Chris Lanier's Blog : HD DVD

VidaBox Media Servers Now Provide HD DVD & Blu-ray Storage and Streaming Capabilities

chrisl — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 22:52:00 GMT

WESTBURY, NY – March 5th – VidaBox LLC is proud to announce new HD DVD & Blu-ray storage and streaming abilities on their line of premium media center systems. Unencrypted titles can be copied onto a VidaBox server, and then streamed to VidaBox extenders. These capabilities will be debuted in Demo Alley Room 240A at the Electronic House Expo (EHX), running from March 13th through the 15th in Orlando, Florida.

“We’re excited to include yet another ground-breaking feature in our line of media center systems,” comments Steven Cheung, President of the company. “With HD discs becoming more prevalent in movie collections, there is a growing need to store, manage, and distribute HD DVD & Blu-ray content throughout the house. Our VidaBox systems will be able to meet and exceed those needs, allowing dealers and integrators to offer their customers something truly unique.”

The addition of HD DVD & Blu-ray streaming compliments the other integrator friendly features already available on VidaBox, such as multi-zone audio streaming, RS-232 & TCP/IP control with vCommand™, and newer additions like vAutomation™ – the custom home automation GUI software w. mControl™ – which will also be debuting at EHX.

“With VidaBox, end users can now enjoy a solution that covers the entire breadth of AV needs.” Cheung continues, “For example, a RACK16™ server can be installed, and as the stored collection of music, pictures, DVD, HD DVD, & Blu-ray grows, additional space can be purchased at any time. Meanwhile, up to 10 additional ROOMCLIENT v2, RACKCLIENT™ or SLIM™ v2 extenders can be added throughout the home for 10 simultaneous AV streams. Combined with our multizone audio & home automation integration capabilities, VidaBox truly offers a complete, high definition home solution.”

For more details and specifications on VidaBox™ & their Blu-ray & HD DVD streaming capabilities, please visit their company website at http://www.vidabox.com, or see a live demonstration of their products in Demo Alley Room 240A at EHX Spring from March 13th through the 15th.

About VidaBox LLC

VidaBox LLC is a systems integration company focused on manufacturing premium Media Center systems. VidaBox is on a mission to create user-friendly, and stable high-performance Media Center systems that work right out of the box.

For more information, visit www.vidabox.com or call 1-516-730-7500.

Short Bits: Xbox HD DVD, Stage6

chrisl — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 18:51:00 GMT

Microsoft made it official that the Xbox 360 HD DVD drive is now dead. If you wanted one, I hope you got it already. You will likely find stock marked down all over the place, some retailers going as low as $50 now.

DivX Inc has pulled the plug on their streaming service Stage6 mainly do to the high costs of keeping it running. This will impact Media Center users that take advantage of Yougle to stream Stage6 content. It also puts into question their DivX Connected STB concept that I’ve questioned in the past. DivX does say “Products powered by DivX Connected, our new initiative that lets users stream video, photos, music and Internet services from the PC to the TV, are hitting retail outlets."

Fact or Fiction: Microsoft and Blu-ray

chrisl — Thu, 21 Feb 2008 22:26:00 GMT

I’ve gotten a fair amount of reaction to the various articles I’ve posted on Microsoft and Blu-ray, and it still seems the overall consensus on the web is that Microsoft will fall head over heels for Blu-ray in their products.

I want to preface this post by saying that I’m not advocating Microsoft not supporting Blu-ray. The fact is that Blu-ray won, while I think HD DVD had its clear advantages those don’t matter anymore. I want Blu-ray support in any product that markets itself as part of a digital home.

Fiction: Microsoft should support Blu-ray on the Xbox 360

I truly don’t understand why Microsoft would add Blu-ray support to the Xbox 360 at this point. When Microsoft added HD DVD support they did so by adding some four million lines of code to the Dashboard and had Toshiba manufacturer and sell the HD DVD drives at a loss. How do I know it was at a loss? Just look at the fact that the standard IDE drive was selling for far less than any other IDE HD DVD drive on market.

Toshiba didn’t make any money on the 300,000 that were sold and neither did Microsoft. Microsoft took the development time to add support simply to counter Sony including Blu-ray in the PS3. This was an extremely poor counter, but it provided a fairly cheap way for a consumer to add support for a next gen DVD format on their Xbox.

As that was the only real reason, what reason does Microsoft have now to do the same for Blu-ray? The war is over, Blu-ray won. Your not fighting that anymore. The Xbox 360 is nearly two years old with an approximate four year total turn-over time for the next console. Why add Blu-ray in any form to the Xbox 360?

The simple fact is that it’s not in Microsoft’s best interest to provide Blu-ray support in the Xbox 360. The drives are going to be too expensive as there is no reason to sell them at a loss anymore. Pair that with the development time for BD+ and BD-J, two technologies that Microsoft didn’t agree with in the first place and you have a recipe for no Blu-ray on the Xbox 360.

As for internal drives, that’s even worse. Going back to the drawing board, yet again losing money for an integrated drive that can only be used for movie playback. Remember, developers can’t use Blu-ray Disc’s as that you limit your market by some 18 million current Xbox 360’s (Microsoft also wouldn’t allow it either).

