Filed under: HDTV, Home Entertainment

In what seems like a preemptive excuses session, Sony recently mentioned that they don’t think they’ll be able to meet demand for Blu-ray players in the US. They blamed it on an electronic component shortage due to the high demand for cellphones of all things. We weren’t aware that RAZR of ours housed a blue laser and 1080p processing power, but we’re going to give it a once over just to make sure. Because of this shortage, Sony stated that their Blu-ray players are “going to be expensive,” since “it will take time to get component prices down.” We really could’ve believed a more credible excuse for player shortages and high prices, but we’re not sure if we buy this whole “blame the phones” thing. The good news is that the possibility of a hybrid HD DVD and Blu-ray player was mentioned, which could save a bit of blood loss in the format war that is upon us.

[Via HD Beat]

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Filed under: Gaming, Home Entertainment, Peripherals, Storage

Assuming the Xbox 360 Core pack price stays the same at around $300 US, that gives Microsoft a $200 window to play with in order to make a next-gen optical capable 360 competitive in price with Sony's Blu-ray toting PlayStation 3. Of course by this November the Xbox's price structure could change drastically, as they have stated many times their intentions to drive down price and cost. What GamesIndustry heard from a UK retail source, however, is that the 360 + HD DVD (which may or may not come bundled together) will still weigh in lighter on the wallet than the PlayStation 3 by a significant margin -- however, that margin is pending British pounds, with the Xbox and HD DVD being £339 ($640 US), and the PS3 at £399 ($750 US). So what isn't immediately taken into account here is the effective price differential in currency conversion between nations; in the US that same PlayStation 3 will debut for $499, about $250 less than it will for our British counterparts, thus making the window for pricing the drive competitively much larger in overseas markets. If you ask us, we'll vote for a US price window of $200 to $250 (depending on the going rate for an Xbox at the time of launch), but any more than that and it'll be a hard sell being that it's really only a movie add-on to gaming platform.

Filed under: Laptops

Toshiba's rolling out a new version of their Qosmio G30, the G30/695LS, but it's not quite accurate to call it an upgrade; on the one hand, you're getting some pretty solid audio thanks to the addition of a 1bit amplifier, but on the other hand, they decided not to include the HD DVD drive that had made these models so attractive in the first place. Besides these two changes, the specs remain identical to other iterations of the G30, which include a 1.66GHz Core Duo T2300 processor, NVIDIA GeForce 7600 graphics,1GB of RAM, and a hefty 200GB of hard drive space, but only a 1440 x 900 resolution (other versions sport 1920 x 1200). We haven't heard anything regarding price or availability, but it's safe to assume that these will go for significantly less than their $4,000 cousins, and that you probably won't see them at you local Best Buy anytime soon.

[Via PC Watch]

Filed under: Gaming, HDTV, Home Entertainment, Peripherals

If you’ve been following this story even a little bit over the last few months, you probably won’t exactly be shocked to hear that Microsoft is going to roll out a USB HD DVD drive for the Xbox 360. But if you’re tracking the ongoing format war between HD DVD and Blu-ray, you should check out Microsoft’s announcement anyhow. What’s unusual about this release is that you won’t find any rhetoric about HD DVD being superior to Blu-ray — or even a ghost of Bill Gates’ earlier comments that the latter format was “anti-consumer.” Instead, Microsoft calls the quality of the two formats “a wash in terms of video quality,” and declares that the main difference between the two is pricing. We assume that means the 360′s HD DVD drive will be a bargain. Unfortunately, that’s one detail Microsoft has skipped, preferring to “save that good news for another day.” Like maybe the day after the PS3 — which will have a Blu-ray drive built in — gets its official price?

[Via Joystiq]

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Filed under: HDTV, Home Entertainment

Those early adopters who've already picked up a Toshiba HD-A1 but don't want to buy duplicate copies of each movie for use on their current car and portable DVD players have gotten a reprieve from Warner Home Video, who just announced that the first hybrid HD-DVD/standard DVD will be available on May 9th. However, folks looking for a Matrix-like title to put their new toy through its paces will probably be disappointed with Warner's choice: the critically-panned 2005 Kevin Costner/Jennifer Aniston romantic comedy "Rumor Has It." Plus, don't think that the 480p content on the flip side of the disc is just a bonus, as these hybrid offerings are debuting for eleven dollars more than their single-copy counterparts. Still, if these discs enable you to create a backup of the flicks you buy on HD-DVD, even at non-HD resolutions, the extra dough might be worth it in order to get maximum utility from your purchased content.

