Microsoft Promotes New Storage Standard

[Jason Dunn]

<a href="http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,106049,tk,dn101802X,00.asp">http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,106049,tk,dn101802X,00.asp</a><br /><br />This sounds like a good standard, and considering that it's compatible with current hardware, it looks like it will be adopted without much pain.<br /><br />"Matsu****a Electric Industrial, better known as Panasonic, and Microsoft have jointly developed a new way to store, access, and retrieve digital multimedia stored on recordable optical discs, they announced in Tokyo on Friday. The technology, called HighMAT, for high performance media access technology, spells out a common way to store data such as digital music, photos, and video and also specifies the way in which devices can access this media and is intended to make accessing the data faster and easier for consumers.<br /><br />At the base of the system is a set directory structure under which images, audio, and video are stored. In addition, a metadata file is also stored on the disc providing information about the files and what they contain. Access to media is fast because HighMAT-compatible devices will be able to determine disc contents by accessing the single file rather than reading the disc's directory structure and having to fetch in turn information about each file stored on the disc."

[Arne Hess]

Hmmm :?: Sounds a little bit like DRM and inproved Memory Stick.
Not sure if I want to see another standard beside SD and CF which is enough today for my needs on Pocket PCs and CD-ROM, DVD, CD-ROM R/W, DVD R/W for desktop PCs...

But I'm not so deep involved into that storage devices discussions. Maybe there are good reasons which anyone here could explain me. :idea:

[Jonathan1]

Any time Microsoft gets into hardware standards my monopoly antenna goes up and asks why. Why is Microsoft pushing a new format? What are they planning? What do they have to gain against their competitors. Remember this is a company that doesn’t take a dump without asking if its going to give them an advantage against the rest of the computer industry. Hmmmmmm :?:

[vincentsiaw]

i hear rumour that windows succesor code name longhorn will use the same technology like this highmat but how true it is i still don't know yet lets see!

[sponge]

This doesn't sound like a new format, just an extension of the CD. Audio CD, Data CD, Video CD, and now HighMAT. It's not so much a new file format, as it is a standard that would allow people to make HighMAT/incorporate HighMAT standards into their products. I wouldn't be too worried about this, it seems it's just like an extension to the CD.

[Jason Dunn]

Any time Microsoft gets into hardware standards my monopoly antenna goes up and asks why. Why is Microsoft pushing a new format? What are they planning? What do they have to gain against their competitors. Remember this is a company that doesn’t take a dump without asking if its going to give them an advantage against the rest of the computer industry. Hmmmmmm :?:

Dude, your MS bitterness is getting out of control... 8O

[st63z]

So you're saying this is something like Mt. Rainier or what? Sorry, I'm too lazy to read any long articles today...

[Landis]

Sounds like an idea that's long overdue. CD-ROM disk mount times are WAY too slow with the current system.

[marconelly]

Why?! First Blue Ray (Sony and bunch of others), then another Toshiba's new 'standard', and now this...

[Willmonwah]

It sounds interesting to me...

and Jon1, it seems like old software incompatible with HiMat will be obsolete. With Windows Media so conveniently available, why not start using it for burning? It's something I have yet to try.

Does anyone know how much space? Will it be more than 700 mb? What is the current highest disk capacity?

[Will]

[LarDude]

I'd have to agree with Johnathan1 there...Microsoft getting involved with standards at the hardware level? No thanks...Why would Matsu****a even need MS for this? I can see it now...the first 2 times you access your multimedia content on these discs, it'll be OK; after that, all further accesses would require a phone call into MS to ask for permission and to explain why you're accessing your file(s) yet again.

[klinux]

Hmm, this HM suspiciously sounds like the way a database works. I recall MS also said that mentioned that MS SQL Server will serve as file system for the next version of Windows (Longhorn). Related? :?:

[Rob Alexander]

The article sounded to me the same as it did to sponge. I don't think this is a hardware standard, but just a new media format for existing CD-Rs. If it went ahead and you had devices that supported it, but you wanted to burn your MP3s or WMAs as a regular CD-R just as you're already doing, you could do so. What I don't really get is how much of a benefit this will be. Sure it takes several seconds for a CD to get started, but watch the read light when it does. Most of that time is the CD physically spinning up to speed. Nothing MS does with a new format will speed that up. And I don't ever recall waiting around while it searched for one of the media files on the CD once it was spinning at speed. It sounds so underwhelming that I figure I must just not see the whole picture yet. There must be something more to this than just a database file for quicker file access and a few sorting options.

