That would imply that Apple have another OS or a somewhat modified OSX. That sounds like high maintance. Now if Apple would have bought BeOS....
Does the iPod run OS X? I thought not, an Appliance OS is a lot different than a general purpose PC OS. Of course Apple also has the Darwin "Core" which is a pretty mobile platform and could probably be stripped down pretty slim and modified for Apple's purposes in a media appliance, then throw on a "Front-Row" interface layer above the OS and you have it. I'm sure that a lot of the code is already in Apple's vast library and just needs some modifying, and I'm sure they have the talent in-house to do that. A lot of the interface design is already done between Front Row and iTunes, and just needs to be tweeked. The potential sales, especially if it is an inexpensive device rather than a relatively expensive computer, are imense and would easily cover the development and maintenance of a new targeted OS, especially if it were based on the code that they already have in-house.
In terms of home theatre, size is not as important as resolution. A 30" cinema display is not only too small for a larger room to be used as a device to watch video on, the resolution is completely ridiculous. A 30-incher runs at 2560 x 1600 while a 720p signal source is 1280 x 720 - half the resolution. So to watch it natively it would be even smaller and to watch it full screen would stretch pixels.
Simply put, Apple won't be expecting people to use regular computer monitors for a media centre. I think this is supported by the mini as it now supports more output resolutions including many 16:9 HD resolutions used by many HD TVs aside from the stand 4:3 and 16:10 computer monitor resolutions.
You guys are talking like it's suppose to be another Mac-like device with it's own screen. I think it should be part of your existing home theater system like any other component. Just an Apple one that has Apple brand features that I already mentioned previously.
It would be suicidal to try and compete with all the TV, Plasma, HDTV, makers with all the killer combinations of other components you can get from other manufacturers. I think Apple needs to make the one component that stands above the rest. The must have super BUZZ home media product.
I already described some features earlier so I'm not going to do it again in this post.
An Apple Media Center as a game console would fail instantly. First and foremost Apple would have to sell it at a loss on the hardware, and would atleast have to match the 299 and 399 pricepoints that the XBOX 360 has. People are already balking over the PS3 price as it is, so there is no way Apple could make a profit. Sony, MS, and Nintendo generally sell the core hardware at a loss and make it up in licensing fees, Apple doesn't have the kinda cash that MS did to make a brand name.
Furthermore I disagree with whoever said they would bet on Blu-ray being the next big media format. History has shown that Sony has failed everytime to create their own formats, and will likely fail this time due to the higher cost compared to HD-DVD.
Also concearning the XBOX 360 complaints, so far MS has made a product that just works. You can't really judge them by a few mishaps in the launch with hardware bugs, becuase we can point quite a few fingers at Apple for having hardware problems as well. Nintendo or Sony have yet to match the ease of use factor of XBOX Live. Game prices were too high to begin with, it's not MS that sets the prices it is the game studios.
First and foremost Apple would have to sell it at a loss on the hardware, and would atleast have to match the 299 and 399 pricepoints that the XBOX 360 has.
I agree Apple is not going to play in a low margin arena.
Quote:
History has shown that Sony has failed everytime to create their own formats, and will likely fail this time due to the higher cost compared to HD-DVD.
This is true in one sense and not true in another sense. VHS did beat Betamax for the home consumer market. But Sony's Betacam was the professional industry tape standard from the early 80's to the late 90's. In fact Betacam was still in wide use while the VHS market was being quickly eroded by the new DVD format.
JVC attempted to enter the professional market with Super VHS and later Digital VHS but neither really were able to be as good or as flexible as Betacam.
You guys may not know but Blu-ray is already in professional use. Sony is slowly replacing its tape based products with Blu-ray disk products. Which will take some time because tape is pretty well entrenched. Sony has professional cameras and decks that use Blu-ray disks. A new camera format was just introduced that records HD onto Blu-ray. Blu-ray will survive one way or the other.
Its unlikely HD-DVD will effectively penetrate the professional market, so its likely its only chance is for the consumer market.