I strongly disagree that Microsoft already has some of these things planned and working as Derek Flickinger suggested on CE Pro yesterday. I don’t believe the Xbox 360 will ever have Blu-ray Disc support. As for the Xbox 720 or whatever you want to call it, I think it is too soon to say it won’t but I don’t think you can say it will either.

Fact: Microsoft should support Blu-ray playback on the PC

There is no doubt that Microsoft should support Blu-ray playback on the PC, but as I’ve talked about several times this comes with a major technical concerns.

For native Blu-ray playback to happen in Microsoft applications they will need to update Vista’s Protected Media Path to support BD+. This is a pretty significant change to the system that already supports AACS, the only protection that was needed for HD DVD.

It has always surprised me that BD+ never got the bad press that any other DRM/content protection system does. It runs code in a virtual machine within the player, if that’s not something for the DRM opposed to get upset about I don’t know what is.

The need for BD+ and the equal need for Java-based BD-J interactivity support instead of the Microsoft developed XML-based iHD leaves a huge shadow of doubt about what Microsoft is going to do. No doubt Windows Media Player and Windows Media Center users will suffer from having to use PowerDVD or alike to playback their Blu-ray Disc’s.

This also leaves Media Center and the connected Extender ecosystem in doubt. Managed Copy in the still unfinished AACS specs will give Blu-ray the ability to offer streaming too, but BD+ is still an issue. Microsoft might get burned by the PS3 again as there is a good chance it will be the first product to take advantage of such features.

Fiction: Microsoft should wait for digital downloads

Digital downloads are exactly what Microsoft wants. Why? Because from VC-1 to WMDRM to Silverlight to Windows Server to Windows Vista they can push their products from point A to point B and collect on them all.

The clear problem with this is the lack of bandwidth in the US. Streaming and downloading of large files just isn’t an option for most US broadband users, and no matter how efficient VC-1 is as a video codec. The fact of the matter is US ISPs are holding up streaming being a viable mass market solution.

The best way to explain this is with a graphic from Vudu, another streaming hopeful (via Dave Zatz). As you can see from the graphic, those with broadband connections less then 2Mbps have up to a four hour delayed wait before they can start enjoying an HD download. It should also be noted that the audio/video quality provided in these sorts of streams just can’t match what Blu-ray has been delivering for the past year. Highly quality means higher bitrates with means larger file size which means longer download times.

Those ISPs that do have the bandwidth (>10Mbps) charge a pretty penny when compared to a basic lower bitrate DSL connection. Are customers willing to both pay high dollar for an Internet connection and then pay high dollar for an HD download that it many cases has to be watched within 24 hours? There is still a lot of work that has to be done before digital downloads can replace physical media for good.

Of course, itshould be noted that digital downloads already exist using Microsoft technologies. The Xbox 360 has downloads via the Xbox Marketplace and the same basic concepts from above apply in terms of download times and bitrates. Many are waiting for Microsoft to extend the reach of the Marketplace downloads to Windows Media Center (and thus Media Center Extenders) as well portable devices like the Zune.

Related:

More Ramblings About Blu-ray & Xbox 360

Short Bits: Media Center Show, On10, PowerDVD, more

chrisl — Thu, 21 Feb 2008 21:40:00 GMT

Ian Dixon had Microsoft’s Steve Lindsay on the Media Center Show today talking about various including Windows Home Server, Extenders, Home automation and his new blog.

Some other stuff that I have not talked about, On10 has videos with S1Digital, Inteset, and Niveus Media. The Windows Mobile team is looking for feedback from users with Zune’s and Windows Mobile devices which is always good to see.

Missing Remote has some tips on integrating PowerDVD Ultra with Media Center for a better Blu-ray/HD DVD playback experience.

Lastly, Jeff Atwood has an interesting article on Tivoization and the GPL.

Blu-ray on Xbox 360 Not Going to Happen

chrisl — Mon, 18 Feb 2008 17:31:00 GMT

Some websites are reporting “rumors” of Microsoft getting ready to add Blu-ray support to the Xbox 360. I’m not going to link to the main website in question, because nothing on that site has ever been true (unless there is an Xbox 360 with HD DVD intergated out there, it was said to be true by this website on at least three different occasions. There are several other false stories out of this site too).

Jason Unger of CE Pro does have the basic rundown of the issue, but don’t believe that Blu-ray is on the way to the Xbox 360.

Among the reasons behind this are outlined in a previous post I wrote about support in Media Center. All of these issues apply for the Xbox 360 as well.

Quickly…

Blu-ray support means adding a Java-based BD-J interactivity layer to the Xbox 360. Highly doubtful to ever happen
The video/audio codecs are not really in question here, both HD DVD and Blu-ray use the same basic codecs.
Blu-ray has extra DRM in BD+. The Xbox 360 can already do AACS, but they are not going to add BD+ support. Microsoft has been opposed to it from the start.

I really wish more respected sites like Engadget would stop linking to well known false stories and publishers.

