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Post by dkennedy on Jan 5, 2006 7:09:42 GMT -5
Paramount Pictures Home Entertainment Unveils HD DVD Launch Titles; Action, Special Effects and Star-Power Showcased with Titles Ranging from ''The Italian Job'' to ''Mission Impossible 3''
January 4, 2006
Business Wire -- 2006 International CES
LOS ANGELES--Paramount Pictures Home Entertainment announced today a diverse line-up of "Paramount High Definition" titles for release on the HD DVD format in 2006.
"We are excited to support the launch of HD DVD with ten titles from Paramount's storied library," said Thomas Lesinski, President, Paramount Pictures, Worldwide Home Entertainment. "As the appetite for high definition entertainment grows, Paramount will leverage its depth of content to help satisfy consumer demand around the world."
The titles scheduled for launch include recent hits such as "Four Brothers" and "Sahara," sci-fi thrillers "Aeon Flux" and "Sky Captain & the World of Tomorrow," action-adventures "The Italian Job" and "Tomb Raider," the renowned music documentary "U2: Rattle and Hum" and Tim Burton's "Sleepy Hollow." Rounding out the debut slate are "We Were Soldiers" and "Manchurian Candidate" starring Academy Award(R) winners Mel Gibson and Denzel Washington, respectively.
The 2006 line-up continues with the debut of a "Mission Impossible" trilogy for HD DVD which includes the new "Mission Impossible 3," "Mission Impossible" and "Mission Impossible 2," scheduled for later in the year. Paramount Pictures Home Entertainment plans to support the HD DVD format with an extensive slate of titles throughout the year and beyond.
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Post by dkennedy on Jan 5, 2006 7:28:53 GMT -5
Toshiba to Sell HD DVD Players in U.S.
January 5, 2006
Associated Press
TOKYO -- Japanese electronics maker Toshiba Corp. said Thursday it will start selling high-definition players that support its HD DVD format in the United States in March _ the first commercial launch of the next-generation product in the world.
Rival Sony Corp. also said it will start selling players running the competing next-generation video format called Blu-ray disc in the United States in the summer. Plans for when either player will be sold in Japan were not announced.
Toshiba's new HD DVD players _ HD-XA1 and HD-A1, priced at $799 and $499 respectively _ will hit the U.S. market about the time major Hollywood studios are expected to unveil HD DVD movie titles, the company said.
The announcements highlight the intensifying battle for supremacy in the next generation of video discs.
The HD DVD format, jointly developed by another Japanese electronics maker NEC Corp., is incompatible with its main competitor, the Blu-ray Disc, which is backed by Sony and Matsunutsa Electric Industrial Co. Ltd., maker of Panasonic brand products.
Sony has already started selling video recorders and is planning the PlayStation 3 game consoles using Blu-ray Disc technology. Sony did not give a price for the planned Blu-ray Disc players.
"Blu-ray Disc technology is the final piece needed to complete our vision of the high-definition world," Hideki Komiyama, president and chief operating officer for Sony Electronics Inc., said in a statement.
Both formats deliver dazzling images in high-definition video and can store much more data than today's DVDs, allowing for more interactive features, like watching a movie while simultaneously watching the director discuss the scene.
The HD DVD format is supported by Universal Studios, Warner Bros. and Intel Corp., as well as Microsoft Corp., which hopes its new Xbox 360 video game console will challenge Sony's PlayStation.
Blu-ray is backed by Apple Computer Inc., Hewlett-Packard Co. and Dell Inc., along with a variety of other tech companies and studios.
Through extensive discussions and cooperation with major Hollywood studios, major retailers and other interested parties, Toshiba has "closely investigated the optimum launch date" for the HD DVDs in the United States, the company said.
"Going forward, HD DVD is destined to be a key driver for progress and the development of the consumer electronics, IT and entertainment industries," said Yoshihide Fujii, Toshiba's corporate senior vice president and president of digital medial network company.
More details of the HD-XA1 and HD-X1 were to be shown at the Consumer Electronics Show this week in Las Vegas, Toshiba said.
Toshiba spokeswoman Hiroko Mochida said the company has not yet set a date on when to sell the new HD DVD players in Japan, pending a copy protection issue.
Toshiba shares rose 4.67 percent to close at 739 yen ($6.37) on the Tokyo Stock Exchange on Thursday. Sony shares rose 4.4 percent to close at 4,940 yen ($42).
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Post by dkennedy on Jan 7, 2006 7:19:39 GMT -5
Rivals Seek Entry in HD DVD Player Market
January 6, 2006
By Gary Gentile, Associated Press
LAS VEGAS - It was supposed to be the grand unveiling of a new generation in home entertainment when Kevin Collins of Microsoft Corp. popped an HD DVD disc into a Toshiba production model and hit "play." Nothing happened. The failed product demo at this week's International Consumer Electronics Show was hardly an auspicious start for the HD DVD camp in what's promising to be a nasty, drawn-out technology format war reminiscent of the Betamax/VHS video tape battle.
Backers of the two rival high definition DVD formats are betting that the millions of people shelling out thousands of dollars for new high-def TVs and home theater sound systems will spend a few hundred more for new DVD players and discs that offer sharp pictures and interactive features.
