Is this a setback for HD-DVD?? (1 Viewer)

[Dave Miller]

I have broadband, but have no interest in this idea. They won't be getting my upgrade dollars. Very stupid!

Peace,

DM

 

[Carl Johnson]

I must be missing something here, this sounds like a no win proposal. Are these people suggesting that the next generation of DVD players will require broadband internet access? For one no time over the next decade will your average home have broadband, and even if they did getting people to connect their DVD player to the net would be all but impossible. But let's ignore that. If every consumer in America had broadband and they all were willing and able to hook their DVD players to the net, why would they? What would be the advantage over current DVD players? The only feature that will sell next gen DVD players is improved picture quality, and there's no way to deliver that online. Are they suggesting that the HD-DVD disc is a key that will let you download the movie? If technology progresses that far there's no need for a disc, just download the film and watch if off of a hard drive.

 

[Joe Bernardi]

Unquestionably, this idea is a total loser.

Is there even one HTFer who would buy into this nonsense?

 

[Adam_R]

Why are these companies so stupid? Don't they know that one of the biggest reasons that DVD has been so successful with the mass market is that IT'S SIMPLE!!! It's like playing a CD. You put the disc in, and hit play. That's it. No connecting, or checking or anything. Disc in. Press play.

IDIOTS!!!

 

[Brian Kidd]

I'm not so sure that I'd buy this story at face value. The movie studios who signed on to DIVX are well aware of how badly it bombed. I seriously doubt that they would make the same mistake twice. I'm going to wait and see. I'm not quite ready to panic just yet.

 

[Ken_McAlinden]

Does this mean that I could buy a Star Wars film on next generation DVD and every time I watch it the filmmakers could make changes to it to make it better? ...Or maybe they could make editorial changes in real time to appease advocacy groups who were offended by some aspect of the content? Wow! this is exactly the sort of cutting edge home video technology that I would least like to ever own. :frowning:

Regards,

 

[DaViD Boulet]

plz tell me this is not the final HD-DVD spec, and that Blu-Ray still has a chance!!!

Sony's BluRay disc is being developed and promoted in-house and has no connection to the DVD-forum or the official "HD-DVD" format that the forum will approve.

BluRay will become a reality because Sony will release it. Consumers will decide how successful a format it becomes.

The only problem IMO with BluRay is that it's still MPEG2 based which is a vastly inefficient codec next to newer higher-quality compression algorithms like WM9. It's actually possible that a red-laser WM9 format could compete in absolute picture quality with a blue-laser MPEG2 format, but the *real* answer would be a blue-laser WM9 format which leaves lots of headroom free for high-quality multichannel audio and special-content material.

Has everyone reading this thread signed the HD-DVD petition in my signature?

 

[Bill Burns]

If the above news is accurate, and reflects anything akin to a "HD-DVD" label:

"Blu-Ray or Bust"
"Blu-Ray or Stay Away"
"Red is Dead"
"HD-DVD: Highly Dubious Digital Versatile Disaster"

Shall I go on?

Blu-Ray will be my HD upgrade to DVD. If it fails, I'm sticking with DVD until it's gone. I will never support a format that requires an internet connection to play a bloody movie. Period. Why? Because what happens to the discs released to that format by small, independent studios when those content providers go under, as some invariably do? Obsolescence. No internet site to validate the discs, so they no longer play (worse case scenario), or the supplements, at least, no longer function (best case scenario).

DIVX was a horrible idea, and this is kin to that idea. The DVD Forum has made a terrible decision (if this is designed as or will be marketed as a successor to DVD, rather than an adjunct to the current technology). I've had a suspicion all along, given the very steep uphill battle early adopters faced in waiting for/encouraging certain studios to commit to DVD after the format's tentative early rollout (digital copies of our movies? We think not!), that getting all of the majors on-board for a HD format would be even more arduous. I wonder if the Forum had behind-the-scenes pressure to move in this direction while studios continued research into still more robust secure encoding measures? I have a bad notion in my gut that true HD-DVD (under whatever final label) is going to be farther off than predictions have so far suggested ... I hope I'm wrong. I want to be wrong. But knowing the resistence of certain studios to having any digital copies of their films in circulation at all, even in low-res DVD, a true 1920 by 1080p HD disc format is almost certainly going to scare some of the content providers (understandably, given the value of their product and the rampant troubles with piracy in the world today; I'm not making light of their concerns). And that ....

