While it won’t handle transfers of DIVX, MiniDisc or SelectaVision Videodiscs, the BetaMaxHD will convert between two of the most undoubtedly out-of-fashion consumer media formats money can (or can’t) buy.

Click to View Embedded Video Clip

I’m not sure how I missed this one back on April Fools’ Day, but I thought it was too good to not mention.

I think I’ll stick with my cassette to 8-track tape converter.

With today’s announcements by Best Buy recommending Blu-ray as the “format of choice” and Netflix stating that they would no longer stock the format, it’s just too much for the infant HD DVD platform to take. The rats are leaving the sinking ship, and it’s every man, woman and child for themselves.

As recently as the 2007 holiday season, it looked like both formats still had a decent shot at dominating the market. But back in January, Warner announced it was going exclusively Blu, and I think that was truly the beginning of the end for HD DVD. Since that time, retailers started to aggressively cut the price of HD DVD players, in a desperate maneuver to keep the format alive (or at least recoup their inventory investments).

I really think we reached the tipping point today, and the momentum has shifted so far away from the HD DVD format, that we’ve gone past the point of no return. And while I generally don’t think that any decrease in competition is good for consumers, the speedy demise of the HD DVD format is likely to produce an increase in the production of high definition content (since studios won’t have to worry about which format will survive), as well as less risk for buyers going forward.

As for current HD DVD owners, there are still titles out there, and they’re likely to be produced for quite some time. Toshiba and Microsoft haven’t officially pulled the plug here, but the format is no longer a viable choice for new buyers. Without the support of most major movie studios, major retailers and rental outlets, you might as well consider it six feet under.

While the game has been resurrected numerous times on everything from CD-ROM to DVD to PC, this is the first time it’s making its way to true high-definition disc formats.

Bucking the recent industry trend of Blu-ray only releases, the classic title will be hitting both Blu-ray and HD DVD formats, and will support widescreen Full HD (1080p) resolution. The game has been lovingly restored and remastered from the original film footage, and pumps up the volume with an enhanced 5.1 surround soundtrack.

Expect the title to include interactive gameplay using your video player’s remote control (or your PS3 controller), as well as picture-in-picture commentary by the games original creators Don Bluth, Gary Goldman, and Rick Dyer.

Space Ace should hit stores on April 8th for a rather pricey $49.95. Digital Leisure has started to accept pre-orders now. While you’re there sure to check out Bluth’s other classic, Dragon’s Lair in high def if you haven’t already.

[via Punch Jump]

Aimed squarely at Sony’s Playstation 3 high-end hardware features, the Ultimate console is rumored to include built-in HD-DVD playback, Wi-Fi, improved audio circuitry, a 65nm chipset, and a 320GB hard drive so you’ll have plenty of storage space for Microsoft’s upcoming Xbox IPTV service and other downloaded content. Perhaps my favorite part of the rumor is an improved cooling system that’ll allow for virtually silent operation — fan noise being one of my pet peeves with the current 360 series.

Stuff believes the Xbox 360 Ultimate will hit stores in Autumn 2008. Only time will tell if the rumors are true. Stay tuned.

[via eXophase]

After dropping the price on Toshiba’s HD-A2 HD DVD player to $199, there’s now an ad that shows an unbelievable price of $98.87. I’m sure this is a loss-leader for Wally World, but it’s still but it’s a clear sign that the HD DVD camp means business. As far as I know, the sale is a one-day only deal for this Friday (November 2, 2007 starting at 8am), but I wouldn’t doubt that the regular retail price for these players drops close to this level as the holidays approach.

With the cheapest Blu-Ray players running around $400 (on sale), these kind of aggressive discounts will help HD DVD gain ground on what was a losing battle up until now.

[Wal-Mart via Engadget HD]

New Medium Enterprises’ (NME) proprietary HD VMD (Versatile Multilayer Disc) format uses standard red lasers, but crams in 4 layers per disc to handle the data needs of full high-definition content. VMD’s cost advantage comes from the fact that discs and players can be produced using much of the already existing infrastructure that’s set up to produce standard DVDs. First generation VMD will store up to 24GB, but there are already plans in the works to expand this capacity further using more layers, and potentially thinner wavelength blue lasers as prices come down.

The manufacturer claims the format supports full 1080i and 1080p resolutions, as well as bit rates up to 40 Mbps (about half way between the two competing HD formats). The players support video compressed in MPEG- 2, MPEG-1, VC-1, H-264(AVC) formats. As an added bonus, HD VMD is region free, so you don’t have to worry about where you bought your discs. Audio support includes Dolby Digital and DTS, but none of the more advanced audio formats you might find on Blu-Ray and HD DVD players. Even the least expensive HD VMD players offer HDMI and component outputs, and will scale old-school DVDs up to 1080p over the HDMI connection.

