It has been an eventful Friday as far as HD DVD is concerned. First, Warner declared its preference for Blu-ray over HD DVD, and then the HD DVD Promotion Group canceled its CES press conference. While the immediate reaction in the market probably is that it is doomsday for HD DVD, what will be more interesting to see is Microsoft’s stand in the entire episode.
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It has been an eventful Friday as far as HD DVD is concerned. First, Warner declared its preference for Blu-ray over HD DVD, and then the HD DVD Promotion Group canceled its CES press conference. While the immediate reaction in the market probably is that it is doomsday for HD DVD, what will be more interesting to see is Microsoft’s stand in the entire episode.
The Microsoft angle is interesting for there has been talk lately that the CES keynote address Bill Gates is slated to address has as one of its highlights the introduction to the world of an Xbox 360 version with inbuilt HD DVD drive, the Xbox 360 Ultimate.
Microsoft has, of course, already put out a statement to the effect that since the launch of the Xbox 360 HD DVD player, the company has been making it clear there were no plans to have another Xbox 360 version with inbuilt HD DVD. This statement may be out just to kill off rumors about its possible launch of the Xbox 360 Ultimate; at least that is the general feeling around.
As events stand now, it seems Microsoft made the wrong choice as far as HD DVD is concerned. On the positive side, Microsoft does not yet have an Xbox 360 with inbuilt HD DVD. However, it does offer an external HD DVD drive for the Xbox. Warner’s announcement of support for Blu-ray would therefore hurt Microsoft probably.
However, it is still not curtains for Microsoft. One way out would be to change formats and tag an external drive, but with Blu-ray instead of the external HD DVD drive. Another way out would be probably to come out with the Xbox 360 Ultimate, but add an internal drive with Blu-ray instead of HD DVD.
While some may consider the fact of having to admit making the wrong choice embarrassing for Microsoft, it still holds that the company would have to make such a change and swallow the embarrassment if required. It could even wait a while, till it comes out with its next future console and make the changes in that box.
One thing is for sure: Microsoft cannot escape making that choice. It could change over to Blu-ray, which would mean literally curtains for HD DVD or it could continue backing HD DVD.
For Bill Gates, addressing this issue becomes critical, and the sooner he does it the better. He could do the safe thing and announce in his keynote address his company’s change in strategy and opt for the Blu-ray over HD DVD, or he could take a risk and come out with a strong statement lending support to the embattled HD DVD.
Whichever way Mr. Gates chooses to go, one would now definitely look forward to his CES keynote address.
OK
People are putting way too much emphasis on Microsoft, they are just a member company of the HD DVD group, they are not even one of the leading supporters.
This is NOT about Toshiba and MS trying to defeat Sony. The leading companies in the group are Toshiba, Sanyo, NEC, and Memory Tech.
MS owns the VC1 codec that IMHO is best for HD coding, both Bluray and HDDVD use this code, so I really don't think MS is as concerned with all this as many of you seem to think. If they were, HDDVD would probably be winning.