HD For Indies

Too much stuff going on this week to fling a zillion articles at you individually, so here's the synopsis (mostly pulled from links from the very nice HDBLog.net):

Sony's got a VAIO with a Blu Ray burner, but it ain't all Skittles 'n Beer over there: Edward C. Baig: Personal Tech - Vaio may be first out of the Blu-ray box, but it has maddening glitches - Yahoo! News

HDBlog.net � Blog Archive � Plextor Launches BD PC Drive: "Blu-ray may be behind when it comes to selling stand-alone players, but there seems to be a lot of manufacturers making Blu-ray recorders for computers. Plextor has announced their PX-B900A BD writer. The PX-B900A can write BD-R and re-write BD-RE discs at 2x speed. It%u2019ll write up to 25GB on a single layer disc and up to 50GB on dual-layer discs.
Not only is it a dual-layer BD burner, but it does dual-layer DVD discs as well. It combines the DVD /-R/RW and RAM formats into one. Write speeds are 2x BD-R/BD-RE, 8x DVD R/-R/ RW, 6x DVD-RW, 4x DVD R/-R DL, 5x DVD-RAM, 24x CD-R and 16x CD-RW.
The Plextor PX-B900A BD writer will be available in September or October."


DigitalBattle � Blog Archive � Blu-ray & HD-DVD Hybrid: "Samsung and Toshiba have joined forces to end the format wars for good. They are releasing a hybrid player that plays both Blu-ray and HD-DVD formats. But that%u2019s not all! Sony and NEC are also releasing a dual-format player of Blu-ray and HD-DVD. This is back-up for Sony, since they did lose miserably with Betamax."

Mitsubishi's 30GB dual-layer HD DVD-R media ready in July - Engadget

DV.com on authoring HD DVD vs Blu Ray discs - discusses the very basics of the formats, then dives into some details about what the interactivity and authoring issues will be. Ends on a bit of a downer note about the difficulty of creating complex interactive titles for these formats, but let's face it - I'm guessing 90-95% of the high def DVD content released in the next two years will pretty much be just like regular DVDs, just higher definition and perhaps with cooler menu stuff.

For indies, DVD Studio Pro already supports the HD DVD 1.0 spec. The Blu Ray 1.0 spec has only recently been finalized (and I'm presuming that because there are players and discs shipping), but DVD SP doesn't support that yet. Perplexing, since Steve Jobs said, with the head of Sony on stage, that we'd be able to author to Blu Ray last year....


Samsung BD-P1000 Blu-ray Player - extensive review of the first shipping Blu Ray player. At $1000, it boots faster than the first HD DVD player, responds faster to button input, but still takes half a minute (vs 45 sec on the HD DVD player) to power up and get a disc playing. Crappy/flimsy remote on this unit, too - attention manufacturers - if you're going to charge premium pricing for first round hardware, you'd damn well better make quality feeling components if you want to get any kind of market penetration. And while we're at it, HEY STUDIOS - how about some premium content to get us over to this format? 50 First Dates, xXx, etc. ain't gonna cut it! How much better do you think these players would sell if the Star Wars movies, War of the Worlds, Indiana Jones, Gone With The Wind, Wizard of Oz, etc. were released in high definition. But I digress. Anyway, based on this review, I'd STILL say hold off until some better built, better performing, more affordable units hit the market.


HDBlog.net � Blog Archive � Blu-ray Launch Tepid - headline says it all.


Pioneer BDR-101A Blu-Ray Drive Preview - this is the first (soon to be) commercially available Blu Ray burner for computers. They do a big geek out on it and delve into the details of it for use on PCs, no Mac commentary I saw unfortunately.

HDBlog.net � Blog Archive � JVC%u2019s New High-Speed LCD TVs that run at 120 Hz rather than 60Hz. It doesn't mention it, but I wonder if part of this is to run 24fps at quintuple flash, so there's no 3:2 pulldown? This would be killer for 24p high def movies. Not 1080p res, but I could see that coming down the road. The ultimate display? 1080p, triple or more flashed 24p, etc. Actually, come to think of it, you could sync it with glasses for 3D displays a la the way some modern 3D theatrical displays do with a pattern -

frame 1 - LRLRL
frame 2 - RLRLR
frame 3 - LRLRL
frame 4 - RLRLR

etc.....L=left eye image, R=right eye image. Just need active glasses and a synchronizer timer on top of the set...



Everything you ever, ever, every wanted to know about NVidia's PureVideo HD technology, which is how they're going to play protected HD content on computers with hardware decoding. Part 1, Part 2, Part 3

In short, to get it all to work, you'll need a PureVideo HD capable graphics card, PureVideo HD software, and a PureVideo HD approved drive to use their way of handling HD content. Eeeyikes! Yet MORE barriers to HD content adoption! I still think the content owners may have nearly killed the format and/or its adoption by locking down the content to the point of having to buy a new computer to watch this stuff, and the two competing standards could be the coffin nails in terms of mass consumer adoption. It'll take YEARS for all this to straighten out into an affordable, one clear standard world.

Samsung does NOT plan on releasing a HD DVD/Blu-ray combo player - HD Beat - so they're out...at least for now. A combo unit is, frankly, the only safe choice at this point.

HDBlog.net � Blog Archive � Panasonic Announces Blu-ray DateSamsung: now. Philips: 3rd quarter 2006. Pioneer: September or so. Sony: currently scheduled for October.
I used to say that Panasonic was going to release their BD player in November or so, but now we know that the actual date (if Panasonic can hold a promise) is September.



Toshiba Wants Combo HD Player - Gizmodo:Toshiba president Atsutoshi Nishida weighed in today with his opinion on a dual-format HD DVD/Blu-ray player, joining the chorus of other manufacturers who have edged ever closer to a unified format for high definition DVDs. Nishida said to an annual shareholders meeting:%u201CWe have not given up on a unified format. We would like to seek ways for unifying the standards if opportunities arise."


OK, Peace Out and Whatnot - time for a beer, it's a quarter to five on a Friday...ya'all have fun and/or be good this weekend, see you soon.

-mike