14 DAY TRIAL // Toshiba unveiled an HD DVD Player at Sonic Booth from IBC 2006 conference in Amsterdam. It won't cost more than $500 and the company source suggested it will be launched in November, just at the right time for the autumn-winter shopping spree.
Sonic is making the professional software that you need in order to encode your video in HD DVD or Blu-ray. Software is already available for more than a few months, but it is for professional use only, so it costs a fortune.
Almost a year ago, on September 27, Toshiba was the first in the world to develop a Notebook PC with HD DVD-ROM Drive.
HD DVD is the format standardized by The DVD Forum, an international association of 240 consumer electronics, IT, entertainment software, disc manufacturing and other related companies around the world. The versatility of this format enables many applications, including players, recorders, PCs and other devices.
What makes HD DVD special? It has the same disc structure as DVD, two 0.6 mm thick polycarbonate discs bonded back-to-back, allowing it to achieve backward compatibility with DVD. It also assures easier production of the discs and hardware devices, lowering the costs for manufacturing. Also, this format has no need for a disc cartridge to protect it against surface blemishes and fingerprints. 30 or 45 Gb are available within the HD DVD, and that's enough for 8 hours (minimum) of high definition video (MPEG4-AVC or VC1 compressed video and audio data, at a transfer rate of 9 MB/s). This high capacity is obtained by adopting a shorter wavelength, blue-violet laser.