Archive for April, 2007

Hitachi showcased playback of a four-layer Blu-Ray disc featuring a capacity of 25GB per layer. The company said that the drive used for reading was a standard Blu-Ray drive, at its booth at the 2007 International CES.

There have been other academic reports of creating fourlayer (100GB) or even six layer (200GB) disc media by TDK. Some companies have also showcased playback of multi-layer BD media using test players embedded with a special optical head. But in the current demonstation, Hitachi used a ‘standard drive’.

“This is the first demonstration of quadruple disc readout using a player based on an optical head generally used in current BD drives on the market,” said Hitachi representatives.

Hitachi used an optical disc drive based on the “GBW-H10N” supporting 4x speed BD recording, which Hitachi-LG Data Storage, Inc. announced in July 2006. However, the company made some alterations to the firmware and the optical system inside the head, to make the player compatible with four-layer BD playback. Frontend signal processing (Renesas) and other circuits are the same as those used in the “GBW-H10N.”

Of course, the demonstration did not include playback of video. Hitachi set up a reference system that included a PC, the BD drive connected to an oscilator, tuned to display the HF reading signal and especially the javascript:void(0)
Publishdata patterns of the disc, which indicate the BD recording marks. According to a report on the Japanese Tech-On website, the first layer (L0) of the 100GB disc included a series of 3T patterns followed by 4T patterns marked on a layer one (L1) above it, 5T patterns on L2 and 6T patterns on L3. When the player picked up signals from each layer on this disc, it displays the signals’ waveforms using the oscilloscope. The frequencies changed depending on the layer being read, so demonstration observers could recognize the readout of each layer. However, the drive was not set to pick up the 2T patterns, which are the smallest found on data Blu-Ray discs (3T to 11T for the data features on DVD).

Hitachi said, that developing this technology required a drive capable of detecting which layer to read. The company has not specified how the pickup lens actually detects the readout layer, but reportedly explored a wide variety of methods including a very basic way, in which the pickup lens finds a targeted layer by scanning each layer in order of shorter distance from the optical head.

Quadruple BD capacity could be used for storing Digital Cinema Picture Quality content in the future. For example, a 100GB disc could hold 3.5h hours of 64Mbps video (resolution 4K-2K).

Do you still own a standard TV and DVD or even a VHS? Well, if you do your place or at least your TV set should already belong in a Museum! At least according to Sony!

The main Blu-ray backer launched the “Museum of Low Res” (MoLR), a consumer website which takes you on a virtual tour of the history of technology and the conception of Blu-ray Disc itself. The tongue-in-cheek website visually explains the Blu-ray disc format; from a giant TV sculpture demonstrating the resolution power of Blu-ray Disc, to a robotic arm sculpture highlighting its storage capacity.

Is it worth the time to take a look at it? Yes, a bit of humor in this battle of the formats is a good thing. We tend to forget that the main goal of high definition movies is entertainment and fun. Sony brings that back a little with this site. At least for the European market since the site was launched by Sony-Europe.

The image represent what Sony says is the first High definition TV that reached 1080! I always loved videowalls!

In a recent battle of press releases, the Blu-ray Association announced that sales of Blu-ray Disc titles have surpassed one million units in less than a year since the format’s introduction. In a statement from the HD DVD Promotional Group received by DailyTech, it appears that sales of HD DVD movies are not far behind those of Blu-ray Disc.

According to stats cited by the HD DVD Group, which are based on recent data from Nielsen Videoscan, Universal, Warner and Toshiba, HD DVD titles are now at 998,059 units sold, representing less-than 2,000 units shy of Blu-ray’s announced figures. Of course, while the next-generation formats fight over claims of collective sales of one million, a single DVD title could easily sell over one million units on its own.

“Yes, these are still small numbers compared to DVD sales, but point being – HD DVD is still very much in the game,” read the HD DVD Group statement. “As more HD DVD titles hit the market (take a look at pre-order rankings for Planet Earth and The Matrix Trilogy) and as prices for HD DVD hardware continue to drop below the $400 mark, we’re seeing more equal week to week movie sales ratios between the formats.”

The HD DVD Promotional Group announced last week that it has sold more than 100,000 standalone players in the U.S. since introduction, and claims to be currently outselling dedicated Blu-ray players by a four-to-one margin.

“Why are we just focusing on dedicated players? So we can compare stats on similar hardware with similar attach rates,” explained the HD DVD Group. “That’s a key driver of software sales and shows that price is clearly a factor for consumers in deciding to buy dedicated high definition hardware.”

“Bottom line is that HD DVD is staying focused across the board on creating great products at great prices,” the Group added.

Special thanks to Dailytech.com for this story !

Hollywood and European Studios Show Broad Support with Nearly 600 Titles Expected in 2007; European Promotional Group Formed

At a press event today at the CeBIT tradeshow in Hannover, Germany the companies of the HD DVD Promotion Group recapped a strong year for the high definition format and provided an overview of what customers across the region can expect in 2007. Adding to the global promotion structure for HD DVD, a new entity was also announced, the European HD DVD Promotional Group, Ltd., to bolster marketing efforts for the format as HD DVD gains momentum across Europe.

By the end of Q1 2007, more than 100 titles will be available throughout Europe. More than one-third of these titles come from European studios and none of them are currently available on any other high-definition format. The overwhelming majority of the discs are replicated locally. With more than 21 studios and distributors, 14 authoring studios and eight replicators producing HD DVD content and discs throughout the region, the number of titles is expected to increase rapidly throughout the year with an estimated 600 titles expected worldwide by December 2007.

