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Originally posted by singate:
If I am not mistaken doesn't Best Buy carry HD DVD players. They didn't seem that overpriced unless I was looking at the wrong players.

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It's great that Serenity is gonna be the first HD-DVD released by Universal, but the issue is that it will need an expensive player to read it properly AND HD-DVD could lose the new format war between HD-DVD and Blu-Ray. Then what the hell do we do?

It kinda sucks Universal's going with the opposite format than the rest of Hollywood, so the chance of being in on the winner is rather small. Still...we could still do the impossible....;)

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Cesar Menendez over at Gamer Score Blog decided he would do some inside research into the real reasons behind Microsoft’s decision to back HD-DVD over Blu-ray by talking to the people behind the HD-DVD peripheral for the Xbox 360. The decision seems to be based on the following:

Price. One company out there has a $1,800 Beta-ray player (no release date) – one that doesn’t even play CDs! For 1,800, you could get a $500 Toshiba player, and about 40 HD movies.

Industry support: Looks like the pendulum is swinging back in HD-DVD’s favor. As an analyst quoted in the article says: “It’s only a matter of time before people start backing out of the Blu-ray camp.” If that’s the case, it might be because of. . .

Beta-ray’s own difficulties: Microsoft had serious doubts around the technical feasibility and pricing of Beta-ray for some time and our fears now seem well founded. Sony is hinting PS3 will be delayed because of Beta-ray, and that’s with Sony driving the Beta-ray standards. If even Sony can’t get it to work right, it raises lots of questions. A little reported fact (and one that the New York Times was confused about) is that the first Beta-ray discs will actually hold less: only 25GB compared to HD DVD’s 30GB. That means less room for high definition extras and interactive features, which HD DVD says they fully intend to support.

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The studio will debut Serenity on April 18 as its first HD DVD release, followed a week later by Apollo 13 and Doom

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Originally posted by DonCoat:
still holding off on purchasing a player. I guess that's kinda wierd, huh... ]

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Originally posted by DonCoat:
Maddiegirl,

I hope you understand that a standard DVD player will not play an HD-DVD disc. You have to have an HD-DVD player, and they are not cheap (yet). Furthermore, there's a competing incompatible format called Blu-Ray and no one is sure which of the two will eventually corner the market... remember VHS vs. Betamax?

I do have an HD TV, but not an HD player.

However, I'm still going to buy the HD version of Serenity, primarily to support our BDM. Also, I'll have a shiny HD-DVD to look at longingly, and who knows, I may end up with that format eventually.

Last I saw, Fox was planning to support Blu-Ray exclusively, which means any HD version of the Firefly set will be in that format -- unless HD-DVD ends up winning. How sucky would that be -- needing two different players to watch the full FF/S canon!

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I don't disagree on any particular point.

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Originally posted by Jonus:
Don't get too excited, people. You may be throwing out your HD DVD players and re-buying your HD DVD's on the Blu-ray format. Or it could be the other way around. But with more studio support for Blu-ray it will probably come out on top (even with it's horrible name). I'm just gonna wait a year and see which format comes out on top. It would just be stupid to buy a format now that will be dead next year.

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Originally posted by Amalthea1:

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Originally posted by Jonus:
Don't get too excited, people. You may be throwing out your HD DVD players and re-buying your HD DVD's on the Blu-ray format. Or it could be the other way around. But with more studio support for Blu-ray it will probably come out on top (even with it's horrible name). I'm just gonna wait a year and see which format comes out on top. It would just be stupid to buy a format now that will be dead next year.

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I work for the movie studios; I'm a merchandising agent in Best Buy, actually. We discussed this upcoming launch on our conference call and we were told that Blu-Ray and HD-DVD are the same thing. They just decided to call it HD-DVD, because that's pretty self-explanatory, while Blu-Ray's just kinda...lame. Although they may go back to calling it Blu-Ray, which, way to confuse everyone, guys!

Anyway, since my boss's info comes straight from the studios themselves, I'm going to assume he knows what he's talking about. So you don't need to worry about another format war, just coming up with the damned money for yet another new player, and an HD-TV, if you don't have that either. I have friend who works for The-Network-That-Shall-Not-Be-Named, though, and I'll confirm with him and let y'all know what I've heard.

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Originally posted by Agatsu:
It'll be interesting to see how many browncoats are gonna buy this although they don't even have HD.

