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| NightDragon83 said: How so? HD DVD failed simply because more movie studios and media companies backed Sony and their Blu Ray format than Toshiba's HD DVD. Microsoft had nothing to do with the development of HD DVD, and they only supported the add-on for the 360 to try to take a bite out of Blu Ray's marketshare. Joke thread is a joke. |
While it was mainly Toshiba that started the HD-DVD / Blu-ray format war, MS had a big part in it too.
The Format War Origins.
Since Sony had no rival video codec software to push, and Microsoft had no real hardware interests to defend, why were they battling for the next generation of video discs rather than working together on a joint standard? Initially, Microsoft did work with Sony. However, the rest of the industry working with Sony on Blu-Ray rejected portions of Microsoft’s technology, sending the company into a furious rivalry against Blu-Ray.
A follow up article on the origins of the format war presented Microsoft’s efforts to push its Windows Media and WinCE as essential, proprietary aspects of both the new HD disc formats. While Microsoft successfully wrote Windows Media (aka VC-1) into the specification of both Toshiba’s AOD and Sony’s Blu-Ray, the Blu-Ray consortium members later selected Java-based technology from Sun as its interactive menu layer rather than Microsoft’s WinCE/HDi.
Microsoft wanted iHD to be the menu system used on all HD discs, the BDA said no thanks.
Although it sounds like a joke thread there are some parallels.
MS half backed HD-DVD by releasing an add-on, like they're now half backing OR with a convoluted streaming setup. Yet other than pushing xbox one controllers I don't see what MS has to gain from this. If anything they're opening the door wide open for Project Morpheus "Check out our VR solution, you don't need a PC and you're actually in the game instead of in a virtual room playing on a flat virtual screen"
