Like a pendulum swinging back and forth, we get good news, then bad news, about a possible Blu-ray / HD-DVD merger. Good news… and bad news. Here’s some more of the latter.

Toshiba’s top negotiator, Yoshihide Fujii, was quoted as saying that unifying the formats “would be extremely difficult at this stage.” His comment comes after a weekend of negotiations between Toshiba (in the HD-DVD camp) and Sony/Matsushita (Blu-ray) — which we’re picturing as the ultimate geek summer camp with Toshiba and Sony facing each other across the lake and duking it out via tug-of-war and canoe racing — and couldn’t be confirmed by a Toshiba spokesperson.

Link: engadget - unifying DVD formats may prove too difficult
Link: the INQUIRER - Toshiba, Sony Talks Stall

Talks in Japan aimed at unifying the two leading high-definition formats broke down early Monday without reaching a solution, according to sources who tracked the discussions closely from the U.S.

Although new talks could still be scheduled, sources in both the Blu-ray Disc and HD DVD camps said they now see little choice but to proceed on the assumption that a compromise will not be worked out.

Link: VideoBusiness Online - HD Unification Talks Stopped

ultimate AV has a review of the Humax HFA 100 Digital Tuner.

Personally, I just use my HD PVR to tune in my HD channels, so I don’t need one of these things. But if you’re getting your HD off the air, then listen up:

All in all, the Humax HFA 100 provides everything you need to receive free, over-the-air high-definition programming reliably, conveniently, and at a price you cannot beat.

Yup. Just the summary. Read the rest here:

Link: ultimate AV - HFA 100 Digital Tuner

If you’re in the market for a projector and don’t know which one to get, one of the things you do is search the web for information about a whole bunch of projectors. Projector Central is a website that sells and reviews projectors, and they have a page with their favourite projectors. I know that many of these projectors have been reviewed very favourably elsewhere as well, so I think it’s a pretty good resource.

Link: Projector Central - Highly Rated Home Theater Projectors

May 19th is fast approaching.

Do you know what that means? Do you know the significance of May 19th? If you’re a Star Wars fan you do. George Lucas’ Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith opens in theaters on May 19th. It’s a day I’ve been looking forward to for three years since the last Star Wars movie (which I liked, by the way) and it’s almost here.

Film & Video Magazine has a fascinating article about the technology used to film Episode III. Read the rest of this entry »

As predicted, special interest groups are going to be lobbying Congress for legislative aid to bring back the broadcast flag. They are trying to do this by giving the FCC the authority to bring back the flag. The broadcast flag was originally struck down because the courts deemed that the FCC didn’t have the authority to force it.

Link: News.Com - FCC’s broadcast flag: It’s back?

The FVD (Forward Versatile Disc) format is backed heavily by Taiwanese firms, and has now received backing from Dataplay (DPHI), a Colorado-based US firm. They have signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Taiwan’s Industrial Technology Research Institute.

“The MOU covers all of the applicable technology for our system, including the engine, media and content protection system,” said Bill Almon, CEO of DPHI. “Our cooperative activity will enable us to advance our goals to create a small or micro-optical system standard for portable/mobile applications, license our technology and OEM a complete system.”

FVD is a red-laser based high-definition standard that uses Microsoft’s Windows Media Video-9 code (aka VC-1) to compress information onto a red-laser based disc. The first FVD players are expected on the Taiwanese market this month for $175.

Link: optics.org - Next-gen red-laser discs prove a hit

So how good is MPEG4 anyway? If you’re a Mac user with QuickTime 7, you can see the difference. Otherwise you’ll just have to read about it, because Jeff Harrell wrote an article comparing the H.264 codec used in MPEG4 to an old standy, Sorenson 3, and includes video clips that need QuickTime 7 to play. Apple’s website says that it’s coming soon for Windows. Read the rest of this entry »

Apple has updated their DVD player to support DSP 4 authored HD DVD folders from DVD discs and hard drives. So now you can author HD content using Apple software like DVD Studio Pro and stick it on a DVD for other Mac owners with DVD Player 4.6 to enjoy. It’s a start!