The most obvious downside to the budding format is the current lack of available content. NME has only scored distribution rights to a a handful of movies that I’ve ever heard of. Launch titles include: Hostage, Apocalypto, Pulp Fiction, Babel, Saw II and Saw III. Most of the other movies are either lesser-known independents, older films or Bollywood features from India. It’s doubtful that the company will be able to garner support from most major studios, given their already significant investments in the other HD formats. With HD DVD and Blu-ray prices on the decline, HD VMD will face a serious uphill fight.

The top-of-the-line Shuttle D’VO SG33G5M Deluxe features 1080p high-definition video output via an HDMI output. 7.1-channel surround sound includes Dolby Digital Live! and DTS Connect capabilities. The system has a full home theater-centric front panel display which includes just about everything you’re used to seeing on a home-theater-in-a-box receiver.

In addition to its multimedia prowess, its got built in 802.11b+g as well as Bluetooth wireless connectivity. You can even view photos and media stored on your mobile devices via wireless sync. External interfaces include USB 2.0, Firewire 400 Gigabit Ethernet and eSATA connectors. It’s even got a fingerprint reader built into the front if you want to keep prying eyes off of your media content.

The system’s Intel G33 Express chipset is designed to handle CPUs as powerful as a Core 2 Quad, with bus speeds up to 1333MHz. The D’VO series is sold in a bare-bones configuration for around $459 USD, so you’ll need to add your own CPU, memory, operating system, hard drive and disc reader (Shuttle plans on offering a Blu-Ray/HD-DVD combo drive as an option).

Fortunately, Silicon Optix has answered the call by releasing high definition versions of their popular HQV Benchmark discs. The $20 discs are available in both Blu-ray and HD DVD formats and recorded at 1080i resolution, the benchmarks are designed for testing for noise, resolution, “jaggies” and other annoying image artifacts to see if your video processing is up to snuff.

So if you’ve wanted to put your new HD equipment through its paces, or just to test out the latest gear at the electronics store, now is your chance.

[via ecoustics]

If this really comes to fruition, the retail giant could be the one to make the difference in the high-definition format wars. With their purchasing muscle, cranking out millions of players that cost this little could retail in the $100 to $200 range, which could be a huge blow to the Blu-ray camp.

[via Gadgetell]

While Sony certainly has a leg up on the race with millions of PlayStation 3 consoles out there, one big road block to broad adoption of either high definition disc format is the high cost of standalone players. Most standalone Blu-ray players cost between $500 and $900 and most HD DVD players cost between $400 and $700. With prices that high, it might be a long time before the “great unwashed” dive into either format.

Now, a company from Canada, Venturer, is working on an Chinese-manufactured HD DVD player which could reach the market for under $200. The bargain basement Venturer SHD7000 certainly won’t have the build quality of $500+ players, but the price could be enough to convince the masses that it’s time to upgrade from plain old DVD.

[via Engadget HD]

The $489 BlueDot Divita Storage Tower holds up to 100 CDs or DVDs and lets you easily access them by disc name using the built-in 1.8″ LCD screen and numeric

In addition to the LG player that hit shelves this week, Samsung and other vendors are expected to release combination HD DVD / Blu-Ray players in the coming months. Initially, such players are expected to remain costly, with prices around $1000 to $1200. However, fully integrated chipsets will bring prices down over time. That all said ABI doesn’t think that widespread adoption will take off until street prices drop to around $200 (which ABI predicts will happen by 2009). Guess it’s time to sell that PS3 for scrap value.

[via DigiTimes]

The new disc format should hit stores in the second half of ’07. The discs can contain both single or dual layer titles in both formats, with 15 to 30GB on the HD DVD side, and 25 to 50GB on the Blu-ray side. Earlier this week, LG announced a single player that can play either Blu-ray or HD DVD titles, so it’s clear that the industry recognizes that consumer confusion (and apathy?) may be hurting sales of both formats. It’s way to soon to know if more studios will adopt Warner’s new format, but it’s good to see they’re making some effort to solve the problem.

Here are some excerpts from today’s overly self-congratulatory press release from the Blu-ray Disc Association, titled Consumers Overwhelmingly Choose “Blu”:

The Blu-ray Disc Association today declared its victory as the premiere high definition DVD format of choice… The success of Blu-ray Disc is unprecedented… consumers have voted with their wallets for the format that offers the widest array of hardware and content on the market.

