Gregg Lengling
09-17-2002, 11:55 AM
As technologists converged in Los Angeles this week to discuss the development of a next-generation high-definition version of DVD, high-ranking Warner Home Video engineers detailed to VB their own plans for such a format.
Alan Bell, senior VP of technology operations, and Lewis Ostrover, senior VP of new media applications and operations, outlined plans for HD/DVD-9, a technology that would encode up to 135 minutes of highly compressed HD data on the same "red-laser" DVD-9 disc now in wide use for standard-definition releases.
According to Bell, HD/DVD-9 also would be designed to work in the same players that will accommodate higher capacity "blue-laser" discs. Although its inherent lower capacity would limit the type of content that could be released in the format, Bell said HD/DVD-9 discs would use existing DVD manufacturing infrastructure and could be pressed far more inexpensively than those pressed by emerging blue-laser technologies.
"HD/DVD-9 would provide a low-cost option for those publishing titles with 135 minutes or less of playback time," Bell said. "But by no means does it encompass all program types. Longer playing times will require a higher-density blue laser. We'd like to see the capability for players not only to read blue products, but HD/DVD-9 products as well."
Bell said Warner does not foresee longer feature films being broken into multiple-HD/DVD-9-disc installments, citing consumer dissatisfaction associated with similar strategies employed on laserdisc.
Since consumer electronics manufacturers will have to include a red laser in future HD DVD product releases to make the machines backward compatible with standard-definition DVDs--viewed as essential for wide-scale consumer adoption--integrating the capacity to play both blue-laser and HD/DVD-9 discs would not prove cost-prohibitive, Bell added.
Further, the Warner technologists bristled at published reports that a red-laser technology such as HD/DVD-9 would not provide a high enough resolution (VB, 8-5). Bell said HD/DVD-9 is capable of a picture resolution as high as 1,080 x 1,920, in accordance with Advanced Television Systems Committee standards for HDTV broadcast.
"Warner Bros. has no interest in anything but the highest quality level," Ostrover added.
Warner is aggressively pushing for a next-generation DVD format that will use existing standard-definition DVD manufacturing operations and patents. Its parent, AOL Time Warner, enjoys significant positions in both.
Late last year, Warner proposed HD/DVD-9 to the DVD Forum, and the body of consumer electronics manufacturers charged with ultimately determining and developing the next-generation DVD standard adopted the format for development. According to Bell, a former IBM technologist and DVD Forum official, formal HD/DVD-9 specifications could be published by the DVD Forum as soon as next spring.
The DVD Forum is also considering the blue-laser HD DVD proposal recently brought forward by member companies Toshiba Corp. and NEC Corp. A separate blue-laser technology, Blu-ray Disc, is being developed by Sony Corp., Philips Electronics, Matsu****a Electric and several other DVD Forum members.
However, development of Blu-ray, a blue laser HD DVD playback and recordable standard targeted to reach Japan late next year, is being handled outside the jurisdiction of the DVD Forum.
The Warner technologists would offer no timeline as to when HD/DVD-9 would be introduced. Still, with engineers from Warner and other studios, consumer electronics companies and software developers converging at this week's Copyright Protection Technical Working Group gathering, the discussion about HD DVD was energetic enough for analysts to believe that HD DVD will happen sooner rather than later.
"Certainly, one of the goals is to get something going, perhaps as early as 2003 or 2004," said Richard Doherty, director of research for the Envisioneering Group, a consumer electronics research firm based in Seaford, N.Y.
"The reality is that [consumer interest in HD-capable TVs and monitors] has clearly emerged in the last year," said Gary Shapiro, president of the Consumer Electronics Association. "There's a tremendous interest among consumer electronics manufacturers in seeing prerecorded HD content in the marketplace."
Alan Bell, senior VP of technology operations, and Lewis Ostrover, senior VP of new media applications and operations, outlined plans for HD/DVD-9, a technology that would encode up to 135 minutes of highly compressed HD data on the same "red-laser" DVD-9 disc now in wide use for standard-definition releases.
According to Bell, HD/DVD-9 also would be designed to work in the same players that will accommodate higher capacity "blue-laser" discs. Although its inherent lower capacity would limit the type of content that could be released in the format, Bell said HD/DVD-9 discs would use existing DVD manufacturing infrastructure and could be pressed far more inexpensively than those pressed by emerging blue-laser technologies.
"HD/DVD-9 would provide a low-cost option for those publishing titles with 135 minutes or less of playback time," Bell said. "But by no means does it encompass all program types. Longer playing times will require a higher-density blue laser. We'd like to see the capability for players not only to read blue products, but HD/DVD-9 products as well."
Bell said Warner does not foresee longer feature films being broken into multiple-HD/DVD-9-disc installments, citing consumer dissatisfaction associated with similar strategies employed on laserdisc.
Since consumer electronics manufacturers will have to include a red laser in future HD DVD product releases to make the machines backward compatible with standard-definition DVDs--viewed as essential for wide-scale consumer adoption--integrating the capacity to play both blue-laser and HD/DVD-9 discs would not prove cost-prohibitive, Bell added.
Further, the Warner technologists bristled at published reports that a red-laser technology such as HD/DVD-9 would not provide a high enough resolution (VB, 8-5). Bell said HD/DVD-9 is capable of a picture resolution as high as 1,080 x 1,920, in accordance with Advanced Television Systems Committee standards for HDTV broadcast.
"Warner Bros. has no interest in anything but the highest quality level," Ostrover added.
Warner is aggressively pushing for a next-generation DVD format that will use existing standard-definition DVD manufacturing operations and patents. Its parent, AOL Time Warner, enjoys significant positions in both.
Late last year, Warner proposed HD/DVD-9 to the DVD Forum, and the body of consumer electronics manufacturers charged with ultimately determining and developing the next-generation DVD standard adopted the format for development. According to Bell, a former IBM technologist and DVD Forum official, formal HD/DVD-9 specifications could be published by the DVD Forum as soon as next spring.
The DVD Forum is also considering the blue-laser HD DVD proposal recently brought forward by member companies Toshiba Corp. and NEC Corp. A separate blue-laser technology, Blu-ray Disc, is being developed by Sony Corp., Philips Electronics, Matsu****a Electric and several other DVD Forum members.
However, development of Blu-ray, a blue laser HD DVD playback and recordable standard targeted to reach Japan late next year, is being handled outside the jurisdiction of the DVD Forum.
The Warner technologists would offer no timeline as to when HD/DVD-9 would be introduced. Still, with engineers from Warner and other studios, consumer electronics companies and software developers converging at this week's Copyright Protection Technical Working Group gathering, the discussion about HD DVD was energetic enough for analysts to believe that HD DVD will happen sooner rather than later.
"Certainly, one of the goals is to get something going, perhaps as early as 2003 or 2004," said Richard Doherty, director of research for the Envisioneering Group, a consumer electronics research firm based in Seaford, N.Y.
"The reality is that [consumer interest in HD-capable TVs and monitors] has clearly emerged in the last year," said Gary Shapiro, president of the Consumer Electronics Association. "There's a tremendous interest among consumer electronics manufacturers in seeing prerecorded HD content in the marketplace."