...Furthermore I disagree with whoever said they would bet on Blu-ray being the next big media format. History has shown that Sony has failed everytime to create their own formats, and will likely fail this time due to the higher cost compared to HD-DVD....
From what I have read analysts are watching the Porn industry for guidance on the HD disc format "War". It is largely believed that they were the deciding factor in the video tape format war.
Right now as I understand it the large studios are ready to adopt Blue Ray for its larger capacity which will allow more features such as multiple camera angles as well as ads and trailers and other features. The smaller studios are leaning toward HD-DVD for it's lower entry price to switch to. If history repeats on this I would look for Blue-Ray to win out for this reason as well as it's higher capacity which will make it more attractive as a storage media for general computing, which means more people will have computers with them. This becomes important as we see more "Media-center" computers and "Media-Networks" entering the home market (intel's VIIV standards).
Of course the ultimate goal will be to have Blue-Ray around long enough to make money for the studios as consumers switches over the course of the next 2-3 years and replaces all their SD DVD's, then ramp up for on-line delivery with a new format so that people will be compelled to purchase "online" copies of the movies again 4-5 years from now.
My timeline may be a little compressed, but I think that either HD DVD format will have a very short market life in comparison to DVD, CV, or VHS because the increasing adoption of Broadband internet is going to drive increased competition between the Cable and Phone companies which will force them to push the limits of their delivery speeds and pricing which will in turn help drive online video content delivery (purchase or rental) to compete with the On Demand Cable, "Brick and Mortar" video and mail-order rental companies.
Truth be told I'm reading more and more about the possibiliy of universal Blu-Ray/HD DVD players.
Media Tech just ended in Germany I believe and once again an insider alluded to Universal players. Lets face it the BDA has a good product but Microsoft is pushing HD DVD a lot harder than I thought they would. I see neither format able to convingingly win.
Perhaps Apple may want to take the Universal route since they claim to support both formats. Makes sense once the costs come down.
Truth be told I'm reading more and more about the possibiliy of universal Blu-Ray/HD DVD players.
Media Tech just ended in Germany I believe and once again an insider alluded to Universal players. Lets face it the BDA has a good product but Microsoft is pushing HD DVD a lot harder than I thought they would. I see neither format able to convingingly win.
Perhaps Apple may want to take the Universal route since they claim to support both formats. Makes sense once the costs come down.
As a storage media, Blue-Ray will win out once the cost comes down on the media and the "recorders" for your computer. Right now I think that Microsoft is probably leaning toward HD DVD because those two factors look like they will converge for that format first, so it makes sense that they would want to support it first. They also have a rivalry with Sony in the console market and want to distance themselves from Sony in the Console market and the logical way to do that is put HD DVD's in as soon as they can instead of Blue Ray drives.
From what I have read analysts are watching the Porn industry for guidance on the HD disc format "War". It is largely believed that they were the deciding factor in the video tape format war.
As a storage media, Blue-Ray will win out once the cost comes down on the media and the "recorders" for your computer. Right now I think that Microsoft is probably leaning toward HD DVD because those two factors look like they will converge for that format first, so it makes sense that they would want to support it first. They also have a rivalry with Sony in the console market and want to distance themselves from Sony in the Console market and the logical way to do that is put HD DVD's in as soon as they can instead of Blue Ray drives.
They're pretty much full on HD DVD and I agree I think it's because Sony is a competitor for the Xbox and Blu Ray chose Java instead of iHD which was jointly created by MS and Disney as the interactive layer for HD DVD and more.
I anxiously await 2nd generation product. At Media Tech they announced that next year will usher in the Chinese manufacturers and the target price for HD DVD will be $299 by end of 2007. I think they'll hit that with the rapid level of ASIC consolidation that I'm seeing from Broadcom and Amtel and others.
"leaning" ??...They're pretty much full on HD DVD and I agree I think it's because Sony is a competitor for the Xbox and Blu Ray chose Java instead of iHD which was jointly created by MS and Disney as the interactive layer for HD DVD and more....
