CES report: Disc duel

[Gregg Lengling]

By Mike Snider, USA TODAY
Las Vegas — One of my favorite Looney Tunes exchanges came to mind here Thursday while attending the HD DVD press conference. Bugs Bunny and Yosemite Sam are about to go at it and Bugs says, "Of course, you know, this means war."
Hollywood and the consumer electronics industries appear to be headed that way, too, with two dueling high-definition home video formats.

Just so your scorecards are updated, in this corner we have the Blu-Ray Disc team headed by Sony, Philips, Panasonic and Samsung with support from Sony Pictures, Disney and Fox. In the competing HD DVD camp are Toshiba, Sanyo and studios Paramount, Warner and Universal.

Basically the discs are like DVDs on steriods that will hold a high-definition version of a movie. Blu-Ray Discs are touted as able to hold more data, 50 gigabytes, while HD DVD is 30. HD DVD supporters argue their discs would cost less to produce and be quicker to market.

What is at stake in developing the standard for the next generation disc is millions of dollars in royalties that flow as players and discs are manufactured and sold.

In an attempt to grab the momentum, the HD DVD group had several studios announce some of the high-res movies they plan to have in stores when the first HD DVD players come out later this year.

Paramount announced that The Manchurian Candidate, The Spongebob Squarepants Movie, Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow and the upcoming film Elizabethtown would be among the newer films to come out on HD DVD; older ones include Forrest Gump, Grease and Braveheart. Universal's planned releases include The Chronicles of Riddick, Van Helsing and The Bourne Supremacy. HBO plans to bring out The Sopranos. Warner's releases include the Matrix trilogy, The Polar Express, Ocean's Twelve and the upcoming Batman Begins and Constantine. (Highlights of the presentation were seeing snippets of a Batman Begins trailer and the entire Charlie and the Chocolate Factory trailer.)

Warner plans to have more than 50 HD DVD releases out "by this time next year," company president Jim Cardwell said. "They'll see (movies) as they have never seen them."

Toshiba plans to have its first HD DVD player out in the fourth quarter of 2005, priced at $999. It will play the new discs, current DVDs and music CDs. Sanyo plans to have a player out then, too. Prices of HD DVD movies will be higher than that of current DVDs, but no specific prices were announced.

Blu-Ray players are expected by year-end, too. Sony plans to put out Blu-Ray-based games for its PlayStation 3, expected to come out in 2006.

When asked about the possibility of a combi-player that would handle both type of new discs, Cardwell said that the cost of one would probably be "prohibitively high."

DVD succeeded in part because all the companies involved — including Sony and Toshiba — came together to support one format. A format war may be likely, but it is not a certainty yet.

Best Buy vice president Ron Boire urged the studios at the Digital Entertainment Group's annual reception to reach a compromise. "Best Buy's vote and that of its customers is strongly behind one format," he said.

DEG president Bob Chapek, who is also president of Buena Vista Home Entertainment, said that "it's safe to say that no one really wants a format war. ... Just because (reaching a compromise) is difficult, doesn't mean we shouldn't try. Otherwise a lot of money will be spent to beat the other guys to the punch and we will confuse consumers. A stunted new format is a distinct possibility."

DreamWorks' Kelley Avery said that "a line has kind of been drawn in the sand now with Sony on one side and Toshiba on the other. I hope we can get to one format," she says. "We have to because it is what consumers want."

The Digital Entertainment Group also gave creative excellence awards for the top DVDs in 2004 (full disclosure, I was a voter).

The winners:

• Lord of the Rings: Return of the King Extended Edition (new theatrical)

• Gone With the Wind four-disc collector's edition (catalog)

• Seinfeld Seasons 1-3 (TV)

• Lion King 1½ (direct to DVD)

• Bon Jovi — This Left Feels Right: Live (music)