Studios

[Wayde]

Can anyone point me in the direction of a list of the studios that have gone with HD DVD or Blu-ray respectively? I'd like to do a comparison of which studios back which one exclusively these days. It seems many of the studios have decided to release their wares on both formats - which is great. End the war with freedom of choice. But I'm curious who the holdouts are.

Thanks

[bobgpsr]

There is always wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blu-ray

On November 29, 2004 four Hollywood studios (New Line Cinema, Paramount Pictures, Universal Studios and Warner Bros.) announced non-exclusive agreements to support HD DVD. Since that time, Paramount and Warner have chosen to release titles in both Blu-ray Disc and HD DVD, while only Universal has since announced exclusive support for HD DVD. Currently Sony Pictures, MGM, Disney and 20th Century Fox have all exclusively backed Blu-Ray

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HD_DVD

In terms of major studios, HD DVD is currently exclusively backed by Universal Studios, The Weinstein Company/Genius Products, New Line Cinema, HBO,and Rogue Pictures , and is non-exclusively backed by Paramount Pictures, Warner Bros., Warner Music Group, DreamWorks SKG and Image Entertainment (including Discovery Channel),[22] Magnolia Pictures,[23] Brentwood Home Video, Ryko, Koch/Goldhil Entertainment,[24] and Studio Canal.

Add Bandai to HD DVD.

Go down to the "Industry Support" sections in both. The HD DVD one looks to be a little more up to date.

[Wayde]

Thanks a lot for that

It looks like only Sony Pictures, Fox and Disney are Blu-ray exclusive and Universal is the only HD DVD exclusive. MGM is owned by Sony now so is counted under Sony's own significant arm.

I find it creepy that a content provider is making the format and subsequent DRMs to protect it from us. You could fit a Redwood through that conflict of interest. Sadly I don't think we'll realize the full extent that it'll hurt you until there is no competitor to Blu-ray - then Sony can truly dictate the terms of the next gen format. It's one way to kiss innovation good bye.

[bobgpsr]

Weinstein is HD DVD exclusive and has been putting out a fair number of titles lately, albeit using H.264/AVC instead of VC-1. MGM is only 20% owned by Sony and its board switched from using Sony to using Fox to distribute its titles. I think the new worldwide total is now 18 studios for HD DVD and 17 for BD (once you include all of the small operations).

[Tommy]

Both formats have been on the market for about a year now and there is a near identical amount of releases for both at present time.

Blu-ray: 271
HD-DVD: 265