JVC's Hard Disk Camcorder to shoot HDV

http://www.engadget.com/media/2006/10/ceat1_10.jpg
JVC's heavily marketed Everio HDD camcorder range is now to be an HDV item. News from Japan explains that the camcorder will feature the same 3x 1/5in CCDs as the old range but with 1080i as their vertical resolution.

New for this camcorder is the use of a Fujinon lens, is this a first for a consumer camcorder?

So no use of CMOS and the same mis-information on the side of the first model that says 'Full high definition'.

Pic available from:

http://www.engadget.com/media/2006/10/ceat1_10.jpg

Hewlett Packard Bundle HD DVD in Laptop

HP has introduced several new products that will support the HD DVD standard, including the dv9000t notebook which carries an HD DVD drive to play on the 17in screen or via the on board HDMI output straight in to an HDTV.

Who knows who will win this format war – depends on how many PS3s will be sold and what content is available to show. Sony Entertainment's first Blu Ray discs are definitely films you've never heard of... Exorcism of Emily Rose, Into The Blue, Stealth, SWAT, Tears of the Sun and Hostel.

SlingBox Goes Pro with Hi Def

The Slingbox PRO is designed for the consumer who has multiple A/V devices or has made an investment in high definition TV. It features four sets of audio-video inputs and outputs including the optional HD component connection for HD set-top box customers.

The optional cable for HD component set-top boxes is called the Slingbox HD Connect and it includes all the necessary cables to connect HD component video and audio to the Slingbox PRO. This accessory will be available later this year and at an extra cost.

www.slingmedia.com

In-Three Granted More 3D patents

In-Three Inc. the company that caught the attention of directors Peter Jackson and George Lucas with their post-orientated 3D process have been granted three additional patents covering their 2D to 3D conversion technology.

The process is called Dimensionalization and promises to convert any full-length motion picture in to 3D regardless of age or origination of the image source. The process is done entirely in post production with control over 'all aspects'.

Interestingly they claim that their process of getting each and every scene visually 'depth perfect' is not possible by any other method including shooting in 3D. Vince Pace may have something to say about that...

www.in-three.com

Cheap and cheerful HDTVs

A cheap 32in HD ready LCD TV, made by Technosonic, is going on sale next Monday 2 October in store and online at Woolworths. It's currently on its site at £499 but you will be able to order it online or in-store at £399 as of Monday. The offer is until stocks last so get in there quick.

Sainsbury is also currently selling a Bush 32in LCD HD ready TV for £499. The TV should be available nationwide (in larger Sainsbury's) while its stocks last, but it's not available online. It's worth phoning your local store and checking before hand.

Thanks to moneysavingexpert.com for the information.

Microsoft's HD DVD drive £130 in the UK

At the X06 event in Barcelona the long travelling XBox 360 team (The Tokyo Games Show has just ended) announced that the UK price of their new HD DVD drive will be £130 and will be available in November this year.

They also announced a tie-up with director Peter Jackson who looks to be moving big time into games. He will help with the future of the Halo series of games, this was the game that made the original XBox take-off when Microsoft were so far behind Sony and losing an estimated $1 billion per year on their games side. The game's authors Bungie were bought by Microsoft in 2000 for what is now seen as a bargain $30 million.

An HD DVD drive for £130 could just weigh the balance against Blu Ray, the 'other' format, which has just entered the UK market with Samsung with a player retailing at £999 and available next month.

Unfortunately playing DVDs through the Xbox 360 isn't a great experience with the fan noise but if the new drive doesn't use the CPU too much maybe fan noise won't be a problem.

Tivo Make An HD Box

TiVo has launched their Series3 HD Digital Media Recorder, their first stand-alone product that is HD compatible. TiVo was always the box to have with its clever search abilities and 'Season Pass' recordings. The new box is available now but not yet in Europe.

Its the first HD DVR to be THX-certified which basically makes sure that the performance is as good as possible through some sort of video analysis. I think primarily its a 'badge thing'.

Dual tuners allow subscribers to record two different shows in HD at the same time, while watching a third pre-recorded show, the Sky HD box will let you record the programmes but won't let you watch a third.

Later this year, it will also support the newly released TiVoCast service feature which allows users to access content directly through their broadband connection. Ditto Sky HD which also has 140GB of disk space allotted for others things.

www.tivo.vom

Killing the Optical HD disc at Birth?

When PR companies start commenting on the state of a format at the start of press releases you know you've got a bandwagon rolling out.

Our High Def Home Magazine inbox received a release for a new Denon upscaling DVD player with said comment at the front "It is pretty much accepted that the HD-Disc launch is a disaster, the early machines are dogs and the content is rubbish."

A PR outstretching the brief or part of a campaign to kill the format at birth?

We will have a review of an HD DVD & Bluray player against some upscaling DVD players in the second issue of the new magazine. But just think on this – would you want to shoot something in SD and upconvert or start with as many 'real' pixels as possible.

Break-in at RED!

The RED camera story took a new twist on Saturday as their offices in California were broken into and only camera related equipment was stolen. Founder Jim Jannard divulged this to the CML list yesterday and vowed not to be 'slowed up' by the robbery.

He also announced a reward of $50K for any information leading to the arrest and conviction of the culprits which he quickly raised to $100K an hour later when he posted more details, he said: "Brand new computers were left alone. Only prototypes, computers in use and drives (along with a Scratch system) were taken. They certainly knew what they were going for."

