Addendum to Movie Industry DVD Chipmaker suits

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Dave Farber  +1 412 726 9889



...... Forwarded Message .......
From: Tim Onosko <tim@xxxxxxxxxx>
To: dave@xxxxxxxxxx
Date: Wed, 25 Aug 2004 14:46:21 -0500
Subj: Addendum to Movie Industry DVD Chipmaker suits

Dear Dave Farber.

I just thought I'd add this because of the coincidental timing, coming only 
a day after the MPAA lawsuits.

http://www.iodata.com/usa/news/releases.php?newsID=30&tot=25&ts=4&tsc=21

Hardware maker I-O Data, which sells primarily to Japan and Asia, just 
announced a new DVD player based on a chip set by Sigma Designs, one of the 
two chip companies the MPAA brought lawsuits against, yesterday.  There's 
some irony, here, since this new player essentially allows Microsoft to 
create its own High-Definition (up to 1080P) DVDs that can be played back 
on this player and players compatible with it.

Of course, there is a standards battle about to get underway with one camp 
of Japanese manufacturers (led by Sony and Matsushita) supporting so-called 
Blu-Ray discs for digital High-Def programming, with another (Toshiba, JVC) 
proposing another type.  At the same time, Microsoft is trying to get its 
own codec, Windows Media Video 9, approved as one of the "official" video 
compression systems for the new DVD.  Microsoft has hired Warren 
Lieberfarb, the acknowledge "father" of the DVD (while at Warner) as their 
industry consultant, and are speed-dating the film business to get a 
foothold.  Meanwhile, players like this (licensed by Microsoft) will allow 
them to make their own High-Definition movie discs directly, bypassing the 
standards fights and conventional industry alliances.  In fact, Microsoft 
has already promoted several such movie discs in the last six months, no 
doubt with more on the way.

We live in a world of paradoxes and contradictions.