Toshiba has announced two HD DVD players for the European market, The HD-E1: Available in November for 599 euros supports 480p, 720p and 1080i as well as Dolby Digital Plus, Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD

The HD-XE1 goes for 899 euros and will be available in December. The HD-XE1 supports 480p, 720p, 1080i and 1080p and again audio support for Dolby Digital Plus, Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD. The XE1 includes HDMI 1.3 output.

More from Reuters.

R.Hollis

Taiwan Headlines is reporting that HP will roll out HD DVD Player/Media Centers in September. The device is described as a “Player” but I have to assume they mean Media Center, perhaps similar to the one below demonstrated at last years Consumer Electronics Show.

“Hewlett-Packard (HP) plans to roll out HD DVD players in September and has chosen Toshiba to make the machines for it. Toshiba will likely delegate the orders to Lite-On to pare down production costs.”

As always we’ll report back with more details as they become available. Source

R.Hollis

Just a quick update this morning on HD DVD firmware update 2.0, as of early this morning 08/25/2006 2.0 is live and ready for ethernet updates.

No word on the official contents of the update but considering that a disc image of the update has been floating around the internet for several days, we can make at least a few educated guesses as to what’s included.

?Dolby TrueHD support
?Improved 720p Performance
?Miscellaneous ethernet connectivity improvements

I’ll update once the official release notes are updated.

–Update– Official release notes updated:

“This firmware update adds support for certain anticipated network delivered content in future HD DVD discs, improves certain video and audio processing capabilities, as well as addresses certain disc playback and HDMI/DVI related problems identified by Toshiba.”

–Second Update–

I’ve verified Dolby TrueHD audio support is working.
720p does indeed appear to have been improved. (although I still prefer the image at 1080i)
There are new Ethernet options in the setup menu. (connection speed, cookie handling etc.)

R.Hollis

Innocuous, semi-questionable title aside, the North American HD DVD Promotional Group’s website got a bit of a makeover today. Some of the notable improvements to ‘The Look and Sound of Perfect‘ include a full color HD background, virtual comparisons of DVD versus HD DVD and a list of dates and locations for the revamped HD DVD Experience Tour, which is scheduled to begin this September.

Also updated is the list of HD DVD’s in the “Coming Soon” section. The list now includes titles like:

A Clockwork Orange, King Kong (2005), The Black Dahlia, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, How the Grinch Stole Christmas, Miami Vice (2006), Hulk, The Maltese Falcon, The Matrix, The Matrix Reloaded, The Matrix Revolutions, Twister, The Mummy, Blade Runner, Braveheart, The Deer Hunter, Dune (1985), Field of Dreams, Forrest Gump, The Ultimate Star Trek Collection, Grease, The Green Mile, Mission: Impossible, Mission: Impossible 2, Mission: Impossible 3, Mutiny on the Bounty, North by Northwest, Ocean’s Eleven, Ocean’s Twelve , Se7en, The Shining (1980)

Just to name a few?

R.Hollis

Hey look at that, Reign of Fire on HD DVD. I’m not quite sure what to make of this but it appears as if Pony Canyon will be distributing a Buena Vista Pictures/Spyglass Entertainment release on HD DVD in Japan.

Could this be the first of many? Are Buena Vista titles limited to Japan only? I’ll post an update as soon as I have more information.

Source Page: AV Watch
Translated: Google Translation (its rough)

–Update– ok I’ve already received a couple of email from folks who didn’t seem to get the tongue-in-cheek nature of the post. No Disney won’t be supporting HD DVD just yet; these discs are almost always released under an agreement to a independent distribution company by Buena Vista International. As it turns out this isn’t even the first ‘Buena Vista Pictures’ HD DVD, that honor goes to Finding Neverland.

R.Hollis

I wasn’t sure whether to laugh or scratch my head when I read this one. Apparently the editor of the ‘Official PlayStation Magazine’ won’t be buying a PS3 at launch because she “finds the concept of a $600 console insulting.”

Dana Jongewaard goes on to state that “I hope that the price drops soon so I can consider it.” Interesting stuff, the weird thing is I can’t get a feel for whether Dana’s typical or atypical of the average gamer.

