Blu-ray still an option for Microsoft

[BBlue]

Blu-ray still an option for Microsoft

MS consider partnership

* by Luke Guttridge
* 28 january 2008

Marketing person Jeff Bell says Microsoft hasn't ruled out a partnership with Sony over Blu-ray, the chief stating that a deal was possible all along, despite Microsoft offering repeated public support for the rival HD-DVD format. Said format now appears defeated with most major movie studios having now sided with Sony.

The tipping point was Warner Bros' decision to go with the format, sales of Blu-ray also leading the way thanks to the PS3.

"We've been talking to Blu-ray all along because we have the best piece of software in the business, called HDi. It is the backbone that powers interactivity in HD-DVD and we have that available to potentially partner with others," Jeff Bell revealed to US site 1UP.com.

"You never say never. I think we'd like to see how things evolve. Our commitment, however, to HD-DVD is profound and consistent, and we have done very, very well in term of our accessory sales."

MS hasn't ruled out an HD-DVD revival, however, the format still counting a few supporters, although talks with Sony have been ongoing, not least because Sony use Windows on their PC range. Bell calls such partnerships "coopetition," Sony also contributing downloadable content to Microsoft's IPTV service.

Will a Blu-ray drive for the Xbox 360 be confirmed in the future? Bell's chatter certainly appears to suggest Microsoft could be engineering just such a scenario.

This article is taken from our sister site Tech.tm.

http://play.tm/story/15759

[blix01]

This is an attempt by MS to still be relevant in the wake of HDDVD's failure. Without HDDVD, their HDi software dies and that will be a painful blow to their attempt to get a foot in the CE business.
Unfortunately for MS, unlike HDDVD, Blu-Ray doesn't need MS to succeed.

too bad, so sad.

[Weez_Dawg]

I wonder how much money has been wasted by M$ in this format war

[BBlue]

Interesting...

MS has been talking to Blu-ray all along
News by Rob Purchese

Today 11:11

Xbox marketing bigwig Jeff Bell says Microsoft has been talking to Blu-ray about the possibility of a partnership all along.

He was speaking about Warner Bros.'s recent decision to exclusively pick the Sony-championed disc format, and did not rule out the possibility MS will adopt it at some point in the future.

"We've been talking to Blu-ray all along because we have the best piece of software in the business, called HDi. It is the backbone that powers interactivity in HD-DVD and we have that available to potentially partner with others," Jeff Bell told 1UP.

"You never say never. I think we'd like to see how things evolve. Our commitment, however, to HD-DVD is profound and consistent, and we have done very, very well in term of our accessory sales."

Microsoft still counts Universal, Paramount and DreamWorks among the supporters for HD-DVD, and Warner Bros. continues to be one of the largest contributors to its IPTV service.

Interestingly Bell also highlighted the relationship between Microsoft and Sony, as its rival uses Windows software on its laptops and what not. They do more talking than you might expect. Bell calls it "coopetition".

Xbox Live Video Marketplace launched last December in the UK, offering downloadable films for digital rental; you splash out 250 MS Points (GBP 2.13 / EUR 2.91) for standard definition and 380 MS Points (GBP 3.23 / EUR 4.42) for high definition, and films will become unwatchable 24 hours after you first start viewing them or within 14 days of download.

The service has been available in the US since late 2006 and also lets you download television shows like CSI or Star Trek. No word on when this will happen here yet.

http://www.eurogamer.net/article_dis...ticle_id=91500

[Xerious]

if they do release an addon for the 360 i hope it's not as fugly as the HDUD version.

[maximiza]

I hope Blu will not start to use HDi. That would certainly suck.

[Elandyll]

This is no mystery that Microsoft wanted BR to use HDi all along, and might even have been the point of rupture when Toshiba was considering going over to Blu Ray camp (pre- format war).

From Sony's point of view, and considering how strategic the Game market can be these days, there is -no way- I would allow the code from a direct competitor (MS-XBox) to be ran on my machines (PS3).
We all know how it turned out with Quicktime on early Windows versions...
It's not like HDi is a real standard anyway, as opposed to Java.

So if MS would like to go Blu, they'll have to be more flexible about the HDi thing, visibly

[WriteSimply]

Originally Posted by maximiza

I hope Blu will not start to use HDi. That would certainly suck.

The BD standards include BD-Java, not HDi. In fact, no other consumer product apart from the ones released or dreamed up by Toshiba and MS uses HDi. Java is all the way.

