It’s been a tumultuous week in the HD DVD vs. Blu-ray world with the recent conversion of Paramount (who also distributes DreamWorks) to HD DVD-only instead of supporting both formats. Going forward, all Paramount discs will now only be in HD DVD. Blu-ray pre-orders for Blades of Glory and other movies will have to be refunded, and all existing Paramount Blu-ray titles are about to become collector’s items.
It’s natural to jump to conclusions about the motivations that people and companies have for doing what they do. In Paramount’s case, a certain part of that motivation came in the form of some special consideration, like free advertising, and other incentives reportedly worth $150 million. Many people have jumped to the conclusion that Microsoft was behind that sum of money – after all, even the man on the Moon knows Microsoft has tons of cash lying around.
Two noted Microsoftians have gone on the record to dispel these theories. The first was Amir Majidimehr, head of Microsoft’s consumer media technology group, in this New York Times piece, saying, “We provided no financial incentives to Paramount or DreamWorks whatsoever.” The second is Kevin Collins in this posting at Home Theater Forum. You should follow through and read Kevin’s original posting for yourself at HTF, where he says, “I want to go on the record stating that Microsoft did not provide any financial incentives to Paramount/Dreamworks recent decision to support HD DVD. This type of ‘reporting’ amazes me and I challenge anyone to provide proof around these statements. They are unfounded and inaccurate.”
I can understand the natural cynicism that many people have about this, because I have a lot of it myself regarding various things about Blu-ray. But I think that if you study Microsoft’s historical behavior with HD DVD, it’s easier to see why Kevin and Amir are probably telling the truth.
Microsoft has these two major fingers in the HD DVD pie (and others that are less tangible for regular folks like us):
- They make the VC-1 codec (the data compression method for the movie data)
- They make an HD DVD add-on for the Xbox 360
If there was some kind of mandatory requirement that HD DVD players use Microsoft software, then I could see some room for a plot twist where Microsoft chips in a few tens of millions to maintain a monopoly. The reality is that HD DVD players are not restricted to only using VC-1. And that Toshiba’s HD DVD players run Linux.
Next is the Xbox 360 add-on HD DVD drive. This is an optional piece of equipment, and is not a requirement for enjoying the Xbox 360. When it comes to the Xbox, Microsoft has focused on gaming first, and second to use the Xbox as a media device. HD DVD is only one aspect of that media device strategy. If that drive had been built-in to the 360 in the same way that Blu-ray is built-in to the PS3, then there would be more fodder for gossiping.
As a side-note, there’s a conspiracy theory (I don’t know what else to call it) that Microsoft actually wants HD DVD to fail because they’d rather have people move to digital downloads, an area where Microsoft can more easily control or own the infrastructure. According to this theory, Microsoft will deliberately interfere with consumer adoption of HD DVD and Blu-ray so that something like Xbox 360 movie downloads (and I presume Vista too) can end up winning. Someone even offered this story in one of the comments to an article here.
Cynicism is understandable. I know that I’m guilty of it when I read about Blu-ray stuff, so I expect the same kinds of things from Blu-ray supporters towards HD DVD news. But I also know when to give it a rest. It’s one thing to lean towards one side in the format war, but it’s another thing to subscribe to every theory that comes along.
August 26th, 2007 at 2:49 pm
I personally don’t like the idea of downloading movies…movies then won’t be able to be taken from house to house, but only played on a single player. Then, space also becomes a concern, needing to upgrade hard drives to have more space. If I buy a movie, I want to have it forever, and I don’t want to worry about having to delete movies if I run out of space.
August 27th, 2007 at 6:19 am
I agree with Bret wholeheartedly. I have a xbox 360 and hard drive space is always a concern. Having an actual disc gives much more data security. You can easily lose data when storing on hard drive. As mentioned when you have a hard drive your gonna be limited on space but with discs you can buy forever and not worry about upgrading.
August 27th, 2007 at 7:28 am
I agree with Bret. Downloading movies is NOT a very cool idea. It does not come as close to the real thing. It does not produce the same video and sound quality as the DVD or HD media discs, not to mention it does not have the extras, commentary, etc. etc. Video download has still light years to improve before they even become close. Then again, by that time it catches up the actual entertainment media format have evolved to million times better so there is no way in any angle spect that downloading movies is the future and I can take that to the bank.
August 27th, 2007 at 11:52 am
I would argure that every HD-DVD purchased is a collectors item as opposed to paramount blurays.
Paramount blurays are a timed collector items.
August 27th, 2007 at 2:56 pm
You’re missing something important…. VC-1 is in Blu-ray spec as well. Therefore they generate income from the VC-1 codec independent of which format it ends up on, disc or otherwise.
August 27th, 2007 at 3:12 pm
Yes, VC-1 is used on Blu-ray discs as well as HD DVD, however it is not one of those mandatory features like an ethernet port or Dolby True HD.
The most that I could see Microsoft doing in terms of VC-1 enticement is discounting the licensing fee for using it, but that form of “compensation” is not part of the $150M payoff that everybody’s talking about.
Edit: I’m just saying that for the “XYZ paid them off” theory to work, there needs to be something involved that the payee wouldn’t normally have done. In this case, people willingly use VC-1 on both sides.
August 28th, 2007 at 12:16 pm
The point I’m trying to make is that the fact that Vc-1 is in HD DVD & Blu-Ray is, I think, better proof that MS wouldn’t throw so much money into one format when they will win either way. I think that is more key than VC-1 not being mandatory in HD DVD as the article points out.
August 28th, 2007 at 12:24 pm
Got it! They have no reason to prevent Blu-ray from doing well, because there’s even more licensing money to be made when both formats are using the code.
August 28th, 2007 at 12:56 pm
We could take it to the next level & assume that they know if Blu-ray wins they could make a BR 360 add on & sell even more drives $$, another winning scenario.
Or consider the “conspiracy.” What if prolonging the format war sends more people to Xbox Live Marketplace for the downloadable HD films. The best way to do this would be to fund the underdog. In some ways it makes perfect sense in the grand scheme of things. Microsoft watched Apple take all with iTunes while Sony & Toshiba was in the format war between SACD & DVD_Audio. Maybe they want to be the next Apple but with home video. With all the Sony Toshiba mess we keep up on it’s pretty awesome to see how MS has positioned themselves in this mess.