Hell, I'm all for digital downloads-- but it's nice, for your very favorite movies, to have a physical copy... But damn, BluRays and HD-DVDs are so damn expensive.

Blu-Ray and Michael Bay are to 'superior' as Michael Bay is to 'good screenwriting & character development'

Boy, Blu-Ray users are certainly missing out not being able to see Bay's excellent, excellent movies.

I may not be serious here. Just a heads-up.

Microsoft have already said that the HD media war is a pointless waste of time, and will be the last format before digital downloads take over.

Microsoft are right.

i think micheal bay is in need of some directing lessons cuz he makes trash but thats just me. Digital download will fail unless its free, ide rather pay and get something tangable (sp) cuz i like the artwork and having a actual disk.

@Limey:

QFT

Paying 25-30 USD for a good film is ridiculous, especially when you can get gems like the princess bride on DVD for $8 or less

That's my boy!! I knew when his comments were retracted earlier he was really steaming about someone other than himself picking which medium his films should be on.

Its so ridiculous seeing these "Exclusive" releases for a particular medium fighting each other in Advertisements. If these huge Hollywood production houses weren't pressured by MS and Sony, everyone could enjoy the movies they wanted to see.

Making sense doesn't always make money I guess.

i hate michael bay. the post has nothing to do with any reason to hate michael bay, but just seeing his name makes me hate him regardless now. i think the recent south park spoof of him nicely sums up my anathema towards him.

Looks like Michael Bay "went Blu" (tm)

Isn't this the second time Michael Bay has gone crazy over the HD DVD / Blu-ray war?

WOW i thought that episode of south park was just trying to poke fun at him but goddamn he is a retard. P.S. Transformers sucked ass. I would rather watch the original cartoons then that CG piece of shit!

I will keep your dirty little secret if I can have the $500 I so masterfully failed at winning. Or succeeded at not-winning.

Yeah, succeeded at not-winning, cause that makes me feel better. I've done it once, I can do it again! I succeeded!

Gotta love tinfoil hats. The real issue in the "fight" is that bluray discs, while they hold more data, are fundamentally newer tech, so its more expensive to produce the discs. The drives are also more expensive to manufacture. Finally, bluray drives are not as fast as HD-DVD drives in accessing data.

All these issues will be solved eventually, but are issues today. Especially when you are talking about putting the drives in computers, which is where the real winner will be declared.

BTW, just so no one disregards me as a "fanboy", I'm an avid movie collector who hasn't picked a format yet. Upsampled DVDs look fine on my DLP, and I have no interest in paying $40 for a movie I already own.

I'm sick of the digital delivery conspiracy theory. Digital distribution as a main source is still a long ways off, especially with high definition video.

Can't we just go with the age old conspiracy, where one company is trying to prevent their main competition from having a significant advantage? Or is that just too cliche?

Bay is a competent director (at best), but I think he's pretty much on target with his assertion.

@lotkrotan: ..But but!! I want high tech graphics to tell me what a "Fast Boat" is when I am watching Miami Vice... -_-

What exactly makes either Blu-Ray/HD-DVD good? It's just more memory than a DVD. Can't you just buy flash drvies, or hard-drives for comparitively cheaper, thus enabling digital downloads, of the same quality as HD disks? Does that not make Microsoft right? [These aren't rhetorical]. [No fanboyism intended].

Oh oh, I hear the crying of HDDVD owners

And then reality kicks in. Most Blu-rays are 25GB. Basically all HD-DVDs are 30GB. Most Blu-rays are MPEG2. Basically all HD-DVDs are VC-1. 300 on HD-DVD is superior. HP4 on HD-DVD will be superior for similar reasons. There are a total of three factors which give Blu-ray the potential of being superior on paper, and two of them (bandwidth and maximum disc capacity) evidently don't grant anything tangible, while the last (studio support) can be argued either way. Ie, where's Heroes and Battlestar Galactica?

There'll be some real sour grapes when LOTR comes out on 51GB HD-DVDs.

Edit: HP5.

I like Blu-Ray better than HD-DVD, but the whole conspiracy thing is crazy.