Related:

Fact or Fiction: Microsoft and Blu-ray

More Ramblings About Blu-ray & Xbox 360

Blu-ray Now Available on Niveus Media Servers

chrisl — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 22:31:00 GMT

Customer demand and format war influences Niveus to add support for Blu-ray Disc playback and to cease production of HD DVD-based servers.

Milpitas, CA – February 15, 2008 – Niveus Media, the leading manufacturer of high-performing digital entertainment solutions for the connected home, announces support for Blu-ray Disc playback on Niveus Media Servers. Additionally, Niveus announces that new production of HD DVD-based servers will be phased out in the next 30 days.

“Incorporating Blu-ray into our offering has always been part of the plan but the demand from our customers, market trends, and recent announcements expedited our decision to come to market with Blu-ray support sooner rather than later,” states Tim Cutting, CEO and Co-Founder, Niveus Media. “While we have stood behind HD DVD as a viable high-definition platform, Niveus engineers have been running Blu-ray in our testing facilities and are very impressed with the performance and integration with our servers.”

Blu-ray is available now on Niveus Media’s 2008 line of Windows Vista Ultimate-based Media Servers including the Summit Series Sierra, Rainier, and Denali Editions, and Pro Series models. Customers who have been shipped an HD DVD-based Niveus Media Server within the past 90 days are eligible for upgrade to a free Blu-ray drive (other fees may apply). Further details, upgrade plans, and pricing will be available to Niveus Authorized Dealers next week.

For more information on Niveus Media, Inc., please visit www.niveusmedia.com.

Short Bits: Hulu Invites, Netflix BD, USB Card Reader

chrisl — Mon, 11 Feb 2008 15:57:00 GMT

I’ve got five (5) Hulu invites that I’m giving out. If you want one, reply to this post saying that you would like an invite and put your e-mail address as your URL. I will randomly select five people tonight and send you an invite.

It look like Netflix is dropping HD DVD and going with Blu-ray only. It’s amazing how things can turn in just a matter of weeks. Once again, HD DVD support in Media Center would be pretty pointless at this stage and native Blu-ray in Media Center is far away.

I’m looking to buy an internal (front panel) USB card reader for my desktop, but just based on reviews there isn’t nessarcly such thing as a good one. I’m looking for one with a black faceplate, LEDs that don’t stay on 24/7, and that can accept Compact Flash and SD cards. Based on reviews at Newegg there are also problems with read/write speed with a lot of them (deal breaker). Does anyone have an opinion on a good front panel USB 2.0 card reader?

Update: Invites will be sent out today to the winners.

Short Bits: HD/BD, Inteset, More

chrisl — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 23:50:00 GMT

I’ve been busy as of late, but have some really interesting articles lined up as soon as I can finish them up.

If you didn’t hear, Vista SP1 is officially coming in March.

Derek Flickinger has a great article up on CE Pro about those pesky interactivity layers in HD DVD and Blu-ray. Much like some of my thoughts, Derek goes though why Blu-ray might not be supported by Microsoft in the future (Derek also sent me bits of his article a few weeks ago).

High end Media Center PC maker Inteset has a video up on Microsoft’s On10 (Via Ian Dixon).

Missing Remote also has an article on playing back High Definition DVDs on your PC.

CyberLink Patent Included in HD DVD Essential Patent Portfolio

chrisl — Thu, 31 Jan 2008 20:10:00 GMT

Taipei, Taiwan----Jan. 31st, 2008----CyberLink Corp. (5203.TW), today announced it is participating in the formation of a joint HD DVD patent license based on its ownership of a patent determined to be essential to the HD DVD standard.

CyberLink’s patent relates to the specifications for interactive content over a network for prerecorded HD-DVD Discs, for playback according to the DVD Specifications for High Definition VIDEO (HD DVD-Video).

“Innovation is the key to CyberLink delivering leading products to our customers as well as sustaining long-term business success,” said Alice H. Chang, CEO of CyberLink. “We're extremely proud be a part of a group of essential HD DVD patent owners who have come together voluntarily for the purpose of forming a joint license, as this is testament to the strength of our core technology.”

Essential HD DVD patent owners that include CyberLink participate in an effort to form a joint patent license facilitated by MPEG LA LLC.

More information about CyberLink’s support for the HD DVD format, and the complete range of CyberLink software, is available at http://www.cyberlink.com/.

About CyberLink

CyberLink Corp is the leader and pioneer in enabling digital multimedia on PCs and CEs. Backed by a group of high-caliber software engineers, CyberLink owns its core codec and a number of patented technologies. Today, CyberLink has built a solid reputation for delivering high-quality, interoperable, and fast time-to-market solutions that keep our OEM partners on the leading edge. Our business partners include leaders in the PC industry: drive manufacturers, graphics-card makers, and top-5 desktop and notebook brands. Today, CyberLink Software Solutions include: complete applications for Blu-ray Discs and HD DVDs, Digital Home entertainment, Mobile TV and eHRD solutions. With customers spanning from multi-national corporations to small/medium-sized businesses, and from power users to home users, CyberLink has enjoyed rapid and consistent growth leading to a record breaking IPO in 2000 on the Taiwan Over The Counter Exchange (OTC: 5203). Currently, CyberLink is listed on the Taiwan Stock Exchange (ticker symbol: 5203.TW). CyberLink's worldwide headquarters is in Taipei. To keep up with market demands, CyberLink has operations in North America, Europe and the Asia Pacific region, including Japan. For more information, please visit CyberLink's website at http://www.cyberlink.com/.

