And around the Net this morning, if any of you didn't believe my recent Soapbox take on Microsoft's real intentions in supporting HD-DVD, the company's own spokesman all but confirmed it yesterday at the Digital Hollywood conference in Santa Monica. Here's the relevant bit from a new story at Home Media:
If Microsoft has its way, DVD, Blu-Ray Disc and HD DVD will all be rendered obsolete within 10 years, according to Richard Doherty, Microsoft's program manager for Media Entertainment Convergence.
“I don't know that [HD] will be delivered on an optical disc in five to 10 years,” he said, pointing to downloads and broadband delivery. “At Microsoft, we'd rather it wasn't [on a disc]."
Doherty later added: “this will be the last optical [home entertainment] generation. If this one survives."
Hey, that should make HD-DVD fans feel good! That's right... Microsoft, one of HD-DVD's few major corporate supporters, is ALREADY counting on the format's demise. IF this one survives?! Are you kidding me?! They don't want it to survive! Microsoft having an in-house "Office of HD-DVD Evangelism" suddenly makes PERFECT sense. What better way for the company to ensure that HD optical discs die, and their own downloading service takes off, than by actively working to perpetuate the confusion of a format war in the "last optical generation"? Ugh. Don't say we didn't warn you, folks. "Oh, but look... HD-DVD players are cheaper right now!" Yeah. Swell. Would you like fries with that download?
Anyone who can't see or want to deny the MS connection to HD-DVD are fools. The MS army and all of their employees on web forums are complicit as well.
Digital Hollywood Confab Speakers Say High-Def Inevitable
Author: CHRIS TRIBBEY ctribbey@questex.com
Posted: June 11, 2007
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SANTA MONICA — The panelists at the high-definition discussion June 11 at the annual Digital Hollywood conference in Santa Monica, Calif., agreed on one thing: the success of HD home media, if it isn’t considered a success already, is inevitable.
What form of HD entertainment will come out on top, however, was a source of debate.
If Microsoft has its way, DVD, Blu-Ray Disc and HD DVD will all be rendered obsolete within 10 years, according to Richard Doherty, Microsoft’s program manager for Media Entertainment Convergence.
“I don’t know that [HD] will be delivered on an optical disc in five to 10 years,” he said, pointing to downloads and broadband delivery. “At Microsoft, we’d rather it wasn’t [on a disc].”
He added that Microsoft is “very firmly planted in HD DVD” at the moment, due to the cost of replication and because “Blu-Ray hasn’t delivered that interactive content [like HD DVD] has.”
Doherty acknowledged his bias: Microsoft’s Xbox 360 — which is HD DVD compatible — is competing with the Blu-Ray based PlayStation 3 from Sony. A scheduled moderator for the panel from Sony was unable to appear. But Doherty was adamant that “this will be the last optical [home entertainment] generation. If this one survives.”
Brett Gaines, VP of strategic business development for Silicon Image Inc., a leader in HDMI (high-definition multimedia interface) technology, pointed out that studios count on a majority of their revenue from DVD and its HD brothers.
“Over time it’s inevitable: delivery of content will be by the Internet and broadband. It’s just the cheapest way to get content into the home,” he said. “[But] before you move off optical media, you’ll need to tell the studios where [they’ll make up the money].”
“The economics here are not simple,” agreed Jack Buser, Dolby’s “WorldWide Technology Evangelist.”
“Dolby’s extremely neutral in the format war,” Buser added. “But we also really, really don’t like the format war. A lot of consumers right now are turned off by the format war. They’ve been burned before and they don’t want to be burned again.”
Besides wading into the middle of the ongoing format war, the panelists covered a variety of HD-related topics. Dolby’s Buser started the panel by asking how many of the 20-25 people in attendance owned an HD DVD player, with half raising their hands. Most of the other half raised their hands when he asked about Blu-Ray.
But everyone raised his or her hands when he asked who had a 5.1 sound system set up at home. “It’s pretty shocking to look at the number of 5.1 set-ups,” Buser said. “Sound is such a critical aspect of the high-def experience. It’s more than just a pretty picture. “As devices move into the living room, they all speak to those 5.1 audio setups you have.”
