Now Microsoft is Not Considering Blu-ray

Marketing manager Albert Penello says that Reuters misconstrued what he said in their report and that Microsoft is not even thinking about supporting Blu-ray for Xbox.

Posted by James Brightman on Thursday, January 10, 2008

Despite a Reuters article earlier this week, which indicated that Microsoft would consider Blu-ray for Xbox 360 in the event of a total defeat for HD DVD, Albert Penello, group marketing manager for Xbox, has now refuted the report, telling Gizmodo that the "headline misconstrued the context of what I said."

He stressed that Microsoft is "not thinking about it" and has "no plans" to create anything based on the Blu-ray format. Furthermore, Microsoft remains "totally committed to HD DVD" and the format is only dead "when Toshiba says they're not doing HD DVD anymore."

Some believe that could be in the not too distant future, but Toshiba said it "remains firm in our belief that HD DVD is the format best suited to the wants and needs of the consumer."

Toshiba Shows Prototype TV Running on PS3 Chip (PC World)

What happens when you take the powerful Cell microprocessor, the chip that sits at the heart of the PlayStation 3 games console, and put it to use inside a television? Toshiba is demonstrated just such a TV at this week's International Consumer Electronics Show and the results are impressive.
The Cell chip was developed by Toshiba along with IBM, Sony and Sony Computer Entertainment, and is dedicated to graphics processing. Each chip contains a single Power PC core and eight co-processors to make heavy-duty processing of video a breeze.
While Sony developed the chip for its PlayStation 3, Toshiba invested money in the project with an eye to using the device in consumer electronics products. Until CES, the company hadn't shown a Cell-powered consumer device, but a pair of flat-panel TVs on its booth at the trade show have changed that.
The first and perhaps most relevant benefit of putting the Cell inside a television is the abi
lity to handle real-time upscaling of standard definition TV to high-def. With more and more HDTV channels, we get more and more used to the crisp, sharp quality offered by HD and that makes standard definition look poor. With a Cell-powered TV you'd be able to enjoy regular channels in higher quality much closer to that of HD, said Hiroaki Komaki, a specialist at Toshiba's core technology center in Tokyo.
The upscaling doesn't stop there. The same feature can be used to zoom in on an area of an HDTV picture, enlarge that single area, and then improve it's image quality. Imagine zooming in on a home movie of a sports event and getting closer to the action.
The Cell also makes it possible to easily navigate a number of video channels simultaneously. In a demo at CES, the chip was streaming 48 chapters from a standard-definition video file in real-time, with each appearing as a video thumbnail on the screen. Clicking on one of the clips would bring it up on the lower half of the screen, with 16 chapters still running in the upper half. Another push on the button would move it to full screen.
If the video streams were HD, it would be able to process six in real-time and display them on the screen, said Komaki.
Toshiba still hasn't decided exactly what features it will build into a Cell-based TV, nor has it decided when such a set will go on sale. One thing Toshiba isn't planning on doing is building a PlayStation 3 gaming system into its TVs. The chips may be the same but Komaki said such a combination isn't likely.
The company has been chasing the idea of Cell-based consumer electronics since it signed on with Sony and IBM to develop the chip in 2001.

Getting down to business, I asked about what kinds of plans THX had for HD media, specifically Blu-ray Disc. While there is one THX certified Blu-ray Disc (Lionsgate's Terminator 2: Judgment Day), getting the studios to pay the additional cost to have THX certify the process is a major stumbling block. It's not a matter of looking at the final master and approving it, all the steps in the process have to be inspected: be it the original film and sound elements, the telecine bay, the monitors used for the picture and sound, and the disc production facilities. T2 required Lionsgate to use two different film elements since either one had certain problems with different scenes, such as visual effects shots. Getting all these elements inspected and approved takes time and effort, and in the end that means money. Interestingly enough, they spoke of a couple BD titles seen by many as 5 star picture and sound transfers that could use tweaking if they had QC'ed them!

Another interesting tidbit of information is about the upcoming Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. As we all know, Paramount's deal does not cover Steven Spielberg films, and so Indy 4 is being prepped for Blu-ray Disc for release sometime late this year. Apparently, Paramount is reluctant to pony up the additional cost for the disc to be certified, so it may take George Lucas to personally step in and make it happen. Be sure to let Paramount know we want this!

Thursday, January 3, 2008

Apple set to ship Macs with Blu-ray support

By Slash Lane
Published: 10:00 AM EST

Apple Inc. at this month's Macworld Expo will will outline a high-definition video strategy that will see its weight thrown further behind Sony Corp's Blu-ray DVD format as opposed to Toshiba's HD-DVD, according to one Wall Street analyst.

In a report issued to clients early Thursday morning, American Technology Research analyst Shaw Wu cited sources who say the Cupertino-based Mac maker, which already occupies a seat on the Blu-ray consortium, is set to begin shipping some of its computers with support for the next-generation DVD format.

"We believe this is a key announcement as current Macs ship with the DVD format and Sony gains a strong ally in Blu-ray," the analyst told clients. He added that Disney, for which Apple chief executive Steve Jobs is a Director, is a firm supporter of Blu-ray, while rival Microsoft Corp. has placed most of its eggs in the HD-DVD basket.

However, Wu hedged his bets somewhat, saying there is "a smaller chance Apple may use a combo Blu-ray/HD-DVD drive to ensure full compatibility and not get involved in the format wars."

Apple, which markets a complete line of HD content creation tools for consumers and professionals, announced in March of 2005 that it had joined Blu-ray Disc Association. Since then, however, the company has observed much of the ongoing battle between Blu-ray and HD-DVD from the sidelines, choosing to remain indifferent in the fight for control of the next-generation high def format.

The Mac maker during the first quarter of 2008 is expected to introduce a significant overhaul to its Mac Pro professional workstations, which are expected to be among the first systems from the company to include drives capable of supporting the Blu-ray format, sources close to AppleInsider and other Apple news publications have said.

Meanwhile, in his report to clients Thursday, Wu also cited sources who indicate that an Apple sub-notebook and iTunes rentals will also take center stage at the upcoming Macworld Expo in San Francisco, set to kick-off with a keynote by Jobs on January 15th.

"We believe Apple will re-enter the sub-notebook market, but this time use NAND flash as primary storage to improve battery life, reliability, and reduce weight," he wrote. "Our sources indicate that the possible names of this new product include 'MacBook mini' or 'MacBook slim'."

On the iTunes front, the analyst said his sources also indicate that Apple will look to aggressively grow this business with digital movie rentals.

"Whether these movies expire based on time and/or usage is unclear to us, but we do believe that rentals are a significant change in its philosophy with its current iTunes download business model," he wrote. "The positive implication from this is that Apple enhances its video experience and makes it more compelling to move and/or stick with the iTunes + iPod + Mac + iPhone + Apple TV ecosystem."

Additionally, Wu said he's also picking up hints of potential smaller announcements related to speed bumps to current Macs and the iPhone, including "an external HDD storage/dock/streaming device that can work with MacBook mini as well as Airport Extreme."

Further down the line, the Wall Street analyst expects that Apple will address two major shortcomings of its Apple TV set-top-box product, mainly that it does not allow for a direct internet connection to access movie and web content, and that it also lacks a "TV tuner."

"Our sources indicate that Apple is working on fixing these weaknesses to make Apple TV a much stronger product," he advised clients. "We are unsure of the timing of these enhancements but believe we will likely see these later in 2008 or perhaps 2009."

The analyst maintained his Buy rating on Apple stock with a price target of $210 per share.