With all the traffic coming here, I can barely get the Wordpress Dashboard to work enough to post anything new. I’m going to try live video, more so later tonight than right now. If you’d like to help me test, just go to Ustream or play the video embedded below. I’ll only be on for the next hour, but it should be interesting. Come back later and we’ll really try to have some fun.
Let me know what’s going on via the chat box:
It was hard to miss the news over the weekend that Warner Brothers chose to focus its efforts on Blu-Ray. Warner will release all of its new movies in Sony’s Blu-Ray format, though it still has some HD DVD titles in the pipeline (after which no additional titles will be released in HD DVD). Some have claimed that Warner’s move to Blu-Ray was designed to put an end to the format wars, which has confused consumers and as a result suppressed sales of both hardware and titles. Certainly, one can appreciate that Warner’s choice has not made the battle any easier for Toshiba and Microsoft but without a doubt this is far from the end for HD DVD.
While Blu-Ray and HD DVD have both been the most visible participants in the format wars there has been one format that has been far less visible. HD digital downloads have maintained a pretty low profile but seems to be the likely end to this whole debate. Microsoft has been the most successful in the HD digital download game thus far and with more and more Media Centers occupying living rooms and the fast-growing Xbox Live Video Marketpalce, it is only a matter of time before Blu-Ray and HD DVD are both obsolete.
Additionally, for anyone that watched Bill Gates CES Keynote, Mediaroom and Xbox Live will soon offer more on demand content then any cable company. Ultimately, the convience of being able to purchase this content from home will be just one of the reasons that neither HD DVD or Blu-Ray will be able to compete with digital HD downloads.
Stefan writes for IHaveAZune.com, and we’re proud welcome him as a new writer here at InsideMicrosoft.
Microsoft has a website offering a free Windows Vista Ultimate edition product key to some people who buy Vista Ultimate and activate it between the beginning of December and January 15. The website was available, possibly even within the last hour, to anyone who wanted to try entering their product ID (not product key) into the website. The site was supposed to be only for MSDN and TechNet testers, but word of it got out everywhere.
I managed to get in, so I recommend at least giving it a shot. You have nothing to lose, but you might get a free $250 key for another machine. You can also enter a survey for a chance to win a $250 Amazon.com gift certificate. Head to windowsvistaevalcomp.com to see if you can get in the door.
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