Paramount Breaks Up With Blu-Ray

Celebrity couples always seem to have it all. You see them smiling and having a good time together out at the awards ceremony and then BAM! Splitsville. That's how it is with Paramount/Dreamworks and Blu-Ray. One minute, Blu-Ray thinks its in a committed relationship, the next day they see Paramount/Dreamworks out with HD-DVD in the tabloids!

Don't feel too bad for Blu-Ray though. She's been seen with a lot of other production studios.

The only exception to the HD-DVD switch will be any movies directed by Steven Spielberg. Those movies will be released on both formats.

But all other movies released by Paramount Pictures, DreamWorks Pictures, Paramount Vantage, Nickelodeon Movies and MTV Films will be HD-DVD only. That includes recent blockbusters like "Shrek the Third" and "Transformers."

Paramount says the switch is due mainly to the fact that HD-DVD players average about $200 cheaper than Blu-Ray players. And while technically, there are more Blu-Ray players in use in the United States, almost all of those are PS3s, and recent research indicates that gamers buy less movies than people who buy a stand alone DVD player.

Other reasons could include the fact that it actually costs distributors a lot less to convert their normal DVD factories into HD-DVD factories. They just upgrade certain equipment, but with Blu-Ray, they basically need to replace all their equipment.

With this announcement, Time Warner is now the only major studio to release movies on both formats.