Not sure, but maybe software manufacturers have to pay royalties to have support for HD DVD (and Blu-Ray, HDMI, DVI, etc., etc.). At least that is the case for hardware manufacturers. I don't like the omission with the new version, but perhaps Cyberlink is just thinking about the bottom line and now dropping HD DVD support is acceptable to most.
I can tell you several good reasons to remove support - licence fees, and maintainability. HD DVD may be dead but that doesn't mean its free. And continuing to develop, QA test and support a dead format will be an ongoing financial burden which is totally unjustified. If CyberLink rewrote or refactored their codebase, they'd be forced to ensure HD DVD continued to work which would be a significant and unnecessary cost.
It sucks. On the bright side, I expect Videolan will eventually support the HD DVD or at least the container format so that you can rip and play the content.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
andy @ Apr 10th 2008 3:53PM
I fail to see the point in REMOVING support for something.
Ah well, I guess we'll just have to use WinDVD or another competitor.
Why do this when the best selling drives are the HDDVD/BRD combo burners? There's obviously a reason they're best sellers.
clads01 @ Apr 10th 2008 4:36PM
Not sure, but maybe software manufacturers have to pay royalties to have support for HD DVD (and Blu-Ray, HDMI, DVI, etc., etc.). At least that is the case for hardware manufacturers. I don't like the omission with the new version, but perhaps Cyberlink is just thinking about the bottom line and now dropping HD DVD support is acceptable to most.
DrXym @ Apr 11th 2008 5:38AM
I can tell you several good reasons to remove support - licence fees, and maintainability. HD DVD may be dead but that doesn't mean its free. And continuing to develop, QA test and support a dead format will be an ongoing financial burden which is totally unjustified. If CyberLink rewrote or refactored their codebase, they'd be forced to ensure HD DVD continued to work which would be a significant and unnecessary cost.
It sucks. On the bright side, I expect Videolan will eventually support the HD DVD or at least the container format so that you can rip and play the content.