DVS - New Media and Technologies

Italy's RAI carries out 35mm-quality 4K HDTV broadcast transmission

As reported in a DVD Intelligence trade I follow: In a world premier, Italian public broadcaster RAI has transmitted an experimental television programme using the so-called 4K technology that offers a picture four times sharper than the current high-definition standard. RAI says it achieves for the first time the quality of 35mm film.

The 4K technology for TV was officially demonstrated last week at the Prix Italia 2009 in Turin – the annual International Radio, TV and Web festival – with the film ‘Torino 4K’ directed by Ariella Beddini. The format proponents say watching such picture transmissions in the home has the same perception as on the big screen. The extent of the effect depends on the size of the TV set.

The new technology was developed by RAI’s Centre for Strategic Technologies in Turin and is being supported by the City of Turin and RAI’s Yes Italia channel. Production and post-production technology provider AVID collaborated with the experiment.

TDK Unveils 320GB 10 layer Super-Multiplayer BD-R optical disc at CEATEC

As reported by CDrInfo: TDK developed a new optical disc with a capacity of 320GB, using 10 recording layers. 

TDK's latest prototype disc features 10 layers, each capable of holding 32GB of data. The disc can be burned using a 405nm blue-violet semiconductor laser and an objective lens with a numerical aperture (NA) of 0.85 - a configuration currently met in Blu-ray players/recorders. Of course, this does not mean that the disc would be compatible with the available Blu-ray recorders, since the laser power needed to burn data in 10 layers varies from 13 ~ 28mW, according to the layer.

On the other hand, the disc could be readable with BD equipment. TDK claims that the transmittance of the outermost layer of the disc, which requires the highest transmittance, is more than 90%, while the symbol error rate of the stored data is less than 10-4. This means that the data could be retrieved with adequate reliability.

TDK has succeded in the development of the multi-layer disc using layers made of different materials. An inorganic Si-Cu alloy layer was used for the L0 layer. On the L1 to L9 layers, recording marks are maintained by using an inorganic material composed of bismuth peroxide and germanium dioxide. By adjusting the composition of the used materials, TDK managed to maintain adequate transmitance characteristics for each recording layer.

This is TDK's third multi-layer, high capacity disc since 2006. TDK was the first to develop a 100GB prototype recordable Blu-ray Disc in 2005. One year later, TDK a write-once recording medium having six layers, each of which has a capacity of 33.3 Gbytes (200 Gbytes in total). The transmittance of the outermost layer of the disc, which requires the highest transmittance, was 80 to 90%.

The company plans to exhibit the disc at CEATEC JAPAN 2009, which will run from Oct 6 to 10, 2009, at Makuhari Messe in Chiba Prefecture, Japan.

Beware Updating Firmware on Blu-ray Players

And you thought things were settling down with RECORDABLE Blu-ray discs and their "standardized" playback on Blu-ray players! 

This info is a little dated, but still applicable.  Beware updating the firmware on your Blu-ray player, it may just break your players ability to play Recordable Blu-ray discs.  Read the full thread on what happened with Samsungs firmware update as reported here in the CNET forum.

The Ins and Outs of Blu-ray Disc Replication and Licensing

Our friends over at EMediaLive.com have done their best to explain the trials and tribulations of getting Blu-Ray replicates created in this article, including estimated replication costs, content protection (AACS & BD+), and other associated licensing fees.

The closing paragraphs in the article sums it up for those of us in the corporate word looking to use Blu-Ray.

The Cost of Doing Blu-ray Business,
With its slew of legal agreements, upfront charges, recurring fees, and other imperatives, BD replication is a time-consuming, expensive, and all-around frustrating proposition for small- and medium-sized publishers.

Quantitatively speaking, for 1,000 copies of a simple title, all these demands add at least $7.54 overhead to the price of a single disc (calculated as a one-shot deal). Based on my earlier examples, this works out to roughly $11-12 (SL) to $13-14 (DL) each for a finished product. Ordering more units and amortizing the one-time and annual fees over multiple titles and years will dramatically reduce these estimated figures, but cost-efficient replication is, obviously, geared toward frequent high-volume production.

As the prices of writable hardware and media come down and compatibility matures, there should be little doubt that the best long-term solution for independent, in-house, and boutique high-definition publishers will be BD duplication rather than replication.

DVS adds HD Edit Suite

DVS adds a High Definition Edit Suite in the style of a 1940's era detective office.

Private Detective H.D. Suite's Office 

Final Cut Pro Studio 2 Workstation 

2008 TECH IN 1940's STYLE
With a Film-Noir look and feel, the DVS HD Suite looks like it's home to a detective in the likes of Sam Spade.  This detective's office is complete with period furniture and dressed with photos of Grand Rapids from the 40's era.

