EU looking at HD-DVD

Apparently both the groups backing HD-DVD and Bluray are being put under the European Commission spot light.

The EU seems to have a problem with terms the groups are demanding from licensees.

Will the EU decide to force one of the players out of the game?

engadget

HD DVD to support hybrid discs

The HD DVD format group has announced the support of hybrid discs as have competitors Bluray.

Microsoft and Intel also showed their favor to the HD DVD plans to commercialize hybrid discs, a dual-side disc that can be read in both current DVDs and future players.

Hybrid discs could give the chance to Hollywood to release HD content in more "future-proof" and "familiar" environment.

CDR Info

Toshiba HD-XA1 gets first firmware upgrade

Toshiba have already released the first firmware patch for their new HD-DVD player, the Toshiba HD-XA1.

Yu can order a CD Rom from here, but make sure you have your Japanese to English dictionary to hand, or you can downlaod from here and burn your own CD to upgrade from.

The upgraded firmware stops noise occuring when you are on an HD-DVD menu and viewing via the HDMI socket.

Source: Digital World Tokyo.

Sky HD - no external HD archiving

We lodged a question with Sky recently about whether there would be any off-box HD archiving possible, via the external ports available: USB2, SATA or Ethernet. Unfortunately, the answer is no... "The Sky HD box will be the only place you can record and playback in HD", which is a shame, considering the US HD boxes with firewire output.

Of course this is in relation to long-time archiving to optical media - it doesn't mean that external HDDs won't be supported.

It does make us wonder what on earth we're going to record on our expensive next-gen BluRay and HD-DVD burners when they arrive. BBC HD is of course available, but can only widely be accessed on the Sky platform. We'll need some non-Sky receivers with HD support and output suitable for a burner to archive that off.

They also say "You will be able to use the Sky HD box to record and playback in SD quality to a second device." which at least means we'll be able to get good, HD sourced SD signals for archiving.

UK HD-DVD launch imminent?

Could the UK launch of HD-DVD be happening within the next month or two? A forum member on Digital Spy spotted this :

Please note: The following Sky Box Office films will no longer play in High Definition [HD] on SBO HD1(756) and SBO HD2 (757) in July and August: These changes are effective from Monday 10th July. King Kong The Constant Gardener Cry Wolf Serenity Doom Nanny McPhee Pride & Prejudice Please remove any HD flags from your listings/ PPV Picks of The Day. A full amendment detailing the schedule changes will be released as soon as possible. Apologies for any inconvenience.

The common link is that they all have something to do with Universal, one of the studios heavily involved with HD-DVD. It would make commercial sense to make sure that any recent movies available as HD were exclusive to the new HD-DVD platform, so as not to dilute sales.

New Toshiba HD-DVD recorder delayed

The new Toshiba RD-A1 was meant to launch tomorrow, but that has now been shifted back to July 27th due to "component shortages".

It's looking like the whole current/next-gen family is going to be remembered in years to come for shortages: Xbox 360, PS3, Blu Ray, HD-DVD. Surely there's a dissertation here for someone?

Ricoh announce dual format player and burner

Following on from the news that Ricoh had a component that would allow a player to read Blu Ray and HD-DVD, they have announced the first product to use it. Don't hold your breath though - it's not due until the end of 2007, followed soon after by a multi-format burner.

Akihabara News has pictures of the announcement.

HD-DVD font sets announced

Ascender Corp have announced a set of fonts that will be available to users of Microsoft's HD DVD Interactivity Jumpstart Package. The Microsoft HD DVD Interactivity Jumpstart Package contains software and utilities to simulate, test and debug HD DVD applications.

Unlike normal DVD, which used bitmap fonts, HD DVD allows scalable fonts to be included on the disc to generate text with the highest quality resolution.

