RSSMicrosoft, Universal Team on HD DVD
By Ed Oswald | Published April 24, 2006, 11:00 AM
Microsoft and Universal Studios announced at the National Association of Broadcasters Convention in Las Vegas Monday a collaboration to use Microsoft technologies in upcoming HD DVD discs. The Redmond company is a strong supporter of the next-generation DVD technology.
Universal has agreed to use iHD, an interactivity feature for DVDs, in its upcoming titles. Additionally, it will use VC-1, a compression protocol recently approved as a standard for use in HD DVD discs. Both technologies were developed in part by researchers at Microsoft.
VC-1 will allow Universal to offer full 1080p resolution, yet have enough space on the 30GB HD DVD disc for additional features. iHD will allow for the accessing of interactive features without the need to interrupt playback.
"With plans to release a wide range of HD DVD titles, Universal also needed a flexible interactive layer that can scale to accommodate new features," Universal Studios Home Entertainment president Craig Kornblau said in a statement. "This is a scenario where VC-1 and iHD came out far ahead of other technologies."
Currently, every major studio with plans to support HD DVD will use VC-1 in their discs. The first HD DVD players from Toshiba hit the U.S. market last week, retailing for $499 USD.
"The Redmond company is a strong supporter of the next-generation DVD technology."
That's the official story, the unofficial story is somewhat different. At a MS seminar I attended two weeks ago in the UK, Blu Ray was the talking point, with HD-DVD not getting a single mention!!!
(they also gave iPod nanos as promo gifts, which was odd )...
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"they also gave iPod nanos as promo gifts,
which was odd"
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While the Apple Taliban views Microsoft as the Great Satan, Redmond doesn't hate Apple.
Think about it: They manufacture software for the Mac !
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"At a MS seminar I attended two weeks ago
in the UK, Blu Ray was the talking point,
with HD-DVD not getting a single mention!!!"
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The PC Rat suspects that proximity to Redmond explains this.
Like it or not, the U.K. is a "backwater" in the world of computing.
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The Computer Rodent
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It is well documented that Microsoft has always supported HD-DVD and has been against Blu-Ray.
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Hint, original poster is a Sony/Blu-Ray fanboy and will say anything to make HD-DVD look bad, whether it's true or not. He pops up in every thread about HD-DVD and starts bashing it.
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"iHD"
sounds an awful lot like something apple would use ....
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That's inot ifunny. iApple didn't HPinvent the iname for the iPod, they are just iusing the ireference for it.
It is a icool iname. i:)
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iLOL
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