Link: Macworld - Apple updates DVD Player to v4.6

Now that the courts have had their say, the FCC mandated broadcast flag is gone. What does this mean for you and me? Mark Cuban muses “Now we will see if threats to pull broadcasts from CBS and others are real or not.” There was a lot of posturing about how the broadcast flag was absolutely required by the networks or they wouldn’t release HD content. Now the waiting game begins…

Link: lost remote - Will broadcasters pull HDTV programming?

This is just so fun that I had to mention it. KABC, the local ABC affiliate in L.A., has added an HD camera to their news helicopter. Supposedly even the 90% of LA viewers without hi-def sets will see a noticably clearer picture, like the licence plate during high speed chases.

Link: About - KABC Adds Helinet HD Copter
Link: lost remote - LA’s first local hi-def: It’s a copter

Mitsubishi has used coloured LEDs to increase the colour fidelity of Liquid Crystal Displays. Displays using the six different colours of LED backlighting can reproduce “95.58% of the Munsell Color Cascade, a series of natural object color samples”. Normal displays can only display 52.67%.

This greatly increases the colour reproduction range of Liquid Crystal Displays, which in turns translates to an increase in picture quality.

Link: Tech-On! - Mitsubishi Electric Develops 6 Color LED Backlight

Toshiba recently announced two new HD-DVD formats: a 3 layer 45GB disc and a hybrid disc that has dual layer 30GB HD-DVD on one side and dual layer DVD on the other. Two studios had comments. Read the rest of this entry »

[Update: JVC had unveiled at CES a three layer disc - two DVD layers and one Blu-ray layer. They are working on a four layer disc - two Blu-ray layers and two DVD layers.]

In a move seemingly designed to combat Blu-ray’s higher capacity, Toshiba announced the availability of a 45GB HD-DVD. They got the extra capacity by introducing a third 15GB layer. How far they’re going to get with this is still too early to tell, because we know that Sony has plans for Blu-ray discs of up to 200GB that also use many 25GB layers. So currently Sony has a 2 layer 50GB format and Toshiba has a 3 layer 45GB format. Advantage: still Sony. Personally, I think the less layers the better - easier to manufacture and costs less.

Toshiba also announced a hybrid disc that bonds a dual layer HD-DVD with a dual layer DVD. This kind of thing isn’t quite new - we’ve already heard of a dual layer HD-DVD / DVD combo before. Regardless, I think this is a great idea. I can buy an SD movie today that’ll also be an HD movie when I get that HD-DVD player. Great stuff.

More details about these two formats will be announced Wednesday at the Media-Tech Expo 2005 exhibition in Las Vegas.

Link: Macworld - Toshiba expands HD-DVD capacity to 45GB
Link: Twice - Toshiba Unveils 2 New HD-DVD Disc Options

And eCoustics has a commentary about the whole format war mess, postulating that if there is a merger between formats, that we won’t see any products until 2008.

Link: eCoustics - Blue - How Long Is the DVD Bridge?

TVPredictions.com certainly thinks so. And their reasoning seems pretty solid. Now that the FCC’s ruling mandating the broadcast flag has been struck down, content providers will start looking for other ways to restrict consumers’ rights in the name of protecting content. My concern is that not only will Congress pass a law that brings back the broadcast flag, but they’ll strengthen it in some way. Now I don’t know how they’d do that, but organizations such as the MPAA probably do. Grrrrr…..

So what can we do? Write your local government representative, of course. Not being an American, I sometimes forget who that would be, but if I remember correctly, the word is “senator”. No, not the hockey team. The politicians! Hmmm, I wonder if the senator closest to me would care about a letter from me?

Link: TVPredictions.com - Congress Will Pass HDTV Copying Law

Pursuent to my article that you could pre-order this thing, Star Choice now officially announces the availability of the DVR530 HD, a high definition PVR for Star Choice subscribers. It is a Motorola device with a 160GB hard drive, and can record both HD and SD programming using its two tuners. I have two tuners in my Rogers (Scientific Atlanta) PVR, and it is a MUST. Star Choice claims that it offers over 600 hours of HD content a week, so that’s lots of recording. Too bad the 160GB hard drive can only capture a small portion of that (just over 25 hours).

Link: marketnews.ca - Star Choice Unveils PVR