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Microsoft will launch external HD-DVD drives for its Xbox 360 at a retail price of US$200 by Christmas of this year, and Taiwanese games developers and gaming services providers indicated this this is a smart marketing strategy as compared with Sony's adoption of built-in BD drives for its PlayStation 3 (PS3).If you'd like to read more, head on overo to DigiTimes. Add a comment
External drives have more flexibility than built-in models, the companies pointed out, while adding that despite BD having a much larger storage capacity than HD-DVD, pre-installation of BD drives may decrease the market competitiveness of PS3 units.
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Vincent Bautista, Sony's product manager for data storage, told CNET.com.au that due to copy protection issues and lagging software development, the drive will only play user-recorded high-definition content from a digital camcorder, and not commercial movies released under the BD format.Personally, I think that CNET is misinterpretting Vincent Bautista's comments. It's not that the BWU-100A cannot play back commercial Blu-ray movies but rather it requires a graphics card and playback software that support HDCP. As we've found in our own testing, both are in short supply right now. If you'd like to read more, the entire article can be found here. Add a comment
Bautista says that one of two reasons for this is the fact that commercial content is encrypted with High-Bandwidth Digital Content Protection (HDCP), which can only be decrypted using a HDCP-compliant graphics card that offers DVI or HDMI connections. Since there are currently no PCs for sale offering graphics chips that support HDCP, this isn't yet possible.
The second reason, according to Bautista, is that BD playback software that can decrypt HDCP isn't "released as a saleable item yet". Today, the only HDCP-supporting BD playback application is the OEM version of Intervideo WinDVD BD that's bundled with Sony's VAIO VGN-AR18GP notebook. The AR18GP also offers an HDCP-compliant HDMI connector, which makes it capable of playing commercial movies without issue.
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The battle between two hyped formats for high-definition DVD will confuse shoppers and turn many of them off the whole technology, a London-based research firm predicted on Friday.Screen Digest also predicts that the two formats will co-exist until a combined solution becomes cost-effective. If you'd like to read more, the entire article can be found here. Add a comment
Market research analyst Screen Digest also forecast that only $11 billion of the total $39 billion expected to be spent on video discs by 2010 in the United States, Europe and Japan will be generated by the competing high-definition formats, Sony Corp.-backed (6758.T: Quote, NEWS, Research) Blu-ray and Toshiba-supported (6502.T: Quote, NEWS, Research) HD-DVD.
"The net result of the format war and the publicity it has generated will be to dampen consumer appetite for the whole high definition disc category," Screen Digest analyst Ben Keen said.
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Managed copy is optional for hardware companies and if you have a player and you are prepared to have a device that can undertake a transaction function, meaning you are going to pay someone some money to make that copy. I think a lot of people may think managed copy means free copy. That is not the case at all, but if you are going to say I would like to make a coy of this to my portable viewing device and there is a dollar amount associated with that, then you have to have a hardware device that can make that a simple transaction. If you are in your living room and you say I would like to watch this on my portable media player, how do I do that. I would have a user interface that I go into and I would I say I would like to go onto a studios site for the particular disc and give them my credit card number and pay a fee to do that.This interview is a must read as it has a lot of insightful information on managed copy, BD+ and dual-format players. If you'd like to check it out, head on over to HDBeat. Add a comment
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Kevin Collins, senior program manager at Microsoft, demonstrated the HD DVD drive, which he said is scheduled to hit store shelves for the upcoming holiday shopping season, to attendees of the DVD Forum here.If you'd like to read more, the entire article can be found here. Add a comment
The device--about the size of a hardback book--played "The Phantom of the Opera" as Collins pulled up a menu bar to display a few of its navigation and interactive features that can be called up on screen while a movie is playing. Collins said Microsoft's HD DVD drive will be among the least expensive of the HD DVD players, but he declined to disclose the drive's retail price.
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CyberHome Entertainment (formerly named Protop Innotech), a leading maker of DVD recorders in Taiwan, on August 4 announced it has temporarily stopped shipments of DVD recorders to its largest client CyberHome USA due to overdue payments arising from the confiscation by the US customs authority in June of 20,000 DVD recorders imported by CyberHome USA.If you'd like to read more, head on over to DigiTimes. Add a comment
CyberHome USA sells DVD recorders under its CyberHome brand name with CyberHome Entertainment being a major shareholder in the company, according to industry sources. Philips asked the US customs authority in California to confiscate 20,000 DVD recorders with a market value of US$2 million due to infringement on the company's patents, the sources pointed out.
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Whatever its merits as a film, 'Training Day' has made history by becoming one of the first titles to be released on both the Blu-ray and HD DVD formats. In our first head-to-head comparison, we found the HD DVD to be superior. The unfortunate cropping of the Blu-ray image, coupled with more noticeable compression artifacts and an overall darker cast, can't compete with the more consistently pleasing presentation of the HD DVD.If you'd like to read more, Hi-Def Digests comparison can be found here. Add a comment
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Whatever its merits as a film, 'Training Day' has made history by becoming one of the first titles to be released on both the Blu-ray and HD DVD formats. In our first head-to-head comparison, we found the HD DVD to be superior. The unfortunate cropping of the Blu-ray image, coupled with more noticeable compression artifacts and an overall darker cast, can't compete with the more consistently pleasing presentation of the HD DVD.If you'd like to read more, Hi-Def Digests comparison can be found here. Add a comment
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According to Bob Perry, VP of LG sales and channel marketing, hybrid product has been canned. Bob continued: "LG remains part of the Blu-ray camp and will make a product announcement later in the year". Perry was speaking on product plans at the company's '2006 Summer Line Show' this week in New York.Let's hope that Samsung can come through with their hybrid player. If you'd like to read more, the entire article can be found here. Add a comment
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Don Eklund, executive vice president of advanced technologies at Sony Pictures, noticed that the player's image did not match the quality of the master tapes from which the Blu-ray titles were encoded. He contacted Samsung, whose engineers determined that the noise-reduction circuit in the player's Genesis scaler chip was enabled, causing the picture to soften significantly.It's good to see that Sony and Samsung are responding to the problem. If you'd like to read more, the entire article can be found here. Add a comment
According to Jim Sanduski, senior vice president of marketing for Samsung's Audio and Video Products Group, "Samsung is currently working to revise the default settings on the noise-reduction circuit in the Genesis scaler chip to sharpen the picture. All future Samsung BD-P1000 production will have this revision and we are working to develop a firmware update for existing product."