I don't keep too much up on what Microsoft is doing honestly, so I'm sure you know better than me. As someone else pointed out Blue Ray will most likely win out in the Pro video production market, at least for cameras and pre/post-production because Sony makes a lot of that equipment. That should keep it around long enough for the prices to come down low enough for it to be competitive as computer data storage, and it will win out here because of the higher storage capacity that it offers. I personally believe that which ever one gets the largest market share initially it will be only a few years before online delivery ends up taking on both of them and within a short time overtakes both combined.
Truth be told I'm reading more and more about the possibiliy of universal Blu-Ray/HD DVD players.
Media Tech just ended in Germany I believe and once again an insider alluded to Universal players. Lets face it the BDA has a good product but Microsoft is pushing HD DVD a lot harder than I thought they would. I see neither format able to convingingly win.
Perhaps Apple may want to take the Universal route since they claim to support both formats. Makes sense once the costs come down.
Microsoft is not all powerful and their involvement in pushing HD DVD is way overblown to say the least. First and foremost, they are a software company and do not manufacture the physical drives nor the discs for the HD DVD format. This should be your first red flag. Second, Microsoft's supposed benefit to the whole HD DVD format was its native support of HD DVD in its Vista operating system. Remind us when that is coming out again there Murch? Late January or some time in the first quarter sound familiar? That's precisely when it will be shipping, and by then over 4,000,000 (that's million boys and girls) Playstation 3 units with built in Blu-ray drives will have shipped by the time Microcrap ships its new OS with HD DVD support. So much for Mirosoft's great push theory.
Apple claims support for Blu-ray and is a member of the Board of Directors of the Blu-ray Disc Association. Your attempts to claim Apple support for HD DVD through interim solutions in a shipping product are getting quite old and desperate. Apple has publicly backed Blu-ray, anything on the contrary is wishful thinking.
Marzetta7 if you think Microsoft's not powerful check their net worth.
Hey I'm not going to break out in a Blu-Ray vs HD DVD argument here because a Media Centre allows Apple to support both of these formats. I'd recommend they support both if possible.
Quote:
Your attempts to claim Apple support for HD DVD through interim solutions in a shipping product are getting quite old and desperate
Ok now. Read this again slowly. You acknowledge that they do in fact support HD DVD which is correct however, Apple has never stated anything about "interim" that's your addition. At least you're half right this time.
Point is Apple could indeed support both formats but I think they might want to consider just tossing in a DVD burner initially until pricing on the nextgen stuff comes down. iMove with AVC support could end HD on standard discs just fine at an hour or more of time.
Marzetta7 if you think Microsoft's not powerful check their net worth.
Hey I'm not going to break out in a Blu-Ray vs HD DVD argument here because a Media Centre allows Apple to support both of these formats. I'd recommend they support both if possible.
Ok now. Read this again slowly. You acknowledge that they do in fact support HD DVD which is correct however, Apple has never stated anything about "interim" that's your addition. At least you're half right this time.
Point is Apple could indeed support both formats but I think they might want to consider just tossing in a DVD burner initially until pricing on the nextgen stuff comes down. iMove with AVC support could end HD on standard discs just fine at an hour or more of time.
Agreed, let's not do the whole Blu-ray vs HD DVD argument here. However, the statement I made was that Microsoft is not "all powerful" meaning omnipotent, meaning having no competitor, etc. Especially when it comes to hardware. I can give a rip about their net worth. Your statement alluded that because of some special reason that logic cannot grasp, Microsoft's backing of HD DVD would somehow tip the scales of the current format war and thus enable it to find its way into our media center that we are talking about. My answer, I don't think so.
Microsoft won't even come into play until next year, and again by that time, Blu-ray will have already made its inroads to other media centers like the PS3 in the millions and most likely, other Macintosh hardware. Not to mention the other players that will come from Samsung, Panasonic, LG, Sharp, Pioneer, Philips, and the rest of the majority of consumer electronics companies that what?....yup come out with the actual, physical, and tangible HARDWARE. Meaning, tangible Blu-ray equipped media centers.