Analysts say the early adopters, those who rush out and buy whatever new technology becomes available, will jump right in and pay $1,800 for a Blu-ray player from Pioneer or $499 for the Toshiba HD DVD player.
But a prolonged struggle between the two incompatible formats may mean consumers have a long wait for a clear winner to emerge, potentially delaying widespread adoption of high-def DVDs for years.
"There's no question that a format war is not a good idea," Howard Stringer, chairman and chief executive officer of Sony Corp, said this week. Sony is a developer and backer of the Blu-ray format.
The Blu-ray team is confident of getting content from most of the top Hollywood studios. It also believes that the new PlayStation 3, which will come equipped with a Blu-ray drive when it debuts later this year, will tip the odds in their favor.
"With the installed base of PlayStation, we do think we have an enormous advantage," Stringer said.
Blu-ray discs will have the larger capacity, at 25 gigabytes or more. The HD DVD will have the virtue of being more similar to regular DVDs, which simplifies production, according to its backers.
The HD DVD crowd has backing from computer giants Intel and Microsoft and will have the slight advantage of coming to market first. Players from Toshiba can already be pre-ordered from Amazon.com and will hit store shelves in March. Blu-ray players will be available one or two months later.
"HD DVD is really 'Now playing'" said Yoshiihide Fujii, president and CEO of Toshiba's Digital Media Network company.
A bigger risk for companies backing the rival DVD systems is that consumers opt to get their video from places like Yahoo and Google, or one of the several companies offering downloadable movies over the Internet.
Computer hard drives, particularly on multimedia PCs geared toward the living room, are getting bigger every day and younger people especially are accustomed and more than happy to store their video there.
Companies such as Starz Entertainment Group, which recently launched its Vongo service, are also allowing consumers to transfer movies and TV shows to portable devices. DirecTV and Dish Network, two satellite TV services, offer portable viewers that can store hours of programs.
"The longer the format war goes on, the more opportunity smart players in the cable and IPTV and online spaces have to build market share," said Laura Behrens, an analyst at Gartner Industry Advisory Services. (IPTV is an up-and-coming technology that many telecommunications companies are employing as they charge into the television service business).
Studio executives argue that people want to own their content and that DVDs offer the same portability options as downloadable programs or video on demand services.
"Portability is a killer application with music and to a degree with movies, but the majority of movie and TV viewing is not on a small two-inch screen," said Mike Dunn, president of Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment. Fox is releasing its movies this year in the Blu-ray format.
While studios clearly wanted to avoid a format war and struggled last year to reach a compromise between the two camps, they say that the formats can exist side by side.
"There will be 25 million homes that have high definition TVs by the end of next year. Those people are going to be looking for content," said Stephen Nickerson, senior vice president at Warner Home Video.
Warner Bros., an early backer of HD DVD, has said it will release movies in both formats.
Nickerson said that while many compare the DVD format wars to the battle a quarter century ago between the Betamax and VHS formats, another analogy might be more useful.
"The (video) games industry since the early 90s has had two or three incompatible formats and it hasn't slowed the adoption of game platforms," he said.
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Post by dkennedy on Jan 8, 2006 6:08:07 GMT -5
HD-DVD vs Blu-ray War Still On
Some major wins this week for the Toshiba-backed HD-DVD format for next-generation DVDs keeps it in the game.
January 7, 2006
Red Herring Magazine CES 2006 News Release
The slugfest over what format will dominate in the $40-billion high-definition DVD market is far from over.
Just as the Blu-ray format backed by Sony was beginning to emerge as the clear leader, Toshiba’s rival HD-DVD format scored some major blows over the last few days. Among them, there was news that DVD players based on HD-DVD would likely be far cheaper, at least initially, than those based on Blu-ray.
Toshiba plans to introduce two models of HD-DVD players at $500 and $800 a pop, the electronics company announced at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. Contrast that with Pioneer, a Blu-ray backer, which plans to sell its player for $1,800 (see Hi-Def DVD Formats Duel at CES).
Another plus for HD-DVD? It’s likely to beat Blu-ray to the punch. Toshiba’s players are due out during March while Pioneer says its player will hit stores during June.
Adding to the good news for HD-DVD, Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates, another staunch supporter of the HD-DVD format, announced the software giant will sell HD-DVD drives with its Xbox 360 gaming consoles. The move puts a large industry force squarely behind the format.
Meanwhile, Sony has promised to include a Blu-ray drive in its upcoming PlayStation 3 gaming console (see Microsoft, Sony Join DVD Fray).
But despite HD-DVD’s charmed week, many analysts still believe that Blu-ray, which has lined up more support than its rival from movie studios and consumer electronics firms, still has the upper hand.
“My thoughts haven’t changed,” said Ted Schadler, analyst with Forrester Research, who said that Blu-ray would emerge as the winning format, in a research note during October. “Blu-ray still has more manufacturing and movie studio support than HD-DVD does.”
