HD DVD drives and movies will hit Europe in March

[HighDeff]

From Heise online.:

HD DVD drives and movies will hit Europe in March

At the CES ,NEC has confirmed its plans to market its HR-1100A HD DVD-ROM drive in Europe starting in March. Canal Plus of France will be supplying the HD DVD videos. There is no word yet which movies will be released in this format. The only thing we do know is that 30 movies will be available from day 1. According to NEC, a combination device that writes CDs and DVDs will be sold starting in May. The Japanese company has also announced its first HD DVD-/DVD-/CD burner for July. The first list price for the HD-DVD drive will probably be far below the original target of 500 euros.

NEC does not expect pure HD-DVD players to become must-have units for consumer PCs. Rather, HD-DVD burners may draw greater demand. However, the company is pleased that the HR-1100A will be included in Toshiba's home HD-DVD player. NEC did not wish to comment on negotiations with Microsoft on the planned external HD-DVD drive for the Xbox 360. Rumor has it that the periphery model announced by Bill Gates during his keynote address at the CES will be sold starting in the summer.

An NEC spokesperson told heise online that the outcome of the battle for the next generation after DVD has not been decided – even though Michael Dell has been throwing his weight behind HD-DVD's competitor Blu-ray Disc in the past few days in Las Vegas. But NEC claims that the license fees for Blu-ray Disc are just too expensive. In addition, the range of movies is not decisive according to NEC because there is some 70 to 90 percent overlapping. The same cases are used for both HD-DVD versions and Blu-ray Discs. There only difference is that HD DVD are red, not blue.

NEC states that there will not be a combination drive for Blu-ray Disc and HD DVD this year. Such a double player would have to have an additional reader head, which would make the device at least 30 percent more expensive. That does not even include the cost of extra chips that can work with both formats. No wonder the combination unit is expected to cost 50 to 75 percent more than the HD unit alone. Samsung did not make good on its promise to present a BD/HD-DVD combination drive at CES 2006. (Craig Morris) / (jk/c't)

From here.:
http://www.heise.de/english/newsticker/news/68161

[Rasczak]

Good article - thanks for posting it.

I'm very interested to see what take up there will be of a HD DVD-ROM drive. If, as we've been led to believe, commercial HD DVD-Videos will not work under current operating systems then what benefit will it be? If you can't play videos, and as there are no recordable HD DVDs discs/drives yet, then what HD DVDs will you have to use in the drive?

That said maybe video playback will be possible under Windows XP/MCE - Toshiba are marketing a MCE 2005 laptop with a HD DVD drive that is supposedly capable of playing HD DVD-Videos when they arrive. So maybe Windows Vista (not due until December) won't be a pre-requestite?

[ahin4114]

Originally Posted by Rasczak

So maybe Windows Vista (not due until December) won't be a pre-requestite?

So many components of Vista are being released now as additional components which will work with XP, I would assume that there's plenty of life left in XP systems. I know Microsoft would like to lever as many people as possible across onto Vista, but I don't think they can actually stop XP owners using HD-DVD. It will be software manufacturers and driver developers who make this a reality on either/both of the operating systems, not Microsoft, they may control Media Player, but not the plug in's and alternative players on the market. Somebody will write a device driver for the drives, whether it be WHQL certified or not, then somebody (apple for example) will write software to play the content (can't imagine quicktime pro not supporting the new formats).

[StooMonster]

I can see an HD DVD drive in a Toshiba laptop because they will control the driver and the connection to the screen, so the content will still be secure.

But if HD DVD drives are available to anyone to buy and install and are not simply data only drives, and allow playback of movies, it means that one will be able to play HD DVD on non-HDCP screens.

If this is true, there is no point in HDCP support in dedicated players; and they should have component output as well as HDMI.

StooMonster

[ahin4114]

Data only drives are the only kind of drives there are, everything beyond firings out the data retrieved from the disc as bits is down to software, whether that be firmware in a dedicated deck, or software on a windows box. And the minute those bits and bytes hit software they're vulnerable.

I give it weeks before HDCP is circumvented, certainly on Linux, probably on Windows.