Vista - HD disk format wars are over

http://www.theinquirer.net/default.aspx?article=36574

Piracy wins by default.
By Charlie Demerjian: Tuesday 26 December 2006, 01:22

<quote>
THE NEXT GENERATION disk format has been settled once and for all. Thanks to the due diligence,
hard work and unprecedented cooperation between the media companies, the hardware vendors and
the OS vendor, we finally have a solution. It is quite easy, Piracy, the better choice(TM).
Yes, in a year where Sony rootkitted it's customers, lied to my face about their actions (hi
John, still have your number, kisses), and fell flat with anything related to Blu-Ray, things
couldn't get worse right? Well, the other camp, HD-DVD is only slightly less nasty, but still
unacceptable. Standing shoulder to shoulder, they both failed in the market.
</quote>

<quote>
What do we end up with? A year or more where the CE industry pushed, pulled, legislated and
litigated their way to obscurity. Along the way, they killed yet another promising consumer
technology, well 5 or 6 actually, and made Intel and AMD their bitches. We all were on the
verge of losing this format and DRM infection war until a dark horse champion emerged to snatch
victory from the jaws of evil. Piracy, the better choice(tm). µ
</quote>
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http://www.theinquirer.net/default.aspx?article=24638

By Charlie Demerjian: Friday 15 July 2005, 10:01

INTEL IS ABOUT TO CUT Linux out of the legitimate content market, and hand the keys to the
future of digital media to Microsoft at your expense. Don't like it? Tough, you are screwed.
The vehicle to do this is called East Fork, the upcoming and regrettable Intel digital media
'platform'. The funny part is that the scheme is already a failure, but it will hurt you as it
thrashes before it dies. Be afraid, be very afraid.

First, lets explore what East Fork (EF) is. It is basically a media server PC on steroids with
a lot of interesting software. The downside is that it is aiming for you, not aimed at you. The
first iteration, due out in Q1 2006, is based on a Smithfield dual core Pentium 4 with the
Lakeport and ICH7-DH chipsets, a fairly plain combo. You also need a S-ATA HD with NCQ, and
Intel HD Audio, but you can supplement that with anything else you need as long as it is on the
board. You also need MS Media Center Edition 2006 (MCE 2006).

This will be replaced shortly after launch with a version based on Yonah, more like late Q1
2006, but since the Smithfield one slipped so much, this one might be delayed as well. It
replaces the chipsets with Calistoga and ICH7-DHM, not a big change, and the rest remains the
same. How they are going to sell a 64 bit launch and a quarter later an 'upgrade' to a 32 bit
version is beyond me, but it isn't my idea. The replacement of the 130W Smithfield by the 31W
Yonah won't cause many loud complaints, and the exhaust temperature of your stereo cabinet
might go down a few orders of magnitude.

The concept is collectively called EF, and the one key to this all is something called the EF
platform driver. It does a bunch of neato things, it will use all the horsepower the CPUs can
throw at it, and a lot more. The first thing is that it will transcode content on the fly, and
is officially stated as 'Transcodes content that's not supported by Digital Media Adaptor into
a supported format'. Sounds cool, except the, and I mean the supported format right now is
..WMV. It also can do the same for bandwidth, basically it transrates on the fly. No abject evil
here, it is a good idea in every way.

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