More Thoughts on Native Blu-ray/HD DVD

chrisl — Fri, 25 Jan 2008 19:33:00 GMT

Ben at Engadget HD picked up my post about the lack of native HD DVD/Blu-ray in Media Center today. I’ve been reading some of the comments the post is getting and wanted to add a few thoughts.

First, I’m talking about native support. This means that it works without launching an external application, just like playing a DVD or any other video within Media Center. PowerDVD and ArcSoft TotalMedia currently launch external applications for playback, so you don’t have native support for either HD DVD or Blu-ray at this point. Media Foundation would be used to do this, much like DirectShow has been used for native DVD playback in Media Center since the start.

Microsoft had planned for native HD DVD support in Windows Vista, but they dropped that and left it to third parties. It was my guess that native HD DVD support would finally ship in Fiji, but given the downfall of HD DVD since you can see why I’d question that. Even if native HD DVD playback shipped in Fiji, it could very well be pointless if HD DVD continues its demise.

For native Blu-ray playback within Media Center, a Java based interactivity layer (called BD-J) would have to be added. Microsoft hates Java with a passion as many of us know, so it is unlikely that they would spend time developing native Blu-ray playback when Java is a requirement. I’m not saying it can’t be done from a technical standpoint. Instead, I’m saying that it is unlikely that Microsoft will be the one to do it.

There is also additional DRM that would need to be present in BD+. HD DVD only needs AACS, which can technically be supported using Protected Media Path (PMP) that is already present in Vista. Yet another thing Microsoft would have to add that they didn’t plan for and that they don't agree with in the first place.

Lastly, I think Microsoft had put a ton of thought into HD DVD remoting to Extenders. HD DVD uses HDi (iHD) for interactivity, which Microsoft co-developed with things like Extenders in mind. With Blu-ray you would need Java running remotely in an Extender session is much different from HDi which they had already planned for.

When Microsoft decided to support HD DVD, they did so because of what it offers the consumer as well as their existing technologies. The industry move to Blu-ray changes all of that.

I think we will be more dependent of third parties doing the work, and even then I’m not sure they could get native Blu-ray within Media Center because of BD+ and BD-J. PMP doesn't do BD+, this is key as PMP basically has to be used to provide native playback. There is much more to native playback support then being able to decode certain video codecs, the content protection and interactvity aspects are huge with both of these formats.

Related:

More Ramblings About Blu-ray & Xbox 360

Short Bits: Softsled, Windows 7, Native HD DVD/Blu-ray

chrisl — Sat, 19 Jan 2008 00:00:00 GMT

Mike at Missing Remote wrote a great article on why Softsled, as a software Extender will never happen. Foucsing on Mike’s last point in the article, the reason Softsled will never exist is because it doesn’t need to. Instead, since every copy of Vista Home Premium and Ulitmate includes Media Center the real future is in media/resource sharing as I’ve talked about before. So, a separate Software Extender will never be released. However, Microsoft needs to focus on making Media Center work together on different machines. Automatic media discovery for music, photos, and recorded TV, sharing of a central EPG, and even streaming of live content.

Everyone has been talking about Windows 7 coming in the second half of 2009. Call me crazy, but why does anyone care at this point? Yeah, I know people want to ditch Vista ASAP and I think Microsoft wants to make the transition to, but Windows 7 doesn’t need to be rushed and frankly if Microsoft can ship any Windows release on schedule I’d be shocked. How many times did Vista get pushed back and/or features cut?

I’ve been trying to find time to write a post about the downfall of HD DVD, but until I can get there here is some food for thought. The day of native HD DVD support in Media Center is gone, even if released it would likely be useless in the long run. Native Blu-ray support in Media Center will never come from Microsoft, never. They will never build anything around Java, which Blu-ray requires. The wait for native HD media playback within Media Center just grew amazingly long.

Niveus Media Introduces Sierra Edition

chrisl — Sun, 06 Jan 2008 00:02:00 GMT

Powered by Intel technology, the eco-friendly and award-winning Sierra Edition Media Server makes its official debut at CES 2008.

Las Vegas, NV – CES 2008 – January 7-10 – The Venetian Suites – Niveus Media, the leading manufacturer of high-performance digital entertainment solutions for the connected home, is pleased to introduce the Sierra Edition Media Server. Based on Windows Vista® Home Premium featuring Windows® Media Center, Sierra is a scalable and energy efficient Media Server that offers users a simple way to access, store, manage, and distribute digital content throughout the home.

