Re: Looks like Universal may take longer to roll out BR...

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Oh wait, there is already MPEG-2, let's go back to that while we plot a new strategy.

Although MPEG-2 works, AVC is more bitrate and space efficient (comparable to VC-1) and is currently used on most Blu-ray disks along with VC-1.

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There is still a Game Console War going on, and I don't see Micro$oft doing $ony any favors

Yea problem with this statement is that MS has already confirmed that a Blu ray accessory drive is a possiblity in the future. And if blu ray is indeed the next disk format, MS really doesnt have a choice outside of not offering 360 users HD movie playback. Which will not happen. They gotta compete with the suddenly resurgent ps3 remember!

http://www.maxconsole.net/?mode=news&newsid=24659

So whats more likely to happen is: IF toshiba indeed bails out on hddvd, MS will continue supporting hddvd and later introduce a BR add in until eventually phasing out hddvd all together.

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IF toshiba indeed bails out on hddvd, MS will continue supporting hddvd and later introduce a BR add in until eventually phasing out hddvd all together.

I really don't see Micro$oft paying $ony a $30-$50 royalty per BR add-on.

The XBOX360 is designed to be a GAME CONSOLE, with an expensive add on to make it double as a movie player, if M$ wanted to market movie players they would have built in HD DVD drives from the start.

M$ NEVER said that they WOULD produce a BR player add-on for the XBOX360, they just never said that they would completely rule it out.

As the size and complexity of Video Games grows, M$ will need an Optical Disc with greater capacity than DVD for their game releases, and their most logical step will be HD DVD-ROM, because of much smaller licensing fees(if any) since they were a big Toshiba supporter, and contributed HDi and VC-1 encoding to the format.

If Toshiba bows out, they may grant M$ an open license to use the HD DVD technology for free.

M$ might even buy the HD DVD patents for their own use, and the 30Gb and 51Gb HD DVD-ROM discs will work out nicely for Data and XBOX360 games without requiring M$ to line $ony's pockets with anything but more lint.

There is no end in sight to the GAME CONSOLE WAR, and any smart P$3 owner better not be holding their breath for the P$3 version of HALO 2 to be released.

It was my understanding that the PRIMARY reason that Warner's TotalHD was abandoned (publicly) was the lack of retail support - the idea of stocking these discs (along with the other two types) was met with resistance from retailers/distributors.

Privately, (it's a rumour) the TotalHD concept may be in violation of the 'fine print' contractual clauses of whether this new dual-format disc was legally within Warner's right to actually produced and sell (would Sony and the BRDA allow it?, etc). Maybe others here know more about this, as I can't remember the details.

-JIMI (the Voodoo Child)