Epic Battle
HD-DVD and Blu-ray’s battle for domination of the high-definition DVD market is reminiscent of the VHS-Betamax format wars of the 1980s. Blu-ray has managed to garner wide industry support from a number of consumer electronics and computer companies, as well as Hollywood studios. HD-DVD has lagged.
However, this week’s news has helped put HD-DVD back in the game as it is likely to have a price and market-timing advantage over Blu-ray.
Blu-ray backer Samsung said it plans to sell its player in the spring for about $1,000 and Sony will come out with two Blu-ray players in the summer but did not reveal the price.
“I think the HD-DVD group has done enough to stay relevant this year,” said Wolfgang Schlichting, analyst with research firm IDC.
But Mr. Schlichting said that although the announcements are important, they are not “game-changing.”
“Blu-ray is still in a very good position,” he said.
On the Defensive
Toshiba’s low cost players surprised many in the industry as early adopters usually end up paying higher prices for new technology.
Analysts contend that Toshiba must resort to lower pricing if it wants to gain an edge in the format war. HD-DVD players should be at least 30 percent cheaper than Blu-ray to generate enough momentum against the competition, Mr. Schlichting estimates.
“I think [Toshiba is] on the defensive and needs to do something significant,” Mr. Schlichting said.
Forrester’s Mr. Schadler thinks that Toshiba might be selling the players at a loss. But one of the reasons the Japanese electronics giant can afford to sell at such as low price is because they are licensing the technology to low-cost Chinese manufacturers, Mr. Schlichting said.
However, Toshiba contends that they are able to keep the price point low because of an “excellent response” from retailers, which helps them to increase their production capacity.
“Our forecast for production was increased and we were able to amortize the cost with more quantity,” said Jodi Sally, vice president marketing for Toshiba America. “The $499 price point is to create more massive market adoption and we did some consumer research that indicated that is the price consumers expected to pay.”
The Toshiba HD-DVD players are already on such e-commerce web sites for pre-ordering as Best Buy, Amazon.com, Tweeter, and Crutchfield.com. Some of them have already received pre-orders since the products were posted on Wednesday, Ms. Sally said.
None of these web sites carried Blu-ray products and a Blu-ray spokesperson was not immediately available for comment.
Xbox vs. PlayStation
That Mr. Gates sided with the HD-DVD camp with plans for a peripheral drive for its Xbox 360 console will not give HD-DVD a major boost, Mr. Schadler said. There’s no guarantee that consumers will shell out extra dough for an attached drive when they are already paying $400 for the console, he said.
What’s more, PlayStation will come ready with Blu-ray drive, which will help drive the format.
Industry watchers say that the content will eventually determine who wins the format war. Blu-ray is stronger on the content side, boasting six major studios that have agreed to release content on the format. Only three studios plan to release titles on HD-DVD (see Warner to Support Blu-ray), and two of them will also produce Blu-ray titles.
About 50 HD-DVD titles will be launched between March and May and a total of 200 HD-DVD titles will come out for the 2006 holiday season, Ms. Sally said. Whether that will be enough to drive sales remains to be seen.
Market Could Change
There’s always the chance that both formats could survive, but analysts say that’s doubtful. Another possibility? Players could be developed that support both formats.
Whatever happens, Toshiba and the HD-DVD camp will have to do more than just come up with aggressive pricing to make their format successful, analysts said. Prices of Blu-ray products will eventually start eroding as the consumers start adopting the technology.
And it turns out the HD-DVD will only have a three-month head start over its rival. It was initially supposed to launch two quarters ahead of Blu-ray but delays trimmed its advantage (see HD-DVD Delayed Until 2006).
“I don’t see any signs of the format wars being over,” IDC’s Mr. Schlichting said. “[Toshiba] did what they had to do and now it’s more up to them to prove that their format is more viable than Blu-ray.”
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Post by dkennedy on Jan 8, 2006 6:18:42 GMT -5
CES 2006: LG HD-DVD Player Get a first glimpse at the next-generation media device. Details and photo. January 6, 2006 by Matt Casamassina, IGN Magazine The Consumer Electronics Show 2006 is bound to be remembered as the forum for the beginning of the battle between Blu-ray and HD-DVD. Players from both camps were strewn about the show floor. LG Electronics previewed both prototype Blu-ray and HD-DVD players, and we've got a photo of the latter in this article. HD-DVD sacrifices the added storage capacity of Blu-ray, but gains immediate compatability with the existing DVD infrastructure. What does that mean? Well, HD-DVD-players can also display regular DVDs. In fact, the make-up of HD-DVDs is so similar to regular DVDs that it's possible for manufacturers to put a high-definition video on one side and a 480p on the other. LG's HD-DVD Player, the HD-199 offers storage capacity of 30GBs per disc. The unit can play true 1080p (1920x1080) high-definition content. It sports interactivity with Web-based connectivity and graphics. And it supports advanced codecs, such as AC-1 and H.264. In a nutshell, it's a mean little box. No word on release date or price yet, but we do have a photo at media.gear.ign.com/articles/679/679530/img_3303796.html
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Post by dkennedy on Jan 8, 2006 6:24:07 GMT -5
DVD Format Wars: Bad for Everyone? Battle between Blu-ray Disc and HD-DVD will hurt consumers and companies alike, industry exec says.
