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DVD Forum Approves HD-DVD Standard
An anonymous reader writes "Toshiba Corp. and NEC Corp. said Friday that the DVD Forum, an international association of electronics makers and movie studios, has approved the two Japanese companies' standard for next-generation DVDs. It has
always annoyed me that DVDs are not the same top resolutions as High Definition TV. Maybe this will fix it." Well, better get to work rebuying your entire video collection, again.
Well, better get to work rebuying your entire video collection, again.
:)
Toshiba/NEC's standard is fully backwards compatible with the existing DVD standard. What this means is, unlike Blu-ray, you can watch your old movies on the new players. No need for re-buying, unless you're bored
Endless arguments over trivial contradictions in books written by ignorant savages to explain thunder in the dark.
"I have to buy my entire movie collection again". Yeah sure, if you always want the best quality available.
But why would that make your current collection "look like crap"? It's the same DVDs you've been watching (or rather, collecting) since the beginning.
It has always annoyed me that DVDs are not the same top resolutions as High Definition TV. Maybe this will fix it.
DVDs can hold video streams with resolutions that HD uses. They just can't hold 2 hours of it.
This new format of disk could still hold an mpg-2 file, but have enough capacity to hold 2-hours worth of video at HD resolutions.
It's capacity, not format.
Don't steal. The government hates competition.
Maybe I'm getting too cynical, but I fully expect these new formats to have some nefarious DRM scheme. The article in question didn't have any information on it, but I'm sure some slashdotters out there know: What's the DRM like on these new formats?
Never underestimate the power of being able to make a midnight bathroom run, then suddenly get the desire to watch Office Space on DVD at 3:51am, in your boxers, looking like crap, with no money in your wallet, and no ambition to find/venture_out_to a 24/hr rental store.
That's the real value of owning the DVD versus renting it.
Up, Up, Down, Down, Left, Right, Left, Right, B, A, START
So you decide to watch a movie after spending almost 4 hours taking a dump?
Instead of buying DVDs, you should buy some laxatives or Metamusil or something.
Well, better get to work rebuying your entire video collection, again.
Even of there is full backward compatibility this is still something to worry about with most formats.
I have several hundred 12 inch LaserDiscs that still deliver a fine image - but if my player ever breaks they become useless. Many of the releases have never been re-released on DVD, and likely never will.
==
Tomas
DVDs are not too big for broadband. MPEG-2 (DVD) can be converted to MPEG-4 (Xvid, DivX 5x or whatever) more than ^1/4 size but little reduction in video quality (and hey, AAC audio is on many Kazaa'd .AVIs, MP3'd audio is not awful).
So on a entry level broadband (512kbps) I can dl an almost DVD quality movie in 3 hours (no extras, but extras suck compared to the finished product).
DVDs (DVD-Rs being writable DVDs) can be reduced to VCDs with a few bells and whistles. there is not much scope for size-bloat to prevent size-reduction and pirating.
In HK (used to live there) you could buy _legal_ VCDs (menaing guaranteed quality, recoursability, etc) of the latest DVDs a month after DVDs hit the streets at only US$3/movie. HK has a lot of piracy, but this policy benefitted the legal distro channels and originating studios a lot.
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FreeNET user? Comfortable with the adverse selection?
More Specs are available here.
"The HD DVD format is a violet laser-based optical disk system with a capacity of 15-20 Gbyte per side using the same disk structure as current DVD disks."
A quick comparison of existing specs here shows that the blue lazer DVD's are well ahead of these higher-density DVD's.
The Blu-ray Disc, supported by nine major makers, including Sony, Panasonic, Philips and Pioneer, could store up to 50 GB of data (more than six times the data capacity of today's DVD) by using a blue laser beam instead of the current red laser. Blu-ray recorders and players could play current DVDs, but Blu-ray discs could not be played on current players.
Advanced Optical Disc, a second blue-laser system proposed by NEC and Toshiba, brings disc capacity to 20 GB. One advantage touted by backers: Today's DVD-making equipment could easily be modified for the new discs.
HD-DVD-9, based on the current DVD format, uses improved software compression to pack 135 minutes of HD video onto the disc. It was developed by Warner Bros.
The most interesting one is the final option... Upgrading the software codec. The MPEG consortium was attempting to get mpeg-4 out the door in time to become a standard for DVD's. They didn't meet that lofty goal, but MPEG4, DIVX, and many other codecs are significantly better at compressing video than MPEG 2. A new codec would require a new decompression chip, but it would cost less than a new laser system, and would provide a platform from which to move up... After all, codecs probably won't see the same growth over the years that hardware will, so using an MPEG4 or other codec could last for many years, at least until Blue laser systems come down in price, at which point you could keep the codec.
The ______ Agenda