大象传媒

bbc.co.uk Navigation

Darren Waters

Is HD-DVD in trouble?

  • Darren Waters
  • 5 Jan 08, 15:59 GMT

The unsurprising news that film studio Warner has ditched high definition format HD DVD to now sit exclusively with Blu-ray is already causing shockwaves.

The rumours had been circling for weeks and yesterday Warner confirmed it was changing its platform neutral stance to exclusive support for Blu-ray.

It's the latest blow for HD DVD in the battle for pre-eminence in the hi-def DVD war. With two incompatible formats, it was always going to be a bloody battle.

The North American HD DVD promotion group - effectively Toshiba and Microsoft - has now cancelled its scheduled press conference at CES.

In a statement it said: "We are currently discussing the potential impact of this announcement with the other HD DVD partner companies and evaluating next steps.

"We believe the consumer continues to benefit from HD DVD's commitment to quality and affordability 鈥 a bar that is critical for the mainstream success of any format."

Is this a critical blow for HD DVD? Not yet. But HD DVD is now looking more and more friendless.

Despite the format's cheaper cost and cheaper licensing terms, it has struggled against Blu-ray, which can boast most of the major film studios - and now, Warner - as well as the support of the PlayStation 3, something HD DVD has always downplayed.

Ultimately for customers, it could mean that hundreds of thousands of HD DVD owners could find themselves in possession of the Betamax player of the 21st century.

Darren Waters

Preparing for Gates

  • Darren Waters
  • 5 Jan 08, 15:13 GMT

First off, thanks for all the questions you sent in for our Bill Gates interview at CES in Las Vegas on Sunday.

We laid down the challenge - and you responded.

We had more than 3,000 questions and I had the task of picking out the best ones to put to the Microsoft boss in our interview.

We've made our choices - and it was difficult. With only 20 minutes in which to put these questions to Mr Gates, we had to make sure they were interesting, challenging, stimulating and accessible to a broad audience.

The planning of the interview has also been an intriguing eye-opener into the corporate world.

So how do we arrange a Bill Gates interview? Well, we put a proposal to Microsoft's UK PR team, explain our plans, and they, if happy, pass it on to the US team.

A drawn-out stage of negotiation then takes place over how much time we have, the format of the interview, and so on.

Microsoft never tell us what questions we can or can't ask - but they were keen to limit the amount of "personal questions", which is understandable.

The reality is that in a 20-minute interview using questions from 大象传媒 News readers/viewers, we were not going to have a glut of personal questions because we want a range of discussion points.

Once the interview has been granted - which takes a few weeks to firm up - we then move to the logistics stage.

How many cameras will be used? What tape format is the interview being shot in? Where are the cameras placed?

And today we come to the last part of the pre-interview planning. I'm meeting a senior Microsoft PR executive to finalise details and to get a clearer idea of what Bill Gates will speak about at his CES keynote, which takes place after our interview.

My colleague and blogging partner Rory Cellan-Jones will be putting your questions to Mr Gates tomorrow and the interview will be shown on 大象传媒 News 24, 大象传媒 World TV - and in full on the 大象传媒 News website - on Monday.

I look forward to the reaction.

Rory Cellan-Jones

Talking tech with tech

  • Rory Cellan-Jones
  • 5 Jan 08, 14:43 GMT

Why am I here? It is the kind of existential question you will find many a jet-lagged Las Vegas visitor asking at 5 a.m. but my inquiry relates to the Consumer Electronics show, rather than the blackjack table at my hotel鈥檚 casino. What can you show me?聙聺 - is the even trickier question being asked by my editors back in London.

Worryingly, some seem to think they鈥檒l be seeing the latest personal jet-pack or a robot-enabled home of the future. Instead, what we will find at CES is important, but incremental, changes to the way we live our digital lives. Thinner, smarter, better-looking televisions (oh, that we could say the same about your reporter). New ways of managing the flood of digital content now arriving in homes - from home servers to media extenders. New wireless technologies making it ever easier to take that content with you wherever you are 鈥 I鈥檓 filming some of that in a car in the next couple of hours.

This is my fifth visit to Las Vegas for a major trade show. I used to visit COMDEX but the IT show faded as the consumer electronics version flourished and it doesn鈥檛 get any easier to turn it into compelling pictures or audio. Seething masses of visitors climbing over packed stands look more like a bad day at the Oxford Street sales than a vision of the future.

But we have brought our own collection of gadgetry to help us tell the story. On my first trip to Comdex in 1999 I came with one producer who had just learnt to wield a handycam. We shot everything that moved, got back on a plane, and put a few pieces out in London later in the week - including one report on the huge threat Psion posed to Microsoft. Oh dear.

This time I鈥檓 accompanied by a very experienced producer and what we call a shoot-edit. As well as a camera, Steve Adrian has got laptop editing gear and the nous and nerve needed to edit and feed stories via an internet connection which may or may not be rock-steady.

I too have brought with me a somewhat random collection of gadgetry aimed at getting me on air and online. So I have just unpacked my laptop, two mobile phones - one to make calls, the other to do a little filming with its rather good video camera- a blackberry, a digital audio recorder, a digital picture frame, a second ultra mobile laptop and a device for measuring the energy output of electrical products. The last three items may sound like coals to Newcastle - exporting the latest gadgets to CES - but we are filming them over the weekend before the show opens.

So now all we have to prove is that we can use the gadgetry to make gadgets look and sound interesting on TV, radio and the web. Then we can get round to answering a few more existential questions.


Continue reading "Talking tech with tech"

The 大象传媒 is not responsible for the content of external internet sites

大象传媒.co.uk