Well, who knows? Maybe folks really will rally behind Blu-Ray when the day is done. I encourage studios to do so, and look forward to seeing what develops in the coming years. But there has been a lot of recent speculation about the viability of DVD in today's "HD right around the block, just look at D-VHS" mentality, and personally ... I still consider DVD the only sure thing here (in no small part due its extraordinary installed base, growing every day). There's great potential in HD-DVD under any number of labels (true HD optical disc, in other words), but it's going to take consensus, and it's going to take a dedicated overhaul of home video production by the major studios ... I want to see it happen, I hope it happens, and as soon as possible, but until then ....

DVD is very much a Godsend. The "holdouts" at the very beginning of the format could have very well numbered every major studio, instead of a few, and we could be watching laserdiscs to this day. So for now ... I'm thanking my lucky stars for DVD and hoping for the best as HD-DVD, Blu-Ray ... as true high definition DVD goes through its growing pains. I want to see it reach maturity, and it will eventually, but it's anyone's guess what roadblocks might be encountered along the way, as this surprising news item suggests.

Once again -- I will never support a HD format that requires an internet connection, even if it's the only high definition format out there, first because of the above, and second because I know it will eventually pass away in favor of true, content-on-disc, disc-owner-controlled HD. Digital signatures, so that all illegal dupes can be traced, sophisticated codecs that cannot be broken (many say this is an illusion, but I have my doubts in that cynicism) ... whatever it takes, whatever finally protects every studio in bringing this sort of content to the public, it will eventually bring us true content-on-disc ownership and true HD. And HD itself will one day have a successor. But one step at a time. Until the market brings us content-on-disc HD in a form as convenient and semi-permanent as DVD, I'm happy where I am. And I hope the studios, the DVD Forum, and other involved entities understand that, despite that contentment, an HD format complying with the above will be a joy and will be eagerly adopted, at least by me, once its pricing structure comes into line with current DVD (I was an early adopter of DVD, much to my wallet's chagrine, and I still haven't found any seeds at the local markets to produce one of those handy money trees ; I believe I'll wait until HD-DVD {again, generically speaking; I mean HD optical disc} prices reflect fifth year, perhaps even sixth year DVD prices -- we're now in the seventh year of the format -- allowing myself much greater flexibility in buying the content itself; if it can manage that in its second or third year, all the better, and of course these things will depend on the number of HD-capable displays in the market, consumer awareness, etc.).

 

[Josh Steinberg]

How's Disney's experiment with the disposable DVDs going? Up until this, that was the boneheaded idea of the year.

 

[Joshua_W]

Yeah, the studios know DIVX bombed, but be assured that they certainly liked the control DIVX afforded them. Sounds like this time, they want to make sure there isn't an "open source" alternative to compete with.

NEVER underestimate the paranoia and control tendencies of the entertainment industry.

 

[Jeff Jacobson]

Playing an 'Enhanced DVD' for the first time might begin a background process that links a disc ID to a player ID and records the connection on a server somewhere. Play the disc elsewhere and the system spots the fact and blocks access to the content.

. . .And if your player breaks and you buy a new one, then all of your old discs become useless.:rolleyes

 

[Estevan Lapena]

This had to be the one of the WORST THINGS/ideas EVER! I don’t care about connecting my movies to my PC. I don’t care about silly extra minor features on my PC. What I DO care about is the BEST picture quality and the BEST sound! What possible gain does this new spec. have? Other than the companies screwing people more efficiently.

 

[Brian-W]

Sony's BluRay disc is being developed and promoted in-house and has no connection to the DVD-forum or the official "HD-DVD" format that the forum will approve.

Blu-Ray is a consortium of companies, one of which includes Sony. It's inaccurate to portray Blu-Ray as 'Sony's Blu-Ray.

Sony may be the first to market with a Blu-Ray machine, but it's no more their format than it is Samsung or Panasonic or Pioneer or any of the other members of the Blu-Ray forum.

 

[Tony_Ramos]

it's worth noting that Toshiba and NEC are in the DVD Forum and they are behind a blue laser standard that will hold something like 20GB?

Just give me 1920x1280p ON THE DISC, WHOEVER MAKES IT, NO INCONVENIENT DRM.

 

[RISUG]

Know this.

If they should go forward with this "HD via internet connection" insanity - they will fail on a magnitude equal to the success that they have achieved with dvd. Period.

Unbelieveable......

