Microsoft, Intel back HD DVD over Blu-ray

raitchison writes "Reuters is reporting that after months of sitting on the fence in the battle over what will replace the venerable DVD that Microsoft and Intel have thrown their weight behind Toshiba's HD DVD over the Sony's Blu-ray. Better compatibility with existing DVD technology as well as lower cost were cited as reasons to back HD DVD. While this is undoubtedly a significant blow for Sony in their efforts to establish Blu-ray as the next standard it's not likely to be the end of Blu-ray."

Comments

Re:Is that really the reason?

[ergo98]

Or just because it's easier to do such things would make it easier to enforce DRM and security measures on users?

Of course they're making their big, benevolent public pronouncements based upon their own strategic interests. In Microsoft's case they're probably doing some short-term thinking about the xbox 360, and how they want to undermine the Bluray capabilities of the upcoming PS3. And who cares about what Intel thinks about DVD drives? Last I looked Intel had close to 0 influence or marketshare in that space. I suspect that someone at Microsoft called up Intel and called in a favour.

Re:And now for the really important question...

[Tibor the Hun]

I'm sure a lot of people still do.
I think it's kinda like a music situation. You can download a lot of questionable music of poor quality, and untagged, or you can save yourself some time and purchase it online. (I like iTunes and allofmp3.com)

pr0n is somewhat different, but I think the basic principle still applies. If you want quality and orderliness, you've gots to pay for it. (though empornium does have some pretty impressive siterips)