Digital Tech News - Digital Technology & Consumer Electronics

HD DVD Format is OFFICIALLY Dead - Let's take a look Back

Unfortunately for the millions of people who have bought HD-DVD players in the past year, Blu-ray has won the high definition disc war. Toshiba made it official, and you can read about it directly from the company's press release below. Toshiba says they will continue to provide full HD-DVD product support and after sales service for current customers, who can contact 1-888-MY HDDVD (1-888-694-3383) for answers to general questions and operational assistance for HD DVD.

In memory of the HD-DVD format, we go down memory lane and look back at some of the key events in the short life of HD DVD since the format was announced in 2005.

Blu-Ray & HD DVD Disc Formats Competing

HD DVD Gets Microsoft and Intel Backing

First Toshiba HD DVD Player, Drive Unveiled

CEATEC Japan 2005 - HD DVD Coming Soon!

Netflix to Carry HD DVD and Blu-ray Disc Videos

Toshiba HD DVD on Tour in the U.S.

Toshiba Qosmio G40 / 97E Notebook with HD DVD-RW Drive

LG BH100 Super Multi Blue Player Wins Best of Show Award at CES 2007

Toshiba SD-H903A HD DVD Drive Reads and Write to HD DVD, DVD and CD discs

Toshiba HD-XA1 HD-DVD Player Shipping

Warner Home Video HD DVD Movies Announced

Samsung Duo HD BD-UP5000 Support HD DVD and Blu-ray Disc Formats

Toshiba's Third Generation HD DVD Players Revealed

Warner Bros. Backing Blu-Ray Disc Format Exclusively

Best Buy and NetFlix Prefer Blu-ray Format

By the time retail giant Walmart announced that they would carry Blu-ray discs and players exclusively, the HD-DVD format was as good as dead.

Samsung BD-UP5500 Duo HD Blu-ray and HD DVD Player

Samsung's BD-UP5000 combo Blu-ray, HD DVD player gets upgraded with the new slimmer Samsung BD-UP5500 Duo HD player that measures just 2.3-inches. Even if Warner Bros. and a few other Hollywood Studios are backing the Blu-Ray disc format exclusively, I still think it's a good idea to go with a combo Blu-ray / HD DVD player like this one...or this one if you can afford it.

The samsung BD-UP5500 Duo HD player will be available in the second-half of 2008 for about $599. 

Toshiba Qosmio G40 / 97E Notebook with HD DVD-RW Drive

Wait! Don't buy that Toshiba Qosmio G40 Notebook with HD DVD Drive. The new Toshiba Qosmio G40/97E with the world's first HD DVD-RW drive on a notebook PC has been spotted on Toshiba's Japanese website, and it's set to be released in in that market first. I think it's worth waiting for, if you're ready to drop about $3,530, or about ¥400,000 in Japan.  Like the original Qosmio G40, the new Qosmio G40 with HD DVD-RW drive features a 17-inch WUXGA (1920 x 1200) display, but the rest of the specs have been bumped up a notch. There's a 2.2GHz T7500 Core 2 Duo processor, Nvidia GeForce 8600M GT graphics card, up to 400GB of hard disk memory (2x 200GB drives) and up to 4GB of RAM. The Toshiba Qosmio G40/97E notebook also comes with a pair of terrestrial HDTV tuners, and an HDMI-out.

Addonics Zebra Blu-ray & HD DVD Player, DVD+/-RRW, CDRW Burner

Addonics ends the year by introducing a new optical storage device that allows your PC to play and access just about any disc out there. I'm talkin' Blu-ray disc, HD DVD disc, regular DVDs and CDs, and it's also a high speed DVD+/-RRW and CDRW burner. The Zebra Blu-ray / HD DVD player & DVD±R/RW burner comes in choice of the high speed eSATA connection or the combo eSATA and USB 2.0 interface. Playing Blu-ray and HD DVD movies from the same tray is something we all want to do right? The Zebra combo player lets you enjoy high definition video quality at 1080p / 1920x1080 resolution, and is bundled with the Cyberlink High-Def Suite for Microsoft Windows 2000, XP, 2003, and Vista operating systems.

LG's BH200 Super Blu Player Ships for the Holidays

First introduced last September, the LG BH200 Super Blu Player is one of the rare players that will play both HD DVD and Blu-Ray Discs (the other being the Samsung BD-UP5000) and it is now available in time for Christmas. Priced at $999, the LG BH200 Super Blu Player is for those who can't wait to get their hands on a combo HD disc player, but everyone else might want to wait for an inevitable price drop sometime next year. 