[Via eHomeUpgrade]

Filed under: Features, Home Entertainment

You see — there are a couple of crucial pieces of information that you need to know. First, you need to
understand that one aspect of both Blu-ray and HD DVD that rarely gets press-coverage is that each has a provision for
using red lasers (the same type used in today’s DVD players) in conjunction with their advanced codecs. In the case of
Blu-ray it’s called BD-9 and in the case of HD DVD it’s HD DVD-9.

In each case, the concept is simple: it’s
nearly exactly the same content that’s placed on the higher-capacity blue-laser-based discs but instead the content is
put on the same DVD media that we’ve come to love and adore. The thought behind the inclusion of red lasers was
two-fold: a) in order to maintain backwards compatibility with current DVDs it had to be there and b) there is a set of
content that really doesn’t need all the space of the fully-implemented Blu-ray or HD DVD standard. As a result,
companies such as Warner Bros., in an effort to lower production costs on a certain subset of their content (e.g. TV
Episode compilations), demanded its inclusion.

The second piece of information that you need to understand
is that, in many cases, an entire HD movie will actually fit on a standard DVD. Yes, it’s true that at 8-9 MBit/second
you won’t see transparency to the source. However, for an average length film with no "extras" most people
would be hard-pressed to tell the difference; they have neither the equipment nor the eyes to do so. In fact, nearly
three years ago (a lifetime in terms of development) Terminator 2 was released on a standard DVD using a very similar
encoding scheme to those used in both Blu-ray and HD DVD . Since then, both the VC-1 encoding process and H.264
encoding have made tremendous improvements and continue to get more efficient with each passing month.
/>"So what’s the problem?" you ask, "both BD-9 and HD DVD-9 use the same laser, the same media, the same
codecs, and the same (well mostly) content protection scheme – why can’t you just make one disc that will play in
both players?" The answer, as stupid as it seems, is the navigation system. While nearly every aspect of the disc
is the same, HD DVD uses the Microsoft-developed iHD while Blu-ray uses a Java-based system. By using two different
navigation systems, both parties have excluded the possibility of dual-system HD discs.

"Why would they
do this?" Well… Many might argue that it was simply a case of NIH (not invented here) where two stubborn groups
were just unwilling to bend — each thinking they held all the cards. It’s only trained conspiracy experts who know the
real reason: doing so hurts independent content producers.

Where major studios have the clout, the finances,
and the time to release two different versions of the same content using the latest disks, independent producers don’t.
Doing so means twice as much inventory, twice as many production hassles, etc. Furthermore, it is the independent
producers (be they filmmakers or even home enthusiasts) who would have been more likely to utilize the red laser
feature. In the case of small production houses, they might already have invested in DVD-burners. In the case of
enthusiasts, they might choose to create a disc they know will be compatible with their friend’s HD player.

By limiting the usefulness of the red portion of the two specs, the DVD Forum and the BDA can push people
towards the discs that make them money and not towards a possible "HD on Red" compromise. Additionally, the
studios are able to limit their competition to only those companies which can afford to produce and stock all three
versions.

So there you have it – the "real" reason they sabotaged the red laser’s usefulness
in Blu-ray and HD DVD. Now I’ve to get out of this room; the tinfoil is making my head sweat and I’m out of saltines and
peanut butter.

If you have comments or suggestions for future columns, drop
me a line at theclicker@theevilempire.com.

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Filed under: Gaming, Peripherals, Storage

So word on the street is Microsoft's all set to announce the Xbox 360's external HD DVD drive at E3 -- which makes perfect sense, in all reality. They did, after all, claim it would be released "this year" when Gates unveiled their plans at CES, and since they launched the 360 at E3 last year, they've got to have something to show off this year while Sony and Nintendo get closer to their respective impending PlayStation 3 and Revolution launches. Chris Lewis, Microsoft Regional Vice President for Europe, the Middle East and Africa sat down with Spiegel Online and let them know that we'll more than likely be seeing an HD DVD announcement at E3 (in addition to that Xbox camera we heard would launch next month), and alluded to the inclusion of HDCP compliance for the Xbox, which could only imply they'll finally release that freaking DVI cable. On the PS3 and Blu-ray, Lewis even volunteered that "Blu-ray right now reminds us of another technology from Sony: Betamax." without even being directly asked. Oh, this war is on, friends, make no mistake about it, and we'll see you at the battlegrounds of E3.

