You know, Oilblue makes a fair comment. HD DVD is more-than-likely a static format which will not see any further enhancements. Who cares if Sonic is not going to provide further support for the authoring tool? The one they have still works perfectly fine and will not stop working anytime soon.

It will be more than capable of pumping out HD DVD content for as long as the format is viable.

:o Yep, that thud was me hitting the floor...fell over from shock. :D:D:D

Seriously though, thanks for seeing my point (and stating it better than I did).

I agree with you guys to a certain extent. The software industry is not static and packages constantly get updated with new features such as quicker workflows, optimized/faster code etc. This is the kind of stuff that this HD DVD authoring tool is no longer going to benefit from. I'm a big Photoshop user and if you ask me to retouch a picture with version 7 I probably still could manage it but I know I can do it much faster and achieve a better end result with CS3...

So in the end, yes you can still author HD DVD with this tool but in a year or so the tool will probably look like it's from the ice age because it didn't kept up with the rest of the industry.

The one they have still works perfectly fine and will not stop working anytime soon.

As long as they don't upgrade the OS it is on or patch or update the drivers or ....

Again, I think people are dismissing the meaning behind the move. The fact that an HD-DVD can still be created is not the point. The point is that a company that has decided it no longer makes business sense to develop software for the format, and instead focus on BD. We have been seeing businesses give up on the future of HD-DVD and focus on BD. That's the bottom line, and the most damning for HD-DVD.

Every scrap and sound bite that exists out there pertaining to BD/HD seems to find it's way here. Every bit of info that gives BD a leg up is posted ad nauseum spanning pages of threads. Every post that gives HD some life even in the tiniest way gets quickly trampled to death ad nauseum by the blu camp. Red is good as dead blu guys so you can stop feeling threatened by them. Blu's win is as good as done.

Just an observation folks. :rolleyes:

I work in the tech field for some time, and I read plenty of anouncements made by my company, and others. A public company must make this kind of anouncements, and it allways more in them than you find on the first read. They are mainly done for the investors, and allways include only a minimum of information . Usually proffesional analysts put this in a bigger context, and get the full image. You will never get from the company itself the full details, but you can read between the lines. When a project was killed ( I have seen my share...), it was allways anounced that the "support will continue" ( to calm a bunch of nervous users out here), which means, in real terms that will be at least a tech customer support guy with some knowledge of the product), but no new features, bug fixing new version will be available. For software products, in most cases most developers which worked on the product are moved to another product or leave the company, in a few months term is hard to find anybody with a real knowledge of the product ( except the lonlely tech support guy). All in all the product is dead, even if there are cases when the sales continue for some time. In fact in most cases stopping the sale of a product comes after all development stopped for some time already, is just the last step.

In software , there is never a "finished" product. I would never buy a software which was last touch (at least had an update) more than a year ago. In fact in CE industry is the same.Would you buy a TV from a company which last released one 2 years ago? I wont.

Every scrap and sound bite that exists out there pertaining to BD/HD seems to find it's way here. Every bit of info that gives BD a leg up is posted ad nauseum spanning pages of threads. Every post that gives HD some life even in the tiniest way gets quickly trampled to death ad nauseum by the blu camp. Red is good as dead blu guys so you can stop feeling threatened by them. Blu's win is as good as done.

Just an observation folks. :rolleyes:
You are correct in saying that there is a feeding frenzy right now, but it should also be pointed out that prior to the WB decision, the opposite was true. Familiar people were going out of their way to post any negative press on BD that they could find, and selectively posting HD DVD news. It was hard to have a BD voice because as soon as somebody made a point, detractors would pounce.

It seems to be the "cold war propaganda" mentality that is pervasive on this particular subforum. One side ups the propaganda and then the other meets it and raises it. I know I have been personally disappointed in myself for falling into that rut on more than one occasion.

I think everybody in here has been guilty of it at some point or another.

A software tool which is not sold/supported anymore is practically dead. Of course you can still use the licences you have, but for a company is a very temporary solution. If this is the main tool used by Paramount and Universal and if they had any real long term plans for HD DVD I don't think Sonic would drop the product (a big chek would for sure persuade to keep the product alive...at least for a few more months). The fact that they made an official anouncement means that in their view at least HD DVD is already dead. In fact in my oppinion it's almost an indirect aknowledge from Paramount and Universal that there will be no new HD DVD releases planned ( other than the one already finished or under work).
I wholeheartedly agree with the statement above.