“Our goal is to achieve global penetration of the HD DVD format, so a lot of work has gone into making sure that authoring houses and replicators across Europe were given the training and expertise they need to get up and running quickly allowing a wealth of European content to hit the market right from the beginning,” said Yoshihide Fujii, Chairman of the HD DVD Promotion Group and President and CEO of Toshiba’s Digital Media Network Company. “This will be a key differentiator for HD DVD in Europe for the foreseeable future. Combine that with a solid line-up of US titles and affordable hardware and consumers have a lot of options to create a home theater experience that is unparalleled.”

Examples of the wide range of content originating in Europe include “Stalingrad (Enemy at the Gate),” “2 brothers,” “Les Choristes,” “La Grande Vadrouille,” “L’Armee des Ombres,” “Le Cercle Rouge,” “Das Parfum,” “Graf Montenegro,” and “La Tigre e la Neve.”

Hollywood studios also made a strong commitment to the market and announcing the release of several great US titles including “Babel,” “Casino,” “Charley and The Chocolate Factory,” “Dreamgirls,” “Happy Feet,” “The Holiday,” “The Matrix Trilogy,” “Ray,” and “World Trade Center.” All of these titles will feature multiple language tracks allowing seamless viewing in a variety of countries. Studios also announced expansion into a greater number of European countries and are committed to announcing HD DVD titles on the same day and date as DVDs wherever possible.

Toshiba announced a new HD DVD player for the European market, the HD- EP10. This mid-range model, which features 1080p output, was designed to meet the increasing consumer demand for 1080p HDTVs. The new player, priced at 699 Euros, rounds out Toshiba’s product line-up, and will be available in May 2007.

Attendees of the press event saw a live demo of HD DVD’s new advanced interactive features, working on both multiple PC platforms and consumer electronics based players — effectively showing the wide breadth of support for these features. HD DVD titles with advanced interactivity will take advantage of HD DVD’s mandatory specifications for network connectivity, secondary video decoders and persistent storage. Titles using player memory as well as the secondary video encoder for picture-in-picture were shipping throughout 2006, and titles using network connectivity are expected to be available in 2007. Using Microsoft’s HDi interactive technology, the live demo showed how to download HD trailers and other content from the Internet, synchronized storyboard playback seamlessly switching between full screen mode and story board and subtitle download. To date, HD DVD is the only format delivering titles using true picture-in-picture.

Single-chip audio processor is designed for demanding processing tasks associated with emerging standards, such as next-generation HD-DVD and Blu-ray Disc

As consumer electronics manufacturers ramp products supporting the next-generation HD-DVD and Blu-ray Disc DVD high-definition DVD formats, Cirrus Logic has introduced a single-chip audio processor, the CS49700, designed to meet the demanding processing tasks associated with these emerging new standards.

Available today in volume production, the CS49700 enables mass-market home theatre products, such as audio/video receivers, combination high-definition DVD players and receivers and Blu-ray Disc and HD-DVD players, at all price points.

Today’s DVD standard calls for chips that support two primary audio decode surround-sound standards, Dolby Digital and DTS standards.

For next-generation Blu-ray and HD-DVD formats, audio processor ICs must support up to six surround-sound audio algorithms, including Dolby Digital, Dolby Digital Plus, Dolby TrueHD, DTS, DTS Master and DTS High Resolution, any of which may be featured within high-definition DVD disc media.

The CS49700 supports each of these audio formats and is designed for home theatre products such as mid- and low-tier.

With its 32bit, dual-core structure, the CS49700 generates true parallel processing power of 1.8GOPS (300MIPS).

The CS49700′s hardware design and software features, including firmware, are optimised for audio processing, which provides a more efficient chip solution that requires less memory and reduced overall processing power compared with many general purpose DSPs.

‘While early generations of high-definition DVD equipment often rely on two or more DSP processors, Cirrus Logic has delivered a single-chip solution that is available today and meets all of the complex audio requirements of Blu-ray and HD-DVD formats’, said Keith Cheney, Vice President and General Manager, Embedded Products Division, Cirrus Logic.

‘Through Cirrus Logic’s audio focus, we have delivered to manufacturers a full-featured but cost-effective IC solution that will speed the introduction of new products and give consumers an amazing audio experience that matches the high-resolution video’.

Compared with today’s standard DVD format, supporting all of the necessary audio algorithms and system clocking challenges for both Blu-ray and HD-DVD formats is substantially more complex.

In addition to the numerous current standard and additional new algorithms that must be supported, many of these new algorithms require bit-rate processing far greater than the typical 384Kbit/s of today’s DVD systems.

For example, lossless surround sound algorithms, such as Dolby’s TrueHD and DTS HD Master Audio, require bit-rate processing as high as 18 to 24Mbit/s, respectively.

Multiple audio formats also present myriad clock frequency challenges, to which the CS49700 adeptly manages via an advanced phase-lock-loop (PLL) that generates a system clock source.

The CS49700 also offers such post-processing algorithms as Dolby Pro Logic IIx, DTS 96/24, Neo:6, MPEG, AAC, SRS Circle Surround II, Dolby Headphone, Dolby Virtual Speaker, SRS Tru-Surround XT and THX Ultra2, which are built into the IC’s on-chip ROM.

The CS49700 also provides support for the HDMI 1.3 interface, the emerging digital audio and video interconnect standard that is used to send digital audio and video signals among home theatre equipment, such as A/V receivers, DVD players and flat-panel televisions.

The CS49700 is currently in volume production and is available in a 144-pin LQFP priced at US $7.50 in 100,000-unit quantities.