So if HD DVD and Blu Ray are looking likely to be a minority play in the market, whats going to be some reasonable alternatives?
I see two possible viable options, one already on the market from Microsoft, and one from Apple that I think is on the way but I have no solid evidence. The Here and Now: Microsoft’s WM9 players OK, the less exciting stuff first. Stick with me, the contrast between this and Apple gets interesting. As much as Microsoft irritates me, they’ve got a valid solution on the market, even though it has not been widely adopted. Microsoft’s Windows Media 9 High Definition is so efficient at compressing HD down to DVD sized data, you can fit a full length movie onto an existing DVD’s worth of data. In fact, Windows Media 9 High Definition is the basis of VC-1, one of three compression schemes to be implemented in HD DVD and Blu Ray (MPEG-2 and H.264 are the others). But it won’t play on a standard definition DVD player since it’s in a different data format. But, there are an increasing number of WM9 HD compatible players on the market. If, by some miracle, Microsoft could get more movies and more