Don't let the look fool you, this suite is packed with technology including, at it's heart, and Intel Dual Quad Core Xenon 3 GHZ Mac Pro with 8GB of RAM to power your edit and a 42" Panasonic Plasma to view your edited programs in resolutions up to 1080P!

SOFTWARE PACKAGES
Included with the sutie is the entire Final Cut Pro Studio 2 and Adobe Creative Suite 3 packages.

CREATURE COMFORTS
When editing at DVS in the HD Suite, clients have a large list of amenities including:

• Wireless Internet Access
• Producer Desk
• Plenty of room for client review
• Lunch from local restaurants
• and many more...

It's official - Blu-Ray wins.

It's official, Toshiba has thrown in the towel on HD-DVD.  From the Toshiba Japan press web site:

Toshiba Announces Discontinuation of HD DVD Businesses

19 February, 2008

Company Remains Focused on Championing Consumer Access to High Definition Content

TOKYO--Toshiba Corporation today announced that it has undertaken a thorough review of its overall strategy for HD DVD and has decided it will no longer develop, manufacture and market HD DVD players and recorders. This decision has been made following recent major changes in the market. Toshiba will continue, however, to provide full product support and after-sales service for all owners of Toshiba HD DVD products.

HD DVD was developed to offer consumers access at an affordable price to high-quality, high definition content and prepare them for the digital convergence of tomorrow where the fusion of consumer electronics and IT will continue to progress.

"We carefully assessed the long-term impact of continuing the so-called 'next-generation format war' and concluded that a swift decision will best help the market develop," said Atsutoshi Nishida, President and CEO of Toshiba Corporation. "While we are disappointed for the company and more importantly, for the consumer, the real mass market opportunity for high definition content remains untapped and Toshiba is both able and determined to use our talent, technology and intellectual property to make digital convergence a reality."

Toshiba will continue to lead innovation, in a wide range of technologies that will drive mass market access to high definition content. These include high capacity NAND flash memory, small form factor hard disk drives, next generation CPUs, visual processing, and wireless and encryption technologies. The company expects to make forthcoming announcements around strategic progress in these convergence technologies.

Toshiba will begin to reduce shipments of HD DVD players and recorders to retail channels, aiming for cessation of these businesses by the end of March 2008. Toshiba also plans to end volume production of HD DVD disk drives for such applications as PCs and games in the same timeframe, yet will continue to make efforts to meet customer requirements. The company will continue to assess the position of notebook PCs with integrated HD DVD drives within the overall PC business relative to future market demand.

This decision will not impact on Toshiba's commitment to standard DVD, and the company will continue to market conventional DVD players and recorders. Toshiba intends to continue to contribute to the development of the DVD industry, as a member of the DVD Forum, an international organization with some 200 member companies, committed to the discussion and defining of optimum optical disc formats for the consumer and the related industries.

Toshiba also intends to maintain collaborative relations with the companies who joined with Toshiba in working to build up the HD DVD market, including Universal Studios, Paramount Pictures, and DreamWorks Animation and major Japanese and European content providers on the entertainment side, as well as leaders in the IT industry, including Microsoft, Intel, and HP. Toshiba will study possible collaboration with these companies for future business opportunities, utilizing the many assets generated through the development of HD DVD.

Toshiba to halt HD-DVD Production

According to a report by the Japan Broadcasting Corporation (NHK), Toshiba will halt HD-DVD production.

An unnamed source at Toshiba was quoted, "We have entered the final stage of planning to make our exit from the next generation DVD business."  He added that an official announcement could come as early as next week.

With this recent "announcement", Toshiba shares jumped 5%.  Analysts applaud Toshiba's seemingly quick decision to pull the plug on the technology because of the heavy costs involved in promoting the format.

No one could be reached for comment at Toshiba's public relations office in Tokyo.

Wal-Mart discontinuing HD-DVD Sales

And now… the end is near… for HD-DVD

The nations largest retailer, Wal*Mart, announces today that they will be discontinuing HD-DVD sales by June. “By June Wal-Mart will only be carrying Blu-Ray movies and hardware machines,” states Susan Chronister on the Wal-Mart Checkout Blog.

From the Wal-Mart Facts website:

We’ve listened to our customers, who are showing a clear preference toward Blu-ray products and movies with their purchases," said Gary Severson, senior vice president, Home Entertainment, Wal-Mart, U.S.  "With the customers best interest in all we do, we wanted to share our decision and timeline with them as soon as possible, knowing it will help simplify their purchase decision, increase selection, and increase adoption long term.  We anticipate enhancing our selection with continued great values in hi-definition Blu-ray products, so our customers can further enhance their entertainment experience at home."

Wal-Mart will continue to sell through remaining HD DVD product, but in less than 30 days customers will see a more predominant move toward Blu-ray in stores, clubs and online.  As the nation’s largest retailer, Wal-Mart thoughtfully reviewed all areas and impact in making its decision, and is excited to move forward with one format and share its future plans with customers.

