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Blu-ray, HD DVD Target of EU Antitrust Probe
rfunches writes "The Wall Street Journal reports that EU antitrust regulators are turning up the heat on the Blu-ray and HD-DVD format consortiums. The European Commission has demanded evidence of Hollywood studios' communications and agreements on the new generation of DVD formats. From the article: 'The European Commission, the European Union's executive body, appears to be particularly interested in the activities of the Blu-ray group because of its dominance in Hollywood, according to people familiar with the situation. The commission is investigating whether improper tactics were used to suppress competition and persuade the studios to back their format.' The article points out that all of the major Hollywood studios except Universal are backing Blu-ray; Universal is backing HD-DVD. It also notes that while one industry watcher believes the first format to have an installed base of two million homes will come out on top, there were millions of Betamax units already sold when VHS won out in the format wars of the 80's."
How about minding their own business and letting consumers choose not to buy a certain format?
Its been speculated that VHS beat Betamax due to more support from the pR0n industry. Sex sells.
No one cares now that BluRay has won the HD format war.
This is why I support an independent media specification organization.
Do the research, find the best format, make the specs public and everyone profits.
Thats my two cents
I don't have a microwave. I do, however, have a clock that occasionally cooks shit.
So, in /. terms
US vs M$ Anti Trust - good thing
EU vs Hollywood Anti Trust - bad thing
Or am I missing something here?
init 11 - for when you need that edge.
HDTV penetration has to be much higher in all markets. VHS and Beta both worked on all TV's made at the time. These only work on HDTVs (to get any benefit from the formats). The majority of TVs out there are still SD. Likely by the time HDTV penetration is high enough, another format will emerge, or hybrid players will be very common.
shocked!
We all benefit from Free Markets because we get to choose between super-hd-blue or blue-super-hd. Why do we need regulators?
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They make a big deal about this, but at the same time we still have NTSC and PAL formats to basically keep sales of certain products specific to European customers.
Just quit selling anything HD to them. No players, no media.... THEN, there will be no ANTI-TRUST garb. There are dual-format drives available, and I'm sure they'll all be widespread in a year, just like -R and +R formats.
The UK has been trying to manipulate the way other countries run their business with the anti-trust bullshit for a while, and nobody questions the high tariff's throw on them when they get there.. by their own government.
"Please, shut up. Just when I think you can't say anything more stupid, you speak again." -Archie Bunker.
to see the European Union targeting more businesses of Anti-Trust. It wouldn't surprise me to see the EU targeting any business for their anti-trust laws. To the whiny communists in the EU, Anti-Trust=All Capitalism while Trust=Communism.
1. I agree with the world's biggest gunnrunner: Scooter should pay the fine, but not do the time.
Time is only for real criminals, not white collar ones.
2. I disgree with the this future Nobel Peace Prize winner. Bush should be also
be severely punished for his role in authorizing the leakers.
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Pax,
K. Trout, ACTIVIST
One of the differences between PAL and NTSC is the frame refresh rate. And that is based on the line frequency of electricity being delivered to the consumers in the various countries. So even if everyone used PAL (or NTSC), you would still have different products based on the different frames per second.
Beta was much clearer but was more expensive and had 5.5 hour tapes.
VHS ruled because 6 hour miniseries and price outweighed quality.
She was like chocolate when she drank... semi-sweet at first and then increasingly bitter.
Where blu-ray becomes red-ray...
and HD-DVD's become HHDDVVDBVD's.
Sarge is my HERO. RVB Forever!! http://roosterteeth.com/
United Kingdom != European Commision.
Secondly, where's the evidence to back up this serious allegation? Thirdly states that make up the EU are sovereign, if companies want to sell their products there they have to abide by the rules. If not, they can take their wares and go home.
I'm going to transform myself into a mighty hawk. Either that or I'll just go and work at Dixons, haven't decided yet.
No one gives a crap about which format does what better. Honestly, in the context of playing movies and whatnot it really doesn't matter. I'm a pretty techy guy and I couldn't tell someone the difference between the two other than Blu-ray has more capacity, which doesn't affect movies that much (maybe a two disc HD-DVD set is one disc on Blu-Ray?) The winner here will be hybrid makers, as it won't matter who puts what out on which disc, it will play them all.
