Just when you thought the format wars were over, along comes an upstart called New Medium Enterprises (NME) with its Versatile Multilayer Disc, or VMD. VMDs were originally set to debut in 2006, but for currently unknown reasons are only now making their debut.

The discs and players are much cheaper to produce than either Blu-ray or HD-DVD because it uses the same red lasers that standard DVD players use. Red lasers are cheaper and easier to produce than the blue lasers used in the other high-def disc formats.

According to an article in today's New York Times, VMD players are sold directly through the NME Web site and will be available on Amazon in about five weeks for about $200, though Michael Jay Solomon, the chairman of New Medium, seems to think prices could quickly drop to $90 a player.

Low prices, however, didn't save HD-DVD, and with the lackluster selection of VMD movies (only 17 titles available stateside), the upstart disc format is going to have a tough time even carving out a small niche for itself.

Whatever. All these next-gen disc formats are doomed, since HD-downloading on devices such as Apple TV and Vudu are only going to grow.

From the New York Times

Related Links:

• Final Blow to HD-DVD from Toshiba
• It's Finally Time to Pick Blu-ray over HD-DVD
• HD-DVD Responds to Bad Press Day

Yesterday was a bad day for HD DVD. We've already declared HD DVD dead in the water, but not everyone has come around just yet. Yesterday both Best Buy and Netflix helped bury the Toshiba-backed HD DVD coalition. Netflix announced that it would begin exclusively carrying Blu-Ray discs, and Best Buy will continue to carry HD DVDs and HD DVD players, but will "recommend" BluRay to customers.

The HD DVD Promotional Group released a press statement in response to the two major setbacks:

"We have long held the belief that HD DVD is the best format for consumers based on quality and value, and with more than 1 million HD DVD players on the market, it's unfortunate to see Netflix make the decision to only stock Blu-ray titles going forward. While the Best Buy announcement says they will recommend Blu-ray, at least they will continue to carry HD DVD and offer consumers a choice at retail."

Obviously, some of the spark and fight has left the group when the best they can come up with is Blu-Ray hasn't pushed us off the shelves yet.

From Engadget

Related links:

• BluRay Disc Player Sales Skyrocket
• It's Finally Time to Pick Blu-Ray over HD DVD
• HD-DVD's Long Walk Back to the Locker Room of Shame

It appears that the high-definition disc format war between Blu-Ray and HD-DVD is nearing the mop-up stages, as Blu-Ray sales have accounted for 93% of the market share for set-top players since the second week of January. Coming on the heels of Warner's announcement to support Blu-ray rather than its rival, HD-DVD, these figured indicate that HD-DVD could be in its death throes. Interestingly, sales were almost evenly split during the first week of January, before the Warner announcement.

While the numbers suggest that the general public is taking the pragmatic approach in supporting the supposed victor, HD-DVD nevertheless continues to insist on business as usual. One aspect of the issue to consider is whether or not the mainstream media bears some responsibility for the skewed sales, as most media outlets reported the Warner story as the nail in HD-DVD's coffin. Did the media "make" news which the public followed? You decide, but it may be a moot point if Blu-Ray continues to enjoy its current market share for DVD players.

From The Digital Bits Via Engadget

Related Links:

• HD-DVD's Long Walk Back to the Locker Room of Shame
• High-Def Adult Movies Coming to Blu-ray
• It's Finally Time to Pick Blu-ray Over HD-DVD
• Blu-Ray Player Reviews

Wondering whether to go with Blu-ray or HD-DVD? The decision is pretty clear, if the lightning fast drama and events over the past few days at CES are any indication.

First, last Friday, Warner Bros. announced it was switching its exclusive deal for next-gen disc availability of its movies (everything from 'The Matrix' to 'Lord of the RIngs') from HD-DVD to Blu-ray. This was enough to get the pundits, speculators, and naysayers foaming at the mouth with pronouncements that Blu-ray could well have won the war of next-gen, HD-quality disc formats.

Then, on Sunday, the HD-DVD group cancelled its CES press conference and event. Rather than spinning the Warner Bros. news with a smiling, confident face, the HD-DVD camp basically surrendered the public relations war, which leads us to believe that either it was totally caught off guard and suddenly had no press announcement at the 11th hour. It certainly was a tough position to be in, but at least Toshiba's VP of DVD marketing, Jody Sally kept a strong front by saying "HD-DVD is not dead," at a press conference on Sunday. (Toshiba was one of the major investors behind the HD-DVD format.) Not a bad strategy considering that company just released some hot new Qosmio laptops with the world's first rewriteable HD-DVD drive, among other features.

Still, the rumors have kept on flying, from naysayings by 'Transformers' director Michael Bay to word that Target may soon start selling only Blu-ray discs.

Now the Financial Times is saying that Paramount may be bowing out of its commitments to HD-DVD, which makes it the last major studio to move over to the other side. Until this latest news broke, early pronouncements of HD-DVD's demise may have seemed a bit premature, but now all those early naysayers seem to have been right on the money.

Yesterday, we took images of the adjoining booths on the show floor. As you can see, the Blu-ray booth was flooded with visitors, while the HD-DVD booth was relatively sleepy (giving its workers time to work on their resumes, no doubt).

So, what does this mean for you? Well, if you recently bought (or received) one of those $199 HD-DVD players that were for sale everywhere, don't worry -- you have, in effect, a fine DVD player that will upscale regular DVDs to quasi-HDTV quality.

If you're in the market for one of these players to show off the HD capabilities of your new TV, then it's safe to say that Blu-ray is the way to go. Plenty of new Blu-ray players (and drives and PCs) are on display at the show, and it's even rumored that Apple will announce Blu-ray drives at next week's MacWorld Expo.

And for existing owners of Blu-ray players, there's even more good news: This year some of those much touted online elements, such as Blu-ray Live, which let you download information on a movie from the Web or even play games with others over the Internet, will finally make their way onto Blu-ray discs later this year (or so says the Blu-ray disc camp).

So it seems like the battle of next-gen discs has been won by Blu-ray, but the war between the different HD-content distribution camps is far from over. In fact, it didn't look like Bill Gates, whose Microsoft was also a big supporter of HD-DVD, was phased in the least bit the other night at his last CES keynote. In fact, Gates focused on digital distribution (over the Internet) of SD and HD content from even more content partners (Showtime, ABC). In other words, he's probably thanking his lucky stars that Microsoft hedged its bets and offered HD-DVD as a separate drive for the Xbox 360 rather than built-in.

Regardless, over the last few days, HD-DVD's star has fallen about as quickly as a certain Democrat's presidential campaign, making us want to call HD-DVD the Hillary Clinton of optical disc formats (or is Hillary Clinton the HD-DVD of presidential candidates?).

Let's just hope that nobody from the HD-DVD camp jumps out of a window, because what happened to that team over the past few days was extremely harsh and sudden, the stuff of a prime-time soap, if prime-time soaps actually bothered themselves with dorky topics like movie disc formats.

The Beta vs. VHS battle was long enough ago that many purchasers of a high-definition video player don't remember the trials and tribulations of early adopters back in the 80's. Neither, apparently, do executives from Sony and Toshiba, who, despite numerous meetings, failed to come up with a shared format they could all agree upon.

Now the formats from the two companies are locked in a life and death struggle, it seems proponents of the two are getting in on the action. Just this week, angry format opponents got so out of hand that they shut down a popular message board thanks to a series of threats of death and physical violence.

AVS Forum is widely regarded as the go-to place for anything relating to home entertainment on the Internet, and is the home of many of the most dedicated and knowledgeable proponents for the two competing formats. But, really, death threats? C'mon guys. Apparently a series of "physical threats that have involved police and possible legal action" forced the forum moderators to temporarily disable the forums.

Things have settled down over there at the moment, but as the crucial holiday season approaches, and with Toshiba making huge cuts to push HD-DVD into homes, it looks like it could be a rough couple of months. Better wear a helmet on Black Friday, yeah?

From Gearlog

Related Links:

• HD-DVD Players Drop to $100, For One Day
• Citing High Price, Kmart Stops Selling Blu-ray Players
• Headaches for Blu-ray Owners

In the war of Blu-ray vs. HD-DVD, each of the opposing camps seems to think that having an exclusivity deal is a powerful weapon.

It started in June, with Blockbuster making a big deal about going exclusive for Blu-ray in its brick-and-mortar stores (despite still offering both formats in its Netflix-like online rental service). Most recently, it was Paramount going exclusive to HD-DVD, meaning that, at least for the moment, the only place to get 'Transformers' in high definition is with that format.

Now comes an intriguing new twist. According to BetaNews, It looks like Kmart has chosen to stop selling Blu-ray players. The discount retailer cited the high cost of Blu-ray players (compared to HD-DVD players), which doesn't end up being a good value for its customers.

As we reported earlier this week, you can currently buy an HD-DVD player for under $200, and before the end of the year, they should be available for under $170 (you can get one for $100 tomorrow only at select Wal-marts). By comparison, the cheapest Blu-ray player currently clocks in at around $375.

Given that both formats offer the same video quality, Kmart is of the opinion that Blu-ray just doesn't make sense. Of course, given that this announcement is being made by the HD-DVD Promotion Group also suggests that some of this might be spin. Also, when it comes to influencing the minds of many shoppers, the name "Kmart" doesn't exactly have quite the ring it used to.

What is clear is that this war, if it can be called that, is destined to rage on for quite some time yet. HD-DVD players are definitely taking the value route while Blu-ray advertising seems to be targeting higher-end customers. Still, with Blu-ray players finally adding the ability to have tricks like picture-in-picture and other next-gen extras, which HD-DVD players have long-since offered, it looks like these formats are only getting more alike. With that in mind, the question of cost may be the deciding factor for many in the long run.

From BetaNews

Related Links:

• HD-DVD Players Drop to Sub-$200 Price Tag
• Xbox 360 With Built-In HD-DVD Capability On Its Way?
• Headaches for Blu-ray Owners

No that photo is not doctored. The Toshiba HD-A2 that we reported just a few short days ago had dropped to $200 is being marked down even further at select Wal-Mart stores. Check here to see if the sale is coming to a store near you. The sale is this Friday (tomorrow) only.

Price-wise, Blu-ray's back is against the wall at this point. The fight for HD supremacy is far from over, but with the cheapest Blu-ray players coming in at almost $400, HD-DVD has scored a clear victory just in time for the holidays.

From Engadget

Related Links:

• HD-DVD Players Drop to Sub $200 Price Tag
• Headaches for Blu-ray Owners
• Xbox 360 With Built-In HD-DVD Capabilities On the Way?

While next-gen disc format Blu-ray languishes in the overpriced gadget ghetto, competing format HD-DVD and the players that play it are breaking free by dropping in price to a popular holiday gift level. ar. Hot on the heels of the release of the Toshiba HD-A3 HD-DVD player, retailers across the country are dropping the price of the previous-generation HD-A2 below the all important $200 mark.

At $198 in Wal-Mart and $197.99 in Circuit City, the HD-A2 is the first high-definition video player to approach commodity pricing. The only down side of the HD-A2 is that it falls short of "full HD" resolution or 1080p, topping out at 1080i, but it's the kind of thing that no one notices when sitting more than a seven or eight feet away from a TV set, or on any screen 42-inches or smaller.

Your turn Sony/Blu-ray camp.

From Ars Technica

Related Links:

• Headaches for Blu-ray Owners
• Xbox 360 With Built-In HD DVD Capabilities on its Way?
• More Free Blu-ray and HD DVD Movies

In the battle of the video game consoles there's also been a second battle playing out in the background: Blu-ray vs. HD-DVD, which are the competing next-gen, high-def disc formats. Sony's Blu-ray is supported by the company's own PlayStation 3, which can play Blu-ray movies right out of the box.

Microsoft's Xbox 360, meanwhile, supports the HD-DVD camp, but makes it optional, so you have to buy a separate drive an plug it into your console if you want to play high-def discs. So far, it's kept down the price of the basic console. Now, according to some supposed insiders, the company may be rethinking its tune, working on a media-centric Xbox 360 with an internal HD-DVD drive.

The supposed new Xbox 360 will not only support HD-DVD playback, but may also include a dock for syncing your MP3 player and dual HDTV tuners, meaning it could act as a Tivo-like DVR (digital video recorder). While this news is attributed to an unnamed Toshiba executive (Toshiba is the creator and largest supporter of HD-DVD), it goes against earlier statements by Microsoft executives who said the Xbox 360 would never come with an internal HD-DVD drive.

Whom to believe? We certainly don't know for sure, but you can be sure we'll bring you updates when that becomes a bit more clear.

Since the high-def disc war is still far from over, you should probably just keep buying your consoles based on the games you want to play rather than the movies you want to watch.

From Smarthouse

Related Links:

• $399 PlayStation 3 Coming, But It Won't Play Old Games
• Amazon Slips, Leaks the New Xbox 360
• Headaches for Blu-ray Owners

When the CD was invented (25 years ago), it was sold as a replacement for audio cassettes and records not only because of its higher quality audio, but also because of its longevity. Unlike a cassette or LP, they told us, there's nothing that rubs against the CD as it plays, meaning -- in theory -- it could last forever. Turns out that's not so true. Web designer Dan Koster has discovered that 15% of his collection of 2,000 CDs has suffered from what is called "CD rot."

CDs are made of multiple layers, with a reflective layer sandwiched in the middle between two layers of clear plastic. Rot occurs when that metallic layer starts to corrode or when the plastic layers separate. This results in a disc that looks like it has tiny holes in it when you hold it up to a light, or a more noticeable discoloration spreading from the outside edge inward.

Regardless of the cause, the result is the same: unplayable music and unreadable data. Frighteningly enough, there's no reason to believe modern DVD, Blu-ray, and HD-DVD discs won't suffer the same fate.

What can you do? Creating backups is your best bet, which means ripping every CD you buy to your computer and making copies of software. But given the nature of modern copy protection, creating backup versions of many things impossible. You can also make sure you keep CDs and DVDs out of the sun, in cases, and in a cool area.

If you thought that burned CD of pictures from your honeymoon was going to outlast your marriage, you might want to think about another means of preserving those pics.

From Newsvine

Related Links:

• Fun Facts About the CD on Its 25th B-Day
• Blu-ray Beating HD-DVD in High-Def Format Battle
• False Alarm: Target Still Selling HD-DVD Players

The high definition disc format war wages on. Sony's Blu-ray and Toshiba's HD-DVD trading blows yet again by trading regular press releases tauting the domination of their respective format. Last month Sony was on the receiving end with stats showing that HD-DVD sales were gaining momentum faster than Blu-ray, but now it's Sony's turn to gloat, with the company's format racking up twice the sales of HD-DVD over the first six months of the year.

Between January 1st and June 31st, 1.6 million Blu-ray discs were sold compared to 795,000 HD-DVDs. It's unclear whether the freebie Blu-ray discs Sony is giving away with PS3s are included in this figure, but even if so it looks like Blu-ray has some solid momentum. High-def sales of '300' have shown similar stats: 190,000 Blu-ray discs of the movie were sold compared to 97,000 on HD-DVD.

Overall, though, HD-DVD isn't far behind, selling 1.5 million discs total compared to 2.2 for Blu-ray. And, given that sales for plain 'ol DVDs number in the billions every year, it looks like this war has a long, long way to go before either format can claim supremacy.

So, does this mean you have to make a choice in the high-def format war? Not really, particulary since LG already offers a hybrid disc player and a hybrid drive for your computer that play both formats (and, Samsung will release its own hybrid Blu-ray/HD-DVD player later this year).

From BetaNews

Related Links:

• False Alarm: Target Still Selling HD-DVD Players
• Samsung Launches HD-DVD/Blu-ray Combo Player
• More Free Blu-ray and HD-DVD Discs

Seems last week's buzz about Target dropping the HD-DVD format from their stores was, well, a little less than factually based, and we confess we were caught up in the spin as well. An AP report talking about Target promoting Blu-ray in stores was misinterpreted to mean that the company was going to exclusively sell Blu-ray in stores. As it turns out that's not the case -- Target will continue to sell HD-DVD products, including Microsoft's Xbox 360 add-on.

So, no, the format war isn't over yet. Appropriately, with '300' hitting both HD-DVD and Blu-ray tomorrow, that war is likely to only get hotter from here.

