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Toshiba America ConsumerProducts, L.L.C. ("Toshiba") announced today that its newest HD DVD player,the HD-A20, is now shipping to U.S. retailers. Priced at $499.99 (MSRP),the HD-A20 adds to Toshiba's second generation of HD DVD players and makes1080p resolution available at an attractive price point.Amazon already has the HD-A20 in stock and currently has it on sale for $419.99 with free shipping. If you'd like to read more, Toshiba's entire press release can be found here. Add a comment
The Player: With 1080p output capability, Toshiba's HD-A20 joins theexisting Toshiba HD DVD line-up which includes the entry level HD-A2 andthe top of the line, HD-XA2. This expanded line of products offers enhancedfunctionalities of the HD DVD format and is proof of Toshiba's commitmentto the smooth transition to the next stage in high definitionentertainment. Through an HDMI(TM) interface, DVD content can beupconverted to near HD picture quality. The HD-A2, HD-A20 and HD-XA2 areall backward compatible, so users can continue to enjoy their libraries ofcurrent DVD and CD software.
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Can anyone figure out what's going on here? I played a Blu-ray disc game that didn't work so well. It was the old Dragon's Lair title, remade for Blu-ray. You have to press the right button on the Blu-ray remote to make sure that your hero makes the right choice in this old cinematic game.While the Blu-ray Disc Association has said that first-gen players won't become obsolete, its obvious that not all titles will play on them, at least without a BD-Java update. If you'd like to read more, Dean's entire post can be found here. Add a comment
I put it into a Philips Blu-ray player and it didn't work at all. I put it into the Sony PlayStation 3 and it worked fine, but without any sound. Somebody smart tells me its a Java problem. Anyone know?
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Well, it looks like you can stop worrying about Corel locking up your next gen DVD player. The clever bods at the Doom9 and XBoxhacker forums have managed to patch the Xbox 360 HD DVD to to play any disk without authentication.People have already taken this hack a step further and have found a way to expose Volume ID's using an unpatched drive. While the AACS LA could, in theory, revoke the Xbox 360 HD DVD drive, Microsoft probably won't let that happen. If you'd like to read more, the entire article can be found here. Add a comment
HD DVD and BlueRay require that a disk authenticate itself with a Volume ID. A player can then be patched so it will not play any revoked disks.
What this hack does is bypass the check for a Volume ID you can stick any disk in the player and you're good to go, rendering useless any future revocations. It's still possible to lock out the actual hardware, but how long will it take the hackers to get around that?
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But while abstract ratios and percentages like these have been bandied about for several months now, the Sony report goes one step further, providing the first public release of hard sales figures for HD DVD and Blu-ray discs from Nielsen VideoScan, the home entertainment industry's leading source for competitive sales data.Take note that these numbers do not include include discs sold at Wal-Mart or some online stores. Nevertheless, it does paint an interesting picture, especially when you see that some releases have sold less than 200 copies. If you'd like to read more, the entire article can be found here. Add a comment
Among the numbers revealed: as of March 18, VideoScan put the cumulative number of Blu-ray titles sold since the format's inception at 844,000 units, versus HD DVD at 708,600.
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About 35 European films are available on the HD-DVD format, compared with less than 10 for Blu-Ray. The larger European studios such as Studio Canal and Pathé in France, Filmax and DeAPlaneta in Spain, and Imagion and Nixbu in Germany have all announced plans to use the HD-DVD technology.While HD DVD has a market lead in Europe, this could very well change with the recent launch of the PS3. If you'd like to read more, the entire article can be found here. Add a comment
Although most commentators agree that the deciding battles in the format war will be fought in Hollywood, analysts such as Richard Cooper at Screen Digest say the importance of European independent studios should not be underestimated. European independent films account for only 30 per cent of the market in the UK, but 50 per cent in France, 40 per cent in Germany and 35 to 40 per cent in Spain.
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All current Blu-ray Disc players support the BD-Java spec. (BD-Java is the programming language used to design the menus and present interactive content on a Blu-ray Disc.) In fact, says Parsons, this was a requirement from the get-go: "All players introduced since day one must support BD-Java."While first gen players will continue to play titles the same as they do today, PC World points out that they will not play on-demand picture-in-picture commentary nor can they access interactive functions via the internet. Unless you really need these features, its probably not worth upgrading to a second gen player. However, if you haven't bought one yet, I'd save my money and wait until fall. If you'd like to read more, the entire article can be found here. Add a comment
Already, movie titles like Chicken Little and The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen are taking advantage of BD-Java's capabilities; in both of those cases, the movie discs offer interactive games.
