Archive for the 'HD Video' Category
Sony PlayStation 3 to be lowered to $499?
Saturday, July 7th, 2007
Rumors are circulating around the Internet that the retail price for the Sony PlayStation 3 will indeed be cut to $499 from $599. This all started when a Circuit City ad for July 15th was posted onto the net showing a price cut of $100 on the PS3. GameDaily BIZ then confirmed through their sources that the price cut was indeed retail wide and would begin on July 12th. Ads for the price cut should begin showing up on July 15th. No word from Sony as of yet but this is contradictory to what Sony President, Ryoji Chubachi, had stated on Friday - claiming that there would not be a PS3 price cut. It’ll be interesting to see Microsoft’s response should the price cut happen. Could we see a small next gen price war?
For those of you thinking about jumping on the Blu-ray bandwagon, this price drop would certainly be a welcome sight to see. I’d much rather purchase a PS3 with Blu-ray for $499 than a Sony standalone Blu-ray player for $499.
[Check it out via Krunker]
Home Theater Blog looks at HD HQV Benchmarks
Saturday, July 7th, 2007
Home Theater Blog has posted an excellent look into the newly released HD HQV Benchmarks. They take both the Blu-ray and HD DVD discs for a test drive across several players and got the following summaries.
The Sony PS3 (couple with a JVC DLA-HD1) got a 100 out of 100 score.
The Toshiba HD-A2 received a 65 out of 100 score.
The Sony BDP-S300 received a 75 out of 100 score.
You can read more about the tests and the player scores here at Home Theater Blog.
Microsoft Xbox 360 Elite to launch in Japan on October 11th
Saturday, July 7th, 2007
Microsoft has announced that the Xbox 360 Elite console will be launching in Japan starting on October 11th of this year - months after its debut in North America. The Xbox 360 Elite features an HDMI port, a new 120 GB hard drive, and a new black finish. The one difference between the Japanese version and the U.S. version is the sale price. While the U.S. version of the Elite goes for $479, the Japanese version will go for approximately $390 when it launches (47,800 yen).
Legit Reviews on "using an Xbox 360 HD DVD player on a desktop PC"
Thursday, July 5th, 2007
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.
Amazon and Microsoft team up for 1000 HD DVD Indies Project
Tuesday, July 3rd, 2007
Amazon and Microsoft have teamed up to sponsor the “One thousand HD DVD Indies Project” which is designed to make it easier for independent filmmakers to author and distribute their high definition works. At no charge to the filmmaker, 1000 selected entries will be authored to HD DVD format using Microsoft tools and then made available to Amazon.com customers via the CustomFlix Disc on Demand service. HD DVDs are produced as they are ordered so there are never any inventory issues to worry about. For independent filmmakers, this is a great way to distribute your high definition films on Amazon.com, a CustomFlix E-Store, and even on your own website (assuming of course you get selected). Filmmakers can set their own list price and earn royalties on all sales. They’re also free to pursue traditional distribution deals while participating in this project.
To submit your film to the 1000 HD DVD Indies Project, you need to go to this link and fill out the form. Chosen titles will be contacted by email or phone and you’ll have 30 days to send them a copy of your HD tape (film will not be accepted) and set up your title in their system.
Warner delays Total HD format till early 2008
Sunday, July 1st, 2007
Warner Brothers has delayed the launch of the Total HD (THD) disc format until early 2008. The new disc format, which was to include both Blu-ray and HD DVD versions of a movie title ,was originally slated for he second half of this year. According to Steve Nickerson, Warner senior VP of marketing management, the company plans on releasing 10 to 20 titles in the new format. Nickerson is also quoted as saing “There is no expiration date on the viability of this concept, so we’re not in a rush to do it, We’ll do it when it makes sense and when it’s right.” Total HD discs work by having HD DVD and Blu-ray on opposite sides of a disc.
