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HD DVD (High Density Digital Versatile Disc or High Definition Digital Video Disc) is a digital optical media format which can hold high definition video or other data. HD DVD is similar to the competing Blu-ray Disc, which also uses the same CD-size (120 mm diameter) optical data storage media and 405 nm wavelength blue laser. HD DVD is promoted by Toshiba, NEC, Sanyo, Microsoft, and Intel, among others. In terms of major studios, HD DVD is currently exclusively backed by Universal Studios, and is non-exclusively backed by Paramount Pictures and Warner Bros. Studio Canal, and The Weinstein Company.
At CES 2006, Microsoft announced that there will be an external add-on HD DVD drive for the Xbox 360 game console, due in late 2006. Also at CES 2006, "companies backing HD DVD said that nearly 200 titles would be available for the format by the end of the year." *
On March 31, 2006, Toshiba released their first HD DVD player in Japan at ¥110,000 ($934) . HD DVD was released in United States on April 18, 2006[http://www.videobusiness.com/article/CA6324750.html, with players priced at $499 and $799.
Overview
HD DVD has a a single-layer capacity of 15 GB and a dual-layer capacity of 30 GB. Toshiba has announced a triple-layer disc which offers 45GB of storage. HD DVD can offer both the current DVD and HD DVD formats on one disc, which means that special HD DVD discs will play in any DVD player, old or the new high definition players. This makes retail marketing and shelf space management easier. For consumers, shopping is simplified as they can simply buy a movie that plays in any DVD player in their house, standard definition or high definition. The HD DVD format also can be applied to current red laser DVDs in 5, 9, 15 and 18 GB capacities which offers an even lower cost option to content owners wanting to sell short form content.
The data layer of an HD DVD disc is 0.6mm below the surface, akin to the common DVD. The numerical aperture of the optical pick-up head is 0.65, compared with 0.6 for DVD (a lower surface layer and numerical aperture allow for tighter focus and so increased data density). Both of the new formats are likely to be backward compatible with DVDs and both employ the same video compression techniques: MPEG-2, Video Codec 1 (VC1) and H.264/MPEG-4 AVC.
HD DVD can be mastered with up to 7.1 channel surround sound using the linear (uncompressed) PCM, Dolby Digital and DTS formats also used on DVDs. In addition, it also supports Dolby Digital Plus and the lossless formats Dolby TrueHD and DTS HD. Currently, most DVD movies are made with 5.1 channels of surround sound. There are relatively few titles that offer 6.1 channels of surround sound. On HD DVD the Dolby formats are mandatory, meaning that a Dolby Digital, Dolby Digital Plus, or Dolby TrueHD track may be used as the sole soundtrack on a disc, because every player will have a decoder that can process any of these three bitstreams.Dolby Audio Coding for Future Entertainment Formats (PDF) For lossless audio in movies in the PCM, Dolby TrueHD or DTS-HD formats, HD DVD discs support encoding in up to 24-bit/192kHz for two channels, or up to eight channels of up to 24-bit/96kHz encoding. For reference, even new big-budget Hollywood films are mastered in only 24-bit/48kHz, with 16-bit/48kHz being common for ordinary films.
The HD DVD format supports a wide variety of resolutions, from low-resolution CIF and SDTV up to HDTV formats such as 720p, 1080i and 1080p.HD DVD – A technical introduction All movie titles released so far have had the feature encoded in 1080p (although the currently available HD-DVD players do not have a 1080p output option), with supplements in 480i or 480p.
| Physical size | Single layer capacity | Dual layer capacity | Triple layer capacity |
|---|---|---|---|
| 12 cm, single sided | 15 GB | 30 GB | 45 GB |
| 12 cm, double sided | 30 GB | 60 GB | 90 GB |
| 8 cm, single sided | 4.7 GB | 9.4 GB | |
| 8 cm, double sided | 9.4 GB | 18.8 GB | |
History
On November 19, 2003, the DVD Forum decided that the HD DVD will be the HDTV successor of the DVD. At this meeting they renamed it to HD DVD, while it had been previously called the "Advanced Optical Disc" (AOD). Blu-ray Disc was developed outside of the DVD Forum, and was never submitted to the forum for consideration. This is however a not very surprising extension of the previous DVD-R/RW versus DVD+R/RW war, where - (dash) was the format defended by DVD Forum, and + (plus) the format defended by the DVD+RW Alliance. The DVD Forum generally has focus on CE (Consumer Electronic) and Japanese market development (where CE happens to be very strong). The DVD+RW Alliance has invested more on the PC market with technologies such as Background Formatting and defect management through "Mount Rainier" (unreleased).
The current specification version for HD DVD-ROM and HD DVD-Rewritable is version 1.0. The specification for HD DVD-R is currently at 0.9. The first HD DVD-ROM drives were expected to be unveiled by Q4 2004, with mass production to start in Q1 2005. The actual product launch of both CE and PC units occurred in 2006.
Common disc structure
Backward compatibility will be available with all HD DVD players, allowing consumers to have a single drive in their homes to play both HD DVD and DVD discs. There is also a hybrid HD DVD which contains both DVD and HD DVD versions of the same movie on a single disc, providing smoother transition for the studios in terms of publishing movies, and letting consumers with only DVD drives to still use the discs. DVD disc replication companies can continue using their current production equipment with only minor alterations when changing over to the format of HD DVD replication. Due to the structure of the single-lens optical head, both red and blue laser diodes can be used in smaller, more compact HD DVD players than for the competing Blu-ray drives.
Laser
HD DVD uses a blue-violet 405 nm laser to read information from the disc (DVDs use red 650 nm lasers).
