Better late than never I suppose, Paramount has announced their up-coming HD DVD’s releases for July 25th, August 1st and 10th.

HD DVD’s streeting on July 25th include: Sahara, Tomb Raider, Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow and Sleepy Hollow.

The Following Tuesday (August 1st) will see the release of: Four Brothers, We Were Soldiers and The Manchurian Candidate. Followed by: U2: Rattle and Hum, Aeon Flux and The Italian Job on August 8th.

Suggested retail for all of Paramount’s HD DVD’s is $29.95, as always keep an eye out for specials and promotional pricing.

R.Hollis.

Yes that’s what Ultimate AV’s Shane C. Buettner had to say (”Best HD image quality available on any format”) about HD DVD in his Toshiba HD-XA1 review. Now in all fairness he also noted the first generation players aren’t lightning fast loaders and do suffer from minor hang-ups, but take a look at some other comments from Mr. Buettner.

The image quality is, in short, everything we’ve hoped it could be, and represents a significant challenge to Blu-ray or any other format that comes down the pike. The picture is unequivocally the best I’ve seen in my home from any HD source. DirecTV is my broadcast HD source, and sometimes presentations on Showtime HD, Discovery HD, and the HDNet channels approach this level of quality, but they don’t quite get there

HD DVDs are unequivocally more film-like in the complete elimination of compression artifacts, motion artifacts, and certainly in the depth of the image and more convincing color saturation. In fact, I couldn’t see just how prevalent these artifacts are with DVD until watching these discs and noticing that they’d simply vanished. And again, even compared to the best broadcast HD I’ve seen the level of clarity is a clear and mighty cut above with the best discs.

Read Ultimate AV’s Toshiba HD-XA1HD DVD Player review, in full.

R.Hollis

The guys over at AV Forums have scored an exclusive interview with Olivier Van Wynendaele, assistant general marketing Toshiba Europe and have posted a transcript of the interview. Some interesting quotes about HD DVD’s European launch and HD DVD general include:

AVF: So, can you tell us how much they differ from the US machines?

Tosh: Well, what I can say is that our European players will be based on our second generation chassis, so they will be quite different from the players already available in the US today. I can?t give too much detail but, a few of the drawbacks which were reported to us by users in the USA with our two players there will be solved and therefore additional features not available there will be added to the European players.

AVF: Are Toshiba ever likely to make a universal HD-DVD/Blu-Ray player?

Tosh: We?ll keep this very short ? no, we?re not planning to do so for obvious reasons ? we?ve developed with NEC the HD-DVD format. This format was involved with the DVD Forum as the next generation DVD format and because of that, we don?t see why we should make combined players which play HD-DVD and Blu-Ray. We believe in our format, we believe it will be the definitive format, so we have no intentions of making a universal player.

Read the rest of this entry »

Toshiba has released firmware update version: 1.4 for their HD-XA1, HD-A1 and HD-D1 HD-DVD players, which is said to “address certain disc playback and HDMI/DVI related problems identified by Toshiba”.

As usual The players can be updated by one of two methods; either by attaching the player to an internet connection or requesting a firmware update disk from Toshiba as they become available.

At last check the update still wasn’t available to my player via ethernet but I’m told the updates are staggered out to individual players based on some unique identifier, possibly serial number or IP address, keep checking the update screen for availability.

–edit– 1.4 should be available via ethernet to all owners now.

R.Hollis

A duke and a king on HD-DVD, Warner Brothers has announced that The Dukes of Hazzard and Enter the Dragon will be released on HD-DVD July 11th.

“Dukes will be the second HD-DVD offered by WB with In-Movie Experience (IME) extra features. No specifics on what these features are were offered other than they’d be “rouble-making, car-crashing and barroom-brawling.” All extra features available on the standard DVD version will be included along with Dolby Digital Plus 5.1 audio.

“Enter the Dragon” will not be blessed with IME features but like Dukes will also have the same suite of extras from the standard DVD version and Dolby Digital Plus 5.1 audio.

Both titles will carry an SRP of $28.99.”

Source: The Man Room

R.Hollis

Let’s face it, both Blu-ray and HD-DVD titles and hardware could hardly be considered cheap, one may be less expensive than the other but that doesn’t mean either format is pocket change.

I for one look forward to any cost savings I can get, which is why I’m happy to hear that Universal plans to reduce the price of their HD-DVD’s, by five dollars on each of their titles.

Universals HD-DVD’s that previously retailed for $34.95 will soon sell for $29.95.

R.Hollis

Hitachi and Mitsubishi have announced single layer HD-DVD-R blank media. Re-Writable and Dual-Layer HD-DVD blanks are expected sometime later this year.

This move would obviously signal the launch of HD-DVD recorders sometime later this year, although no specifics are known about the stand-alone recorders at this time.

With HD-DVD laptops popping up everywhere, it should only be a matter of time before HD-DVD player/recorders are launched.

R.Hollis

Back in May we reported that Toshiba had pushed a Japanese only XA1 firmware update, and as speculated Firmware Update Version: 1.2 has been released for all current Toshiba HD-DVD players.

The update is available via the player’s ethernet update system, or alternatively you can contact Toshiba and request an update disc be sent by mail.

Toshiba’s official 1.2 update description reads as: “This firmware update addresses certain disc playback and HDMI/DVI related problems identified by Toshiba.”

R.Hollis

Sorry, there are no polls available at the moment.

According to Video Business Online, Toshiba HD-DVD players are “flowing to retail” after weeks of low on-hand supply apparently Toshiba has begun to “ship new players to an increasingly larger pool of retailers on a weekly basis” According to company VP of marketing Jodi Sally.

Also RCA has shipped their HD-A1 clone, the RCA HDV5000. So it appears at least the initial supply shortages have been remedied. Both the Toshiba HD-A1 and RCA HDV5000 retail for $499, but several shoppers have reported finding the players even below the manufacturers recommended price.

Another interesting bit of news in the Video Business Online article is the amount of HD-DVD titles sold. Scarsdale New York’s Value Electronics reports that “most of Value?s HD DVD customers are choosing to buy every software title available.” It seems that those who have taken the plunge with HD-DVD want all the available content they can get their hands on.

R.Hollis

Ok first the good news, the HD-DVD Promotion Group has released a pdf with new HD-DVD titles; the bad news is that many of these previously un-announced titles have no released date associated with them.

Some of the titles that immediately caught my attention were: The Aviator, The Lord of the Rings Trilogy, The Matrix Trilogy and The Ultimate Star Trek Movie Collection.

Sounds like a sci-fi windfall if you ask me. I won?t bore you with listing off the previously announced titles, but here are some titles I don?t think we?ve seen as confirmed until now, at least not all of them.

By the way, ????? translates as “Sale day undecided” in the pdf.

A few of those titles may not be released domestically, or rather while noted might be for Japansese release only.

R.Hollis

It?s nice to see some technically competent reviewers getting their hands on the Toshiba HD-A1; the latest entry to this small but growing club, is by Kris Deering of Secrets of Home Theater and Hi-Fi.

This is by far one of if not the most technically thorough HD-A1 reviews I?ve read and compliments the player where appropriate and likewise points out faults when necessary.

According to Chris:

There is no doubt that HD DVD delivers the best picture quality I’ve seen to date and that the format has some serious potential. Even with rival Blu-ray looming, HD DVD stands on firm ground.

R.Hollis