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Microsoft supporting Blue Laser? What about Blu-Ray?

malebolgia   on 01 August 2004 - 04:13 · 28 comments & 1508 views

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There’s something disingenuous about the announcement this week from Microsoft Japan that it will make Longhorn, the company’s next major operating system release, compatible with the High Definition blue laser DVD from NEC and Toshiba, which is also backed by the DVD Forum. Since when was Longhorn written in Japan? And since when did an operating system company decide on support for a peripheral which will need its own dedicated drivers and which can be made almost plug compatible with the current DVD drives, as far as the operating system is concerned.

In our view it was a major non-announcement. The competing Blu-Ray specification is already streets ahead of the NEC Toshiba standard, and it has already established support from Hewlett-Packard and Dell, which is far more significant than Microsoft, since they are the customers here and they will actually buy the drives. Microsoft is hardly likely to turn around to its two biggest customers and tell them, no the operating system won’t recognize their DVD devices.

News source: The Register


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(1 reply) #1 nemo on 01 Aug 2004 - 04:14
that's what i want to know....
#1.1 Hurmoth on 01 Aug 2004 - 04:24
Same here!
#2 breadfan on 01 Aug 2004 - 04:24
Words from the not so distant past:

What right does microsoft have to impede on netscape? Everyone knows they control the browser market and were there first. They have more than 90 percent of the marketshare, why would Microsoft even try to make an entrance into the web-browser market when netscape is so dominent?
#3 Xirus1701 on 01 Aug 2004 - 05:11
meh, they'll come out with a statement in a few days/weeks saying the opposite, and then they'll say this again, then they'll say the opposite again....


Get over it, it'll support all the drives...
(2 replies) #4 nX07 on 01 Aug 2004 - 05:45
That is odd, but Blu-Ray will be w/ longhorn somehow. It is simply better.
#4.1 cal2002 on 01 Aug 2004 - 16:24
If the Blu-Ray groups would license VC-9, I bet they will support it.
#4.2 Mean Mr Mustard on 02 Aug 2004 - 01:45
Apparently, by the time "Longhorn" goes final, I doubt Blu-Ray and/or Blue Laser will be current technology.
(9 replies) #5 monkeydust on 01 Aug 2004 - 10:23
These competing standards drive me crazy. Why can't they just agree on one format and go with it? The consumer loses in these situations.
#5.1 ScottKin on 01 Aug 2004 - 10:58
QUOTE (#5.0)
These competing standards drive me crazy. Why can't they just agree on one format and go with it? The consumer loses in these situations.

One word:

BETAMAX

BETAMAX was and still is vastly superior to VHS. If a TV Station or other media company uses tape it's *not* VHS but BETAMAX. But VHS won over BETAMAX in the consumer market for a variety of reasons, those of which are too many to even begin to list here.

Consumers *always* lose when standards become compromises - get used to it.

--ScottKin
#5.2 monkeydust on 01 Aug 2004 - 11:25
Are there any real advantages of HD over Blu-Ray or vice versa?
#5.3 nX07 on 01 Aug 2004 - 14:04
Blu-Ray I believe has a much higher storage capacity to the HD DVD.
#5.4 epple on 01 Aug 2004 - 16:26
Blu-Ray ought to cost a truckload more, and since I have HDDs for my larger storage needs, I'd save some money and buy the HD-DVDs instead. But that's just me.
#5.5 cal2002 on 01 Aug 2004 - 16:28
Yes, it is a higher storage capacity, but currently that means nothing.

So far the Blu-Ray group has decided only to use MPEG-2 for their video codec. While the DVD Forum selected MPEG-2, VC-9, and MPEG-4 AVC!

VC-9 is somewhere around 175% more efficent then MPEG-2. So, basically that extra space on the Blu-Ray side is useless, it's just being used to enable the crappy MPEG-2 video to fit on the damn disc. Now, if the Blu-Ray group would be smart, they would adopt VC-9 for a codec, then that extra space difference will really make a difference!

Also, I think the Blu-ray group currently is planning on 1080i video, are they stupid? 1080p should be used to get rid of the interlacing for good.
#5.6 GamblerFEXonlin on 01 Aug 2004 - 20:54
how about 24fps films so we dont need jerky NTSC and sped-up PAL releases?

