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HD News: Westinghouse shows off the Quad 2160p (3840 x 2160 pixels) HDTVFrom TomsHardware.com
LG to Announce Blu-ray / HD DVD Hybrid Drive at CESFrom BetaNews.com
Studios Take Claims of AACS Crack SeriouslyFrom BetaNews.com...
Panasonic Unveils $1,300 Blu-ray PlayerPanasonic on Thursday announced plans to debut its first Blu-ray Disc player, along with a matching receiver and speaker system for home theater enthusiasts. But moving to the high-definition format won't come cheap; Panasonic's DMP-BD10 player will cost $1,300 USD. | more... Toshiba to Deliver HD DVD RecorderToshiba on July 14 will launch in Japan the world's first HD DVD recorder, following the debut of its HD DVD player in March. The device, the RD-A1, will include one terabyte of hard disk space and can store up to 130 hours of high-definition programming. | more... High Definition Encodes of Superman Returns Trailer 2 Now Online
Microsoft, Universal Team on HD DVDMicrosoft and Universal Studios announced at the National Association of Broadcasters Convention in Las Vegas Monday a collaboration to use Microsoft technologies in upcoming HD DVD discs. The Redmond company is a strong supporter of the next-generation DVD technology. Universal has agreed to use iHD, an interactivity feature for DVDs, in its upcoming titles. Additionally, it will use VC-1, a compression protocol recently approved as a standard for use in HD DVD discs. Both technologies were developed in part by researchers at Microsoft. VC-1 will allow Universal to offer full 1080p resolution, yet have enough space on the 30GB HD DVD disc for additional features. iHD will allow for the accessing of interactive features without the need to interrupt playback. | more... Toshiba Launches 1st HD-DVD Player in JapanToshiba began selling the world’s first HD-DVD player on Friday in Japan, moving the format battle between the world’s largest consumer electronics makers from the floors of trade shows to retail stores. HD-DVD is backed by Toshiba, the DVD Forum and companies including Microsoft and Intel, and is vying for supremacy with Blu-ray Disc, which is backed by Sony, Matsushita Electric Industrial (Panasonic), Samsung Electronics and others, in the race to replace DVD for high-definition content. Toshiba’s first player, the HD-XA1, is one of two models first shown at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas in January. It’s scheduled to go on sale in the United States in April along with another player, but the Japan launch Friday marks the first time a dedicated player for either format has reached the market. | More... Niveus Media Announces Support for HD-DVD High Definition DVD FormatNiveus Media, Inc., manufacturer of media entertainment devices for the high-end audio/video market, has announced that it will support the HD-DVD format and will begin shipping the technology in its line of Niveus Media Centers which utilize Intel® Viiv™ technology platform, designed to enhance and help manage the enjoyment of digital entertainment in the home.
“While we may have additional announcements later this year regarding the Blu-Ray disc format, we are ready to announce that product development is well underway to deliver HD-DVD in the award-winning Niveus Media Center by mid-2006” said Tim Cutting, CEO & Founder, Niveus Media. “By combining our award winning ISF-certified Niveus Media Center, with HD-DVD and Intel Viiv technology, Niveus Authorized Dealers will have a powerful solution to bring their clients into the high definition DVD era. We’re looking forward to being one of the first to offer dealers an HD-DVD experience in a Intel Viiv technology based system. ” | More... Sometimes its better to go with the cheaper anteanna...I've been tinkering with OTA Antennas for the last few months in an attempt to pick up more digital channels for my HD TV Tuner to decode. My father has been designing and building radios since he was in High School and manages a fairly large Ham radio repeater network up on Cougar Mountain in Issaquah (K7PP). I figured if anyone could school me on setting up an antenna, he could. So I explain my current set up to my dad, and I can hear him quietly chuckling over the phone. Here are a couple of helpful tips that my father gave me: - For folks located near multiple broadcast towers, you want a shorter antenna with a shorter range and a wider field of focus wider field of focus. If I want to hit all nine to twelve broadcast antennas in the Puget Sound region, I need an antenna(s) that can cover a range of about 170 degrees (ug!)… - For folks trying to cover a wide broadcasting range like myself, get two or three shorter antennas, orient them towards the towers your attempting to pick signals up from. - Cabling is very important, I shouldn’t be using the 75 foot length of dual lead running off my roof and should instead slap a 300ohm dual lead to 70 ohm coax converter right on the antenna. - For folks running multiple antennas on their roof, if you can combine all of the signals into one as close to the television or HD converter box/card as possible. Combining each line just before the signal is decoded will eliminate cross-talk while at the same time boosting your signal just enough to fix any herringbone, ghosting, or weak digital signal issues from running long lengths of cable that you may be having. - Most importantly, get some agile light-weight kid that you trust to mount the antenna on your roof for you… ATI and HDCP Support"According to the Microsoft specification, high-definition video content that is transported using a DVI signal must be encrypted with HDCP. If HDCP is not present, regardless of whether an attempt at copying is made or not, the video is scaled down to low resolution to deter copying. For a manufacturer that wishes to use HDCP technology on its products, a signup with Digital CP is required. Upon a signed agreement, the manufacturer must pay the committee an annual fee of $15,000 and a royalty fee of $0.005 per product sold. This allows a manufacturer to provide DVI/HDCP support, sufficient for high-resolution output. If a manufacturer wants to implement HDMI, a DVI-compatible connector, an additional $15,000 annual fee to HDMI is needed along with $0.04 per product. To actually implement HDCP protection, unique keys are required on a per product basis which is provided by the committee and requires implementation at the manufacturing level. According to NVIDIA, an extra chip is required that stores unique decoding keys.
