The high definition disc format war was avoidable, former Warner president claims

[Blu_Ray_UK2007]

The former president of Warner Home Video, Warren Lieberfarb, believes that the current war between Blu-ray and HD DVD could have been avoided if the two sides had been more forthcoming in sharing information and co-operation.

He even goes so far to say that the Blu-ray consortium was being run like a cartel, for the purpose of forcing a de facto standard on other manufacturers.

Speaking to Variety, he said that his hope was that all parties involved in next-generation DVDs had collaborated through the DVD Forum, created in 1995 to foster discussions among studios and electronics makers.

Andy Parsons, chair of the US promotion committee of the Blu-ray Disc Association, said that "the three leading companies (Sony, Philips and Matsushita) did not have any particular interest in presenting the Blu-ray format through the DVD Forum. They believed they had something very different from the DVD format."

Lieberfarb, who you may not be surprised to learn now consults for HD DVD supporters Toshiba and Microsoft, said that studios should have been less focused on creating 'bulletproof' copy-protection, and more fixated on getting the discs to market quickly.

Microsoft's involvement in HD DVD may have led to some concerns from studios about their potential dominance in the 'digital living room'.

The eventual winners may actually be non-physical media, streamed over the Internet, delivered via cable, and stored on massive hard drives at home.

-HDTVUK Article

[HDTV1080P]

If everyone would have agreed with the DVD forum we all most likely would be using the lower quality HD-DVD format right now. The good thing about the format war is consumers can choose a better quality format like BLU-RAY over HD-DVD. If Universal Studios stays HD-DVD exclusive then movie collectors will be forced to purchase combo players to play Universal Studios HDTV movies. So far I do not own any HD-DVD discs, but a year from now that might change if Universal Studios never goes BLU-RAY. When I upgrade all my DVD players I will either upgrade them all with BLU-RAY players or combo players.

[HDTV1080P]

Here is a link to the original US Variety article that came out April 23rd.

http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117963616.html?categoryid=20&cs=1

I would have liked one HDTV format but if that format would have been HD-DVD then I am glad the better quality BLU-RAY format also came to market.

[Shin-Ra]

Thanks to people like him we could have been stuck with A Scanner Darkly type bit-starved movies for the foreseeable future from ALL movie studios.

Short-sighted fool.

[tobythetitan]

"war was avoidable"?!? Hindsite 20/20-Isn't that how they pretty much all are?

[Deciazulado]

It can be avoided right now

[JadedRaverLA]

Given that he now consults for Toshiba and Microsoft, as was a key figure in the development of the "original" HD DVD spec (720p overcompressed on a DVD-9 disc), I'm sure his opinion matters to someone.

The reality is, though, that while Toshiba and Warner wanted that AWFUL idea for HD DVD, Sony and Matsushita were creating Blu-ray, which obviously blew the competition away.

Then, rather than offer a vastly inferior format, or not release a format (thus eliminating their patent and copyright entitlements), Toshiba goes to work, brings Microsoft on baord, and throws together a somewhat more compelling offering, that became HD DVD.

I don't see how Blu-ray is the group to blame for the format war.

[SomethingForKate]

Personally, I do think the format war should have been avoided if at all possible as having such a war means that neither format will win and people will stick with the inferior legacy technology, the cheaper more easily produced format will win or both formats will coexist but not have a huge take-up.

I don't think it's the Blu-ray groups fault, but I do think all technologies should have been seriously looked at and considered by the DVD Forum before a single format was chosen to go forward with the backing of all the studios and tech firms.

SFK

[thunderhawk]

They tried, and failed.

Let's hope it ends soon.

[dialog_gvf]

Originally Posted by Blu_Ray_UK2007

The former president of Warner Home Video, Warren Lieberfarb, believes that the current war between Blu-ray and HD DVD could have been avoided if the two sides had been more forthcoming in sharing information and co-operation.

He even goes so far to say that the Blu-ray consortium was being run like a cartel, for the purpose of forcing a de facto standard on other manufacturers.

Ah, the two sides are to blame.
Wait, I mean the BDA is evil.

(sigh)

[Sir Terrence]

Mr Lieberfarb thinks that many of us who know the history of the negotiation of both the DVD and the HD DVD/blu-ray camp are very stupid.

Both camps are cartel by its very defination, so just calling one side a cartel is one sided crap.

When two competing specification for the DVD forum were up for vote, for the sake of cooperation and creating a single standard, Sony relented to toshiba the royalties for disc structure which were immense.

When a compromise was in progress for HD DVD and blu-ray, Toshiba wanted to the BDA to alter the disc structure to their design. It was rejected and rightly so. Sony gave up the royalties on DVD, but were not about to do that on blu-ray. By the time Toshiba came to the compromise table, they really had no leverage.

Mr. Lieberfarb is not a voice of objectivity. What he omits in his comments is how the DVD forum first rejected the HD DVD proposal and Toshiba had to get a rule change to even bring it back for a second vote, and again change the rules so it would pass. This plainly shows how little support HD DVD had.

[JTK]

^^ Great post!