He touted the quality of Dolby’s True HD audio, which purports to deliver the same quality sound that came from a film’s mixing department.
“It’s amazing to me how much the studios have embraced Dolby True HD,” Buser said.
Silicon Image’s Gaines ran through the progress HD has made in all electronics over just a couple years. He said 91% of all TVs are HDMI compatible, as are 47% of DVD products.
“A TV that comes with only two HDMI inputs will not be competitive in the future market,” Gaines said.
However, a mere 6% of mobile devices are HD-ready, he said.
“The mobile opportunities are huge,” he said.
The panelists agreed mostly on what consumers expect from all sides of HD, hardware and software.
“At its baseline, people are trying to recreate the theatrical experience at home,” Microsoft’s Doherty said, adding that on the Xbox LIVE Marketplace download service, users are downloading HD programs four times as often as regular ones. “That’s the consumers’ ultimate goal.”
Gaines predicted that the HD DVD vs. Blu-Ray battle will be won based on the number of available titles.
“The video and audio experience is a given, [but] right now it’s a little bit tough to get what you want [on HD],” Gaines said. “It’s not all on HD DVD and Blu-Ray. We need more sources of HD programming.
“The ultimate determining factor is the availability of software.”
“Consumers really do have a holistic expectation of HD,” Buser said. “Moving forward we can’t ignore consumers‚ demand for portability, compatibility and interactivity.”
Read the article, these people are stupid. Yes they are right to say most content will downloaded over the internet in the future(including HD movies). They forget that the only people that "BUY!!!" movies now adays are people who collect them. If I didn't collect BRs or DVDs I would just download it for free somewhere on the internet, or better yet I would find a friend to make a copy for me. You think I am going to download a movie for $20 with no material value. Call me old fashioned but I don't think so!!! And if they are using the 360 as a bed for there plans, they are wrong!!! I do download south park episodes from the 360 marketplace, but that is only because I am a hardcore fan and I also know that 2 or 3 years later I can buy the whole season on DVD.
Read the article, these people are stupid. Yes they are right to say most content will be bought over the internet(including HD movies). They forget that the only people that "BUY!!!" movies now adays are people who collect them. If I didn't collect BRs or DVDs I would just download it for free somewhere on the internet, or better yet I would find a friend to make a copy for me. You think I am going to download a movie for $20 with no material value. Call me old fashioned but I don't think so!!! And if they are using the 360 as a bed for there plans, they are wrong!!! I do download south park episodes from the 360 marketplace, but that is only because I am a hardcore fan and I also know that 2 or 3 years later I can buy the whole season on DVD.
Yup, this deserves its own thread. Everyone needs to see this for themselves, clear as day, straight from the source.
D'oh. Didn't think anyone had posted this yet and didn't think to check the HD-DVD rant thread... apologies to those that posted this first.
But I do agree with JTK that this needs it's own thread... this news needs to spread like a virus and perhaps then it might penetrate the thick skull of the average hd-dud fanboy.
D'oh. Didn't think anyone had posted this yet and didn't think to check the HD-DVD rant thread... apologies to those that posted this first.
But I do agree with JTK that this needs it's own thread... this news needs to spread like a virus and perhaps then it might penetrate the thick skull of the average hd-dud fanboy.
most of the HD DVD fanboys are so blind at this point that they will still try to spin this as something positive...
Yeah, takes the fun out of collecting if you ask me. No downloads for me. I"ll prob stop collecting if they stop using a physical form of media. Might as well just rent then.
As soon as the movie download experience mirrors the optical media experience I will stop buying discs. Hopefully that happens sooner rather than later.
Like he said, TV shows are do not expire. I did "rent" 1 movie on the 360 before, just to test it out and I was very very displeased. It was like buying a DIVX from CC, except it takes over 13 hours to download on a 3.2mps connection and takes up a quarter of the 360's harddrive!!!
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Microsoft Already Counting On HD DVD To Die
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