News & Commentary
Microsoft Exec: 1080p HDTV Is Meaningless
The company's XBox strategist attacks Sony's decision to include the new format in the PlayStation 3.
By Phillip Swann

Washington, D.C. (August 15, 2006) -- A key Microsoft strategist says the industry is 'hyping' 1080p, the new format that purportedly offers a sharper High-Definition TV picture.

Andre Vrignaud, Microsoft's chief strategist for the XBox game console, says the current 1080i format ("i" stands for interlaced; "p" for progressive.) provides a picture just as good.

Sony, Microsoft's chief gaming rival, is launching a new game console (Play Station 3) in November that will support 1080p for HDTV movies and games while Microsoft's XBox 360 will not. The latter console displays games in 1080i and will include a 1080i HD-DVD adapter later in the year.

"What's interesting is that a lot of folks don't realize how meaningless 1080p actually is in this generation," Vrignaud writes at his blog, Ozymandias.com. "Most modern HD displays (Plasmas, LCD, DLP, etc.) display content progressively, even if they first received an interlaced signal (so) when you're watching a 1080 signal on a modern HD display, you're almost always watching a 1080p signal."

Vrignaud, Microsoft's director of technical strategy for XBox Live, added that gamers, and HDTV owners, should not be "sucked into all the 1080p hype."

Swanni Sez:
The battle over picture formats is just starting. Sony (and TV manufacturers who are launching 1080p sets) will say the new format offers a better picture. But Microsoft, and perhaps some network programmers who would like to keep filming in 1080i, will say you can't tell the difference.

It's too early to say which side will win, But the short term loser is the American consumer who is already confused enough by high-def.

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Phillip Swann is president and publisher of TVPredictions.com. He has been quoted in dozens of publications and broadcast outlets, including CNN, Fox News, Inside Edition, The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Chicago Tribune, The Financial Times, The Associated Press and The Hollywood Reporter. He can be reached at swann@tvpredictions.com or at 703-505-3064.

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