Friday, December 14, 2007

Expert View: HDMI Evolves

Photo of PC Magazine's Robert Heron

When shopping for a new HDTV, it's always a good idea to consider your current and future video connection needs. Also keep in mind that viewing a high-definition video source on an HDTV set requires the use of a cable (and corresponding port) that supports high-definition signals. Sorry, folks, the yellow composite video port and the S-video port are for standard-definition video only! The High-Definition Multimedia Interface (HDMI) is found on all modern HDTVs, and this all-digital interface has become the port of choice for connecting modern A/V gear. One of the primary benefits of HDMI is that it maintains the digital pathway between the source and display. This method avoids any image softening that usually results from digital-analog-digital conversions. If you must use analog video, though, the tried-and-true component-video input continues to be the analog HD (and SD) video connection of choice.

HDMI technology is also based upon a continuously updated spec, and the various versions of HDMI that have been developed so far have led to some confusion about which iteration is the best. For HDTVs the answer is simple: It doesn't matter. All versions of HDMI can support the maximum resolution of today's best HDTVs, which is 1080p.

Still, two features available in the more recent versions of HDMI may prove useful: Consumer Electronic Control (CEC) and lip-sync. A CEC-enabled television and connected source device can communicate via the HDMI connection. The beauty of this setup is that a source device (such as an HD disc player) could be placed out of sight, yet still receive remote-control commands as they are received by the television and passed along the HDMI connection. A lip-sync–enabled HDMI port on an HDTV takes into account any delays introduced by the TV's video processing and ensures the audio track is properly delayed, so what you see is aligned precisely with what you hear. Keep in mind that these extra features of the later HDMI versions are optional—not required. An HDTV equipped with HDMI v. 1.3a ports (the latest version available in televisions at press time) may support CEC but not lip-sync, or it may support neither. Check the specs carefully if certain HDMI features are critical for your needs.

HDMI's "one cable" solution for audio and video transport is certainly convenient, but it isn't always a flawless experience. One of most frequent complaints about HDMI in HDTVs relates to compatibility issues with other HDMI-enabled devices. I've experienced seemingly random losses of connection between HDMI-connected devices, or the initial "handshake" between two HDMI devices has failed, leaving the screen filled with DRM-induced snow (or nothing at all). A company called Simplay Labs offers an HDMI verification service that stamps any HDMI-enabled product that passes its tests with the "Simplay HD" logo. Television manufacturers such as Mitsubishi, Hitachi, Pioneer, HP, LG, and Samsung have all submitted various displays for "Simplay HD" verification, and the odds are pretty good that you won't experience any HDMI-related troubles when connecting devices that display this logo.


http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2704,2209815,00.asp

High-Definition Multimedia Interface (HDMI)

High-Definition Multimedia Interface


HDMI cable and HDMI official logo

Type Digital audio/video connector
Production history
Designer The HDMI group
Designed December 2002
Manufacturer Various
Produced 2003
Specifications
Hot pluggable Yes
External Yes
Audio signal PCM, DVD-Audio, Super Audio CD, Dolby TrueHD, DTS-HD Master Audio
Video signal 480i, 480p, 576i, 576p, 720p, 1080i, 1080p, 1440p, etc.

Bandwidth 10.2 Gbit/s at 340 Mpixel/s
Pins 19
Pin out

Type A (Female) HDMI
Pin 1 TMDS Data2+
Pin 2 TMDS Data2 Shield
Pin 3 TMDS Data2–
Pin 4 TMDS Data1+
Pin 5 TMDS Data1 Shield
Pin 6 TMDS Data1–
Pin 7 TMDS Data0+
Pin 8 TMDS Data0 Shield
Pin 9 TMDS Data0–
Pin 10 TMDS Clock+
Pin 11 TMDS Clock Shield
Pin 12 TMDS Clock–
Pin 13 CEC
Pin 14 Reserved (N.C. on device)
Pin 15 SCL
Pin 16 SDA
Pin 17 DDC/CEC Ground
Pin 18 +5 V Power
Pin 19 Hot Plug Detect

The High-Definition Multimedia Interface (HDMI) is a licensable audio/video connector interface for transmitting uncompressed, encrypted digital streams. HDMI connects DRM-enforcing digital audio/video sources, such as a set-top box, a HD DVD Disc player, a Blu-ray Disc player, a Personal Computer, a video game console or an AV receiver, to a compatible digital audio device and/or video monitor such as a digital television (DTV). HDMI began to appear in 2006 on consumer HDTV camcorders and high-end digital still cameras.[1][2]

It represents the DRM alternative to consumer analog standards such as RF (coaxial cable), composite video, S-Video, SCART, component video and VGA, and digital standards such as DVI (DVI-D and DVI-I).

General notes

HDMI supports, on a single cable, any TV or PC video format, including standard, enhanced or high-definition video, plus multi-channel digital audio. It is independent of the various DTV standards such as ATSC, and DVB (-T,-S,-C), as these are encapsulations of the MPEG movie data streams, which are passed off to a decoder and output as uncompressed video data on HDMI. HDMI encodes the video data into TMDS for transmission digitally over HDMI.

Devices are manufactured to adhere to various versions of the specification, where each version is given a number, such as 1.0 or 1.3. Each subsequent version of the specification uses the same cables, but increases the throughput and/or capabilities of what can be transmitted over the cable. For example, previously, the maximum pixel clock rate of the interface was 165 MHz, sufficient for supporting 1080p at 60 Hz or WUXGA (1920x1200), but HDMI 1.3 increased that to 340 MHz, providing support for WQXGA (2560x1600) and beyond across a single digital link. See also: HDMI Versions.

HDMI also includes support for 8-channel uncompressed digital audio at 192 kHz sample rate with 24 bits/sample as well as any compressed stream such as Dolby Digital, or DTS. HDMI supports up to 8 channels of one-bit audio, such as that used on Super Audio CDs at rates up to 4x that used by Super Audio CD. With version 1.3, HDMI now also supports lossless compressed streams such as Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio.

HDMI is backward-compatible with the single-link Digital Visual Interface carrying digital video (DVI-D or DVI-I, but not DVI-A) used on modern computer monitors and graphics cards. This means that a DVI-D source can drive an HDMI monitor, or vice versa, by means of a suitable adapter or cable, but the audio and remote control features of HDMI will not be available. Additionally, without support for High-bandwidth Digital Content Protection (HDCP) on the display, the signal source may prevent the end user from viewing or recording certain restricted content.

PCs with hardware HDMI output may require software support from Operating Systems such as Windows Vista. Linux currently supports video output through backward-compatibility with DVI.

In the US, HDCP-support is a standard feature on digital TVs with built-in digital (ATSC) tuners. Among the PC-display industry, where computer displays rarely contain built-in tuners, HDCP support is absent from many models. For example, the first LCD monitors with HDMI connectors did not support HDCP, and few compact-LCD monitors (17" or smaller) support HDCP.

The HDMI Founders include consumer electronics manufacturers Hitachi, Matsushita Electric Industrial (Panasonic/National/Quasar), Philips, Sony, Thomson (RCA), Toshiba, and Silicon Image. Digital Content Protection, LLC (a subsidiary of Intel) is providing HDCP for HDMI. In addition, HDMI has the support of major motion picture producers Fox, Universal, Warner Bros., and Disney, and system operators DirecTV and EchoStar (Dish Network) as well as CableLabs and Samsung.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HDMI

Blu-ray Disc Recordable

Blu-ray Disc recordable refers to two optical disc formats that can be recorded with an optical disc recorder. BD-R discs can be written to once, whereas BD-RE can be erased and re-recorded multiple times. As of March 2007, BD-R/RE drives up to 4x retail are sold for about $600 and 2x single-layer BD-R discs, with a capacity of 25 GB, can be found for around $12. The theoretical maximum for Blu-ray Discs is about 12x, as the speed of rotation (10,000 rpm) causes too much wobble for the discs to be read properly. This is similar to the 20x and 52x respective maximum speeds of DVDs and CDs.

Version

There are three versions of recordable Blu-ray Discs:[1]

Version 1.1

  • hard coating requirement added
  • recording rate 1-2x
  • file system: UDF 2.6
  • the use of AACS

Version 1.2

  • backward compatible with Version 1.1

Version 2.0

Speed

Drive speed Data rate Write time for Single Layer BD
1X 36 Mbit/s 4.5 MB/s 95 min.
2X 72 Mbit/s 9 MB/s 47 min.
4X 144 Mbit/s 18 MB/s 24 min.
8X 288 Mbit/s 36 MB/s 12 min.
12X 432 Mbit/s 54 MB/s 8 min.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blu-ray_Disc_recordable

Dolby TrueHD

Dolby TrueHD logo
Dolby TrueHD logo

Dolby TrueHD, from Dolby Laboratories, is an advanced lossless multi-channel audio codec, intended primarily for high-end home-entertainment equipment, such as Blu-ray Disc and HD DVD. In this application, Dolby TrueHD competes with DTS-HD Master Audio, another lossless codec from Digital Theater System.

Dolby TrueHD uses Meridian Lossless Packing (MLP) as its mathematical basis for compressing audio samples. MLP was used on the earlier DVD-Audio format, but details of TrueHD and DVD-Audio differ substantially. A Dolby TrueHD bitstream can carry up to 14 discrete sound channels. Sample-depths up to 24 bits/sample and audio sample-rates up to 192 kHz are supported. Like the more common legacy codec Dolby Digital, TrueHD bitstreams carry program metadata. Metadata is separate from the coding format and compressed audio samples, but stores relevant information about the audio waveform. For example, dialog normalization and Dynamic range compression are controlled by metadata embedded in the TrueHD bitstream.