January 7, 2006
By Dan Nystedt and Martyn Williams, IDG News Service
LAS VEGAS -- The drive to replace DVD technology with newer discs boasting greater storage capacity has come down to two major competing formats, and the coming marketplace battle will be bad for companies and users, the head of a major U.S. technology products retailer said Friday. "The damage the industry does to itself by not choosing a format is enormous," said Brad Anderson, vice chairman and chief executive officer of Best Buy, one of the largest U.S. consumer electronics and appliances retail chains. "Two incompatible formats is as much a nightmare as you can make for consumers," he added.
The competing technologies are Blu-ray, the high-definition video disc format backed by Sony and several other major vendors, against HD-DVD, which is backed by the DVD Forum and companies including Toshiba, NEC, Intel, and Microsoft.
The difference in storage space is huge: regular DVDs can hold 4.7GB of music, movies, and other data, while Blu-ray can carry 25GB of data and HD-DVD, 15GB. But despite some other advantages for each of the two new formats, the companies backing them have been unable to compromise on a single standard.
Consumers Decide
Now, both groups appear ready to let consumers decide the winner, just like the 1980s video cassette recorder fight between VHS versus Betamax.
Howard Stringer, chairman and CEO of Sony, said talks between the Blu-ray and HD-DVD camps broke down some time ago for a number of reasons, and that now the factions are at a point where it's difficult to step back from their positions.
"There's no question that a format war is not a good idea but I don't see what we can do about it except push on and convince everybody that a revolutionary high-definition disc [Blu-ray] is better than an evolutionary high-definition disc [HD-DVD]," he said during a news conference at the Consumer Electronics Show here.
"We'll weigh the consequences and costs versus convincing the customer that if you are actually going to change your DVD format you'd better change it to something that dazzles you rather than something that is an evolutionary improvement," he added.
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Post by dkennedy on Jan 8, 2006 6:58:22 GMT -5
RCA has HD-DVD too: the HDV-5000
January 7, 2006
By Kevin C. Tofel, engadget.com
Seems like the HD-DVD focus is on the bigger names, but we got a gander at RCA's HD-DVD player here at CES. It's only natural that RCA rides the high-def DVD train since they have HDTV sets like the Scenium line. Watch for the HDV-5000 in April for around $500, which is quite a few pesos less than the Blu-Ray players we've seen. Will price be a major factor in this format war or have the final shots already been fired?
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Post by Skaggs on Jan 9, 2006 10:49:43 GMT -5
Here's a link to photos from the Consumer Electronic Show of both the Blu-Ray and HD-DVD displays.
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Post by dkennedy on Jan 10, 2006 7:02:53 GMT -5
Blu-ray camp finalises format specs
Battle with HD-DVD heats up still further
January 9, 2006
By Robert Jaques, vnunet.com
The Blu-ray Disc Association has announced that the specification for the next-generation DVD format is complete and that licensing is ready to begin for BD-ROM, BD-RE and BD-R media.
The development comes as the first generation of high-definition movies were unveiled by the HD-DVD and Blu-ray camps at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.
The Blu-ray Disc Association finally approved all specifications for both single-layer (25GB) and dual-layer (50GB) discs on 2 January, and for the BD-R and BD-RE 2.0 specifications on 26 December.
Film producers supporting the Sony-led Blu-ray technology have announced the first batch of movies, including The Fifth Element, Bram Stoker's Dracula, Desperado, For a Few Dollars More, The Guns of Navarone, Hitch, House of Flying Daggers, A Knight's Tale, Kung Fu Hustle, The Last Waltz, Sense and Sensibility, Black Hawk Down and The Bridge on the River Kwai, among others.
Meanwhile, the Toshiba-led HD-DVD camp announced that there will be almost 50 HD-DVD titles on offer including Aeon Flux, Batman Begins, The Bourne Supremacy, Jarhead, The Matrix and U2: Rattle & Hum.
The Blu-ray Disc Association expects products to be hitting the shelves this spring.
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Post by dkennedy on Jan 16, 2006 8:27:34 GMT -5
DVDs gearing for high-definition
January 15, 2006
By Terry Jackson, Miami Herald
If you have a TV capable of displaying high-definition images, the next generation of DVD players will soon let you see what your TV's capabilities really are.
Starting in March, high-definition DVD machines that will play prerecorded DVDs will begin to arrive in stores at prices ranging from $499 to $1,000.
At about the same time, major Hollywood studios will begin rolling out films on high-definition disks for purchase or rent. So all that's required to reach video nirvana is a credit card with some room and a Blockbuster card, right?
If only it could be that simple.
Buyers will have to choose between two formats: HD DVD or Blu-ray, neither compatible with each other. Suddenly it's 1979 all over again.
That's when the videocassette recorder made its big splash and consumers were faced with a format choice: Betamax by Sony or VHS by Panasonic and most everyone else.
Purists argued back then that Betamax delivered a better picture than VHS. But VHS could handle longer recording times. Buyers weighed the pros and cons and voted overwhelmingly for VHS. Betamax quickly became a Trivial Pursuit answer.
