As a follow-up to my post in this category 'Conflicting standards a worry for next-gen DVD adoption 'looks like there is already some fallout. How familiar was this with SACD & DVD-A titles, year after year. . .
I think the future hi rez audio will be with one or both (I shutter to think) of these competing formats. Anyway, here we go again!
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http://www.videobusiness.com/article/CA6315184.html?text=site+drops+hd+titles
Site drops HD DVD titles
Move could signal delay as Wal-Mart halts online pre-orders
By Susanne Ault and Paul Sweeting -- Video Business, 3/10/2006
MARCH 10 | Now you see ’em, now you don’t.
The first batch of Warner HD DVD titles have abruptly disappeared from Wal-Mart’s Web site, three weeks after the retailer started taking online pre-orders for the high-definition discs.
Consumers who had place pre-orders received e-mails from Walmart.com beginning March 8 telling them their orders had been canceled. The items “may become available some point in the future,” the e-mails said.
At least through March 4, Wal-Mart was accepting pre-orders for Batman Begins, The Phantom of the Opera, Million Dollar Baby and others, scheduled to street on March 28.
Walmart.com had been offering early dibs on titles for the last couple of weeks. Many were retail-priced at $25.48 a piece, marked down from a list price of $29.98.
At the time, Wal-Mart was the only retailer taking pre-orders for the titles. Amazon.com continues to have people sign up to receive e-mails the instant HD DVD products become available for pre-order but is not currently taking orders.
Several electronics retailers are taking pre-orders for the first two Toshiba HD DVD players, also slated to hit stores March 28, but none were soliciting orders for the software titles (VB, 3-6).
Warner and Toshiba officials said earlier that the plan for the initial rollout of the format called for restricting sale of the titles to retailers that also are selling the hardware, due to the limited quantity of discs available.
Wal-Mart has not participated in Toshiba’s initial retail demo tour, and it was unclear last week whether the mass merchant would be selling the hardware at launch.
Wal-Mart officials declined to comment on the chain’s plans for the hardware or on the disappearance of the titles from its Web site.
However, the unusual move by the retailer sparked speculation last week that Warner might be having problems getting the first wave of titles prepared and replicated in time to meet the March 28 street date and might have to delay their introduction.
At least one software supplier in Japan has already indicated that the long delay in reaching an interim licensing agreement for the AACS copy-protection system for HD DVD had caused the label’s launch plans to slip.
The label, Shochiku, announced last week that its planned March 28 release, Shinobi, would be pushed back to April 28.
“We judged that we can not meet the scheduling, considering the contractual procedures,” a spokesman said, according to an English translation of a Japanese news report.
Warner executives declined to comment.
Toshiba Consumer Products America marketing VP Jodi Sally said she was not aware of any announcements from Warner departing from earlier HD DVD title street dates.
She also insisted the Toshiba players “are still on schedule” and will be shipped to retailers throughout March.
As a member of the eight-company AACS consortium, Warner would have had access to information about the likely contours of the interim licensing agreement before those details became available to other software suppliers such as Shochiku.
That inside knowledge might have helped Warner begin preparing its launch titles far enough in advance to meet the March 28 street date even if some other suppliers can’t.
Warner also has worked closely with Microsoft, another AACS member, to develop some of the encoding procedures for HD DVD titles, which could give the studio a leg up over other distributors in preparing its titles for the launch.
© 2006, Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All Rights Reserved.
I think the future hi rez audio will be with one or both (I shutter to think) of these competing formats. Anyway, here we go again!
_______________________________________________________
http://www.videobusiness.com/article/CA6315184.html?text=site+drops+hd+titles
Site drops HD DVD titles
Move could signal delay as Wal-Mart halts online pre-orders
By Susanne Ault and Paul Sweeting -- Video Business, 3/10/2006
MARCH 10 | Now you see ’em, now you don’t.
The first batch of Warner HD DVD titles have abruptly disappeared from Wal-Mart’s Web site, three weeks after the retailer started taking online pre-orders for the high-definition discs.
Consumers who had place pre-orders received e-mails from Walmart.com beginning March 8 telling them their orders had been canceled. The items “may become available some point in the future,” the e-mails said.
At least through March 4, Wal-Mart was accepting pre-orders for Batman Begins, The Phantom of the Opera, Million Dollar Baby and others, scheduled to street on March 28.
Walmart.com had been offering early dibs on titles for the last couple of weeks. Many were retail-priced at $25.48 a piece, marked down from a list price of $29.98.
At the time, Wal-Mart was the only retailer taking pre-orders for the titles. Amazon.com continues to have people sign up to receive e-mails the instant HD DVD products become available for pre-order but is not currently taking orders.
Several electronics retailers are taking pre-orders for the first two Toshiba HD DVD players, also slated to hit stores March 28, but none were soliciting orders for the software titles (VB, 3-6).
Warner and Toshiba officials said earlier that the plan for the initial rollout of the format called for restricting sale of the titles to retailers that also are selling the hardware, due to the limited quantity of discs available.
Wal-Mart has not participated in Toshiba’s initial retail demo tour, and it was unclear last week whether the mass merchant would be selling the hardware at launch.
Wal-Mart officials declined to comment on the chain’s plans for the hardware or on the disappearance of the titles from its Web site.
However, the unusual move by the retailer sparked speculation last week that Warner might be having problems getting the first wave of titles prepared and replicated in time to meet the March 28 street date and might have to delay their introduction.
At least one software supplier in Japan has already indicated that the long delay in reaching an interim licensing agreement for the AACS copy-protection system for HD DVD had caused the label’s launch plans to slip.
The label, Shochiku, announced last week that its planned March 28 release, Shinobi, would be pushed back to April 28.
“We judged that we can not meet the scheduling, considering the contractual procedures,” a spokesman said, according to an English translation of a Japanese news report.
Warner executives declined to comment.
Toshiba Consumer Products America marketing VP Jodi Sally said she was not aware of any announcements from Warner departing from earlier HD DVD title street dates.
She also insisted the Toshiba players “are still on schedule” and will be shipped to retailers throughout March.
As a member of the eight-company AACS consortium, Warner would have had access to information about the likely contours of the interim licensing agreement before those details became available to other software suppliers such as Shochiku.
That inside knowledge might have helped Warner begin preparing its launch titles far enough in advance to meet the March 28 street date even if some other suppliers can’t.
Warner also has worked closely with Microsoft, another AACS member, to develop some of the encoding procedures for HD DVD titles, which could give the studio a leg up over other distributors in preparing its titles for the launch.
© 2006, Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All Rights Reserved.