“The increasing demand for a reliable and compact Media Server inspired our engineers to approach the Sierra project differently than anything we’ve ever designed at Niveus,” states Tim Cutting, Niveus CEO and Co-Founder. “Leveraging the latest high performance mobile technology from Intel, we developed exclusive components to manufacture Sierra as a high-performance, high-reliability, and eco-friendly Media Server; an accomplishment we are quite proud of.”

A CES Innovations 2008 Design and Engineering Awards Honoree, Sierra offers the functionality, performance, and reliability for which Niveus is recognized, in a low power consuming (less than 180W) and compact form factor (just over 1U). Boasting uncompromised processing power, Sierra is built with the lower power, energy efficient Intel® Core™ 2 Duo Mobile Processor and Mobile Intel® GM965 Express Chipset for breakaway performance, in a compact design.

Boasting cool and quiet performance due to innovative power saving features and an optimized design, the Intel Core 2 Duo Mobile Processor enabled Niveus to create Sierra as an incredibly powerful and responsive system in the most compact form factor ever achieved at Niveus. Additionally, less power consumption translates to less heat dissipation, which ultimately increases the hardware reliability and longevity of Sierra, offering the consumer a cost and energy efficient solution.

“The Sierra Edition Media Server is a terrific example of how Intel technology is enabling the design of cooler, quieter and more compact systems,” said Jeffrey McCrea, vice president and general manager of Intel’s Consumer PC Group. “The combination of the Intel Core 2 Duo mobile processor and Mobile Intel GM965 Express chipset provides consumers with a great performance foundation for viewing, managing and sharing the latest Internet-delivered videos and high-definition entertainment.”

Despite its slender chassis and energy efficient components, Sierra packs an impressive punch, incorporating: powerful Intel® processing; an optional HD DVD drive; Seagate® DB35 Series™ hard drives for up to 500GB of storage with video streaming performance, acoustics & reliability; Nvidia’s GeForce Series 8 graphics featuring PureVideo™ HD technology for high quality video scaling up to and beyond 1080p; and proprietary Niveus technology!

Suitable for rack mount installation or living room placement, Sierra is built with a silent active cooling design for cool and quiet (less than 30db noise) performance anywhere in the home. An optional Wireless N Module provides home owners and installers with additional placement flexibility.

As a digital television compatible device, Sierra is capable of streaming HD content to multiple independent zones and allows for upgrades in storage and compatibility, for even greater performance. At just over 1U in size, the modular Sierra chassis, made of powder coated solid steel and is ideal for rack-mount installation.

Sierra will be available exclusively to volume integrators in Q1 2008. Contact Niveus to learn more about minimum order requirements and this product.

For more information on Niveus Media, Inc., please visit www.niveusmedia.com.

Passive Technologies Intros Blu-ray and HD DVD Combo lifeStation hd

chrisl — Wed, 19 Dec 2007 14:19:00 GMT

Passive Technologies present the lifeStation hd, offering an immersive audiophile quality experience for all your Standard and High Definition media.

For Passive its all about being able to handle any media anytime. Whether you want to play a cd, a DVD, Standard HD or BluRay, a DivX, an Mpeg, or a WMV, you don’t want to have to worry whether your system can play it. Now with both BluRay and HDDVD playback Passive have ensured that there’s no longer any need to worry about compatibility or future proofing. With support for True HD sound and DTS aswell you can be guaranteed to get the best out of all your HD media for years to come.

And with a Passive system the same attention to detail goes from the lowest to the highest quality MP3, WMA and AAC audio files as it does for full HD Video. For audiophiles there is the custom mCrystal soundboard providing superb analogue and digital outs, bespoke power cleaning circuits, high quality gold connectors as standard and an aluminium chassis with excellent thermal and non-magnetic properties for superb quality crystal clear sound.

One unique feature of the lifeStation range in the Media Center market, is that the lifeStation hd is completely silent. Their machined aluminium chassis and their own Dynachill 3 technology means that heat from the powerful processors is dispersed passively instead of needing noisy fans. The new lifeStation hd, designed for use with Passive’s external storage solutions for multiroom installs, also uses the latest solid state hard drives which have no moving parts so that even the last whisper of a spinning hard drive is removed.

For more information, visit www.passivetechnologies.com.

Short Bits: Vaio LT, Album Art, HD DVD, Plug-ins

chrisl — Wed, 29 Aug 2007 12:46:00 GMT

In October, Sony will start selling their Vaio LT HD PC/TV. It’s an all-in-one PC 22-inch LCD TV with a PC built-in. There will be a standard and an HD model that includes Blu-ray and CableCARD, I’m assuming only a single tuner though. Cool idea, but I don’t see this pushing too many units. Sony, like HP has a few innovative PC concepts out there but I don’t think the general public is really ready for something like this.

A week or so ago Jason Dunn wrote an article about Microsoft not getting embedded album art. I agree, I’ve been struggling with some album art recently and it’s ridiculous that I have to spend time troubleshooting and thinking about something like album art. Not only that, the either Windows Media Player team is behind the times. Microsoft is concentrating too much on thing like the Zune and online services and not putting enough time into their flagship player. Windows Media Player needs a lot of work, and it seems very little gets done with every release.

