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Next-gen DVD wars heat up at CES

Studios announce first Blu-ray films as show opens, Toshiba counters with HD-DVD players; existing region system to be reshuffled?

With Sony incorporating its Blu-ray media format into the PlayStation 3 and Microsoft publicly pondering an HD-DVD-equipped model of the Xbox 360, the battle for supremacy between the two formats is likely to have repercussions for the gaming industry.

That battle is heating up today as the Consumer Electronics Show opens in Las Vegas to opening salvos from both camps.

Unsurprisingly spearheading the charge for Sony's Blu-ray was Sony Pictures Home Entertainment, which announced an initial lineup of 20 titles to be released alongside the first Blu-ray players this spring. That full first wave includes The Fifth Element, Bram Stoker's Dracula, Desperado, For a Few Dollars More, The Guns of Navarone, Hitch, House of Flying Daggers, A Knight's Tale, Kung Fu Hustle, The Last Waltz, Legends of the Fall, Resident Evil: Apocalypse, Robocop, Sense and Sensibility, Stealth, Species, SWAT, and XXX. Sony Pictures also announced Black Hawk Down and The Bridge on the River Kwai for a summer 2006 release.

Also in the summer, Sony Pictures will start adding bonus Java games to its Blu-ray discs and begin releasing some titles for the format at the same time as their standard DVD counterparts. To update its sizeable back catalog of titles, the studio will initially give the Blu-ray treatment to four older titles per month beginning this summer, and move up to 10 titles per month by the end of the year. Also being readied for a summer release is the complete Stargate Atlantis TV series in high-definition.

Independent distributor Lionsgate announced its own support for the Blu-ray format as well, detailing its first 10 titles, set to start hitting shelves in the spring: Lord of War, The Punisher, Devil's Rejects, Saw, T2: Judgment Day, Reservoir Dogs, Total Recall, Dune, Rambo: First Blood, and See No Evil, starring the WWE wrestler Kane. Twentieth Century Fox has also said it will release 20 Blu-ray films in a first wave this year that will include films such as Fantastic Four and Ice Age.

There was news on the HD-DVD front as well, as a primary backer of the technology, Toshiba, unveiled its first two HD-DVD players for the US market. Beginning in March, the HD-XA1 and HD-A1 players will hit stores for $799.99 and $499.99, respectively. Both units are backward compatible with regular DVDs and upconverts the signals from them to an output resolution of 720p or 1080i for HDTVs. Perhaps taking a cue from the Blu-ray-equipped PS3, some HD-DVD players will have USB ports "for convenient connection of gaming controllers," according to Toshiba.

Not all the format wars news is coming out of Las Vegas. Japanese site ITmedia has reported that Blu-ray discs will shake up the current DVD regional lockout system. DVDs and DVD players carry one of nine different region codes, each corresponding to a different set of countries and territories. To play a disc from a given region, a DVD player must come from the same region (or be a Region 0, or all-region, player). According to ITmedia, Blu-ray discs will shuffle which countries are in which regions so that North and South American, Japan, Thailand, Malayasia, Korea, and India are all in Region 1, with Europe and Africa in Region 2, and China, Russia and others in Region 3.

This should make it easier for importers and cinephiles to get their hands on foreign films, as the current DVD Region 1 is essentially confined to American and Canadian releases. It is currently unclear what changes HD-DVD will make to the standard DVD region system, if any.

170 Comments

  • MiKaNoH

    Posted Jan 12, 2006 6:19 pm GMT

    I want Kill Bill 1 and 2 and The Last Samurai for blu-ray.....hahaha
    The first movies that i will see on my PS3...
    North America and South America with movies of the same region??
    OH, MAN!!!!!THIS ROCKSS!!!!
    C'MON BLU-RAY, LETS KICK SOME ASS!!!!hahahahaaha

  • Adarok

    Posted Jan 9, 2006 10:53 am GMT

    Who came out with the friggin idea of regions??? that guy should be jailed forever!!! its the worst idea in history!!! Oh and someone asked why will they re-release movies in blu-ray that are already in dvd, well blu-ray and hd-dvd support 1080i (i think 720p too), while nowadays dvds only support 480i (and 480p? not sure)...bad bad bad, what a shame, it should support 1080p