This time around, the differences between HD DVD and Blu-ray are far more subtle. Both DVD formats deliver the same, remarkable pictures. And each type of disk should easily handle The Chronicles of Narnia. But beyond storing the basic movie, the disks do differ in their data capacities.
An HD DVD disc has a single layer capacity of 15 gigabytes and a dual layer capacity of 30 gigabytes. Blu-ray supports 25 and 50 gigabytes in single- and dual-layer capacities. That extra capacity could allow a Blu-ray disc to hold more of those extra features that make DVD movies so popular.
'I was just in discussion with Time Warner and, from the Hollywood studios' perspective, they prefer the disk with the larger storage capacity,'' said Moon-Soo Bang, Samsung's vice president of planning for digital video systems.
Manufacturers, software companies and entertainment conglomerates have already chosen sides in this format war, and there's little doubt that the Blu-ray side has more of the heavy hitters.
Samsung, Sony, Panasonic, Dell and most of the other major electronics companies lead the Blu-ray brigade, along with most of the major Hollywood studios.
Toshiba heads the HD DVD push and has Microsoft, Intel and NEC in its camp. But so far only three movie studios have agreed to produce DVDs in that format.
Hisashi Yamada, chief technology fellow at Toshiba's Digital Media Network Co., told EE Times Online that he doesn't believe the war will be won with numbers.
Timing may be in Toshiba's favor. It will be first to market in March with two machines, the HD-A1 and the HD-X1A. It also will have a price advantage to start. At the recently concluded Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Toshiba set its prices at $499 for the HD-A1 and $799 for the HD-A1, which has more playback features. When Samsung's Blu-ray player debuts at midyear, it's expected to cost $1,000.
Machines from Sony and the rest of the Blu-ray consortium could help bring down prices as they come online later in the year.
There's more at stake in this industry battle than format supremacy.
Homes are becoming saturated with standard-definition DVD players -- they're in 85 percent of U.S. homes. Sales in 2005 dropped 10 percent from the previous year, the first dip since the format debuted.
Analysts believe high-definition DVD is needed to re-energize consumer demand.
Software manufacturers and computer makers are also relying on high-definition DVDs -- and the recordable versions that will soon follow -- to be the bedrock of new home media centers that will manage everything from music to movies downloaded off the Internet.
The success of these competing formats will at first depend on what movies will be available.
If HD DVD arrives along with disks of some of the latest hits -- as well as a wide variety of extra features -- then that format may get an early, insurmountable lead.
But if the offerings are sparse, and Blu-ray manufacturers erase most or all of the current price differential, then HD DVD could become the Betamax of the new century.
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Post by dkennedy on Feb 1, 2006 5:16:53 GMT -5
Fate of high-def DVD may lie with Microsoft
February 1, 2006 By Junko Yoshida, Electronic Engineering Times Magazine
After months of intense wrangling between the competing Blu-ray and HD-DVD groups, the battle lines in the war over a next-generation high-definition DVD format have moved to the doorstep of Microsoft Corp.
Several industry sources told EE Times that Microsoft is muscling into the optical-disk fray by leveraging its OS clout to bundle HD-DVD within Vista, the company's next-generation OS. There is also talk that the software giant may be planning to offer cash incentives—in the form of "coupons"—to system vendors or retailers if they agree to support HD-DVD. Such coupons would provide "credits" or "memos" for each PC that is sold with HD-DVD inside.
Microsoft would neither confirm nor deny such reports. Asked about financial incentives, the company might be dangling in front of PC OEMs to lure them into the HD-DVD camp, a spokesman said, "Microsoft doesn't comment on the details of meetings we've had with our partners."
One fact, however, is hard to miss: In the short span, Microsoft has gotten through to Hewlett-Packard Co. HP, which still sits on the board of the Blu-ray Disc Association and previously supported the Blu-ray format exclusively, joined the HD-DVD Forum in December last year. This semi-reversal came in the wake of a series of meetings with Microsoft, said Maureen Weber, general manager of HP's Personal Storage Business.
Many consumer electronics executives involved in negotiations with PC OEMs believe there is more to the story of HP's flip. Some sources expect clarifications and new developments to emerge.
Dell Inc., for its part, has no intention of switching its support from Blu-ray, Brian Zucker, a Dell technology strategist who sits on the Blu-Ray DVD committee, told EE Times. "The only reasons we would make a change would be if we saw significant customer demand not to back the format we have been working on," he added.
Dell chose Blu-ray for two reasons: higher capacity (25GB for an entry-level disk, compared with about 15GB for a basic HD-DVD) and longer list of industry backers. Two years later, Dell now feels it has a vested interest in Blu-ray because it helped make sure the spec represented its customers' interests, Zucker said. In his opinion, slight differences in the copy-protection scheme for Blu-ray will not prevent users from making so-called "managed copies" of content on the disks, a feature that he said was a priority for both camps.
Intel provides no optical-disk technology, so a difference of opinion between Dell and Intel on the subject has little impact on the PC maker. Likewise, Microsoft, which does not make optical drives, has a history of letting third-party software companies supply key optical-disk support rather than write its own optical-disk code into Windows.