TrueHD and high-definition optical disc

In the HD DVD format, TrueHD is a mandatory codec – all HD DVD players must support the extraction and decoding of a 2-channel (stereo) waveform from a TrueHD bitstream, although all HD DVD players currently support 5.1 decoding. HD DVD allows the sole (primary) audiotrack of a movie to be encoded in TrueHD, with no (other) secondary audiotracks present. In Blu-ray Disc, TrueHD is an optional codec, meaning that TrueHD may only be present on a disc which already contains a primary Dolby Digital soundtrack. The primary Dolby Digital audiotrack ensures all Blu-ray players, including those incapable of processing TrueHD, can access a playable audiotrack.

For both Blu-ray and HD DVD, TrueHD's capabilities are the same: the program may carry up to 8 discrete audio channels, at a sample depth & rate of 24-bit/96 kHz. The maximum (disc) encoded bitrate is 18 Mbit/s, although movie-titles (thus far) have remained below 5 Mbit/s. All TrueHD players are capable of downmixing the decoded TrueHD audiotrack to an arbitrary number of channels more suitable for player output. For example, all TrueHD-capable players can create a 2-channel (stereo-compatible) downmix from a 6-channel source audiotrack.

Connecting a TrueHD source to a TrueHD receiver requires a digital-link capable of transporting either the encoded bitstream (up to 18 Mbit/s), or the unpacked linear-PCM audio (>35 Mbit/s). HDMI 1.1 (and higher) can transport multichannel PCM-audio, and therefore can transport an unpacked TrueHD audiotrack. An HDMI 1.3 (or higher) link is required to transport TrueHD in raw bitstream form.[1] TOSLINK (and SPDIF) cannot carry TrueHD without transcoding, due to limitations of the specification.

HDMI-equipped players can internally decode TrueHD to LPCM, and output the LPCM over an HDMI 1.1 (or higher) interface; all HD DVD players currently support this.[2] If a player cannot internally decode TrueHD, it can transport the bitstream over HDMI 1.3 to a receiver capable of decoding it; this feature is now supported on the Samsung 1400 BD player with a firmware upgrade. HD DVD players can also transcode the TrueHD bitstream into a different legacy format (such as Dolby Digital or DTS), providing a high-quality approximation of TrueHD audio over a legacy TOSLINK cable for those that do not have HDMI.

The Phantom of the Opera, released April 18, 2006 on HD DVD, was the first movie to offer a TrueHD soundtrack.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dolby_TrueHD

HDCAM

HDCAM Tape
HDCAM Tape
HDCAM SR Tape
HDCAM SR Tape

HDCAM, introduced in 1997, is an HD version of Digital Betacam, using an 8-bit DCT compressed 3:1:1 recording, in 1080i-compatible downsampled resolution of 1440×1080, and adding 24p and 23.976 PsF modes to later models. The HDCAM codec uses non-square pixels and as such the recorded 1440×1080 content is upsampled to 1920×1080 on playback. The recorded video bitrate is 144 Mbit/s. Audio is also similar, with 4 channels of AES/EBU 20-bit/48 kHz digital audio.

It is used for Sony's cinematic CineAlta range of products.

HDCAM SR

HDCAM SR, introduced in 2003, uses a higher particle density tape and is capable of recording in 10 bits 4:2:2 or 4:4:4 RGB with a video bitrate of 440 Mbit/s, and a total data rate of approx. 600 Mbit/s.[1] The increased bitrate (over HDCAM) allows HDCAM SR to capture much more of the full bandwidth of the HDSDI signal (1920×1080). Some HDCAM SR VTRs can also use a 2x mode with an even higher video bitrate of 880 Mbit/s, allowing for a single 4:4:4 stream at a lower compression or two[citation needed] 4:2:2 video streams simultaneously. HDCAM SR uses the new MPEG-4 Part 2 Studio Profile for compression, and expands the number of audio channels up to 12 at 48 kHz/24 bit.

HDCAM SR is used commonly for HDTV television production. As of 2007, many prime-time network television shows use HDCAM SR as a master recording medium.

Some HDCAM VTRs play back older Betacam variants, for example, the Sony SRW-5500 HDCAM SR recorder, plays back and records HDCAM and HDCAM SR tapes and with optional hardware also plays and upconverts Digital Betacam tapes to HD format. Tape lengths are the same as for Digital Betacam, up to 40 minutes for S and 124 minutes for L tapes. In 24p mode the runtime increases to 50 and 155 minutes, respectively.

HDCAM tapes are black with an orange lid, and HDCAM SR tapes black with a cyan lid.

