If you wanted to launch a videogame site in the old days all you needed was high school grammar and a bunch of grainy, 300 x 200 screencaps of Mario 64. Today's readers are a more fickle bunch, wanting monitor-busting screenshots and CPU-taxing HD videos of the latest Xbox 360 and PS3 titles. To cater to the sites who will cater to those gamers, Digital Foundry is launching the HDScope, a pixel-crunching, semi-portable PC designed explicitly for recording content in 480i, 576i, 480p, 720p, or 1080i via component or HDMI inputs. It sports a 7-inch touchscreen, meaning you can just plug this into the wall and start gathering footage from that exclusive (and oddly dusty) beta copy of Duke Nukem: Forever you scored. No word on price or availability, but launch a site full of random videos captured on one of these and you'll surely be swimming in ad revenue -- and outrageous hosting fees.

[Thanks, Dirk]

Sure, not every station's pulled out the Star Wars / Iron Man-style holograms for the 2008 election, but they're all trying to put shiny new HD studios to full use and get as many eyeballs as possible until things are decided. NBC & ABC immediately jumped out front at 7 p.m. with data pouring in on the widescreen edges of their HD feeds, with CNN waiting until states were decided to begin updating their lists. ABC's chosen to lean on its touchscreen display and forgo side graphics altogether, while despite Fox's claim as "America's Election HQ", with totally bare shoulders and boring sets, we're pointing our flatscreens elsewhere. PBS, despite airing the clearest, most high quality video available of three old guys at a table, has no slick touchscreens or HD graphics packages to speak of. Think about that as you check out the rest of the screens after the break, and during the next donation drive. Big Bird deserves better.

The kind, loving folks over at Sony claim that they're about to explode the video conferencing market wide open -- HD style -- and we've got front row seats to the festivities. According to the electronics-maker, the PCS-XG80 is the industry's first 1080i, HD conferencing solution, and will provide dual streaming, 30 FPS performance over IP or ISDN connections. The system is backwards-compatible with its older SD setups, and we assume it plays nice with the behemoth's earlier HD effort, the PCS-HG90 -- though you might want to double check on that before dropping the $8,999 that the company is asking for the system. Finally, you can really see just how ugly the home office is.

WirelessHD (WiHD) is back, originally announced in late 2006, the 1.0 spec has been pronounced fit for consumption and will be released later this year. What's changed in the last 14 months? HD dream team Intel, LG, Matsushita (Panasonic), NEC, Samsung, SiBEAM, Sony and Toshiba have added 40 other companies as well as approval from DRM watchdogs MPAA and DTLA for their 60Ghz-based standard. Move over cable vs. satellite, downloads vs. disc and HD DVD vs. Blu-ray, with UWB-equipped HDTVs already on the way, a battle to replace the still-tricky HDMI connection is the new HD battleground for 2008.

Hey there Ansel Adams -- we know you're shooting all your news pictures in an ultra-detailed, millions-of-megapixels format. Unfortunately for you, it's hard to show off your breathtaking work to friends and family. Well, a company called Hama hopes to change all that with its PhotoPlayer 1080i, a curious device that serves one basic function: it allows you to view your photos on an HD television. Basically, the little contraption is a 35-in-1 card reader which also outputs images (via component hookups) to your favorite 1080i-equipped display. The PhotoPlayer comes with a tiny remote for flipping through your majestic vision, and also includes a USB jack (for hard drives and the like), so you can go for a really, really long haul during your presentations. We can hear the "oohs" and "ahhs" already. Available now, no word on price.

[Via PhotographyBLOG]

As if two different high definition DVD standards weren't enough for the world, China has gone ahead and said "actually, it is, at least for the western portion of it." The Optical Memory National Engineering Research Center has announced CH-DVD, a high definition DVD standard based on the DVD Forum's HD DVD, but with additional Chinese-owned technology tacked on. This additional technology takes the form of advanced copy protection designed to prevent the spread of pirated content. A new foundation called the China High Definition DVD Industry Association will be promoting the format, with the aim of launching a hardware player in 2008, and getting content producers on board before that.