There have been tons of HD DVD deals out in the past few days. First of all, if you pick up a Toshiba HD-A2, HD-A20 or HD-XA2 at Amazon you also get five free HD DVDs via snail mail and an addition three free as part on a promotion that ends on the September 23. Figuring $20 a disc, you are basically getting a HD DVD player for free or really cheap. There is also a deal where you can get the Xbox 360 HD DVD drive for $180 and get nine HD DVDs with that!

And lastly for a free plug-in notes, MCEBuddy is a DVRMSToolbox-like application that could be considered to have a more understandable UI for beginners. Looks pretty cool. Converts files to other formats, remove commercials, etc.

Ryan Hurst got around to updating one of the most popular applications for Media Center, My Netflix is now updated for a better Vista install. Other changes include the images and bug fixes.

Short Bits: HD DVD, TV Toolbox, HDMI Audio

chrisl — Mon, 20 Aug 2007 21:07:00 GMT

If you haven’t heard, Paramount has dropped Blu-ray support now opting for HD DVD only. A great plus for HD DVD, but don’t think for a second that this is all over. Content is king, and HD DVD needs more support to win. It does say a lot that Paramount is switching it’s support to HD DVD only, and I think if MGM would do the same then it would speak even more for HD DVD. Sony does own 20% of MGM though, and Sony will not switch for a long time from Blu-ray only.

There is an update to TV Toolbox out today. TV Toolbox is the MCML-based application for 10-foot editing and converting of your recordings. Download it and give it a try. MCML applications on one of my few reasons to upgrade to Vista Media Center, so be sure to take advantage of them.

Missing Remote has a great write-up of the issues surrounding the poor state of HDMI audio in PCs. You might not think you should care about HDMI audio support, but to take advance of the new audio formats in HD DVD and/or Blu-ray you need some basic HDMI audio support for it to work. Else you are using analog outputs, and even then there are some big issues.

Xbox 360 HD DVD Player Moves to $179

chrisl — Thu, 26 Jul 2007 13:29:00 GMT

Xbox LIVE to promote HD DVD versions of “300” and “Heroes: Season 1.”

SAN DIEGO — July 26, 2007 — Today at Comic-Con International 2007, Microsoft Corp. announced it will lower the price of the popular Xbox 360™ HD DVD Player from $199 to $179 ERP (United States only) starting Aug. 1, 2007, and will add five free HD DVD movies for anyone purchasing an Xbox 360 HD DVD Player between Aug. 1 and Sept. 30. In addition, Microsoft further solidified the Xbox 360 as the ultimate high-definition (HD) entertainment platform, with key announcements around the HD DVD launches of “300” from Warner Bros. Home Entertainment Group and “Heroes: Season 1” from Universal Studios.

To promote the HD DVD versions of “300” and “Heroes: Season 1,” Microsoft unveiled exclusive content for Xbox LIVE^® Marketplace. Xbox LIVE will offer “300” on demand in HD starting Aug. 14, and is working with Warner Bros. at Comic-Con on a Bringing It Home campaign featuring “300” and other Warner Bros. properties. In advance of the street date for the “Heroes: Season 1” HD DVD boxed set, Xbox LIVE members will be able to download for free the show’s pilot episode in high definition for a limited time. Members will also be able to download trailers, teaser scenes and other promotional materials highlighting the “Heroes: Season 1” boxed set on HD DVD.

Already the most affordable high-definition player available, the Xbox 360 HD DVD Player is the best solution for movie lovers seeking HD content in the highest possible resolution. The player’s price reduction to $179 (U.S. ERP) continues to set the bar for value, making the Xbox 360 platform the most affordable solution for consumers seeking the broadest, most compelling selection of next-generation gaming and HD video experiences.

“With the price reduction to $179, the Xbox 360 HD DVD Player continues to be the most affordable way to enjoy high definition,” said Jeff Bell, corporate vice president of Global Marketing, Interactive Entertainment Business, Entertainment and Devices Division at Microsoft. “From the beginning, we set out to offer Xbox 360 owners an unrivaled high-definition experience, with a choice of optical discs on the HD DVD format and digital downloads through Xbox LIVE Marketplace — both of which have a selection of the best content Hollywood has to offer. Today’s announcements around ‘300’ and ‘Heroes: Season 1’ are great examples of how we believe HD content can be offered to consumers.”

In addition to the price drop, Microsoft is extending Toshiba’s highly successful “Perfect Offer” of five free HD DVD discs to Xbox 360 consumers. Previously exclusive to Toshiba HD DVD Players, with the purchase of an Xbox 360 HD DVD Player at the new low price of $179 ERP, consumers can choose five HD DVD titles for free from a selection of 15 popular titles through a mail-in offer. With a retail value of over $140 (U.S.), this promotion makes the Xbox 360 HD DVD Player one of the most compelling offerings for consumers looking to make the leap into HD this holiday season.

