Outwit, Outplay, Outlast, in HD

Finally, the execs at CBS have come to their senses. Or perhaps their higher-ups threatened to vote them off the island if they didn't do this. After 16 standard-def seasons, the new season of Survivor, based for the first time in Gabon, will be in high definition. Survivor will be shot with Sony's new XDCAM HD camera systems. See why the XDCAM was the ideal choice for Survivor.

Has The Whole Grain Trend Gone Too Far?

The very thing that people love about Blu-ray could very well be the thing that people are going to hate. For the first time, home theaters are able to display every single, subtle detail of your favorite old films, as they've only been visible before in theaters. Part of that detail is film grain.  And people are not happy.

Election 2008 in HD

It's that time again. Time when the battle between red and blue isn't referring to HD DVD vs. Blu-ray, but red states vs. blue states, as John McCain takes on whoever steps out from the democratics. But this isn't a political blog, but this is a blog about technology.

Everyone knows (we hope) that in February, 2009, the big digital switch will take place. What everyone might not know is that John McCain was one of the main players in pushing the television industry out of its current bandwidth and into the digital world, freeing up the analog bandwidth for other uses, including emergency services.

The question is, have you seen the candidates in HD?

JVC's new D-ILA Device: the Sky's the Limit

When JVC produced the world's smallest 1.27-inch 4K2K Direct-Drive Image Light Amplifier device last June, it was lauded as completely revolutionary. Not willing to rest on its laurels, JVC just announced a 1.75-inch 8K4K D-ILA high-definition reflective liquid crystal device for projectors. According to JVC, this can produce Super Hi-Vision Images with the highest number of pixels currently defined under current international standards as of today for a projection-type display. What do all those numbers mean?

BBC and Discovery Put High-Def on Ice

The Discovery Channel and BBC's “Planet Earth” series is popular among HDTV-owners eager to show off the up-close-and-personal vibrant images of wild animals, deep caves and lush forests on their large flat-screens. Spacing out in front of a “Planet Earth” episode can be a thrilling experience — especially when watching the Blu-ray version — and the team behind the show wants to recapture that appeal with a sequel called “Frozen Planet.”

Blame Canada's Carrier

Comcast isn't the only service provider trying to make room for more high definition channels by compressing other channels into a smaller bandwidth footprint. It looks like they all do it, to some degree, though some carriers are better at masking the differences in quality from consumers.

According to Digital Home, Canadian carrier Rogers will begin compressing high definition signals on April 9. About 15 high-def channels currently on Rogers will be compressed to make room for others, though no Rogers customers have yet spoken out about a degradation of HD signal quality.

Compressed Signals Make Me Depressed

If you've got an eye for crisp video, surely you've wished the high-definition signal being pumped into your living room was even better. The signal quality appears to have good days and bad days, and you may have even wondered if the same HD channel looks better on cable, satellite, or FiOS.

According to one man's test, the differences in quality can be extreme. Ken Fowler, an HD-enthusiast and frequenter of the AVSForum site, compared screenshots of Comcast HD cable service and Verizon  HD FiOS service in Virginia. The shots were taken at the exact same time and the same channel. The pixelated, blurry picture shown here is of the Comcast version of the Music HD channel (the Red Hot Chili Peppers guitarist).

The Fat Lady Sings: HD DVD Is Dead

Yes, Yogi, it's OVER. Check out this link, originally filed by the AP at 7:48 this morning (and re-filed at 11:05):

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/business/AP-Japan-Toshiba.html?ref=business

By the way, folks, for the record:

Contrary to these recent headlines . . .

"Support Grows for Blu-ray High-Def DVDs" — USA Today
"Sony's Blu-ray DVD Format Could Prevail" — AP via Yahoo!

. . . please remember that Blu-ray Discs are not DVDs. The Blu-ray format is not based on the DVD format. Look at any Blu-ray package, and you won't find the word "DVD" anywhere.

A common mistake — just like saying DVD-Audio and SACD multichannel discs are 5.1. No, they're 6.0! —Ken Richardson

"300" Conquers High-Def Awards

So says the headline of a press release we received about the first annual High-Def Disc Awards, presented primarily by the weekly B2B trade publication Home Media Magazine.

Specifically, 300 won two different awards for its two different high-def formats: The Blu-ray edition grabbed High-Def Title of the Year, while the HD DVD edition nabbed the Best Bonus Feature nod for its blue-screen PIP.

What did we think of the 300 high-def discs? To find out, click here. (For our review of the standard DVD edition, click here.)

And will the film be our fave Blu-ray or HD DVD of the year — or at least, one of our Top 10 plain-vanilla DVDs? Stay tuned for the February/March double issue of Sound & Vision — which just happens to be our 50th Anniversary Issue!

In the meantime, see below for the full HMM press release.
—Ken Richardson

Music on Blu-ray Disc and HD DVD

Yes, high-def fans, there is music on those formats. There just isn't much of it, relatively speaking. Back in the January 2007 issue of Sound & Vision, I rounded up the first batch of titles in a review called Found What We're Looking For! Concerts Go High-Def on Blu-ray Disc, HD DVD. That clever headline referenced the fact that the star title was U2's Rattle and Hum, which showed up on both formats.

Since then, I've gathered another batch of releases, and I've tried — really, I have — to find the time to watch them, listen to them, and review them. But oh, where does the time go? (Today, it goes to . . . writing blogs!) I was hoping to tackle them this month, but I'm already falling behind. (Yessiree, folks, you get True Confessions here at Bitstream!)

So I figured that, in the meantime, it would be helpful to at least share a list of those recent titles.