Nine Key Players Representing The DVD And Home Entertainment Industry Were Present To Discuss The Rollout Of The Next Generation DVD Format At The ëDVD At Sevení Summit (From The ëDVD Newsí Newsletter)

14-Jun-04

Jim Cardwell representing Warner Home Video stated ìPiracy is one of his main concerns in the DVD Industry with piracy rates very high in Russia, China, and India.î Bob Chapek of Buena Vista said, ìA Format War for the Next-Generation DVD is NOT in the consumers, the studios, the replicators, or the hardware manufacturers interests.î Craig Kornblau from NBC/ Universal Studios stated, ìThe windows between theatrical and DVD release dates do get shorter, however, the biggest problems are the actual release dates for DVDs in a busy marketplace.î Kelly Sooter of Dreamworks stated, ìIt is in Hollywoodís interest to have a new format by the year 2006 and appealed to the hardware manufacturers to get together to introduce one format.î Mike Dunn of Fox said ìOn the question of Used DVDís - it is too early to tell if used DVDs are harmful or good for the industry.î Stephen Einhorn, New Line Home Entertainment, stated, ìThe marketing campaigns for the theatrical and DVD releases are becoming more and more integrated in every studio.î Henry McGee with HBO stated ìThe are very happy with their sales of TV series on DVDs.î David Bishop with MGM stated ìThe MPA estimates that we are losing $3 billion per year worldwide due to Piracy.î while Steve Beeks with Lions Gate agreed that the top three issues that the studios face are: 1) Piracy; 2) One new format for the next generation DVD and last but not least, and 3) competition from VOD, DirecTV, and the cable industry. The DVD Seven Summit was produced by Video Store Magazine and the DEG Group. Warren Lieberfarb spoke at DVD SEVEN SUMMIT on behalf of the Toshiba HD DVD camp on the Next Generation DVD topic and stated ìThey will have the HD DVD ready in 2005, the specifications are now available for the replicators and testing has already began. Lieberfarb pointed out that the HD DVD is cheaper to produce than the Blue Ray Disc (BD); and takes less time to replicate plus has four hours of programming on a single dual layer disc. While Benjamin Feingold together with Mike Fidler were on hand from SONY to represent the Blu Ray Disc (BD) and gave a ìSpider-Man 2"" demo of the new BD disc. They were confident that BD is on the cutting edge for the future and with its extra storage capacity; copy-protection and interactive usage with PCís, which would be worth the extra cost to sell the product and it is the Next Generation Format for the next decade. The 13 companies that are on board to support BD include Thomson, Philips, Hitachi, and Pioneer to name a few. For up-to-date information on the BDA (Blu-ray Disc Association), please visit www.blu-raydisc-official.org.

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