Even with the tide apparently shifting in Blu-ray Disc"s favor, the HD DVD camp isn"t about to relent in the on-going high-definition format war. HD DVD still commands a significant portion of exclusive content and the most affordable hardware, giving the format a fighting chance – and nobody believes in HD DVD more than Universal Studios executive vice president Ken Graffeo, who also serves as the co-president of the HD DVD Promotional Group.
The HD DVD Group was rather mum on Warner"s surprise announcement right before CES to go Blu-ray Disc exclusive and cancelled its Sunday press conference. Graffeo, speaking to BetaNews, explains, "We heard about the whole move when everyone else did – when a lot of us were on planes flying to CES in Las Vegas ... If we had our press event on Monday, it would have been different, but because it was right there on Sunday and we heard Friday afternoon we couldn"t even get to everybody ... The entire flow of the presentation would have had to been changed. When we found out at the last minute, we had to regroup and say "Toshiba, what are you doing?" and we didn"t have any answers."
With HD DVD losing movie releases from Warner Bros. starting June, the HD DVD landscape could change drastically – something that the Promotional Group doesn"t yet have an answer for. "To be very honest with you, we have not addressed that yet," Graffeo admitted. "Warner is still releasing HD DVD titles up until May. Warner has always been in two formats, and prior to Paramount"s switch, they had been in two formats, so now that Warner is exclusive... we just haven"t addressed it yet."