The HD DVD name is derived from its origination as a high-definition extension of the DVD optical disc format. A HD DVD disc can store substantially more data than a DVD, because of the shorter wavelength (405 nm) of the blue-violet laser (DVDs use a 650-nm-wavelength red laser and CDs an infrared 780 nm laser), which allows more information to be stored digitally in the same amount of space. In comparison to Blu-ray, which also uses a blue laser, HD DVD has less information capacity per layer (15 gigabytes instead of 25), though HD DVD is potentially easier to manufacture than a Blu-ray pre-recorded disc due to its sharing the same basic disc structure as a standard DVD: back-to-back bonding of two 120mm diameter substrates, each 0.6mm thick.

History
The HD DVD standard was jointly developed by a group of consumer electronics and PC companies, spearheaded by Toshiba. It is currently competing with the Blu-ray format for wide adoption as the preferred next generation optical standard, similar to the videotape format war between VHS and Betamax. As of 2006, neither format has succeeded in supplanting the present home video standard, the DVD.

On November 19, 2003, the DVD Forum decided that they would back the HD DVD to be the HDTV successor of the DVD. At this meeting they renamed it to HD DVD, while it had been previously called the "Advanced Optical Disc" (AOD). This is not a very surprising extension of the previous DVD-R/RW versus DVD+R/RW war, where - (dash) was the format defended by DVD Forum, and + (plus) the format defended by the DVD+RW Alliance. The DVD Forum generally has focus on CE (Consumer Electronic) and Japanese market development (where CE happens to be very strong). The DVD+RW Alliance has invested more on the PC market with technologies such as Background Formatting and defect management through "Mount Rainier" (unreleased).

At CES 2006, Microsoft announced that there will be an external add-on HD DVD drive for the Xbox 360 game console, due in late 2006. Also at CES 2006, "companies backing HD DVD said that nearly 200 titles would be available for the format by the end of the year." [2]

On March 31, 2006, Toshiba released their first HD DVD player in Japan at ¥110,000 ($934)[3] HD DVD was released in United States on April 18, 2006[4], with players priced at $499 and $799.

The current specification version for HD DVD-ROM and HD DVD-Rewritable is version 1.0. The specification for HD DVD-R is currently at 0.9. The first HD DVD-ROM drives were expected to be unveiled by Q4 2004, with mass production to start in Q1 2005. The actual product launch of both CE and PC units occurred in late 2006.

COMPLETE HD-DVD SPECIFICATIONS

HD DVD has a single-layer capacity of 15 GB and a dual-layer capacity of 30 GB. Toshiba has announced a triple-layer disc which offers 45GB of storage. HD DVD can offer both the current DVD and HD DVD formats on one disc, which means that special HD DVD discs will play in any DVD player, old or the new high definition players (similar to the Blu-ray/DVD hybrid developed by JVC). This makes retail marketing and shelf space management easier. For consumers, shopping is simplified as they can simply buy a movie that plays in any DVD player in their house, standard definition or high definition. The HD DVD format also can be applied to current red laser DVDs in 5, 9, 15 and 18 GB capacities which offers an even lower cost option to content owners wanting to sell short form content.

The data layer of an HD DVD disc is 0.6mm below the surface, akin to the common DVD. The numerical aperture of the optical pick-up head is 0.65, compared with 0.6 for DVD and 0.85 for Blu Ray aperture and 0.1 surface layer (a smaller surface layer larger numerical aperture allow for tighter focus and so increased data density). Both of the new formats are backward compatible with DVDs and both employ the same video compression techniques: MPEG-2, Video Codec 1 (VC1) and H.264/MPEG-4 AVC.

HD DVD can be mastered with up to 7.1 channel surround sound using the linear (uncompressed) PCM, Dolby Digital and DTS formats also used on DVDs. In addition, it also supports Dolby Digital Plus and the lossless formats Dolby TrueHD and DTS HD. Currently, most DVD movies are made with 5.1 channels of surround sound. There are relatively few titles that offer 6.1 channels of surround sound. On HD DVD the Dolby formats are mandatory, meaning that a Dolby Digital or Dolby Digital Plus track may be used as the sole soundtrack on a disc, because every player will have a decoder that can process any of these bitstreams.[5] For lossless audio in movies in the PCM, Dolby TrueHD or DTS-HD formats, HD DVD discs support encoding in up to 24-bit/192kHz for two channels, or up to eight channels of up to 24-bit/96kHz encoding.[6] For reference, even new big-budget Hollywood films are mastered in only 24-bit/48kHz, with 16-bit/48kHz being common for ordinary films.

The HD DVD format supports a wide variety of resolutions, from low-resolution CIF and SDTV up to HDTV formats such as 720p, 1080i and 1080p.[7] All movie titles released so far have had the feature encoded in 1080p (although the currently available HD DVD players do not have a 1080p output option and nor will the Xbox360's HD DVD drive, which will also not feature HDMI), with supplements in 480i or 480p. Most titles are encoded with VC-1.

The table below summarizes the differences between conventional DVD-Video specifications and those of the enhanced HD DVD-Video disc.

Common Disc Structure

Backward compatibility will be available with all HD DVD players, allowing consumers to have a single drive in their homes to play both HD DVD and DVD discs. There is also a hybrid HD DVD which contains both DVD and HD DVD versions of the same movie on a single disc, providing smoother transition for the studios in terms of publishing movies, and letting consumers with only DVD drives to still use the discs. DVD disc replication companies can continue using their current production equipment with only minor alterations when changing over to the format of HD DVD replication. Due to the structure of the single-lens optical head, both red and blue laser diodes can be used in smaller, more compact HD DVD players than for the competing Blu-ray drives.

