HD DVD Hardware and Content ``Now Playing'' at the Consumer Electronics Show; Leading

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January 04, 2006 11:30 PM US Eastern Timezone
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HD DVD Hardware and Content ``Now Playing'' at the Consumer Electronics Show; Leading Consumer Electronics and PC Companies Unveil New HD DVD Hardware; Hollywood Studios Showcase Availability of HD DVD Content Starting March 2006

2006 International CES
LAS VEGAS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jan. 4, 2006--The HD DVD Promotion Group, a multinational organization comprised of more than 120 top consumer electronics, IT, disc replication and entertainment companies, today announced at the 2006 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas that next-generation, HD DVD players and leading film content will be widely available in the U.S. market beginning March 2006.

At a press conference featuring top executives from each industry, Toshiba demonstrated the unparalleled sights and sounds created by the company's first two production HD DVD player models. The players will be available in the U.S. in March 2006, with prices starting at $499.99 -- ushering in a new era of high-definition home entertainment. Today online retailers, including Amazon.com, Best Buy.com, Crutchfield.com and Tweeter.com, have started accepting pre-orders.
Microsoft also announced it will offer a new Xbox 360 external HD DVD drive in 2006. The new drive will offer millions of Xbox 360 owners the ability to easily enjoy HD DVD movies, adding more high definition choices to the popular gaming and entertainment system.
Warner Home Video, Paramount Pictures Home Entertainment, Universal Pictures, HBO Video and New Line Home Entertainment were also on stage to announce that nearly 50 HD DVD titles, including "Aeon Flux," "Batman Begins," "The Bourne Supremacy," "Jarhead," "The Matrix "and "U2: Rattle & Hum," will be available this Spring to coincide with the launch of the players. The studios also outlined plans to release additional titles throughout the year. More than 150 titles are expected to be available in time for the 2006 holiday season.
"We're proud that HD DVD will be appearing in a living room near you in a matter of weeks, with affordable players and the hottest film titles," said Yoshihide Fujii, corporate senior vice president and president and CEO of Digital Media Network Company, Toshiba Corporation. "With the support of leading studios, consumer electronics manufacturers and PC industry titans, I can confidently say that HD DVD will have the time to market advantage and the breadth of content to show consumers that this is the next-generation HD format."
"We have reached a point where consumer interest in high-definition programming far outweighs availability," said Warren Lieberfarb, chairman of Lieberfarb & Associates and an American Film Institute board member. "As the first widely available high definition format to market, HD DVD will help satisfy the ever-growing consumer appetite for great movies with mind-blowing extras. Between Warner Home Video, Paramount Pictures Home Entertainment and Universal Pictures, they are responsible for more than half of the major feature films and television programs ever developed and their movies make up more than fifty percent of the American Film Institute's top 100 films of all time."
Retail Support
Retail outlets, including Best Buy, Crutchfield, Sears and Tweeter, plan to carry HD DVD players and movies beginning in March.
"High definition televisions have been extremely popular on Amazon.com, so we know our customers are eager to start enjoying more high definition programming," said Greg Hart, director of North American Music, DVD, and Computer and Video Games for Amazon.com. "With attractively priced players, numerous top-selling DVDs soon to be available in high definition and widespread industry support, we expect our customers to take advantage of the opportunity to start building their HD DVD libraries today."
Additionally, CustomFlix, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Amazon.com, plans to provide an opportunity for small studios and filmmakers to utilize disc-on-demand technology to offer packaged high definition content much earlier, faster and more efficiently than may otherwise be possible with traditional replication methods.
Texas Instruments, which is leading the industry in maximum-HD 1080p resolution DLP HDTV technology as the number one selling 1080p television at retail, also announced strong support for HD DVD as well.
Accelerating Digital Convergence
As the first high-definition format to reach the mass market, HD DVD will provide consumers with stunning picture and sound quality, taking full advantage of high-definition televisions and home theater systems. The entertainment experience extends well beyond today's DVDs, allowing new and innovative ways to view movies and access bonus content. The format will also give consumers the opportunity to securely transfer high definition content for storage on their PC's hard disk drive, stream over a home network or even synchronize to a portable media player.
Enthusiasm for HD DVD was echoed at the press conference by prominent leaders in the IT industry. Microsoft reaffirmed that it will build the infrastructure to support HD DVD into the upcoming Windows Vista operating system coming later this year and HP was welcomed as the newest member of the HD DVD Promotion Group. Toshiba also demonstrated its AV notebook PCs, featuring slim-type HD DVD ROM drives, while NEC, a leading Japanese PC manufacturer, offered a strong commitment to enhancing the momentum for next-generation PCs with HD DVD drives.
About HD DVD
The DVD Forum develops and defines DVD formats. Its 240-strong membership brings together leaders in movies and entertainment, computing, consumer electronics and software. In November 2003, the DVD Forum adopted the HD DVD format as the next-generation, post-DVD standard for high capacity, high definition optical discs.
HD DVD discs are based on the same physical disc structure as current DVDs, which enables manufacture of highly reliable hardware and discs at a reasonable cost. The format is supported by cutting-edge blue laser technology. It uses newly developed data processing techniques and takes advantage of leading-edge advanced video compression standards such as MPEG4-AVC and VC-1, as well as MPEG-2.
The HD DVD Promotion Group was created to help bring HD DVD products and content into the marketplace and share its promotional activity among members to encourage the broad acceptance of the platform on a worldwide basis. Its 124-member list includes Toshiba Corporation, Microsoft, Intel, HP, SANYO, NEC, Memory-Tech, Warner Home Video, Paramount Pictures Home Entertainment and Universal Pictures.
For more information and a complete listing of HD DVD launch titles please visit http://www.hddvdprg.com/press.
Questions about each company's plans may be individually addressed to each company.
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Contacts
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Weber Shandwick (press only)
Dean Rodgers, 503-552-3737
deanrodgers@webershandwick.com
or
Michelle Blaya, 310-854-8243
mblaya@webershandwick.com
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Oh snap, coming in before, and much cheaper, than blu ray...If blu ray wasn't in ps3 i'd think this would be a big deal...

