After a brief hiatus from HD DVD offers, Amazon is at it again. I’m not sure if this offer will last one day, a few days or what, but if you’re even remotely interested, then I’d suggest you add the items to your shopping cart and complete the transaction fast. Their last offer was supposed to run until September 23, but it actually stopped after only a single day.

Here’s the deal:

• Buy an HD DVD player, either the HD-A2, HD-A20, or HD-XA2
• Select two movies from the list that’s presented here
• The other five movies are part of the standard “5 Free Movies” deal that runs until October 31, 2007

This is actually pretty similar to a Toshiba offer that will apply to the new third-generation players when they debut in just over a week. In that offer, you’ll get 300 and The Bourne Identity right in the box, and then select 5 more movies from a list. The difference here is that you can actually select your movies (which happens to include 300 and The Bourne Identity).

Like I said, if you’ve been remotely considering making a player purchase, then jump on this deal right away. The last time they did something like this, it disappeared almost immediately.

By the way, there’s a similar offer on the Xbox 360 HD DVD Add-on Player, except that you only get to pick one free movie. The second movie is King Kong which is already included with the player anyway, and you also get the same “5 Free Movies” as with the Toshiba HD DVD players.

• Buy an HD DVD Player, Get 7 Free HD DVDs
• Buy an Xbox 360 Add-on HD DVD Player and get 7 free movies

The trade shows from August and September are over, and it’s starting to get back to the usual routine where the weekly news comes from movie releases and occasional announcements. The releases for this week include a few discs from Universal, and Warner helps push the total to over a dozen.

A few of the movies are pretty old, and some might question whether they make for good HD purchases. Of course they do! Film has a lot of resolution and detail that would not come through on VHS and DVD. The HD DVD releases of these movies are remastered from the original films specifically for HD. You’ll see every frame of the film in detail never seen in any previous DVD version.

Another interesting point about this week’s movies is that, including the already released 300, the modern-day HD Gladiator movie trifecta is now complete with Troy and Alexander.

The releases from Universal:

Elizabeth (1998) Cate Blanchet, Geoffrey Rush, Joseph Fiennes, Richard Attenborough, John Gielgud, Fanny Ardant, Daniel Craig Directed by Shekhar Kapur Rated R

For Love of the Game (1999) Kevin Costner, Kelly Preston, John C. Reilley, Jena Malone Directed by Sam Raimi Rated PG-13

The Last Starfighter (1984) Kay E. Kuter, Dan Mason, Lance Guest, Dan O’Herlihy Directed by Nick Castle Rated PG

Warner Home Video presents:

Smallville – The Complete Sixth Season (2006) 22 episodes on a five-disc set.

Troy – Director’s Cut (2004) Brad Pitt, Orlando Bloom, Julian Glover, Brian Cox, Nathan Jones Directed by Wolfgang Petersen Rated R

Alexander Revisited – The Final Cut (2004) Colin Farrell, Anthony Hopkins, Angelina Jolie, Val Kilmer Directed by Oliver Stone. Rated R, (Director’s cut is unrated)

Deliverance (1972) John Voight, Burt Reynolds, Ned Beatty Directed by John Boorman Rated R

We Are Marshall (2006) (Combo HD DVD and Standard DVD) Matthey McConaughey, Matthew Fox Directed by McG Rated PG

Viva Las Vegas (1964) Elvis Presley, Ann-Margret Directed by George Sidney Rated G

Jailhouse Rock (1957) Elvis Presley, Judy Tyler Directed by Richard Thorpe Rated G

Warner also brings out the “Best of HD DVD” collection (more…)

No wonder Toshiba said nothing about the 51GB disc at CEDIA last week: development on the 51GB disc is not far enough along to warrant that kind of announcement!

It all started with a report at Screen Digest. The story spread quickly from there, but was finally squashed yesterday when we learned that the August 31 milestone was only approval for a preliminary version 1.9 of the spec, and not approval of the final (which would have implied it was much more ready for production).

In an update at Beta News, we hear that a Toshiba spokesperson basically confirms that version 1.9 is just a preliminary spec and that there’s still more testing involved. The official statement is:

We welcome the DVD Forum Steering Committee’s decision to approve the prelminary version (Version 1.9) of the physical specifications for the triple-layer 51GB HD DVD-ROM disc. This decision reinforces the fact that HD DVD is capable of offering a range of capacities due to the flexible nature of the format and provides studios with even greater options for creating high definition content. With extended capacities, studios can meet their future needs for releases that may require more storage.

The end result is this: there’s a 51GB design that’s more likely to be compatible with HD DVD players than an older 45GB design. Since we can’t predict the future, it’s best to stop right there and wait for official news about its progress from the source itself.