Given that history, the question for many industry watchers is: Why is Microsoft siding with HD-DVD, a format that has generated relatively little enthusiasm among Hollywood studios and hardware vendors?
While Dell may have no idea about Microsoft's motives, those in the consumer electronics industry have several theories. Many, who spoke on condition of anonymity, believe Microsoft is committed to prolonging the format war, not necessarily winning the battle for HD-DVD. Rather, they say, HD-DVD is a Trojan horse, rolled into the format war to create advantages in battles yet to be fought—especially against Sony Corp.
Xbox vs. Playstation
Consider, for example, Microsoft's Xbox 360. The game console is already on the market, despite the absence of a high-definition strategy, said one source. The Xbox 360 is based on a current-generation DVD drive. The longer the next-generation HD-DVD format battle persists, the better the opportunity for Microsoft to downplay the HD capability scheduled for integration in Sony's upcoming Blu-ray-based Playstation 3 game machine.
Second, a drawn-out high-definition optical-disk format battle helps Microsoft buy time to promote its connected-home strategy. By undercutting the value of standalone pre-recorded media devices, Microsoft hopes to accelerate a consumer electronics transition into the brave new world of "downloadable" content, some observers say.
As Peter Barrett, CTO of the Microsoft TV Division, explains it, the company believes that "the point of integration, the point of convergence, is the service, not the device."
In Microsoft's view, next-generation consumer devices will no longer be simply connected to one-way broadcast or removable media. Rather, the company envisions HD-DVD players tied to the network via subscription services. In essence, said a longtime Microsoft observer, by leveraging its .Net strategy, Microsoft "wants to become the telephone company of the living room."
Third, the classic battle between Microsoft and CE companies always comes down to the stickiest issue: to Java or not to Java.
For Microsoft, hoping to establish control over the software platform in the living room, support for HD-DVD is critical in this regard. The format uses iHD, an XML-based technology, to add interactivity, rather than Sun Microsystems Inc.'s Java language.
In contrast, consumer electronics companies are committed to deploying the Java-based Multimedia Home Platform in the Blu-ray format. MHP has already established itself in the TV world as the standard platform upon which to offer interactivity.
"For MHP, the industry already has development tools, experience and an installed base that will grow, regardless of any DVD decision," said Stu Lipoff, partner at IP Action Partners.
The Java-averse Microsoft "is trying to displace MHP so that they have a big dog in the fight," he said.
Meanwhile, Microsoft is blaming Blu-ray's use of Java for its potentially much higher royalties. Java-based Blu-ray format royalties include the licensing of the Globally Executable MHP standard, the cost of a Java test kit from Sun Microsystems and the cost of BD-Java, the version on which the Blu-ray Disc format is built, said HP's Weber.
PCs don't need Java because they already offer interactivity. In contrast, consumer electronics companies do need Java to make their end-products interactive. Just as consumer electronics manufacturers regard integrating Microsoft's Windows as overkill, HP feels that Java in a PC platform is too costly.
Big backers
Until Microsoft stepped into the battle, the Blu-ray Disc format was gaining ground steadily over HD-DVD, with support from a majority of major studios in Hollywood—with the exception of NBC Universal—and a much longer list of hardware companies than HD-DVD can boast. Besides Dell and fellow computer maker Apple, supporters include Hitachi, LG Electronics, Matsunutsa (Panasonic), Mitsubishi, Philips, Pioneer, Samsung, Sharp, Sony, TDK and Thomson.
But even with that list of heavyweights, nobody is declaring a Blu-ray victory because everyone understands the sheer power Microsoft can—and often does—exercise, all by itself.
Asked whether Microsoft was offering Dell or anyone else financial incentives to join the HD-DVD consortium, Dell's Zucker said, "I have not heard anything about that, nor would I comment on it."
The last few months have seen a tug-of-war between the Blu-ray and HD-DVD camps over HP and Dell. Negotiations that played out at a very high level, according to sources familiar with the situation, resulted in HP's flip and Dell's refusal to budge.
But even as they claim victory by keeping Dell on board, Blu-ray backers are not anxiety-free. No one in the consumer industry can ever safely ignore the Microsoft/Intel support for HD-DVD. There is no assurance that the alliance within the Blu-ray group, now united against Microsoft, will remain tight forever.
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Post by dkennedy on Feb 9, 2006 8:28:18 GMT -5
Blu-ray Discs Won’t Be Cheap
Consumers will likely pay lots more than the $23.45 wholesale price Sony Pictures will charge for its high-definition DVDs.
February 8, 2006
Red Herring News
High-definition DVDs may promise better picture and sound quality but consumers will have to pay dearly for it, with Sony Pictures saying Wednesday new releases in the format will cost $23.45 wholesale—or more than 50 percent higher than today’s retail price for regular DVDs.
Sony Pictures is the first Hollywood studio to release pricing on its high-definition DVDs expected to be introduced early this summer. The discs will be issued in Sony’s Blu-ray format, which is competing with the HD-DVD format for control of the next-generation DVD market (see HD-DVD vs Blu-ray War Still On). HD-DVD is backed by Toshiba.