External HD-DVD drive for xbox 360 is interesting...Now people don't have to buy a new system if their lasers fail (or they want to upgrade), very interesting...
 
You can also view HD via component cables - the only option with XBox 360.
 
But will it be full Res? So here is my other question the HD DVD player will they let me view 720 and or 1080i through Components? At Bestbuy ( The link below says only through HDMI 720 or 1080

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage...I?id=1134699969167&skuId=7652523&type=product

Delivers greatly enhanced video performance with standard DVDs by upconverting their video resolution to HDTV-compliant 720p or 1080i via the HDMI interface
 
LOBO2999 said:
But will it be full Res? So here is my other question the HD DVD player will they let me view 720 and or 1080i through Components?
Yes it will. Of course, one may argue that digital HDMI interface offers better quality than an analog component interface, but that's a completely different discussion. Formally, component interface does offer 720p and/or 1080i resolution, otherwise it cannot be called HD.

Where does it say "only"? I've searched the entire page for the word "only" and can't find it... :D

The HD-A1 has component outputs too. Yes, for some reason they only mention HDMI when talking about upconverting regular DVDs. Not sure if this is really a limitation or not, but it doesn't matter, since you were asking about HD DVDs, not about upconverting regular DVDs.
 
Purogamer said:
Oh snap, coming in before, and much cheaper, than blu ray

I think this is a bit of a stretch. At this time at least.

1. The upper level HD DVD model (that is the most comparable to the announced Blu-Ray) is the $800 model not the entry level $500 model. AND weren't these HD DVD estimated "street prices" as opposed to MSRP?

2. The only MSRP on Blu-Ray I have seen yet is the overly arrogant Pioneer Elite model crap @ $1800 MSRP Elite's egotistical pricing makes Sony's pricing look cheap. No one should buy this hyped garbage. You should see $800 - $999 MSRP Blu-Rays from better companies.

3. HD DVD made a smooth business move by waiting for Blu-Ray to make announcements first so their's would seem even better. BUT we all know this is just pure speculation until we see them on the shelf. AND things always change between now and then.

4. Bottom line = both versions of hardware with be within easy price reach, from one or the other and then the emphasis with shift back where it belongs; which the superior product.

5. No one can compare of claim leads or wins until a month or two on the retail floor together.
 
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Thanks Ilya for the info, I was leaning towards not getting into the HD DVD era if I could not watch an HD Movie in full res becaue I only have component imputs.
 
I am sure like most they will wait it out a few months after both are released. Considering the players are supposed to be 100% backward compatible with current DVDs there will be no rush to switch and can allow the dust to settle and the prices fall.
 
There will be millions of Blu-ray drives in the home of everyone that buys a PS3. With no such tie in for HD-DVD, its only market seems to be rabid early adopters. HD-DVD will be lucky to do as well as D-VHS before dying off entirely.
 
ramy said:
Well, I hate to be the one to burst your bubbles but neither HD-DVD nor Blu-Ray will allow HD passthrogh from the component video cables. This was announced last year sometime.
http://www.engadget.com/2005/07/12/toshibas-hd-dvd-players-will-do-high-def-only-via-hdmi/
http://hardware.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=05/07/12/0233228&from=rss
http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/article/ds22406.html

well this being the case , I will never have to buy a HD DVD player . I got a top of the line Tv 3 years ago an it only has Component imputs , Its a Mitsubishi 65712 & it wasnt cheap and I am not getting another Tv.
 
Same here

I paid over $2600 for my Toshiba 57H81 just four years ago and it only has component inputs. I am not going to upgrade my Toshiba SD9200 (I paid $699 for that too) reference quality DVD player any time soon.
 
Just for a little clarification here, while component outputs can easily handle 720p/1080i you are NEVER going to see this from the big name companies. A prime example are current upconverting DVD players, they only officially support upconverting over HDMI, component is 480 only (there are ways to get some of them to unoffically upconvert over component).

Take a look at it this way, if your HDTV only has component inputs or you only have 1 HDMI that is being used, the manufacturers want to sell you another new TV/AV reciever. The consumers are getting screwed over with this HDMI/protection system. We have to thank Hollywood, the federal govt and the hardware manufacturers as none of them give a crap about you/me.

The above is also why I will be sticking with my current DVD hardware, they are penalizing us/deliberately making perfectly capable hardware obsolete.

Alt
 
Ilya said:
You can also view HD via component cables - the only option with XBox 360.

Ilya,
Do you (or anyone else) use anything different than the component cables provided with the 360 to connect to your TV? I have HDMI input as well as component and was wondering if I could use it to get a better pic from the 360.

Thanks.
 

Flexible Bill and Bluray

Samsung to launch dual-standard DVD player (maybe not!)

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