HD VMD Players Coming to the USA

As you know, Blu-Ray and HD DVD disc formats have been competing for a while now, but here comes the HD VMD (Versatile Multilayer Disc) format to shake things up even more. US electronics distributor PC Rush has ordered 10,000 of NME's 1080p HD VMD Multilayer Players, and they will start selling them in December through their E-commerce site, and they will be distributed to retail outlets in the US through associate company Distenex.

HD VMD is based on NME's (New Medium Enterprises) proprietary Versatile Multilayer Disc (VMD) format with red laser technology, and boasts true HD with 1920 x 1080i/p resolution, up to 40 Mbps bit rate playback, and  DVD up-scaling. The HD VMD player also supports CD, DVD (DVD 5 & DVD 9) formats. The best part is, HD VMD's are said to cost about the same as DVD's, while rivaling the image quality of Blu-ray and HD-DVD. For the moment, the problem is finding a good selection HD VMD movies to watch.

Look out for HD VMD player pricing at PC Rush soon.

Toshiba Vardia RD-A301 HD-DVD Digital Video Recorder

Toshiba has announced a new digital video recorder with HD DVD drive that is able to record HD video to standard DVD discs, and also features a 300GB built-in HDD. The new VARDIA RD-A301 DVR, HD DVD integrates an HD Transcoder that converts MPEG2 video to MPEG4 AVC video compression technology that achieves longer recording time for high-definition video, allowing longer HD videos to be recorded to HD DVD-R discs. The Vardia RD-A301 also supports"HD Rec," so you to record HD video to standard DVD discs in HD quality. "HD Rec" allows a single-layer 4.7GB DVD-R disc to store up to two hours of HD video. The RD-A301 also supports dual recording of HD broadcasts,

From November 1, 2007 to January 31, 2008, Toshiba will run a HD DVD player and recorder marketing campaign that will include a free HD DVD of "Transformers", this year's mega-hit movie, for purchasers of a relevant HD DVD product who register for the campaign.

The RD-A301 includes 1 HDMI output, 1 D4, an S-Video, and Ethernet port, and remote control. It will first be released in Japan December 2007 for about 600€, or about $865 US.

read | Press release

LG BH200 Super Blu Player - HD DVD and Blu-Ray Disc Player

LG Electronics follows up the award-winning BH100 Super Blu player with the new second-generation LG BH200 Super Blu Player.  Like the BH100, the new player is a dual-Fformat high-definition disc player which is capable of Blu-ray disc and HD DVD playback. The BH200 features playback with BD-Java and advanced options like "Picture-in-Picture" for Blu-ray discs, and HDi web-connected interactivity on HD DVDs for viewing of storyboards, production videos and director's commentary, and accessing up-to-date information. The HD disc player will also playback DVD, DVD, DVD±R and DVD±RW discs.

ONKYO DV-HD805 HD DVD Player

ONKYO has announced a rather expensive HD-DVD player, scheduled for release this fall. Well, it is a high-end player, but at $899 the ONKYO DV-HD805 HD DVD player goes up against more moderately priced units like Toshiba's 3rd generation HD DVD players. ONKYO says the DV-HD805 is one of the first HD DVD players to take advantage of high-bit-rate audio streaming via HDMI version 1.3a, and it supports different frame rates, including playback at 24 frames per second, the native frame rate of the original sources for most HD content. HDMI version 1.3a also allows the DV-HD805 to offer the full potential of high-definition 1080p video, and HDMI version 1.3a enables Deep Color technology for improved color tones and finer color gradation. The DV-HD805 has an Ethernet port for web-enabled network connectivity, allowing users to download content, as well as access additional materials and bonus features. Interactivity is a key feature of HD DVD, and ONKYO's player gives users the ability to upload content and interact with providers.

Toshiba's Third Generation HD DVD Players

Toshiba follows up their 2nd generation HD DVD players, announcing new third generation of HD DVD players that are headed for the U.S. market this Fall. The three new models include the HD-A3 ($299.99, October 2007), HD-A30 ($399.99, September 2007), and HD-A35 ($499.99, October 2007) all featuring new enhancements and an improvement in video performance with 1080p/24 frames per second (24p) support. Since Movie films are traditionally captured at 24 frames per second, these new Toshiba third generation HD DVD players will be able to maintain this frame rate which should making for an even better HD viewing experience. Toshiba also added "CE-Link" (HDMI-CEC) connectivity which offers the capability to communicate with and control another CE device, for example using "CE-Link" with "One Touch Play" allows you to turn on a CEC capable HDTV and a Toshiba HD DVD player, and start playing a movie, with a single touch of a button on the player remote.