Petteri Pyyny
27 Feb 2004 14:14
Microsoft cheered today when an industry body DVD Forum made a decision to support Microsoft's Windows Media 9 format in upcoming HD-DVD standard.
Based on the decision, all HD-DVD players will have to support three different types of video encoding -- MPEG-2 (the one that current DVD-Video discs and digital TV use), H.264 (latest standardized video encoding layer of MPEG-4) and VC-9 (the video technology behind the Windows Media 9 format).
Decision is obviously a huge boost to Microsoft's efforts to get into big boys' movie business. DVD Forum also approved a near-ready specs for rewritable HD-DVD discs -- it has previously already approved specs for read-only discs.
HD-DVD is based on blue-laser technology and competes directly against the other blue-laser optical technology, Blu-Ray. Blu-Ray is supported by virtually all the consumer electronics companies and there are already Blu-Ray discs and devices available in Japanese markets, so the fight over the next generation of optical storage format is only beginning..
Source: News.com