One-Two Punch to HD-DVD

Today, HD-DVD got both a blow to the head and chest by Netflix and Best Buy.

First with the one-two punch, Netflix announced that after carrying both HD-DVD and Blu-Ray since 2006, they are expecting to phase out HD-DVD titles by the end of the year.

“The prolonged period of competition between the two formats has prevented clear communication to the consumer regarding the richness of the high-def experience versus standard definition,” stated Ted Sarandos, Netflix chief content officer. “We're now at the point where the industry can pursue the migration to a single format, bring clarity to the consumer and accelerate the adoption of high def. Going forward, we expect that all of the studios will publish in the Blu-ray format and that the price points of high-def DVD players will come down significantly. These factors could well lead to another decade of disc-based movie watching as the consumer's preferred means.”

Hours later, Best Buy President/COO Brian Dunn finished the combo punch by stating, “Best Buy will recommend Blu-ray as the preferred format. Our decision to shine a spotlight on Blu-ray Disc players and other Blu-ray products is a strong signal to our customers that we believe Blu-ray is the right format choice for them.”

While we at DVS are disappointed that HD-DVD isn’t able to get a foothold in the market, we are pleased that the market is moving towards a single HD format. DVS has been authoring both HD-DVD and Blu-Ray since the end of 2006.

Warner Bros. backs Blu-Ray…......Exclusively

Just before the January Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Warner Bros. Entertainment announced that they will only release High Definition movies in the Blu-Ray format after May of 2008.

Warner had been the only studio to produce titles in both the Blu-Ray and HD DVD format after Paramount dropped support for Blu-Ray and exclusively went with HD DVD.

Warner had been one of the first studios to support HD DVD, prior to publishing Blu-ray Disc titles. At that time, Warner said it would support both formats as long as there was an opportunity to make money from each format.

Paramount opted to drop Blu-ray last year, reportedly after receiving a substantial subsidy from the HD DVD camp. Industry observers have said that both camps were wooing exclusive support from Warner Brothers as well. Sony chairman Sir Howard Stringer declined to say whether Warner Bros. was offered an incentive to jump ship, saying instead, “We have to take their statements at face value, that they acted in the best interests of the consumer.”

With the lost support of HD DVD, Warner has tipped the scales in the favor of Blu-Ray – possibly ending what the New York Times reported on 12/31/07 as a “Stalemate” in the format war.

Toshiba, the main backer of the HD DVD format, defended the technology, "It's difficult for me to believe when all the pundits declare that HD DVD is dead," states Toshiba VP of Marketing Jodi Sally. "Clearly, the events of the last few days have led many of you to that conclusion. We have been declared dead before. The reality is we ended 2007 with a majority of the year-to-date market share."

HD-DVD & Blu-Ray by the numbers.

It’s been hard to tell who’s sold the most set-top players based on the numbers released by the competing HD-DVD and Blu-Ray camps. Based on the information we’ve gathered from different resources, here’s what we’ve found.

Last week, the Blu-Ray camp came out trumpeting that 2.7 million players have been sold.  One thing the Blu-Ray camp does not say about the 2.7 million is that approximately 2.3 million of those “players” are Sony Play Station 3 (PS3) game systems. Taking the 2.3 million away from the 2.7 million leaves approximately 400,000 of the Blu-Ray player sales being set top players like the Panasonic DMP-BD10 Player.

In contrast, the HD-DVD Camp puts their current base at 750,000 players - significantly less than the 2.7 million Blu-Ray is touting. Like the Blu-Ray camp, the 750,000 HD-DVD player number also includes a game system HD player – the Xbox 360 HD-DVD add-on.  Unlike the PS3, the Xbox 360 doesn’t come with an HD disc player. Users who want the player must purchase it separately. Currently the only use for the add-on HD-DVD drive is for watching movies; currently no games are available for the Xbox 360 in the HD-DVD format. As of September 2007, an estimated 210,000 HD-DVD add-ons have been sold, bringing the HD-DVD set-top player base to 540,000.

I would say that the 750,000 base for HD-DVD is a true base, even including the Xbox add-on because the add-on has only one purpose, watching movies. While the Blu-Ray numbers include the PS3 sales, not all PS3 systems are being utilized as Blu-Ray players.

HD - More than pretty pictures.

Along with showing incredible picture quality on HD displays, the new HD disc formats have something that the previous DVD format was missing. The original DVD format was designed to play video. That’s pretty much it. Interactive games and content on DVD has been and still is pretty weak in comparison to what we’re accustomed to with the web. The next generation discs have, at their core, the ability provide more of an interactive experience.