The shorter wavelength reduces diffraction and maintains a smaller spot size of the laser. This allows data to be read from a higher density on the disc surface. While DVDs and HD DVDs will be the same size physically, the ability to store data at a higher density results in a larger total data capacity in HD.
Access restriction technology
Commercialized HD DVDs integrate content protection technology specified by AACS LA (Advanced Access Content System License Administrator). "Audio Watermark Protection" is also being considered by AACS for use on HD DVD. If Watermark is adopted by AACS, all HD DVD players will have a sensor that listens for inaudible audio watermarks in the soundtrack of movies. Studios may insert this invisible mark in the soundtracks of theatrical motion pictures. If a HD DVD detects the invisible mark, it means the disc is playing back a copy made from a theatrical print (probably from illegal camcording), and will cause the player to refuse to play the disc. The mark is made by varying the waveform of speech and music in a regular pattern to convey a digital code. These variations are too subtle to be heard by the human ear. Another variation of this system can be used to prevent the playback of discs created by using a camcorder and microphone on a home entertainment center playing a legitimate disc purchased by a consumer. This variation for home entertainment utilizes a watermark that differs from the cinema mark in that it is permitted in normal, signed ROM discs, but generally not permitted on recordable discs.
In addition, HD DVD players must follow AACS guidelines pertaining to outputs over analog connections. This is set by a flag called the Image Constraint Token (ICT), which restricts the resolution for analog outputs without HDCP to 960×540. The decision to set the flag to restrict output ("down-convert") is left to the content provider. Warner Pictures is a proponent of ICT, and it is expected that Paramount and Universal will implement down-conversion as well As of March 2006, 5 of the 6 studios releasing HD DVD content have announced they will not use ICT/down-conversion for the time being [http://robots.engadget.com/2006/03/27/universal-wont-downsample-hd-dvd-content/. AACS guidelines require that any title that implements the ICT must clearly state so on the packaging.
Interactive content
HD DVDs use the iHD Interactive Format to allow interactive content to be authored for discs. In contrast, a subset of Java will be used to implement interactive menus on Blu-ray discs. DVD video discs utilize pre-rendered MPEG segments, selectable subtitle pictures, and simple programmatic navigation which is considerably more primitive. The Blu-ray Java Version will be called BD-J and will be a subset of the Globally Executable MHP (GEM) standard. GEM is the world-wide version of the Multimedia Home Platform standard. BD-J should offer interactive features similar to those of iHD. As Blu-ray players have now become available, it is possible to make a comparison between the two. Blu-ray's Java generally seems more seamless and better done at this time, likely due to the fact Java is a language most programmers have heard of and many are proficient in, compared to the relatively unknown iHD. There are concerns the additional royalty costs of Java and MHP may add significant cost to Blu-ray players.
Released titles
The first HD DVD titles released on April 18, 2006 were The Last Samurai, Million Dollar Baby, The Phantom of the Opera by Warner Home Video; and Serenity by Universal Studios **.
To date, 34 titles have been released.
- 30 GB
- 15 GB/9GB Hybrid
First released players
On April 18, 2006, Toshiba released the first HD DVD player for the United States, the Toshiba HD-A1 and Toshiba HD-XA1. They are powered by an Intel Pentium 4 processor and contain 1GB of RAM; the drive mechanism is also an IDE HD DVD drive. The units run a specialized version of the Linux operating system booting off a USB thumbdrive. Due to high demand, they were reported to be sold-out in many stores in the United States after the first shipment. (Although the number of HD DVD players shipped has not been released)
On May 16 Toshiba released its first PC with a HD DVD drive, the Toshiba Qosmio 35. This PC is the first to have a slim height optical disc drive. Toshiba's Digital Products Division, introduced Toshiba Qosmio G35-AV600, the latest version of its flagship "4-in-1" audio-video entertainment notebook with new enhancements. The Toshiba G35-AV600 is a complete package featuring Microsoft Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005 and integrated TV tuner, digital video recorder (DVR), virtual surround-sound stereo, and HDMI output. The notebook includes the world's first 1-bit digital amplifier in a notebook PC.
Microsoft has also confirmed that they will be releasing an add-on HD DVD drive for the Xbox 360, which will be purely for movies and not have a HDMI port, it will attatch to the console via usb cable. Despite rumours to the contrary, the Xbox 360 will not include an internal HD DVD reader in future releases. Microsoft have also stated that they may also release a Blu Ray drive for the Xbox 360.
Marketing
A $150 million dollar ad campaign is being planned for the HD-DVD. The ad campaign is being handled by the same company who did the "Got milk?" ad.
The initiative will encompass all media: print, internet, television and other outlets. All advertising will boast the tagline "The Look and Sound of Perfect." A new Web site was also launched on 11th of July 2006, *, which touts the HD DVD's superior video and audio capabilities and includes trailers of HD DVD movies.
See also
- List of HD DVD releases
- Dolby Digital Plus, one of the mandatory audio codecs for HD DVD hardware.
- 1080p, high-definition resolution supported by HD DVD.Marc Perton. Early HD DVD flicks to be 1080p. April 13, 2006.
- Format war
Alternative disc technologies
- Blu-ray Disc
- Forward Versatile Disc - from Taiwan
- Versatile Multilayer Disc
- Fluorescent Multilayer Disc
- Digital Multilayer Disk
- Holographic Versatile Disc - a proposed next generation disc after HD DVD and Blu-ray
- Tapestry Media
References
External links
- DVD Forum
- The High Definition DVD FAQ
- CDfreaks Article On HD DVD vs Blu-ray
- HD DVD discussion forum
- Authoring in HD DVD
News
- BBC: Next-generation DVD battle begins
- ProjectorCentral first impressions on HD-DVD
- BetaNews article on Microsoft and Intel Supporting HD DVD
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