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Seagate CEO says Blu-ray or HD DVD victory not important

Despite the apparent coup for Blu-ray in convincing Warner Bros. to join their side shortly before this year's CES conference, Seagate Technology CEO Bill Watkins is confident it won't have any impact on the on-going format war for HD dominance. That's not because he believes HD DVD will take the crown, but rather because he's convinced that the real winner will be electronic distribution rather than physical discs.

"People are saying Blu-ray won the war but who cares? The war is over physical distribution versus electrical distribution, and Blu-ray and HD lost that," he said during a breakfast meeting at the Consumer Electronics Show here this week. "In this, flash memory and hard drives are on the same side. The war is over and the physical guys lost."



In addition to talk of devices for storing video from different sources, which of course is a job for either flash memory or hard drives, he also mentioned that electronic distribution also creates the need for backups of all the data to be broadcast.

So what if the studios simply decide not to embrace the new distribution model? According to Watkins it will be their loss. He says that if no official Channel exists to get video to homes people will take whatever they can find on the internet. "They will watch lousy content if it is easy to do," he said.

Source: CNet

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Written by: Rich Fiscus @ 13 Jan 2008 0:55

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• 20 comments

• Sazaziel

  OMG!!!! Finally somebody who gets my point. This is exactly what I've been trying to explain to people all along. It doesn't really matter whether it's Hi Def or not people are gonna watch movies any way they can. Original dvd still takes the crown cause no matter what catalog is within a vast majority to download or back-up. Bill Watkins....thank you for explaining this well balanced fact.

  13.1.2008 01:45 #1

• Gradical

  Quote:whether it's Hi Def or not people are gonna watch movies any way they can.totally agree with you, that would explain how telescreeners are so hot on torrent sites
  
  or in the black market
  
  I mean down the earth, in the blackmarket here in mexico you see tons of telescreeners, some of which has been terribly cut, missing scenes, and still..... people buy them
  
  it makes no sense to me tech nerdy, but for them it doesnt have sense i dislike them so much, if they're so cheap
  
  if they think people give a crap for their top quality, WAKE UP!, people care for their own convinience before yours, thats the world you live in, and like everything on nature ADAPT or DIE!

  13.1.2008 02:39 #2

• jove

  well most people still surf the internet without dsl or broadband and most use dial up. so good luck trying to get digital distribution in the near future to the massess. now i do agree on what he said. its the same with youtube and the ipod. people dont care to carry cds around and play them on the cd player. they can get scratched and skip if u move it a certain way and so on.
  
  so hell yes eventually the internet will rule. however i think its nowhere near close yet. its like saying we will eventually get to mars. we know it will happen, the technology is there but the funding is not. most people dont have dsl or anything. so it wont happen yet. so by the time blu ray takes over dvd then im sure the next challenger will be digital distribution. but try talking broadband in developing countries and you pretty much see the challenge ahead... its an interesting future nontheless... for the tech savvy at least
  
  my 2 cents. peace

  13.1.2008 05:29 #3

• ZippyDSM

  Meh physical distribution will be he main form of distribution for the next 10 to 15 years easily maybe even 20, so they should not dismiss it so easily but at the same time its not going to bear as much fruit as DVD has.
  
  say after the Hdef format war is over(in 1-4 years) it will only have a 8-13 year life span until it gets replaced by either non disc physical distribution or digital.
  
  For digital to be viable on a large scale you need more of the world market ready to buy into it and that wont be for a decade or 2.

  13.1.2008 05:56 #4

• snowlock

  I don't quite agree that hd discs lose out to solid state, even though (the mpaa says) downloading is already killing dvd sales. That's just the thing; I think a combo of flash and hard drives would stand a far better chance of winning the real format war (vs dvd) quicker than a couple of blue laser discs.
  
  The industry could have it both ways but they're too stubborn to compromise, just like the music industry. Kiosks placed in stores people already go to for buying their movies/music could be used to electronically distribute content onto flashdrives/mediaplayers.

  13.1.2008 07:46 #5

• B33rdrnkr

  Who cares what seagate thinks... Their hard drives suck!

  13.1.2008 09:25 #6

• vinny13

  Originally posted by B33rdrnkr: Who cares what seagate thinks... Their hard drives suck!What? They all have 5 year warranties! And with the Master Card I get 10! That alone does not suck.

  13.1.2008 12:16 #7

• Gradical

  Ok, so if having slow connections is such a downer for people to download things from the internet then how did this happend
  
  Quote:The very popular torrent site Mininova has posted that they have hit a new milestone, 1 million uploaded torrents, just weeks after announcing they had surpassed the 3 billion torrent download mark.I, mean, i know not 3 billion are movies, but theres something in there, also is free, but in the end there is some hell of movement going on with downloads and still the internet is not the only way for digital distribution, you could have kiosks but instead of burning disks uploading to a usb or ipod or zune or creative player whatever you want, and still get around to make some type of DRM they are just to lazy and dont want to make what's necessary

  13.1.2008 12:48 #8

• banned2X

  Seagate says that we're all gonna be using digital format for everything???????????? Is he F'ing nuts.......or just stupid?? Yeah, right, like we're all gonna be downloading 25GB movies in digital format. Maybe my grandkids when they have 100,000,000 Mbps to the door via holographic medium.
  
