Mάλλον επίθεση από το BR-camp στo HD-DVD και στην MS , αλλά με πολλές αλήθειες.
Blu-ray boss: HD DVD is not good enough
http://www.tech.co.uk/home-entertai...-hd-dvd-is-not-good-enough?articleid=80768583
It's no good and is outmatched by Blu-ray, apparently
The HD DVD disc format is inferior to Blu-ray and does not offer enough capacity for modern day HD movies. That's the view of Frank Simonis, the chairman of the Blu-ray Disc Association, who made the comments in an interview with Tech.co.uk.
"The majority of Hollywood studios have chosen Blu-ray not because we have asked them to - we let them make up their own mind. They choose Blu-ray because it is the superior format," Simonis said.
"For Disney to do the movie Cars in HD including the interactivity, a 50GB disc is needed.
Pirates Of The Caribbean you couldn't do on an HD DVD disc. You'd have to have multiple discs. How can that be a good thing?
"Should you stop half way and say 'let's have a pee and then continue'? No that does not work. The movie is that long. And HD DVD is simply not good enough to carry that, or it would discriminate the quality.
HD DVD too small?
"Take Disney's Cars. You look at the depth of the graphical animation in that movie and HD DVD would discriminate that part. Therefore the studio's choice was clear. HD DVD is not good enough. Blu-ray is the only format which has the 50GB.
"HD DVD tried to counter that with the statement that they could make a three-layer disc, but that's just a statement. I have never seen any product that can handle that, and nor did I see the title ever coming alive. They create mist in a market where they should in fact clarify the situation and satisfy the consumer's needs," Simonis said.
He also went on to say that it is not true that HD DVD players are cheaper to produce than Blu-ray ones. He said that Toshiba and other HD DVD manufacturers are heavily subsidising the players to make them a more attractive proposition.
"Both format players use the same back-end decoders so the video and the audio is nearly similar. And I can't imagine that an optical mechanism for HD DVD and Blu-ray has a big spread in cost - the expensive part is the blue laser. Technology-wise, there is not a major difference.
"They do something else in their marketing [to make this possible].
Now, I don't know how deep their pockets are but I hear the rumour that they spent $150m just to get one studio over. Perhaps they like to play that game, and I wish them a lot of luck.
"Because at the end of the day we believe in fair competition between the different hardware manufacturers to make a business all based on our own model. Not on subsidised pricing in the products."
Frank Simonis is also the senior director of communications at Philips.
---------------
Blu-ray camp: Microsoft is not the Holy Grail
http://www.tech.co.uk/home-entertai...ft-is-not-the-holy-grail?articleid=1811809560
HD has a bright future and will not fall flat
The high definition disc format has a bright future and we can expect "exciting things" to happen in the next few months. That's the message coming out of the Blu-ray camp today after Tech.co.uk spoke to its chairman Frank Simonis.
He said that while the likes of Bill Gates has predicted the failure of high definition content in general, Blu-ray does in fact have a bright future.
"I think a lot of people make the mistake of thinking that Microsoft is the Holy Grail," Simonis said.
"The idea that no one wants HD is a story that Microsoft likes to spin. Bill Gates last year had a speech at a University in Chicago where he stated that he didn't need the third generation optical media and will go for downloads.
Microsoft full of hot air?
"I have however heard a lot of stories on new products from Microsoft coming to market including Windows Vista which was due, I believe in 2004, and only came alive in principle this year. So only three years late!
"Microsoft is very bad at making predictions and I think that you can only judge that if the consumer truly has a choice in making use of that application. For standard definition the concept is now slowly coming alive. But high definition is six times more information in the video alone. That's not including the HD 7.1 audio.
"So to download a movie of 25GB over the internet I wish the consumer a lot of success today and hopefully the day after you might have all the content in one form. But with Blu-ray you can buy it all in one go and it's top quality at an affordable price."
HD format war over in 18 months?
http://www.tech.co.uk/home-entertai...at-war-over-in-18-months?articleid=1772504357
Blu-ray chairman predicts exciting things for format war
The high definition format war between HD DVD and Blu-ray could be all over in 18 months time. That's what the Chairman of the Blu-ray Disc Association hinted at today in an interview with Tech.co.uk.
Frank Simonis, also the senior director of communications at Philips, said that while he refuses to predict victory for Blu-ray, the consumers will decide and exciting things will happen in the next year and a half.
"Due to the fact that we have some hard competition which sometimes makes strange moves, it's very unpredictable. But I think in the next 18 months it will be very exciting to see what's going on.
"Especially with more products coming to market, the price erosion that will for sure happen because competition between the different players will automatically fuel that part of the business. And of course the broader support that we get from the software industry will excite the consumer very heavily."
Tech.co.uk met Simonis at the Blu-ray stand at the IFA consumer electronics show in Berlin. The event has this year been dominated by HD TV products with many new optical disc players being launched too.
A plethora of new products, Simonis says, will create competition between manufacturers of the different players, driving prices down. That coupled with competition from a rival disc format means that we could soon be looking at far cheaper Blu-ray players than are available today.
"We don't like to oversell ourselves, but we right now see that there is a major transition taking place from publishers who said they would initially go only for HD DVD and now make the move across the Blu-ray. [This is] based on the sales numbers of software happening in the Far East, US and also now in Europe.
"In the US you see that 70 per cent of the titles sold are Blu-ray and this is no different everywhere else. Publishers are moving to Blu-ray and now is definitely the time to join.
