The HD Battle is not over : HD-DVD+ arrives !

[MOVIEGEEK]

Toshiba, NEC and Memory-Tech to hold three-day HD DVD+ showcase to spotlight progress in next generation HD DVD standard after HD-DVD failed against Sony Blu-Ray.

Toshiba and NEC confirm 2008 launch of HD DVD+ hardware Pony Canyon announces commitment to launch HD DVD+ discs

Tokyo - Toshiba Corporation, NEC Corporation and Memory-Tech Corporation today announced a three-day "HD DVD+ Showcase" that will present the latest advances in the HD DVD+ format to over 500 key executives from Japan's entertainment industry. The three companies, proponents of the new High-Definition DVD format ("HD DVD+"), will host the event from July 26 through 28, 2008 in downtown Tokyo, providing leaders from major Japanese movie studios, animation film creaters, broadcasting, music and publishing industries and the retail sector, with a total venue for experiencing the impressive advances HD DVD+ has achieved as it moves toward its 2008 launch as the next-generation DVD standard.

"HD DVD+ means the death of the Sony Blu-Ray" declared Toshiba Chairman. Sony did not want to do any declaration about the Toshiba surprising new support release. Project was classified top secret inside Toshiba Head Quarter. Some says that HD-DVD+ was in fact the second generation of the HD DVD standard and it should has been released between 2010 and 2012. But the victory of Sony changed parameters...

The Tokyo showcase will shine a light on the very latest hardware prototypes supporting the format, including HD DVD+ players and PC ROM drives; demonstration of actual film clips provided by major film studios authored and recorded on to HD DVD+ discs for technical evaluation purposes; and the update of the disc manufacturing status in preparation for volume launch of HD DVD+ hardware and discs when they are commercialized in 2009.

Japan's largest DVD Distributor announces support for HD DVD+
On the eve of the Tokyo event, Pony Canyon Inc, Japan's largest distributor of DVD titles, became the first company in the world to announce its clear support for DVD+. "HD DVD+ is a promising format that will secure continuous growth of the DVD industry as well as bringing about fresh innovation to the consumer experience," said Hideki Oyagi, General Manager, Visual Entertainment Headquarters, Pony Canyon. "We very much look forward to launching HD DVD+ titles at an early stage of 2008, in line with the expected launch of HD DVD+ players and recorders."

http://www.dvdcritiques.com/news/news_visu.aspx?dvd=1877


april fools

[Bullworth]

Let the Second High-Def Disc War begin! I don't know exactly how this will play out but I sure hope it forces the prices of Blu-Ray discs and players down again. Just like any monopoly on the market when you're the only player in town you get to call the shots. I don't own any kind of High-Def player but if this helps to foster competition and reduced prices, bring it on.
Sony not saying anything makes me think they either don't care and don't think it's a threat to them at all or were caught completelty off guard.

[NoBuddy]

Very interesting.

But Sony already announced the Pink-Ray Disc.
180 Gb, triple layer. Un-scratchable !
And NO region codes, NO DRM - just clean. Focused on HQ.
This will be definitly the end of HD-DVD+, when the first Discs and players arrive in summer 2009.

Sony even announced, that PS4 will have native support of Pink-Ray.

[rumplestiltskin]

Very interesting.

But Sony already announced the Pink-Ray Disc.
180 Gb, triple layer. Un-scratchable !
And NO region codes, NO DRM - just clean. Focused on HQ.
This will be definitly the end of HD-DVD+, when the first Discs and players arrive in summer 2009.

Sony even announced, that PS4 will have native support of Pink-Ray.

Your April Fools post is a day early.

[Midzuki]

Have you all gone nuts? X-Ray lasers are the future!

[MJPollard]

Oh, God, here we go. With all of the so-called "humor" that's bound to be bandied about by wannabe comedians, this day is going to be royally annoying. I should probably just avoid the net for the day, rather than put up with this increasingly stupid "April Fool's" bullshit.

(Yeah, I'm a grumpy old man at 42. Sue me.)

[PuzZLeR]

...ggggggggggrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrroooooooooooo ooaaannnnn.... not another format war, please, not another....hoping this is an April Fool's gag...

Seriously, I've waited since 2004, since I first started watching blue laser tech, since I first started watching the next emerging video format (like H.264), since I first started waiting for the next ONE disc standard to arrive years ago... I thought it was all over a few weeks ago and I can now shop, and even encode my own collection, with a peace of mind finally...

Please say this isn't happening...

[Noahtuck]

Let the Second High-Def Disc War begin!

I'm glad i'm blind and standard dvd def still suits me fine :P

[cracula]

Ha ha. You make funny.

[raffie]

Pink-Ray.

The gay-porn industry is said to be a taker.

