National Geographic on HD DVD or Blu-ray Discs will certainly be an experience we won’t forget for a long time. Warner announced the release of Relentless Enemies on DVD, Blu-ray and HD DVD disc. The discs will be available on March 27. The movie was originally shot in HD.
The HD versions will have a $34.99 price tag compared to $19.99 for the DVD version.
All the hype goes around the Blu-ray camp these days, but HD DVD supporters may hold a secret weapon against their enemy!
The 3X DVD spec is part of the HD DVD format and is apparently only compatible with HD DVD players. But the HD DVD discs themselves are physically exactly the same as standard red-laser DVDs.
Throw in a software upgrade to support high definition content, HD DVD's UDF 2.5 file structure and AACS and you have a way to deliver HDTV content on a 9.4 GB DVD. By using newer encoding technologies like MPEG-4 and VC-1 and/or lowering the resolution to say, 720p, full length movies easily fit on a standard DVD.
Continue reading "3X DVD: HD DVD Camp Secret Weapon?" »
Anti-piracy systems are having a hard time these days. After breaking the processing key of both Blu-ray and HD DVD movies, it seems that SlySoft can now offer their user the ability the remastering, on the fly, any HD DVD movies using their AnyDVD software. Blu-ray movies can’t be remastered using this software for now.
SlySoft won’t tell you how they achieve that but those that have tried out the beta software are reporting that it works as advertised, with copying HD DVDs a matter of a simple drag and drop.
The software is available as a free beta download for now. The release version will probably be on sale at $50 when it will become available.
While the first generation Toshiba players were little more than “specific-use” PCs, this 2nd generation player utilizes dedicated HD DVD circuitry, resulting in much faster operation. Slow start up was a major complaint of both buyers and reviewers.
The new player’s startup time from power “off” to “on” and “booted up” has been reduced to a tolerable 35 seconds. It takes just 22 additional seconds to load and begin playing an HD DVD disc. If you leave a disc in the player and shut it off, powering back up and playing the HD DVD disc will commence in 45 seconds.
The HD-XA2’s biggest improvement compared to 1st generation HD DVD players as well as competing Blu-ray units is its signal processing abilities, converting native 480i content to enhanced or high definition output (480p, 720p, 1080i, 1080p).
According to HDGuru, Toshiba managed to release a more decent HD DVD Player this time. The loading time of the first generation was simply unacceptable. Still, almost a minute before you can start to watch a movie is even longer than Windows XP!
Bottom line the new HD-XA2 HD DVD player from Toshiba is a good player and you should be pleased with what you will get.
More details about the Toshiba through this Amazon