[Via Xbox 360 Fanboy]

Filed under: HDTV, Home Entertainment

Now that Toshiba's HD-A1 HD DVD player is finally available in stores -- and there are even some discs out to play on it -- reviews are starting to trickle in, mainly from dedicated early adopters, who've braved confused sales clerks, cumbersome boxes, and a remote with more options than Windows Vista, to try the player themselves. We saw one of the first such reviews, from The Man Room, yesterday. Now, we've had a chance to check out a few more (props to PC World's Martyn Williams, who not only got one of Toshiba's Japanese HD-XA1 players to review, but even checked out the bundled Japanese films "Biohazard" and "Moonlight Jellyfish"). If there's a consensus opinion, it's that HD DVD may be great for early adopters and HD connoisseurs, but less discerning viewers may not see what the big deal is. As Ben Drawbaugh puts it on HDBeat: "Bottom line is that HD-DVD is great, but will you notice? If you can't tell the difference between DVD's and HBO HD than you might be just as well off with a upconverting DVD player. If you never noticed HBO-HD's cropped movies, non-dynamic sound and compression artifacts you may be better off sticking with HBO-HD. If you do notice these annoyances you won't be disappointed with HD-DVD or Blu-Ray."

• HDBeat
• DVD Town
• PC World
• High Def DVD Digest
• CNET
• AVSForum (long thread of user reviews and reports)

Filed under: Home Entertainment

We first saw RCA's HDV5000 at CES in January, and true to their word here we are in April with the launch release in our hands. Expected MSRP still stands at $500, and the device will feature HDMI and composite outs supporting 720p / 1080i (plus up-converstion of standard DVDs), S/PIDF, 5.1 channel surround out, and a network connect, as expected -- really nothing out of the ordinary here. Expect to see this ship next month, and to appear in stores in June.

Filed under: HDTV, Home Entertainment

As the first HD DVD players finally make their way to stores, The Man Room wasted no time in going out and buying one to test it out. Well, actually, it looks like the reviewer wasted a little time, since he had to call no fewer than four Best Buy outlets to find one that actually had a Toshiba HD-A1 in stock -- or even knew what he was talking about (one clerk's comment was a simple "What is it?"). But by last Friday, when each Best Buy was supposed to have three of the units in stock, he was able to set out and make the purchase. So, what did he find? Well, besides the massive player we've already seen, he discovered an equally bulked-up remote, the HDMI cable and a pitch from NetFlix (hey, you've gotta get those discs somewhere, right?). Of course, all of that is incidental to the real question: how did the video look? Well, we're not sure we're going to get a straight answer here, since this early reviewer had to use an adapter to connect the player's HDMI cable to his DVI-based projector. However, since the discs he picked up weren't hampered by the Image Constraint Token, he was able to get full 720p and 1080i output. That said, the reviewer still found the output only  "a hair sharper" than that he got from upsampled 480p DVDs using a Momitsu upconverting player. So, is that "hair" worth $500? If you've been waiting for the chance to watch, er, "The Last Samurai" in true HD, you already know the answer. If not, you've probably already missed your chance to pick up one of those three HD-A1s from your local Best Buy, so kick back with your over-the-air, cable or satellite HD, and let someone else fight the format war for you.

Filed under: HDTV, Home Entertainment

With the Tuesday official launch of HD DVD drawing near, a couple of retailers are starting to predict delays for getting the actual products into the hands of customers. Turns out some major online sellers haven't gotten their initial shipments yet, with Best Buy predicting April 17th to April 24th player availability, and Amazon mentioning that "Million Dollar Baby" won't be ready for April 18th. There aren't any official delays mentioned by Toshiba and friends, who seem well practiced in the art by now, so this could all be some miscommunication, but things don't look especially good for the earliest adopters out there. Luckily, all of this hullabaloo hasn't stopped a random Best Buy in Surf City, CA from accidentally selling a couple of players early, one of which was purchased Friday and is pictured above.

Read: HD DVD delays; via Slashdot
Read: HD DVD player released early; via HD Beat

Filed under: HDTV, Home Entertainment

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