Jodi Sally, Toshiba digital A/V group marketing VP, said: "You can't deny that Toshiba has delivered on its promises again and again, so it is difficult for me to read all of the comments declaring that HD DVD is dead. Clearly the events of the past few days have led many of you to that conclusion. But we've been declared dead before."

Sally added, "The reality is we entered 2007 with a majority lead in year-to-date market share. Our unit sales for the fourth quarter were the best to date for HD DVD and now nearly 1 million dedicated HD DVD players from all brands are in the market in North America."

Toshiba said sales of HD DVD "achieved the No. 1 sales volume in the next-generation DVD category with an approximately 50 percent market share in 2007," and "HD DVD is proven to be the format of choice for consumers."

Toshiba said the format also accounts for "an 80-percent-plus market share of all next-generation DVD-equipped notebooks for the fourth quarter 2007."

[...]

Mon Jan 21, 2008 at 01:00 PM ET

Over six thousand HD DVD supporters have signed an online petition urging Warner Home Entertainment to reconsider its decision to abandon the HD DVD format.

First posted on January 5th, the petition takes issue with Warner's earlier press statements that the "consumer has clearly chosen Blu-ray," pointing to the HD DVD format's lower hardware prices and "better technological capabilities" as more consumer-friendly than its high-def rival.

Supporters hope that the petition will convince Warner to reverse its decision, and that it will help prove to HD DVD-backing studios Universal and Paramount that the format still has supporters.