14 DAY TRIAL // Microsoft has announced a new initiative designed to take HD DVD interactivity to the next level. The Redmond company and Toshiba will be advancing their partnership in order to lay the foundation for an Advanced Interactivity Consortium (AIC). Microsoft and Toshiba will be joined in the new venture by heavyweights of the entertainment industry such as DreamWorks Animation, Paramount, Universal and Warner, with the purpose of ensuring that high-end interactive experience will be transitioned to additional platforms on top of the current examples of optical media.
"Creating attractive consumer experiences with advanced interactivity is critical to bringing digital home entertainment to the next level," said Hisatsugu Nonaka, corporate executive vice president at Toshiba. "In order to create these ecosystems, we wanted to bring together a group of companies committed to extending these scenarios across a wide variety of platforms. The Advanced Interactivity Consortium will advocate for these platforms as well as help ensure interoperability of HD DVD players and services."
"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 bringing a broader set of experiences to consumers on different platforms," said Robbie Bach, president of the Entertainment and Devices Division at Microsoft. "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 consumer electronics market. The goal is to ensure a high-quality experience not only through optical discs but also through new digital download services."
The Advanced Interactivity Consortium will be of course focused entirely on HD DVD products, with Microsoft promising that users will be able to benefit from extended satisfaction, following the integration of what the company referred to as superior interactivity into a variety of distribution scenarios and next generation products as well as the association with digital content. DVD players, PCs, TVs, cell phones, portable media players and game consoles will all receive Microsoft's HDi technology concomitantly with specific digital materials.
"We are pleased to support the formation of the Advanced Interactivity Consortium and look forward to further developing interactive scenarios on HD DVD that will extend the consumer experience to new platforms," said Craig Kornblau, president of Universal Studios Home Entertainment and Universal Pictures Digital Platforms. "By following a standards-based approach, this collaboration will uniformly benefit consumers as well as the industry."