Bill Gates introduced Microsoft’s newest multimedia software in Hollywood, promoting his company’s bid to make its technology central to tomorrow’s digital home entertainment centre.
The Microsoft chairman took the wraps off a preliminary version of Windows Media 9, whose technical improvements make online video look more like television and boost audio quality.
”This is a big milestone for us,” Gates told several hundred invited guests on Wednesday. The company spent three years and $500-million developing the new software, he said.
The launch is the latest salvo in an intensifying battle for control of the market for multimedia players, software that runs and organises entertainment files on consumer PCs.
The upgraded product represents Microsoft’s latest attempt to win the support of the entertainment industry and dethrone Seattle-based RealNetworks as the leading provider of media player software.
RealNetworks held a slim lead in the market with 30,8-million home users in June, compared with 30,1-million home users of Microsoft players, according to the research firm comScore Media Metrix. The numbers do not include media players embedded in Web browsers.
”This is a hugely significant release, but it’s not game over yet for anyone,” said Michael Gartenberg, research director of Jupiter Research in New York. ”RealNetworks is not going home.”
Rob Glaser, chief executive of RealNetworks, said in an interview that Microsoft multimedia software is ”emotionally unsatisfying” because it only plays content designed for the Windows standard.
RealNetworks latest RealPlayer product plays all standards, including Microsoft and Apple, he said.
”It’s clear that what the consumer wants is one player that plays everything,” Glaser said.
Michael Aldridge, a Microsoft product manager, countered that Microsoft technology produces better sound and images using less bandwidth than two industry standards called MPEG2 and MPEG4.
”Businesses don’t want multiple formats,” Aldridge said. ”They want the best quality for the lowest price.”
Microsoft doesn’t make money directly from consumers with its media player. Instead, the company gives the software away by bundling it with its Windows operating system.
But the company hopes Windows Media 9 will drive sales of its operating system for large corporate computers, or servers, which deploy digital content, Gartenberg said.
A key feature of Microsoft’s entertainment software is its technology for securing content against piracy, known as digital rights management.
Analysts say Microsoft’s security offerings remain unrivalled and have caught the attention of Hollywood, which is struggling to find ways to satisfy consumer demand for more online content without losing control of it.
Hollywood’s great dilemma is how to protect releases of digital works of which perfect copies can be made ad infinitum.
James Cameron, the Academy Award-winning director of the movie ”Titanic,” appeared on stage with Gates and said Microsoft’s technology was helping lead to a new era of ”end-to-end digital filmmaking.”
Gates’ gala presentation at the Kodak Theatre, the home of the Oscars and the heart of Hollywood’s revitalisation efforts, was part of the software giant’s ongoing effort to court the entertainment industry, which among other initiatives is looking at ways to deliver films to theatres electronically.
”Microsoft wants to get every cinema and studio running Windows,” Gartenberg said.
The company’s latest media player offers a number of improvements over earlier versions. The program does away with most of the frustrating delays that occur when a music or video file prepares to play on the Web, a process known as ”buffering.”
It also gives users the ability to cross fade music, smoothing out the transition between songs, and to better organise collections of songs.
Windows Media 9 integrates several online content subscription services, including pressplay – the joint venture between Sony Music Entertainment and Universal Music Group – and CinemaNow, an Internet video-on-demand site owned by the filmmaker and distributor Lions Gate Entertainment. – Sapa-AP