Adobe is announcing 10 new ‘partners’ in their OpenHD standards effort.

Taking a look back in the archives - my buddy JahShaka commented on this - as far back as April 2005. 

“How Open is OpenHD?”

Hmmmm - lets see, the founding companies are: Adobe, Microsoft, Dell, HP and Intel.

Hmmmmmmmm

Clearly HD standards need to be addresssed for compatibility for editing, distribution and playback - but is this the right vehicle to do that?  Will our best interests be kept in mind?

To quote from the article:

As part of this expansion, Adobe is now providing integration with ten new manufacturing companies that produce capture cards, graphics, video accelerators, audio tools, and data storage. The original line-up began with Adobe, Dell, HP, Intel, and Microsoft. The new list of companies includes: AJA, AMD, Blackmagic, Bluefish, CineForm, Focusrite, Huge/Ciprico, Matrox, NVIDIA, and Rorke. These new alliances have allowed Adobe to create seven new turnkey systems for the support of HDV to real-time compressed and uncompressed HD. This, Adobe’s press release states, will provide users with the scalability and reliability which is needed when working with HDV, SD, and HD workflows. So as to prove its word, the new Adobe Production Studio was tested with the capture cards and software configurations of all the alliance partners to ensure performance and reliability.

This conscious effort to create a more fluid workflow structure and visual palette is something emphasized throughout all of the releases made by Adobe Systems Incorporated yesterday and today.

But where’s Apple, Avid, Discreet Logic, Sony, ATI and the most important HD player in the market - Mark Cuban and his suite of HD oriented companies?  How can they call this a standards effort when 50%-60% of the market isn’t represented?

This OpenHD scam is a sham.  It’s not open at all. As the article says:

Adobe and its allies are looking to create a strong presence for themselves within the postproduction HD editing and production market.

But that’s not the same as saying: