Entries tagged with hd-dvd - Channel 10

News from CES: Item #1: New Players!

benwaggoner — Mon, 08 Jan 2007 23:26:00 GMT

One of the biggest questions I get about HD DVD is “when are there going to be more players other than Toshibas and Microsoft’s?” Today, we announced that we’ve been working with Broadcom to address that need. It combines Windows CE 6.0 running on the Broadcom BCM7440 SOC (System-on-a-chip) product. Together, this is a licensable implementation of HD DVD, including video decoding, audio decoding, AACS, and HDi™ advanced interactivity.

Needless to say, this makes it a lot easier for third parties to build HD DVD players! And we’re announcing that Lite-On IT Corp. and Zhenjiang Jiangkui Group Co. Ltd./ED Digital plan to use this new hardware and software platform. Lite-On is one of the most most experienced systems integrators backing high-volume consumer electronics . Zhenjiang Jiangkui is one of the highest volume DVD player manufacturers in China.

Additionally, we’re working with Meridian Audio Ltd to build a high-end HD DVD player for the enthusiast market.

Shinco and Onkyo will also create HD DVD players.

Of course, we continue to work with Sonic Solutions, CyberLink, InterVideo, Ulead, and Nero on their software players. Lastly, our HDi technology continues to be used in the three second generation Toshiba players, as it was in the first generation.

CES news coming

benwaggoner — Sun, 07 Jan 2007 22:31:00 GMT

Hello all,

Sorry there haven't been any posts in a bit. But this will be changing with CES.

I'll be blogging with our news from CES here starting this evening.

To catch up on everything Microsoft is doing and announcing at CES, check out:

www.MicrosoftAtCES.com

Among other things, you'll be able to catch a webcast of Bill Gates' keynote starting at 6:30 pm PST.

HD-DVD and Xbox the early winners in next-gen format wars

Jesse — Fri, 08 Dec 2006 19:07:00 GMT

Remember back in May when the question was which next-gen disc format would take the lead and own the market for removable storage, video games, and movies? Well now it appears we're starting to see some signals that HD-DVD will soon be dancing around the ring in triumph.

Over at Digital Trends, Rob Enderle is calling the fight for HD-DVD after watching Sony fumble their launch of Blu-Ray with higher-priced players, as well as the bad-to-worse release of the PS3. The killing blow however, is said to come from the launch of our own Xbox HD-DVD player, which stands to make HD-DVD a reality for more people than it's competitor.

Xbox 360 HD DVD Player #1 Computer and video games item on Amazon.com

benwaggoner — Wed, 25 Oct 2006 20:34:00 GMT

Exciting news! Our forthcoming Xbox 360 HD DVD Player is the #1 item in Amazon.com's “Computer and Video Games” category (it gets recalculated hourly). Here’s a screen shot of our proud moment:

You can check the current rankings for the category here.

Talking about HD-DVD with Joe Kane

benwaggoner — Tue, 26 Sep 2006 20:10:06 GMT

As promised, here’s our first audio interview, with Joe Kane of Joe Kane Productions. I sat down with Joe at CEDIA to discuss Joe’s history with VC-1 and the state of the art of consumer HD

CEDIA Interview with Joe Kane

benwaggoner — Tue, 26 Sep 2006 18:09:00 GMT

As promised, here’s our first audio interview, with Joe Kane of Joe Kane Productions. I sat down with Joe at CEDIA to discuss Joe’s history with VC-1 and the state of the art of consumer HD.

Talking about HD-DVD with Joe Kane

-Ben Waggoner

Questions for Joe Kane interview at CEDIA

benwaggoner — Wed, 13 Sep 2006 22:15:00 GMT

The big CEDIA show is this week and weekend, and I’ll be doing an audio interview with industry luminary Joe Kane of Joe Kane Productions. Joe’s had a long history as an advocate for better video and audio quality for consumers, and our interview will focus on HD DVD, VC-1, and where the industry stands in bringing that great video and audio quality to the home.

But in time-honored blog tradition, we want to make sure we’re asking the questions you want to hear the answers to. So, suggest some questions via a comment below by Friday evening. We’ll pick the best handful for our conversation with Joe.

-Ben Waggoner

Welcome to "The HD DVD Insiders"

benwaggoner — Wed, 13 Sep 2006 21:45:00 GMT

Welcome to “The HD DVD Insiders,” Microsoft’s new HD DVD blog. This is our forum for our passionate employees to talk about the format, our VC-1 codec, and what we’re doing to provide consumers with the world’s best HD content.

Microsoft is involved with HD DVD in many ways, all of which we’ll discuss here. The two big areas we contribute technology for are VC-1, the codec used in many HD titles, and HDi^TM, Microsoft’s implementation of the advanced interactivity specification for HD DVD.

The VC-1 codec is being used to compress the video in the vast majority of HD DVD titles. VC-1 is the SMPTE [421M ]standard based on Microsoft’s Windows Media Video 9 technology. We work with the studios and authoring houses to enable the visually transparent compression quality to the master that’s become a hallmark of HD DVD titles.
HDi^TM is Microsoft’s implementation of the HD DVD advanced interactivity layer. HDi^TM provides the interactive menus, picture-in-picture commentaries, in movie experience and other features that make HD DVD not just better video and audio than DVD, but a more compelling and immersive experience.
Microsoft announced the Xbox 360 HD DVD Player will be available this holiday. As we get closer to launch, we’ll discuss the product, its development, and the consumer experience here.

One of our secret weapons is that many of the people working on HD DVD were passionate home theater enthusiasts long before HD DVD was born. So we spend our days focused on providing the spectacular home theater experience that we also want for ourselves in the evening.

We hope this blog will help us pull the veil back a little, and give you some insight into the people and stories behind the making of a world class format and exciting content.

-Ben Waggoner