Actually if Microsoft only supported HD-DVD and not Blu-ray at all, that would stifle Blu-ray adoption to some degree.
Most consumers will not likely search out some third party player to play back Blu-ray if Windows Media only supports HD-DVD.
DVD Studio Pro has supported HD-DVD creation since last year. So its undoubtedly Apple will support both formats.
I disagree, Microsoft is still a software company, and their adoption of Blue Ray or HD-DVD will not be viewed by the general public as a neccessary reason for supporting either one. What will matter initially is content available on one platform or another, and that content is Movies, not computer programs. The Media Center computer will be supported in one way or another on Windows compatible computer, and there will probably be ways around any copy protection within a few months if not weeks after the copy protections is released. The thing that is going to win the debate is content on the media delivery side, and storage capacity on the computer side. Blue Ray has the war won on the later today before even one drive is sold comercially, The former is yet to be seen on who will win out, but it will be a shot lived victory if Intel, DVIX, AT & T, Microsoft, Apple, and other technoloby companies have their way because they want online delivery as soon as possible, not physical media delivery. The only real loosers are Cable companies in this regard and they will probably be able to adapt to the market pretty fast if needed.
I disagree, Microsoft is still a software company, and their adoption of Blue Ray or HD-DVD will not be viewed by the general public as a neccessary reason for supporting either one. What will matter initially is content available on one platform or another, and that content is Movies, not computer programs. The Media Center computer will be supported in one way or another on Windows compatible computer, and there will probably be ways around any copy protection within a few months if not weeks after the copy protections is released. The thing that is going to win the debate is content on the media delivery side, and storage capacity on the computer side. Blue Ray has the war won on the later today before even one drive is sold comercially, The former is yet to be seen on who will win out, but it will be a shot lived victory if Intel, DVIX, AT & T, Microsoft, Apple, and other technoloby companies have their way because they want online delivery as soon as possible, not physical media delivery. The only real loosers are Cable companies in this regard and they will probably be able to adapt to the market pretty fast if needed.
I agree with most of what you say here, but I just wanted to add that "the former" that you speak of will undoubtedly be won by the Blu-ray format seeing how 7 out of the 8 major Hollywood studios (Fox, Disney/Pixar, Sony Pictures, MGM, Lionsgate, Paramount, and Warner) will be releasing content for Blu-ray. 5 of which are exclusively Blu-ray (Fox, Disney/Pixar, Sony Pictures, MGM, and Lionsgate).
Also, I don't believe it will be short lived whatsoever, as I don't see online delivery of full length movies becoming mainstream anytime soon. Especially full length HD movies. The bandwidth is not there just yet (please let us remember that not everyone lives in a metropolis), and people don't have the patience to wait hours for a movie to download. In addition, I just think a lot of people are nostalgic in the way of wanting something physical to retain and own in the form of their movies. Also, I think a lot of people still like getting it in the form of physical media wrapped in nice pretty, little, marketing-hyped cases and not put on a more volatile hard drive media and then possibly burnt to a physical optical media with marker written on it. At least to me and I think to a lot of others, it doesn't have the same appeal.
Actually if Microsoft only supported HD-DVD and not Blu-ray at all, that would stifle Blu-ray adoption to some degree.
Most consumers will not likely search out some third party player to play back Blu-ray if Windows Media only supports HD-DVD.
DVD Studio Pro has supported HD-DVD creation since last year. So its undoubtedly Apple will support both formats.
This would be true if all of us use Windows Media in our media centers, but this isn't the case nor will it be in the future will it? Holy crap, save us all please if this ever becomes the case, as the farther away Microsoft is from my living room, the better.
If your speaking strictly of computer playback, well then I still fail to see the awesome power of Microsoft considering they didn't even have native playback for DVDs in XP, yup you had to get a third party player to play them back and yet DVD still took off whether Microsoft natively supported it or not.
