Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Home Theater One step closer to HD DVD

I read an article when I was on holidays in the Shanghai Times (I think that was the paper) saying that the HD DVD Steering Group had come to a decision on which format to go forward with for the future HD DVD technology. There was two competing parties, Toshiba/NEC and another group with Sony/Phillips/Samsung and a couple other companies. It seems they picked the Toshiba/NEC technology. It is apparently very similar to existing DVD technology, and the main reason it was chosen (actually less storage per disc than the other companies entry) is that manufacturers would be able to simply modify existing manufacturing processes to produce new players/software. Apparently, the Sony technology didn't allow this. I haven't been able to find any info on either companies website on this though. Sounds like it's at least another year away, but it's pretty exciting.

Sorry I don't know much more than that, I forgot to save the article, but I did find this link with a bit of info:

http://www.hddvd.org/hddvd/

Yeah, Sony wants blue lazer and keep using mpeg2. So, dvd will have bigger storage. However, toshiba's approach is to choose a better codec (something evolved from mpeg4). In which all you need is to change the codec chip. All the dvd hardware remains the same. I think it can be interesting.

Another way to get HD DVD "today" is also available via WM9 using a HTPC(Home Theater PC) to a projector or a TV that accepts input from a HTPC. Terminator 2: Extreme Edition has this special 2nd Cd that has been encoded to play full 1920x1080p or 1280x720p using a PC that has window media 9. The resolution this way is phenominal and approaches full 1080p until they ratify HD DVD. I believe all those Hi-Bit DVD also possibly has this encoding. (I myself have not tried these ones out).
If you have a robust PC try out some of these HD encoded video clips.
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/content_provider/film/ContentShowcase.aspx
The detail in some of these clips are phenominal(except for the last 3). Please read min req. please before playing.

Saturn

ps: Panasonic I believe has a DVD player or is releasing a player that can play WM9 playable DVDs.

still a little while away, but sure is exciting...does anyone on this forum have one of the new Samsung DVD players??? Sounds like it'll upgrade the digital signal (increase resolution). I'd be afraid it would create more artifacts and degrade the picture more than it would help, but I have read one review that said it did improve the picture in most instances.

http://www.samsung.ca/cgi-bin/nasecabc/en/b2c/product/product_detail.jsp?LoginFlag=NO&prod_id=DVD-HD931%2fXAC

The new Pioneer Elite DV59-AVi does the same thing. Only it sells for about $1000 more. Any input on why the big price differnce.

probably has a DCDi chip built in internally.

btw, around 100mb for those HD video? Then a dvd can fit 40 of such video. How is the sound quality? Are they in stereo? Let's say they put in 5.1 sound, it will still be less than 200mb per video? No wonder avoiding blue lazer is a smarter move.

All of this is going to be a moot point. The studios are spending money like water remastering their libraries for DVD. Considering DVD is the fastest-selling consumer electronic format ever, there's no incentive for the studios to go back to the drawing board to churn out HD-DVDs.

HD-DVD is going to become like the laserdisc, for the specialty market only.

That totally depends on consumer demand. If people are willing to buy HD-DVD's they'll make them. HD TV's are selling like crazy. Why? For HDTV? Not likely. There's very little HDTV being broadcast.

I'm not saying it's certain to catch on, but I'm not giving up on the idea yet either. The studios would love nothing more than to have us all buy the movies we just bought on DVD again in a new format. Not only that, but all the new releases would be released in HD. They don't have to rush out and remaster all the old stuff again right away. Older titles could trickle in. (Much like DVD originally did.)

I believe some of the discs today are remastered in High Definition. I tried it out on my HTPC and it does work on Windows Media Player 9 where normally it should work only on my Software DVD player. Bad Boys 2, Sinbad Legend of the Seven seas (animated) ... read the back and it does say remastered in High Definition. I did notice that playing in HD on WM9 did not fully maximize to full screen. I did not try to compare picture quality. I just wanted to see if there as a difference.