  ****Note. This website is great but the Finnish jackoffs that run it are a bunch of spineless pussies who whine at everything that's "not nice". Pull up your skirts, pull out your tampons and find your balls. Funny thing is that they claim their Fins but the fucking servers are in Houston, Texas. You don't like the way Americans bring reality and truth about some of the stupid-assed comments that some of your dumbass patrons say then GET YOUR SERVERS THE FUCK OUT OF THIS COUNTRY AND STAY IN FINLAND!!!!!!!!!!!! Talk about hiding behind something. Go figure............they nixed all the illicit programs availability on the site due to Finland laws, yet they don't have to abide by them having their sole nexus in the U.S.

  13.1.2008 14:48 #9

• vinny13

  Originally posted by banned2X: Seagate says that we're all gonna be using digital format for everything???????????? Is he F'ing nuts.......or just stupid?? Yeah, right, like we're all gonna be downloading 25GB movies in digital format. Maybe my grandkids when they have 100,000,000 Mbps to the door via holographic medium.
  
  ****Note. This website is great but the Finnish jackoffs that run it are a bunch of spineless pussies who whine at everything that's "not nice". Pull up your skirts, pull out your tampons and find your balls. Funny thing is that they claim their Fins but the fucking servers are in Houston, Texas. You don't like the way Americans bring reality and truth about some of the stupid-assed comments that some of your dumbass patrons say then GET YOUR SERVERS THE FUCK OUT OF THIS COUNTRY AND STAY IN FINLAND!!!!!!!!!!!! Talk about hiding behind something. Go figure............they nixed all the illicit programs availability on the site due to Finland laws, yet they don't have to abide by them having their sole nexus in the U.S.Woe there little man... What's this all about?

  13.1.2008 15:20 #10

• simpsim1

  Originally posted by snowlock: I don't quite agree that hd discs lose out to solid state, even though (the mpaa says) downloading is already killing dvd sales. That's just the thing; I think a combo of flash and hard drives would stand a far better chance of winning the real format war (vs dvd) quicker than a couple of blue laser discs.
  
  The industry could have it both ways but they're too stubborn to compromise, just like the music industry. Kiosks placed in stores people already go to for buying their movies/music could be used to electronically distribute content onto flashdrives/mediaplayers.Thge industry is not stubborn at all. The industry just wants to fleece as much money as it can from the public. That's why the big corporations are hedging their bets on formats that are in their opinions, the least likely to suffer from the major piracy that has gone on with DVD. Of course, in the event that sales of HD media reach the same dizzy heights that SD media has, then it is just as likely that HD will also become a victim, whatever obsticles that they put in the way.
  
  EDIT: LOL at poster 2 posts above, because he/she is probably going to be banned shortly!
  

  My opinions come with no warranty whatsoever, but are totally open-source, so you can reverse engineer or decompile them as you see fit. All other rights reserved.

  13.1.2008 15:22 #11

• banned2X

  Quote:Originally posted by banned2X: Seagate says that we're all gonna be using digital format for everything???????????? Is he F'ing nuts.......or just stupid?? Yeah, right, like we're all gonna be downloading 25GB movies in digital format. Maybe my grandkids when they have 100,000,000 Mbps to the door via holographic medium.
  
  ****Note. This website is great but the Finnish jackoffs that run it are a bunch of spineless pussies who whine at everything that's "not nice". Pull up your skirts, pull out your tampons and find your balls. Funny thing is that they claim their Fins but the fucking servers are in Houston, Texas. You don't like the way Americans bring reality and truth about some of the stupid-assed comments that some of your dumbass patrons say then GET YOUR SERVERS THE FUCK OUT OF THIS COUNTRY AND STAY IN FINLAND!!!!!!!!!!!! Talk about hiding behind something. Go figure............they nixed all the illicit programs availability on the site due to Finland laws, yet they don't have to abide by them having their sole nexus in the U.S.Woe there little man... What's this all about?Because they have banned me twice for no reason AND for little stupid and insignificant reasons like ridiculing those who say stupid things. I don't swear or relentlessly rip into them, I just make a statement. I have. in fact been banned for reasons I still don't know so I hate those that run this site.

  13.1.2008 15:46 #12

• vinny13

  |
  |
  V

  13.1.2008 15:48 #13

• vinny13

  Quote:Quote:Originally posted by banned2X: Seagate says that we're all gonna be using digital format for everything???????????? Is he F'ing nuts.......or just stupid?? Yeah, right, like we're all gonna be downloading 25GB movies in digital format. Maybe my grandkids when they have 100,000,000 Mbps to the door via holographic medium.
  
