The NYT on HD DVD

[Chris Gohlke]

"Last night at Bill Gates's keynote speech, one of the most intriguing demos involved a high-definition DVD player prototype. So it was interesting indeed to see one of these machines in action at last. A Microsoft employee demonstrated the interactivity that's possible on an HD-DVD movie disc. He brought up a superimposed button bar (Pause, Settings, etc.) while the movie was still playing. And the director's commentary featured an actual video of the director's talking head, superimposed on the movie as it played. Doesn't Microsoft realize that people HATE all the superimposed junk these days--the pop-ups, the network logo in the corner, the animated distractions? That's one of the main reasons we WATCH movies on DVD--to escape all of that detritus. And now we're supposed to buy a new player and a new DVD collection so we can superimpose still more crud on our favorite movies? Hello!?"

Boy, this guy just does not get it on so many levels. I guess the product being called high-definition was not clear enough to him. Maybe he thought high-definition meant that you would get a bunch of definitions pop up on the screen during the movie. :roll: The point of HD DVD is to get the picture quality. Everything else is gravy and the stuff he mentioned as a distraction is OPTIONAL. Also, he seems to think that it is Microsoft's fault. Hello!? The use of the OPTIONAL feature and how they are used in the product are the decided by the company releasing the DVD.

[Felix Torres]

...plus, he completely misses the fact that the optional features are *desirable*.

Commentary tracks may be ocasionally trite or self-serving but they are often valuable to students or dedicated fans.
More, the rich interactivity opens the door to new uses for dvds; theoretically, an HD-DVD edition of Encarta or Britannica or training materials...

These latter uses are the very reason HP is moving away from pure BF-RPM support to a neutral position; we're probably in for a new wave of multimedia publications on HD-DVD...

[Kris Kumar]

Boy, this guy just does not get it on so many levels. :lol:

As always, the main stream media is out to confuse everyone.

I totally agree that the super-imposed definitions can be very useful. I can't wait for Seinfeld in HD DVD, so that I can catch the "notes about nothing" in the form of superimposed junk.

As for the NYT reporter, will some one from Microsoft please send him a HDTV with regular DVD player and an HD-DVD.