No HD-DVD Movies Until April

Jed from Pan and Scan writes "It's official: when the first HD-DVD players are released on March 28, there will be no movie titles available in the new high-def format for at least another three weeks, and far fewer than initially announced. Warner, the only studio that was planning on having HD-DVD movies to accompany the format's much ballyhooed debut, will now release just three initial HD-DVD titles -- and not until April 18."

Re:Nice selections - Don't count on it yet.

[WidescreenFreak]

You need to read the article more closely.

The studio will now release just three initial HD-DVD titles on April 18: Clint Eastwood's Best Pic Oscar winner 'Million Dollar Baby,' the Tom Cruise starrer 'The Last Samurai' and the big-budget screen update of 'The Phantom of the Opera.' Each title will have a retail list price of $28.98.

The three that you mention are supposed to be available "in the coming weeks" but "no street date has been set". Don't count on anything coming out until you get the official press release. And don't be surprised that those movies are not released for a long time if HD-DVD acceptance is lukewarm or colder.

Digital Broadcast Deadline... Not HDTV

[dunc78]

The deadline is for broadcasts to be digital, not HD. HD is just a subset of digital broadcasts, there are also Standard Definition digital broadcasts.

Re:Movie Selection -- WRONG STUDIO

[Babbster]

Pedantic? Yes, thank you. Actually, the Star Wars franchise is owned by George Lucas and Lucasfilm, Ltd. 20th Century Fox has the distribution rights. :)

Bad day at Bentonville for Warner

[Animats]

the company had asked Wal-Mart and other retailers to cancel online pre-orders for HD-DVD titles late last week,

A supplier cannot do that to Wal-Mart without serious suffering. Missing a delivery date is considered very serious by Wal-Mart. Warner execs will be summoned to Bentonville for a serious chewing out and will probably be forced to give discounts.

Wal-Mart does not suck up to the content industries. They not only sell online music at $0.88/song, undercutting Apple, they actually sign a few bands themselves and put their music on line and on CDs. Just to remind the music industry that it can be replaced.

Re:Not to sound all geeky...

[Spazholio]

Not so fast...haven't you heard of Pirates [dvdtalk.com]?

Wrong

[LunaticTippy]

Pirates included a WMV HD 720p format copy. On a regular DVD. It is a HD-DVD, not a HD-DVD. I'm trying to be clear about this.

OK, Pirates came with a High Definition movie on a regular old-fashioned DVD. (like grampa used to buy)

Not a HD-DVD, this new probably doomed format.

Re:Maybe even hollywood ..

[DanQuixote]

...unskipable anti-priating ads on the DVDs I PAID FOR

About 4 years ago I carefully checked and found a make and model of player where I could get a hack for it to remove User Operations Prohibition. It cost another US $50 or so, but I was willing to pay it so that the machine would always respond to my commands, and not get taken over by the $#@@$! MPAA.

Wanting some more features, and fearing my current player may give up the ghost some day, I looked into current mod kits and players. I found an astonishing thing--- Most of the mod kits were simply to overcome region restrictions, and very few also removed UOP. I mailed one of the companies selling the kits and asked if there was a way to search their database for all kits that remove UOP.

The answer in a nutshell was "There just isn't much demand for removing UOP"

So what's up?
Do people really LIKE to review FBI warnings and threats?
Most people don't mind watching some trailers first, but aren't they going to demand that it be an option instead of forced down the throat?
Do I have to build a linux-based multimedia machine just to regain control of my own damn movie?
Does the greedy MPAA really have the right to own our time just because we show interest in a movie?

Hey, let's fix the real problems first, then concentrate on upgrades like higher resolution.