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Blu-Ray The Flavour of The Moment
News from all over seems to indicate that Blu-Ray has been accepted by entertainment media groups. wingman358 writes "The technology research group 'Forrester Research' has declared the Sony-led next generation Blu-Ray format the winner over HD-DVD, led by Microsoft. Forrester Research analyst Ted Schadler says, 'After a long and tedious run up to launch, it is now clear to Forrester that the Sony-led Blu-Ray format will win.'" Meanwhile, the format continues to improve. mimio writes "Hewlett-Packard Co. on Wednesday raised the stakes in a battle between high-definition DVD formats by urging a group led by Sony Corp. to include features important to PC makers and users." Finally, Tibor the Hun writes "Apparently Warner has switched from backing HD-DVD to Blu-Ray. What impact might this have on Microsoft's decision to use HD-DVD on the Xbox 360?"
Warner has not made any statements that they are dropping HD-DVD, they will most likely release in both formats like Paramount plans.i ng_article.cfm?article_id=8150
http://www.homemediaretailing.com/news/html/break
Microsoft has not said they are adopting HD-DVD for the 360, everyone is just speculating. They HAVE said they are considering the addition of support for a new DVD format for the 360 in the future, but again, that's not even confirmed. They are only considering it.
What's more, Gates has been quoted saying he thinks the whole format war is pointless anyway and that digital delivery will be whats really important (i.e. downloading movies you buy). In fact the XBox 360 will be able to play a movie that is streaming from your PC over your home network. This is also kind of why they support HD-DVD as opposed to Blu-ray, apparently the Blu-Ray copy protection prevents streaming video like this.
Except you've very obviously missed the part where Microsoft isn't going to ship the xbox 360 with an HD-DVD drive. They may decide to in the future, but there is no commitment that they will. Hence, your point is negated.
Be a real patriot: Question authority. Think for yourself. Formulate your own conclusions.
I guess you've forgotten that Microsoft's profit is secured as the VC-1 codec is used in BOTH Blu-Ray and HD-DVD formats. Moreover, Xbox360 only includs a noraml DVD drive on the initial release so Microsoft can always switch sides.
Well, not quite. "Managed Copy", which allows streaming, ripping to hard drives, and limited duplication, is a part of both HD-DVD and BluRay specs. However, in HD-DVD, "Managed Copy" is a mandatory feature of every disk, while in BluRay it is (as of right now) merely optional. MS & Intel claim their support for HD-DVD is primarily because of this feature.
Hopefully, BluRay will make Managed Copy mandatory as well -- and there seems to be some movement in that direction.
multifariam.net -- yet another nerd blog
Of course it is worth reminding ourselves that the drive in the 360 is a normal dvd drive, Sony's PS3 will be the first console to offer HD video, and it will be using a blu ray drive.
It *is* "broke." DVDs are unsuitable for HD contet. Your old DVDs will still play fine for as long as you want them, but there needs to be a new format for HD. If you dont want to make the jump to HD yet, then don't. Your old content will play fine for as long as you want it to, ad you'll be able to buy DVDs for a very, very long time.
"Moderate drinking can help prevent amputated limbs" -- Abigail Zuger, NYTimes, 12/31/02
It is included in both. But noone has to use it. Both also support MPEG-2 and MPEG-4 (AVC aka H.264).
Don't think of it as a flame---it's more like an argument that does 3d6 fire damage
Gates: Well, the key issue here is that the protection scheme under Blu-ray is very anti-consumer and there's not much visibility of that. The inconvenience is that the [movie] studios got too much protection at the expense consumers [sic] and it won't work well on PCs. You won't be able to play movies and do software in a flexible way.
And there it is. As simple as it can be. Microsoft wants the PC to be the center of everything. All your movies, email, music... the motherbrain of entertainment. But the only way to get HD content to the PC is through the XBox 360, because HD-content drives won't be available for the PC for quite awhile, and 'downloadable' just isn't an option for Hollywood (not to mention bandwidth constraints). So in Bill's mind, the Xbox 360 is just a content delivery service to keep the PC in power.
Sony, meanwhile, has no real interest in the PC. In fact, there's absolutely no reason why the PS3 can't be leveraged to take care of the main PC services. Miyamoto has already announced that Linux will ship pre-installed on every PS3 hard drive, just attach a USB keyboard and mouse. IBM is already on board with the Cell, so you see the triumverate forming... with the PC in the corner gathering dust.
I'm not saying that's the future, I'm just pointing out the battle lines. If Microsoft can't guarantee that content will find its way on to the PC, its plans are very much in disarray.