Some of the movies to be released in the first batch by Sony are The Fifth Element, Desperado, Hitch, House of Flying Daggers, Legends of the Fall, and Terminator. Sony’s wholesale price of $23.45 for Blu-ray discs is 56 percent more than the $14.99 it costs to buy a new DVD of Hitch from BestBuy.com. A Terminator DVD is available for $9.99.
Sony said it will be up to retailers to settle on a retail price for Blu-ray discs, according to Reuters, but retail prices are typically much higher than wholesale prices.
The company said catalog titles, or older titles, will have a wholesale price of $17.95, which the company said was the wholesale price of DVDs when they were first released in 1997.
“Our intent is to create a critical mass of movies and displays at retail that will showcase the escalating availability and abundance of both BD software and hardware in the marketplace,” said Benjamin Feingold, president of Sony Pictures Home Entertainment, in a statement.
Three-Year Duel
So far, there haven’t been any details on pricing of discs by Toshiba’s rival HD-DVD format. Sony and Toshiba have been dueling for three years regarding which format will emerge as the dominant one in the high-definition DVD market, estimated to eventually be worth some $40 billion.
Sony is expected to release four catalog titles per month starting this summer. By the fourth quarter of 2006, the company is expected to speed up its release schedule to 10 titles per month.
At least one analyst believes the pricing for Blu-ray discs is fair.
“It seems to be pretty much how much DVDs cost when they first came out and if you look back to the DVD, it was well-accepted [by consumers],” said Wolfgang Schlichting, an analyst with research firm IDC.
Hardware for the Blu-ray format is expected to launch sometime between spring and summer. Hardware manufacturers announced timing and prices of their players at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas in early January.
Pioneer said it plans to market its Blu-ray player in June for about $1,800. Samsung plans a similar machine in the spring for about $1,000. Toshiba, meanwhile, promised to have two HD-DVD-based models out by March at prices of $500 and $800.
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Post by dkennedy on Feb 16, 2006 9:03:58 GMT -5
New DVDs already sparking copy-protection confusion
February 16, 2006
By John Borland, CNET News.com
When the first high-definition DVDs finally hit shelves this spring, a mad scramble may ensue--not for the discs themselves, but to figure out what computers and devices are actually able to play them in their full glory.
Unraveling the mystery won't be easy. Many, if not most, of today's top-of-the-line computers and monitors won't make the cut, even if next-generation Blu-ray or HD DVD drives are installed.
That's because strict content protection technologies may automatically degrade the DVDs' picture quality, or even block them from playing at all, if the right connections and digital protections aren't in place. Even the most expensive computers sold today mostly lack those features.
Indeed, the consumer backlash has already begun. Graphics-chip makers such as ATI and Nvidia are drawing criticism online for marketing products that are "ready" for these new copy-protection tools but that nevertheless lack critical features needed to let the discs play at top quality.
"This is a sticky issue," said Richard Doherty, an analyst with the Envisioneering Group. "It's going to be very confusing for consumers, and it's going to be very daunting" for computer makers.
The copy-protection muddle stems from Hollywood studios' desire to avoid the film piracy that was born when tools for unlocking the encryption technology on today's DVDs began spreading online in late 1999.
Along with a picture quality upgrade, the new generation of DVDs will be shipped with new digital rights management controls, with strict computerized rules attached saying exactly when and how a movie can be played.
For people who buy standalone DVD players and HDTVs, this mostly won't be a concern, as the right plugs will generally already be built in.
But computer buyers will face a far more challenging landscape. The everyday analog plug that connects most computers to monitors today doesn't support copy protection, and so is viewed as unsafe by Hollywood studios. Movies playing on a computer over this ordinary analog connection will likely be downgraded to near-DVD quality.
Even worse is the so-called DVI plug that sends high-quality digital signals to a monitor but also doesn't support copy protection.
That offers an even greater risk of copying in Hollywood's eyes. Studios have persuaded Microsoft to add a feature in the upcoming Vista operating system that can shut down that connection altogether, unless the computer has an Intel-created encryption technology called HDCP, or High-bandwidth Digital Content Protection, turned on to guard the signal all the way to the monitor screen.
Put another way--if the DVD doesn't like your plug, your monitor may go black.
A newer connection technology called HDMI almost always comes with built-in encryption. If both the computer and the monitor have this installed, everything should work as planned.
Simple question--will it work?
Today, it's extraordinarily difficult to find information that explains whether a company's products will be compatible with the new DVDs.
Part of the problem is that the copy protection technology for the discs hasn't been officially announced, even though the new DVDs are supposed to hit shelves in just three months. A cross-industry group is working on a technology called the Advanced Access Content System, slated to protect both HD DVDs and Blu-ray discs, and is expected to release its work as soon as next week.
The HDCP technology has widely been expected to be a critical part of those rules, however. In an unusual step, Microsoft told computer makers last year, as part of a preview of its new Vista operating system, that they should start using the Intel-based technology in order to be ready for the high-definition video rules.
IBM engineer Don Leake, who works with the AACS group, confirmed Wednesday that Intel's HDCP would be approved under the new rights-management rules.
But this opens up a new set of potential land mines for consumers.
