Samsung officials in Hamburg, Germany have announced that their new dual format BD-UP5000 high definition disc player will be coming out in October of this year for a price of approximately €550. Similar to the LG Electronics dual format player, the BD-UP5000 will support both Blu-ray and HD DVD formats. However, Samsung claims that their player will fully support both formats including their interactive technologies - HDi, and BD-Java. The LG dual format player fully supports Blu-ray but will only play the movie portion of an HD DVD disc.

[Check it out]

[Check it out]

No Tags

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.

[Check it out]

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

It’s about time! Internet enabled HD DVD discs are finally arriving onto the  scene (and you’ve been wondering why those HD DVD players connect to the net huh?). According to Forbes.com, the first Internet enabled HD DVD was a Japanese animation feature called “Freedom” which was released on Tuesday. If you watch this movie with an Internet connected HD DVD player, you’ll be able to download and watch a high definition trailer for another movie. You’ll also be able to customize menu styles, and download additional subtitles for the movie.

Another movie to feature access to online content is “Blood Diamond” which will come out on July 3rd for HD DVD. Owners of the HD DVD version of “Blood Diamond” will be able to partake in online polls while they’re watching the movie.

Following this movie will be the release of “300″ at the end of July. The HD DVD version of “300″ will allow users to re-edit the movie - “selecting and ordering the scenes as they see fit”. Users will then be able to upload their cut of the film to a webserver hosted by the studio to share with other users.

It remains to be seen whether users will find this downloadable content concept interesting. One can imagine selling HD DVD movie titles to gain access to exclusive trailer content for another upcoming movie (a la Halo 3 - buy a video game to gain beta access to Halo 3).

[Check it out]

Technorati Tags: HD DVD, Freedom, 300, Blood Diamond

Could there be inexpensive Chinese manufactured HD DVD players available in the near future? That’s the hope of the HD DVD Promotional Group as a steering committee of the DVD Forum has approved the final draft of a memorandum with the leading Chinese developer of optical discs. This could very well lead to creation of a Chinese HD DVD format which would translate fairly inexpensive Chinese manufactured HD DVD players. Keep in mind of course that a Chinese HD DVD format would differ somewhat with the global HD DVD format but one would assume .. or presume that Chinese based HD DVD players would be compatible with the general HD DVD spec if all goes well. Again - this could very well lead to inexpensive HD DVD players flooding not only the Chinese market but potentially the global market.

[Check it out]

Technorati Tags: Chinese HD DVD,

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.

[Check it out]

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

Now here’s an interesting thought. Even if the HD DVD format should falter in the U.S., there’s a good possibility that it will succeed in other parts of the world - in particular in the U.K. and Europe. How could this happen? It again boils down to movie studios - this time the big ones vs. small ones. While large Hollywood studios are the primary source for movies in the U.S. (and also for the most part the primary backers of Blu-ray), the same can’t be said of Europe where approximately 50 percent of movies are actually produced by smaller studios independent of Hollywood. These same independent studios actually prefer HD DVD since the format has lower production costs which will result in higher profit margins. Yes it comes down to dollars and cents.  Obviously the folks behind HD DVD realize this and as such are keeping Europe in their crosshairs. Meanwhile, Blu-ray has largely ignored Europe and continues to work on the U.S. audience.

Another piece of interesting news comes from Microsoft. The Xbox 360 HD DVD player is apparently the most successful Xbox 360 accessory ever - selling more than 155,000 units in the U.S. alone. Good job Microsoft! You can read my original review of the Xbox 360 HD DVD player over at Krunker.com.

One final interesting if not somewhat flawed statistic. The very same article from CNET claims that consumers who purchased HD DVD players are buying more content than folks who purchased Blu-ray players. The ratio is something on the order of 4 to 1 - HD DVD to Blu-ray. 

The basic problem I have with this statistic is not knowing whether the numbers counted the HD DVD player promotions that are normally found with each new player sold. If you’ve been following the HD DVD player market, you’ll know that Toshiba often allows you to get up to five free HD DVD titles for every HD DVD player purchased. Does the study count these five titles per HD DVD player purchase? If so, then the study would be flawed - especially since the Blu-ray camp doesn’t offer the same type of promotions. It’s still relatively good news to HD DVD but let’s not celebrate the format too much shall we?