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Originally posted by pirata:
hmmm, let's see.

I bought already the italian DVD, and the australian Collector's Edition.

Now, I do have a HD-capable projector.
I also own a Denon dvd player purchased about an year ago, which feeds the projector through a DVI cable... but, I'm not sure if this means that it can actually READ a HD-DVD.

If so, I'll buy it for sure!!!

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Originally posted by Aegis:
Looks like this biggest point of this has been missed so far in the posts. Universal has chosen SERENITY to be their flagship HD-DVD (regardless of whether the format lives or dies). And this makes it mighty. Remember, Universal has been around for a good long while, they've got an awesome bucket of movies to choose from, and they chose our piece of cinematic heaven? Come on, this HAS to mean *something*! Maybe it's just the underlying desperation for more of the 'verse, I don't know.

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Originally posted by Aegis:
Looks like this biggest point of this has been missed so far in the posts. Universal has chosen SERENITY to be their flagship HD-DVD (regardless of whether the format lives or dies). And this makes it mighty. Remember, Universal has been around for a good long while, they've got an awesome bucket of movies to choose from, and they chose our piece of cinematic heaven? Come on, this HAS to mean *something*! Maybe it's just the underlying desperation for more of the 'verse, I don't know.

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Originally posted by LittleAlbatross:

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Originally posted by Aegis:
Looks like this biggest point of this has been missed so far in the posts. Universal has chosen SERENITY to be their flagship HD-DVD (regardless of whether the format lives or dies). And this makes it mighty. Remember, Universal has been around for a good long while, they've got an awesome bucket of movies to choose from, and they chose our piece of cinematic heaven? Come on, this HAS to mean *something*! Maybe it's just the underlying desperation for more of the 'verse, I don't know.

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I hate to be a pessimist but...

maybe it just means Universal knows they've just guaranteed themselves some sales.

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Originally posted by Storymark:

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Originally posted by LittleAlbatross:

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Originally posted by Aegis:
Looks like this biggest point of this has been missed so far in the posts. Universal has chosen SERENITY to be their flagship HD-DVD (regardless of whether the format lives or dies). And this makes it mighty. Remember, Universal has been around for a good long while, they've got an awesome bucket of movies to choose from, and they chose our piece of cinematic heaven? Come on, this HAS to mean *something*! Maybe it's just the underlying desperation for more of the 'verse, I don't know.

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I hate to be a pessimist but...

maybe it just means Universal knows they've just guaranteed themselves some sales.

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I think that's a good bet. Launch with a title that they know will probably sell more copies than there are players sold. They're useing Browncoats to get a foothold on the market
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There's a huge brightside for the Browncoats here.

Every Wal-Mart, Best Buy, etc, etc could be using Serenity to not only demo the capabilities of HD-DVD (which rock) but the big selling HDTV's themselves. Think about how many casual shoppers thinking about buying an HDTV and will spend a good chunk of time watching Joss's Serenity. (It's a lot harder to let R-movie HD-DVDs play in the background at BestBuy and how many sales reps are going to want to watch Phantom of the Opera all day)

This happened with the 5th Element, which didn't do that great at the box office. It was such a fantastic film to demo DVD players it just sold many more copies than anybody ever imagined. 5th Element was such a hit on DVD the director got to shoot another film (unfortunately it wasn't a sequel but a Joan or Arc thing).

There will be people asking, "This is great. How did I miss this before? Do you sell this here?"

Universal is probably thinking that having a good fan base will lift sales a little, but at a entry $500 + $25 cost, I don't think the Browncoat early adopters will be their bread and butter on this endeavor.

In reality, I think this is a big show of confidence in Serenity. They know its a quality film with real characters and a some very cool visuals to show off the new HD-DVD hardware. They have to be proud of the film to have it flagship a whole new media format that they are completely invested in.

Personally, I love HD and the verse. So this will be so much closer to the theater experience with 1080i/p picture and a DD+ soundtrack. I can't tell you how many times I've watched the Firefly DVDs on my HD and wished the picture quality was up to HD standards the way it really deserves to be.

Don't worry about the Blu-Ray vs. HD-DVD thing. If you follow the high quality content (the film itself + the best possible copy of it) and the consumer electronics companies will follow you.

HD-DVD brings us much closer to a sequel.