Microsoft promoting HD-DVD to ensure the failure of both formats.

[SPM]

http://www.electronista.com/articles/07/12/04/bay.on.microsoft.hd/

A film producer, who seems to be impartial and independent, claims that Microsoft is trying to prevent resolution of a universal standard for HD movies by propping up the HD-DVD format which will lose out otherwise. The Toshiba Paramount exclusive deal might therefore have been paid for by Microsoft, and may be a violation of anti-trust law and interference with business. He claims that his own have been forced unwillingly to go to HD-DVD format.

Director: Microsoft fueling HD wars
Microsoft is deliberately feeding into the HD disc format wars to ensure that its own downloads succeed where physical copies fail, says movie director Michael Bay in a response to a question posed through his official forums. The producer contends that Microsoft is writing "$100 million dollar checks" to movie studios to ensure HD DVD exclusives that hurt the overall market regardless of the format's actual merit or its popularity, preventing any one format from gaining a clear upper hand. Bay's own Transformers is available on disc only in the less popular HD DVD format despite his stated preference for Blu-ray. To the director, this is primarily a stalling tactic while Microsoft refines its own online-only technology.

 

[Zaphod]

Yawn. An old sentiment that may or may not be true. Not much to debate there, as the theory doesn't get any more credible or interesting by being propagated by Michael Bay.

 

[SPM]

Yawn. An old sentiment that may or may not be true. Not much to debate there, as the theory doesn't get any more credible or interesting by being propagated by Michael Bay.

Read the article carefully. The guy complaining is not a film studio or anyone else involved in the format wars. He is a film producer who is complaining that his movies are not being permitted to be also sold in the more popular BD format because of money being paid to prevent the studios selling in both formats, and in particular the most popular format BD.

He is complaining because he, and presumably the studios are losing sales as a result. The studios are being compensated by beibg bribed to do so, but he is not, and of course the consumer also loses out as a result of such practices. The practices appear to be anti-competitiive practices contrary to the law in most countries.

 

[N00b]

Read the article carefully. The guy complaining is not a film studio or anyone else involved in the format wars. He is a film producer who is complaining that his movies are not being permitted to be also sold in the more popular BD format because of money being paid to prevent the studios selling in both formats, and in particular the most popular format BD.

He is complaining because he, and presumably the studios are losing sales as a result. The studios are being compensated by beibg bribed to do so, but he is not, and of course the consumer also loses out as a result of such practices. The practices appear to be anti-competitiive practices contrary to the law in most countries.

That surely means Sony Pictures should make all exclusive BR movies available as HD-DVD, too?!

BTW, since all these exclusive titles are available as normal DVD it is reasonable to assume that many if not most potential buyers will get the normal DVD if the title is not available in their respective HD format. So the loss of sales surley is not that big.

 

[SPM]

That surely means Sony Pictures should make all exclusive BR movies available as HD-DVD, too?!

BTW, since all these exclusive titles are available as normal DVD it is reasonable to assume that many if not most potential buyers will get the normal DVD if the title is not available in their respective HD format. So the loss of sales surley is not that big.

If you are paying someone not to use someone else's product, then that is illegal for obvious reasons. On the other hand if the studios are simply not using a particular format because it is not selling well, then that is a commercial decision and that is OK. Competition law is not there to protect uncompetitive products, it is there to prevent distortion of free and fair competition by artificial means.

I am not sure what is happening with regard to BD exclusives, but I believe that the EU is looking into to see if there is anything untoward with the exclusives. Provided no money has been paid to the studios to exclude HD-DVD, BD exclusivity is perfectly legal. The 2:1 sales ratio in favour of BD, and features of BD that prevent copying of BD movies onto the hard drive (which the studios prefer for anti-piracy reasons given the failure of various DRM schemes) would be what the BD exclusive studios cite as commercial reasons for their decision.

Payment for excluding movies from being sold in dual format when it the excluded format is commercially viable, is certainly not in the interests of the consumer.

 

[Zaphod]

He is a film producer [...] He is complaining because he, and presumably the studios are losing sales as a result.

No and no.

Bay is a movie director, a previous outspoken (to his own fans) Bly-ray fan, and his argument is entirely 'artistic'.

He has made several posts that show he just doesn't know what the hell he's talking about (tech wise). Talk about how he knows the "lighting conditions [he] shot it" and how he "know the range" and "what the final product should look like" leading up to the conclusion that "Blu Ray suits my films better" is ignorance at best, misdirection at worst. But assuming it wasn't; his preference for Blu-ray as a director would -- in theory -- be justified by the higher theoretical bandwidth and capacity. That still doesn't mean his films would have ended up looking better on Blu-ray, though.

Spoiler

Hell, had it not been for the HD DVD competition they'd probably be 25GB of glorious cost-effective MPEG2.

As for his conspiracy theories:

Of course, Sony never had any 'connected livingroom' plans and Toshiba is an unwitting pawn in the MS powergame?

Well... >90% of the Blu-ray players out there are about to become movie download systems. The same can't be said for HD DVD.

In the light of Stringers recent comments, are Sony still serious about Blu-ray? Were they ever? Or are they just looking for the best exit strategy since they were always more interested in movie downloads and just needed to block the adoption of the next dic-based format (causing a 'stalemate') until the PS3 download service could be deployed?

Unfounded spin is easy. Even for non-directors! Fun, no?

Spoiler

This thread is worthless.

 

[N00b]

If you are paying someone not to use someone else's product, then that is illegal for obvious reasons. On the other hand if the studios are simply not using a particular format because it is not selling well, then that is a commercial decision and that is OK. Competition law is not there to protect uncompetitive products, it is there to prevent distortion of free and fair competition by artificial means.

Bullshit. There is no law that states that a publisher has to support any format the market offers. Even if his decision is sorely based on payment by a third party, it's completely legal. How else on earth would plattform exclusive titles from independent publishers for a game console be possible???

 

[Geo]

Y'know, Michael Bay has become such a joke on this issue, flapping both directions like a pair of old longjohns tacked to a flag pole depending on who talked to him last, that I just see no good coming from this thread. Bay has no credibility, and no sicrit sources.