Michael Bay, Blu-Ray vs. HD-DVD war

Digital Medium War Heats Up

By Joshua S. Hill

Thursday, August 23, 2007

You know the digital wars are going to heat up when names like Michael Bay step into the arena.

For the uninitiated, Michael Bay is the mastermind behind such action flicks as Pearl Harbor and Transformers, and has long been a fan favorite for movies packed filled with mind blowing special effects and lots of explosions, if not a coherent storyline.

So when Michael Bay stepped out into the Blu-Ray vs. HD-DVD war on his blog saying that he would not make a sequel to the box office hit Transformers, you can be well certain of the changing face of media.

In a quick summary, ever since the DVD revolutionized the industry, experts have been awaiting the "next generation" of storage medium. This arrived with the introduction of two formats, similar in quality but with diehard camps that will claim otherwise. Blu-Ray was launched by Sony in 2004, and backed by industry giants such as Apple Inc., Dell, and Panasonic.

HD-DVD on the other hand was engineered jointly by Toshiba and NEC, and released late 2003. The big backers behind HD-DVD are Microsoft and HP, with Microsoft's Xbox 360 providing a HD-DVD player in conjunction with its gaming platform, following in line with Sony's Playstation 3, which comes with built in Blu-Ray.

It is the old format war all over again, echoing the events of the late 80s with a similar exhibition brought to us by the makers of the VHS tape and the Beta-Max tape. This time though, in many eyes -- mine included -- it is all for naught; but I'll address that in a minute.

Returning to Mr. Bay and his comments, it all came in response to news that major movie studio Paramount -- the studio behind Transformers -- has dropped Blu-Ray and put all its money behind the HD-DVD brand.

The main issue arising is that, while technological backing from groups such as Microsoft or Apple are well and good for a format war, the big support has to come from the studios who are going to provide content for the discs. Blu-Ray has the support of Sony Pictures Entertainment and MGM, Disney, 20th Century Fox, and Lionsgate, as well as a non-exclusively supported by Warner Bros. and New Line Cinema. HD-DVD is backed by Universal, The Weinstein Company, First Look Studios, and as of Monday Paramount and DreamWorks Animation.

It's a battle of corporate supremacy, as anything is within the tech industry these days, and the customer is always right. However, Michael Bay believes that Paramount are way out of line, and said so on his own website.

"I want people to see my movies in the best formats possible. For them to deny people who have Blu-ray sucks! They were progressive by having two formats. No Transformers 2 for me!"

It's simple and straight to the point, and brings in to play the fact that the movers and shakers of the industry are not just those who are in the cushy jobs at the top of a skyscraper. Bay is going to sway people with his opinion, and it is going to make the war just that tiny bit more interesting.

But as I said, all of this is, in reality, for naught. The future does not rely in the physical mediums such as DVD, or even Blu-ray or HD-DVD. The world is moving forward, and a physical medium such as these is just not going to make it in the next decade. Downloadable content is the next wave, and whether that makes it from A to B on a thumb drive or via a network, it is the path everything is already headed.

Just look at the workings of TiVo and iTunes, they rely on media to be downloaded or held on computers, not on discs that can be scratched or lost. Google and Yahoo are providing greater email storage, so as to allow larger and larger files to be sent. Movie downloads are moving from the realm of illegality to a viable financial market for studios, following in the wake of the music industry, if unwillingly.

That the majority of this article is spent looking at the format war is only proof, I fear, of the wayward inability of the major studios and industry heavies to understand the actual needs of the people. Only a few -- loud though they may be -- actually care about another format war, most just happy to continue downloading their songs from the internet, unaware of the brewing angst of Sony and Microsoft.