She obviously has an interest in games but isn’t comfortable with the price, she also mentions that she has no interest in Blu-ray whatsoever. Will other gamers feel the same and turn their attention toward the Wii and Xbox 360? Only time will tell.

R.Hollis

There’s a bit of cheesecake in this video, so view at your own risk. But it’s damn funny.

I don’t even know what to say. But it sure isn’t viva le Blu-ray.

R.Hollis

This is an interesting change of events; it appears as if C|Net has revised their rating of the Samsung BD-P1000 from 6.6 to 5.8. Apparently C|Net has taken the poor performance of Samsung?s Blu-ray player to heart; they now rate the Toshiba HD-A1 higher than the Samsung player that costs $500 more.

The author notes that this revision is based on ?Samsung’s admission that the BD-P1000 suffers from a manufacturing flaw that adversely affects its video quality.? Which again is quite interesting considering that fact that Samsung customer service representatives are reading from a prepared statement that says:

“Our stance is that there is no defect, flaw, or bug with the Genesis chip as incorrectly reported by some blogs.”

It’s amazing how Beyond High Definition has tumbled into a confusing cacophony of press releases, CSR denials and ever evolving stances on the very format that Fox Home Entertainment?s Mike Dunn described as a “Blu-ray no-brainer for the consumer”.

Yes I’m aware that Samsung is but one supplier of Blu-ray hardware but the fact of the matter is, at the moment their the only supplier and first impression do matter.

Update: C|Net’s John P. Falcone explains the revised rankings.

R.Hollis

Not much in the way of details and no release date is mentioned but Caddyshack is coming to HD DVD!

Gophers!

Note: The Man Room?s “release July 27, 2006″ indicates the date the title was announced. At least that?s what I?m guessing because the title is not available (as of today’s date)

R.Hollis

I ran across an internal Intel employee communication on HD DVD, over at avsforum. It sheds some light on why Intel chose to back HD DVD in the first place and drives home some of my biggest reasons for going with HD DVD.

“We are not supporting HD DVD just for the sake of picking a format. Having the next generation of DVD technology out there is in our best interests, and we think HD DVD has the best chance of being successful.

It is the standard most compatible with previous formats, relies on established materials and manufacturing processes, and provides the most features for consumers.

Traditional CDs and DVDs are manufactured of aluminum and plastic with a spin coat on top. This process has a high yield in manufacturing. HD DVD uses this same manufacturing process.

To counter potential reliability problems with data stored only 0.1 mm below the surface of the substrate, Blu-ray uses a film technique similar to that used in silicon manufacture, adding a hard coat on top of a film similar to cellophane (but of higher quality).

The different materials mean that producing a Blu-ray disk with reliability comparable to an HD DVD disk can add up to 35 percent to the cost of the disk.”

Read the rest of this entry »

According to SkeekingAlpha by way of Yahoo Finance news Japan…

“Hitachi will be introducing a 2-3 terabyte hard disk drive HD-DVD recorder in 2007″

If this pans out, it would mark the second confirmed manufacturer of HD DVD player/recorders.

Now in all likelihood even if this story is true, the Hitachi player/recorder is very likely for Japanese consumption only but it would open the door for U.S. HD DVD player/recorders manufactured by Hitachi.

Source: SeekingAlpha Japan:

–update– looks like this one was a goof, the author added “Thanks for your comment pointing out the error in my posting about Hitachi’s forthcoming 2-3 terabyte HDD DVD component (not HDD HD-DVD).”

R.Hollis

“Lite-On IT plans to work with Toshiba to launch HD-DVD players at prices less than US$1,000 in the beginning of August while aiming to ship 50,000 Blu-ray players per month before year-end, according to the Chinese-language Apple Daily.”

That short, cryptic entry from DigiTimes Systems may very well be the first word of a HD DVD player other than the already released Toshiba HD-A1 and HD-XA1.

One obvious question would be, does ?work with Toshiba to launch HD-DVD players - in the beginning of August? mean the players will be released in August or production will start in August?

Or does this simply mean that Lite-on provides the HD DVD drives found in Toshiba?s players? and if so why the use of the word ‘launch’. Enquiring minds want to know!

R.Hollis

–Update– Confirmed here.