440 Mbit/s mode is known as SQ, and 880 Mbit/s mode is known as HQ, and this mode has recently become available in studio models (eg. SRW-5800) as well as portable models previously available. In 2008 the SRW-5800 will give the "HQ" 4:4:4 option.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HDCAM

Blu-ray Disc - History

In the mid 1990s, commercial HDTV sets were finally starting to enter a larger market. However, there was no good, cheap way to record or play back HD content. Indeed, there was no media that could store that amount of data, except JVC's Digital VHS and Sony's HD Betacam.[4] However, it was well known that using lasers with shorter wavelengths would enable optical storage with higher density. When Shuji Nakamura invented practical blue laser diodes, it was a sensation, although a lengthy patent lawsuit delayed commercial introduction.[5]

Origins

Sony started two projects applying the new diodes: UDO (Ultra Density Optical) and DVR Blue (together with Pioneer), a format of rewritable discs which would eventually become Blu-ray (more specifically, BD-RE).[6] The core technologies of the formats are essentially similar.

The first DVR Blue prototypes were unveiled at the CEATEC exhibition in October 2000.[7] Because the Blu-ray Disc standard places the data recording layer close to the surface of the disc, early discs were susceptible to contamination and scratches and had to be enclosed in plastic cartridges for protection. In February 2002, the project was officially announced as Blu-ray,[8] and the Blu-ray Disc Association was founded by the nine initial members.

The first consumer devices were in stores on April 10, 2001. This device was the Sony BDZ-S77; a BD-RE recorder that was only made available in Japan. The recommended price was US$3800.[9] However, there was no standard for pre-recorded video (BD-ROM) and no movies were released for this player. The Blu-ray standard was still years away, since a new and secure DRM system was needed before Hollywood studios would accept it. Nobody wanted to repeat the failure of the Content Scramble System for DVDs.

Competition from HD DVD

The DVD Forum (which was chaired by Toshiba) was deeply split over whether to go with the more expensive blue lasers or not. In addition, the proposed Blu-ray disc with its protective caddy was both expensive and physically different from DVD, posing several problems.[10] In March 2002, the forum voted to approve a proposal endorsed by Warner Bros. and other motion picture studios that involved compressing HD content onto dual-layer DVD-9 discs.[11][12] However, in spite of this decision, the DVD Forum's Steering Committee announced in April that it was pursuing its own blue-laser high-definition solution.[13] In August, Toshiba and NEC announced their competing standard Advanced Optical Disc.[14] It was finally adopted by the DVD forum and renamed HD DVD the next year,[15] after being voted down twice by Blu-ray Disc Association members, prompting the U.S. Department of Justice to make preliminary investigations into the situation.[16][17] Three new members had to be invited and the voting rules changed before the vote finally passed.[18][19]

In the mean time, Sony spun off Professional Disc for DATA from the Blu-ray project. It was essentially Blu-ray with higher-quality media and components. The devices were too expensive for the consumer mass market. Instead, it was aimed at the professional data storage space market as a replacement for their line of 5.25" MO drives. It was announced in October 2003, with the first devices shipping in December of the same year.[20][21]

Attempts to avoid a format war

The costs of a format war are large, both for consumers and for the industry. In an attempt to avoid starting one, the Blu-ray Disc Association and the DVD Forum attempted to negotiate a compromise in early 2005. One of the issues was that the Blu-ray camp wanted to use a Java-based platform for interactivity (BD-J), while the DVD Forum was promoting Microsoft's "iHD" (which became HDi).[22] A much larger issue, though, was the physical formats of the discs themselves; the Blu-ray member companies did not want to risk losing billions of dollars in royalties as they had done with standard DVD.[23] An agreement seemed close, but negotiations proceeded slowly.[24]

At the end of June 2005, Sun announced that the Blu-ray Association had chosen the Java-based BD-J interactivity layer instead of Microsoft's HDi. This was based on a BDA board vote favouring BD-J 10 to 4, despite a technical committee previously favouring HDi by a vote of 7 to 5.[25] At the same time, Microsoft and Toshiba jointly announced that they would cooperate in developing high-definition DVD players.[26] In a top-level meeting in July, Microsoft's Bill Gates argued that the Blu-ray standard had to change to "work more smoothly with personal computers". The Blu-ray Disc Association's representatives defended the technology.[27]

On August 22, 2005, the Blu-ray Disc Association and DVD Forum announced that the negotiations to unify their standards had failed.[28] Rumours surfaced that an "unnamed partner" had pressured Toshiba to stick with HD DVD—in spite of Blu-ray's strong support among Hollywood studios and some analysts saying that HD DVD's days were numbered—but these rumours were denied by the parties involved; instead, the same reasons of physical format incompatibility were cited.[23][27] At the end of September, Microsoft and Intel jointly announced their support for HD DVD.[29]