In one early example, graphics-card maker ATI has marketed some of its top products as "HDCP ready" and says that its newest "All-in-Wonder X1900" card "gives effortless playback of next-generation HD DVD."
However, it doesn't mention that "ready" probably won't be good enough to make the high-definition discs play at full quality. The graphics systems actually have to have the Intel technology turned on, which has to be done by the computer maker, or by ATI itself when it sells a graphics card at retail.
Nvidia, another big graphics-chip maker, says it too has built support for HDCP into its chip designs but that it's up to the computer makers to turn it on. Almost nobody has so far, and that's drawing bitter criticism from gamers and other hardware enthusiasts online, who call the situation a "nightmare."
"We certainly are concerned over end users, and we want to make sure there is no confusion," said Godfrey Cheng, ATI's director of marketing. "But we leave it in the hands of the board vendors and (computer makers) as to whether they want to put that in."
Much of what happens when discs are finally put into computer will ultimately depend on the movie studios themselves. On each disc, it's up to them to set the rules that make all of these alphabet-soup technologies swing into action.
For example, if studios are worried that consumers might be disappointed by degraded resolutions and blacked-out monitors, they could in theory relax those rules until the approved technologies are more widespread.
Backers of the new content protection tools say they're necessary to keep the high-definition discs at the cutting edge for years to come, however.
"What we're coming out with is something that's probably going to live for 15 years or more," IBM's Leake said. "HDCP, even though not well deployed today, will be well deployed in five years. We are planning for the future."
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Post by dkennedy on Feb 17, 2006 5:22:14 GMT -5
Toshiba to boost HD-DVD
February 17, 2006
By Thomas K. Arnold, Reuters
Toshiba American Consumer Products on Thursday announced an ambitious marketing push in support of HD-DVD but conceded that some of the high-definition optical disc format's interactive features won't be available in the two first-generation players slated to hit stores next month without a "firmware upgrade."
Meanwhile, sources close to the rival Blu-ray Disc camp say an agreement has been reached on an interim license for the AACS copy-protection system both formats will use, removing one of the final obstacles that had been standing in the way of a launch.
Toshiba has said its first two HD-DVD players will enter the market in March, and the three studios supporting the format -- Warner Home Video, Paramount Pictures Home Entertainment and Universal Studios Home Entertainment -- are planning to roll out software beginning March 28.
Backers of the Sony-developed Blu-ray Disc have been less specific about a launch date, saying only that they expect to be on the market by the summer.
The interim agreement gives hardware manufacturers and disc replicators access to secret encryption keys necessary to manufacture discs and players capable of reading them.
Toshiba's marketing push calls for a tour of more than 40 cities in which company representatives will demonstrate their players and drum up support for the HD-DVD format.
The tour commences February 21 at the Electronics Expo in Paramus, N.J., followed by a presentation the next day, February 22, at PC Richards in New York City.
Subsequent stops will be in Boston, Chicago, San Francisco and other cities nationwide.
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Post by dkennedy on Feb 17, 2006 8:51:07 GMT -5
12M HDTV Owners Could Lose High-Def DVD Pix
February 17, 2006
By Phillip Swann, tvpredictions.com
Anti-copying software in new DVDs could dilute the picture for 60 percent of the high-def audience.
I want to follow up on yesterday's item regarding copyright protection restrictions for the upcoming high-def DVD players, Sony's Blu-ray and Toshiba's HD-DVD.
I noted that CNET's News.com published an article suggesting sales of the new players could be hurt because PC owners might have trouble playing the new discs due to copyright protection software. (The anti-copying software would not be compatible with analog plugs used to connect most PCs to monitors.) At the very least, the picture quality of the DVD would suffer.
I commented that it was an absurd notion that DVD players sales would be significantly hurt because few people will actually want to watch the high-def DVDs on their PCs.
News.com wrote in the article that HDTV set owners should "mostly" be unconcerned by the copyright restrictions. Here's a quote from the article:
"For people who buy standalone (HDTV) DVD players and HDTVs, this mostly won't be a concern, as the right plugs will generally already be built in."
However, Ben Keen of the UK research firm, Screen Digest, pointed out to me that early-generation HDTVs with analog inputs (plugs) could have a problem with picture quality as well.
And how many HDTV homes are we talking about?
12 million!
Long story short, it will be up to the individual studios whether to include the copying restrictions in their movies. (They're not revealing their intentions at this time.) But if they do, 12 million HDTV owners might not get true HD if they play a high-def DVD. The picture quality would be squeezed to guard against piracy. (Apparently the picture quality would be about 25 percent of full HD resolution and just slightly better than the picture from a current DVD.)
The 12 million HDTV homes represent approximately 60 percent of the audience. Sixty percent of the current HDTV market could be short-changed.
If the studios include the anti-copying restrictions and the word gets out -- and I will do everything in my power to ensure that it does -- the new DVD could be DOA.
This issue is far from over. But I thought you would want to know that the industry is at it again -- making HDTV far more complicated than it should ever be.
Yesterday, I asked a spokeswoman for Blu-ray to comment but she passed the buck to another office, which did not return my message. But I will stay with the issue and file an update in the next few weeks.
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