Good show, one of the best yet for sure. Thanks to all 4 of you being there, there was better information out there. Even the "war" got better coverage by having fair-minded hosts added (thanks Richard and Erik). Just wanted to point out a few things mentioned on the show:
-There's no region coding at the moment, so Japanese HD DVD's will work on US HD DVD players. It's unknown whether they will implement region coding in the future, although there is a committee studying it. Some reviews on dvdfile.com actually contain reviews of Japanese HD DVD releases with English options like Finding Neverland.
-Toshiba has been selling the HD-D1 at Wal-Mart since the April launch:
It's the same as the HD-A1, except built for Wal-Mart. Wal-Mart also sells the RCA player. I believe this is what Amir and Major Nelson were talking about.
-Disney didn't help develop Blu-ray. They chose Blu-ray based on Sony's move to place it on the PS3 and because of the 50 GB dual-layer being more than the 30 GB for HD DVD. In fact, Disney and Microsoft developed iHD (for advanced HD DVD content) and hold patents in that.
-The reason Microsoft said Blu-ray complicated the software part is because they mandated Java (which requires a virtual machine) and BD+ (the extra layer of copy protection which BDA has been very secretive about). Their goal was to support high-def discs natively in Vista, and when Blu-ray added these requirements, they decided not to delay development of Vista to support both formats.
Here is Amir (who is bias of course) on the subject:
“The other one is a biggie, and it's something very noticeable in the videos: touch sensitivity is pretty bad. Using the virtual keyboard proved to be far too painful, and we're pretty sure it wasn't multitouch-friendly.”
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Good show, one of the best yet for sure. Thanks to all 4 of you being there, there was better information out there. Even the "war" got better coverage by having fair-minded hosts added (thanks Richard and Erik). Just wanted to point out a few things mentioned on the show:
-There's no region coding at the moment, so Japanese HD DVD's will work on US HD DVD players. It's unknown whether they will implement region coding in the future, although there is a committee studying it. Some reviews on dvdfile.com actually contain reviews of Japanese HD DVD releases with English options like Finding Neverland.
-Toshiba has been selling the HD-D1 at Wal-Mart since the April launch:
http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.do?product_id=4790608
It's the same as the HD-A1, except built for Wal-Mart. Wal-Mart also sells the RCA player. I believe this is what Amir and Major Nelson were talking about.
-Disney didn't help develop Blu-ray. They chose Blu-ray based on Sony's move to place it on the PS3 and because of the 50 GB dual-layer being more than the 30 GB for HD DVD. In fact, Disney and Microsoft developed iHD (for advanced HD DVD content) and hold patents in that.
-The reason Microsoft said Blu-ray complicated the software part is because they mandated Java (which requires a virtual machine) and BD+ (the extra layer of copy protection which BDA has been very secretive about). Their goal was to support high-def discs natively in Vista, and when Blu-ray added these requirements, they decided not to delay development of Vista to support both formats.
Here is Amir (who is bias of course) on the subject:
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=7973418&&#post7973418