DVD didn't require client side DRM Marzetta nor was their encryption all the way to the monitor.
Both Blu-Ray and HD DVD are vastly different beasts.
In fact Microsoft is the only OS vendor that has CableCard support allowing a MCE to replace your STB from Comcast or whoever you use and still get premium channels.
Comments
Originally posted by ThinkingDifferent
That would imply that Apple have another OS or a somewhat modified OSX. That sounds like high maintance. Now if Apple would have bought BeOS....
Does the iPod run OS X? I thought not, an Appliance OS is a lot different than a general purpose PC OS. Of course Apple also has the Darwin "Core" which is a pretty mobile platform and could probably be stripped down pretty slim and modified for Apple's purposes in a media appliance, then throw on a "Front-Row" interface layer above the OS and you have it. I'm sure that a lot of the code is already in Apple's vast library and just needs some modifying, and I'm sure they have the talent in-house to do that. A lot of the interface design is already done between Front Row and iTunes, and just needs to be tweeked. The potential sales, especially if it is an inexpensive device rather than a relatively expensive computer, are imense and would easily cover the development and maintenance of a new targeted OS, especially if it were based on the code that they already have in-house.
Simply put, Apple won't be expecting people to use regular computer monitors for a media centre. I think this is supported by the mini as it now supports more output resolutions including many 16:9 HD resolutions used by many HD TVs aside from the stand 4:3 and 16:10 computer monitor resolutions.
It would be suicidal to try and compete with all the TV, Plasma, HDTV, makers with all the killer combinations of other components you can get from other manufacturers. I think Apple needs to make the one component that stands above the rest. The must have super BUZZ home media product.
I already described some features earlier so I'm not going to do it again in this post.
COOL if it ever gets here!
Furthermore I disagree with whoever said they would bet on Blu-ray being the next big media format. History has shown that Sony has failed everytime to create their own formats, and will likely fail this time due to the higher cost compared to HD-DVD.
Also concearning the XBOX 360 complaints, so far MS has made a product that just works. You can't really judge them by a few mishaps in the launch with hardware bugs, becuase we can point quite a few fingers at Apple for having hardware problems as well. Nintendo or Sony have yet to match the ease of use factor of XBOX Live. Game prices were too high to begin with, it's not MS that sets the prices it is the game studios.
First and foremost Apple would have to sell it at a loss on the hardware, and would atleast have to match the 299 and 399 pricepoints that the XBOX 360 has.
I agree Apple is not going to play in a low margin arena.
History has shown that Sony has failed everytime to create their own formats, and will likely fail this time due to the higher cost compared to HD-DVD.
This is true in one sense and not true in another sense. VHS did beat Betamax for the home consumer market. But Sony's Betacam was the professional industry tape standard from the early 80's to the late 90's. In fact Betacam was still in wide use while the VHS market was being quickly eroded by the new DVD format.
JVC attempted to enter the professional market with Super VHS and later Digital VHS but neither really were able to be as good or as flexible as Betacam.
You guys may not know but Blu-ray is already in professional use. Sony is slowly replacing its tape based products with Blu-ray disk products. Which will take some time because tape is pretty well entrenched. Sony has professional cameras and decks that use Blu-ray disks. A new camera format was just introduced that records HD onto Blu-ray. Blu-ray will survive one way or the other.
Its unlikely HD-DVD will effectively penetrate the professional market, so its likely its only chance is for the consumer market.
Originally posted by scavanger
...Furthermore I disagree with whoever said they would bet on Blu-ray being the next big media format. History has shown that Sony has failed everytime to create their own formats, and will likely fail this time due to the higher cost compared to HD-DVD....
From what I have read analysts are watching the Porn industry for guidance on the HD disc format "War". It is largely believed that they were the deciding factor in the video tape format war.
