Digital Journal — In the intense DVD format war between HD-DVD and Blu-ray, Toshiba made the first move today by unveiling its first HD-DVD player to media in Canada. In Japan, Toshiba has been selling the units, the world’s first commercial HD-DVD players, since Friday.
While the North American launch date is scheduled for mid-April, Toshiba reps offered a glimpse into the technology surrounding the HD-DVD format. On hand at the swanky R Shop in Toronto were the HD-A1 and HD-XA1 HD-DVD players, as well as the Qosmio mobile PC complete with HD-DVD drive.
Even at first glance, the picture quality of HD-DVD impressed beyond expectation. Toshiba smartly produced a promo disc showing a split screen of standard definition and high definition — and the high-def half looked sharper than a razor’s edge. No fuzziness blurred the picture as the HD-XA1 displayed a crystal clear 1080i output.
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The HD-XA1 will retail for $999 (all prices Canadian), and features a motorized front door with hidden disc tray, while also including a motion activated remote control (when you pick it up the backlight turns on). A more basic HD-DVD player, the HD-A1, will retail for $699. |
“Anyone who has enjoyed the striking colour, contrast and rich audio of HD TV will want to extend their HD experience to their media player,” says David Vitale, Toshiba product manager. “We’re building a platform the consumer will embrace.”
But in this format war, the consumer must decide between two burgeoning choices: HD-DVD, a high-def format that is cheaper to produce than its competitor, while outputting at 1080i; or Blu-ray, boasting a higher transfer rate and capacity than HD-DVD. Both formats cater to home-theatre lovers who appreciate HD’s capability to offer six times the resolution of standard definition.
Vitale says a key advantage for HD-DVD is its twin disc format. Movies studios can (potentially) release both a standard and high definition version of a movie on the same disc (which can hold up to 12 hours of HD video). The benefit: You can still watch standard def movies on your TV at home, but when you eventually upgrade to HD, you won’t have to go out and buy a whole new DVD collection.
More important than the technology, though, are the studios backing each format. In HD-DVD’s corner: Warner Home Video, Paramount Pictures, Universal Pictures, HBO Video and New Line Home Entertainment. Microsoft’s Xbox 360 also supports HD games and DVDs. While Universal Pictures is set to release DVDs exclusively in the HD-DVD format, other studios have pledged they will release movies in both Blu-ray and HD-DVD formats.
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HD-DVD, a high-def format that is cheaper to produce than its competitor, while outputting at 1080i. |
Backing Blu-ray’s corner are also big-name studios: Sony, Panasonic, Phillips, Samsung, Pioneer, Apple, Sharp, Dell and more. Sony’s PlayStation 3 will support Blu-ray discs, and Sony plans to release its first Blu-ray player in July. Samsung reportedly will release its next-generation player in late June.
Three titles for HD-DVD will be released to coincide with Toshiba’s HD-DVD launch, Vitale says. High-def version of The Last Samurai, The Phantom of the Opera and Million Dollar Baby will be available later this month. Vitale expects nearly 200 HD titles to be released by December 2006.
As a sidebar launch to the HD-DVD players is the announcement of Toshiba’s Qosmio audio video PC available in May. This large notebook features the first HD-DVD Super Multi double layer drive for viewing the latest HD-DVD films. A 17-inch widescreen monitor, a TV tuner and an integrated 1-bit digital amplifier round out the impressive system. The Qosmio G30 will retail for $3,299.
Toshiba’s first salvo marks a striking development in what will be a tight race to win over home-theatre consumers. Undoubtedly, Blu-ray will answer with a media player to steal attention away from the HD-DVD camp but launches will be moot.
What is truly important is the public reception to a new format, no matter what any company accomplishes.