Most of ATI's recent retail products are currently shipping with advertisements claiming that the products are HDCP-ready. On ATI's website, the term HDCP-ready was also used, for example on the X1900 series specifications page. Curiously, ATI's professional products such as FireGL list "HDCP-compliant". We spoke to ATI and asked it why the terminology difference and what the difference was in its view, between compliance and ready. Unfortunately, we did not receive a sound response to that question. In an interesting turn of events, today ATI has begun to silently remove references to HDCP-ready on its consumer products." [ more... ] New DVDs already sparking copy-protection confusionIt looks like CNET finally picked this one up: "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. " [ more... ] MovieBeam offers 1st high-definition movie rentalsA video-on-demand movie service spun out of Walt Disney Co. on Tuesday introduced the first delivery service for high-definition films to U.S. homes.
With top Hollywood and Silicon Valley partners, Burbank-California based MovieBeam said it plans to offer first-run films from six of the seven film studios in standard digital-video format and high-definition films from Disney (NYSE:DIS - news) and Warner Bros. studios. The video-on-demand service is aimed at heavy movie renters and initially will be offered in 29 U.S. cities, including New York, Chicago and Los Angeles, at prices competitive with renting the same movie at video retailer Blockbuster (NYSE:BBI - news). Some movies will be made available at the same time as they come out on DVD, MovieBeam said. "They appear to be ready to deliver true high-definition movies. That‘s a breakthrough," said Gerry Kaufhold analyst In-Stat/MDR. MovieBeam, which was founded by Walt Disney four years ago, appeared to have run out of steam when Disney took a $24 million write-down on the company last summer. It was revived last month with a $48.5 million cash infusion from Disney, Cisco Systems Inc. (Nasdaq:CSCO - news), Intel Corp. (Nasdaq:INTC - news) and three venture capital firms. MovieBeam bypasses network bottle-necks through a technology called "datacasting," which broadcasts up to 10 new movies a week to subscribers using an exclusive transmission deal to send data signals over the Public Broadcasting System network. [ more... ] Blu-ray Discs Won’t Be CheapHigh-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. [ more... ]
Bush Signs Digital TV Transition BillU.S. President George Bush on Wednesday signed a bill that will open up a chunk of highly coveted radio spectrum to new mobile broadband applications and to public safety agencies.
Bush signed into law legislation setting February 17, 2009, as the date U.S. broadcasters must end transmission of analog television signals and move to all-digital broadcasts. The move from the upper-700-MHz spectrum band will free 60 MHz of wave space for auction to mobile wireless carriers and 24 MHz for emergency response agencies.
TV viewers who receive over-the-air signals on analog TV sets will need to buy converters to get any TV signals after the transition. The bill Bush signed includes up to $1.5 billion in funding to provide two $40 vouchers per household to use toward the purchase of digital-to-analog set-top converter boxes. [ more... ]
High-definition hype splashes beyond TVsThe term "high-definition" was almost a curse five years ago, when politicians, broadcasters and TV makers were reluctant to hoist massive changes upon the nation's television landscape.
Suddenly the same term - originally meant to describe greater density in TV displays - is being used to tout all kinds of products. Skin creams. Sunglasses. Laminate counter tops. There's even "Starting High Definition Churches" - a book with guidance on building an HD church with "improved clarity" and "higher resolution." The new worshipful aura of HD brings a laugh to Dale Cripps, the founder of HDTV Magazine. But the HDTV evangelist quickly turns serious. As the United States marches from analog TV toward the full glory of digital TV, consumers have to wade through hype, linguistic imprecision and a new foreign language. Market research shows many people are downright confused, which isn't ideal when they're spending $2,000 or more on a new TV. [ more... ] AOL Goes P2P for VideoTime Warner Inc. (NYSE: TWX - message board) division AOL will use a peer-to-peer approach borrowed from the file-sharing world of Kazaa and BitTorrent when it begins delivering high-definition Internet video to consumers next month.
Punisher among first to be released on Blu-ray DiscYahoo Finances has posted a press release from Lionsgate revealing their line up for the very first Blu-ray disc. The new disc that is able to hold up to 25 GB single layer and 50 GB dual layer is the new wave of HD DVD ready Discs and will be used in the new upcoming Playstation 3. Sony the manufactures of the disc believe this to be the wave of the future. Lionsgate so far is the first studio to announce they will release such a line up. With titles including LORD OF WAR, T2: JUDGMENT DAY, RESERVOIR DOGS, THE PUNISHER, SAW, more will be added as they come. || Source: Comic Book Movie
WMV HD 720p Firefly trailer available onlineI just noticed that the SciFi channel is airing two hours of Joss Whedon's "Firefly" tonight, and that the SciFi web site is linking to a beautiful WMV HD trailer for the show. Update to enable DirectX Video Acceleration (DXVA) of Windows Media Video content in Windows Media Player 10A supported hotfix is now available from Microsoft which enables Microsoft DirectX Video Acceleration (DXVA) of Microsoft Windows Media Video (WMV) content in Microsoft Windows Media Player 10 for video cards when the drivers of those video cards are designed to take advantage of this feature. Click here for more details. |
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