VidaBox Now Shipping CableCARD Systems w. Blu-ray & HD DVD Support

chrisl — Fri, 08 Jun 2007 19:01:00 GMT

WESTBURY, NY – June 8th – VidaBox, a manufacturer of premium media center systems, is proud to announce that it is shipping CableCARD-ready systems for customers looking to tune & record HD Cable directly on their media centers

"We're absolutely excited to finally ship systems with CableCARD, Blu-ray, and HD DVD support – everything in one box," said Steven Cheung, a co-founder of VidaBox. “These systems answer the prayers of many of our customers who’ve been clamoring for a total, turn-key solution with the latest in HD technology. Now complete with life-like HD cable support, our customers can finally realize their HDTV’s full potential beyond just Blu-ray & HD DVD.”

The new CableCARD feature is available in the LUX & MAGNUM systems, which are already packed with a silently cooled nVidia 8600GTS video card to render back crystal clear video in full 1080p, support for up to 7.1 Dolby Digital HD and DTS HD surround sound, and options for 2 additional OTA HD tuners (for a total of 4 tuners), 4GB of RAM, and up to 5TB & 9TB of onboard VidaSafe™-protected storage on the LUX & MAGNUM, respectively.

“CableCARD-ready VidaBox systems can also act as a safe & secure digital media repository,” Steven continues. “Recorded HD Cable content can be streamed and played back on up to 5 connected XBox 360 systems, while music, pictures, video, and DVDs stored on the system can be streamed to 10 VidaBox media extenders. This is perfect for users who want to access their content anywhere at home – regardless of where they are.”

The new line of VidaBox media center systems with CableCARD support is available through dealers.

About VidaBox LLC
VidaBox LLC is an innovative systems integration company focused on manufacturing and engineering premium Media Center systems. VidaBox is on a mission to create user-friendly, stable, compact, and quiet Media Centers that work right out of the box. For more information, visit www.vidabox.com or call 1-516-730-7500.

Okoro Media Systems Introduces the 2007 BX Series with Blu-ray & HD-DVD Support

chrisl — Thu, 07 Jun 2007 15:13:00 GMT

Okoro Media Systems, manufacturer of digital entertainment systems for the high end audio video market, is pleased to introduce the 2007 BX100 & BX300 digital entertainment systems. The new 2007 BX series now support HD-DVD and Blu-ray play back from a single drive allowing customers more freedom in choosing their high definition disc format. Okoro Media will be one of the few dedicated media center manufacturers to sell and support systems based on both high definition disc standards.

“We are very excited about the integration of both the Blu-ray and HDDVD Disc formats into our new digital entertainment systems. This will allow our customers greater options and choice when it comes to viewing high definition content. The functionality that the BX series provides is exactly what our customers and dealers have been requesting.” says Christopher Curry VP of Sales and Operations.

The Blu-Ray and HD-DVD Disc format provides up to five times larger capacity than today’s DVD’s with unprecedented storage capacity of 15-25GB (Single-Layer) and 30-50GB (dual layer). Both disc formats give you access to full 1080p HD resolution and up to 7.1 channels of surround sound. The OMS BX series will be fully backward compatible with current CD/DVD formats, delivering entertainment content in full high-definition (HD) quality, under a secure environment made possible through the most advanced copyright protection technology.

The OMS-BX100 and OMS-BX300 are currently available for purchase at www.okoromedia.com. Pricing for these units start at $2995.00 for the low profile OMS-BX100 and $3595.00 for the higher capacity OMS-BX300.

The models include the following specifications:

OMS-BX100
2GB of DDR2 memory: at 667 GHz
Window Vista Ultimate operating system
500 Gigabytes of SATA storage
Blu-ray/HDDVD Combo Drive
HDCP output via Nvidia 8500GT graphics board
Analog and ATSC High Definition Tuner

OMS-BX300
2GB of DDR2 memory: at 667 GHz
Window Vista Ultimate operating system
1 Terabyte of SATA storage
Blu-ray/HDDVD Combo Drive
HDCP output via Nvidia 8600GTS graphics board
Dual Analog and Dual ATSC High Definition Tuners

Please visit www.okoromedia.com to learn more about the new 2007 BX series.

DefectiveByDesign's Anti-DRM Campaign Gets Trashed by Digg Readers

chrisl — Sat, 27 Jan 2007 19:02:00 GMT

Something that I personally find hilarious is that DefectiveByDesign, the Anti-DRM Group that was formed last year, is getting trashed by the growing user base that actually understands some of the problems behind content protection and DRM. This is a very good day in the world of DRM and Digg.

Here’s a few example comments from Digg about DefectiveByDesign’s upcoming Vista Launch Events in NYC.

“So, the guys at defectivebydesign.org are going toi be the jackasses that pretend to be cool and nonconformist by going to a windows party and making fools out of themselves? Thanks, we reaaally needed to know that, couldn't have survived without it on the front page. P.S. all the info in the article is old news, no reason to digg it.”
“Wait wait, people are pissed off because Vista supports HDCP? If I'm not mistaken, Vista has to support it in case Studio's enable the god damn feature”
“I'll say this loudly:IF YOU DON'T AGREE WITH DRM, DON'T USE MEDIA THAT USES DRM.
At least with Windows you have the FREEDOM to decide for yourselves, unlike some operating systems I could think of.”
“Pathetic. Apple will also include the DRM required to playback all new content that's produced and requires the ***.”
“So what happens when media starts coming out that needs the DRM systems, either others OS will have to implement it in some way or hack a way round it which would probably be illegal.”