These formats may merit investigation. On the other hand, I'm finding this trend a bit troubling. Now every time some industry agrees on a standard is the EU going to initiate investigations looking into so-called uncompetitive practices? And what exactly will they do if they deem that the companies in question to have engaged in such activities? Are we going to end up with products with no consistent standards merely to appease the EU?
As usual I'm left with the impression that the EU is doing nothing more than engaging in protectionism. European had no part in these formats and it doesn't sit well with them. We've got two distinct formats, backed by different companies, fighting for market dominance. There are plenty of technology companies in Europe. If the EU is concerned about foreign dominance in this market why don't they back the development of their own HD format?
If they're going to spend their resources investigating these new formats it should be directed towards DRM.
This prove that the SHITDOT SHEEPLE hate to hear the truth that they are nothing more than communist and terrorist sympathizers. SHITDOT NEEDS TO BE FUCKING CRASHED WITH FUCKTARD TACO AND BROKEBACK NEIL FUCKING SHOT AND KILLED!!!!!!!!!!
I'd rather spend $9 on a movie [I buy them when they're in the bargain bins] than a day downloading a rip that MIGHT actually be done properly, only to find out I have to burn it to a disk to keep it [storing movies on a HD is annoying over the long run].
Tom aXXo.
We and Amazon are going to be publishing 1000 HD DVD indie movies via their Manufacture on Demand system.
Since HD DVD can be written on a DVD-5 or DVD-9 media for shorter content, doesn't require AACS for replicated content, and has cheaper and more readily available replication, it's proving to be a much more prosumer-friendly format for authoring.
My video compression blog
Why is this posted here when 99% of the people claim they will never own "DRM-infected" media?
There were several high profile media stories about the protection that HD-DVD uses exclusively is cracked quickly and repeatedly ahead of key updates. The Blu-Ray camp has been touting BD+* for a while now, and naturally studios and distributors will be backing any chance they have of getting more money. Is it really more complicated than that?
* (a DRM scheme exclusive to Blu-Ray which relies on executable code that modifies the video stream to make it viewable. This is as opposed to the scheme HD-DVD uses which is passive and has more in common with CSS, the protection DVDs use.)
Twinstiq, game news
on standard DVD media...
you are. Rob has every right to report your IP address to the proper authorites to have you arrested. He should do just that, and you will be in prison for quite some time for threatening to crash a server and the lives of two people. Both of those are felonies and you will never hold a job other than ones that feature the line "Do you want fries with that?" at best. At worst you will never have a job again because a) no one will hire you or b)bubba will use you as his bitch and kill you afterwards. Either way is fine with me just as long as justice is served.
Yeah, they're ok...
What?
Given the news on slashdot yesterday that Universal was threatening to cancel its contract with Apple for iTunes, added to the fact that Universal is the ONLY big corrupt studio that support HD-DVD, plus a final dash of Microsoft who have lots of money invested in HD-DVD in the XBox 360 and in their piece of shit Zune, it looks like another blow has been struck against a true free market by the people who think bribery is a technicality.
Off-topic for the thread, but right on for some of the replies. How about offer the movie, all relates menus, bonus features, etc... available in uncompressed HD quality for the consumer to purchase and download. Make it a single, self extracting file to keep things simple. That way they can burn it to whatever blank HD media they desire (or leave it on their HDD). Mandate hybrid players, that are upgradeable, so that if a new HD format ever emerges their old unit can be flashed to support it. Possibly make them with easily upgraded lasers as well, in case a different wave-length is required to read the new format. Problem solved. That way the consumer and the consumer alone determines which format wins. If not that, then just mandate the hybrid players. I know mandates are anti free market, but it's best for the consumer.
How much space is on these? 50GB? 80? So the movies are 4x the size per picture. That takes us to 16-24GB. But then the compression algorithm is much better, so that size comes down again. What? 12-18GB?
So which one will this fit on...?
Ooh, both!
