Paramount Back to Blu-ray Says Financial Times

[Woochifer]

Well, not so fast! I guess that nothing has happened just yet. Paramount has now denied that they are dropping HD-DVD.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?p...bU&refer=japan

But, if it's indeed true that Paramount has an out clause in their HD-DVD contract, then obviously this can still happen well before their 18-month window expires. Personally, I thought that Universal was the likeliest of the current HD-DVD studios to go Blu-ray, since there are multiple reports of them touring Blu-ray replicating facilities. As it stands, HD-DVD is still on life support with no one ready to pull the plug just yet.

[Sir Terrence the Terrible]

Well, not so fast! I guess that nothing has happened just yet. Paramount has now denied that they are dropping HD-DVD.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?p...bU&refer=japan

But, if it's indeed true that Paramount has an out clause in their HD-DVD contract, then obviously this can still happen well before their 18-month window expires. Personally, I thought that Universal was the likeliest of the current HD-DVD studios to go Blu-ray, since there are multiple reports of them touring Blu-ray replicating facilities. As it stands, HD-DVD is still on life support with no one ready to pull the plug just yet.

So you get a much clearer picture. Universal contract with HD DVD is up at the end of January. Word in Hollywood THIS day is that they will go to bluray as soon as this contract is up.

Paramount is also going blu as well. Negotiations are happening on both fronts as we type. These things do not happen overnight. From what I am getting from my friends at Paramount, they are not happy with Toshiba right now. There were three promises that the HD DVD PG made to Paramount/Dreamworks for their support.

1. A bluray exclusive studio will switch to HD DVD
2. A bluray exclusive manufacturer will design and manufacture a HD DVD using a in house design
3. Warner will switch to HD DVD exclusive.

None of these three things can to fruition, hence Paramounts dissapointment with Toshiba and the HD DVD PG. So as you can see, all of those public comments made by Paramount executives after they went HD DVD exclusive were not true at all.