Every scrap and sound bite that exists out there pertaining to BD/HD seems to find it's way here. Every bit of info that gives BD a leg up is posted ad nauseum spanning pages of threads.
Actually, I find this place quite tame and level headed compared to other boards out there. Take a look at the "Smackdown" forum over at HDD - it's a massive train wreck in there all the time.

Cheers.

though I agree with you shabbs, I find this place has dropped off in quality and levelheadedness. seems alot of the blu people are poor winners.

back on topic.

I really don't think this is as big as people want it to be.. and to say this is a sign from the studios, blah blah blah.

of course they are going where the money is, but to say it dictates what a studio is doing is kinda.. well... not bright.

as someone else had mentioned, there are other companies that make hd dvd authoring software... and better ones at that.

think people need to stop getting worked up over every lil bit of information.

When you see a press release saying Paramount or Universal have picked program X for their development tool followed by a bunch of marketing speak you will know which way they are heading.

It seems to be the "cold war propaganda" mentality that is pervasive on this particular subforum. One side ups the propaganda and then the other meets it and raises it. I know I have been personally disappointed in myself for falling into that rut on more than one occasion.

I think everybody in here has been guilty of it at some point or another.

Agreed. Same here.

though I agree with you shabbs, I find this place has dropped off in quality and levelheadedness. seems alot of the blu people are poor winners.

You guys crack me up. LOL

My question is... who cares what that guy has to say? cause his team hasn't won, he's quiting?

I personally love the format war.. cheap HD and it creates all kinds of drama online.

Im not so sure about his 2:1 sales margin.... that might be a bit dated.

in the end I say I hope it keeps going, forcing both sides to give up more in the way of pricing and movies..

I work in the tech field for some time, and I read plenty of anouncements made by my company, and others. A public company must make this kind of anouncements, and it allways more in them than you find on the first read. They are mainly done for the investors, and allways include only a minimum of information . Usually proffesional analysts put this in a bigger context, and get the full image. You will never get from the company itself the full details, but you can read between the lines. When a project was killed ( I have seen my share...), it was allways anounced that the "support will continue" ( to calm a bunch of nervous users out here), which means, in real terms that will be at least a tech customer support guy with some knowledge of the product), but no new features, bug fixing new version will be available. For software products, in most cases most developers which worked on the product are moved to another product or leave the company, in a few months term is hard to find anybody with a real knowledge of the product ( except the lonlely tech support guy). All in all the product is dead, even if there are cases when the sales continue for some time. In fact in most cases stopping the sale of a product comes after all development stopped for some time already, is just the last step.

In software , there is never a "finished" product. I would never buy a software which was last touch (at least had an update) more than a year ago. In fact in CE industry is the same.Would you buy a TV from a company which last released one 2 years ago? I wont.

Another viewpoint is that companies tend to shy away from .0 releases. They prefer to have the bugs worked out before they jump in, so they tend to wait for the .1 release. That might well be year later, or more.

True, software isn't "finished". However, the spec is (at least on HD DVD). Exactly how much changed in DVD authoring the last few years? Consumer software has added new features, but generally those features have tried to bridge the gap between consumer created DVDs and what the studios release. Have we seen many innovative things on studio released DVD in terms of authoring techniques? Back a few years "The Matrix" from Warner was ground breaking for their use of DVD features (until then, branching had been widely ignored). Not many DVDs since then have raised the bar quite as much. Picture quality has improved of course, but that's not really the authoring tool. That's the encoder.

As for bug fixing, I think you've painted a worst case scenario. Support usually means bug fixing too. Otherwise what's the point of support?

That said, if Sonic's product was so buggy, how did the studio release so many titles? Either the software isn't that buggy, or the studios were using something else.

I maintain the major point of this announcement is Sonic's focus on BD authoring. Makes sense given other developments in the industry. Makes sense from the standpoint of Sonic needing developers on the BD side for the Profile 1.1 and 2.0 features. HD DVD doesn't need to incorporate that as it's already there. As for the withdrawal of the product, no date was given. They may well sell it for a long time yet. We just don't know from the press release.

That's not to say this is good news for HD DVD, it's just not as serious as some are painting. Other announcements are a bigger problem than this one.

though I agree with you shabbs, I find this place has dropped off in quality and levelheadedness. seems alot of the blu people are poor winners.

When Paramount switched to the Red camp it wasn't much different. No one here is a Saint.

I totally agree with you ... U.
:)

The blu folks were pissed when that happened.

And rightly so James... ;) The same way Red folks are fully entitled to be pissed at Warner (and then some).

But there is a key difference U. Paramounts move further fragmented the market, while Warners move takes a step towards one format.