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HD DVD Coverage at CES 2004

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the stuff-to-lust-after dept.

Anonymous Coward writes "It appears manufacturers such as Toshiba will soon be rolling out HD DVD players. The HD DVD format, as opposed to the Blu-Ray standard, involves minimal changes to the manufacturing plants that currently produce DVDs. This should allow for a smoother transition for consumers to adopt this new format. This article DVD vs HD-DVD summarizes the differences of the two formats and benefits of the latter."

5 of 219 comments (clear)

  1. Big challenges ahead for HD formats by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The challenge for both the HD-DVD and the Blu-Ray efforts is getting studio support. For PVRs (such as the first Blu-Ray devices), this isn't a big deal. If you want a pristine 1080i/720p movie, however, it'll have to come on prepackaged media. The main challenges that neither Blu-Ray nor HD-DVD solves: -- Security. Hollywood is much more concerned about HD-quality content because it's the best they've got. The traditional "trust us" or "magic encryption fairy dust" proposals won't cut it here. Like it or not, neither format can succeed without effective, renewable anti-piracy features. -- Replication costs are a challenge. This is one place where HD-DVD may have a small edge, though that's debatable. -- User interactivity & network support. DVD's menus are awfully limited -- something much more flexible is needed, but there isn't yet any agreement what this will be. Cost isn't such a big deal yet (anybody willing to spend $10K for a plasma screen will shell out another $1K for a player to take advantage of it), but eventually this has to be price-competitive with DVD.

    1. Re:Big challenges ahead for HD formats by cmdr_beeftaco · · Score: 5, Insightful

      higher res is the ultimate anti-piracy measure. you keep boosting the resolution and there is incentive to buy not download. i would be much more likely to buy a pristine hd-dvd for 20 bucks than spend 4 days downloading it but that's just me.

  2. What they don't say by Pivot · · Score: 5, Funny

    - is that is mostly an excuse to introduce a new CSS system since the old one is cracked..

  3. great... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Next time i go to buy a burner il be asking for a CD-ROM,CD-R, CD-RW, DVD-ROM, DVD+R DVD+RW DVD-R DVD-RW HDDVD-ROM, HDDVD-R, HDDVD-RW, BluRay-ROM, BluRay-R, BluRay-RW Drive....

    i guess that would be a 52x52x24x16x8x4x8x4x1x1x1x1 Drve...

  4. This can mean only one thing... by Torgo's+Pizza · · Score: 5, Funny
    AP - SKYWALKER RANCH, Calif.: Thanks to new DVD technology, George Lucas is hurriedly working on a new Special Director's Expanded Edition of the Star Wars saga which features 23 seconds of new footage. Lucas was quoted as saying, "The new HD-DVD format will allow me to present Star Wars as it was always meant to be seen. This now allows us to see the Midichlorians in full detail."