Microsoft Involvement in HD DVD

[Firestreak]

Now I'm aware that Toshiba developed the format, but I remember reading various articles over the years as to how Microsoft was supporting HD DVD financially as well as being involved in the talks and part of the reason the format war wasn't reconciled. I remember them saying how Microsoft wanted some sort of features that wouldn't work with Blu-ray copy write protection. For the life of me now, I'm not sure where to go to get that evidence, anyone more knowledgeable able to help out?

[jorg]

i believe but do not have links to back me but i think microsft said the only problem with it was that it is hard to develop user friendly soft ware for meaning hard to integrate into windows(funny enfoug every one els can do it but not the biggest soft ware company in the world) but i also think it was because of the bda not wanting to trust ther vc-1 codec and to stick with mpeg-2

[Zinn]

Originally Posted by jorg

i believe but do not have links to back me but i think microsft said the only problem with it was that it is hard to develop user friendly soft ware for meaning hard to integrate into windows(funny enfoug every one els can do it but not the biggest soft ware company in the world) but i also think it was because of the bda not wanting to trust ther vc-1 codec and to stick with mpeg-2

I think it was because the BD-A picked BD-Java over microsofts HDi.

[Musashi]

That's more likely considering that BD can use VC-1 among other codecs.

[ps3andlovinit]

Originally Posted by Zinn

I think it was because the BD-A picked BD-Java over microsofts HDi.

Smart move if you want to be in control of your own future

[ps3andlovinit]

Originally Posted by Musashi

... use VC-1 among other codecs.

Dumb move if you don't want to be in control of your own future.

[Alex Pallas]

the theory i've come to accept is that m$ only had something to gain by slowing Blu-Ray down, since Sony is one of their biggest rivals.

[fragglerock585]

Ever since a giant lawsuit that Sun (the creators and backers of Java) brought against MS (and won, big), MS has made it their mission to make java a failure.

For those in the CompSci world, the FUD is just as bad as in the HD-DUD end of things, just in this case directed at java. They have actually convinced people that java runs significantly slower in all applications and requires much more room...blah blah blah.

Now for the geek science. Truth is, in some, even many circumstances, java runs faster, as it compiles at runtime from the bytecode, using all the instruction set available, making it much more efficient, especially in apps which need SIMD support (such as uhhh...audio transforms, video transforms...).

Of course MS hates java, it can run on anything with a compiler! (X86, SPARC, POWER, MIPS, EPIC(haha...itanic!)...) XP/Vista needs X86.

And the lunatics think sony is the only evil corporation. (not to say they are evil, but by the standards they set sony to, everyone is evil, and MS is SATAN)

Sorry for getting a little off topic.

[JTK]

If nothing else, there's an obvious and (at times) deliberate lack of balance.

Yes, both Sony and MS are well deserving of both praise and criticism for many things.

What I can't get is how I see MS treated these days like they've never done wrong and can do no wrong.

Anyone who has even a passing knowledge of MS's history in the PC marketplace should have long ago been blown away by the likes of that.

[ra1024]

Here's an interesting article someone linked to over on AVS.

http://news.moneycentral.msn.com/pro...328&ID=6676209

The gist of the article is that the 360 Elite is a blow to Toshiba since it doesn't include an HD-DVD drive. Over on AVS they were arguing that this was a case of an analyst knowing less "than we know" but the interesting thing is that it's published on the MSNBC website.

[Blu Tiger]

Good article.

[McBain]

Originally Posted by ra1024

Here's an interesting article someone linked to over on AVS.

http://news.moneycentral.msn.com/pro...328&ID=6676209

The gist of the article is that the 360 Elite is a blow to Toshiba since it doesn't include an HD-DVD drive. Over on AVS they were arguing that this was a case of an analyst knowing less "than we know" but the interesting thing is that it's published on the MSNBC website.

It's a Financial Times piece already noted on this thread:

https://forum.blu-ray.com/showthread.php?t=7153

[ps3andlovinit]

Originally Posted by fragglerock585

Ever since a giant lawsuit that Sun (the creators and backers of Java) brought against MS (and won, big), MS has made it their mission to make java a failure.

Actually it started long before that..hence the lawsuit.

[JTK]

Originally Posted by Alex Pallas

the theory i've come to accept is that m$ only had something to gain by slowing Blu-Ray down, since Sony is one of their biggest rivals.

For me, this theory continues to gain a lot of steam almost every day. I've never been fully convinced that MS really cared about HD-DVD. Now I have no doubts about it these days: I think HD-DVD is simply their prop to keep the market deliberately splintered. Digital downloads under their tight control is what they really want.

One need look no further than this Xbox 360 Elite and what they're trying to do by making the 360 a glorified gaming machine/DVR hybrid of sorts reliant on, you guessed it, digital downloads.

That fact combined with them continuing to not bother with HD-DVD on the machine, for me, speaks volumes.

I keep going back to this latest issue of Game Informer and the quoted anonymous MS source who said this about HD-DVD and why it's still not being included: "The format isn't proven."

'Nuff said.

[ps3andlovinit]

Originally Posted by JTK

I keep going back to this latest issue of Game Informer and the quoted anonymous MS source who said this about HD-DVD and why it's still not being included: "The format isn't proven."
'Nuff said.

For the benefit of any new people..

They had a similar message about HDMI and that was wrong as well.

Why buy an Elite when they are just as likely to release a blu-ray version next year - just like they released an HDMI version this year after saying component cables were good enough and nobody really needed HDMI. Something they only said because the PS3 had it and they didn't. Same with blu-ray and larger richer games next year.

Maybe the next version will at least use a 65nm chipset to help with the current overheating and reliability problems of the 360. Right now your going to pay another $500 just to get an HDMI connection and the same old unreliable 90nm hardware?

Nuts.

And if your buying for the first time your nuts thinking they won't do it again next year...they have already shown via the Elite they will.

Either wait or just get a PS3 that was future-proofed to start with and has been rock-solid reliable and has full HD movies already via blu-ray.