Intel and Microsoft endorse HD-DVD
Sep 27, 2005 at 2:13 PM Post #3 of 21
Yeah it is really sad that it looks like we are in for another format war. I know hd-dvd's apparent "pro-computer" stance is why intel and ms has signed up with it. But with majority of content providers being in the blu-ray camp it will be interesting to see what happens in the long run as another format war is a lose - lose situation for everyone.
 
Sep 27, 2005 at 3:10 PM Post #4 of 21
Does this really do anything for HD-DVD? Neither are going to really be producing content.

Quote:

There are several reasons the two companies went with HD DVD, said Richard Doherty, Microsoft's program manager for media entertainment convergence. Among them: HD DVD requires that movies be copied to a consumer's hard drive, making it easier for people to send movies around home networks; the format supports regular DVD recordings on the flip side of the disc, letting people sell hybrid discs to consumers who have DVD players today but fear their discs will be obsolete; and the format offers more capacity.


Is that right? I've never heard that. How can any movie studio back something that requires it be copied to a hard drive making it easier to share?

Also, at the end the guy from Microsoft says Blu-Ray doesn't have 50gb media, which they have for a long while (and have produced larger capacity disks), and he also says that they haven't produced a hybrid disk, I think it was JVC that demonstrated a BD-DVD hybrid not too long ago.
 
Sep 27, 2005 at 3:24 PM Post #5 of 21
how can this conflict be resolved? this cant be good for us (consumers)
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Sep 27, 2005 at 3:37 PM Post #6 of 21
All in all, I don't think this matters much. Microsoft is going to have to support whatever standard is adopted and Intel is completely irrelevant to format discussions as far as I can tell. It's all just a bunch of coporate politics and serves no real purpose. Just a couple of blow hards showing off for their buddies and slowing down the adoption of some great new technology.
 
Sep 27, 2005 at 3:37 PM Post #7 of 21
Probably something similar to DVDA vs. SACD will happen. Some manufacturers will build HD-DVD players, some others Blu-Ray players, probably some others will build universal format players supporting both.

But both HDDVDs and Blu-Ray disks will cost more than standard DVD's. Many people would keep renting and buying (and copying) the standard DVDs because of cost and because unless you have a truly large high-def progressive display you won't really rip the benefits of these higher res formats over DVD. Guess why HDTV is still largely non mainstream. Remember DVD has been so far the media with fastest penetration ever. So these new video formats will have a LOT to displace.

Granted, video improvements even on mass market displays will likely be much easier to notice than audio improvements of SACD/DVDA over CD on mass market audio equipment.
 
Sep 27, 2005 at 3:44 PM Post #8 of 21
HDTV isn't mainstream yet because corporations that were given billions of dollars worth of free broadcast spectrum by the government (in exchange for a promise to use that bandwidth to broadcast HDTV signals) have found that they can make a lot more money by continuing to broadcast the same smaller signals and renting the surplus bandwidth to other companies.

Every time a deadline for them to start broadcasting in HD comes around, they have another excuse as to why they can't do it and the deadline gets pushed back. Don't be fooled, it's strictly a matter of profitability to them and you won't see much in the way of HDTV until public pressure becomes enormous or compression technologies improve and allow them to broadcast HD signals while still renting out a large portion of the bandwidth they were given.
 
Sep 27, 2005 at 3:46 PM Post #9 of 21
I think one of the biggest obstacles that HD-DVD and Blu-Ray will have to face is somewhat of a public perception that they are only being made so the content producers can have much better copyright protection therefore having more "control" over "their" content. I think that hurdle might even be more difficult to overcome than a format war.
 
Sep 27, 2005 at 3:48 PM Post #10 of 21
Quote:

Originally Posted by jpr703
it's strictly a matter of profitability


Like Major Kusanagi says at the beginning of Ghost in the Shell: "Of course it is!"
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That's why I also said "because of cost". Cost of HDTV is largely prohibitive for consumers, and cost of HDTV equipment for broadcasters is also still quite prohibitive, while they keep making their revenues just using the old NTSC / SDTV technology. The pressure to upgrade is so far truly just political, but not really market driven.
 
Sep 27, 2005 at 9:18 PM Post #11 of 21
I think I am going to bias with the Blu-Ray on this issue. Mostly because I will be buying a PS3 and so I won't have to buy a blu-ray filter.

I can't wait for Blank Blu-Ray's either.
biggrin.gif
Now I can save over half my hard drive on 1 cd so its gonna be a lot easier to reformat my hard drive when I wanna.

Also, I heard of TDK making a 2x Blu-Ray with a 100gb capacity
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Oct 4, 2005 at 3:26 PM Post #13 of 21
Quote:

Originally Posted by XxATOLxX
Also, I heard of TDK making a 2x Blu-Ray with a 100gb capacity


Yea, I also read somewhere that Panasonic was making a quad-layered 100gb disc...THAT'S SINGLE SIDED!
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Man, that is a lot of storage for a CD sized disc, if they can pull that off that is.
 
Oct 4, 2005 at 3:28 PM Post #14 of 21
Oct 4, 2005 at 6:00 PM Post #15 of 21
Quote:

Originally Posted by tkam
I actually started a thread about this yesterday. It is also expected that Warner and Universal will make similar annoucements soon.


Oops missed it sorry, will look it up.
 
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