Right now as I understand it the large studios are ready to adopt Blue Ray for its larger capacity which will allow more features such as multiple camera angles as well as ads and trailers and other features. The smaller studios are leaning toward HD-DVD for it's lower entry price to switch to. If history repeats on this I would look for Blue-Ray to win out for this reason as well as it's higher capacity which will make it more attractive as a storage media for general computing, which means more people will have computers with them. This becomes important as we see more "Media-center" computers and "Media-Networks" entering the home market (intel's VIIV standards).
Of course the ultimate goal will be to have Blue-Ray around long enough to make money for the studios as consumers switches over the course of the next 2-3 years and replaces all their SD DVD's, then ramp up for on-line delivery with a new format so that people will be compelled to purchase "online" copies of the movies again 4-5 years from now.
My timeline may be a little compressed, but I think that either HD DVD format will have a very short market life in comparison to DVD, CV, or VHS because the increasing adoption of Broadband internet is going to drive increased competition between the Cable and Phone companies which will force them to push the limits of their delivery speeds and pricing which will in turn help drive online video content delivery (purchase or rental) to compete with the On Demand Cable, "Brick and Mortar" video and mail-order rental companies.
Media Tech just ended in Germany I believe and once again an insider alluded to Universal players. Lets face it the BDA has a good product but Microsoft is pushing HD DVD a lot harder than I thought they would. I see neither format able to convingingly win.
Perhaps Apple may want to take the Universal route since they claim to support both formats. Makes sense once the costs come down.
Originally posted by hmurchison
Truth be told I'm reading more and more about the possibiliy of universal Blu-Ray/HD DVD players.
Media Tech just ended in Germany I believe and once again an insider alluded to Universal players. Lets face it the BDA has a good product but Microsoft is pushing HD DVD a lot harder than I thought they would. I see neither format able to convingingly win.
Perhaps Apple may want to take the Universal route since they claim to support both formats. Makes sense once the costs come down.
As a storage media, Blue-Ray will win out once the cost comes down on the media and the "recorders" for your computer. Right now I think that Microsoft is probably leaning toward HD DVD because those two factors look like they will converge for that format first, so it makes sense that they would want to support it first. They also have a rivalry with Sony in the console market and want to distance themselves from Sony in the Console market and the logical way to do that is put HD DVD's in as soon as they can instead of Blue Ray drives.
Originally posted by JCG
From what I have read analysts are watching the Porn industry for guidance on the HD disc format "War". It is largely believed that they were the deciding factor in the video tape format war.
No. Analysts just like talking about porn.
Originally posted by JCG
As a storage media, Blue-Ray will win out once the cost comes down on the media and the "recorders" for your computer. Right now I think that Microsoft is probably leaning toward HD DVD because those two factors look like they will converge for that format first, so it makes sense that they would want to support it first. They also have a rivalry with Sony in the console market and want to distance themselves from Sony in the Console market and the logical way to do that is put HD DVD's in as soon as they can instead of Blue Ray drives.
"leaning" ??
Microsoft devoted a whole Press Release to HD DVD partnerships
They're pretty much full on HD DVD and I agree I think it's because Sony is a competitor for the Xbox and Blu Ray chose Java instead of iHD which was jointly created by MS and Disney as the interactive layer for HD DVD and more.
I anxiously await 2nd generation product. At Media Tech they announced that next year will usher in the Chinese manufacturers and the target price for HD DVD will be $299 by end of 2007. I think they'll hit that with the rapid level of ASIC consolidation that I'm seeing from Broadcom and Amtel and others.
Originally posted by hmurchison
"leaning" ??...They're pretty much full on HD DVD and I agree I think it's because Sony is a competitor for the Xbox and Blu Ray chose Java instead of iHD which was jointly created by MS and Disney as the interactive layer for HD DVD and more....
I don't keep too much up on what Microsoft is doing honestly, so I'm sure you know better than me. As someone else pointed out Blue Ray will most likely win out in the Pro video production market, at least for cameras and pre/post-production because Sony makes a lot of that equipment. That should keep it around long enough for the prices to come down low enough for it to be competitive as computer data storage, and it will win out here because of the higher storage capacity that it offers. I personally believe that which ever one gets the largest market share initially it will be only a few years before online delivery ends up taking on both of them and within a short time overtakes both combined.
