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MPEG LA announced today that the first meeting of essential HD DVD patent owners, currently consisting of 16 companies, was held in Los Angeles on September 11 for the purpose of creating a joint license providing fair, reasonable, non-discriminatory access to essential patents, as an alternative to negotiating separate licenses. Initial participating companies include LG Electronics Inc.; Microsoft Corporation; Mitsubishi Electric Corporation; NEC Corporation; Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd.; SANYO Electric Co., Ltd.; Sonic Solutions; TDK Corporation; Thomson Licensing; Toshiba Corporation; Victor Company of Japan, Ltd.(JVC); and Warner Bros. Home Entertainment Inc.According to MPEG LA's press release, additional patent holder meetings are planned, and work on the joint license will continue. More information can be found here. Add a comment
“MPEG LA applauds the extraordinary cooperation of so many diverse companies working together to come up with an efficient way for users of the multitude of patents employed in HD DVD devices, discs and related implementations to address their licensing needs,” said MPEG LA CEO Larry Horn. “And the substantial progress made in this initial meeting bodes well for achieving it.”
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Toshiba Corp. and Microsoft Corp. today announced plans to form the Advanced Interactivity Consortium (AIC), an open forum aimed at the promotion of superior interactivity for a wide range of next-generation consumer devices, digital content and distribution scenarios. The newly formed organization’s mission is to maximize consumer satisfaction worldwide by accelerating industrywide adoption of advanced interactivity and interoperability across a broad array of HD DVD products.If you'd like to read more, the entire press release can be found here. Add a comment
In addition to its crystal-clear picture quality and sound, HD DVD, the next generation of DVD, approved by the DVD Forum, is the first platform to include advanced interactivity as a basic feature in high-definition movies and players, substantially expanding the possibilities of high-definition home entertainment.
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While many speculated that BD+ was the cause of these problems, they appear to be an issue with BD-J. Samsung and LG are reportedly aware of the problem and are working on a fix. However, it is unknown when firmware updates will be available. Add a comment
But while the discs have generally been well-received (our own Peter Bracke raved about the audio/video quality in his review of 'Silver Surfer'), what was initially a cause for celebration has become an exercise in frustration for some Blu-ray fans as incompatibility issues with some players have hindered playback of the discs.
The most severe problems have been reported on Samsung's BDP-1200 and LG's BH100, which are both said to be incapable of playing back the discs at all. Less catastophic issues (error messages and playback stutter) have been reported for Samsung's BDP-1000. The discs appear to play back fine on all other Blu-ray players (including the PlayStation 3), although users have reported lengthy load times of up to two minutes.
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Hitachi is also working on an 8 layer disc that can hold 200GB of data. However, they've had problems with reflections decreasing the signal strength across the eight layers. If you'd like to read more, the entire article can be found here. Add a comment
Hitachi has developed a prototype four layer Blu-Ray disc capable of holding 100GB of data.
While companies such as TDK and Panasonic have previously mooted 100GB discs, they have always needed a specially developed optical head in the player to read the disc.
Hitachi, however, claims to have used a standard Blu-Ray drive optical head that's only slightly modified to allow it to read and write data across the four 25GB layers. It's believed this will only require a firmware update to make existing drives compatible.
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Blue Ray Technologies is launching a new television division to serve the burgeoning Hi-Def TV market with Blu-ray discs. With virtually all network and cable shows now shot in High Definition, a new market for Blu-ray DVDs is springing up for TV fans.If you'd like to read more, Blue Ray Technologies' entire press release can be found here. Add a comment
The home market for TV show on DVD is well-established: about 100 "Complete Season" sets, specials and TV movies are released every month - more than tripling new theatrical titles.
Complete Season releases can actually be cheaper to networks and consumers than regular DVDs as 13 episodes will fit into a single 25 gigabyte Blu-ray disc, rather than four DVDs. Boxed DVD sets retailing at $49 -$79 presently could be sold in the $29 -$39 range, with store prices being much less.
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No word on pricing or availability. If you'd like to read more, Transcend's entire press release can be found here. Add a comment
Transcend, a worldwide leader in flash memory cards, today announced a new Ultra Speed version of its successful Industrial CompactFlash memory card lineup with capacities up to 8GB. Transcend’s Industrial CF cards are specially designed to meet the strict demands of high-end equipment and machines that run at extreme temperatures. The operating temperature range of Industrial CF cards is much better than normal CF cards, with full functionality down to -40ºC and as hot as 85ºC (normal CF Cards are only rated at -25ºC to 85ºC). Aside from their excellent temperature flexibility, these cards are exceptionally resistant to shock, vibration and dust, while consuming less power and maintaining ultra fast data transfer speeds. Their superb compatibility and durability makes them suitable for use in standard PCMCIA-ATA equipped devices such as industrial PCs, embedded systems, medical instruments, factory automation systems, network infrastructures and other industrial equipment. In addition, Industrial CF cards can even be used as bootable disks in place of conventional hard drives that cannot withstand the harsh conditions of an industrial environment.
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Six major Hollywood studios and six leading consumer electronics manufacturers are extending the highly successful 5 FREE BLU-RAY MOVIES promotion through the busy holiday season, when consumer purchase interest in high definition is expected to be at a record high. Consumers who purchase any qualifying Blu-ray player, including PLAYSTATION3, between October 1, 2007 and January 31, 2008, will be able to choose five free Blu-ray movies from among 18 titles offered by the six participating studios.If you'd like to read more about the BDA's promotion, their entire press release can be found here. Add a comment
The program is intended to encourage consumers to join the millions of high-definition households who are now experiencing Blu-ray Disc. This exciting promotion will be supported with a significant ad spend - more than double that of the summer wave - including major online, gaming, men’s lifestyle, entertainment and business outlets.
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Today, Universal Studios Home Entertainment raised the bar on HD DVD’s unique web-enabled experiences by unveiling an Internet infrastructure that allows it to take advantage of the guaranteed Internet connection in every HD DVD player and deliver compelling, title specific features. Heroes: Season 1 on HD DVD was the first title to take advantage of web-enabled capabilities, but with the forthcoming availability of Evan Almighty on HD DVD, Universal is setting the stage for new home entertainment experiences with web-enabled features such as the Download Center, U-Shop, and much more. Taking advantage of the infinite possibilities of web-enabled experiences, Universal is utilizing HD DVD to explore the promise of digitally distributed scenarios and infusing movie content with e-commerce and social media capabilities.While I can't see myself buying anything through my HD DVD player, the ability to download exclusive content is definitely a nice feature. If you'd like to read more Universal's entire press release can be found here. Add a comment
“HD DVD provides a consistent platform that allows us to go beyond DVD to deliver the best possible next generation HD experiences and begins to introduce consumers to the infinite potential of web-enabled content,” said Craig Kornblau, President of Universal Studios Home Entertainment and Universal Pictures Digital Platforms. “With our web-enabled features, we wanted to deliver capabilities that compliment the HD movie watching experience while also offering a destination online that gives users the opportunity to dive deeper into their favorite movies and TV shows. We’ve just begun to explore HD DVD’s potential and this infrastructure lays the foundation for us to easily evolve with consumer preferences.”
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