The Current State Of DVD

DVD is the very successful, and will definitely be around for some time. However as it is currently implemented, DVD is not a high-definition format. DVD players typically output video in either standard NTSC 480i (852×480 pixels in an interlaced scan format), with progressive scan DVD players capable of outputting DVD video in 480p (852×480 pixels displayed in a progressively scanned format). Although DVD has superior resolution and image quality, when compared to VHS and standard cable television, it is still only half the resolution of HDTV.

Upscaling - Getting More Out Of Standard DVD

In an effort to maximize the quality of DVD for display on today’s HDTVs, many manufacturers have introduced upscaling capabilities through DVI and/or HDMI output connections on newer DVD players.

Upscaling is a process that mathematically matches the pixel count of the output of the DVD signal to the physical pixel count on an HDTV, which is typically 1280×720 (720p) or 1920×1080 (1080i).

The upscaling process does a good job of matching the upscaled pixel output of a DVD player to the native pixel display resolution of an HDTV capable television, resulting in better detail and color consistency. However, upscaling, as it is currently implemented, cannot convert standard DVD images into true high-definition images. In fact, although upscaling works well with fixed pixel displays, such as Plasma and LCD televisions, results are not always consistent on CRT-based high definition televisions.

True High Definition DVD Is On The Way…

For the past several years, high definition DVD player and recorder prototypes have been on display at trade shows and Blu-ray Format High Definition DVD recorders and players are beginning to become available in Japan. In 2006, it is expected that high definition DVD will become available in the U.S. market.

Employing Blue Laser technology (which has a much shorter wavelength than the red laser technology used in current DVD) high definition DVD enables a disc the size of a current DVD disc (but, which much greater storage capacity than a standard DVD) to hold an entire film at HDTV resolution or allow the consumer to record two hours of high definition video content.

Two Competing High Definition DVD Formats

However, there is a catch with regards to the introduction of high definition DVD recording and playback. You guessed it; there are two competing formats that are incompatible with each other.

The competing formats are Blu-ray and HD-DVD:

Blu-ray Support

Blu-ray is supported on the hardware side by Hitachi, LG, Matsushita (Panasonic), Pioneer, Philips, Samsung, Sharp, Sony, HP, Dell, Apple, TDK, and Thomson (Note: Thomson also supports HD-DVD). On the software side, Blu-ray is supported by Twentieth Century Fox, Walt Disney Studios, MGM, Paramount (also supports HD-DVD) and Warner (also supports HD-DVD). Apple Computer has also announced support for Blu-ray.

HD-DVD Support

HD-DVD is supported on the hardware side by Toshiba, NEC, Sanyo, Thomson (Note: Thomson also supports Blu-ray). On the software side, HD-DVD is supported by New Line Cinema, Paramount Pictures (also supports Blu-ray), Paramount (also supports Blu-ray), and Universal Pictures. Microsoft has also added its support to HD-DVD.

Basic Specifications Of Blu-ray and HD-DVD

Although both Blu-ray and HD-DVD will support both recording and playback of high definition material with the same expected result, in terms of video and audio quality, there are differences between the two formats.

General Specifications - Blu-ray

Storage Capacity - Pre-recorded Playback Material (BD-ROM): Single-layer (25GB) - Dual-layer (50GB)

Storage Capacity: Home Recording (BD-R/BD-RE): Single-layer (25GB) - Dual-layer (50GB)

Data Transfer Rate: 36 MBPS (Megabits per Second) - This exceeds the 24 MBPS transfer rate used by HDTV broadcasts.

Disc Properties: New format requiring retooling and/or construction of new disc manufacturing and replication plants.

Video Specifications: Compatible with full MPEG2 Encoding, as well as MPEG4.

Audio Specifications: Incorporation of both Dolby Digital Plus and DTS-HD.

General Specifications - HD-DVD

Storage Capacity - Pre-recorded playback material (HD-DVD-ROM): Single-layer (15GB) - Dual-layer (30GB)

Storage Capacity - Home Recording (HD-DVD-R/HD-DVD-Rewritable): Single-layer (20GB) - Dual-Sided Disc (40GB) - Dual Layer (35GB - proposed).

Data Transfer Rate: 36 MBPS (Megabits per Second) - This exceeds the 24 MBPS transfer rate used by HDTV broadcasts.

Disc Properties: Format similar to existing DVD disc structure, requiring minimal upgrading and retooling of existing DVD disc manufacturing and replication plants.