  • skylineR34j

    Posted Jan 9, 2006 10:53 am GMT

    i bet that half of hte people in this forum are 360 fanboys and own a 360. They are saying HD DVD is better because they are scared to admit they bought their 360 to early.Plus the HD DVD on the 360 wont be a game player.. its just for movies.. On the ps3 the BR can play games aswelll.. there fore making BR more compatible

  • Xeroshift

    Posted Jan 8, 2006 3:40 pm GMT

    no one gonna buy blu-ray when it first come out if the player is 600-800 bucks

  • linkminion

    Posted Jan 8, 2006 8:09 pm GMT

    i feel sorry for everyone whos gonna buy a PS3 and BR player. Your wallets will be empty before you know it.

  • cr8muzik

    Posted Jan 7, 2006 9:12 pm GMT

    I shed a tear for the betamax. Blu-ray will most likely follow right in its foot steps. Even though I am rooting for HD DVD, No way am I gonna pay $799 for a player/drive to watch either.

  • Roentgen21

    Posted Jan 7, 2006 8:11 pm GMT

    I heard Blu-Ray discs will not only cost 100 dollars each, but will also cause cancer! It looks as if the HD-DVD format will win on its non-cancer inducing merits.

  • brmcgrat

    Posted Jan 6, 2006 11:51 pm GMT

    How come no one has brought up the fact that Sony will not allow Blu-Ray discs to be copied to a hard drive? I used to support Blu-Ray until I found about that. Forget having a HD media center PC. That's why Microsoft endorses HD-DVD - they're pushing the PC as a media center with their next OS, Vista. What good is that if you can't legally burn HD movies to your hard drive? HD-DVD will allow you to burn a copy to your hard drive, Blu-Ray will not.

    After this rootkit mess, I'll never trust Sony again. Blu-Ray looks superior on paper, but Sony will find a way to mess it up, trust me. Look at the PSP - great hardware, terrible support from Sony. The homebrewers do more in a month for the PSP than Sony has in the past year.

    A company that will put a rootkit on your computer without so much as a prompt is no friend of the consumer. Forget Sony, hope that HD-DVD catches up in capacity.

  • royalda

    Posted Jan 6, 2006 8:00 pm GMT

    Anyway's there's no 90gb HD-DVD stop smoking, and Blu-Ray allows you to download additional content. Onto the Disc. get your Facts straigth people!

  • royalda

    Posted Jan 6, 2006 7:55 pm GMT

    Well at CES right now, Sony is handing out free Blu-Ray Movies! Like F4, hitch etc.

  • game_music_17

    Posted Jan 6, 2006 2:44 pm GMT

    OK im hoping for Blu-Ray but as people said before just becasue something is better dosent mean they'll buy: think Beta Vs. VHS. ANd in reply to the guy said SACD flopped, SACD just came out a few years ago and these things take a good amount of time to get going. CD came out around '82 and didnt take off until the late '80s and early '90s. GO BLU-RAY!!!!!!!!!!!!

  • GoddBless

    Posted Jan 6, 2006 7:03 am GMT

    First of all, last time I checked the biggest Blu-Ray Disc was 50GB. I saw a 90GB HD-DVD at the Digital Life Expo at the Jacob Javitts Center back in September. A HD-DVD Rep took one out of the player and showed me and my friends. He said it was just finalized a few weeks before the expo, and HD-DVD is supported by the DVD forum which makes it the official new format. I smell a Laser Disc coming on. I also want to now why everyone thinks whole seasons will be on on disc. HD-DVD isn't going to catch on fast. Neither will Blu-Ray. I know people who aren't yet comfortable with DVD's and now you're going to ask them to pick yet another new format, with the same movies they just purchased on DVD. Also if the first Blu-Ray players are going to be $1800, either SONY is willing to risk going bankrupt or they believe their fans are rich. PS3 is going to have to be more than a Blu-Ray player because it has way more capabilities. Microsoft needs to fire whomever is creating their marketing strategy and Nintendo is needs to keep doing what their doing. I love my 360 but I just wish Microsoft would stop contradicting themselves.

