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Warner Bros., which helped popularize the DVD more than a decade ago, plans to announce next week a single videodisc that can play films and television programs in both Blu-ray and HD DVD, the rival DVD technologies.If you'd like to read more, the entire article can be found here. Add a comment
Warner Bros., a division of Time Warner, plans to formally announce the new disc, which it is calling a Total HD disc, at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas on Tuesday.
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LG Electronics(LG), a leader in consumer electronics and mobile communications, announced that it will launch the world's first dual-format high-definition disc player, capable of playing both Blu-ray Disc and HD DVD content.LG doesn't provide a lot of details about their new player. However, with CES kicking off in a few days, we'll probably hear more. In the mean time, their entire press release can be found here. Add a comment
The unit will be released in the United States in early 2007. Details will be provided at the 2007 International Consumer Electronics Show (CES), held January 8-11 in Las Vegas.
LG expects this technological breakthrough to end the confusion and inconvenience of competing high-definition disc formats for both content producers and consumers.
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Silicon Optix, the leader in programmable video processors, announced today that its Reon-VX HQV video processor will be featured in Toshiba's new top-of-the-line HD DVD player, the HD-XA2.More information on Silicon Optix's HQV video processor can be found here. Add a comment
"As a reference standard for high-end video, HQV's video processor complements Toshiba's HD-XA2 HD DVD player with the capability to produce amazing detail and clarity from high-definition (HD) material," said Jodi Sally, Vice President of Marketing, Toshiba America Consumer Products Digital A/V Group.
HQV's true 1080i-to-1080p HD deinterlacing delivers the sharpest, most detailed HD images possible by employing per-pixel motion-adaptive algorithms and a sophisticated multidirectional diagonal filter that ensures video free of jaggies. The powerful HQV processing engine also provides per-pixel motion-adaptive noise reduction, detail enhancement, and advanced scaling to deliver premium-quality upconverted SD material.
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Gome, China's largest consumer electronics retail chain, has been actively promoting the sale of players of EVD (enhanced versatile disc), a China-developed DVD format, but sales have been slow due to relatively high prices, according to industry sources in Taiwan.With Hollywood putting their support behind Blu-ray and HD-DVD, I'd be very surprised to see any major releases on EVD format. If you'd like to read more, head on over to DigiTimes. Add a comment
Although retail prices of EVD players have been lowered from 1,000 yuan (US$128) to below 700 yuan (US$89), they are still much higher than the 200-300 yuan for a DVD player, the sources pointed out. In addition, there is limited availability of EVD titles, which are all produced by studios in China, since EVD has not gained support from Hollywood movie studios, the sources indicated.
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Sonic Solutions (NASDAQ: SNIC), the leader in digital media software, today announced a new collaboration with Toshiba Corporation, a world leader in high technology, to support European content holders and professional authoring facilities using Sonic's industry-leading Scenarist authoring systems for the creation of HD DVD titles. As part of the initiative, Sonic will distribute Toshiba's HD DVD emulation system and software verifiers that provide professional authoring facilities with an extensive set of utilities for testing title features and compatibility prior to replication. The combination of Sonic's authoring expertise and Toshiba's tools and technology will help bring a truly dynamic HD DVD movie-viewing experience to European consumers.If you'd like to read more, Sonic's entire press release can be found here. Add a comment
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Among 2,000 posts randomly selected for more analysis, the company found 2.5 times more posts being impressed with HD DVD than Blu-ray, and 70 percent more posts discussing the advantages of the format over those doing the same for Blu-ray.I always have a hard time believing studies like this but after the rootkit fiasco, there does seem to be an anti-Sony vibe on many websites. If you'd like to read more about Cymfony's study, BetaNews has a great article about it. Also, feel free to discuss it in our forum. Add a comment
The most common reason for the negativity towards Sony's format was what was considered a general dislike, accounting for 24 percent of the selected posts, doubting the company's ability to launch a successful format, and it's image as an arrogant company.
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Sony announced today that its first dedicated Blu-ray Disc player, the BDP-S1 model, has begun shipping to major consumer electronics retailers and specialty dealers nationwide.Let's hope that the BDP-S1 was worth the wait. If you'd like to read more, Sony's entire press release can be found here. Add a comment
This next-generation device, which is capable of playing both high-definition Blu-ray Disc (BD) prerecorded titles as well as traditional DVDs, adds an exclamation point to Sony's full HD 1080 line of products, which ranges from BRAVIA flat-panel LCD and Grand WEGA SXRD rear-projection televisions to the new PlayStation 3 game console, Blu-ray Disc enabled VAIO computers, PC drives and recordable BD media.
"I'm thrilled that it's here just in time for the holidays," said Randy Waynick, senior vice president of marketing for Sony Electronics' Home Products Division. "Combining a Sony 1080p HDTV set and our new BD player with an HDMI-enabled A/V receiver and surround sound speakers provides the epitome of the high-definition lifestyle."
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Nearly 20 leading Chinese manufacturers will stop making DVD players from 2008, replacing them with EVD (Enhanced Versatile Disc) players, the next-generation players based on a Chinese home-grown standard.So why not Blu-ray or HD DVD? The biggest reason is licensing fees. By using EVD, manufacturers won't have to pay them. If you'd like to read more, the entire article can be found here. Add a comment
The companies involved, including Shinco, Amoi, Hisense and TCL, will make a joint announcement of the ban next Wednesday, said Zhang Baoquan, chairman of Antaeus Group and secretary-general of the EVD Industry Alliance, which is dedicated to promoting the EVD standard.
Ending production of DVD players and pumping up EVD production will help the new standard succeed in the marketplace, Zhang said.
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Sony DADC has announced that they now have six 50 GB Blu-ray Disc production lines up and running.Sony DADC also has nine 25 GB Blu-ray Disc production machines in operation and has shipped over three million Blu-ray Discs since beginning production in May. More information can be found here. Add a comment
The company, which announced its 50 GB Blu-ray production plans in May of this year, is currently ramping up production to 60K discs per day. High demand for the 50 GB dual layer Blu-ray Disc is a result of the format's ability to deliver superior, uncompressed audio and high bit-rate video, more value added interactive content, as well as more available space to include additional bonus features such as deleted scenes, interviews and commentary.
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Toshiba Corporation today announced the launch of its second generation HD DVD players in the Japanese market. The company will roll out two new players, HD-XF2 and HD-XA2, from late December.While Toshiba has not announced prices, the Japanese website AV Watch expects the HD-XF2 and HD-XA2 to cost about 110,000 Yen ($846US) and 49,800 Yen ($422US) respectively. More information can be found on Toshiba's website. Add a comment
The new HD DVD players are smaller and offer improved speed in loading and response times over the HD-XA1, the world's first HD DVD player, brought to market by Toshiba in March 2006. The new high-end HD-XA2 supports Deep Color technology, an optional standard under HDMI that improves representation of color tones and achieves finer color gradation. HD-XA2 also provides support for the superior high-definition images of 1080p output.