The eight fonts/families are as follows:



The font license with the Microsoft HD DVD Interactivity Jumpstart Package allows authors to use the fonts ‘as is’ with a title, and not to make any modifications to the fonts. Ascender's team of type designers and font software engineers can develop enhancements to the fonts, such as additional character sets, language support or other font styles if desired. Ascender also offers HD DVD authors an extensive collection of additional fonts and styles in the OpenType font format to select from.

Ascender will also be releasing enhanced “Pro” versions of these fonts with comprehensive character sets for consumers and creative professionals to download. More information on Ascender's fonts for HD DVD can be found here.

Details on Microsoft's HD DVD Interactivity Jumpstart Package can be found here.

Microsoft announce first UK HD-DVD titles?

Microsoft have some details on their site of UK HD-DVD launch titles:

• Arizona Dream
• Basic Instinct
• Brotherhood Of The Wolf (Le Pacte Des Loups)
• The City Of The Lost Children (La Cité Des Enfants Perdus)
• Elephant Man
• The Fog
• Mulholland Drive
• The Pianist
• Terminator 2

Not the most inspiring, certainly, but Terminator 2 will HAVE to worth a watch! (again)

Microsoft announce first UK HD-DVD titles?

Microsoft have some details on their site of UK HD-DVD launch titles:

• Arizona Dream
• Basic Instinct
• Brotherhood Of The Wolf (Le Pacte Des Loups)
• The City Of The Lost Children (La Cité Des Enfants Perdus)
• Elephant Man
• The Fog
• Mulholland Drive
• The Pianist
• Terminator 2

Not the most inspiring, certainly, but Terminator 2 will HAVE to worth a watch! (again)

HD-DVD is really good! Honest!

The main forces behind HD-DVD, namely Universal Studios Home Entertainment, Warner Home Video, Paramount Home Entertainment, HP, Intel, Microsoft and Toshiba have announced the formation of a new trade organization, the North American HD DVD Promotional Group, Inc. The non-profit group will promote the companies' common interests in the success of HD DVD and to educate consumers on the quality and value of HD DVD.

The group will be promoting HD-DVD as "The Look and Sound of Perfect™". Catchy. Between them, they are dumping $150 million into marketing, right throughuntill 2007.

More details at: http://www.thelookandsoundofperfect.com/

Source: Press release

HD DVD ripping already possible?

With most of the delay to next gen optical systems being down to security of the digital stream, a small oversight is already making it possible to make a direct copy of the content. The German computer magazine c't discovered that it is possible to use screenshot functions of the player software to record the movie when it's played full screen. Ok, it's all very manual at the moment, but wouldn't take too much effort to capture each frame and save it ready to be rejoined with the rest later on. Rip the audio and lay it over, and there you go.

This process would work on both the new Sony and Toshiba laptops, with Blu Ray and HD-DVD players, respectively.

CDR Freaks has the details

Ricoh HD-DVD AND Blu Ray?

Forbes are relaying a story that Ricoh Co has developed a device that can read both the Blu-ray and HD DVD next-generation DVD formats. They claim the Nihon Keizai Shimbun as their source.

Ricoh's new device overcomes these differences by optical means, the Nikkei said.

HD DVD for that real grainy film look

Thomson have developed a technology that will allow media-playback devices to add film grain to an HD image. Rather than increase the bit-rate to capture this in the HD stream, they manage to model the look of the grain and send details in a handful of bits. The Thomson software will then generate the resulting grain and apply it over the HD video.

Sounds bizarre, but grain is one of the things that we subconsciously see when we are in the cinema, and is one of the factors that make big screen cinema seem different from home projectors or large panel displays.

Microsoft's up and coming Xbox 360 HD-DVD player will have the technology, as will devices and software from Toshiba (HD-DVD player), RCA (HD-DVD player), Broadcom, Sigma Designs, Horizon Semiconductors, NVIDIA (graphic processing devices), InterVideo (HD DVD player software), CyberLink (HD DVD player software) and Sonic Solutions (HD DVD production tools)

More details from ITNews in Australia