One of Hollywood’s major players Paramount has voted on the next generation DVD platform and HD-DVD is getting their nod. Sorry Sony but Blu Ray will only be an option for Spielberg films. Odd for them to choose one format over the other, particularly when Blu-Ray is outselling HD-DVD — although initially they said they’d support only the HD-DVD format and then changed their mind in 2005. Also, Blu-Ray is currently outselling HD-DVD by a 2-to-1 ratio: (1.6 million Blu-ray discs versus 795,000 HD DVD discs).

At retail stores in our local area — and I’d be the first to admit this isn’t very scientific and will vary from store to store and location to location — the selection at stores like Best Buy is about the same for both HD-DVD and Blu-Ray. Compared to DVD neither format is in significant supply. In fact, I think there are almost as many PSP UMDs available and dying was the word on that format a year ago. Retail store shelf space, usually at a premium at least suggests availability, but as mentioned above, Blu-Ray is selling better. Only one of two local Wal-Mart stores here (about 40 minutes south of Seattle) even carries HD-DVD and Blu Ray. How is the selection in your area?

The decision will see movies from Paramount Pictures, DreamWorks Pictures, Paramount Vantage, Nickelodeon Movies and MTV Films available in standard definition DVD and HD DVD, exclusively … Paramount says that its evaluation uncovered two benefits to HD DVD. First, the format is less expensive to produce … Second, Paramount described HD DVD as being superior owing to “market-ready technology.”

As somebody who owns players for both and has no loyalty to either format (yet), the three benefits I can see for HD-DVD over Blu-Ray thus far are:

- combo DVDs. You can spend a few more bucks than the DVD and get both HD-DVD and Blu Ray. For folks who are building a DVD collection and are thinking about buying either Blu Ray or HD-DVD, this seems like a safe option for future proofing their purchase. You can’t play the Blu-Ray discs in any DVD player. That is if the HD-DVD option becomes a standard after DVD.
- easier name recognition with non-geeky crowd. Admittedly a bit weak, but HD-DVD does have the words “HD” and “DVD” in the format title, which gives a psychological edge over Blu-Ray to less tech-savvy consumers. With the move to HDTVs more and more consumers are understanding what ‘HD’ means (higher quality). Blu-Ray is new vernacular.
- more non-movie interactivity options. Looking at the pack-in for King Kong there are some curious options for mixing in the behind the scenes movie information while watching the movie. Maybe Blu Ray can do some or all of this too, but I haven’t seen it advertised or used in the Blu Ray movies as clearly. I can see HD-DVD specific games being something that tips the scales in that format over Blu Ray. Yeah, I know you can just buy a PS3 and play both, but Sony isn’t marketing Blu-Ray movies with games.

Imagine a new game being launched on the same disc along with the movie. It’s a marketer’s dream: target both passive and interactive consumers. Hey, you can pay a few more dollars and get a game with your movie too. The movie theater chains have been looking for a way to drive more people to the theater. I think they could use a lower quality DVD version of the film as an enticement to pay the higher movie ticket prices and then come out 3-6 months later in stores with the HD-DVD version complete with a game. Take a game like The Simpsons which isn’t going to be available for the Xbox 360 until September when the movie is already out of the theater. A marketing opportunity exists to give people a reason to spend a little more than the DVD. Right now, you pay a little more to get a higher quality version, but I don’t think that’s enough and the lackluster sales numbers for both formats are telling.

Tonight at midnight we’re hitting the stores for a couple new release Xbox 360 games and both will cost over $50. It’s not unimaginable to pay $50-75 and get both a feature length HD-DVD movie and a game. I’d do it if the games weren’t totally lame. I realize that’s not giving much profit to the game company, but as a package deal it could make it more desirable and help seal in the format. It could also help movie studios shoot the game and video footage at the same time and perhaps save some money. A lot of the movie to games suck, but there have been improvements in the genre.

There is decent potential here to create a gaming network around a movie. Mentioned recently are movie-type games like Dragon’s Lair coming out for HD-DVD and Blu Ray (Dragon’s Lair Blu Ray is already available), but these aren’t the type of games I’m talking about. And full motion movies like Dragon’s Lair have been out for 20 years (I’m feeling older just typing that). Movie watching is a passive activity, but it seems to me that HD-DVD is a little better poised to make it more of an interactive process on the same disc than Blu-Ray. Sony could hamper this HD-DVD momentum and thinking and start releasing Blu-Ray games that don’t require the PS3. Even better, leverage their upcoming HOME network with people watching Blu-Ray movies that have the PS3. This makes it even wiser to buy the PS3 as a Blu-Ray player.

What are Blu-Ray strengths
I’m still evaluating both formats, but my early opinion is that Blu-Ray looks better than HD-DVD. Maybe it’s the lower priced Xbox 360 HD-DVD player or 1080p TV we bought that leads to this conclusion, but I see a crispness and sharpness with the Blu-Ray images that I don’t see as well on an HD-DVD. I’m not saying HD-DVD is bad — it still looks very good — just perhaps a bit inferior. Being the best picture around means nothing if you don’t have the TV and movie title support and Sony can’t do it alone.

Also worth repeating: complete TV season support for both nextgen formats is lousy.

We just picked up the first season of Weeds on Blu Ray, but season two was already on DVD and not on Blu Ray (at least at the store we were at, is it available elsewhere?). This is one area the studios need to get together on and fast if they want either format to take off. Support complete TV seasons on Blu Ray and HD-DVD. None of that lame volume 1, volume 2 crap either, make them complete seasons with every aired episode. Why this isn’t a priority now is puzzling to me. When you compare a new release movie for $19.99 to something like Buck Rogers the Complete Series for the same price (pictured me holding both above) and you already own the player, which would you rather buy?

Back to Paramount making a budgetary decision to support one format exclusively. Can’t blame them there, and if the market continues to choose Blu-ray with their wallets, they can always change their minds down the road. Considering both HD-DVD and Blu-ray haven’t sold over three million titles to date, this isn’t a good sign of confidence from consumers for either format.

Finally, the article credits the sales of PS3 for giving the edge to Blu-Ray over HD-DVD. Sure, who would pay the same price for a Blu-Ray player when you can get a PS3 for the same price? Sony’s strategy was to handcuff their gaming console with a proprietary movie format. The PS3 has USB ports though and could someday support HD-DVD like the Xbox did with HD-DVD.

Official support for HD-DVD players on the PS3? Yeah, right, when monkeys fly out of your PS3 controller.

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