Blu-ray or HD DVD? That’s the big question these days when we’re talking about high definition video content. Well.. the folks at Axonix Corporation are saying - why not have both with their new MediaMax HD Entertainment Server. MediaMax HD is the first Media Server system to play via Cover Art or Metadata both HD DVD and Blu-ray movies. The system actually includes a MediaDeck 4 system and a MediaServer box with oodles of storage space. MediaMax HD DVD provides the following:

• Instant playback of media stored on it’s Media Server including HD and SD DVD movies, CD, MP3, and WAV music, photos, and downloaded music and movies via the Axonix NetPlay service
• Includes a MediaServer and one or more MediaDeck 4 HD Media Players which include either an SD, HD DVD or Blu-ray drive
• MediaMax interface allows you to browse your media collection utilizing vivid HD quality cover art
• Browse via metadata including Genre, Actor, Director, Artist, Album, Title, Favorites, or by Playlists
• Supports SD/HD DVD movies, downloaded movies, music CDs, downloaded WMA and MP3s, imported or ripped WAV, converted iPod music, Internet radio, JPEG photos, etc

MediaDeck 4 is $3495 with an SD DVD/CD drive; $4995 for the MediaDeck 4 HD DVD with integrated HD DVD drive, $5995 for the MediaDeck 4 Blu-ray  with integrated Blu-ray drive. All the MediaDeck 4 models support the playback of HD movies loaded on the MediaServer. MediaServers with up to 13 TBs of RAID 6 are available with or without HD or SD drive. The Spectra 2 SD 500GB Series MediaServer starts at $5795.

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If you’re wondering where things stand between Blu-ray and HD DVD currently, check out this comparison chart published by News.com whcih shows background information, and some early sales figures for the two competing formats. The numbers are interesting and of course somewhat misleading right now as Blu-ray is integrated into the Sony PS3 console. What is evident is the role the game consoles are playing in helping users choose a high def format. HD DVD has the slight edge when it comes to standalone players sold but Blu-ray has the edge in content availability of course and in backing.

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Many have known since day one that the Microsoft Xbox 360 HD DVD drive was usable on the PC platform. Back in the early days of the product rollout, you needed to get hacked drivers to make the product work on the XP platform but the drive worked just fine on the Vista platform - albeit with some memory unit question marks in the device manager. However, it turns out that somewhere along the way, Microsoft released full driver support for the Xbox 360 HD DVD drive on the Vista platform. Couple this drive with some HDCP/HDMI capable graphics hardware, HD DVD playback software, and an HDCP capable monitor, and you’ve got yourself an HD DVD capable system - potentially on the cheap (depending on whether you already had the graphics hardware to begin with)! The folks at Legit Reviews experimented with this proposition and wrote a good article about it here. I’ve been tinkering with the idea of adding an HD DVD drive to my home theater PC but I really need a processor upgrade to my system as Vista really chokes on the system - especially when I’m recording HD content. Anyhow, check out the article over at Legit Reviews. You can also read my old review of the Xbox 360 HD DVD player here.

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Technorati Tags: Xbox 360, HD DVD player, Desktop PC, Legit Review

Toshiba is delivering on its’ promise to include HD DVD in future generations of notebooks with the introduction of the new Qosmio F45-AV412 A/V notebook. This 15.4 inch multimedia system is loaded with an HD DVD drive, 720p compatible display, and Dolby Home Theater technology. Want the HD picture on a larger screen? No problem - simply connect the HDMI output to an HDTV set and you’re ready to go. Specs to the Qosmio F45-AV412 include the following:

• Windows Vista Ultimate
• Intel Core 2 Duo Processor T7100  running at 1.8 GHz
• 2 GB of RAM with a max of 4GB of RAM
• 250GB SATA HDD
• HD DVD-ROM/DVD SuperMulti drive
• 15.4 inch diagonal widescreen TruBrite display with 1280 x 800 native resolution
• Mobile Intel GMA X3100 GPU
• Two integrated Harman Kardon stereo speakers with subwoofer
• Intel Wireless Wi-Fi Link 4965AGN
• Integrated webcam and microphone
• Fingerprint reader
• HDMI output
• S/P DIF output

The new Toshiba Qosmio F45-AV412 has a starting price of $1649 but there’s also a 50 dollar rebate at this point - bringing the price down to $1599. You can check out the Toshiba website for additional information on this model.

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Technorati Tags: Toshiba, Qosmio, F45-AV412, HD DVD laptop