Both HD-DVD and Blu-Ray can function like traditional DVD’s. This functionality is known as Standard Content. Unlike DVD, the new disc formats have a more interactive layer known as Advanced Content, allowing for truly interactive games and internet connectivity through a set top player. Think of the Advanced Content as a Flash website sitting on top of high definition video.

Having Flash style animated buttons on top of the video is cool and all; however the network connectivity is something to get much more excited about. Not only do we have the ability to create much more dynamic looking content, content being played back can be updated via an internet connection to the player, or user input can be sent thru the internet – a great opportunity for training applications.

What other opportunities open up with this Advanced Content?

Engineering firm uses HD-DVD to look Best in Show

Michigan based engineering firm FTC&H needed a solution for making their tradeshow presentations stand out. With an LCD display and a standard definition DVD for tradeshows, FTC&H wasn’t happy with what they were seeing, “It looks blurry."

To start, DVS suggested having their design team build their presentations in a 16x9 aspect ratio using a 1280x720 pixel resolution or in HD terms 720p resolution. By designing in a 16x9 aspect ratio and using the pixel resolution suggested, the presentation would match the resolution of their LCD display.

Although DVD can handle 16x9 content, the resolution is very low in comparison to HD, only 720x480 pixels. The standard definition DVD was the source of the blurry images FTC&H was seeing. Our only solution was to remove the standard definition playback and replace it with an HD device. Although Blu-Ray was an option, HD-DVD was more of a fit to replace the standard definition DVD player - primarily due to cost. The Toshiba HD-A2 HD-DVD Player was an inexpensive way to replace the existing technology.

Armed this knowledge, the FTC&H team went to work on a revised presentation. With the presentation complete, we were handed the files to begin encoding and authoring to the HD-DVD format.

After the show, FTC&H followed up with us, “Our presentation looked a lot better than before – it was crisp and clean. The HD-DVD helped us stand out.”

Myth: “HD-DVD’s dead, Blu-Ray won the Format War.”

We shouldn't even call this a format war. In our opinion, both formats will co-exist and be played in a single player. In fact, electronics manufacturer LG has a player that does just that. The LG BH100 is an HD-DVD and Blu-Ray player all in one. It’s available on Amazon.com for $799. The price of these “combo” players will come down to sub $200 and the format issue with be a non-issue. Consumers do not care about Blu or HD, they just want their movie from Netflix or Blockbuster to play.

HD Player for $99

Wal-Mart will offer Toshiba’s HD-A2 HD-DVD player tomorrow (Friday Nov, 2) for $98.97 as part of a “pre-Black Friday” promotion.

The price point represents a dramatic new low for Toshiba’s entry-level model, which was recently reduced to hit a suggested $250 retail and is currently being sold by Amazon.com, Circuit City and Costco for just under $200.

HD-DVD for under $100.  And so many thought Blu-Ray won the war...

MYTH: “I need Blu-Ray.”

That is the most common phrase we hear when clients ask for their High Definition content in a disc format. Why shouldn’t they be asking for Blu-Ray? Sony and the others in the Blu-Ray camp have done such a great job marketing making the Blu-Ray brand synonymous with HD video on disc. The truth is that there is an alternative called HD-DVD. When our clients are asking for Blu-Ray, we have found that they are really asking for High Definition on disc. Clients don’t realize there is more than one HD disc format out there, and they really don’t care. They just want their content to look great on their display.

Blu-Ray, HD-DVD, and DVCPRO HD

We’ve added a Panasonic DVCPRO-HD Deck.  The AJ-HD1400PJ deck allows us to playback DVCPRO 25, 50, and 100 (HD) content.  The deck also allows us to record DVCPRO-HD content to tape as well.

Along with the DVCPRO HD deck, we’ve also added Blu-Ray and HD-DVD authoring and duplication services.  Although the “Format War” is still on, we’ve opted to be format ambidextrous and provide support for both High Definition disc formats.

While the HD Disc formats are not quite ready for full scale distribution, they have their specific uses.  Tradeshow video and lobby video’s on plasmas or LCD’s are a perfect place for HD.  Standard definition video on those HD plasma’s and LCD’s just don’t do the displays justice.

The HD-DVD and Blu-Ray formats both have their plusses and minuses.

On the Blu-Ray side, not all Blu-Ray players on the market will play Blu-Ray recordable discs (BD-R).  We’ve had playback success with BD-R discs we have authored in the Panasonic DMP-BD10A player ($599 Amazon.com).  Interesting to note, the Panasonic player that would play BD-R media, would not play Recordable DVD media (DVD-R).  On the plus side, the BD-R discs hold 25GB of data - plenty of room for over 2 hours of 720P HD Content on a recordable disc.

On the HD-DVD side, HD-DVD recordable is playable on all HD-DVD players on the market currently.  No guessing on weather a disc will play or not.  The one drawback on the HD-DVD, currently the recordable media has a capacity for only 60 minutes of content, however most corporate content is under 60 minutes.