At long last, Microsoft has revealed the über-secret rationale behind eschewing an HDMI connection for both their forthcoming HD-DVD player and their Fall, 1080p update. Are you ready to hear why?

Because you don’t want it.

Yup. After all the hand-wringing, flame-posting, and general malaise over Microsoft’s decision to allow 1080p only via component or VGA cables, it turns out that, nah, you don’t want that, sport. As my erudite and HDTV-savvy friend put it, “it’s as if he was Obi Wan waving his hand in front of us saying ‘these aren’t the cables you’re looking for.’”

In Microsoft astroturfer, Major Nelson’s latest podcast, he invited his “1080p expert,” Albert, to clarify their 1080p solution. Some of his comments were, to say the least, puzzling (and not just because he declared that 1080i was the same thing as 540p). Albert kicked things off with this one…

…every single 1080p TV we’ve seen has VGA input and supports 1080p through VGA…

I’m not certain how extensive the search was, but it sounds like it started and ended in his own den, considering that my own quick tour through 1080p compatible sets revealed that, while most did in fact have a VGA port, almost none supported 1080p through any connection other than HDMI. My aforementioned friend has about the sweetest TV I’ve ever killed zombies on—and he’s 100% shit out of luck with regard to playing his 360 in 1080p. HDMI only, baby.

Albert had some other gems to explain why there would be no digital cable offered…

…people weren’t really asking for HDMI…what people were pushing for was 1080p…

Jedi mind tricks, indeed.

But, my favorite soundbite had to be the one toward the end of the interview, where he proudly proclaimed…

…there’s nothing that prevents us from doing it…

So, here’s my question: if there’s no reason you couldn’t release an HDMI cable, and there’s a chorus of people clamoring for one—why not fucking release one? It would cost you ten dollars in parts and labor and you could sell it for $69.99 to eager nerds with more cash than brains all day long. Speculation across the interwebs is that the 360 is incapable of outputting a digital signal—thus, the all analog solution.

It’s curious that Microsoft would be releasing a 1080p update at all—given their position that it’s an inferior format for gaming. Back in a February podcast, Major Nelson had Tyler, an “HDTV expert” from Microsoft on to talk all about HDTV formats and why, at least for gaming, 720p was superior to 1080p. His reason? Because, for gaming, “60 frames per second is essential.” According to that expert, since bandwidth issues more or less constrained 1080p to 30 frames per second, you’d be far better off with the silky smooth 60 frames per second you can get playing games on 360 in 720p.

Someone better tell Cliffy B. Because the man tasked with delivering Christmas for Microsoft is on record as stating Gears of War is landing squarely at 30 frames per second—and that’s just where he wants it.

Taking this hard line against HDMI—unless, as I suspect, there’s a technological reason they can’t deliver it—smacks of the same type of corporate hubris Sony is so often accused of. However, when Sony got called to the carpet for removing the HDMI connection from their cheaper model PS3, they responded by putting it back in.

We’ll see if Microsoft can find a similar way to make it up to gamers. One thing’s for sure: whether they can or not, they’ll find an “expert” within their walls that can spin it their way on Major Nelson’s shillcast.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 17th, 2006 at 12:54 am and is filed under General Gaming, Microsoft. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.