[Mark from Canada]

It sounds like it is just a regular CD (backwards read compatible) with the files in special places and an added database to store extended information and the location for easy access.
I think the idea is for now that your new DVD player (multi-media-player?) knows where to find the movies, music and pictures on the CD.
This way you can search your extended notes to find the picture of you and your girlfriend in Paris on a CD with a gazillion pictures on it.

[klinux]

With the size of pictures produced by the current crop of megapixel cameras and high res scanners, a CD really does not hold that many pictures (200-600 full size using JPEG). A DVD, on the other hand...

[Felix Torres]

Actually, this *is* big news...

Just not in the way most folks think of it.
And it certainly isn't immediately relevant to PDAs.
Long term, however, this could be a monstrous win for MS...

Details:

HighMAT is a standard for organizing data on a standard CD.
It only concerns itself with 5 types of files.
MP3
MPEG4
JPG
WMA8
WMV9

It specifies a specific way to organize the data and in which directories which kinds of files are to reside in(much like VCDs and DVDs do).

It provides for a master Meta-data file to reside in a specific location, presumably the root.
The MetaData file will serve as the index for the disk.
The data in the MetaData file will depend on the type of files it describes but it is essentially the same data you would normally find in an MP3 or WMA metatags.

The HighMAT format will show up as an option in Windows Media Player 9 and in standalone CD/DVD burner software starting next year. The burner software will organize the files, extract the Metatags and create the HighMAT metafile automatically.

The value of this?
Well, you ever try to play an MP3 CD in a DVD player?
You get a DOS-type directory tree, right? No special features of searching by artist, album, genre, or any of the goodies that a decent PC media player gets you.
Well, with HighMAT, you get all those features in a regular Consumer Electronics device. And you get them working fast.

Okay, why is Panasonic doing this?
Because generic DVD players currently sell for $60 and they would like to charge more than that for their players. So they want to add value to their products so they can charge a premium for the players.
The way they're going to do it is by supporting playback of the above-listed data types through HighMAT.
Presumably the format will receive support by portable CD players and other player devices.

What does this buy the consumer?
Well, ease of use.
WMA lets you store as much 600-700 songs on a disk.
JPG disks can easily hold thousands of images.
WMV can hold up to 4 hours of DVD-quality video on a CD. That's a lot of clips of Buffy and Jodie blowing out birthday candles and doing their recitals.
If the data is tored on HighMAT disks, you'll be able to sort the files and create playlists on the fly.

All on standard, standalone, non-PC devices.

What does MS get out of this?
A high-volume, low-cost playback mechanism for WMA and WMV CDs.
Which need PCs to be created.
Anything that drives us of PCs is a good thing for MS, no?

Longer term, however, there is a bigger payoff for MS.
Because Windows Media 9 allows up to 4 hours of HDTV video on a single sided single layer DVD disk, WMV on HighMAT allows for a standard way to distribute HDTV video that can be played back on any HighMAT compatible device. Without need for newer, more expensibe blue-laser hardware.

Which means that *if* MS gets enough hardware vendords to support HighMAT they can then get the Movie Studios to adopt an encoded version of HighMAT as the format for HDTV movie distribution. Which is something MPEG4 cannot offer and Quicktime cannot offer nor can Real Media offer it.

Just Windows Media.
Which will in turn drive sales of devices that create and play back Windows Media; Media Center PCs, Mira displays, XBOXes, and yes, Pocket PCs.

So yes, this is big.

Its not a final win for MS, yet; they still need to get the studios to sign on.

But since MS is the only outfit out there with a comprehensive DRM solution that balances user rights with solid anti-piracy protections they have a fair shot at getting the studios to release their movies in encoded HighMAT for the next generation HDTV/DVD standard.

Whether they succeed or not remains to be seen but they sure are ahead of any potential competitors in this arena.

[Jason Dunn]

Thanks for explaining this Felix - makes MUCH more sense now. :D