Hewlett-Packard (HP) made a last attempt to broker a peace between with Blu-ray Disc Association and Microsoft. The company demanded that the Blu-ray association adopted Microsoft's HDi instead of its own Java solution, and that Blu-ray adopt a mandatory managed copy feature. If the demands weren't met, HP threatened to support HD DVD instead.[30] In a research report, Gartner analysts Van Baker, Laura Behrens and Mike McGuire wrote that if HP's proposal was accepted, Blu-ray would become the winner of the format war.[31] However, the Blu-ray disc group did not accept HP's offer.[32]

Blu-ray Disc format finalized and launched

The Blu-ray physical specifications were finished in 2004.[33] In January 2005, TDK announced that they had developed a hard coating polymer for Blu-ray discs.[34] The cartridges, no longer necessary, were scrapped. The BD-ROM specifications were finalized in early 2006.[35] AACS LA, a consortium founded in 2004,[36] had been developing the DRM platform that could be used to securely distribute movies to consumers. However, the final AACS standard was delayed,[37] and then delayed again when an important member of the Blu-ray group voiced concerns.[38] At the request of Toshiba, an interim standard was published which did not include some features, like managed copy.[39]

The first BD-ROM players were shipped in the middle of June 2006, though HD DVD players beat them in the race to the market by a few months.[40][41]

The first Blu-ray Disc titles were released on June 20, 2006. The earliest releases used MPEG-2 video compression, The same method used on DVDs. The first releases using the newer VC-1 and AVC codecs were introduced in September 2006.[42] The first movies using dual layer discs (50 GB) were introduced in October 2006.[43]

The first mass-market Blu-ray rewritable drive for the PC was the BWU-100A, released by Sony on July 18, 2006. It recorded both single and dual layer BD-R as well as BD-RE discs and had a suggested retail price of US$699.

HD DVD had a head start in the high definition video market and Blu-ray sales were slow at first. The first Blu-ray player was perceived as expensive and buggy, and there were few titles available.[44] This changed when PlayStation 3 launched, since every PS3 unit also functioned as a Blu-ray player. By February 2007, Blu-ray discs had outsold HD DVDs,[45] and during the first three quarters of 2007, BD discs outsold HD DVDs by about two to one.[46]

Target Technology lawsuit

In May 2007, Target Technology sued Sony, claiming that Blu-ray technology infringed on their patent on reflective-layer materials for optical discs.[47]


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blu-ray

HD DVD - History

In the mid 1990s, commercial HDTV sets were finally starting to enter a larger market. However, there was no good, cheap way to record or play back HD content. There was no cheap storage medium that could store that amount of data, except JVC's Digital VHS and Sony's HD Betacam.[5] However, it was well known that using lasers with shorter wavelengths would yield optical storage with higher density. When Shuji Nakamura invented practical blue laser diodes, it was a sensation, although a lengthy patent lawsuit delayed commercial introduction.[6]

Origins and competition from Blu-ray Disc

Sony started two projects applying the new diodes: UDO (Ultra Density Optical) and DVR Blue (together with Pioneer), a format of rewritable discs which would eventually become Blu-ray (more specifically, BD-RE).[7] The core technologies of the formats are essentially similar. The first DVR Blue prototypes were unveiled at the CEATEC exhibition in October 2000 [8]. In February 2002, the project was officially announced as Blu-ray,[9] and the Blu-ray Disc Association was founded by the nine initial members.

The DVD Forum (which was chaired by Toshiba) was deeply split over whether to go with the more expensive blue lasers or not. In addition, the proposed Blu-ray disc with its protective caddy was both expensive and physically different from DVD, posing several problems.[10] In March 2002, the forum voted to approve a proposal endorsed by Warner Bros. and other motion picture studios that involved compressing HD content onto dual-layer DVD-9 discs.[11][12] However, in spite of this decision, the DVD Forum's Steering Committee announced in April that it was pursuing its own blue-laser high-definition solution.[13] In August, Toshiba and NEC announced their competing standard Advanced Optical Disc.[14] It was finally adopted by the DVD forum and renamed to HD DVD the next year,[15] after being voted down twice by Blu-ray Disc Association members, prompting the U.S. Department of Justice to make preliminary investigations into the situation[16][17]. Three new members had to be invited and the voting rules changed before the vote finally passed.[18][19]

Attempts to avoid a format war

In an attempt to avoid a costly format war, the Blu-ray Disc Association and DVD Forum started to negotiate a compromise in early 2005. One of the issues was that Blu-ray's supporters wanted to use a Java-based platform for interactivity (BD-J), while the DVD Forum was promoting Microsoft's "iHD" (which became HDi).[20]. A much larger issue, though, was the physical formats of the discs themselves; the Blu-ray Disc Association's member companies did not want to risk losing billions of dollars in royalties as they had done with standard DVD[21]. An agreement seemed close, but negotiations proceeded slowly.[22]