@hahnchen: English, please, English. And you could possibly read the articles too.

"Fanboy Bay fired back"-Okay, I've been willing to overlook most of the stuff, but that I obviously intentionally misleading.

Either way, I don't care. I've got blu-ray, so that's what I'll use, but I honestly don't care about this stupid battle anyways.

Honestly, I can think of 3 rapid console fanboys from the internet off the top of my head who I fully believe-based solely on observation/participation of their epic flamewars on forums, who would be better directors than Michael Bay given the chance.

So this isn't relevant to the products/movies I'll be buying in the future, though it is a hilarious anecdote ;)

Also, are we sure he didn't mean to say Apple, not MS? Because last I checked, that was the major tech company kicking ass and taking names in terms of online video sales. MS already has HD downloads (as do others) and the business, as I'm sure Bay is inferring, is not that great. I do fully expect Apple to swoop in the moment they feel HD downloads are economically/technologically sound business propositions, and kick their asses again. Thats not even me being a Mac fanboy, I'm just citing the track record of both companies in this particular space historically. MS is welcome to start proving me wrong any day now...their main platform onto my TV (Xbox360) being arguably useless for video as long as the RROD is a major risk (hopefully soon to be fully ameliorated), I'd love for that situation to change.

I think Mr. Bay needs a tin foil hat that is commensurate with his status - maybe a "platinum foil" hat.

Companies don't sink millions upon millions into a format for the sole intention of making it fail. There are easier, more cost effective, ways of 'sabotaging' competition. Microsoft isn't alone in HD DVD, but they sure become the whipping boy for it. If Microsoft is purposely spending millions to make the HD DVD format fail, I guess Toshiba is as well?

Tin foil hat, indeed.

Microsoft isn't the only company riding the digital distribution train. Last I checked, Sony is quite on board the same train, though admittedly only in the 'coach' class. And, continuing with the pathetic train analogy, Apple is the digital distribution train's engineer. Cable and Satellite television providers also have a vested interest in digital distribution models.

To say that one big company is trying to purposely sabotage another big company when they'd BOTH gain heavily from a digital distribution model is just silly.

this whole HD-DVD/BluRay thing is really idiotic. I'm switching to laser disc.

while i do download music(legally) and have purchased games through Steam, i do really prefer physical copies of things, especially movies.

sure i can just back them up, but if they don't have to take up hard drive space, i don't want them to.

and i love my HD DVD player a lot, but i don't look down on Blu Ray.

Both are great formats, but HD DVD just has way more movies that i like.

Why did you omit the very first sentence in Micheal Bay's response to the poster? He didn't fire back he said:

"I agree with you" and then did that spill. Micheal Bay has constantly been on the side of Blu-Ray except for that one week where "someone had a sit down with him".

@Bonkerjerks: Well, they -were- considered newer tech. However, the Blu-Ray Association announced about 3 months ago that they had successfully created the 50GB BR disc using the organic metal nitride coatings which is the exact same type of investment as the original DVD and the "just good enough" HD-DVD.

So, the argument of more expensive tech is pretty much ended. BRA has lowered the production costs of the BR discs to almost completely matching the development costs of the original DVD and considered that the BR disc has been in development since....ohhhh....like 2003 I would say that they've just hit their stride.

Just in case anyone was wondering what it meant to produce a BR disc with organic metal nitride: It means that the discs can be produced without having to have companies invest in exhuberent amounts of technology and manufacturing time. In other words....its cheaper.

@Asterra: heh, yeah I can't wait for the angry wailing if LOTR only comes out on one format, it will still be funny even if that format was not one I had.

Forgot to add to my 1st post, I do own a 360 HD-DVD player and not yet a Blu-Ray, so for the handful of HD movies I want (such as BSG) that has been my choice so far...in terms of downloads is what I was talking about for the most part.

I thought he was happy with HD-DVD now, maybe they just offered him more to do Transformers 2.

To people complaining about Blu-ray prices, you just need to look for deals. I never pay more than $5 more for a new release Blu-ray movie than a new release on DVD, and Fry's has been having lots of Buy One Get One sales.

