Michael Bay Accuses HD DVD-Backing Microsoft of "Dirty Tricks"

[Cyrus_the_virus]

When Michael Bay speaks, the world listens. The 'Transformers' director is talking out again about the high-def format war, and is again generating lots of press. As countless web sites have reported over the last 24 hours, Bay's latest remarks came in response to question posed to him on his own official web site.Asked why his mega hit 'Transformers' was released on HD DVD only (and not on Blu-ray), the director pointed the blame squarely at Microsoft, saying that the software giant has bankrolled HD DVD in an effort to extend the high-def format war until the software giant can perfect digital downloads.

"Microsoft wants both formats to fail so they can be heroes and make the world move to digital downloads" said Bay. "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."

Bay's accusations echo earlier comments made by Fox Home Entertainment worldwide president Mike Dunn, who was quoted by The Hollywood Reporter at an October Blu-ray press event as blasting "the orchestrated campaigns of confusion and anti-consumerism fueled by an 800-pound gorilla that would prefer to force us all into the practice of paying tolls for the right to exchange information and enjoy entertainment."

At the time, Microsoft Consumer Media Technology Group director Kevin Collins defended the company’s stance, calling Dunn's accusations "baseless."

As we've previously reported, Bay caused a firestorm back in September when he briefly posted a message to his site saying that he was reconsidering doing a 'Transformers' sequel after learning that Paramount would not be issuing a Blu-ray edition of his mega-hit film. The director later recanted those remarks, but has since reiterated his pro-Blu-ray stance.

Source

[Charan]

WTF.....

[Gigacore]

Transformers... lol.. charan's bumble bee

[MetalheadGautham]

its still right that blu rox, and red sux.

in every way, the blue ray disc is better than the HD-DVD. its only maturation that will decide who will win.

Look, the DVD was spiced up and converted to EVD by China. If you use a codec like say VP7, H.264, WMV HD(only for lower bitrates), etc you can get much better video.

For audio, Dollby True HD is not good enough, as its not lossless, so ripping will be a problem. We need 7.1 channnel 96K PCM that has been compressed with a lossless codec by making it VBR.

And I still think EVD is a good solution, if only they move to MusePack or AoTuV b5 Vorbis for audio(at ~400KBPS, 7.1) and X264/VP7(recomended)/WMV HD(least recomended) for video.