I’m a big fan of Digg in general, buy generally don’t spend more then five minutes reading the ignorant comments left by the users. I’m a fan of targeted websites and blogs that can cover a subject without their user base being subjected to incorrect information and endless FUD about certain features, mainly relating to DRM.

I’m all for ending DRM that restricts fair use; however I do believe that content owners should have the right to protect their content if they want to. The problem is that we need to get to the point where this can happen. AACS in HD DVD and Blu-ray is a good first step, with the concept of Managed Copy. It’s not perfect by any means (I shouldn’t have to pay for a copy of the media I already purchased) but it’s a good first step.

DefectiveByDesign needs to understand that if they want to help, they need to actually go after the people that matter. Microsoft is not who they should be going after. Stage your foolishness at the MPAA, collectivity “Hollywood.” They are the reason that Microsoft has to waste millions of dollars developing the framework to allow users to actually play this media. Feel free to attack Microsoft for the stupid things they do, like locking their Zune DRM out from PlaysForSure. Attack Apple for not licensing FairPlay. Attack the record labels (RIAA) for requiring Microsoft, Apple, and others to develop their sort of protection framework. Actually attack the companies that are the problem, attack the root of the problem.

Of course, there are still loads of users that comment the other way, but they seem to be increasing getting corrected by those who get it.

DefectiveByDesign is not helping anything, all they are doing to making fools of themselves.

chrisl — Thu, 25 Jan 2007 16:57:00 GMT

There are tons of people out there not understanding all of this “Vista DRM”, mainly because of less than accurate media reporting. That’s completely understandable, but lets run down a quick list here of some of the popular content out there.

DVD Rip (DivX, XivD, etc) downloaded from Bit Torrent/IRC/etc: Output at whatever resolution you want. No restrictions. Works the same as Windows XP. Don’t pirate stuff!

DVD Rip (VIDEO_TS, ISO) download from Bit Torrent/IRC/etc: Output at whatever resolution you want. No restrictions. Works the same as Windows XP. Don’t pirate stuff!

WMV HD Downloads (MariposaHD, etc): Output at whatever resolution you want. No restrictions. Works the same as Windows XP.

Apple/Quicktime HD Downloads: Output at whatever resolution you want. No restrictions. Works the same as Windows XP.

Videocasts/blogcasts/Internet TV/IPTV: Output at whatever resolution you want. No restrictions. Works the same as Windows XP.

DVR-MS (SD) Recordings: Output at whatever resolution you want. You can still edit recordings, convert recordings, etc unless they are CGMS-A protected. Works the same as Windows XP.

DVR-MS (HD) Recordings: Output at whatever resolution you want. You can still edit recordings, convert recordings, etc. Works the same as Windows XP.

MPEG-2/DivX/etc Recordings from 3^rd Party PVRs: Output at whatever resolution you want. You can still edit recordings, convert recordings, etc. Works the same as Windows XP.

CableCARD: Content recorded from CableCARDs will follow the same sort of output regulations as HD DVD and Blu-ray. Not available in Windows XP.

DVD: Output at whatever resolution you want. If using Component, output is limited because of Macrovision. Use AnyDVD or like to output at whatever you want. Works the same as Windows XP.

HD DVD: If ICT* is set; output at 540p if you are not using HDCP. If using a digital connection (DVI, HDMI) with HDCP, output will be whatever you want always (ICT set or not). If ICT is not set, you can output at 1080p with VGA and 1080i with Component. Works the same as Windows XP.** CE (consumer electronics) HD DVD players (regular set-top boxes) must follow the same rules, not specific to Microsoft or Windows.

Blu-ray Disc (BD): If ICT* is set; output at 540p if you are not using HDCP. If using a digital connection (DVI, HDMI) with HDCP, output will be whatever you want always (ICT set or not). If ICT is not set, you can output at 1080p with VGA and 1080i with Component. Works the same as Windows XP.** CE (consumer electronics) BD players (regular set-top boxes) must follow the same rules, not specific to Microsoft or Windows.

Additions:

DVD Ripping: No restrictions. Works the same as Windows XP

Tools like BackupHDDVD/BackupBluray: No restrictions. Works the same as Windows XP***

*AACS requires titles with ICT set be marked, so check the package before you purchase the movie. Currently, no titles have ICT set.

** The content protection framework in Vista will also allow for a more traditional DirectShow filter model of playback. Right now, playback is limited to within PowerDVD or WinDVD.

***Though, I have not tested them under Vista, there is nothing to stop or prevent them from specifically working.

Spread the word, digg it!

Chris Lanier's Blog : HD DVD

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DefectiveByDesign's Anti-DRM Campaign Gets Trashed by Digg Readers

What Content Will Be Crippled When Output in Vista?