And it's sad that HD-DVD is just dragging this on. Shouldn't have been a war in the first place, just Blu-ray.

I just wish they would not only fight on exclusive movies, but in a price war too (in terms of movies, not players). I only bought the 360 HD-DVD because it came with a deal too goo to be true (the Heroes + 2 deal at Best Buy), and plan on getting a PS3.... in about a year..... mainly for Blu-Ray. There's movies I want for both, and I will support both, just as I do video game systems.

In world where movie formats are at the bring war, one man, one director stands between all out chaos. That man.. Is Micheal Bay!

"Cue action montage"

"Don't you see! It's one giant cover up! They want you fight each other so that the real enemy can take over!"

"Cue random exploding bus!"

"It's Microsoft! It always has been! We're doomed!"

"cue bigger exploding headquarters"

Micheal Bay is.. The Conspiracy!

Coming to a delusional has-been director near you soon.

I want Heroes: Season 1 on Blu-ray damn it !!!

@Krondonian: amazing picture qualtiy and amazing sound quality.

pretty much the best part and only reason i bought an HD player.

I like that bill gates is yet to buy a private island, but instead is using his money to play a giant game of monopoly with the format wars. At least he's enjoying himself.

Not a fan of Bay's movies... but, I'm happy that he is expressing the same suspicions I've had for a while now.

This doesn't change the fact that I am a 360 fanboy, btw. All corporations do evil, shitty things.

I think he's full of it. He does have one thing right though. Digital Distribution IS coming. It's going to be the next big revolution in media, not HD-DVD, not Blu-Ray. And if those two formats continue their stalemate for the next few years, we might just see it.

But Microsoft handing out checks to keep the war going? Yeah, Right. If you want to draw that card, point at Sony two. If one of them is doing it, the other is too.

have bay and pachter by any chance been hanging out? are they distant relatives of nostradamus, we want answers people

Edit: *If Microsoft is purposely spending millions to make both 'next generation formats' fail...* my first paragraph should read.

Oh please, this whole thing is dumb, standard DVDs are the shit, always has been always will be.

Michael Bay is right - and as a European I'm scared of digital downloads! It's so much easier to lock us out from them (i.e. US Live video marketplace) than from physical media.

@Mycool: too bad Universal's HD DVD only.

but to be fair, i want Across the Universe on HD DVD. or Blu Ray, but i don't have a BD player.

and while i'm at it, Battlestar Galactica Season 1 on HD DVD, but i don't have teh moniez.

Noez! THe ALIenz is Cumin! Gonnaz get pr0bed!!!11!

Whatta wank.

I hate DRMs

He's right. 100 million is a small price to pay when you're thinking of it as a long term investment of dominating the market through a specific format of delivery.

It's why Sony's pushing Blu-Ray as well. They want market superiority as well for the royalties of their format. They were just cheapskates to charge for the PS3 so much, so it hasn't worked as well as it would have if they too humbled up and decided to blow hundreds of millions like Microsoft is.

I'm with Sony on this one, Blu-Ray is the best disc out there today, and I'd like it to become the standard, simply because it's the best, like, with the most storage, and when I use discs for backups and shit, I would like to use the one with the most storage.

Really though, I don't care who "wins", they're giant soulless companies, and I don't need or want their product at the moment, so I'm not even a consumer. Down the line is down the line though.

@Krondonian: More memory, and faster reading than standard DvD's are a factor, but the key thing is cost.

5 Blu-Rays or HD-Dvd's for $150.
1 UsB hard drive that could hold the same space: $300.

When memory becomes cheap enough, yeah, Digital download will be superior.

@Asterra: Eew. You like Heroes and Battlestar Galactica? Heroes was derivative, and battlestar was generic sci-fi crap.

@Bonkerjerks: 3 obvious problems off the top of my head with your argument.
1. You're a (supposed) movie fan who has failed to go HD.
2. DLP is utter shit, and it's unlikely that any true movie fan would use it, as it's bulky, and provides a significantly lower quality picture at the same resolution.
3.Blu-Rays cost as much as HD-DvD's and hard drive storage is still not a viable option.