[Midzuki]

Pink-Ray will be no match for Steve Jobs's gayDVD! :P

Seriously now:

MJPollard wrote:

Oh, G*d, here we go. With all of the so-called "humor" that's bound to be bandied about by wannabe comedians, this day is going to be royally annoying. I should probably just avoid the net for the day, rather than put up with this increasingly stupid "April Fool's" bullshit.

(Yeah, I'm a grumpy old man at 42. Sue me.)

Me too thinks April-Fools's-Day" is just another stupid custom.
And I am also pretty sure that only a worldwide revolution
will set us free from all types of stupid customs.
Unfortunately too many people simply need stupid customs

< WIKIPEDIA >

The origins of this custom are complex and a matter of much debate. It is likely a relic of the once common festivities held on the vernal equinox, which began on the 25th of March, old New Year's Day, and ended on the 2nd of April.

Though the 1st of April appears to have been observed as a general festival in Great Britain in antiquity, it was apparently not until the beginning of the 18th century that the making of April-fools was a common custom. In Scotland the custom was known as "hunting the gowk," i.e. the cuckoo, and April-fools were "April-gowks," the cuckoo being a term of contempt, as it is in many countries.

One of the earliest connections of the day with fools is Chaucer's story the Nun's Priest's Tale (c.1400), which concerns two fools and takes place "thritty dayes and two" from the beginning of March, which is April 1. The significance of this is difficult to determine.

Europe may have derived its April-fooling from the French. French and Dutch references from 1508 and 1539 respectively describe April Fools' Day jokes and the custom of making them on the first of April. France was one of the first nations to make January 1 officially New Year's Day (which was already celebrated by many), by decree of Charles IX. This was in 1564, even before the 1582 adoption of the Gregorian calendar (See Julian start of the year). Thus the New Year's gifts and visits of felicitation which had been the feature of the 1st of April became associated with the first day of January, and those who disliked or did not hear about the change were fair game for those wits who amused themselves by sending mock presents and paying calls of pretended ceremony on the 1st of April. In France the person fooled is known as poisson d'avril (April fish). This has been explained as arising from the fact that in April the sun quits the zodiacal sign of the fish. The French traditionally celebrated this holiday by placing dead fish on the backs of friends. Today, real fish have been replaced with sticky, fish-shaped paper cut-outs that children try to sneak onto the back of their friends' shirts. Candy shops and bakeries also offer fish-shaped sweets for the holiday.

Some Dutch also celebrate the 1st of April for other reasons. In 1572, the Netherlands were ruled by Spain's King Philip II. Roaming the region were Dutch rebels who called themselves Geuzen, after the French "gueux," meaning beggars. On April 1, 1572, the Geuzen seized the small coastal town of Den Briel. This event was also the start of the general civil rising against the Spanish in other cities in the Netherlands. The Duke of Alba, commander of the Spanish army could not prevent the uprising. Bril is the Dutch word for glasses, so on April 1, 1572, "Alba lost his glasses." The Dutch commemorate this with humor on the first of April.

< / WIKIPEDIA >

[Bullworth]

Every year this happens where I get taken by one of these This time it was public.

[SatStorm]

My insider at Sony, send me today an email, to inform me that they gonna produce HD DVD players, because of the market demand.

Of course it was an April Foul joke. I didn't even reply to him

[PuzZLeR]

I'm glad i'm blind and standard dvd def still suits me fine :P

I can fully appreciate what you say. I'm just so tired of these proprietary codecs and this AVI/MKV/MP4/WMV stuff, and needing a special player that plays this and that, and pirateware/hackware crap and Apple TV bull, blah, blah, blah.

The only reason I ever considered anything outside good ol' reliable MPEG-2/DvD is because of its high bitrate demands and small media - problem is you can only get about 2 hours of decent quality on a DvD-R with this method and being a video junkie with my volume would have me awkwardly managing hundreds of discs. Otherwise, like you, I would have never looked elsewhere.

But, Sony or not, I'm sure you can appreciate the next disc standard - one with much bigger capacity, can host modern compressed formats like H.264, and would have a resilient compatibility as your CDs and DvDs have proven to have.

Personally, the only thing I want to "encode" now is standard formats for blu-ray only. Period. Even my "cramped" DvD projects will be less and less over time... That's why I'm into BD, not because it's a "Sony thing", but because it's a one disc standard.

I would feel deflated if this HD-DvD+ wasn't a joke. I've waited too long for this...

[jman98]

Ha ha. You make funny.

Not so much funny in my opinion.

[glenmike]

Betamax to HD-DVD Converter Link. Really cool new device.

[zoobie]

the 45 HD movies on the 5 1/4" floppy was a joke, too
people are willing to believe anything
a few years go, someone started the rumor that a ducks 'quack' doesn't echo...

what you need to do is start a rumor that makes you a millionaire