I read somewhere that BD-J code can be ported over to be used, with limited functionality, with set-top boxes for on-demand/download HD movies. So studios need to only author once and they're ready for both markets.

As far as Microsoft keeping BD open as an option, this statement could only relate to the use of a BD drive in X-Box 360, which I hope the BDA won't allow because of the failure rate of that machine. WinXP/Vista support HDCP graphic cards and secure motherboards so that software BD players can run, so they can't be talking about OS.


fuad

[darkpoet25]

It all sounds like an attempt for M$ to get another studio to support their digital download crap. I hope they don't ever release a Blu Ray add on.

[w_tanoto]

Originally Posted by darkpoet25

It all sounds like an attempt for M$ to get another studio to support their digital download crap. I hope they don't ever release a Blu Ray add on.

+1

PS3 FTW. I still regard HD DVD/M$/"Tosh sheep baa" as enemy in format war. and naturally I don't want them to succed after all they've done to us by making paramount sided with the other side.

BD-J is a lot better than HDi (some people argue it took long time to load, but I never experienced that - while HD DVD - I experienced it took 3 mins to load. It even asked me to connect to the internet) I was neutral buyer, but never support HD DVD. I support only BD. Now I have dumped HD DVD completely, just few hours before warner announcement

[Lord_Phan]

Alot of you sound as bad as the HD-DVD fan boys. Get a life man.

Personally I just go where the quality is. Microsoft was on HD-DVD's side because that's where the money was for them. You argue Universal should jump ship because that's where the money is right now... well Microsofts money comes from Software, if HD-DVD won, they'd make alot of money on software in their machines. It's all business.

I see this as good news, they're admitting HD-DVD is dead, and trying to jump ship. As always Microsoft knows when to quit.

Oh by the way, most of the codecs used to make the movies, are copyright microsoft.

[Sylin]

I'd love to see an interview with the BDA where they refute MS's claim they've been "talking all along" by saying "this is news to us!" But it's probably true. MS is a big enough corp that they can have their hand in every cookie jar and not always get caught.

I just think it's funny it took MS's lawyers nearly 3 weeks after CES to approve an interview disclosing this fact.

One the one hand, MS looks like a 6 year-old child who was just proven wrong and says, "Well, I didn't really think that! I was just joshin' ya!" On the other hand, this is a reminder to how quickly tides can change in this ordeal.

[davidPS3]

Man, that would just plain be weird to have MS working with Sony with the Blu Ray. After all that has happened, but I guess it would be better to move ahead.

[Dalese]

Example of Microsoft talking to the BDA "all along"...

<Begin message playback from the BDA answering machine>

You have 1 new message.

First new message.

"Hello BDA, this is Microsoft. We hadn't heard back from you any of our previous messages and wanted to reach out to you and go over the opportunities we might have for you from the Sun product you are currently using. Hope we didn't get you at a bad time. Give us a call back when you get a chance. Talk to you soon. Call us. Thank you."

End of new messages.

Message deleted.

<End of recording>

[Sonny]

The BDA better not make it an "option" for M$

[stockstar1138]

http://www.eurogamer.net/article.php?article_id=91500

looks like they want HDi to be used on blu-ray and they would be cool with making an add on or something. HDi on blu-ray is never going to happen in a million years, but is MS wants to screw their 360 fan base once again with limited features....let em'!

[smiley]

Originally Posted by maximiza

I hope Blu will not start to use HDi. That would certainly suck.

That's what I was thinking when I read the first message. I really hope the BDA keeps all M$ software out of the players.

[CptGreedle]

They will do their normal thing of secretly adopting it and then pretending it was their idea. lol

[CptGreedle]

They were trying to force the BDA to adopt HDi before either format was even out yet. It failed. It will not work now either.
They just think their inferior limited program will sell better than JAVA.
This is a joke.

[krisztoforo]

Originally Posted by CptGreedle

They were trying to force the BDA to adopt HDi before either format was even out yet. It failed. It will not work now either.
They just think their inferior limited program will sell better than JAVA.
This is a joke.

I'm not a fan of Microsoft, but according to wikipedia (blu-ray article):

"At the end of June 2005, Sun announced that the Blu-ray Disc Association had chosen the Java-based BD-J interactivity layer instead of Microsoft's HDi. This was based on a BDA board vote favouring BD-J 10 to 4, despite a technical committee previously favouring HDi by a vote of 7 to 5."

I'm not familiar with the internals of HDi vs BD-J, but this article seems to imply that the decision to adopt BD-J was based on more political rather than technical reasons.