Texas Instruments readies OMAP 3 series processors making HD video for mobile devices possible
Monday, June 25th, 2007
News.com had an interesting article here detailing the next generation OMAP processor coming from Texas Instruments. Dubbed the “OMAP 3″, the new mobile processor is slated to hit the market sometime in 2008 and will provide capabilities never before seen on mobile devices such as phones and PDAs. The OMAP 3 will make possible enhancements such as delivering high definition video at 1368 x 720 resolutions. It’ll support 12 megapixel digital cameras on mobile phones (or four 3 megapixel shots taken in burst mode). Overall, mobile devices will have far greater performance - whether it’s watching videos over the net or surfing the web for news and content.
The TI OMAP 3 will be designed around the ARM Cortex A8 processor core and will be manufactured on a 65 nm process. OMAP 3 will also come with integrated graphics and cores for handling other functions. There will be several OMAP 3 processors for different markets. The OMAP 3430 will support HD video and 12 megapixel digital cameras. The OMAP 3420 will support 5 megapixel digital cameras and VGA quality video. Finally, the OMAP 3410 will support 3 megapixel digital cameras and lower-resolution video.
You can read more about this at News.com here.
Details about the upcoming July 1st Cable Integration Ban
Monday, June 25th, 2007Since I just mentioned about the July 1st rule change for cable companies, I thought it would be good to briefly mention what this FCC rule change is all about and how it affects you - assuming you’re a cable subscriber that is.
On July 1st, the FCC will require cable companies to make hardware changes to all new set-top boxes. The changes, which is really the second phase to a law enacted many years ago, amounts to separating the security functions from the navigation functions on the set-top box. This rule only affects customers with digital cable. If you’re an analog cable subscriber, then you’re not affected by this rule (although you might still end up being charged a higher cable fee). Right now, set-top boxes distributed by cable companies have both the security and navigation functionality rolled into a single package. The first phase of the law required cable companies to roll the security features into a separate component - hence the CableCARD concept. The second phase which starts up on July 1st, requires cable companies to provide new CableCARD enabled set top boxes to new subscribers or to existing subscribers that request new boxes. Existing subscribers can still keep their current set-top box if they want to.
The original goal for the FCC rule changes was to help spur competition in the cable industry. The hope was that by introducing CableCARD, consumers would be given additional product choices in what kind of set-top boxes they could use. Case in point - one could purchase a TiVo Series 3 DVR instead of renting a DVR box from Time Warner Cable and still have it work with TWC because of the CableCARD support.
Keep one thing clear though - this rule change says nothing about enhanced features that cable companies can provide such as pay-per-view or on-demand programming. If you opt for a third party set-top box using your cable companies’ CableCARD, then you’ll miss out on the enhanced features. Of course if you don’t use them, then you won’t miss them will you.
There’s a good writeup to this over at CNN.com here.
Comcast to spread cost of CableCARD set top boxes to cable subscribers
Monday, June 25th, 2007
If you’re a Comcast cable subscriber, you should be aware of an upcoming price increase to your monthly cable bill. On July 1st, the FCC will finally enact the integration ban which requires cable companies to provide CableCARD compatible set top boxes or CableCARDs themselves to new or existing subscribers that want them for their own television sets or personal DVRs like TiVo. This change in the law will require cable operators to stockpile new set top boxes with CableCARD support built right in. In order to recoup the costs of obtaining new set top boxes, Comcast plans on applying incrementally higher fees across all markets.
According to Sena Fitzmaurice, Comact Senior Director of Communications for Government, “We’ll recover our costs”.
The National Cable and Telecommunications Association predicts that the work necessary to enable set top boxes to utilize CableCARDs amounts to approximately $72 dollar to $93 dollars per set-top box. This translates to approximately $2-3 dollars more per month per subscriber.
The real kicker in the Comcast scenario is their intention to charge everyone with the same increase - whether the subscriber has a CableCARD enabled box or not. Heck - if that’s the case, all Comcast subscribers should just ask for the new set-top box!
I’m not on Comcast myself but I can’t wait to hear what Time Warner has in store for this FCC rule.
[Check it out via HomeTheater Mag]
GearLog editorial on the high def wars
Sunday, June 24th, 2007Dan 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.