Warner Bros. just announced that, henceforth, all movies they release in high-definition will only be in the Blu-ray format. This is a surprising decision for many reasons:

1. Warner Bros. had possibly been offered US$250M for going HD-DVD exclusive. (Did Sony top that?)
2. Sony makes the Blu-Ray format, and is a rival of Warner Bros. in the entertainment business. At least they were the last time I looked. (Toshiba makes the competing, incompatible HD-DVD format.)
3. The price of HD-DVD players and discs have been lower than for Blu-Ray. What’s more, in 2007, Toshiba sold nearly twice as many units of HD-DVD players than Sony sold of Blu-ray players.
4. Together, Toshiba and Sony only sold about a million high-def players in 2007, so it seems a bit early for Warner Bros. to make such a decision.
5. Most new PCs will support both formats, so their decision will likely lose them customers that want to use a standalone disc player rather than a PC. It’s possible, then, that Warner Bros. will lose an entire segment of the market in older age categories - simply because such consumers are more likely to prefer a standalone unit.

On the other hand, Disney made the same decision, releasing high-def movie titles only on Blu-Ray. While I think that Warner Bros. and Disney (and anyone else) are making a huge mistake, I watch all my movies on my computer screens, so I’m not personally affected.

[Sources: Engadget HD, Deadline Hollywood Daily, Bloomberg, Gizmodo, Mercury News]

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