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When will Blu-ray players drop in price to become a mainstream product?I'm sure Toshiba and other HD DVD backers are going to eat this up. As it is, you can already get Toshiba's second generation HD DVD player, the HD-A2, for less than $400. If you'd like to read more, News.com's entire interview can be found here. Add a comment
Glasgow: If you go back to when DVDs came into play, it took about three years until they got into price points of $299 to $399. I suspect it's about the same thing here with Blu-ray. I think it's going to take up to three years to get down to those price points, possibly a little longer. But I would assume it's similar to DVD.
We have some control over (the cost of the) components. There are a lot of components in that product. Once you get volumes up, you get yields up, and you get efficiencies up; the prices go down on the components.
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Sonic Solutions (NASDAQ: SNIC), the leader in digital media software, today announced its Scenarist Workgroup authoring systems for HD DVD and Blu-ray Disc will support Warner Bros. Total Hi Def disc through a new product called THDassign. With Sonic THDassign, facilities and content providers will have a simple and streamlined way to combine finished high-definition projects created in Scenarist HD DVD and Scenarist Blu-ray Disc authoring systems for release on the Total Hi Def disc, which plays the HD DVD format on one side and the Blu-ray Disc format on the other. THDassign is expected to be available as a separate add-on for Scenarist systems in February 2007...If you'd like to read more, Sonic's entire press release can be found here. Add a comment
...THDassign works by providing essential meta-data and volume tagging information for the CMF outputs from both Scenarist HD DVD and Scenarist BD authoring systems. This information is essential to maintaining volume integrity when combining the format layers in a Total Hi Def disc. Scenarist is the world's only system that provides professional-level authoring for both HD DVD and Blu-ray Disc formats, providing specification-level access and the hands-on control required for advanced interactive title creation.
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Volume production of the EMMA3 series is scheduled to begin in April 2007. More information is available on NEC's website. Add a comment
NEC Electronics has introduced its newest generation of its renowned EMMA series of high performance system LSI chips for digital consumer applications. The EMMA3 series is optimized for systems such as HD DVD players and recorders that handle the processing of next generation DVD content.
The latest EMMA series incorporates in a single chip all the functions necessary to process high definition images, sounds and graphics in HD DVD players. It can process compression formats such as MPEG2, H.264, and VC-1, and offers powerful support for high level applications by way of two built-in CPUs. EMMA3 is already used successfully in HD DVD players sold by Toshiba Corporation such as the HD-XA2 and HD-A2 in North America, the HD-XA2 and HD-XF2 in Japan, as well as other players designed for Europe and Australia.
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No word on price yet. However, Toshiba expects to ship the Qosmio G30/97A by the end of February. More information can be found at PC World. Add a comment
Toshiba will put on sale in Japan in late February the first laptop PC in the world with support for the write-once HD DVD-R optical disc format.
The G30/97A will be an upgrade of existing models of Toshiba's hefty Qosmio G30 entertainment laptop. Some of those models already contain an HD DVD reader and are on sale in major markets worldwide.
The computer is based on an Intel 2-GHz Core 2 Duo processor and has a 17-inch wide-screen display with 1920 by 1280 pixel resolution, which means it can show high-definition images from HD DVD movie discs. The 10.6-pound machine also features a 320GB hard drive, digital TV tuner, and HDMI output.
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CyberLink Corp. (5203.TWO), a world leader in digital home solutions, announced today the release of MagicDirector 2, automated video editing software enabling easy movie production from recorded video files and playback on PSP, iPods, and uploading to the web.MagicDirector 2 is available online in both Standard and Deluxe versions for $49.95 and $79.95 respectively. More information can be found on CyberLink's website. Add a comment
CyberLink MagicDirector incorporates a number of magic tools to edit videos automatically. MagicDirector's editing features are based on CyberLink's intelligent video editing technology called Magic Cut. By simply setting a length and a theme, Magic Cut intelligently analyzes content, retaining the best clips, and applies video effects automatically to produce final video productions.
