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"HD better start giving out those $120 million dollars checks to stay alive. Maybe they can give me some so I can give it to my Make-A-Wish charity, just to shut me up."  (Source: michaelbay.com)
Michael Bay gets back on his soap box

One of the most vocal persons in the Blu-ray vs. HD DVD format wars has been none other than “Transformers” executive producer Michael Bay. Bay is known for his high-flying, over-the-top blockbusters with monstrous explosions, over-dramatic slow-motion sequences and chest-thumping, American flag waving patriotism.

Bay first dipped his toes into the whole debate when Paramount and DreamWorks decided to side with Toshiba and go solely with HD DVD. The move caused Bay to blow a few gaskets.

"I want people to see my movies in the best formats possible. For them to deny people who have Blu-ray sucks! They were progressive by having two formats. No Transformers 2 for me," said Bay in late August.

The very next day -- no doubt after taking his blood pressure medicine -- Bay offered a more calm reaction to the move. "Last night at dinner I was having dinner with three blu-ray owners, they were pissed about no Transformers Blu-ray and I drank the kool aid hook line and sinker," remarked Bay. "As a director, I'm all about people seeing films in the best quality possible, and I saw and heard firsthand people upset about a corporate decision. So today I saw 300 on HD, it rocks! So I think I might be back on to do Transformers 2!"

Two months later, Bay was once again singing the praises of Blu-ray and expressed his support for the standard. “It's short-sighted and it has delayed consumers' moving to HD (home video). As a director, my critical eye is that Blu-ray is where my money is. Consumers are smart, and they are going to wait it out.”

In early December, Michael Bay turned his sights towards Microsoft and blamed the software giant for attempting to sabotage both HD DVD and Blu-ray.

“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,” exclaimed Bay. “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.”

With the latest turn of events sparked by Warner Bros., we all knew that it wouldn't be long before Bay would step in and offer his own insight on the decision. Lock clockwork, Bay was ready to deliver: 

Well another studio down. Maybe I was right? Blu ray is just better. HD will die a slow death. It's what I predicted a year ago. Now with Warner's down for the count with Blu Ray. That makes it easier for Wal-Mart to push Blu Ray. And whatever Wal-Mart pushes - wins. Hd better start giving out those $120 million dollars checks to stay alive. Maybe they can give me some so I can give it to my Make-A-Wish charity, just to shut me up. Have faith people Transformers will come out in Blu-ray one day!

Why Bay is so concerned about who wins when regular DVDs account for the bulk of the sales anyway remains a mystery to me -- "Transformers" sold 190,000 units on HD DVD during the first week while the standard DVD version raked in sales of 8.3 million during the same period.

Bay should just leave the bickering to Sony, Toshiba and the movie studios and get back to producing kickass movies.

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Near Identical
By inighthawki on 1/5/2008 11:21:09 PM , Rating: 4
The fact of the matter is that most people don't realize that both formats are near identical. Both are able to sport 1080p video resolution in mpeg2, and the audio is the same, only depending mainly on what compression the studio wishes to use. Those who say "blu-ray has enough space to have uncompressed audio"...well loss-less compressed audio is the exact same after uncompressed...the SAME, bit for bit. Overall, HD-DVD can easily catch up to blu-ray by adding a second layer, managing 30GB compared to the single layer blu-ray which is 25, both MORE than enough for any HD movie. Not to mention, HD-DVD is region-free, which is a plus for some people, as well as much cheaper overall, with $100-$200 players.

All in all, i'm not trying to start a flame war here, but just saying my 2 cents that i think HD-DVD is better...DONT TAKE THIS THE WRONG WAY, cause i know someone will get mad because of my post...




RE: Near Identical
By Master Kenobi (blog) on 1/5/2008 11:49:59 PM , Rating: 3
Your right in the tecnical aspect, short of the wavelength of the laser the two formats are exactly the same. The added capacity of blu-ray is merely the shorter wavelength laser being able to read/write smaller and thus cram more on to the disk. After that its all the same. Given that the video is pretty much VC-1 on nearly all movies on both formats, and that the audio is mostly the same between them as well (varies from movie to movie) the real winners here are Microsoft and the VC-1 codec, and Dolby's codecs for audio. What makes this format battle different from VHS/Betamax is that this time, the technical differences are nearly non-existent, enabling hybrid players to be produced very easily. Beta/VHS in the same player would have required 2 trays and 2 sets of mechanics. This is not so since both use CD sized disks this time around and the only real difference is the laser wavelength.


RE: Near Identical
By reader1 on 1/6/2008 4:33:05 AM , Rating: 3
Hybrids are't the solution. HD-DVD is dead.

Consumers want one format.
Studios want one format.
Player manufacturers want one format.

There's no benefit to having two formats. This is an all or nothing situation. There isn't enough incentive to have only part of the market. Now that Blu-ray has the upper hand all they have to do is apply pressure and wait for the other side to cave in. They'll stop producing hybrid players to force higher Blu-ray sales, that will force Universal and Paramount to drop HD-DVD due to lower sales. The only way hybrids had a chance is if it was a 50/50 split with no sign of changing. Right now it's 70/30, Blu-ray. If Universal and Paramount keep dragging out the war all it will do is continue to irritate and confuse people. Only one of them has to switch now to officially end it. This will likely happen soon.


