tomshardware.com — Jordi Ribas, Microsoft's director of technology strategy for Windows Digital Media breaks down the reasons Microsoft decided to back HD-DVD over Blu-Ray. According to Microsoft, Blu-Ray failed the test in six critical areas.
Sep 28, 2005 View in Crawl 4
latonSep 28, 2005
I thought that blu-ray was a better product, but it appears the only thing better about it is their marketing department.
verminSep 28, 2005
Well, whatever the real facts are we can be sure both formats will have restrictive copy protection and DRM. All this article says is that, in the opinion of Microsoft and Intel, Blu-ray's copy protection is inferior to HD-DVD - for whatever reasons.
dfekkeSep 28, 2005
Seems to me most of the tests where "Cost" based, not technical. The real reason is that Sony makes Blu-Ray, and Sony is a competitor of Microsoft. Once again, MS is BSing us with their marketing peons.
imtigger2Sep 28, 2005
If there's ANY company that has the worse, user-unfriendly copy protection schemes... it's SONY. They are sooo f**kin' tight with their proprietary crap it SCREWS us users. A good example is a MD recorder my friend bought. He recorded his son's play at school and couldn't get the recording off the device (outside of an analog in/out of course). He called Sony tech support and was questioned about owning the content and then told he didn't have permission to record public meetings and the copy protection won't allow him to do so... HUH!!?? F-you Sony.I own 2 Sony digital cameras, a killer T.V., & 3 Tivos all from Sony.. all excellent equipment, but I'll never buy into ANY Sony equipment that has THEIR proprietary DRM on it. Never.
tripmSep 28, 2005
just wait 3 years and buy a dual hdvd/blu-ray player form target or walmart for $150.00
lesoreillySep 28, 2005
ArchonSG:Well Said!!!!We are not going to See HD movies beyond 25 Gb anyway. The only place that the really large capacities will matter is data backup. Well if need be I can always add a new drive to my PC when I want.
xodexSep 29, 2005
Hope HD-DVD wins, I'm sick and tired of sony products.
archonsgSep 29, 2005
Gabebear:ArchonSG -> Just keep believing M$ has your best interests at heartUhh did you actually read and understand what I wrote or do you just make it a habbit of jumping to conclusions?First off, I did not at any point say MS has our interest at heart. That the reasons they gave *is* going to make them money is not in dispute and I'll point out that they are in this for the money.At this point, after reading the original article, as a consumer, and I repeat, AS A CONSUMER, I am more then a little concerned.I don't want to be caught using equipment rendered obsolete from a format war.Would I buy either a HD-DVD or Blu-Ray equipment when it comes out? No way.I'd be waiting perhaps a year or more, or whichever camp has the critial mass of products and cost alot less then the other. Or a player recorder that'll cost less then $150.00, whichever comes out first.If Blu-Ray can do that, I'll happily buy Blu-Ray stuff.Am I advocating Microsoft, you have got to have poor comprehension skills if I think I did reading my original post.I'll spell it out for you what I understand from reading the original article from both as a consumer and a marketing professional. Microsoft don't care which camp is better, just which camp it thinks the general public will buy.You have to aggree with me that as a consumer you'd be out there to get the best deal and value for your dollar. Meaning that if one camp can start selling their products for alot less then the other camp for the same level or close to, in terms of performance, most consumers will buy the cheaper one.Factor in the Chinese equation and you have a market that is known to copy and create cheap "budget versions" of the original designsand you are looking at a possible flood of cheap chinese knock offs that probably initially made for the Chinese market (which is huge) but with slight improvements can and probably will be shipped internationally by a "brand" name. Heck, if HD-DVD wants to kill sony, they'd just say screw it on the licensing for the Chinese market and just let it go for a pittance or "leaked" just so that they'll get critical mass on production. They can always come back and suck licensing fees later *after* they have won the format war.
lesoreillySep 29, 2005
Gabebear:You really need to compare apples to apples----I said no film will be over 25 Gb!!!! You comeback at me with a Trilogy---which by definition is Three Films???? Yes I realize that there are applications where you can MAKE a 50 gig disc usefull. HOWEVER at the point of a trilogy where they are going to charge me $50+ I damn sure better get a disc per film.You also showed units that are based on the Pro products again using the sony Cartrige. There is no CONTENT yet, These are Recorder players. There is no reason to release product until you have content. They also are not going to release units that are useless if they make a change to the DRM schemes to make Hollywood and Consumers happy.And yes they want to make us happy----SO WE BUY THERE CRAP----and then they make money. My current DVDs look really good in Progressive 480p on my 51inch HDTV. I really don't need to go out and spend all kinds more money----don't forget DVDs Cost more that VHS to buy even though they cost less to make-----to buy a BR or HD-DVD disc than a standard DVD.Now you want to talk Data Storage on the PC --- I am all for BR in it's nice safe Cartrige format. Well protected, many layers with lots o' storage.But at home I want to keep my costs the same.