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Paramount/Dreamworks kill HD DVD titles

by on29 February 2008

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More sad news for HD DVD owners


We have to wonder how much more bad news HD DVD owners will have to endure. As we had noted in earlier reporting on Fudzilla, Paramount/Dreamworks were still getting their future plans on Blu-ray together, and had yet to make an announcement as to their plans on HD DVD titles that were planned or already in the works for future release. Both Paramount and Dreamworks had a slate of upcoming titles for HD DVD already announced for release, but our sources are telling us that in light of the current situation, plans have now officially changed with an official announcement expected shortly.

According to what we are hearing, “Into the Wild” and “Things We Lost in the Fire” will be the last titles released from either Paramount/Dreamworks on HD DVD. The highly anticipated HD DVD version of the “Bee Movie” from Dreamworks, which was to ship on March 11th, has now been cancelled. Paramount has also said to have canceled HD DVD versions of Sweeney Todd, There Will Be Blood, The Kite Runner, and The Jack Ryan Collection.

All of the canceled HD DVD titles will still be released on regular DVD. Some sources are suggesting that they expect Paramount/Dreamworks to make an announcement that Blu-ray versions of the above canceled titles will be announced very shortly.

The news has to strike at the very core of those HD DVD owners that were clinging to hope to be able to at least get a few more titles. We had expected at least some of the already announced HD DVD titles to continue to be released until the late spring/early summer time frame, but it would appear that the studios see releasing any additional titles on the HD DVD format as a money-losing situation.

We can’t help but believe that HD DVD owners deserve a little bit better than this, and while we can see that the studios are eager to put an end to the format war and get on with the release of Blu-ray titles, it does stand to reason that those that have been enjoying their HD DVD players and have spent their money should be treated with more respect than this. We would have expected Toshiba to try to make sure that at least some titles continued to be released in HD DVD format to give owners at least some time to make the switch to Blu-ray, but instead we expect HD DVD owners to rise up against Toshiba and the studios for being abandoned so quickly. Stay tuned, as we don’t expect that we have heard the last from the studios regarding future HD DVD support.

Last modified on 29 February 2008
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