Is Eastern Promises going to be released on Blu-ray?

Question

Why is it that sometimes they release movies on only HD DVD or only Blu-Ray, and other times they're released on both?

Answer 1

Short answer: No (unless Universal change their format support policy).

Different studios have differing policies re which format they support. In the case of Eastern Promises, Universal have a HD DVD exclusive policy (as do Paramount and Dreamworks). Warner and Newline support both formats (i.e. are format neutral). Blu-ray exclusive studios include Sony, Fox, Lionsgate, Disney and MGM.

Why the difference? In the case of several Blu-ray only studios it is mainly because they are owned by Sony who, as one of the originators of the Blu-ray format, understandably will not do anything to support HD DVD. Format neutral studios like Warner consider HD disks an experiment at this time and will eventually choose the format that the market chooses.

Paramount and Dreamworks used to be format neutral, but dropped Blu-ray for a number of reasons. Many say they were bought off, but other reports claim this was secondary, and they were not happy with the wildly mixed capabilities of Blu-ray players resulting from the incremental Blu-ray spec -- which made producing disks difficult because there was (and still isn't) a standard feature set to program extras for. Difficulties and high cost using BD-Java (rather than the far simpler HDi adopted by HD DVD) to program menu/special features, and the higher cost and limited replication capacity for Blu-ray disks, were also cited as reasons. These, and other reasons, such as the higher cost of Blu-ray production may have been a factor in the choice of format by the HD DVD exclusive studios. But who really knows why they make what are, after all, business decisions.

See the link for a "report card" that, amongst other useful info, provides info on who supports what.

The differing support means consumers must either have players for both formats or accept that some movies they would like to watch will only be viewable in DVD.

So ... don't hold your breath for a Blu-ray version of Eastern Promises ... look for the DVD ... or go neutral and buy an HD DVD player.