Purported Intel employee memo lists HD-DVD advantages

July 18, 2006

Over at
the AVS forums, a member there named nsavarirayan, has posted what is claimed to
be an internal employee communication memo, obtained from his "friend" that
indicates the logic behind Intel backing the HD-DVD format. The memo is
almost exactly one year old and the document is supposedly the thoughts and
musings of Steve Balogh, director, Content Protection Entities, and Keith Rowe,
initiatives manager, Digital Home Content and Services Group, giving us their two cents on the formats. Basically, giving the Intel employees an idea of the reasoning behind the companies stance for choosing HD-DVD over Blu-ray. Below is a snippet of the memo, that was posted yesterday morning and whether you believe the validity of the source or not, it's fun to read!

Traditional CDs and DVDs are manufactured of aluminum and plastic with a spin coat on top. This process has a high yield in manufacturing. HD DVD uses this same manufacturing process. To counter potential reliability
problems with data stored only 0.1 mm below the surface of the substrate, Blu-ray uses a film technique similar to that used in silicon manufacture, adding a hard coat on top of a film similar to cellophane (but of higher quality). The different materials mean that producing a Blu-ray disk with reliability comparable to an HD DVD disk can add up to
35 percent to the cost of the disk.

CDs, DVDs, and HD DVDs are all the same size, both in circumference and in depth. This allows them to use the same loading mechanisms. A single physical drive can potentially accommodate all three media.

A lot has been made of the extra capacity of the Blu-ray format standard, 25 GB per single-surface disk compared to 15 GB for a single-surface HD DVD. But both formats support the data density required for high-definition video, and we think the lower cost and easier backward compatibility of the HD DVD make it a natural choice for
the consumer.

HD DVD opens up a world of new possibilities for consumers. While HD DVD does offer the obvious high-fidelity video and audio experience (with video resolutions of up to 1080p), it also offers a whole new set of
interactive features allowing for enhanced content, navigation, and more for HD DVD movies. For example, only HD DVD mandates advanced picture-in-picture capability, where other video, such as a director's
commentary, can play on top of the movie. HD DVD also includes networking functionality, which opens up possibilities including downloading new trailers or updates from the Internet. Additionally, HD DVD offers a "future-proof" hybrid disc option to consumers, ensuring
that the HD DVD discs they buy today will work in both their new HD DVD players as well as their existing DVD players.

Hmm, well Intel ought to know a thing or two about silicon manufacturing processes! You can read the memo in it's entirety, by paying a visit to the AVS Forums. In reading the post, it looks as though they completely failed to mention they didn't want to back a different format than Microsoft as one of their reasons. Of course, we can be sure this has nothing to do with the decision. 😉

Source: AVS Forums