"The consumer should make the choice, but for me it's Blu-ray all the way."
Blu-ray boss: HD DVD is not good enough
http://www.tech.co.uk/home-entertai...-hd-dvd-is-not-good-enough?articleid=80768583
It's no good and is outmatched by Blu-ray, apparently
The HD DVD disc format is inferior to Blu-ray and does not offer enough capacity for modern day HD movies. That's the view of Frank Simonis, the chairman of the Blu-ray Disc Association, who made the comments in an interview with Tech.co.uk.
"The majority of Hollywood studios have chosen Blu-ray not because we have asked them to - we let them make up their own mind. They choose Blu-ray because it is the superior format," Simonis said.
"For Disney to do the movie Cars in HD including the interactivity, a 50GB disc is needed.
Pirates Of The Caribbean you couldn't do on an HD DVD disc. You'd have to have multiple discs. How can that be a good thing?
"Should you stop half way and say 'let's have a pee and then continue'? No that does not work. The movie is that long. And HD DVD is simply not good enough to carry that, or it would discriminate the quality.
HD DVD too small?
"Take Disney's Cars. You look at the depth of the graphical animation in that movie and HD DVD would discriminate that part. Therefore the studio's choice was clear. HD DVD is not good enough. Blu-ray is the only format which has the 50GB.
"HD DVD tried to counter that with the statement that they could make a three-layer disc, but that's just a statement. I have never seen any product that can handle that, and nor did I see the title ever coming alive. They create mist in a market where they should in fact clarify the situation and satisfy the consumer's needs," Simonis said.
He also went on to say that it is not true that HD DVD players are cheaper to produce than Blu-ray ones. He said that Toshiba and other HD DVD manufacturers are heavily subsidising the players to make them a more attractive proposition.
"Both format players use the same back-end decoders so the video and the audio is nearly similar. And I can't imagine that an optical mechanism for HD DVD and Blu-ray has a big spread in cost - the expensive part is the blue laser. Technology-wise, there is not a major difference.
"They do something else in their marketing [to make this possible].
Now, I don't know how deep their pockets are but I hear the rumour that they spent $150m just to get one studio over. Perhaps they like to play that game, and I wish them a lot of luck.
"Because at the end of the day we believe in fair competition between the different hardware manufacturers to make a business all based on our own model. Not on subsidised pricing in the products."
Frank Simonis is also the senior director of communications at Philips.
---------------
Blu-ray camp: Microsoft is not the Holy Grail
http://www.tech.co.uk/home-entertai...ft-is-not-the-holy-grail?articleid=1811809560
HD has a bright future and will not fall flat
The high definition disc format has a bright future and we can expect "exciting things" to happen in the next few months. That's the message coming out of the Blu-ray camp today after Tech.co.uk spoke to its chairman Frank Simonis.
He said that while the likes of Bill Gates has predicted the failure of high definition content in general, Blu-ray does in fact have a bright future.
"I think a lot of people make the mistake of thinking that Microsoft is the Holy Grail," Simonis said.
"The idea that no one wants HD is a story that Microsoft likes to spin. Bill Gates last year had a speech at a University in Chicago where he stated that he didn't need the third generation optical media and will go for downloads.
Microsoft full of hot air?
"I have however heard a lot of stories on new products from Microsoft coming to market including Windows Vista which was due, I believe in 2004, and only came alive in principle this year. So only three years late!
"Microsoft is very bad at making predictions and I think that you can only judge that if the consumer truly has a choice in making use of that application. For standard definition the concept is now slowly coming alive. But high definition is six times more information in the video alone. That's not including the HD 7.1 audio.
"So to download a movie of 25GB over the internet I wish the consumer a lot of success today and hopefully the day after you might have all the content in one form. But with Blu-ray you can buy it all in one go and it's top quality at an affordable price."
HD format war over in 18 months?
http://www.tech.co.uk/home-entertai...at-war-over-in-18-months?articleid=1772504357
Blu-ray chairman predicts exciting things for format war
The high definition format war between HD DVD and Blu-ray could be all over in 18 months time. That's what the Chairman of the Blu-ray Disc Association hinted at today in an interview with Tech.co.uk.
Frank Simonis, also the senior director of communications at Philips, said that while he refuses to predict victory for Blu-ray, the consumers will decide and exciting things will happen in the next year and a half.
"Due to the fact that we have some hard competition which sometimes makes strange moves, it's very unpredictable. But I think in the next 18 months it will be very exciting to see what's going on.
"Especially with more products coming to market, the price erosion that will for sure happen because competition between the different players will automatically fuel that part of the business. And of course the broader support that we get from the software industry will excite the consumer very heavily."
Tech.co.uk met Simonis at the Blu-ray stand at the IFA consumer electronics show in Berlin. The event has this year been dominated by HD TV products with many new optical disc players being launched too.
A plethora of new products, Simonis says, will create competition between manufacturers of the different players, driving prices down. That coupled with competition from a rival disc format means that we could soon be looking at far cheaper Blu-ray players than are available today.
"We don't like to oversell ourselves, but we right now see that there is a major transition taking place from publishers who said they would initially go only for HD DVD and now make the move across the Blu-ray. [This is] based on the sales numbers of software happening in the Far East, US and also now in Europe.
"In the US you see that 70 per cent of the titles sold are Blu-ray and this is no different everywhere else. Publishers are moving to Blu-ray and now is definitely the time to join.
"The consumer should make the choice, but for me it's Blu-ray all the way."
