I missed this the first time around, or maybe it’s just new information. I kinda wish it was the latter, ’cause then I won’t feel so foolish. So anyway, I saw an article on TWICE about Warner now support Blu-ray. I almost didn’t follow the link because it’s old news, but it said “UPDATE!” next to it, so I thought what the hey.

Just a sec. Here’s a small apetizer. It seems that Warner doesn’t care about iHD vs BD-Java. HP recently made waves by asking that iHD be included in the Blu-ray spec, but it seems like a fence-sitting studio doesn’t care.. Also, Warner wanted managed copy and are happy they got it (see HD Beat). Managed copy is also something HP pushed for. This article doesn’t say, however, if managed copy will be mandatory or up to each studio. The HD Beat article seems to suggest it will be mandatory.

Okay, here’s the main course. It looks like one of the concessions that Warner Brothers got from Sony is the inclusion of BD-9 (or what the HD-DVD group calls HD DVD-9). BD-9 is basically a red-laser based HD disc. An HD DVD (note the lack of dash), if you will. You know, like the HD WMV discs available now. So for the production cost of producing a DVD, you can have an HD disc. With the latest compression technologies, an HD movie will fit on one of these discs. With all the complaints about the costs of producing a BD disc (which will come down), it’s good to see that a cheap alternative will be available to the studios.

This brings up two questions. (1) Will studios use this ability, and (2) Will you or I care - how does it affect us?

TWICE - Warner Announces Blu-ray Support