HD DVD Clarifications
Dear Gary:
I read the article you wrote on the two HD optical disc camps and wanted to congratulate you on writing a fair and unbiased review of the formats.
I did have some technical observations that I would like to make. On the section titled “Ethernet Internet Interactivity,” you mention that the v2.0 firmware release provided Dolby® TrueHD multichannel support over the analog outputs. I would like to make a clarification that all multichannel output from Dolby Digital Plus and TrueHD on the Toshiba HD DVD player is supported as multichannel LPCM over the HDMI ports and that any shipping AVR or Pre/Pro with HDMI can enjoy that audio. This is how we are running it on the HD DVD Mobile experience, with a Lexicon MC 12 HD. I think it is important for your reading audience to understand that with HD DVD they do not need to wait for HDMI v1.3 on a player and receiver, as well as a decoder in the receiver, to realize high-resolution audio over HDMI.
Another point to keep in mind is that if the audio is not decoded in the player, then none of the interactivity that utilizes sound can be achieved. This means that the PIP that people are coming to love with IME and UControl would not be possible. The audio must be decoded in the player and mixed with the audio from the secondary video. Another advantage of decoding in the player with next-generation audio codecs is that they have meta-data that the studio, while authoring, can control the down-mixing and fold down with. With uncompressed audio, mixing and fold down are controlled by the player, and the “experience” that a studio expected with something less than 5.1 channels is not guaranteed to be what they wanted.
In regards to interactivity, I think it bears mention again that the mandatory features in HD DVD for interactivity (persistent storage, secondary video decoder, and network interface) are proving that studios do author to the lowest common denominator. I think the titles on both formats pretty much identify that philosophy that the studios said would happen in the AH0-10. When I wrote the article HD DVD Interactivity in Issue 110, July 2006, much of what I was referring to had not been out on HD DVD discs. Now they are, and the interactivity on HD DVD consistently is getting better and better.
If you take a look at the landscape, I think you will agree that these mandatory features do provide the lowest common denominator.
1) Notice that all the Warner Home Video (WHV) titles in Blu-ray Disc do not have bookmarking, whereas every WHV title in HD DVD does. This is because persistent storage is mandatory in HD DVD.
2) Notice that all the WHV titles that have IME are not and have not been announced for Blu-ray Disc (Constantine, Batman Begins, Dukes Of Hazzard, Terminator 3, Troy, V For Vendetta, and the list grows by the day). Why? Because a secondary video decoder is optional in Blu-ray Disc players.
3) I suspect that you, by now, have received the pre-release versions of Paramount’s MI:III Blu-ray Disc and HD DVD discs. Notice that the HD DVD version has the PIP commentary with JJ and Cruise, and the Blu-ray Disc version doesn’t. Why? Because a secondary video decoder is optional in Blu-ray Disc.
It’s very unfortunate that our busy schedules have not been able to come together, so I could personally show you The Fast And The Furious: Tokyo Drift. I suspect that you have the same opinion that I had before I witnessed interactivity. Even when I was working on the HD DVD-Video specification, I was not at all excited about interactivity, as the only “interactivity” that I had ever experienced was “following the white rabbit” and at the end of the day I wanted great video and great sound. I would typically fall asleep on any director’s audio commentary. I have been on the road for the last three months going to AVS Forum meets, doing demonstrations to consumers, press, and analysts. When I show them the demonstration of Tokyo Drift, they ALL say, “Wow, I did not KNOW that was interactivity. It was so cool that I could see how they made it while I was watching the movie!” In Chicago, where we did a demonstration to 20 high-end home theatre fanatics, I got the same feedback. After watching the demo on Tokyo Drift, they all understood why “interactivity” was equally as cool as the high-def video and high-resolution audio.
Like the studios said in the AH0-10, high-def video alone is not going to be enough to make the format successful. It will fall along the way of D-VHS, DVD-Audio, and SA-CD, and be a niche thing. The studios believed that interactivity was going to be the third critical factor that would get “Joe and Jane Six Pack” to purchase a new player and new titles. Tokyo Drift is just scratching the surface on that.
I know that “seeing is believing,” and I hope that if we cannot hook up soon, you will be able to come up to Los Angeles when we have the HD DVD mobile in late November before Thanksgiving. We will be there for some time, taking it to studio lots and then opening it up to the public. I would love to show you the system and the Tokyo Drift demonstration, and I honestly believe that you will see why there is a difference between the formats in this third, but critical area.
My last note is the comments made about Toshiba’s next-generation player not supporting 1080p/24. This is a big issue for me, and for what it’s worth, I have been advocating that they change this in their $999 player from both their sales, technical, and standards people. Luckily, I work closely with them. I will forward your concerns in this article to help bolster that cause, as I believe that it is a distinguishing factor to have the player take advantage of what is natively on every HD DVD disc that is film-based material. We are showing 1080p/24 playback on the HD DVD Mobile experience by using the Marantz and the DVDO VP50 @ 48FPS, and it looks SPECTACULAR!
Kevin Collins
mailto:Kevin.Collins@microsoft.com
Editor-In-Chief and Publisher Gary Reber Comments:
Thank you, Kevin, for clarifying a number of operational aspects of the Toshiba player and the interactivity differences between HD DVD and Blu-ray Disc formats. I certainly plan to visit with you in the Mobile on November 21 and experience and discuss the potentials.
You can E-mail Widescreen Review @ mailto:editorgary@widescreenreview.com