If BD-Java is shipping today, why the confusion? "This fall," explains Parsons, "is the end of a grace period. Any new Blu-ray Disc player model introduced after October 31 must now fully comply with the full range of existing Blu-ray Disc player specifications."
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There are two problems with making titles for HD-DVD that Blu-ray doesn't have:If you're wondering, jimby_99 was the production supervisor for "Nine Inch Nails: Beside You in Time" which was recently released on both Blu-ray and HD DVD. If you'd like to read more, head on over to the AVS Forum. Add a comment
1. It's not possible to make a full HD-DVD burn yet to check the entire title; you have to preview the title on an emulator, which does NOT give you the ability to QC in various players. This is a huge disadvantage compared to Blu-ray, where you can make a Blu-ray burn and run it in specially modified production players.
Without the ability to burn check discs, there is virtually no way to do proper QC...
2. The verifier software that Toshiba is responsible for is (in my opinion) not currently up to the task. For those who don't know what verifier software is...this is the software that is run when the title is received at the manufacturing plant to verify that the authoring is "legal" and to the specification. It's meant to catch specification-related bugs in the authoring BEFORE the disc is replicated.
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A couple days ago I cautiously approached Universal's next Combo Format HD DVD with U-Control functionality, 'The Good Shepherd.' My gut suspected the disc would suffer from the same playback issues as 'Children of Men,' but given how that disc's errors have been random across various players, there was at minimum a shot for success. Sadly, my gut was correct. 'The Good Shepherd' disc failed to play on both the HD-A1 and Xbox 360 HD DVD players with the exact same error messages 'Children of Men' returned. Whether my experience will be shared by the greater HD DVD community remains to be seen; however, it's our duty to pass along this caveat to those having pre-ordered the disc or plan to pick it up on Tuesday. Keep those receipts!Universal has not officially acknowledged these issues. However, the company has already discontinued the combo versions of some titles and has retooled a few upcoming releases to be HD DVD-only. Needless to say, this doesn't look good for the combo format or HD DVD in general. If you'd like to read more, head on over to TheManRoom. Add a comment
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'Children of Men' hit stores earlier this week on March 27, as one of the most highly-anticipated HD DVD releases on the format thus far, and as our Kenneth Brown wrote in his recent review of the disc, it apparently boasts stellar video and audio. Unfortunately, more than a few Xbox 360 owners have had issues playing it on the device's popular HD DVD add-on drive, with many of our readers writing in to say that the disc simply won't play, and that even multiple returns of the disc have produced the same issue.If you check out the posts in High-Def Digest's forum, you can see that 'Children of Men' isn't the only title people are having problems with. Lets hope that Microsoft can address these issues in the next Xbox 360 update. If you'd like to read more, the entire article can be found here. Add a comment
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While Sony Europe has not announced a price or ship date yet, the BDP-S1E should hit store shelves some time this summer. If you'd like to read more, the entire press release can be found here. Add a comment
Responding to a rapidly growing market demand throughout Europe, Sony has announced the latest addition to a Blu-ray Disc family including High Definition gaming, editing and now, the ultimate home theatre experience. The BDP-S1E represents one of the company's most powerful and intelligent consumer equipment models ever developed: the player sets new standards in High Definition audiovisual playback of movies. The superbly stylish BDP-S1E integrates seamlessly within Sony's ‘BRAVIA' Theatre concept to produce one of the most stunning and engaging entertainment experiences ever developed.
Film lovers will relish 24p True Cinema incorporated into this Blu-ray Disc player. Cine cameras actually film at 24 frames per second, but televisions operate at a higher frame rate, so conversion has traditionally been necessary. The result is a 4% discrepancy from the original - the film on TV actually runs 4% faster than the original, and the soundtrack rises by 4% in pitch. When the BDP-S1E is connected to a TV with 24p capabilities such as the ‘BRAVIA' D3000 series, the original 24 frames per second are displayed just as the camera first recorded them. You see - and hear - exactly what you should, exactly as the director intended.
