Toshiba and Microsoft have announced the formation of the Advanced Interactivity Consortium (AIC), an open forum to promote enhanced interactivity features on media and formats including and going beyond HD DVD applications. The AIC will work on bringing what they’ve learned from HDi over to other services and platforms including PCs, TVs, cell phones, portable media players and game consoles.

Robbie Bach, president of Microsoft’s Entertainment and Devices Division, said, “The Advanced Interactivity Consortium has its roots in the work we’ve done with HDi™ and HD DVD, but is open to all companies interested in briging a broader set of experiences to consumers on different platforms… We look forward to contributing to this effort with HDi, our implementation of HD DVD’s interactive layer, and to collaborate with AIC members on how to extend interactive compatibilities to the consumers electronics market. The goal is to ensure a high-quality experience not only through optical discs but also through new digital download services.”

The major Hollywood studios involved with HD DVD (DreamWorks Animation SKG, Paramount Pictures, Universal Studios and Warner Bros.) are part of the consortium, as are Toshiba and Microsoft. The AIC founding member companies will soon formalize the organization and look towards adding more members.

The good news about the AIC is that it’s likely to advance HDi and related technology to something beyond what many consider to be just a gimmick. Due to the political nature of the format war, I doubt that the Blu-ray exclusive members will be joining the AIC, however there’s a lot of room for other companies to participate and extend this technology and make it much more of a useful and must-have feature.

Microsoft’s interests in this venture go beyond HD DVD since they make the Zune media player, Xbox 360 game console, and the Windows Mobile operating system that’s used on many cell phones. Toshiba also makes media players, and all of the studios involved have content that they’d be happy to present in new ways on more devices. Last, but not least, anything the AIC does to extend HDi is likely to supercharge its implementation on HD DVD too.

• AIC Press Release
• Previous post about HDi

Best Buy has a nine free HD DVD movies offer on the purchase of the Toshiba HD-A30 HD DVD player. Five of those movies are part of the “5 Free Movies” deal that all customers qualify for (the third-gen players have a new set of movies to choose from), and the HD-A30 comes with 300 and The Bourne Identity right in the box. Best Buy throws in two more movies of your choice from whatever you might buy along with the player (there are some exclusions on the movies and cost, no TV series discs for example).

You can take advantage of this offer online or in-store.

• BestBuy.com page about the offer

The October 9 release of Evan Almighty also brings the next major development in Universal’s high-definition website and disc features. The UniversalHiDef.com site started offering user accounts back when it was launched in August, however much of the site was under construction and unavailable for use. One week ahead of the HD DVD release, Universal’s unveiled new features that will go online with the release of Evan Almighty.

This whole thing about going online with your HD DVD player is relatively new and studios are still trying out different ideas. The online experience is likely to improve as more viewers take advantage of web-enabled content, and these first attempts are likely to pale in comparison with cooler stuff that comes in the future.

Warner offered ringtones and wallpapers for 300, and Universal will play upon the environmental theme in Evan Almighty by offering a few green-friendly products like a solar-powered radio and spinning composter. More predictable film items like t-shirts will also be available. You can browse for these items online at Universal’s site and through your HD DVD player, but the final purchase must be made through the HD DVD player.

What’s the bigger picture here? (more…)

A couple of recent developments seem to demonstrate how Team Blu-ray follows in the business footsteps of HD DVD, and maybe HD DVD has done (or needs to do more) things similar to Blu-ray. My point isn’t to ding Blu-ray as a disc format, but to show that its promoters are finally coming around to realizing that victory is not their birthright.

The first news item is just like a page out of a business textbook, and it’s an example of Team Blu doing something right that I hope HD DVD is already working on.

Hastings Entertainment, a small video rental chain in Texas, announced they’d be taking advantage of the Blu-ray profit-sharing program that puts more Blu-ray discs on their shelves. Specific terms of the deal were not disclosed by Sony or Hastings, but Hastings video category manager Mason Goodfellow candidly revealed:

“It basically helped us to spread [Blu-ray] to all of our stores and not have to make that much of a financial investment. We might be able to get in as many as 8 to 10 copies per title [in one store]. Without revenue-sharing, that might have been three to four copies.”

Proving that all Sony execs have to memorize the following statement: “[loosely related event or statistic] demonstrates that consumers have chosen [Sony product],” Marshall Forster, Sony senior executive VP of North America, said of the Hastings deal, “Naturally, SPHE is delighted about this since Hastings obviously acknowledges the fact that consumers have voted for Blu-ray as the high-definition format of the future.”

This rental profit-sharing plan is a great idea. (more…)