So maybe it's the algorithm used to save it. Oh, both allow the same bitstream format. And even if they did not, they don't have to "port" the video to the new format, like you do when porting a program from a DS to a PS3. You have the same instruction set (one computer with the same input producing the different format outputs).
So what was your point again?
"Count me as one of those people who won't own an HD set until he's forced to. I just spent $400 on a 32" CRT TV, and I'm not about to go out and spend $700+ on a similarly sized HDTV. I don't watch sports or movies all that often, so what will this get me? My wife will be able to see every pore on the face of some reality TV tramp? I'll be able to make out the birthmark on Katie Sackhoff's shoulder? It doesn't add to the plot or production quality, and can often get in the way of it."
So you're completely, irrevocably NOT a part of the target audience. That's nice.
The task the manufacturers have is not to convince you, the video luddite, that bigger and better is worth your dollar. It's to convince the people who are predisposed to liking bigger, clearer screens that their product is the one to pick. And most people, if given the choice, would rather watch movies and sports on bigger, clearer screens.
"Let me put it this way: Until HDTV gives me something other than sub-microscopic picture quality, there's nothing I can't get from it that I can get from my video iPod."
Well, what exactly would you want from an audio/video technology other than better quality? It's not gonna take your dog to the vet, do the grocery shopping for the wife, or service you sexually. Do you put off buying a good chair until chairs are developed that have the ability to act as alarm systems for your home? Probably not. It's job is to be a chair. And the job of HDTV is to increase the clarity and your video experience.
Computer guys: BD 25/50 gigs > 15/30gigs for HDDVD
Movie guys: Sony aka Sony Pictures, Columbia, Tristar, MGM, ALL EXCLUSIVE Blu-Ray...so that leaves dualformat or BD...unless you're gonna just not watch a huge portion of the movies in HD
Also, Disney, Fox, Sony, Lionsgate are exclusively only blu-ray too at the moment
Units Sold: ~300k HDDVD Players, ~2M+ Blu-ray (yes this includes PS3's)
At this moment in time, I would say its a no-brainer to go with blu-ray. I've also noticed at Fry's dozens of choices for BD media and NO HD-DVDR at all...
Tiger Direct has a $400 special on a 32 inch wide screen LCD. ATSC tuner. 720p. HDMI, component video, etc. Weight 57 pounds.Niko SV3206 32" LCD HDTV Television
Your hernia-in-a-box CRT will need a converter for broadcast reception in two years. You paid $400 for 4:3 video and analog audio and you call this a bargain?
It doesn't add to the plot or production quality, and can often get in the way of it.
The answer in one word: Ratatouille.
CRTs can be surprisingly good for watching HD on your computer. The DRM is designed to prevent you from viewing full HD on a VGA connection, however its usually not hard to make *ahem* a DRM free version of the video. Even a 5 year old 19" CRT can do up to 2048 x 1536 @ 61Hz. (1536p!?)
That's hit the spot. Some of the insight I was hoping for. Why are people so annoyed about an investigation? It may find that nothing has been done wrong.
All the "the EU is attacking our beloved movie studios" posts didn't seem to understand that a barrier to entry is anti-competitive. If a small (in this case European) company wants to come along and start to produce content for the media (lets say the BBC). How easy will it be to do? If the HD/Blu-Ray groups make it too prohibitive by acting together as an effective monopoly on the media (a cartel?) - then the commission has a case, the EU is acting now BEFORE the formats become standard, but all they are doing at the moment is asking the question.
If this were really happening, what would you think?
I think it'd be best for the consumer if one of the standards dies as soon as possible. given the number of players sold and the number of studios backing the format, it should be HD-DVD who dies. otherwise we'll have to buy hybrid players that would allow us show the movies regardless of the format used.
European Commission is willing to create a competition between formats, which will create more diversity, which is no good for the consumers.
p.s. afaik, VHS won over Betacam because the porn industry chose VHS over Betacam.
If the EU wants to regulate something like this i suggest they invent there own formats and develop there own Hollywood. The deal was made in the US and the standards bodies for these formats are also in the US. They just wanna feel important when there not.