Consumer Expectations Of HD-DVD
Dear Gary: Outstanding job with Widescreen Review; it is wonderful to have such an enthusiastic person such as yourself! I loved the interview and questions you asked of Sony’s Michael Fidler on Blu-ray Disc. I just wanted to point out that the Consumer Expectations of HD-DVD Petition is going well and approaching 2,000 signatures. It would be great to point readers to the petition to keep the signatures and comments coming. The URL is :www.petition online.com/cehddvd/petition.html I believe the crux of the petition is accurate and clearly states that we need a format with high bandwidth and high storage capacity. We refuse to accept old red-laser technology, more compression, and no room for improving the audio. It is equally important to have a significant improvement in the audio as well as the video. Further, we must have the studios release content in 1080p/24. It is quite clear that 1080p displays are going to become the standard. I’d also like to reiterate why Warner Brother’s red-laser HD-DVD9 is not acceptable: a) Whatever HD-DVD video format (assuming 1080p) is chosen that might look “acceptable” at 7 to 8 Megabits per second, will look significantly better at 20+ Megabits per second, regardless of which video compression algorithm is chosen. b) It is absolutely ridiculous to not equate HD-DVD with better audio, which is EQUALLY AS IMPORTANT AS AN IMPROVEMENT IN VIDEO, or nonetheless is SIGNIFICANTLY IMPORTANT. It makes no sense to have 720p/1080i/1080p video for HD-DVD and continue utilizing 448 (Dolby® Digital to 754 or 1509 (DTS® Digital Surround™) kilobits per second bandwidth. With Blu-ray, we finally have a format which allows one to have true high-definition video quality and have enough bandwidth remaining for a high quality audio track. I see absolutely no reason why we could not AND SHOULD NOT dedicate at least 4 Megabits per second (potentially even more!) to a PRIMARY audio soundtrack. With Blu-ray, we could even have 24/96 DVD-Audio music in conjunction with HD-DVD video! You simply cannot do this with other proposals! Additionally, music videos will be outstanding on Blu-ray!
Christian Artman, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
mailto:drhealthfitness@comcast.net
Editor-In-Chief Gary Reber Comments:
I think one of the objectives of any new HD-DVD format should be to provide backward compatibility with the red-laser format, and in so doing there are opportunities to provide options for new coding schemes that are “HD-Smart,” such as the Pixonics (see Issue 74, July 2003), HD-DVD9, and Windows Media 9 formats. I would not rule any format out at this juncture as a potential option to HD-DVD delivered on a blue-laser format. As for provisions for the primary surround sound audio soundtrack, I recommend that the competing blue-laser formats provide for 96 kHz/24-bit PCM multichannel resolution and fully scalable DTS Digital Surround (at least 1.5 Megabits per second, and as well, Dolby Digital at 640 kilobits per second (the upper limit of deliverable Dolby Digital). We will continue to be the leader in the reporting and analysis of the various formats competing for the HD-DVD standard. I hope readers of WSR will support the Consumer Expectations of HD-DVD Petition, and to that end I plan on publishing the petition in a future issue.
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