Studios endorse Toshiba HD DVD format

[Sean Mota]

Source

Toshiba announced Monday it has received endorsements from several major Hollywood studios of its next-generation high-definition DVD format.


Paramount Pictures, Universal Pictures, New Line Cinema, and Warner Bros. Studios have all committed to offer titles in the new HD DVD format, which is expected to hit the market in late 2005.

Paramount Pictures is based in Los Angeles and is a unit of Viacom Inc. (NYSE: VIA). Universal is based in Universal City and is an arm of Vivendi Universal S.A. (NYSE: V). Warner Bros. Studios is a unit of Warner Bros. Entertainment, a subsidary of Time Warner Inc. (NYSE: TWX). New Line Cinema is another division of Time Warner.

The Toshiba HD DVD is competing against a rival technology called Blu-ray disc, and it is unclear which format will eventually dominate the market.

Blu-ray disc is backed by the Sony Corp., which owns the Hollywood movie studio Sony Pictures, and is leading a consortium to buy Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc. for $4.8 billion.

Blu-ray can store more digital programming than HD DVD, but proponents of HD DVD say it will be cheaper for manufacturers because it is uses technology that more closely resembles that used in current DVDs. HD DVD players will be compatible with current DVD technology, so that today's DVDs can be played on a HD DVD player.

Tokyo-based Toshiba plans to launch its first HD DVD products, a player and recorder, in the fourth quarter of 2005. The company also plans to release a notebook PC with a built-in HD DVD drive also by the end of 2005.

 

[Sean Mota]

more of the same

Source

TOKYO (AFP) - Toshiba said four major Hollywood studios had thrown their crucial weight behind High Definition DVD (HD-DVD), one of two disc formats contending to be the standard in next-generation DVDs.


AFP Photo



The Japanese electronics giant said it had received separate commitments of support from Paramount Pictures, Universal Pictures, New Line Cinema and Warner Brothers Studios for the HD-DVD, which is expected to see mass-market release in late 2005.


Hollywood's support is critical in the battle for the next-generation DVD standard as customers could choose to buy advanced DVD players on the basis of which can play the most titles.


Toshiba's competitor Sony backs the rival Blu-ray format, which is not compatible with HD-DVD.


"Endorsement of HD-DVD by these leading Hollywood studios is a great impetus to assuring the timely launch of HD-DVD and to assuring that consumers have a range of attractive choices in both hardware and software," Toshiba Corp. President and CEO Tadashi Okamura said in a statement.


Next-generation DVD players use blue lasers to give a shorter wavelength than the red light used for current DVDs and CDs, allowing the storage of up to six times as much data -- meaning DVD quality similar to high-definition television.


The extra data space could also be used to develop more features, such as creating video games with the look and feel of cinema.


Blu-ray is expected to store more data than HD-DVD but also to be more expensive to manufacture, at least in the short term, as HD-DVD can use the same production lines used to make current-generation DVDs.


Sony is expected to use Blu-Ray for its next-generation PlayStation home video-game machine to be unveiled early next year.


Blu-ray is also backed by Dell and Matsushita, maker of the Panasonic brand, while HD-DVD enjoys the support of 13 companies including Toshiba and NEC.


Blu-ray seemed to win a boost in October when Hollywood titan Twentieth Century Fox said it was on the format's promotion board but Fox later said it also remained on a similar board for HD-DVD.

 

[charper1]

figured I would copy this here too:

The Walt Disney and its Buena Vista Home Entertainment division have thrown their support behind the Blu-Ray high-definition disc format, providing another big name for Blu-Ray backers to attach to their campaign.
Blu-Ray is a standard for the next generation of optical video discs promoted by Sony, HP, Dell and others. It is designed to store high-definition video content and can store up to 25GB of data on a single-layer disc and up to 50GB of data on a dual-layer disc.

Rival equipment vendors Toshiba and NEC are pushing a different standard, known as HD-DVD (high-definition/high-density DVD), for PCs and optical disc players. HD-DVD backers argue that while Blu-Ray discs can store more data, the HD-DVD standard is better suited for high-definition storage because it uses more efficient codecs to write data to the discs.

Several Blu-Ray products have been released, while HD-DVD products are scheduled to appear next year. With two competing standards backed by prominent PC and consumer electronics companies, the support of major studios such as Disney is crucial to the chances of either format emerging as a standard.

The HD-DVD standard recently won the backing of several major US studios, such as Paramount, Warner Brothers, Universal and New Line Cinema. Those studios expect to have HD-DVD content ready by the fourth quarter of next year.

Buena Vista's divisions, such as Miramax Home Entertainment, Touchstone Home Entertainment and Disney DVD, generate a great deal of content each year that is purchased on DVD by consumers.

Disney said in a press release that as more and more consumers demand high-definition content, the Blu-Ray standard will provide the best picture quality, data capacity and rights management technologies for Disney's content.

Disney will join the Blu-Ray Disc Association as a member of the board of directors.