High definition DVD discussion on BBC

BBC did a piece this morning on the new DVD format.

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Tags: bbc, high definition, dvd

Microsoft unveils Xbox HD-DVD price, games partner

Microsoft said the high-definition DVD player for its new video game console will be available in mid-November in North America for $200, the United Kingdom for 130 pounds sterling, and France and Germany for 200 euros.

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Tags: microsoft, xbox 360, hd-dvd

Neowin at Digital Life: Sony Blu-ray

Blu-ray is, without a doubt, one of Sony's most important products in a long time. It's big enough that they took a flagship brand, PlayStation, and turned it into a steward for the new high definition media format. At the Digital Life convention, Sony showed off their own Blu-ray player, the Sony BDP-S1.

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Tags: blu-ray, sony, playstation 3

BBC to downgrade quality of its HD trial channel

Source: AV Zombie

The BBC has confirmed that it will be conducting a series of technical tests on its BBC HD channel to determine what is deemed an acceptable level of quality for HD consumers. To date, the quality of its HD broadcasts have been widely praised.The changes are intended for those on the terrestrial HD trial; it’s unclear as to whether the quality adjustments will also be visible on broadcasts using the Sky HD platform. Says the BBC HD team “The tests will help us test the range of standards for optimum range and quality of potential future services.”The Corporation’s technical trial will begin on the morning of Thursday October 12 and last for five days.

Tags: bbc hd

The History Channel HD

The History Channel HD is set to join the other 10 HD channels on Sky HD later this year. The ineup will include Engineering an Empire, Warrior Empire: The Mughals, Lost Gods and The Sahara, as well as HD presentations of The Plague, The Crusades: Crescent & The Cross, and Beyond the DaVinci Code.

Tags: history channel, hd, high definition, sky

It's a Knockout - Blu-ray vs HD DVD

Read the full article by Benny Har-Even at Trusted Reviews

"It wasn’t just with picture quality that the Blu-ray discs didn’t meet
expectations. With all that space I was hoping to see one of the spanky new High
Definition audio formats intended to go along with them, Dolby TrueHD, Dolby
Digital-Plus or DTS-HD Master Audio. However, the best there was listed on the
back of the box was uncompressed PCM 5.1."

Tags: blu-ray, hd dvd, high definition

HD DVD coming to Xbox 360

The drive will be available in mid November and should cost £130. With the new drive Xbox 360 owners will be able to watch high-definition HD DVD movies on their television through the console. The Xbox 360 was released just under a year ago with a standard DVD drive, adding the HD DVD option Microsoft hopes to be more competitive with Sony’s PlayStation 3, which will feature the rival Blu-ray Disc format.

Tags: hd dvd, xbox 360, microsoft

Blu-ray or HD DVD

Blu-ray

Backed by Sony, Samsung, Disney and 20th Century Fox, Blu-ray is one of 2 new High Definition DVD formats coming to the UK soon. Blu-ray systems use a blue-violet laser, similar to the one used for HD DVD, to read and write data, conventional DVDs and CDs use red and infrared lasers. Blu-ray discs can store about 9 hours of high definition video on a single layer 50 GB disc, this is considerably more than DVD's 4.7 GB. The major contributing factor to the possible success of Blu-ray will be the inclusion of a Blu-ray drive in the forthcoming Playstation 3 from Sony, thanks to Playstation large gamer following.

HD DVD

Backed by Toshiba, NEC and Sanyo, HD DVD also uses a blue-violet laser, but only holds 15 GB on a single layer disc although still plenty for high definition video. HD DVD is also being backed by Microsoft and Intel, with Microsoft releasing a seperate HD DVD drive for the XBox 360 in the future.

Format War

Who will win the format war? Until we start seeing the hardware and media appearing in the UK it's difficult to make a judgment. Although Blu-ray does seem to have the most backing and with the Playstation 3 due out next year, I think Blu-ray might just have it.

Gran Turismo Goes HD

The next incarnation of Gran Turismo (GTHD) for the Playstation 3 will be in High Definition. According to GameSpy GTHD won't be GT 5 but a kind of fully featured HD preview of the PS3's capabilities with GT 5 coming later. GTHD will come in 2 flavours Classic and Premium, the Premium edition

"will initially come with 30 cars and 2 tracks on the disc and have 30 more
cars and one more track downloadable. More downloads will be available over
time."

and the Classic edition

"is more of a 'rebuilding' of past GT assets in full HD along with added online
features. Eventually 770 cars, 51 tracks and 4,500 items will be downloadable
for GTHD Classic."

GTHD is scheduled for release in Mid 2007.

High Definition DVD Is Coming To The UK

The first High Definition DVD Player to come to the UK is set to hit the shelves next month, the Samsung BD-P1000 will be priced at around £999. This Blu-ray format player will be closely followed in November by the HD-DVD Toshiba HD-E1, at a more affordable £450 this is Toshiba's entry level offering which will be followed a month later by the HD-XE1 at around £650. The main difference between the two Toshiba players is the HD-E1 only outputs 1080i and the HD-XE1 outputs 1080p. If your thinking of making the move to HD soon it maybe worth waiting until December for the HD-EX1, at over £300 cheaper than the Samsung offering, it looks like an interesting proposition. It seems the run-up to Christmas and beyond is going to be exciting for the HD market, so keep an eye here for the latest news.

London Fashion Week in HD

Head over to shop.sky.com/hd now and click "Explore" then in the pop-up window click "More to Explore" and then "HD Video Clips". Be warned though as the download is 57Mb for a minutes worth of video.

Introduction

Welcome to my new blog, hopefully on these pages I will be able to bring you the latest news and views on the High Definition TV & Video scene. Please come back soon as I will be updating regularly. In the mean time if you have any news or info please let me know in the comments.