As if I need to remind, the recent Blu-ray / HD DVD battle was not only bloody but also very, very expensive for all involved. Both Sony and Toshiba burned through their budgets (and then some) on aggressive promotions, sly marketing and hyper-rapid product development.
In the end, BD won and Toshiba announced that rather than join the party, they would instead focus on improving the standard DVD technologies. Many assumed this meant enhancing the image scaling capabilities via their SpursEngine 1000 processor, a pint-sized version of the Cell BE CPU. While falling short of the Blu-ray picture quality (not to mention sound) such an improvement could pump life into the established format. Likewise, many also assumed this change in direction heralded an end to their HD DVD technologies.
Given the latest announcement from the DVD Forum, however, it appears Toshiba might not yet be ready to call the game over. On June 11, the organization’s Steering Committee, chaired by Toshiba (nudge, nudge), approved a new DVD Download/DL logo, suggesting web connectivity, ala HD DVD. Again, this technology alone is hardly a threat to the growing Blu-ray market, but could signal a strategy to prolong the life of standard discs.
The committee also approved an updated specification of C-HD DVD, a Chinese version of the HD DVD format. Aimed squarely at China’s 1 billion+ consumers, it’s hard to imagine anything but a Lazarus scenario is in the works. Whether Toshiba can pull it off is anyone’s guess.
Chabis, obviously, there’s a lot of guessing going on here. all that was shown was a logo that indicated some sort of download capability for standard dvds. since this was a much-hyped feature of HD DVD it was seen as its legacy… that the technology developed for HD was being re-used and infused into standard DVDs. also, the fact that China is still contemplating an HD DVD format suggests that the format may not be 100% dead. again, all this is guessing from just a few clues. mostly for fun.
I agree Chabis. HD-DVD has no future as who would trust this format again??? Also, the “New Logo” would be called HD-DVD DL.
Considering some people say (not me*) that downloading will be the death of physical media, it seems really strange to group/ market both together.
* Downloading is a LONG way off from PQ/SQ of HD disc media. “HD-Lite”, full of macroblocking with the slightest movements is not for me! :-)
Also, a lot of people prefer to physically own their movie, rather than trust a 3rd party company to stay afloat and keep providing it OR to trust their own hard drive full of movies taking up LOTS of space unless even more dramatically compressed (yuk).
In 10 years maybe, but for now, physical is the best for great movies you love.
I have read both the article that led to this discussion and the various comments, but still have no idea what is supposed to be happening here. How is this supposed to suggest that HD-DVD has some sort of future?
Dave C - i wish i could go on and on about the logo, but it seems no one outside that meeting knows, or is willing to talk. obviously something is in the works. whether it will ever fly or what it will be is - as i thought the article relayed - anyone’s guess. feel free to give it a shot.
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I just don’t see China and HD together in the same sentence with any appreciable numbers. This is same country that you can buy a DVD with 8 to 9 movies all crammed on the same disc.
Not to say that there’s not some who don’t care about quality, but is that audience big enough?