HD DVD wins over Paramount and DreamWorks

Filed in archive Announcements on August 21, 2007

If you are like me, you are looking for signs of how the high-definition disk wars will play out before plopping down some serious mullah for a unit and an investment in new disks that may become obsolete.

Well, more news that Sony's Blu-ray may be losing out to Toshiba's HD DVD format. A strange twist occurred yesterday as Paramount and DreamWorks Animation announced that their future releases will be exclusively in HD DVD. They join Universal in the HD DVD only club.

All I can say is that some serious money must have been thrown at the studios to get them to back a "one format" distribution strategy. Some of the financial details may later be disclosed by DreamWorks Animation, which is a public company.

Lest we forget, the Blu-ray camp is not on the ropes yet. In fact, Blu-ray has outsold HD DVD in the U.S. and Europe by a ratio of about two to one. Toshiba often grips and quibbles about that statistic, but in the end that is what this war is about.

This switch to HD DVD at Paramount will start Aug. 28 with "Blades of Glory," followed by the "Transformers" release later this year. DreamWorks Animation will tout the HD DVD debut of "shrek the Third" in the fourth quarter. All three releases will be distributed by Paramount Home Entertainment and will be released day-and-date with their standard-def DVD counterparts.

All Paramount and DreamWorks movies will be released in the format in the future, with the notable exception of those directed by Steven Spielberg.