STUDIOS TO CONTINUE FEEDING DEAD FORMAT

Both Warner Bros. and Universal Home Video said Wednesday that for the immediate future, they will continue to release product in the HD DVD format, despite Toshiba's earlier announcement that it will discontinue manufacturing HD DVD players. Warner reiterated that it will continue to release titles in both Blu-ray and HD DVD formats through the end of May. Universal said that it plans to release Fletch in the HD DVD version on March 13. It has not yet indicated when it will begin releasing new and catalog titles in Blu-ray. Paramount indicated that it will continue to turn out HD DVD titles through March but did not indicate when it will phase in Blu-ray releases. When it reportedly received $150 million from the HD DVD camp last year to adopt that format exclusively, Paramount shelved its remaining Blu-ray stock. It was not immediately clear whether those disks were destroyed or whether they can now be dusted off and distributed.

21/02/2008