I dont mind having my TV or projector at 96hz instead of 100
#5.7 raid517 on 02 Aug 2004 - 07:56
...
#5.8 raid517 on 02 Aug 2004 - 07:58
QUOTE
Blu-Ray ought to cost a truckload more, and since I have HDDs for my larger storage needs, I'd save some money and buy the HD-DVDs instead. But that's just me.


Erm what? HD-DVD has nothing to do with 'hard drives', what are you talking about? It just means 'high density' - or something similar. HD for the increased amount of data you can fit on a disk - not hard drive.

GJ
#5.9 RangerLG on 02 Aug 2004 - 17:30
It means High Definition. But I think he was referring to having large amounts of storage on his hard drive which means he wouldn't need the extra capacity of Blu-Ray
#6 Ironman273 on 01 Aug 2004 - 13:57
So Blu-Ray won't have drivers out of the box. Why would that stop HP and Dell from including Longhorn drivers with the drives or computers they ship? Doesn't this always happen with new technology?
#7 cal2002 on 01 Aug 2004 - 16:31
Sure, Blu-Ray is ahead in getting the product out, but they are currently planning on giving you a less then perfect product. MPEG-2 video, interlaced video, no currently lossless audio codec plans, etc. Unless they start looking into the future, they will fail to be "next DVD format"
(5 replies) #8 y_notm on 01 Aug 2004 - 19:15
is this even a surprise, seeing as WMV9 was approved to be part of HDDVD?
#8.1 cal2002 on 01 Aug 2004 - 19:29
Based on video quality, no. MS has no part in "if" it gets picked, that's what the DVD Forum is for.
#8.2 y_notm on 01 Aug 2004 - 20:41
the DVD Forum already said WMV9 is a codec players must support to be HD-DVD compliant, it is part of the HD-DVD spec. http://www.windowsfordevices.com/news/NS6515181949.html

thus, why should MS supporting HD-DVD be a shocker when HD-DVD supports MS?
#8.3 cal2002 on 01 Aug 2004 - 20:47
omg, sorry dude. I took your comment in the wrong way. yes vc-9 (what you call wmv9) is one of the codec's.
#8.4 GamblerFEXonlin on 01 Aug 2004 - 20:57
WMV9? argh isnt windows formats very closed and badly documented so we can say good-bye to WMV9 support on linux?

maybe since its DVD then players will work in linux hmm

i dont like idea of M$ owned formats taking over.
#8.5 cal2002 on 01 Aug 2004 - 21:04
Don't consider it WMV, consider it as VC-9 (Video Compression 9). It's not only supported by MS. you have PowerDVD, WinDVD, NVDVD, etc to play MPEG-2 DVD's, right? How many of them support full playback under Linux? WinDVD has a version for Linux, tmk. But they only sell it through OEM's.

What this means is that Linux dev's will have to look into writing the decoders for VC-9 and not forget about it just becuase it's from MS.

M$ is really MS, the DVD Forum must have throught the quality has good, you as a consumer should support that. Do you really want MPEG-2 video in your next DVD format?
#9 cal2002 on 01 Aug 2004 - 21:03
<wrong post>
#10 ryoohki on 02 Aug 2004 - 11:58
Panasonic is planning a HD-DVD ROM drive for PC before the years end and Toshiba is planning a Home HDDVD player by 2005 end so yeah it coming

Blue Ray has more space for data, but if you think Video wise, it use the good old MPEG2 and all it's old problems will be back, Chroma Bug the worst of them. And i've seen sat capture of HD movies at 27mbits rate and i see saw Mpeg2 compression artefact in the R,G,B channel, were VC9 you don't get any even a 8mbits rate! for the same resolution.

Remember, HD-DVD is toshiba, toshiba is Warner Brother/New Line groups and Blue Ray is Sony witch is Columbia. I'am pretty sure that ie 'spiderman 1 and 2' will come out only on Blue Ray and Matrix, LOTR only on HD-DVD for a while, this will be very confusing for the people..
#11 hardgiant on 02 Aug 2004 - 16:22
If HD-DVD is cheaper then that is the one I will be hoping wins.

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