Microsoft moves to own DVD format, HD-DVD movies launched

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Posted by	Jan Willem
Posted on	02/05/03 19:18
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Microsoft moves to own DVD format, HD-DVD movies launched

In a move to conquerer the home entertaiment market, Microsoft has started to market their propertary HD-DVD format. The movies Shadowns of Motown and Terminator 2: Judgement Day, will be sold with 2 discs, one that can be played on a normal DVD-Forum approved DVD player, and one disc that can only be played on a home computer with Microsoft Windows Media player software installed.

The HD-DVD disc should contain the movie in much higher resolution, but according to the article can not yet be compared to high resolution television (like blu-ray)

Artisan Home Entertainment is going to be releasing the first wave of Microsoft's bid to control Hollywood. It has two films lined up for special treatment, the first is "Shadows of Motown" and the second is a new release of "Terminator 2: Judgement Day." Both films come with an extra DVD that is playable on a PC using Media Player 9.
The big selling point is that the Media Player 9 disks are higher resolution. And, wait for the slight of hand, the format is called HD-DVD even though Microsoft is stressing that the resolution is far below "high definition" in the sense of HDTV.

This means that there is a possibility of another player in the home entertaiment market, that already suffers from a lack of one format. Currently DVD-Audio and the Super Audio CD are fighting for the audio only format, DVD minus and DVD plus for the recording market, and DVD and HD-DVD and blu ray for the movie market. Read the entire article on TheInquirer.net

Source: TheInquirer.net

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Posted by DeadMan on Friday 02 May 2003 23:25

Hi-Def MPEG4 variant. That is all. Not Hi-Def MPEG2 which is what Blu-ray uses I believe. So it's bound to be not as good.

Posted by Jim Kiler on Saturday 03 May 2003 04:20

actually according to USAtoday and dvdplanet.com this HD version is 1080p which is higher quality than braodcast HD.

Posted by Sherrif on Saturday 03 May 2003 08:35

as people become a little bit more choosy and techno savvy one would think the way to go would be to make the decision of choice simpler.....I guess I'm not thinking outside the square..............:x
[edited by Sherrif on 03.05.2003 08:36]

Posted by war4peace on Sunday 04 May 2003 12:55

This is stupid. Actually, the DVD war is in progress, and Microsoft is (as always) punching in. They'll never make their proprietary format popular. Sorry to say that. Nobody could FORCE me to use only one software to watch a movie. Not to mention MS Media Player's LACK of functions (although v9.0 is pretty much OK).
Screw those who limit the user's choice.

Posted by deezus (guest) on Thursday 05 July 2007 21:16

Deadman:

mpeg 4 in most respects is a far superior codec.

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