At the end of June 2005, Sun announced that the Blu-ray Association had chosen the Java-based BD-J interactivity layer instead of Microsoft's HDi. This was based on a BDA board vote favouring BD-J 10 to 4, despite a technical committee previously favouring HDi by a vote of 7 to 5[23]. At the same time, Microsoft and Toshiba jointly announced that they would cooperate in developing high-definition DVD players.[24] In a top-level meeting in July, Microsoft's Bill Gates argued that the Blu-ray standard had to change to "work more smoothly with personal computers". The Blu-ray Disc's representatives defended the technology.[25]

On August 22, 2005, the Blu-ray Disc Association and DVD Forum announced that the negotiations to unify their standards had failed.[26] Rumours surfaced that an "unnamed partner" had pressured Toshiba to stick with HD DVD -- in spite of Blu-ray's strong support among Hollywood studios and some analysts saying that HD DVD's days were numbered -- but these rumours were denied by the parties involved; instead, the same reasons of physical format incompatibility were cited[21][25] In the end of September, Microsoft and Intel jointly announced their support for HD DVD.[27]

Hewlett Packard (HP) made a last ditch attempt to broker a peace between the Blu-ray Disc Association and Microsoft. HP demanded that the Blu-ray association adopted Microsoft's HDi instead of its own Java solution, and that Blu-ray adopt a mandatory managed copy feature. If their demands weren't met, HP threatened to support HD DVD instead.[28] In a research report, Gartner analysts Van Baker, Laura Behrens and Mike McGuire wrote that if HP's proposal was accepted, Blu-ray would become the winner of the format war.[29] However, the Blu-ray Disc group did not accept HP's offer.[30]

Launch of HD DVD

On March 31, 2006, Toshiba released their first HD DVD player in Japan at ¥110,000 (US$934).[31]. That was the first HD player available to consumers, beating Blu-ray to the market.[32] HD DVD was released in United States on April 18, 2006,[33] with players priced at $499 and $799.

The first HD DVD titles were released on April 18, 2006. They were The Last Samurai, Million Dollar Baby, and The Phantom of the Opera by Warner Home Video and Serenity by Universal Studios.[34] The first independent HD film released on HD DVD was One Six Right.[35][36]

Sales and Recent Developments

In December 2006, Toshiba reported that roughly 120,000 Toshiba branded HD DVD players have been sold in the United States along with 150,000 units coming in the form of HD DVD upgrade kits for the Xbox 360.[37]

As of April 18, 2007, (on the first “birthday” of HD DVD),[38] the HD DVD camp reported that they had sold 100,000 dedicated HD DVD units in the U.S. alone, (not including any computers with HD DVD drives or Xbox 360 add-ons drives—the latter of which was reported to have sold 92,000 units during the Christmas holiday season).[39]

The first HD DVD Recorders were released mid 2007 in Japan.[40]

In November 2007, the Toshiba HD-A2 was the first high definition player, either HD DVD or Blu-ray, to be sold at a sale price of less than $100. This was done through several major retailers to make room for the new HD-A3 models. These closeout sales lasted less than a day each due to both limited quantities and high demand at that price point.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HD_DVD

Most Monitors Won't Play New HD Video

Vista's content protection will block or blur high-def movies on today's displays.


Illustration by Harry Campbell
Illustration: Harry Campbell

If you dropped a bundle on a high-end computer display or HDTV, you could be in for an unpleasant surprise when you slip your new high-definition DVD of Star Wars: Episode III into your Windows Vista PC. Vista, the next version of Windows that's slated to appear in about a year, will feature a new systemwide content protection scheme called PVP-OPM (see box below). If your monitor doesn't work with PVP-OPM, all you'll likely see is either a fuzzy rendition of your high-def flick or Hollywood's version of the Blue Screen of Death--a message warning you that the display has been 'revoked'.

High-Def Hard-Liners

Forthcoming Blu-ray and HD-DVD discs promise higher resolution than a standard DVD's 480-line maximum. But to protect its high-quality content from pirating, the film industry, along with disc and hardware makers, has created an umbrella content protection scheme known as AACS. If Windows is to play the new discs, Microsoft has little choice but to support AACS, which is where PVP-OPM comes in. According to Microsoft, PVP-OPM will prevent pirates from attaching recording devices directly to the PC graphics card's DVI or HDMI video outputs in order to capture a pristine digital copy of the disc's otherwise encrypted content. A related component, PVP-UAB, will prevent savvy computer owners from installing data capture cards in order to grab high-def movies straight off the PCI Express bus.

