format

Earlier this week it was big news that HD DVD broke the $200 price barrier. Well, in the same week it looks like HD DVD has broken the $100 price barrier as well. As previously reported, Wal-Mart is running a "Secret In-Store Specials" sale this Friday and one of the heavily discounted items is the Toshiba HD-A2 selling for $98.87. Of course, this isn't a true price drop, as the sale is only good as long quantities last and the Toshiba HD-A2 won't be available at all Wal-Mart locations. On the other hand, it is representative of HD DVD's significant advantage in hardware pricing -- the least expensive Blu-ray player is the $400 PlayStation 3, which also hits stores tomorrow.

The $99 price tag is sweet, but the deal is even better than that. Toshiba continues to give away five free movies to anyone that buys an HD DVD player--all you need to do is fill out this form (PDF link) and mail it in. If you're not thrilled about Toshiba's selection of free movies (we're not either), Wal-Mart is also running on a sale on HD DVD movies tomorrow, priced at $14.96 each. That's a pretty significant discount, as most of the HD DVDs we saw at Amazon were priced from $20 to $30. … Read more

The publisher Hachette Book Group USA, a member of the International Digital Publishing Forum (IDPF), has decided to go with the digital publishing organization's recommended standard for distributing books in digital format.

Starting with its December 2007 launch titles, HBG plans to release its bestsellers in the .epub eBook format, the company announced Friday.

The .epub is an XML file format for reflowable digital books that includes Open Publication Structure (OPS), Open Packaging Format (OPF) and Open Container Format (OCF).

Hachette claims to be the first book publisher in the U.S. to adopt the .epub format. It also … Read more

Hasselblad, a manufacturer of high-end medium-format cameras, is dropping its H2 product line, a move that spotlights the company's transition from film camera roots to its digital future.

The H2 can record images on either film or a digital sensor, but there wasn't sufficient demand for the product, so the company is devoting more resources to its more popular digital-only H3D family, Hasselblad Chief Executive Christian Poulsen said in an announcement to customers Monday.

"We have made a decision to discontinue the H2 camera line," Poulsen said. "Demand simply no longer justifies the dedicated manufacturing … Read more

Barely a week goes by without at least one member of the Blu-ray disc association claiming victory already/by next week/by the new year. Let's be honest, it gets a little annoying hearing them blabber on about how HD DVD doesn't have a chance. Traditionally, the HD DVD promotional group has been less vocal when it comes to the mudslinging, but it appears the PS3 price cut has slightly roused them from their slumber.

The good news is that they aren't worried. Ken Graffeo, co-chairman of the group and vocal HD DVD promoter, said: "The … Read more

I usually prefer to get my news from the horse's mouth, but as I'm having trouble tracking down the stable that issued the press release about Hasselblad's new H3D II I'll have to echoblog letsgodigital.org, which seems to have reproduced the press release in total.

According to the site, Hasselblad just announced its update to the H3D series of medium-format digital SLR systems. Like the older series, the H3D II offers three backs with 48x36mm sensors in 39-, 31-, and 22-megapixel resolutions. As far as I can tell, new features include a 3-inch LCD and … Read more

We can't help but be a little skeptical, but according to a Samsung representative, the new Samsung BD-UP5000 Blu-ray/HD DVD combo player will have onboard decoding for all high-resolution audio formats following a firmware update, including DTS-HD Master Audio. This is great news for high-def disc fans, as the BD-UP5000 would be the first player we're aware of that has onboard decoding for DTS-HD Master Audio, DTS's losslessly compressed soundtrack format. The same representative also confirmed that both Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio soundtracks can be output over the analog 7.1 outputs, which will … Read more

There are a whole bunch of Blu-ray players being announced at CEDIA, but for the most part, there's not too much to differentiate them. Sharp's new Blu-ray player, the BD-HP20U, is its first-ever, but is still mostly the same as other players. Yet the company's press release claims that the BD-HP20U will load Blu-ray discs in 10 seconds. For those of you not used to the sluggish speeds of high-definition media, that's very fast--we're used to most high-definition players taking from 40 seconds to well over a minute to load discs.

Sharp BD-HP20U's key … Read more

The format war between HD DVD and Blu-ray can cause some heated arguments from fan boys on both sides, but I think all fans of high-definition discs will get a kick out of this story. In an article by Pocket-lint, not only did Sony executive Don Eklund invite Toshiba and Microsoft to join the Blu-ray camp (ha-ha), but Vice President Rich Marty dropped this gem of a quote:

"The DVD format was good, but profitability only lasted for a couple of years before there was no money to be had in the hardware market," said Marty. "We … Read more

Microsoft appears to have lost the Open Office XML battle, according to Pamela at Groklaw, but seems destined to win the war, according to the New York Times. But, as Pamela notes, given the fact that the committee members who will be reviewing comments from the disapproving countries are overwhelmingly in favor of Microsoft's latest bid for global monopoly, it's likely just a matter of time (early next year, in fact) before OOXML becomes a "standard."

A standard that smells of money and the taint of corruption. But a "standard" nonetheless.

Now if only the standard actually worked. … Read more