Posted by Air Raid on 01/17/49 11:51

great post, thanks ;) very informative.

the entire rollout of HDTV has been a disaster IMO,
compared to (i would imagine) when color NTSC televisions and broadcast
was started, long before I was born.

lets hope than when HDTV is replaced by Ultra High Definition, that
there is only ONE standard. One resolution, one format, and that plenty
of Ultra HD broadcast and Ultra HD media for Ultra HD players all hit
the market at once. no confusion. reasonable prices. no BS.

but that probably won't be for a few decades,
since Ultra High Definition Video is only in the experimental stage.

as for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation3 successors, during the 2010-2012
timeframe, I hope that, aside from 1080p and HDMI being standard, that
framerates and amount of Anti-Aliasing for the 3D graphics (a seperate
issue from HD video playback) is locked down to 60fps and 16x AA for
every single game.



123 wrote:
> http://editorials.teamxbox.com/xbox/1608/Editorial-The-Secret-HDMI-Pact/p1/
>
> DVD never had such limitations on it which is why its so popular.
>
> Here is what is on the above url.
>
> Editorial: The Secret HDMI Pact
> By: César A. Berardini - "Cesar"
> June 7th, 2006
> The first thing I did when I got my hands on the HD-DVD drive mock-up
> Microsoft had on display at E3 06, was to check its back side. When I
> found that there was only a power socket and three USB ports, I
> approached a Microsoft representative to ask where the HDMI port was,
> or if they plan to release an HDMI Xbox 360 AV cable when the external
> HD-DVD drive launches. His response was:
>
> "If Sony is not using HDMI to play Blu-ray Disc movies, neither are
> we."
>
> To which I immediately replied, "But the AACS spec demands the use of
> HDMI or DVI in order to playback HD content at its full resolution".
> Before I finished my words, he repeated,
>
>
> "If Sony is not..."
>
> I was a little surprised that a Microsoft representative would provide
> such an unsubstantial explanation for the lack of HDMI on the Xbox
> 360. Since when does Microsoft do things based on Sony's actions?
>
> The ITC Pact
>
> Now, guess who are the founding members of the AACS LA committee? IBM,
> Intel, Microsoft, Matsushita (Panasonic), Sony, Toshiba, The Walt
> Disney Company, and Warner Bros. Studios. As you can see, there you
> have the inventors of HD-DVD (Toshiba) and Blu-ray Disc (Sony), and
> the manufacturers of the two next-generation consoles that will play
> high-definition movies - the Microsoft Xbox 360 and the Sony
> PlayStation 3.
>
> As you can also see, of its eight founders, six of them are consumer
> electronics manufacturers, with the other two being the only movie
> studios on the committee. When you add to that the fact that one of
> those manufacturers (Sony) also owns several movie studios including
> Columbia, Tri-Star and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, you realize who has the
> ball in their court.
>
> These CE manufacturers, whose business is to sell high-definition
> movie players, and in the case of Sony and Toshiba, also impose their
> next-generation DVD formats, know that many consumers around the world
> purchased HD televisions that lack HDMI interfaces. This is a fact
> that simply can't be ignored, especially when they also manufacture
> HDTV displays! Telling consumers that their HDTV sets will not be able
> to play HD movies at full resolution because they lack a HDMI input,
> would be a total disaster.
>
> So, if the Image Constrain Token implementation is optional, why not
> keep passing the buck a few more years until high-definition
> televisions become affordable and include a HDMI connector as a
> standard input? That would allow existing owners of HDTVs that lack
> HDMI inputs to play HD-DVD and Blu-ray Disc movies using component
> video without having to watch a downgraded image.
>
> Avoiding the use of the Image Constraint Token is a win-win situation
> for the users, all the CE manufacturers, and even if a few movie
> studios aren't happy with the possibility of their movies being copied
> over analog connections, most of them have expressed their
> disagreement towards using the ICT.
>
>
> The HDMI Pact
>
> This pact between Hollywood and consumer electronic manufacturers
> might never be officially announced and all the parties involved will
> probably offer the classic "no comment" line. It's even possible that
> after establishing that secret pact at the AACS LA, Sony and Microsoft
> had their own HDMI-related agreements.
>
> Since the pact between Hollywood studios and CE manufacturers is
> rumored to postpone the use of the Image Constraint Token until 2010
> (possibly until 2012), neither the Xbox 360 nor the PlayStation 3 will
> need a HDMI connector since consoles' lifecycles are usually five
> years.
>
> By 2010, definitely by 2012, the successor to the Xbox 360 and
> PlayStation 3 will have already arrived and Microsoft and Sony will
> have included a HDMI connector in those next-next-generation systems,
> but in the meantime, there is no need to use HDMI in order to play
> high-definition movies at their maximum resolution. That's why Sony
> can offer a model without HDMI and clarify that it will still be able
> to playback Blu-ray Disc movies without any image degradation.
> Microsoft has followed suit.
>
> If you were expecting a first-party HDMI cable for the Xbox 360, well
> my friend, I'm sorry to inform you that it might never happen.
>
> Be happy for the fact that you won't need a new HDTV to watch HD-DVD
> on your Xbox 360 and Blu-ray Disc movies on your PlayStation 3. As for
> the fact that the Xbox 360 won't have an HDMI cable, well... welcome to
> the HD Era.

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