Video Specifications: Compatible with MPEG2 and MPEG4 Encoding.

Audio Specifications: Incorporation of both Dolby Digital Plus and DTS-HD.

The format provides five times larger capacity than today’s DVDs, with unprecedented storage capacity of 25 GB (single-layer) and 50 GB (dual-layer). Blu-ray DiscTM players will be fully backward compatible with current CD/DVD formats, delivering entertainment content in full high-definition (HD) quality, under a secure environment made possible through the most advanced copyright protection technology.

Blu-ray DiscTM was created to match the accelerating growth in digital consumer electronics and computer technology. The platform supports the convergence of film, music, gaming and other computer entertainment in a single standard. Sony Computer Entertainment’s adoption of Blu-ray DiscTM ROM technology in the next-generation PlayStation 3 system was announced at the 2005 Electronic Entertainment Expo.

Blu-ray DiscTM is supported by more than 160 leading hardware and software manufacturers, including the leading innovators in the CE and IT industries.

At a glance

Single layer capacity: 25GB (currently 4.7GB)
Double layer capacity: 50GB (17 GB)
Recordable capacity: 50GB or 6-9hrs of HD (8.5GB or 2-4hrs of HD)
Industry support: 160+ companies
Backward compatible: Yes (thank god!!!)
Laser: Blue, 405nm (Red, 650nm)
Cost: Efficient
Video/Audio Codecs: MPEG2, VC-1, Dolby Digital

Apple Computer Inc. has resorted to a poetic broadside in the inevitable cat-and-mouse game between hackers and high-tech companies.

The maker of Macintosh computers had anticipated that hackers would try to crack its new OS X operating system built to work on Intel Corp.’s chips and run pirated versions on non-Apple computers. So, Apple developers embedded a warning deep in the software — in the form of a poem.

Indeed, a hacker encountered the poem recently, and a copy of it has been circulating on Mac-user Web sites this week.

Apple confirmed Thursday it has included such a warning in its Intel-based computers since it started selling them in January.

The embedded poem reads: “Your karma check for today: There once was a user that whined/his existing OS was so blind/he’d do better to pirate/an OS that ran great/but found his hardware declined./Please don’t steal Mac OS!/Really, that’s way uncool./(C) Apple Computer, Inc.”

Apple also put in a separate hidden message, “Don’t Steal Mac OS X.kext,” in another spot for would-be hackers.

“We can confirm that this text is built into our products,” Apple issued in a statement. “Hopefully it, and many other legal warnings, will remind people that they should not steal Mac OS X.”

The hacking endeavors are, for now, relegated to a small, technically savvy set, but it underscores a risk Apple faces if a pirated, functional version eventually becomes as accessible and straightforward as installing other software on a computer.

It’s a risk that became apparent after Apple decided to make a historic transition to Intel-based chips, the same type that its rivals use in predominant Windows-based PCs. Apple previously relied on Power PC chips from IBM Corp. and Freescale Semiconductor Inc., but this year began switching its computers to the Intel platform.

Various analysts have since hypothesized a worst-case situation in which Apple would lose control of its proprietary Macintosh environment: how its reputedly easy-to-use and elegant operating system would no longer be locked to its computers, a critical revenue pipeline for Apple.

Such scenarios have raised a debate among Apple observers about whether the company should just license its operating system to run on other machines, similar to Microsoft Corp.

But Apple has repeatedly said it will not do that.

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California (Reuters) — Google Inc. is offering its own instant message and Web-based phone calling system, joining a crowded field of established rivals in a nearly decade-old computer communications craze.

The world leader in Internet search confirmed reports on Tuesday that it plans to add instant messaging from Wednesday, together with Web-based phone calling to the growing menu of technology options it offers beyond simply trawling the Web.

Google Talk is seeking to elbow its way in among four instant messaging Web communities that number more than 10 million users each, ranging from market leader AOL, with AIM and ICQ brands, to Yahoo Inc., Microsoft and two-year-old European Web chat phenomenon, Skype.

“This is a missing piece in Google’s larger strategy as they emerge to become a bigger Internet media player,” said Greg Sterling, an analyst with the Kelsey Group who had been briefed by the company on its Google Talk strategy.

A trial version, in English only initially, can be found at http://www.google.com/talk. Users need to have a Google Gmail account. The computer-to-computer Web calling software requires speakers and a microphone, or a computer-ready headset.

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The Earth Simulator Center in Japan is number 4 in the world, but i really like their pictures.

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