- Sony can not, not allow the licence as if it becomes the standard or main source of movie/media format for HD players and such will come to pc and so will the software under windows and others so they will have - insert lots of rights and legal stuff here I cant be bothered to get but knows exist in this regard -
Since when? The Bluray group own the patents on the technology they can deny it to whoever they please. What are you basing this statement or assumption on? Patents are defensible for many years unless someones changed the rules while Ive not been looking. Many of the standards in the world are under patent... All other people can do is license the technology and the owner has 100% right to allow or deny people using it. Bluray is a closed standard and therefore closed to any company/individual/country they choose.
- The player will primary be software ran as with the 360 one and be very similar to how the blu ray functions in the ps3
Sorry, this is the non existant player you mean? I may be wrong but Im under the impression that the PS3 has hardware assisted decoding of the data streams. The processor in the XBox is more than capable of doing it but if they cant license the method for decoding the stream (again up to Sony and co) then theyre not allowed to decode it. They would not only be in breach of copyright but theyd also be circumventing encryption which is not only totally illegal but would open the floodgates to people pirating and unlocking all of Microsofts software copy protection.
- You do not have to be on the developer list to produce a drive or media format and if it is the standard sign up can not be limited
Really? Are you sure? Can you tell this to the people in my office because its costing us thousands of pounds a year to get the specs. Bluray is a limited media format - again, you cant just wish this not to be the case and people forget the R&D and the patents they hold because some film companies have agreed to use it. Thats not how this industry works, never has been and never will be. Just to see the current standardrequires membership of this group. Without it you cannot see the format of a dluray disc to build a technology based on it. Other companies could build the chips and sell them to Microsoft but they themselves could have their development licenses pulled.
- Is it not the case that the ps3 is the best player due to the software function of blu ray playback allowing it to be updated? and since that is the main aspect of the hd-dvd for the 360 it basically would be the same thing
The PS3 is not the best player. There are many hardware decoders with far superior processing, deinterlacing, frame rate conversion, dejagging, cadence detection, decombing, noise reduction, etc etc. They achieve this by decoding software through hardware instead of a general processor. The PS3 cores are closer to a DSP therefore pretty good at doing most of these functions but not as good as a dedicated piece of silicon. Many of these players are updatable through discs, USB, network as well but theyre not cheap. The XBoxs processor is not the same as the cell and not as suited to decoding H264 streams etc so many of these functions would never go live. So even if/when the XBox gets a BR drive it wont be as good at handling the streams as the PS3 is.
- A certain chip company has a chip in the 360 and will produce graphics cards that have hardware decoders for blu ray for media devices and pc and so they have the chip made, they have a deal with MS and in the 360, whack chips in player and away you go....
lol @ certain chip company. Which company with a BR decoding core is selling Microsoft a dedicated decoding core? I can think of 4 main players in this market who arent. And theres not that many companies on this planet who have a reasonable quality general purpose BR decoding core yet. You cant just put a graphics card core in a dvd drive and have it work. Youd then have a $500 drive. What you need is the IP for the BR decoding core and then integrate it into a processor/DSP, create a dedicated, efficient, low overhead processor using that core. Now a company whos already using a known core with a known architecture and memory subsystem could probably churn a design out in about a month. Then theyd have to test it and do the silicon layout (2 months?) Then ramp up production of the new masks (1 month?) Then produce enough volume of the chips, package and ship them plus find the drives, enclosures, etc. (3 months?). Its not as simple as you seem to think. This is all based on the fact the chip manufacturer is allowed to use that core in this way.
May not be this year if hd-dvd tries to carry on but wont take 5 minutes to create if need be
As someone who orks alongside people who do this stuff day in day out. All I can say is this is not a 5 minute job. The legal side of patents is immense. The controlling group of BR are not playing nice, espeically with their main competitors. The lead time of hardware from idea to product is months even if theres no legal stuff, all the chips and drives exist and the death of HDDVD was sprung on everyone. Add in a patented tech like BR is and those months can go into a year easily. If itd been BR which died the HD-DVD was open and could have had drives built in months, but this way round its not as simple.
I still bet you anything there will be a blu ray player of hd movies (and nothing else since that the licence sony cant not give out if it is the media format chosen) this year or next year
So youre willing to bet that within 2 years someone puts a drive on the XBox? Well no I wont take that bet. But in 2 years time the XBox will be near obsolete anyway and well be on next gen so its a fairly safe bet. My point was youre talking like the XBox will have one in the next few months which is simply wishful thinking. It may happen but theres no evidence it will and a lot saying it wont. If Microsoft dont have a BR solution in the next 12 months then the whole things irrelevant as the set top players will be sib $100 anyway and Microsoft totally missed the boat. They have a ~6 month window to do it before its pointless. I dont think theyll make it so the XBox will be a games console and not a video player.
To avoid a huge quoting spam and reply thing youre so fond of Ill limit it to one question you can quote and reply to if you wish. All of the above points come down to this ?misunderstanding? on your part.
What makes you think that Sony have to let Microsoft build a player just because some companies are standardizing on it?
