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Warner shelves plans for Total HD

15 November 2007 17:58 by James "Dela" Delahunty | 11 comments

After previously pushing back its launch plans for Total HD discs, Warner Home Entertainment has shelved the project entirely for now, according a Warner Exec who spoke with HighDefDigest. Total HD discs were touted as the answer to the on-going format war, storing Blu-ray data on one side of the disc and HD DVD data on the other. At the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in January, the studio showed off its new disc, saying it would retail for little more than single-format title.

Originally, the plan was to make the first discs available on the market in the second half of 2007. However, earlier this year, the company revealed that it was pushing back plans to sell movies on Total HD discs until early 2008. Now, a Warner Exec has told HighDefDigest that the project has been shelved due to a perceived shift in retailer needs after Paramount chose the HD DVD format exclusively.

"The short answer is, for the moment, it [Total HD] is on hold," explained Jim Noonan, SVP of Strategic Promotion and Communication for Warner Home Entertainment Group. "We're the only studio producing content in both formats. If we were to put out Total HD with just our titles, it wouldn't really provide the solution to our retail partners that it was intended to provide. If anything, at this point, it would further complicate their life, because there would be another product looking for shelf space. Our job is not to further complicate the lives of our retailers."

When asked if Total HD may be released in the future, Noonan didn't rule it out, saying that the disc has no expiration date.

Source:
HighDefDigest

Permalink to this article

Warner's Total HD put on 'hold' (15 September 2007)

Warner delays Total HD combo releases (28 June 2007)

Retail chains back Total HD (11 January 2007)

Warner's Total HD discs at CES? (4 January 2007)

DVD Forum green lights three-layer 51Gb HD-DVD (16 November 2004)

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Discuss this article!
sk8flawzz (Member) 16 November 2007 0:10
oh my... damn warner just pick an exclusive side already!!haha HD DVD would be nice, but i just want a winner [ + quote]
Pop_Smith (Senior Member) 16 November 2007 0:20
I wouldn't hold my breath but I would think Warner will pick a format once the figures come in for the Christmas, or "Holiday" if you want me to be politically correct >.<, season. [ + quote]
sk8flawzz (Member) 16 November 2007 0:24
*Originally posted by Pop_Smith:* I wouldn't hold my breath but I would think Warner will pick a format once the figures come in for the Christmas, or "Holiday" if you want me to be politically correct >.<, season. i hope they do.. i could look it up, but im lazy right now, does anyone know if 20th Century Fox is in a contract with BD? [ + quote]
hughjars (Inactive) 16 November 2007 7:15
Which paves the way for Warner to move to HD DVD exclusive in Jan 2008. Everybpdy said they wanted to see what happened in Q4 of this year and the truth is that the US retailing giants all called for HD DVD. Blu-ray will stay around to be the PS3s version of UMD. But to all serious intents and purposes this is over bar the shouting. [ + quote]
7thsinger (AfterDawn Addict) 16 November 2007 9:14
*Originally posted by hughjars:* Which paves the way for Warner to move to HD DVD exclusive in Jan 2008. Everybpdy said they wanted to see what happened in Q4 of this year and the truth is that the US retailing giants all called for HD DVD. Blu-ray will stay around to be the PS3s version of UMD. But to all serious intents and purposes this is over bar the shouting. I'm absolutely ready for a winner to this little skirmish. I, like so many others i'm sure, like the inclusive all around pricing of HD as opposed to BD. But, BD's quality is pretty good. I have yet to purchase a stand alone of either at this point. Just waiting... [ + quote]
MightyOne (Junior Member) 16 November 2007 10:06
I keep seeing people talk about how they like BD quality better ? ? ? Am i missing something here ? This is a format war, not a quality war. The quality will be the same. The format for the media will be different. If i save a video on a FAT32 or NTFS file system, the file quality remains the same. Someone correct me if I'm wrong here ? ? ? [ + quote]
ChromeMud (Junior Member) 16 November 2007 11:04
I'm going for HD-DVD.The players are cheaper to buy and well built.The quality of the movies are as good as Blu-Ray in 1080P. They have all the features like PIP and ethernet download built in and finalised unlike Blu-Ray which is playing catch-up. BD+ on the Blu-Ray format is anti-consumer.Looking at the state of unpopular DRM now being lifted from music to get consumers buying again,you can bet that HD-DVD will be a wiser choice.2 minutes on a tested firmware updated Samsung Blu-Ray player to load a BD+ title...you're 'aving a laugh! People vote with their wallets and HD-DVD is better value at the end of the day. [ + quote]
sk8flawzz (Member) 16 November 2007 11:22
@MightyOne, yes the quality on both HD DVD and BD are the same. Some uninformed n00bs will try arguing that because BD has more capacity, the quality is better. In that case, you could argue HD DVD has better quality because of more efficient codecs and what-not, but lets not get into that, as far as content quality, they are the same. [ + quote]
hughjars (Inactive) 16 November 2007 12:22
*Originally posted by sk8flawzz:* BD has more capacity - The key word there should be had. The V2 of the 51gb TL HD DVD has just been publicly announced as getting final DVD Forum approval. http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2007/09/11/hd_dvd_51gb_approved/ [ + quote]
sk8flawzz (Member) 16 November 2007 16:27
hughjars is right!!i wasn't aware the triple layer 51GB was approved [ + quote]
borhan9 (AfterDawn Addict) 5 December 2007 15:51
Well i like the concept of having the disc have 2 sides like this. If its more expensive it will be worth it if both formats are still going strong. [ + quote]