• Screen Digest report that started all the speculation
• BetaNews update from Toshiba

As promised a couple of months ago, Toshiba has delivered the September 1080p/24 firmware update for second-generation HD DVD players (HD-XA2, HD-A20, HD-A2, HD-AW2, and HD-D2). This version 2.5 firmware’s newest features are support for 1080p/24 and more OSD (on-screen display) language options. The update information page also says this update has fixes for web connectivity and HDMI/DVI issues, but I’m not sure whether these are fixes for issues discovered since the previous version, or if they’re just the same fixes from previous updates (updates contain all fixes from previous updates).

This update is not going to magically add 1080p ability to your HD-A2, AW2, or D2, because those players are limited to 1080i by the chips and hardware in them. It will also not magically make your HDTV display in 1080p unless that feature is already present in your display.

What it will do for those of you with an XA2, or A20 is add a new option in your “Picture” menu settings for “Up to 1080p/24Hz.”

Films are shot at 24 frames per second (anything per second is called Hertz or Hz, thus the 24Hz), (more…)

New Line Home Entertainment is following in the footsteps of its parent company, Warner Bros., and supporting both high-definition DVD formats. It’s great to hear that New Line is starting their disc business, because they’re the ones who will ultimately put out the long-awaited Lord of the Rings.

New Line’s first disc will be this summer’s hit comedy, Hairspray, but there’s a catch for the HD DVD release: Instead of coming out “day and date” (simultaneous release on all formats), New Line will release the HD DVD version next year because of HD DVD’s lack of region coding.

Region coding is something that’s common in the video game world, and has also made its way to DVDs. It works like this: If you try to play a movie or game from a foreign region, your player will refuse or reject the disc if region coding is enabled. There’s nothing wrong with your machine, and there’s nothing wrong with the disc. It’s just that the content provider has elected to enforce how and when the content should be enjoyed in your region.

One of the supporting reasons for region coding is that (more…)

Is three company or a crowd? Just when you thought there were too many versions of HDMI, Dolby, and DTS to keep straight, comes yet another high-def disc format. Joining HD DVD and Blu-ray on the high-def scene at CEDIA Expo 2007 was HD VMD. Promising 40GB (maybe even more) on up to 20-layer DVD discs, the HD VMD (Versatile Multilayer Disc) format is poised for launch.

Players feature a lot of the same kinds of specs as on HD DVD and Blu-ray machines such as 1080p, ethernet port, up-scaled video, HDMI 1.3, VC-1 codec. They even have a “5 Free Movies” offer in Europe.

The list price is $199, but units are expected to be $150 when they appear in stores. These slim and good-looking players support VCDs, DVDs, CDs and MP3 CDs. In reading through their press releases for the year, it looks like manufacturer New Medium Enterprises has made a lot of movie distribution deals around the world to ensure a good launch and decent library. Discs will cost a little more than standard DVDs, but definitely less than HD DVD and Blu-ray titles.

It’s easy to write this off as a wasted effort compared to everything happening with HD DVD and Blu-ray, but that’s because (more…)

The high price of HD movies has at least two main causes: The obvious one is that the studios want to recoup their investment, and it’s just part of that early adopter tax. The lesser known reason is that there are numerous patents on the technologies involved in both the Blu-ray and HD DVD disc formats contributing to the high price of every disc. It’s this latter issue with royalties and licensing that has never gone over too well with the Chinese manufacturers.

Aware that including China in its plans would be a good thing, the DVD Forum (the group that oversees the DVD format and HD DVD as well) collaborated with the Chinese on a format that would be pretty compatible, maybe even nearly identical, to HD DVD. But not so much that it would be encumbered by all those pesky licensing fees, and the result is CH-DVD (not necessarily the final name). (more…)

On August 31, 2007, the DVD standards authority approved a 51GB HD DVD disc design for a single-sided, triple-layer disc. Three 17GB layers come together to make the 51GB total. A 45GB disc had been discussed in the past, but there was no guarantee that it would be compatible with all generations of HD DVD players. Apparently, the 51GB disc has no such problem, and there’s talk that this could go into production on some high-profile movie releases pretty soon.

Months ago, at CES, Toshiba said a 51GB disc was coming by the end of 2007, and they even had a disc on the show floor at IFA (see the picture here). Much of the recent news and discussion is based on an article at ScreenDigest.com about the approval of the disc specification. (more…)

Pre-orders are now being taken for Toshiba’s third-generation HD DVD players. They’ve been added to our “Shop for HD DVD Players” page, and you can pay good old Amazon a direct visit through any of these links:

• HD-A3 1080i HD DVD player. This is the new entry-level model from Toshiba and lists for $299.



• HD-A30 1080p HD DVD player, listing at $399.



• HD-A35 1080p HD DVD player. Toshiba’s top-of-the-line player lists for $499.

Amazon’s pages on these players are a little bare at the moment without even product pictures, but that should be fixed up any day now. My advice is (more…)