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New Medium Enterprises, Inc. (OTC Bulletin Board: NMEN - News), today announced it has secured worldwide patents surrounding its high-capacity Versatile Multilayer Disc (VMD) technology. VMD technology provides up to eight information layers on each side of a disc and can be utilized for both blue laser and red laser formats, thereby offering numerous and greater content options and business opportunities for the high-definition and content ecosystem. VMD is applicable for single- and double-sided discs and a multiplicity of formats, including Blu-ray and HD-DVD.While all this is great, it won't really matter if movie studios don't get on board. If you'd like to read more, NME's entire press release can be found here. Add a comment
The comprehensive NME patents, outlining the basic principles and method of cost-effective mass manufacturing of multilayer discs, were filed initially in 2004 and have now been extended through most of the industrial world. The patents cover the principles of NME's break-through modified 2P process, which involves producing more than two layers on a single-sided disc, and will allow for the first time the replication of multilayer discs with the production yield and subsequent production costs comparable to current DVD production. The patent also covers the general set-up of a VMD production line and method of playing-back multilayer discs.
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Royal Philips Electronics Taiwan confirmed that it has filed a complaint with the European Union against the Taiwan government in response to Taiwan's granting compulsory licensing of Philips' CD-R patents to local firms, which is in violation of the World Trade Organization (WTO) TRIPS (Trade Related Intellectual Property Rights) agreement.It's always amazing to see how far Philips will go to get their licensing fees. Gigastorage probably won't be affected by this anyway, as they no longer export their discs to the US and the European markets, where Philips' patents apply. If you'd like to read more, head on over to DigiTimes. Add a comment
The case is a result of a July 2004 ruling by the Taiwan Intellectual Property Office (TIPO), under the Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA), that called for the compulsory licensing of five Philip's CD-R disc patents to Gigastorage, a second-tier optical disc maker in Taiwan. TIPO based its decision on the fact that Philips had refused to renegotiate the CD-R fixed royalty charge rate of US$0.035 per disc, despite the fact that OEM prices had fallen from US$5 in 1997 to US$0.19 in the first half of 2003.
TIPO claimed that under Taiwan patent law, it had to balance the considerations of intellectual property rights with the promotion of domestic Taiwan industrial development, with the perceived unreasonable royalties charges tipping the case in GigaStorage's favor.
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A WesleyTech.com contact in Japan has notified me that porn is indeed already available on the Blu-ray Disc format. At least in Japan, the adult film studio "Glayz" already produces and distributes content on Blu-ray Disc, HD DVD and UMD.Unless there is some prude working at Sony America, last weeks' reports really don't make much sense. With porn on UMD and now Blu-ray in Japan, there's no reason to threaten duplication companies in the US. If you'd like to read more, the entire article can be found here. Add a comment
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The SSM-85H5SX is a streamlined Super AllWrite drive: portable and sleek and capable of reading, writing and re-writing any DVD disc format on the market, including DVD-RAM. Furthermore, the SSM-85H5SX is equipped with LightScribe technology for burning labels directly onto the surface of a CD or DVD. The USB 2.0 connection ensures a fast transfer of data. With the SSM-85H5SX Lite-On IT provides a solution for those who are looking for compact size and good performance of their optical storage device.The SSM-85H5SX will be available on the European market in mid-January for a € 109 including VAT. More information is available on Lite-On's website. Add a comment
"The SSM-85H5SX is especially handy for travelers and great for notebook users and not only because of its portability and lightweight design", says Jelmer Veldman, Lite-On IT's European marketing manager. "Thanks to its compatibility with all kinds of CD and DVD media it is a one-stop archival and presentation solution for anyone with a need of copying and storing data. And thanks to LightScribe support consumers have an efficient way of creating customized and professional labels for CD and DVD discs. That is what differentiates the SSM-85H5SX from other slim external drives on the market."
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The problem stems from the lack of support for HDi, the advanced interactivity technology used by HD DVD. LG has only included support for BD-J, Blu-ray's interactive menu system, in the BH100. Without HDi, only the video content from HD DVD discs will play back; menu systems and other interactive features will simply not be usable.The way I see it, Microsoft has issues because, as the developer of HDi, they're losing out on the licensing fees. That aside, the DVD Forum would be doing a disservice to consumers by blocking a player like this. In any case, it will be interesting to see what LG does. If you'd like to read more, head on over to BetaNews. Add a comment
Kevin Collins, Microsoft's representative for the HD DVD group who sits on all the steering committees, says LG will not be able to sell the product and claim it supports the format if it leaves out HDi. Collins said LG provided no advance notice before announcing the BH100 player at CES, and noted he was surprised by the move.