  • Kwzy

    Posted Jan 6, 2006 6:13 am GMT

    Blu-ray in PS3 shaking the WORLD

  • Kwzy

    Posted Jan 6, 2006 6:09 am GMT

    Blu-ray in PS3 shaking the WORLD

  • the_bi99man

    Posted Jan 5, 2006 11:01 pm GMT

    Time to set everyone straight.

    Q: "What's the difference between HD-DVD and Blu-Ray?"

    A: They are both disc formats that will be used to publish movies and, in Blu-Ray's case, games (for the PS3). The difference is size and quality. HD-DVD holds 15 GB per layer, Blu-Ray holds 25 GB per layer. What does this mean, you ask? It means that Blu-Ray can hold longer movies (or more movies, when it comes to compilations) in higher HD resolutions. It also means, in Blu-Ray's case, that Blu-Ray can hold 7 times more information for games than the standard DVDs being used by current consoles.

    Q: "Why are old movies being re-released in next-gen formats?"

    A: For people who just spent their Holiday bonuses on massive plasma-screen TVs and want their movies to work with it.

    Q: "Won't HD-DVD probably win because Blu-Ray is more expensive?"

    A: The first HD-DVD players have been announced, and cost $800 and $500 for the two versions. No Blu-Ray players have been announced except for the PS3, which is all but guaranteed to be cheaper than that. What's all this about Blu-Ray being more expensive?

    Q: "Won't this war really be decided by the popularity of the Xbox 360 vs. PS3?

    A: No. There will probably be an HD-DVD add-on for the 360, but it will only be for movies. No games will be published in HD-DVD for the 360. All PS3 games will be in Blu-Ray. The 360 will play no role in the success of HD-DVD, but the PS3 will almost definitely play a role in that of Blu-Ray.

    I hope that helps some people. I will probably come up with many more questions to answer, but whatever I'm done for now.

    Edit: Oh wow, wait til I've written it out and posted before showing that I can't space it out. Thanks, Gamespot.

  • demollyon

    Posted Jan 5, 2006 3:45 pm GMT

    Blu-Ray sucks it's guts. Just buy the crappy PS3 to find out you Sony-lovers!

  • Fallout_red

    Posted Jan 5, 2006 2:47 pm GMT

    BD is THE future of industry.

  • Alfredo14

    Posted Jan 5, 2006 2:05 pm GMT

    i hope blu ray wins

  • amena

    Posted Jan 5, 2006 1:33 pm GMT

    Blu-Ray sounds exciting and expensive to maintain & support as well :-S

  • EdibleKeybaord

    Posted Jan 5, 2006 12:17 pm GMT

    i hope the just decide on one cus this fude is really stupid):

  • nexrod

    Posted Jan 5, 2006 11:28 am GMT

    Most casual movie viewers don't really find anything wrong with current DVDs, so this whole new format will probably end up becoming a huge flop. I remember when Sony tried doing away with CDs, by coming up with the ideas of MiniDisc and SACD (super audio CD), and both turned out to be a huge failure. The picture quality on current DVD formats are good enough, and companies need to quit trying to reinvent the wheel.

  • Donkeljohn

    Posted Jan 5, 2006 10:23 am GMT

    Dune in HD! That's it, I'm sold. . . it better be the extended 3-hour version though.

  • Hellisunreal

    Posted Jan 5, 2006 9:51 am GMT

    things r jus gettin started lets what happens by thi time nxt yr

  • madcownow15

    Posted Jan 5, 2006 9:50 am GMT

    if you want to know the diff about the two go to this site http://www.wisegeek.com/what-are-blu-ray-discs.htm?referrer=adwords_campaign=bluraydiscs_ad=027641&_content_kw=blueray

  • LordAndrew

    Posted Jan 5, 2006 8:59 am GMT

    Blu-Ray defininately has the advantage so far.

  • NaturalBornGamR

    Posted Jan 5, 2006 8:08 am GMT

    With only 20 discs you'd have a terrabyte of data backed up.. That's probably the majority of peoples entire data collections.