Originally posted by hmurchison
Truth be told I'm reading more and more about the possibiliy of universal Blu-Ray/HD DVD players.
Media Tech just ended in Germany I believe and once again an insider alluded to Universal players. Lets face it the BDA has a good product but Microsoft is pushing HD DVD a lot harder than I thought they would. I see neither format able to convingingly win.
Perhaps Apple may want to take the Universal route since they claim to support both formats. Makes sense once the costs come down.
Microsoft is not all powerful and their involvement in pushing HD DVD is way overblown to say the least. First and foremost, they are a software company and do not manufacture the physical drives nor the discs for the HD DVD format. This should be your first red flag. Second, Microsoft's supposed benefit to the whole HD DVD format was its native support of HD DVD in its Vista operating system. Remind us when that is coming out again there Murch? Late January or some time in the first quarter sound familiar? That's precisely when it will be shipping, and by then over 4,000,000 (that's million boys and girls) Playstation 3 units with built in Blu-ray drives will have shipped by the time Microcrap ships its new OS with HD DVD support. So much for Mirosoft's great push theory.
Apple claims support for Blu-ray and is a member of the Board of Directors of the Blu-ray Disc Association. Your attempts to claim Apple support for HD DVD through interim solutions in a shipping product are getting quite old and desperate. Apple has publicly backed Blu-ray, anything on the contrary is wishful thinking.
Hey I'm not going to break out in a Blu-Ray vs HD DVD argument here because a Media Centre allows Apple to support both of these formats. I'd recommend they support both if possible.
Your attempts to claim Apple support for HD DVD through interim solutions in a shipping product are getting quite old and desperate
Ok now. Read this again slowly. You acknowledge that they do in fact support HD DVD which is correct however, Apple has never stated anything about "interim" that's your addition. At least you're half right this time.
Point is Apple could indeed support both formats but I think they might want to consider just tossing in a DVD burner initially until pricing on the nextgen stuff comes down. iMove with AVC support could end HD on standard discs just fine at an hour or more of time.
Originally posted by hmurchison
Marzetta7 if you think Microsoft's not powerful check their net worth.
Hey I'm not going to break out in a Blu-Ray vs HD DVD argument here because a Media Centre allows Apple to support both of these formats. I'd recommend they support both if possible.
Ok now. Read this again slowly. You acknowledge that they do in fact support HD DVD which is correct however, Apple has never stated anything about "interim" that's your addition. At least you're half right this time.
Point is Apple could indeed support both formats but I think they might want to consider just tossing in a DVD burner initially until pricing on the nextgen stuff comes down. iMove with AVC support could end HD on standard discs just fine at an hour or more of time.
Agreed, let's not do the whole Blu-ray vs HD DVD argument here. However, the statement I made was that Microsoft is not "all powerful" meaning omnipotent, meaning having no competitor, etc. Especially when it comes to hardware. I can give a rip about their net worth. Your statement alluded that because of some special reason that logic cannot grasp, Microsoft's backing of HD DVD would somehow tip the scales of the current format war and thus enable it to find its way into our media center that we are talking about. My answer, I don't think so.
Microsoft won't even come into play until next year, and again by that time, Blu-ray will have already made its inroads to other media centers like the PS3 in the millions and most likely, other Macintosh hardware. Not to mention the other players that will come from Samsung, Panasonic, LG, Sharp, Pioneer, Philips, and the rest of the majority of consumer electronics companies that what?....yup come out with the actual, physical, and tangible HARDWARE. Meaning, tangible Blu-ray equipped media centers.
Most consumers will not likely search out some third party player to play back Blu-ray if Windows Media only supports HD-DVD.
DVD Studio Pro has supported HD-DVD creation since last year. So its undoubtedly Apple will support both formats.
Originally posted by TenoBell
Actually if Microsoft only supported HD-DVD and not Blu-ray at all, that would stifle Blu-ray adoption to some degree.