Laser

HD DVD uses a blue-violet 405 nm laser to read information from the disc (DVDs use red 650 nm lasers).

The shorter wavelength reduces diffraction and maintains a smaller spot size of the laser. This allows data to be read from a higher density on the disc surface. While DVDs and HD DVDs will be the same size physically, the ability to store data at a higher density results in a larger total data capacity in HD.

Digital Rights Management

Commercialized HD DVDs integrate content protection technology specified by AACS LA (Advanced Access Content System License Authority). "Audio Watermark Protection" is also being considered by AACS for use on HD DVD. If Watermark is adopted by AACS, all HD DVD players will have a sensor that listens for inaudible audio watermarks in the soundtrack of movies. Studios may insert this invisible mark in the soundtracks of theatrical motion pictures. If an HD DVD detects the invisible mark, it means the disc is playing back a copy made from a theatrical print (probably from illegal camcording), and will cause the player to refuse to play the disc. The mark is made by varying the waveform of speech and music in a regular pattern to convey a digital code. These variations are too subtle to be heard by the human ear. Another variation of this system can be used to prevent the playback of discs created by using a camcorder and microphone on a home entertainment center playing a legitimate disc purchased by a consumer. This variation for home entertainment utilizes a watermark that differs from the cinema mark in that it is permitted in normal, signed ROM discs, but generally not permitted on recordable discs.

In addition, HD DVD players must follow AACS guidelines pertaining to outputs over analog connections. This is set by a flag called the Image Constraint Token (ICT), which restricts the resolution for analog outputs without HDCP to 960*540. The decision to set the flag to restrict output ("down-convert") is left to the content provider. Warner Pictures is a proponent of ICT, and it is expected that Paramount and Universal will implement down-conversion as well [9]. As of March 2006, 5 of the 6 studios releasing HD DVD content have announced they will not use ICT/down-conversion for the time being [10]. AACS guidelines require that any title that implements the ICT must clearly state so on the packaging.

Interactive Content

HD DVDs use the iHD Interactive Format to allow interactive content to be authored for discs. iHD is based on web technologies such as HTML, XML, CSS, SMIL, and ECMAScript (JavaScript), so authoring in iHD should be a fairly easy transition for web developers. No existing DVD authoring experience is required. In contrast, Blu-ray Disc content is authored using either a scripting environment for basic content, or a Java-based platform (BD-J) for advanced content. DVD video discs utilize pre-rendered MPEG segments, selectable subtitle pictures, and simple programmatic navigation which is considerably more primitive.


Released Titles

Main article: List of HD DVD Releases
The first HD DVD titles released on April 18, 2006 were The Last Samurai, Million Dollar Baby, The Phantom of the Opera by Warner Home Video; and Serenity by Universal Studios [11].
To date, 52 titles have been released in the United States.


First Released Players

On April 18, 2006, Toshiba released the first HD DVD player for the United States, the Toshiba HD-A1 and Toshiba HD-XA1. They are powered by an Intel Pentium 4 processor and contain 1GB of RAM; the drive mechanism is also an IDE HD DVD drive. The units run a specialized version of the Linux operating system booting off a USB thumbdrive. Due to high demand, they were reported to be sold out in many stores in the United States after the first shipment. (Although the number of HD DVD players shipped has not been released)
On May 16 Toshiba released its first PC with a HD DVD drive, the Toshiba Qosmio 35. This PC is the first to have a slim height optical disc drive. Toshiba's Digital Products Division, introduced Toshiba Qosmio G35-AV600, the latest version of its flagship "4-in-1" audio-video entertainment notebook with new enhancements. The Toshiba G35-AV600 is a complete package featuring Microsoft Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005 and integrated TV tuner, digital video recorder (DVR), virtual surround-sound stereo, and HDMI output. The notebook includes the world's first 1-bit digital amplifier in a notebook PC. [citation needed]
Microsoft has also confirmed that they will be releasing an add-on HD DVD drive for the Xbox 360 for an unknown price, which is rumored to be $200[12]. The add-on, which will attach to the console via usb cable, features component output, but apparently no HDMI output. Despite rumours to the contrary, the Xbox 360 will not include an internal HD DVD reader in future releases.[13] Microsoft have also previously stated that if Blu Ray wins the format war, they may release a Blu Ray drive.

Marketing

A $150 million dollar advertising campaign is being planned for the HD DVD. The campaign is being handled by Goodby Silverstein & Partners, the same agency that created the "Got Milk?" campaign. So far HD DVD has sold 33% more players than Blu-ray, but Blu-ray's revenue is 42% higher.[14] This is expected to change by the end of the year when 4 million 1080p Blu-Ray players are released at US$499-599 in the form of the Sony PlayStation 3.

The initiative will encompass all media: Print, internet, television and other outlets. All advertising will boast the tagline "The Look and Sound of Perfect." A new Web site was also launched on 11th of July 2006, [15], which touts the HD DVD's superior video and audio capabilities and includes trailers of HD DVD movies. [16]

Industry Support

HD DVD is promoted by Toshiba, NEC, Sanyo, Microsoft, Hewlett Packard, Intel, among others. In terms of major studios, HD DVD is currently exclusively backed by Universal Studios, and is non-exclusively backed by Paramount Pictures and Warner Bros. Studio Canal, and The Weinstein Company.

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

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