  • NaturalBornGamR

    Posted Jan 5, 2006 8:05 am GMT

    I do not want blue-ray for movies.. I just want the high capacity disks to store things on... 50 gigs per discs is a dream come true in that respect.

  • zoo3

    Posted Jan 5, 2006 7:58 am GMT

    who the heck wants all of these old movies in HD? what a waste. rambo: first blood? robocop? total recall? stealth? awful awful movies. and all, except for stealth, are so old. how about releasing new and current movies with that new technology? i'm not buying hd-dvd or blu-ray until they figure out what format to go with. i'm not sure what will happen. beta was superior to vhs, but for some reason brainless americans bought up vhs. same thing could happen to blu-ray.

  • JayPee89

    Posted Jan 5, 2006 7:45 am GMT

    Over 10 million UMD's sold in about 6 months, and the PSP hasn't even sold all that well. The PS3 will sell several times what the PSP has, and Sony has it's own movie studio with plenty of material. It won't take long for everyone else to get on board. Every home video commercial you see now says "Coming Tuesday on DVD and PSP!!!" The PSP is the only device that can even play those things and they still apparently sell extremely well. Blu-ray will dominate on an even larger scale. The format war is already won.

  • RonHack

    Posted Jan 5, 2006 7:19 am GMT

    I wouldn't count out HD-DVD yet, folks. True, Blu-Ray has the edge in storage capability, but technical achievement doesn't always win out. If that were the case, we would be using Betamax tapes still! Speaking of which, Sony hasn't exactly achieved a good record in setting standards: Betamax, Minidisks, Memorysticks, I could go on. That, and Sony's pursuit of alienating customers by putting in unforgivable copy protection in their products, could swing the vote. If and when Microsoft embraces the HD-DVD format, that could swing the tide AWAY from Sony's format. Never mind how many titles Sony managed to line up; many more were lined up for the DiVX DVD format, and we know how that ended. The biggest variable is how many manufacturers will line up with which format: Sony can line up the software, since it owns all or part of those studios, but most manufacturers are behind the HD-DVD, and where the hardware goes.......

  • chrisdojo

    Posted Jan 5, 2006 5:31 am GMT

    WOW!!!! i can't wait to buy all those movies coming out on blue-ray that i have already seen and don't like enough to buy on a standard dvd!!!!!

  • ckyeungken

    Posted Jan 5, 2006 5:17 am GMT

    If PS3 fail to capture the market like PS2, Sony will be in deep trouble.

  • PringerOtaku

    Posted Jan 5, 2006 4:32 am GMT

    Blu-ray is going to dominate in the long run, there's no doubt about it. Gates is a fool to think selling an external HD-DVD drive is going to please its supporters. People want next-gen games, not just HD movies. Hell, why not buy a stand-alone HD-DVD Player instead? Lame. And if MS decides to make games in HD-DVD format, omfg. Biggest money leechers in the world.

  • neoand12

    Posted Jan 5, 2006 3:32 am GMT

    SWEET!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

  • automaticsnake

    Posted Jan 5, 2006 3:01 am GMT

    So Europe is stuck with Africa in the regional code for blue ray.... yeah im gonna be importing all does African games.... Thx Sony...

  • wemhim

    Posted Jan 5, 2006 2:47 am GMT

    Cooo. Blu-Ray will probably win, because unlike beta you can still watch pr0n flicks for the fatties.

  • sweet_jcs

    Posted Jan 5, 2006 1:41 am GMT

    folks, it's a sad day when there are fanboys of a media format...

    two words for ya!

    laser disk

  • OmegaBob

    Posted Jan 4, 2006 11:31 pm GMT

    As I have already stated, MiniDisc did NOT disappear. Only b/c it wasnt popular in the US, doesn't mean it was NOT popular elsewhere (ie Asia and Japan). Then again, the XB1 failed in Japan... yet in the US, it is (was) considered a viable format. Again, do not judge a lack of interest in the US to reflect the rest of the world.

