Michael Bay Slams Microsoft Over HD DVD, Calls Blu-ray "Superior"

[admin]

What you don't understand is corporate politics. Microsoft wants both formats to fail so they can be heroes and make the world move to digital downloads. That is the dirty secret no one is talking about. That is why Microsoft is handing out $100 million dollar checks to studios just embrace the HD DVD and not the leading, and superior Blu Ray. They want confusion in the market until they perfect the digital downloads. Time will tell and you will see the truth.

http://kotaku.com/gaming/hd-era/michael-bay-slams-microsoft-over-hd+dvd-calls-blu+ray-superior-329967.php

Haha ... what a moron. Perhaps Microsoft are handing over "$100 million dollar checks" (which there is actually no prove of, and has been denied by Microsoft repeatedly) because they think HD DVD is better and actually want HD DVD to win? Why not rant at Fox for being Blu-ray exclusive? If anybody handed over any money, it's the HD DVD Promo Group, not Microsoft.

As for digital downloads, Microsoft already have that in place in the Xbox 360 (in the US anyway). But with today's bandwidth technologies, it's not going to be possible to transfer HD content over an already congested world wide network. Maybe in 10 years time, but not now.

And just one final point, if Microsoft hates both HD formats, why did it come up with the high bandwidth optimized VC-1 codec which the majority of HD DVD *and* Blu-ray movies use? Why is Microsoft providing technology which will hinder it's aim to dominate the digital download market?

And I won't even go into the "Blu-ray is superior" argument ...

[admin]

http://www.shootfortheedit.com/forum/showpost.php?p=6069&postcount=40

Does anyone out here want to challenge what I feel suits my films better in terms of look. I see every frame of my films over a hundred times before it is ever released. I know the lighting conditions I shot it and the result on the DI. I know the range. I know what the final product should look like - Blu Ray suits my films better. But that said - I don't a care about this format war because I have both formats in my screening room - I'm just filling you in on what people deep in the film industry feel ultimately is going on -

Transformers looks great even in DVD!!

So it's the actual Blu-ray media that makes films look better, not the encoder or bitrate of any of those silly things. So even when a film uses the same transfer for both formats (eg. Warner releases), the Blu-ray version will still look better according to Michael Bay.

Someone needs a primer on digital video encoding.

Slightly off topic, I once read that Microsoft was experimenting with VC-1 encodings and bitrates, and found that, if they were careful with the transfer (ie. frame by frame analysis and ultra-fine bitrate allocation, which is time consuming of course), then they could get 1080p encoding bitrates down to an avereage of 12 - 14 Mbps without a noticeable quality drop. Would be perfect for HDTV broadcasts at least.