High-Def Digest Interview with Microsoft's Amir Majidimehr

[jed]

I'm guessing this one may generate some controversy. Our own Peter Bracke recently sat down with Microsoft's Amir Majidimehr.

Full interview:
http://hddvd.highdefdigest.com/featu...interview.html

[Sarang]

EXCELLENT article, just excellent though I do disagree with the Interviewee's expectations both will survive.
This isn'5 like SACD and DVD-Audio where a few Audiophiles will notice the difference, with video EVERYONE notices and that being said the libraries of both will keep growing and growing until one kills the other.
Jed do you mind if I post this in the CAG(www.cheapassgamer.com/) forums and credit you for the post and the author?

[Delta88]

Sounds like a great marketing campaign! So, in closing, what do you want consumers, who may be on the fence between the two high-def formats, to know about HD DVD?

Look at the reality of the technology and what we are delivering; don't look at paper specs and hype. Look at the products in the market. We now have over 150 HD DVD titles, and the quality speaks for itself.


He should have said, better like Universal & Toshiba because thats all we got.
LOL!

BD has more hardware and software.

[Pat H]

Awesome interview. Amir made a lot of really good points, especially about BD's lack of enforced standards. But I think the whole comparison with GSM and CDMA is a little bit of a stretch.

[Buffy]

Great Interview. I have no doubt now that HD DVD will win the war. It's truly amazing all the potential that have the HD DVD. I have the both formats and I must to say that HD DVD is better than Blu-ray for all the reason that said the article. I only hope that the non-support studios like Fox see all this potential that have the VC-1 Format for upgrade their movies and comes to HD DVD Land.

Sorry for the bad english, but I'm form Mexico and I'm still learning how to write it. =)

[zzap64]

Originally Posted by Buffy

I have no doubt now that HD DVD will win the war.

You are kidding right?

[eastx]

Originally Posted by Delta88

He should have said, better like Universal & Toshiba because thats all we got.
LOL!

BD has more hardware and software.

Amazing how someone can read a well-written article that clearly expresses one side's many advantages, and come out of it making farting sounds with his armpit.

[Sarang]

Originally Posted by eastx

Amazing how someone can read a well-written article that clearly expresses one side's many advantages, and come out of it making farting sounds with his armpit.

But...but...teh Blu-Ray has the support! Teh Blu-Ray has the support! Who cares if the discs have no extra's, they have teh films! Who cares if they're $10 more, they have teh films!

[enigma]

Originally Posted by eastx

Amazing how someone can read a well-written article that clearly expresses one side's many advantages, and come out of it making farting sounds with his armpit.

Sadly its all too common. It read like a fluff piece and a few of his statements I really don't agree with.

Strongly Agree: VC-1 is a good codec

Strongly Disagree: VC-1 makes a large disk pointless. Less compression always looks better. I will admit we are well into diminshing returns.

Strongly Disagree: Neither side will win. I expect a winner to emerge this year.

Strongly Agree: Lossless audio compression is a good thing.

Agree: BD-J was a mistake

Disagree: Network is a solution to storage limitations. Not many will want to plug their DVD player into a network.

[Sarang]

Originally Posted by enigma

Sadly its all too common. It read like a fluff piece and a few of his statements I really don't agree with.

Strongly Agree: VC-1 is a good codec

Strongly Disagree: VC-1 makes a large disk pointless. Less compression always looks better. I will admit we are well into diminshing returns.

Strongly Disagree: Neither side will win. I expect a winner to emerge this year.

Strongly Agree: Lossless audio compression is a good thing.

Agree: BD-J was a mistake

Disagree: Network is a solution to storage limitations. Not many will want to plug their DVD player into a network.

I quite like it for the subs idea but I doubt it will be implemented much unfortunately.
I DO agree with you a winner will emerge this year and I think it will be HD-DVD of course. I think it will be hard or near impossible to compete with the cheap China players that will be coming out of the HD DVD camp. and add that to the add-on being dropped to either $150 or $100 though I think Toshiba and MS should be smart and just do $100. And don't forget MS has a well established lead in consoles ahead of Sony so any good influx of half a million or more add-on HD-DVD players sold to the 360 holiday camp will help. Btw keep these other two things in mind, that add-on hasn't debuted everywhere and I have a friend in Australia who's already planning to buy it plus I don't think the UK has got it and if they haven't perhaps the rest of Europe hasn't either. Now for the other point if the price of HD DVD discs go down a terrible thing to see for Blu-Ray with companies that are exclusive like FOX charging $10 more a disc up in the $40 range which is outrageous period.

