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HD DVD grabs extra content off the web

Along with the price drops of its standalone HD DVD players, Toshiba is also offering a firmware upgrade for its second-generation player models HD-XA2, HD-A20, HD-A2W and HD-D2 to take advantage of web-enabled special features.

The update will improve the HD DVD player’s network connectivity for web content. As the firmware release notes state: “Certain HD DVD discs may contain or have the capability of downloading studio-provided, Web-enabled network content. To minimize any potential capability and/or connectivity issues, before viewing such content, it is recommended that you perform the firmware update process.”

HD DVD movies taking advantage of net-connected players are only now beginning to show up. Anime title Freedom: 1 allows viewers to access addition trailers. Taking it a step further is Blood Diamond, which releases on July 3, which features four extra content options. Those extra options, as described in the High-Def Digest review, are:

"Maps of Conflict" is really the only feature with any unique content about the movie itself, allowing you to interface with maps of Africa to see locations of current conflicts, diamond resources and child soldiers.

"'Blood Diamond' Polling" is basically a message board for the movie where you can connect with an online community to share your thoughts and feelings about the movie.

"WB Polling" is another message board-like feature where you can share your thoughts on current HD DVD titles from Warner, as well as what you'd like to see in the future. Hopefully, the studio itself will actually read the feedback!

Finally, "Now Available" is simply an announcement list of all current and officially confirmed Warner HD DVD titles.

First generation Toshiba HD DVD players HD-XA1, HD-A1 and HD-D1 received a firmware update in early April that also added support for “certain anticipated network delivered content” in future HD DVD discs.

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No DivX support than I'm not interested.
By dardan on 7/2/2007 7:19:34 AM , Rating: 1
With all this processing power, I wonder why they won't support high def DivX or at least regular DivX. Streaming over the home network this would be a unique product on the market.




By gerf on 7/2/2007 7:37:05 AM , Rating: 1
I've got a Toshiba that does DivX ;), so it's not as if the company is opposed to it either.

I wonder what kind of licensing restrictions HD DVD has, as that could curtail divX implementation.


By tuteja1986 on 7/2/2007 7:37:10 AM , Rating: 1
I would buy that for sure as long as they don't screw up the quality of Divx IQ.


RE: No DivX support than I'm not interested.
By heffeque on 7/2/2007 10:41:40 AM , Rating: 2
HD-DVDs support h.264. It's a format that is A LOT better than DivX so... why use DivX if you can use h.264? :-)
Although I think I know what you mean by adding DivX support (mister eMule!), but people should start coding in h.264 instead of DivX. Most good anime fansubs come in h.264. It seems like stuff coded from American titles are usually a bit behind in this sense.
You can always recode the video too if you like.


By mindless1 on 7/2/2007 3:37:15 PM , Rating: 2
In many cases you're right, though it's not always a contest to see how low the bitrate can go in many instances, only low "enough", and it's about universal compatibility as it has to do with decoding power, so you want the same files playable on your aging multimedia PC and your DVD player, your HD player, and since you already had Divx encoded clips you don't want to be re-encoding to another lossy format. MPEG2 was more compatible in this respect, often better towards aforementioned goal, but not low enough bitrate for some purposes.


RE: No DivX support than I'm not interested.
By sdsdv10 on 7/2/2007 3:53:32 PM , Rating: 2
Because a lot of people already have a great deal of content in DivX format and they don't want to trans-code.


RE: No DivX support than I'm not interested.
By heffeque on 7/2/2007 7:34:04 PM , Rating: 2
None of it is High def so why not use the good old $30 DVD/DivX player?


By sdsdv10 on 7/3/2007 9:58:49 AM , Rating: 2
To get both HD and DviX playback on one player. For good or bad, some people prefer to own just one unit.


This is why Warner Bros favors HD DVD
By AlexWade on 7/2/2007 8:02:15 AM , Rating: 3
Warner Brothers favors HD DVD because of this internet feature that is mandatory on HD DVD, they have said so. I wish the other movie studios would put consumer features ahead of piracy prevention, I'm talking about you, Fox and Disney. I sure hope Samsung's universal player supports these features, unlike LG's universal player. If universal players become the norm, which I think they will much to dismay of Sony and Toshiba, I'll bet Warner Brothers will go exclusive HD DVD to keep these consumer features coming.

We should reward the studios that care about us and don't view us as criminals waiting to pirate content.

And I sure hope I can afford Samsung's universal player. I need more HD movies than my 360 add-on can provide, but I don't have the money. And the 360 add-on isn't an ideal player. I'm holding out for a quality universal player. One player to rule them all.




RE: This is why Warner Bros favors HD DVD
By Gnoad on 7/2/2007 9:16:43 AM , Rating: 3
One Player to Rule Them All. One Player to Find Them. One Player to Bring Them All and In The Darkness Bind Them.

Yeah, that could be cool.


RE: This is why Warner Bros favors HD DVD
By FITCamaro on 7/2/07, Rating: 0
By indianpunk on 7/4/2007 7:20:55 AM , Rating: 2
i hear you tottaly


By steven975 on 7/2/2007 12:33:24 PM , Rating: 2
I'll believe it.

I think that's why Blood Diamond on HD-DVD was delayed a little from the BD release. The HD-DVD release has a much fuller feature set.

Same with 300. The HD-DVD version has lots of stuff the BD version doesn't, such as a "green screen" view (which sounds really cool).


Options
By Mitch101 on 7/2/2007 10:03:15 AM , Rating: 2
Im weighing the options of getting a set top unit or just building a Media Center PC for the living room. This way whatever wins the media PC can be changed to work with it plus its compatible with every format imaginable.

Im leaning toward the media pc because of flexibility in the long run however $299.00 is not bad I should have grabbed one when they were $199 with the 5 free movies.




not buying into it
By Salisme on 7/2/2007 11:18:03 AM , Rating: 2
I don't know, I'm not really excited about this. For all we know they could be sporting this as more "web extras" when in reality is a phone home service to authenicate media. I'm not concerned with piracy, but I am concerned with privacy.

Call me crazy, but the entertainment industry has led me to nothing but mistrust.




"The whole principle [of censorship] is wrong. It's like demanding that grown men live on skim milk because the baby can't have steak." -- Robert Heinlein


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