Unfortunately, PVP-OPM will also shut out plenty of law-abiding video watchers whose current displays aren't future-proof. To comply with the film industry's protection scheme, PVP-OPM employs HDCP technology to determine whether graphics boards and displays are allowed to output and display high-def video. If HDCP sees a blocked display (such as a video capture device) or one that does not support HDCP (including any HDTV with only analog connectors), it prevents output or reduces the video resolution until the offending display or protected content is removed from the system.

Costly Upgrades

If that scenario sounds disturbing, it gets worse: Few existing wide-screen desktop displays support HDCP. If you're one of the hundreds of thousands of current wide-screen desktop display owners, you can probably forget about viewing Blu-ray or HD-DVD discs on your nearly new (and far from cheap) monitor. To watch high-def content, you'll likely have to upgrade your monitor. A handful of HDCP-compliant displays from NEC, Samsung, Sony, and ViewSonic are just starting to appear, according to market research firm iSuppli. And manufacturers such as Dell have plans to incorporate HDCP support into future wide-screen displays, though details are scarce.

Think you could avoid this expense by sticking with XP? No such luck. To see HD, you'll have to upgrade to Windows Vista as well; Windows XP's security and driver models lack the ability to support HDCP. Consumers intent on viewing HD discs via their PCs will have little choice but to spring for the new operating system in addition to an HDCP-compliant monitor.

Decode the Jargon
AACS: Advanced Access Control System. A specification for guarding next-generation optical-media content created by the film, electronics, and software industries.

HDCP: High-Bandwidth Digital Content Protection. Intel's content protection scheme for digital displays, not supported by most currently available PC monitors.

PVP-OPM: Protected Video Path Output Protection Management. Downgrades video resolution or blocks the picture entirely if the connected display doesn't support content protection.

PVP-UAB: Protected Video Path User-Accessible Bus. Encrypts video content as it passes over the PCI Express bus from the high-def disc to prevent other PCI Express devices from intercepting the video stream.

Ultra High Definition Video

Super Hi-Vision, also known as Ultra High Definition Video, UHDV, Ultra High Definition Television, UHDTV and UHD is an experimental digital video format, currently proposed by NHK of Japan.

Super Hi-Vision's main specifications:

  • Resolution: 7,680 × 4,320 pixels (16:9) (approximately 33 megapixels)
  • Frame rate: 60 frame/s.
  • Audio: 22.2 channels
    • 9 — above ear level
    • 10 — ear level
    • 3 — below ear level
    • 2 — low frequency effects
  • Bandwidth: 21 GHz frequency band
    • 600 MHz, 500~6600 Mbit/s bandwidth
UHDV resolution shown in comparison to other digital video formats.
UHDV resolution shown in comparison to other digital video formats.

The new format with a resolution of 7,680 × 4,320 pixels is four times as wide and four times as high (for a total of 16 times the pixel resolution) as existing HDTV, which has a maximum resolution of 1920 × 1080 pixels.

Experimental technology

Because this format is highly experimental, NHK researchers had to build their own prototype from scratch. In the system demonstrated in September 2003 they used an array of 16 HDTV recorders to capture the 18-minute-long test footage.

The camera itself was built with four 2.5 inch (64 mm) CCDs with a combined resolution of only 3840 × 2048. They then resorted to pixel shifting to bring it to 7680 × 4320.[1]

Demonstrations

An UHDTV camera
An UHDTV camera

The system was demonstrated at Expo 2005, Aichi, Japan, the NAB 2006 and NAB 2007 conferences, Las Vegas, and at IBC 2006, Amsterdam, Netherlands. A review of the NAB 2006 demo was published in a Broadcast Engineering e-newsletter.[2] In November 2005 NHK demonstrated a live relay of Super Hi-Vision (UHDV) program over a distance of 260 km by a fiber optic network. Using dense wavelength division multiplex (DWDM), 24 gigabit speed was achieved with a total of 16 different wavelength signals.

Capacity and storage media issues

The eighteen-minute uncompressed UHDV footage in the NHK demonstration consisted of 3.492 terabytes of data, with each minute requiring 194 gigabytes. In this format, an uncompressed two-hour full length UHDV movie would require 23.28 terabytes of data storage. However, using current MPEG-2 compression technologies, a UHDF video signal with a format of four times the width and four times the height of the current 1080p HDTV standard would require 16 times the bitrate, or 6 GB per minute, with a two-hour feature film requiring 720 GB. Further compression using H.264 (MPEG-4 AVC) or VC-1 video compression technologies could reduce the bitrate by half relative to MPEG-2 compression, or 3 GB per minute or 360 GB for a two-hour film.