[Check it out]

No Tags

Those of you interested in the Blu-ray vs. HD DVD format wars will be interested in reading this article over at BusinessWeek.com. It’s entitled “In DVD War, Body Blows for Toshiba” and it’s a good analysis into the current state affairs for Toshiba and the HD DVD format. The article claims that while HD DVD and Toshiba has suffered some blows in recent months, the company and the format is certainly not down for the count - at least not yet. There are still several factors that can help the HD DVD format rise from its current condition to effectively battle against Blu-ray. Since BusinessWeek articles sometimes disappear after some time, I’ll try and summarize the basic points in the article here.

• While Blu-ray appears to be winning, don’t count Toshiba and HD DVD out yet
• In response to Blu-ray’s initial dominance, Toshiba lowered prices for HD DVD players
• However, Blockbuster recently decided to stock Blu-ray discs over HD DVD discs although they have not officially declared a winner as of yet
• HD DVD is still a strong player in the online rental market with both Netflix and Blockbuster Online carrying the format
• While Blu-ray titles have outsold HD DVD titles 2 to 1 since January, there is still no clear winner since sales are overall very sluggish
• Sales of Toshiba HD DVD players have risen since the price cuts in May while Blu-ray player sales are still sluggish
• Toshiba is encouraging the Chinese government to adopt HD DVD for internal use with two large Chinese DVD manufacturers committing to do so.
• If the Chinese enter on the side of HD DVD, component prices could fall rapidly which could result in cheaper prices - but this could also hurt Toshiba should Chinese HD DVD players make it to the US
• Hollywood backing of HD DVD is still critical since the majority of the studios still back Blu-ray. However high definition content has not been very compelling thus far
• The computer market for HD DVD and Blu-ray is still a non-factor - at least until prices come down for drives and media.

The final paragraph to the article is probably the most important advice that HD DVD and Blu-ray could heed. “The solution [to the war], is for each side to call a truce and revive talks that failed two years ago to marry the two formats”. Let’s hope they do so soon before both formats become irrelevant as some have predicted.

[Check it out]

Technorati Tags: HD DVD, Blu-ray, Toshiba

Dan Costa over at GearLog.com published an interesting editorial on Thursday entitled “No One’s Winning the High-Def Format War”. His arguments are straightforward actually. While the high definition format wars continue, the consumers ultimately will not care in the end because they will have chosen the format of choice - and that’s to download HD content over some pipeline (probably the Internet).

Costa bolsters his argument by using the music industry as an example. Until MP3 files and digital music players became popular, people were stuck to CDs. Yet when given the choice of quality CDs vs. downloadable digital tracks, the consumers chose to download content instead. Look at the results now - CD sales are down and digital music stores are on the rise.

He applies the same notion to movies. Optical discs are a thing of the past Costa argues. The way to distribute going forward is via the Internet with many companies and products already trying out various services to see if this is viable. Now granted - there are many more obstacles in the way when it comes to movies. You need more storage and download times take a good deal longer than say downloading music. However as download speeds improve and as storage costs plummet, the optical disc - whether Blu-ray or HD DVD - will become obsolete in favor of a new video distribution method over the Internet.

It’s definitely an interesting argument although I do think there’s a place for either Blu-ray or HD DVD in the high definition arena. There will be consumers who will want downloadable high definition content, and there’ll be folks who want to own something on a disc format. Ultimately the key to all of this IMHO will be cost. If Blu-ray or HD DVD players lower in cost dramatically - say to something like DVD players, then I think you’ll see rapid adoption for either format. If products come out that make downloadable HD content affordable and easy to use, then I’m sure you’ll see that market expand rapidly also.

[Check it out]

No Tags

Folks in France will be happy to hear that Toshiba is now selling their inexpensive HD-EP10 HD DVD player there. Introduced at CeBIT earlier this year, the HD-EP10 is designed to be an inexpensive version of the HD-XE1. The player is capable of outputting 1080p video and supports the latest Dolby TrueHD and DST HD formats but it doesn’t come with analog 5.1 audio outputs. Of course - who really cares about those outputs if you already have a receiver that’s capable of decoding those audio formats right?

[Check it out (translation provided by Kontrib)]

No Tags