  ****Note. This website is great but the Finnish jackoffs that run it are a bunch of spineless pussies who whine at everything that's "not nice". Pull up your skirts, pull out your tampons and find your balls. Funny thing is that they claim their Fins but the fucking servers are in Houston, Texas. You don't like the way Americans bring reality and truth about some of the stupid-assed comments that some of your dumbass patrons say then GET YOUR SERVERS THE FUCK OUT OF THIS COUNTRY AND STAY IN FINLAND!!!!!!!!!!!! Talk about hiding behind something. Go figure............they nixed all the illicit programs availability on the site due to Finland laws, yet they don't have to abide by them having their sole nexus in the U.S.Woe there little man... What's this all about?Because they have banned me twice for no reason AND for little stupid and insignificant reasons like ridiculing those who say stupid things. I don't swear or relentlessly rip into them, I just make a statement. I have. in fact been banned for reasons I still don't know so I hate those that run this site.Well now they're gonna make it 3 times :P

  13.1.2008 15:48 #14

• banned2X

  Quote:Originally posted by snowlock: I don't quite agree that hd discs lose out to solid state, even though (the mpaa says) downloading is already killing dvd sales. That's just the thing; I think a combo of flash and hard drives would stand a far better chance of winning the real format war (vs dvd) quicker than a couple of blue laser discs.
  
  The industry could have it both ways but they're too stubborn to compromise, just like the music industry. Kiosks placed in stores people already go to for buying their movies/music could be used to electronically distribute content onto flashdrives/mediaplayers.Thge industry is not stubborn at all. The industry just wants to fleece as much money as it can from the public. That's why the big corporations are hedging their bets on formats that are in their opinions, the least likely to suffer from the major piracy that has gone on with DVD. Of course, in the event that sales of HD media reach the same dizzy heights that SD media has, then it is just as likely that HD will also become a victim, whatever obsticles that they put in the way.
  
  EDIT: LOL at poster 2 posts above, because he/she is probably going to be banned shortly!Agreed.........I'm expecting it. Just wanted to get it off my mind and out into the open. Feeling much better now.

  13.1.2008 15:52 #15

• atomicxl

  This guy thinks like me. The movie industry needs to learn from the music industry, not follow it blindly and repeat the same mistakes or pray that ultra DRM will equalize the field... which it won't cuz the high school and college kids can do their CompSci homework in 20 minutes and spend the rest of their time cracking it promptly. They should embrace physical & digital distribution. I'm not endorsing or condoning anything, but you can go online and download a 720p version of Bourne Ultimatum thats 5.1 and looks noticeably better than an upscaled DVD and is around 5 gigs. Sure thats not good enough for the home theater version of the car guy who says that if you aren't driving a Ferrari, you might as well as be riding a bike, but that guy isn't the bulk of the people out there. This is not some rare fluke, you can find this type of stuff left and right for Blu-Ray and HD-DVD exclusives alike. Blu-Ray/HD-DVD are both struggling against old school DVD, even for people who own HDTVs. There are options for people to download better than DVD video
  
  Don't turn a blind eye to this and finally embrace downloads come 2011 when its already destroyed the industry. Currently there is no real legal way of getting this content. Thats the last thing you want because then illegal becomes the norm. CPUs and GPUs will only get faster, internet speeds will only increase, and consumers will become more and more tech friendly. Even the most computer illiterate people can operate limewire or something like it (they don't know how to change their screen resolution in XP... which is just a frickin right-click, but they know how to bootleg music like a pro). You don't want these people getting comfy with bootlegging movies.
  
  Someone mentioned that you'd need 25 gig downloads. You don't. Being a person who backs up there DVDs to MP4/H.264. I can tell you that you don't need anywhere near 9gigs to store any movie when you're using non-archaic compression codecs. DVD (and even some blu-ray) are encoding in crap thats circa-1996. Even then, alot of it is just dead space or bitrate to fill up a disc and not bitrate because quality suffers if its lower. I have stuff that looks identical to a DVD and its like 2.5 gigs. And thats 2-2.5 not because it needs to be that big for quality, but because i'm happy if I can fit 2 movies on one 4.7gb disc and even at maximum bitrate for that profile, it'll fit.

  13.1.2008 18:25 #16

• chaos_zzz

  it's only important for the movie industry but for pc industry not really cuz ppl with use HD for storage rather than new formats

  13.1.2008 19:14 #17

• jove

  look dude. not gonna happen anytime soon. not for this generation anyways.

  14.1.2008 12:31 #18

• Sazaziel

  I'd rather deal with the hard drive storage and the right to burn to physical disc any day or to just connect my pc to my tv and watch movies as I usually do. Don't really care bout the high def stuff....as I wear glasses anyways. As for the comment made for downloading a 25gb movie, ummm...wow but no. I got avi and divx formats etc. at near dvd quality encoded from my original dvds at damn near 700mb or the space of a regular cd-r. With 2 300gb hard drives for storage and thats just one movie and I can put 4 to 5 on a standard dvd disc. why the hell would anyone want to download a 25 gig movie unless its a favorite tv series or a collection. But hey thats just me. It's bad enough some people are going on back and forth about this format war like Hi Def is better than real life.

  14.1.2008 14:59 #19

• borhan9

  Ok......

  26.1.2008 17:37 #20