Note that these compressed data rates assume they scale linearly with absolute resolution, which is a conservative estimate. In practice, the actual compression ratios would be much higher for UHDV signals, effectively reducing the bitrate and data storage requirements. Nevertheless, based on the conservative compression estimates, a 12 cm Holographic Versatile Disc at 3.9 terrabytes capacity would be able to store 650 minutes (roughly 11 hours) of MPEG-2 at 6 GB per second, or 22 hours of H264 or VC1 compressed UHDV, compared to the 18.5 minute HVD capacity of uncompressed UHDV. By comparison, a current octal (eight-layer) Blu-ray disc (with a capacity of 200 GB) would be able to store approximately 36 minutes of MPEG-2 compressed UHDV, or 72 minutes of H264 or VC-1 compressed UHDV, compared to only one minute of uncompressed UHDV.

A 50 TB Protein-coated disc (PCD) would be able to hold over four hours of uncompressed UHDV data, or up to 284 hours of H.264/AVC/VC-1 compressed UHDV. If stabilizing ferroelectric materials is accomplished for practical, permanent data storage with 12.8 petabytes of capacity, it could be possible to store 1024 hours of uncompressed UHDV, or 24,064 hours of H.264/AVC/VC-1 compressed UHDV.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ultra_High_Definition_Video

High-Definition Video

High-definition (HD) video generally refers to any video system of higher resolution than standard-definition (SD) video, most commonly at display resolutions of 1280x720 (720p) or 1920x1080 (1080i or 1080p). This article discusses the general concepts of high-definition video, as opposed to its specific applications in television broadcast (HDTV), video recording formats (HDCAM, HDCAM-SR, DVCPRO-HD, D5-HD, XDCAM-HD, HDV and AVCHD), and optical disc delivery systems (Blu-ray and HD-DVD).

History

Original HD specifications date back to the early 1980s, when Japan developed an 1125-line TV standard operating at 30 frames per second (fps). Japan presented their standard at an international meeting of television engineers in Algiers in 1981 and Japan's NHK presented its analog HDTV system at Swiss conference in 1983. The NHK system was standardized in the United States as SMPTE (Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers) standard #240M in the early 1990s.

Historically, the term high-definition television was used to refer to television standards developed in the late 1930s to replace the early experimental mechanically-scanned systems that ranged from 15 lines to about 220 lines of resolution. John Logie Baird of the UK was a major proponent of these early mechanically scanned systems, but they were quickly replaced by all-electronic systems developed by engineers such as Philo T. Farnsworth, Vladimir Zworykin and the EMI team including Alan Blumlein under Isaac Shoenberg.

The United Kingdom was the first to start regular broadcast television – the BBC Television Service – in 1936 from Alexandra Palace, initially with a 240-line, 25 frames-per-second (fps) mechanically-scanned system by Baird Television Limited alternating with a 405-line Marconi-EMI interlaced system at 50 fields per second (each frame consisting of two fields). The Baird system was dropped after the end of 1936. This was referred to as the world's first scheduled 'high definition' television service, and thus the term must be regarded as originally identifying systems offering 240-line resolution or better. The Marconi-EMI specification went on to be adopted across Europe as CCIR System A.

In the United States, the National Television System Committee (for which the NTSC standard is named) standardized on 525 lines at 30 fps in 1940, with regular broadcasts starting on July 1, 1941. The NTSC standard was updated to include first a non-compatible 441-line color standard in 1950, which was then replaced by a compatible 525-line, 29.97fps color standard approved in 1953 and used to this day. PAL (Phase Alternating Line) was developed in the late 1950s with 625 lines at 25 fps and went on the air in 1964. SECAM (SÉquentiel Couleur À Mémoire, French for "sequential colour with memory") was developed by France as the first European color television standard independent to the American NTSC standard, and soon competed by the West German PAL, also using 625 lines and 25 fps. SECAM was adopted during the Cold War by France and its colonial territories, as well as the Belgian colonies, and later adopted by countries rejecting the American standard, namely the Soviet Union, the Peoples' Republic of China, and their satellite communist governments.

The current high definition video standards were developed during the course of the advanced television process initiated by the Federal Communications Commission in 1987 at the request of American broadcasters. The FCC process, led by the Advanced Television Systems Committee (ATSC) adopted a range of standards from interlaced 1080 line video (a technical descendant of the original analog NHK 1125/30fps system) with a maximum frame rate of 30 fps, and 720 line video, progressively scanned, with a maximum frame rate of 60 fps. The FCC officially adopted the ATSC transmission standard (which included both HD and SD video standards) in 1996, with the first broadcasts on October 28, 1998.

The world has transmitted analog PAL, NTSC, SECAM for over 60 years. However, with the advent of digital broadcasting including HD formats, analog transmissions will cease in the coming years and NTSC, PAL and SECAM will pass into history, or so goes the most optimistic point-of-view. It remains to be seen if and when this can be achieved, due to the vast amounts of analog video equipment (TV stations and home TVs) which are currently installed.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-definition_video