From Engadget

Related Links:

• Microsoft Slashes HD-DVD Drive to $179
• Sony Finally Sells Some PS3s
• Samsung Launches HD-DVD/Blu-ray Combo Player

If you're already an Xbox 360 owner, the cheapest way to dive in to the Blu-ray vs. HD-DVD battle has always been to pick up the HD-DVD add-on for the Xbox 360. Now, Microsoft has made it even cheaper, cutting the price by $20 to $179, and even more enciting, including the drive as part of Toshiba's five free movie deal. You can pick five films of your choice out of a selection of 15 that are, well, let's just say they're not exactly cream of the crop. But, a few solid choices like 'Blazing Saddles' and 'Casablanca' are included in the list. And, with '300' hitting HD-DVD next week with more special features than the Blu-ray version, there's no time to buy like the present.

From Engadget

Related Links:

• Samsung Launches HD-DVD/Blu-ray Combo Player
• More Free Blu-ray and HD-DVD Discs
• HD DVD's New Features Better Than Blu-Ray?

Samsung has announced the introduction of three new high-definition disc players, including one that will play both Blu-ray and HD-DVD discs. The format war for who will conquer DVD is still raging on, leaving many of you wondering which is the format to support, lest you get stuck with a modern equivalent of Sony Betamax.

The BD-UP5000 Duo HD makes the decision a little easier with its ability to play movies on both formats. In addition, this new Samsung player can handle the interactive menus and other goodies on both Blu-ray and HD-DVD (LG BH-1000 can only handle the interactive extras on Blu-ray discs). But, at an MSRP of $1,049, Samsung's new player is pricey: For the same money, you could potentially buy two standalone players (one for each for each format) and still have some money left over ... assuming you have room in your entertainment center and the necessarily inputs on your TV.

Samsung has also announced the $1,499 HT-BD2 "Home Theater Solution," the first home-theater-in-a-box setup to includes a Blu-ray player. It of course also includes a receiver and a set of speakers, with the entire system rated at 1,100 watts.

Finally, two new Blu-ray players will be added to the lineup, the $649 BD-P2400 and $549 BD-P1400. Both players will enable 24 frames-per-second output, matching that of the native film as projected in theaters and delivering a clearer picture than you'd typically get with the standard 60 frames-per-second many HDTVs expect. The 2400 model will also include a Hollywood Quality Video processor to enable it to upconvert standard DVDs to 1080i or 1080p resolutions, which should add some HD-like life to your collection of older discs.

The BD-UP5000 Duo HD players should be available before the end of this year, along with the HT-BD2 Blu-ray system in a box. The standalone Blu-ray players, meanwhile, are due out by October.

Related Links:

• More Free Blu-ray and HD-DVD Discs
• HD-DVD's New Features Better Than Blu-ray?
• Free Blu-ray Movies from Sony

Blu-ray may be winning the publicity war, (and possibly the sales war, too), but when it comes to in-disc extras, HD-DVD is winning, at least as shown by some impressive demos from two of its lead proponents.

At a presentation yesterday, Toshiba and Microsoft reps showed off some of these new features, along with some hot new movies, like '300,' which is hitting both HD-DVD and Blu-ray in the coming weeks.

One of the demos revealed the ability for an HD-DVD player to show two separate streams of video at the same time. This enables interactive special features with scene overlays, like one for '300' that shows both the final shot after all the digital post-processing as well as what the scene looked like before the effects crew had their fun. The videos are simultaneous, so you can easily see the special effects crew's handiwork. This picture in picture feature is not new, but the implementation in '300' is cool.

But the really cool new feature is the ability for the HD-DVD players to download content from the Internet that is then implemented into the HD-DVD movie. In one demo for the anime flick 'Freedom,' for example, French subtitles were downloaded and stored on the HD-DVD player, then shown onscreen as the movie was playing -- a feature missing on the original release. Trailers can also be downloaded and Web pages can be viewed to get up-to-date information about the film in question.

It's some impressive sounding stuff, and things that Blu-ray players can't quite do -- yet. And, with Toshiba's players now selling for just $299, HD-DVD player have a nice price advantage too over the least expensive $500 Blu-ray players. Now, if only the HD-DVD players could play PlayStation 3 games....

From Gizmodo

Related Links:

• BlockBuster Goes Blu-ray -- Should You, Too?
• Sony's Slick New Portable DVD Player
• Internet Porn Tolls DVD's Death Knell