It doesn’t take much these days for either the Blu-ray Disc or HD DVD camp to jump onto anything that may appear to bode well for its side, especially in the wake of very mixed news in recent months for both formats in the next-gen format wars. For both camps again this week, there was a distinct glass half-full/ half-empty way to look at things.
Case in point: Warner Brothers is a major Hollywood studio that has issued dozens of DVD titles in both new HD disc formats in the past couple of years. In fact, Warner is now the only large studio still issuing titles in both formats since the decision last summer by Paramount to go exclusively with HD DVD (at least through about the end of 2008).
The glass half-full news for Blu-ray proponents is that Warner exec Dan Silverberg happened to mention at a film festival that the time may be coming for Warner to select a lone format and run with it. Blu-ray packaged content, he happened to mention, is selling well and is being very seriously considered, according to his comments buried halfway down a story this week in Home Media Magazine.
Yet the possible glass half-full news for HD DVD backers, as well, is that Silverberg happened to make his pro Blu-ray remarks at a “Blu-ray Festival” sponsored by Blu-ray supporters. Thus, according to several online forums that have seized on the Warner’s exec’s remarks this week, Silverberg was merely being polite to his hosts and could have made the same somewhat non-committal comments about the opposing format at an HD DVD-sponsored event, if given a chance. Stay tuned.