RE: Near Identical
By DOSGuy on 1/6/2008 4:48:35 AM , Rating: 4
Well, this consumer doesn't want one format. I really don't see what the problem with having two formats is. I have a DVD burner that can read and write DVD+R, DVD-R and DVD-RAM, so it doesn't bother me one bit that no one ever won the format war. Once I have a dual format HD-DVD/Blu-Ray player, I won't care about the format war any more and I'll just buy the movies I want in whatever format they happen to be in. By the time hi-def movies make up a significant portion of movie sales, hybrid players will be affordable and no one will care that there are two formats.


RE: Near Identical
By reader1 on 1/6/2008 5:46:34 AM , Rating: 4
quote:
Well, this consumer doesn't want one format.

Why not? What are you gaining by having two?

quote:
I really don't see what the problem with having two formats is.


There isn't a problem as long as all players support both, but they don't and never will. The format companies don't want two formats, so they won't make hybrid players if they don't have to.

This isn't like DVD+-R. The sales of DVD players didn't depend on blank disc sales, so no company could force a winner. But with HD, studios can force a single format because HD players depend on HD movies to sell.


RE: Near Identical
By nosfe on 1/6/2008 7:31:46 AM , Rating: 4
what are we gaining by having 2 formats? a price war, thats what


RE: Near Identical
By reader1 on 1/6/2008 9:17:25 AM , Rating: 5
There's no monopoly on Blu-ray players or movies. Studios and manufacturers will still lower their prices to compete with each other even if there's only one format, just like they did with DVD and VHS.


RE: Near Identical
By nosfe on 1/6/2008 9:53:41 AM , Rating: 4
true, but with 2 formats there is another layer of competition , between those 2 formats, not just between the manufacturers of one format and thats why we already had 100$ players last year


RE: Near Identical
By reader1 on 1/6/08, Rating: 0
RE: Near Identical
By nosfe on 1/6/2008 2:36:56 PM , Rating: 4
quote:
Those price drops were intended to eliminate Blu-ray, not to compete against it.

and then in response blue-ray lowers the prices to eliminate hd-dvd, and what we have is a price war


RE: Near Identical
By reader1 on 1/6/08, Rating: -1
RE: Near Identical
By mindless1 on 1/7/2008 6:54:46 AM , Rating: 2
Err, no. It is a price war and people are not choosing by content, they bought a gaming console with Blu-ray in it. BIG difference. Just imagine if that console had HD DVD instead!


RE: Near Identical
By MrTeal on 1/6/2008 3:27:27 PM , Rating: 2
No, having two formats confuses the market, and slows adoption of high def formats. Of those that do decide to take a chance, their numbers are split between the two camps. If the format war is decided, the increase in the number of units sold allows for greater economies of scale.

DVD players didn't really start getting cheap until ASICs started being produced that performed most of the processing onchip and that significantly simplified the board layout of the players and reduced component count. Once volume starts going up you'll start seeing the same with HD/BR players. Having two formats will delay that, not speed it up.


RE: Near Identical
By ShadowZERO on 1/7/2008 10:00:08 PM , Rating: 2
Yep. Having two formats will cause adoption to slow and therefore make it more expensive for the end user in the long run. Then, whether or not a "price war" is going on is a moot point.


RE: Near Identical
By kalak on 1/8/2008 8:22:09 AM , Rating: 2
quote:
No, having two formats confuses the market, and slows adoption of high def formats.


I do not agree... I don´t care if the format is A, B or Z, IF my player can play ALL of then. THAT´S the idea ! Today I can buy DVD movies, and whatever is the media, my player WILL play this. The "Highlander" idea is pure BST !


RE: Near Identical
By sxr7171 on 1/8/2008 6:08:20 AM , Rating: 2
Not really. A product like a movie is said to be in monopolistic competition. If you want movie title "X" then if I gave you a movie title "Y' you wouldn't be happy. Basically this additional layer of competition you speak of comes into play only if title "X" is offered on both formats simultaneously. If the studio is offering an HD version of a movie, they have no reason to price that movie any differently for one format over another. They will price it at whatever they think an HD version of that movie is worth no matter what the format. In other words an HD-DVD version of movie "X" is not in competition with the Blu-Ray version of movie "X." The extra layer of competition only comes into play on the hardware side. We will be much better off with the death of one format and eventually all studios backing that format.


RE: Near Identical
By DOSGuy on 1/6/2008 5:25:14 PM , Rating: 2
quote:
There isn't a problem as long as all players support both, but they don't and never will. The format companies don't want two formats, so they won't make hybrid players if they don't have to.


Hybrid players already exist. The LG GGC-H20L Blu-Ray/HD DVD reader and DVD/CD writer is $299 at my local computer store. I don't have an HDTV yet, but another price drop and I'll probably start watching hi def movies on my PC. LG makes hybrid set top boxes, too, but they're still more expensive than two standalone players. That won't always be true. By the time hi def movies have significant market share, hybrid players will be affordable and no one will care that their are two formats.

quote:
Why not? What are you gaining by having two?


Other than the possibility of a price war, I'm not gaining or losing anything. As I said, I'm buying a hybrid player, so I really don't care that there are two formats.