[eastx]

At least Amir is not crazily biased. He's not predicting the death of one side or the other, unlike the BR camp, which uses that FUD stuff that I'm so tired of.

I didn't take his comments to mean that 50 GB is pointless. He's just saying how you don't need that much for a movie. It's not like BR has shown some huge commitment to space-taking special features, either. The only thing a movie could really need extra space for would be PCM audio, but as you know, not everyone places importance on that.

I'm with you on the networking stuff... I don't think people will really love downloading crap that should have been in the package in the first place.

[Sarang]

FUD? What does that mean?

[eastx]

Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt. I don't know if Camp Blu-Ray invented it, but it's been Sony/The Blu-Ray Association's tactic since day one, and many of their devoted followers utilize it too.

[Sarang]

Ahhh well I can wait and so can you. Imagine watching "The Thing" right now, "The Nutty Professor", "An American Tail", "The Land Before Time", "Jurassic Park" and "Jaws" in the future as well as the series "House MD", BSG and "Monk" all on HD DVD exclusively.

[zzap64]

Originally Posted by Sarang

I quite like it for the subs idea but I doubt it will be implemented much unfortunately.
I DO agree with you a winner will emerge this year and I think it will be HD-DVD of course. I think it will be hard or near impossible to compete with the cheap China players that will be coming out of the HD DVD camp. and add that to the add-on being dropped to either $150 or $100 though I think Toshiba and MS should be smart and just do $100. And don't forget MS has a well established lead in consoles ahead of Sony so any good influx of half a million or more add-on HD-DVD players sold to the 360 holiday camp will help. Btw keep these other two things in mind, that add-on hasn't debuted everywhere and I have a friend in Australia who's already planning to buy it plus I don't think the UK has got it and if they haven't perhaps the rest of Europe hasn't either. Now for the other point if the price of HD DVD discs go down a terrible thing to see for Blu-Ray with companies that are exclusive like FOX charging $10 more a disc up in the $40 range which is outrageous period.

Let me tell you why HD DVD is going to lose this year:

The cheap Chinese players that were announced at this years CES were just that, only announced. There were no working models displayed or specification released. You will not see them for at least a year. The available HD DVD players on the market are the Toshiba stand alones, the Xbox 360 addon and the LG Blu-ray player with HD DVD capability. I do not think HD DVD can withstand the content onslaught from Blu-ray until such time as it can get the cheap Chinese players on the market. Blu-ray will release substantially more movies in 2007 with the top grossing movies of 2006 being Blu-ray exclusive.

The PS3 has not been released to the rest of the World until March. That will be another big boost for movie sales. Yes PS3 users are buying movies, just look at the increase in Blu-ray movie sales at online retailers.

Universal has gone quiet on HD DVD. I believe Universal will go duel format in the second half of 2007.

None of the Blu-ray exclusive studios will move over to HD DVD and they solidified their position by announcing a plethora of movie titles. Blu-ray is leading in both hardware and software sales now. Yes the PS3 is a Blu-ray player. Yes PS3 users are buying movies.

The HD DVD addon although priced at $199 has had only a 2% attachment rate and only sold 92,000 units over Nov and Dec 06 compared to 687,000 PS3 units. Yes every HD DVD addon will be used to play movies but the PS3 only needs 14% of it's users to play Blu-ray movies to surpass the HD DVD addon.

Blu-ray has 70 movies announced with release dates and 55 of those are exclusive. HD DVD has 16 movies announced and 3 of those are exclusive.

HD DVD needed to gain at least one other major studio at this years CES to be a contender and that did not happen. Announcing cheap hardware is not going to win the war for you. It will be at least a year before they become available and by then Blu-ray will have flooded the market with titles.