Gates Slams Blu-ray

[News]

By Frank Ling, GN Writer
Tuesday, October 18, 2005

Bill Gates has come out of the gate, firing shots against the Sony backed “Blu-ray” DVD technology. Several weeks ago, Intel and Microsoft joined hands in announcing their support for the next-generation HD-DVD format. Reasons given for the anti-Blu-ray sentiment stemmed, according to Microsoft, from Blu-ray being more expensive to produce and its inability to be backwards compatible with present day DVD formats.

However, Gates added more fuel to the fire in an interview with the Daily Princetonian. He said, “The key issue here is that the protection scheme under Blu-ray is very anti-consumer and there's not much visibility of that. The inconvenience is that the [movie] studios got too much protection at the expense of consumers and it won't work well on PCs. You won't be able to play movies and do software in a flexible way.”

Gates continued, “It's not the physical format that we have the issue with, it's that the protection scheme on Blu is very anti-consumer. If [they] would fix that one thing, you know, that'd be fine.”

The heavy protection scheme Gates is complaining about is related to how easily a computer may move information in and out of digital media. Evidently, because of the tight protection scheme of Blu-ray technology, it could cause consumers problems playing DVD movies, making backup copies or burning disks for personal use. DVD material will also cost more to produce on Blu-ray. Sony’s selection of Blu-ray is not hard to understand as Sony owns a motion picture company, “Sony Pictures”, and has a vested interest in strong encryption. Many movie studios are siding with Blu-ray technology because of the tougher copy protection.

[noobman]

Not surprising, since Microsoft is backing the HD-DVD format. The only major problem with Blu Ray as I see it is the high production cost. Conventional machines used to mass-produce DVD's can't make Blu Ray discs, since Blu-Ray discs are thinners. The production companies are going to have to replace their current tech to use it.

HD-DVD's are the same thickness as DVD's and can be produced with existing manufacturing machines.


On the plus side, Blu Ray's can hold a helluva lot more data than an HD-DVD. There was one company a while ago that managed to manufacture a blu-ray DVD that held a whopping 100gb of data (that's just less than double my harddrive). I guess the only complaint you can make about blu-ray at this point is it being ahead of it's time. Even for HD content, that much space isn't really neccessary. Will it catch on?? Putting it in the PS3 is a good start... but who knows. Some of you may remember VHS vs Betamax (another format supported by Sony). In that scenario, betamax provided better picture/sound quality, but never caught on.

[Yeldarb]

I'd like to thank the GN art department for using Bill Gates' high school yearbook photo for this story. Well done!

[riel]

I would never buy a xbox or xbox 360 or whatever they will ever make no matter how cheap they make it and sell it. Plus the "BLU-RAY" sounds sexxxy.

[Yeldarb]

We're running another story in this line tonight, watch for it.

Vvvvery interesting.

[Celeron Gamer]

Doesn't really matter, as the PS3's specialty was to PLAY GAMES. You could use your old PS2 to play DVDs.

[noobman]

Doesn't really matter, as the PS3's specialty was to PLAY GAMES. You could use your old PS2 to play DVDs.
Not everyone has an old PS2...

...besides, the Xbox360 comes with a DVD drive, NOT an HD-DVD drive. An HD-DVD drive will probably be included in later versions of the Xbox360. People who bought the non-HD-DVD version might have to upgrade, or do without it period. Either way, developers probably won't support HD-DVD if this is the case... so the inclusion of an HD-DVD drive might just be SPECIFIALLY for watching HD-DVD's using your X360.

[Celeron Gamer]

Not everyone has an old PS2...

...besides, the Xbox360 comes with a DVD drive, NOT an HD-DVD drive. An HD-DVD drive will probably be included in later versions of the Xbox360. People who bought the non-HD-DVD version might have to upgrade, or do without it period. Either way, developers probably won't support HD-DVD if this is the case... so the inclusion of an HD-DVD drive might just be SPECIFIALLY for watching HD-DVD's using your X360.


You don't get why people buy the consoles do you? Very few of the consumers intends to buy a console just to play DVDs. I remember you have a PS2, and I don't think you were thinking of playing DVD movies when you bought it. Also, no developer is going to find a use for 45GBs, period. It isn't worth it to get extra unused space. Games may uses HD-DVDs, but movies is highly unlikely for awhile, I'd say wait 2-3 years before it becomes a standard.

I highly doubt someone would decide on a console just because it could play HD-DVDs 2 years down the road.

EDIT: WTF!? Part of my writing was cropped off.

[Yeldarb]

This is the story I was talking about.

http://www.gamernode.com/news.php?item.368

[Sam Raven]

Not surprising, since Microsoft is backing the HD-DVD format. The only major problem with Blu Ray as I see it is the high production cost. Conventional machines used to mass-produce DVD's can't make Blu Ray discs, since Blu-Ray discs are thinners. The production companies are going to have to replace their current tech to use it.

HD-DVD's are the same thickness as DVD's and can be produced with existing manufacturing machines.


On the plus side, Blu Ray's can hold a helluva lot more data than an HD-DVD. There was one company a while ago that managed to manufacture a blu-ray DVD that held a whopping 100gb of data (that's just less than double my harddrive). I guess the only complaint you can make about blu-ray at this point is it being ahead of it's time. Even for HD content, that much space isn't really neccessary. Will it catch on?? Putting it in the PS3 is a good start... but who knows. Some of you may remember VHS vs Betamax (another format supported by Sony). In that scenario, betamax provided better picture/sound quality, but never caught on.Practicality of usage may have won the day in that case. It may do so here, and Bill Gates may be right on this issue.
Industries depend on 24 hour consistent production. Ever wondered why containers in ports are still in inches? When it comes to industry these things matter a lot. I don't know the details, but they do. If companies find changing over too much of a problem, as in requiring different players, different this and different that, Sony may lose yet again.
The fact that you can't use current DVDs to play will be another factor. How many people will be willing to just change over to this totally new class of media? There was a reason why DVD players were made so that they could play VCDs some time back, so that people can still buy and use them even if they don't have any DVDs in the first place. I would say given that much storage is not required, HD-DVD may come out the winner.