Most consumers will not likely search out some third party player to play back Blu-ray if Windows Media only supports HD-DVD.
DVD Studio Pro has supported HD-DVD creation since last year. So its undoubtedly Apple will support both formats.
I disagree, Microsoft is still a software company, and their adoption of Blue Ray or HD-DVD will not be viewed by the general public as a neccessary reason for supporting either one. What will matter initially is content available on one platform or another, and that content is Movies, not computer programs. The Media Center computer will be supported in one way or another on Windows compatible computer, and there will probably be ways around any copy protection within a few months if not weeks after the copy protections is released. The thing that is going to win the debate is content on the media delivery side, and storage capacity on the computer side. Blue Ray has the war won on the later today before even one drive is sold comercially, The former is yet to be seen on who will win out, but it will be a shot lived victory if Intel, DVIX, AT & T, Microsoft, Apple, and other technoloby companies have their way because they want online delivery as soon as possible, not physical media delivery. The only real loosers are Cable companies in this regard and they will probably be able to adapt to the market pretty fast if needed.
Originally posted by @homenow
I disagree, Microsoft is still a software company, and their adoption of Blue Ray or HD-DVD will not be viewed by the general public as a neccessary reason for supporting either one. What will matter initially is content available on one platform or another, and that content is Movies, not computer programs. The Media Center computer will be supported in one way or another on Windows compatible computer, and there will probably be ways around any copy protection within a few months if not weeks after the copy protections is released. The thing that is going to win the debate is content on the media delivery side, and storage capacity on the computer side. Blue Ray has the war won on the later today before even one drive is sold comercially, The former is yet to be seen on who will win out, but it will be a shot lived victory if Intel, DVIX, AT & T, Microsoft, Apple, and other technoloby companies have their way because they want online delivery as soon as possible, not physical media delivery. The only real loosers are Cable companies in this regard and they will probably be able to adapt to the market pretty fast if needed.
I agree with most of what you say here, but I just wanted to add that "the former" that you speak of will undoubtedly be won by the Blu-ray format seeing how 7 out of the 8 major Hollywood studios (Fox, Disney/Pixar, Sony Pictures, MGM, Lionsgate, Paramount, and Warner) will be releasing content for Blu-ray. 5 of which are exclusively Blu-ray (Fox, Disney/Pixar, Sony Pictures, MGM, and Lionsgate).
Also, I don't believe it will be short lived whatsoever, as I don't see online delivery of full length movies becoming mainstream anytime soon. Especially full length HD movies. The bandwidth is not there just yet (please let us remember that not everyone lives in a metropolis), and people don't have the patience to wait hours for a movie to download. In addition, I just think a lot of people are nostalgic in the way of wanting something physical to retain and own in the form of their movies. Also, I think a lot of people still like getting it in the form of physical media wrapped in nice pretty, little, marketing-hyped cases and not put on a more volatile hard drive media and then possibly burnt to a physical optical media with marker written on it. At least to me and I think to a lot of others, it doesn't have the same appeal.
Originally posted by TenoBell
Actually if Microsoft only supported HD-DVD and not Blu-ray at all, that would stifle Blu-ray adoption to some degree.
Most consumers will not likely search out some third party player to play back Blu-ray if Windows Media only supports HD-DVD.
DVD Studio Pro has supported HD-DVD creation since last year. So its undoubtedly Apple will support both formats.
This would be true if all of us use Windows Media in our media centers, but this isn't the case nor will it be in the future will it? Holy crap, save us all please if this ever becomes the case, as the farther away Microsoft is from my living room, the better.
If your speaking strictly of computer playback, well then I still fail to see the awesome power of Microsoft considering they didn't even have native playback for DVDs in XP, yup you had to get a third party player to play them back and yet DVD still took off whether Microsoft natively supported it or not.
Both Blu-Ray and HD DVD are vastly different beasts.
In fact Microsoft is the only OS vendor that has CableCard support allowing a MCE to replace your STB from Comcast or whoever you use and still get premium channels.