Apparently, the fact that Sony shipped over 1 million Playstation 3 consoles means victory in their minds. Now first off, how many of those PS3s are getting used to play movies? According to the Blu-ray folks, plenty:

Driving demand for high definition content, more than one million Sony PlayStation 3 (PS3) units, each featuring a Blu-ray Disc drive, were shipped to the United States in 2006, …according to a recent SCEA survey of over 10,000 PS3 owners, 80 percent indicated they will buy Blu-ray movies and 75 percent said they use the PS3 as a primary device for viewing movies.

While Sony may have sampled about 10,000 PS3 owners, you have to wonder how many of those 1 million PS3s are still floating around, looking for an owner. I’m sure that Blu-ray has increased its presence now that the PS3 is out, but to declare a unanimous victory over HD DVD is a little silly this early in the game. Perhaps somebody told the folks at the Blu-ray Disc Asssociation that if you say something enough times, it eventually becomes true.

Frankly, I wouldn’t count either format down and out for a long time. While HD DVD sales figures are hard to come by, there are likely hundreds of thousands of HD DVD players out there as well. With over 10 million Xbox 360s able to add on a player for just $200, and computer add-on HD DVD drives running as little as $100, HD DVD still has a clear price advantage over Blu-ray.

Bottom line, only time will tell who’s victorious, or if both formats will ultimately become irrelevant with combination players on the market, such as the one just announced by LG this week.

The LG BH100 Super Multi Blue Player will handle both high definition disc formats, in full 1080p resolution, as well as offering DTS-HD audio support. Early word is that switching between formats is a little slow, but hopefully they’ll work out that kink before it’s released later this year.

Now the bad news: the retail price for the player will be $1199. For about the same price, you could pick up a new Xbox 360 Premium with an HD DVD player AND a Playstation 3 with Blu-ray. However, if you’re looking for a single package that can play both formats, the LG is the only game in town for now.

On the hardware front, LG is expected to announce a combo player that can play both formats. Conversely, Warner is planning on rolling out dual-sided discs that feature Blu-ray on one side and HD DVD on the other. While I think the Warner idea is kind of a nice short-term solution for movie studios that otherwise would have released on both formats, the LG approach of a universal player that can handle both formats seems like a better choice for consumers.

[via Engadget]

When asked about the possibility of upcoming price reductions, Toshiba CEO Yoshihide Fujii was quoted as saying: “At first I thought the price threshold is $499. Maybe coming next is $399 and after that is $299.”

You can currently find the Toshiba HD-A2 HD DVD player at street prices just north of $400, and the Xbox 360 HD DVD add-on for $199. However, the idea that a stand alone player could hit shelves for under $300 could give HD DVD another boost over Blu-ray, which still offers most players at $800 and up (except for the Sony Playstation 3).

[via Gizmodo]

The new $499 model is reported to load discs in under 20 seconds in most cases, which is a significant improvement over the minute-plus load times of the earlier models. In addition to improved performance, the HD-XA2 touts a slim new black case, HDMI 1.3 output and an improved video processing chip set. The new remote control is also improved over the original, feeling more like a typical DVD player remote. If you don’t have an Xbox 360, this could be the HD DVD player to buy.

As a result of the complexities of decoding HD DVD audio and video content, as well as providing a user interface and DRM, over 4.7 million lines of code went into the HD DVD software. Among the components that had to be developed and integrated:

• Video Codecs: H.264, MPEG-2, VC1
• Audio Codecs: Dolby Digital+, DTS, TrueHD, LPCM, MPEG
• HDi: The HD DVD runtime engine
• GDI: Drawing stuff like menus
• AACS: Cryptography/DRM stuff
• MF: Audio/Video pipeline

Remember, there is no hardware HD DVD decoder chip set on board the Xbox 360. As a result, the HD DVD subsystem is almost entirely written in software. It’s one of the most demanding applications written for the 360 to date, using up all six of the system’s hardware threads. According to Shaheen’s post:

At the moment, the player software pushes Xbox 360 harder than any other (save, perhaps, Gears of War during some particularly busy parts of the game).

Now keep in mind, it’s not like millions of lines of NEW code had to be written here, with many of the codecs and graphic libraries already in existence. That said, it’s still staggering how much effort went into the development of this add-on.

[via Xbox Team blog]

Now is it just me, or is the dancer who does the DVD dance better than the main HD-DVD dancer?