  • forever_blank

    Posted Jan 4, 2006 11:12 pm GMT

    Yeah, but are consumers ready for the next format. I don't think so. Even for video formats, it is too soon. It wouln't suprise me if it did a Mini Disc and dissapeared for a good 2 years

  • danb007

    Posted Jan 4, 2006 10:45 pm GMT

    All the people that will buy a PS3 will need a 1080p HDTV in order to take any advantage of Blue Ray. Microsoft does not plan on using the new announced HD-DVD addon for games, it's for movies only. DVD-9 storage with compression will be enough for the next 4 years when Microsoft releases yet another console. Remember Microsoft is moving the market, They changed the 5 year console time to 4 years. Think about it.

  • deadlois

    Posted Jan 4, 2006 9:04 pm GMT

    [This message was deleted at the request of the original poster]

  • deadlois

    Posted Jan 4, 2006 8:57 pm GMT

    Here is one price I found on a blu ray player http://www.tgdaily.com/2006/01/04/pioneer_unveils_blu-ray_players/

    Sony must be taking a pretty big hit on the PS3

  • KodiakGTS

    Posted Jan 4, 2006 8:48 pm GMT

    People who claim one format will completely wipe out the other any time soon are incredibly ignorant in their viewpoints. I doubt there will be any significant impact of these two formats in the next 3 to 5 years. First of all, there is the issue of getting people to buy the players required for the new discs. Considering the price of the announced HD-DVD players and the likelyhood that PS3 will be at least $400, if not 500 (given all the new technology involved, you'd be insane to think it will be cheaper), mainstream America will not have the playing capacity to drive sales of the Blue-Ray or HD-DVD disks. Also, it will be hard convincing people to dish out the extra money to upgrade to new formats, when many just recently switched to DVD. The added benifits of more storage and HD Capability are not enough to warrant the upgrade. Current DVDs have enough space for most movies and upscaling DVD players do a respectable job of converting them to HD. Using Blue-Rays or HD-DVDs for anything except boxed sets would be a monumental waste of space at this point.

  • HockeyDog3133

    Posted Jan 4, 2006 8:48 pm GMT

    ignorance is bliss ...most of you people saying stuff like this is going to cost so much more money then this are fu**ing stupid.

  • GunslingerMan

    Posted Jan 4, 2006 8:20 pm GMT

    Go blu-ray !!!

  • OmegaBob

    Posted Jan 4, 2006 8:08 pm GMT

    Why is everyone saying that MiniDisc is dead? Hello? It still is a very popular format in Asia.

    Also, a year before the PSP was released, Sony upgraded the format to Hi-MDs which now store 1 gig of data on a RECORDABLE MD (music and/or data). SCE should have used Hi-MDs as their format of choice b/c of that very reason. Imagine it like this: MD and audiophiles would buy PSPs and gamers would purchase portable Hi-MD recorders. Win-win sitch for Sony. Too bad they went UMD.

    Some MD links:
    http://www.minidisc.org
    http://www.minidisco.com/

  • FreakmanJ

    Posted Jan 4, 2006 8:06 pm GMT

    And for the record, I support neither format - I'm perfectly fine with buying three-disc special editions from Japan for my reigon-free DVD player, and will be until DVDs go the way of VHS, thank you. And need I remind you all the VHS isn't a dead format? How else can we find cult movies that will never be put on DVD? And last I checked, DVDs can't record yet. The point I am making in this non-sequittor is that much like videos aren't completely gone, don't expect DVDs to go away for a long time either.

  • FreakmanJ

    Posted Jan 4, 2006 8:03 pm GMT

    puertorock_papi, you are pretty shortsighted if you think that more people will buy PS3s than HD-DVD players. If DVDs were all destroyed, which do you think the non-gaming 75% of the nation would go for - the cheaper format player, or the video game console. Get your head out of your ass before you make stupid coments ok?

  • ghostadv

    Posted Jan 4, 2006 7:40 pm GMT

    I'd kinda like to see whther or not Sony will try to raise the price of the Blu-Ray DVD's to see if people will still buy them at a higher price as opposed to DVD's

  • shichiru

    Posted Jan 4, 2006 7:31 pm GMT

    What the hell are blue-ray dvd's? I've never heard of them.

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