Red Uploads 2K Frame Grab

The Red revolution continues with news that billionaire Oakely owner and backer of Red, Jim Jannard, has placed downloadable 2K frame grabs on the Red web site with a 4K file promised for tomorrow - 24th.

Go to www.red.com/gallery-still.htm for the details.

The Red company promises to make and ship a $17,500 4K capable camera plus lenses and recording solution by the end of 2006. Such a timescale from a standing start last NAB was further questioned when no Q&A was forthcoming at the footage showing a couple of weeks ago at the IBC.

Doubters were heard to question the validity of the footage "Anyone can get a sensor and put a lens on it!" was one response for an industry leading light...

Rumours are that the fabled Mysteriuim chip is in fact sourced from IBM's defence wing and is de-commissioned military spec. If true this would explain the lack of information so far on the all important chip in the pubic domain.

More PlayStation 3 fun & games...

At the Tokyo Games Show Sony have dropped a couple of bombshells to illustrate how much is at stake with their new PS3 platform. They have announced a price drop for the Japanese market, (none at the moment for USA/Europe) to bring it more inline with an XBox 360 twinned with its new HD DVD drive.

They've also announced that the lower priced 20 GB hard drive model will after all have an HDMI connector at the back, an omission that everybody except Sony thought was shortsighted when they announced it earlier this year. There was a danger that any non-HDMI hi def DVD player would automatically be down-rezed to standard def when played.

Sony said that the change of mind was due to the unprecedented amount of flat screen HDMI enabled TVs being sold. We say it is market pressure and the lateness to market of PS3 with XBox 360 being so successful (out of Japan anyway) and being in the market for nearly a year.

Microsoft announced the number of their HD games available for XBox 360 had risen to 110 with further announcements from TGS.

Sony are definitely playing 'catch-up'.

Industry report says 45m HD Ready Home by 2008

Industry 'watcher' Understanding & Solutions are predicting massive growth for high definition with more than 45 million HD Ready homes in Western Europe by 2008, climbing to more than 73 million by 2009.

For these numbers read television sales as most TVs sold by these dates will be HD Ready anyway. U & S predict that demand for HD content won't be far behind although HD broadcasting will build gradually.

They also predict that once launched PlayStation 3, complete with built-in Bluray players, will be a strong driver for HD ownership although one of the two models of PS3 hasn't got an HDMI output on the back of the player. They forecast 'culmative sales' of more than 28 milion PS3s in Western Europe by 2010, making up 52 pc of the total number of high definition DVD players in use in consumer homes.

The interesting figure here is that by end of 2009 10 million European homes will be receiving at least some of their TV content in high definition.

U&S are presenting 'High Definition in Europe: Making Business Happen', a two-day conference 6-7 November in Barcelona.

http://www.uands.com/events/hdconference/

Microsoft Xbox to go 1080p

The Tokyo Games Show on at the moment is a particularly important one for two main contenders for high definition's gaming crown. Firstly Sony's PlayStation 3 is due to ship in Japan shortly after the show and needs a smooth launch, while Microsoft's XBox has a couple of announcements obviously saved up to spoil Sony's party.

The first one of those is the addition of 1080p to Xbox's output pedigree through a free software upgrade later this year, PlayStation 3 is looking to offer 1080p out of the box. Microsoft are also to ship their outboard HD DVD drive in Japan for about €150 but European prices and shipping dates aren't yet available.

How the HD DVD drive fits onto the Xbox is an interesting one as the XBox has no HDMI or DVI out but just a 'very' proprietary component one. 1080p output is a 'ticked box' feature but does stop Sony's 'not really HD' sniping of last year.

More from Xbox at: http://www.xbox.com/en-US/hardware/xbox360/default.htm

Is A Combined HD DVD / Bluray format to happen?

A patent application has been filed for a disc that could play the two competing high-definition DVD formats which, if successful, could help appease a battle that has divided Hollywood and confounded consumers.

The patent application was filed by three Warner Bros. employees, two of whom are engineers for the company.

The "multilayer dual optical disk" would have one layer of data in the standard CD or DVD format, a second layer able to play one high-capacity format and a third layer for the competing high-capacity format.

The problem is that both sets of players are out there now and the media is starting to churn out.

More at www.reuters.co.uk

US HDTV Subscriber sues broadcaster over HD quality

Only in America? Perhaps but now there are HDTV services sprouting up around the world the tale of the lawsuit made against DirecTV over their questionable HD quality might sound alarm bells outside the US.

The subscriber questioned the quality of the signal and it sounds like the judge is agreeing with him.

More at http://www.tvpredictions.com/directvlawsuit092006.htm

Soundtrack composer for video editors

Tucked away in Hall 8 of the recent IBC was Abaltat an Irish company who make a facinating new video-driven soundtrack composer. It uses artificial intelligence to measure different selected elements in a moving picture and then composes music to them.
Several music genres are available and we'll be reviewing the programme as soon as they let us.

www.abaltat.com

Discovery Now Accepts Panasonic HDX900

The new Panasonic HDX900 is creating some serious buzz and Discovery's acceptance of the camera only adds to this. While Discovery's acceptance of 1/2 inch XDCAM HD may have been controversial surely their acceptance of a camera (HDX900) and not a format is also of note.

Maybe with the Sony f900's recent noise problem the route is clear for Panasonic to take advantage with a camera that hasn't got a 1920x1080 chip but has some great tapeless abilities.

Discovery's Manager of Technical Standards & Operations has already confirmed that the HDX900 has already been used to shoot several programmes... more in the next issue.