Cyberlink demos HD DVD with NEC & Toshiba at CES

[Bob Crabtree]

CyberLink Demos HD DVD Technology with NEC and Toshiba in Las Vegas at 2006 International CES

HD DVD is a next-generation disc format that offers increased disc capacity of up to 30GB (15GB per layer) and enables creation of titles that include movie-synchronized bonus features, pop-up interactive menus, Picture-in-Picture, and Internet connectivity

Las Vegas, NV- Jan. 4th, 2006 - CyberLink Corp. (5203.TW), a world leader and pioneer in providing integrated solutions for the Digital Home, will demonstrate HD DVD playback at the HD DVD Promotion Group Booth at International CES in Las Vegas from January 5-8.

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[Nick F]

I just feel sorry for the people with the massive DVD collections that are gonna be useless in a few years.

[Bob Crabtree]

I just feel sorry for the people with the massive DVD collections that are gonna be useless in a few years.

Why do you think they are going to be useless?

Conventional, non-high-def hardware is going to be around for a good few years and, anyway, I think you will find that Blu-ray and HD DVD hardware will play conventional DVDs not just high-def.

[Funkstar]

also for a lot of material there is absolutly no point in going HiDef. Things like TV shows, any film recorded on a consumer level recorder etc. Sure they could move to HD-DVD or Bluray and you get a complete season on one disk instead of a pack (for example) but quality wise there will be no real improvement.

I also don't think there will be such a huge growth in either of the HD formats (outside the computer industry) compaired to DVD. DVD was a 'step change' (i hate that, but it fits) in quality, usability and technology compaired to what came before. neither of the new generation disks offer this level of change, just an evolution.

I don't believe the average consumer really cases about all this, they have everything they want in a DVD. Look at the number of no-name TVs, DVD players and surround sound systems of dubious quality are sold everywhere, including supermarkets. Are the people buying these going to upgrade to HD? only when their current setup breaks and HD comes as standard.

This post seems to have gone a little of the original topic, sorry about that

[Bob Crabtree]

also for a lot of material there is absolutly no point in going HiDef. Things like TV shows, any film recorded on a consumer level recorder etc. Sure they could move to HD-DVD or Bluray and you get a complete season on one disk instead of a pack (for example) but quality wise there will be no real improvement.

Indeed, but so what?

You have, as you point out, a format that can hold much more standard definition footage than present DVD discs, and you also have a format that offers HiDef if and when it's needed.

I also don't think there will be such a huge growth in either of the HD formats (outside the computer industry) compaired to DVD. DVD was a 'step change' (i hate that, but it fits) in quality, usability and technology compaired to what came before. neither of the new generation disks offer this level of change, just an evolution.

I think it is inevitable that the growth of hi-def DVD will be FAR slower than the growth of standard def DVD - but since there has probably never been a faster-growing CE product than DVD, that was always going to be inevitable.

However, what you forget, I suspect, is that there is already a huge pent-up demand for high-def footage, even in the UK, from people who've bought large-screen sets and realised that they've paid out all that good money and are maddened by seeing the line structure of standard def footage - because they mostly watch their big TV sets at the same distance as their smaller ones (one which the line structure was not noticeable).

I don't believe the average consumer really cases about all this, they have everything they want in a DVD. Look at the number of no-name TVs, DVD players and surround sound systems of dubious quality are sold everywhere, including supermarkets. Are the people buying these going to upgrade to HD? only when their current setup breaks and HD comes as standard.

This post seems to have gone a little of the original topic, sorry about that

I'm not at all sure who the average consumer is - but I do know that the UK large-screen TV market (in which most sets are now HD-capable) is worth at least, and probably much more than, £1billion per year. That's because a LOT of "average consumers" are buying big-screen sets.

The fact that a lot of people are also buying unbranded DVDs, TV sets and audio systems doesn't mean that they're all buying rubbish. Fact is, for instance, that a lot of the very cheap DVD players offer many more useful features and are a lot less hamstrung than the more expensive big-brand models.

I don't disagree that selling quality is a hard thing to do, nor that, typically, we Brits don't buying into quality the way, say, that the Germans and Japanese still tend to.

However, what people here don't want is worse quality than from their previous product but that can, in visual terms, be what you get if you run a big-screen TV set with standard-definition video and watch it at the same distance as you watched a smaller SD set.

Hence, many big-screen owners will be VERY keen to get a hi-def player, if there are also movies to play on it.

As for going off topic - don't worry one little bit.

[Funkstar]

i don't dissagree, that was just one of the views you can take on the subject. This inductry ever seases to surprise, so who knows how HD will perform, sales wise.

Personally i'm really looking forward to HD players etc. becoming available. Hopefully we will start to see some of the higher spec screens appearing in stores (still dreaming of a full 1080p pannel )

I also want the disk capacity for PC backups etc