 

[DaViD Boulet]

Blu-Ray is a consortium of companies, one of which includes Sony. It's inaccurate to portray Blu-Ray as 'Sony's Blu-Ray.

Sony may be the first to market with a Blu-Ray machine, but it's no more their format than it is Samsung or Panasonic or Pioneer or any of the other members of the Blu-Ray forum.

good point.

 

[Dan Szwarc]

How's Disney's experiment with the disposable DVDs going? Up until this, that was the boneheaded idea of the year.

So far, not good.

http://www.wired.com/news/technology...,60983,00.html

 

[AllanN]

I like the current DVD spec right where it is. Adding an integrated way to get extra online content that smells like DivX will not sell for me. Id rather wait another few years for BluRay 1080p and 96/24.

 

[Sean Laughter]

http://neasia.nikkeibp.com/wcs/leaf?...bt/news/273627

Next DVD spec. to offer Net access not more capacity
By Tony Smith
Posted: 27/10/2003 at 14:37 GMT

The DVD Forum, the body that oversees the DVD specification, has decided to stick with red laser technology and current storage capacities rather than make the move to blue light and more capacious discs.

Instead, it will offer Internet integration to tempt upgrade-hungry consumers.

The Forum, which counts consumer electronics companies as well as music and movie industry giants among its 216 members, last week laid down its plans for the next generation of the DVD standard.

While Toshiba and NEC had been pitching a blue light technology that would have considerably increased the space available for movie and other data, the Forum has decided to stick with the existing laser specifications, NE Asia Online reports, presumably for greater backward compatibility.

As it stands, the next generation of DVD will work just like today's format, but with greater Internet integration. Many DVDs already include links to web sites, but they're included in a separate DVD-ROM partition on the disc that can only be read by a computer-hosted DVD drive.

The next version of the spec. will allow content creators to build those links directly into the scripts that tell a DVD player how to show the movie. The idea is that 'Enhanced DVD' players will have Net access built-in, either directly or via a home network, enabling consumers to access extra material at will.

The format will also support the use of "digital keys", as the report puts it, to authorise the connection to web sites.

Both technologies are expected to appear in product next year, which means the spec. isn't that far off completion.

Put them together and it's clear the move is about shifting the DVD spec. away from a simple storage medium to a kind of digital theatre ticket where purchasing the DVD buys you entry to the content - which will almost certainly be stored someplace else.

Today, broadband take-up is growing, but it remains a primarily PC technology. But presumably there will come a time when most homes have it, and it will feed a broader local network comprising not only computers but games consoles and other home entertainment devices. While a DVD is likely to prove the best medium for movies for the next few years, if not further out, there's still plenty of supplemental content that punters are going to want, and the movie industry is going to want to sell them.

But how to provide it without it being ripped off? Full-scale DRM is an option, but one consumers are unlikely to support, even those who aren't in the habit of filching films off the Internet. The solution then is to provide content on the Net, but through a controlled access system. Playing an 'Enhanced DVD' for the first time might begin a background process that links a disc ID to a player ID and records the connection on a server somewhere. Play the disc elsewhere and the system spots the fact and blocks access to the content.

Such an approach is likely to be used to deliver extras, which some buyers will want and many others won't. But extend the idea just a little and all the content, including the movie itself, comes down the wire to the player owned by the consumer who bought the disc. In essence the DVD is nothing but a entry ticket, perhaps with some free content on board that the industry doesn't mind giving away.

Such a system doesn't preclude nor is precluded by direct video on demand systems. Instead it provides a way into such systems for consumers who don't own a PC but have a 'transparent' Net connection, perhaps via a cable TV box, anyway.

Such a system neatly gets over the content industry's aversion to delivery technologies that don't involve physical product for punters to purchase, or at least business models that aren't based on the old 'x dollars for y items' mode. It also includes enough DRM to block piracy (at least theoretically) but not enough of it to make usage difficult for the customer.

Of course, the next generation of the DVD standard is unlikely to deliver all this, at least not at the outset, but it does appear to put in place the foundations for such a structure. ®

There's already going to be a hard enough time getting people to replace current DVDs for HD-DVDs, having to replace this one too is only asking for trouble IMO.

 

[Joshua Clinard]

This is bad news. I don't think it will have much effect on anything though. This will be shot down like another Divx. It sounds as if it could be Divx round too actually, especially since it could be tied to the player, like Divx was. It actually sounds exactly like Divx, minus the expiration date.