[Thanks, cullen and JL]

We first stumbled upon a prototype of the DirecTV D-HR20P DVR at Electronic House Expo last year, but haven't heard anything about it since then. Now with CEDIA coming up, a promo image of what could be the next evolution in this design has been leaked, the HR21 Pro. The DVR will reportedly handle 100 hours of high-def recording and output it at 1080p over optical HDMI, but lacks any over-the-air antenna inputs, probably due to DirecTV's 100-channel rollout plan. We should see it in November, so clear out some rackmount space... you do have a rack to mount it in, right?

Straight from IFA 2007 in Berlin comes Daewoo's surprise entry into the Blu-ray camp with the company's first player, the DBP-1000. Interestingly, even though Daewoo is probably more well-known for their Trutech ODM devices -- or even their autos -- this player supposedly supports the full 2.0 Profile for Blu-ray Disc, including BD Live internet functionality, picture-in-picture, and local storage. Pricing and availability are nowhere to be found, but it won't be soon enough for Blu-ray fans to see players with that interactive functionality built-in like competing HD DVD players have. Another picture after the jump.

To help clean up that rat's nest of cables behind your AV rack, semiconductor company AMIMON is now shipping its Wireless High-definition Interface (WHDI) chips to manufacturers. Loewe and Funai will be demoing WHDI products such as wireless HDTVs and high-def DVD players at IFA in Germany next week, following up on the WHDI-equipped projector prototype Sanyo showed off at CES. The chipset supports streaming uncompressed 1080p over the unlicensed 5GHz spectrum -- with worldwide compliance up to 1080p / 30fps -- at ranges up to 100 feet (30 meters) and a latency of less than 1ms. Let's hope you can handle the dust bunny apocalypse you'll release from behind the stereo.

So we know a lot of you have been on the edge of your seat concerning the RED ONE modular, high-end, HD HD-clobbering camcorder system. The camera -- announced at NAB way back in the wild, sun-soaked days of 2006 -- rocks 11.4-megapixel, 60fps video, and is designed as a multi-part system, featuring a base unit that can be modded with a variety of add-ons -- allowing for all kinds of crazy configurations (just what the low-budget auteur is after). Now, according to the Reduser forums (and more specifically, Jim Jannard, Oakley founder and Red Digital Cinema company head), the RED ONE shipments will begin on August 31st, with a second batch to follow on September 7th. Sure, the $17,500 base system price-tag may seem prohibitive to some, but as we all know, fear is the mind-killer, and if you're really serious about that film you're making, you're going to need something like this. Time to break open the piggy-bank.

[Thanks, Blayne G]

Sharp is bringing to the US market a subset of the series of slimmer LCDs recently released in Japan. The D64U series of 1080p LCDs includes four models from 42 to 65 inches, all with re-engineered circuitry inside for a 25% slimmer and 20% lighter frame than previous product lines, while consuming less power. With the thinner bezel and smaller speakers, you might fit a 42-inch set where a 40 would normally go. The panels feature 10,000:1 dynamic contrast ratio, 4ms response time, and RS-232 automation controls. The series will be available later this month, with the 42-inch LC-42D64U retailing for $2,099, the 46-inch LC-46D64U for $2,699, and the 52-inch LC-52D64U for $3,799, with the 65-inch LC-65D64U unpriced and following in September.

Besides moving low-priced HD DVD players, the HD DVD Promotional Group is taking advantage of Home Media Expo 2007 to announce its most recent sales data, with HD DVD going up, and Blu-ray going down. Specifically, the Nielsen Netratings mentioned show HD DVD hardware sales up 37 percent, and software sales up 20 percent from the first to the second quarter of this year. Over the same period, overall Blu-ray hardware sales (no word on if this includes the PlayStation 3 or not) were down 27 percent and software sales down 5 percent. Shockingly, this trend is attributed to aggressive marketing campaigns and cheaper standalone HD DVD players hitting the market, causing a 183 percent increase in dedicated player sales for the quarter, and over 180,000 players (up from 100k back in April) sold altogether. Whether HD DVD focus on standalones over consoles gives them an edge is unknown, but it seems like Blu-ray may be catching on to the strategy of giving away movies and cutting prices.

DreamVision has released a 1080p D-ILA-based projector called the DreamBee, which boasts a 15,000:1 contrast ratio, and 1000 lumens of brightness. The oddly-War of the Worlds-shaped projector includes an RS-232 port and a pair of HDMI inputs, with the usual analog video and audio connectors, and retails for $14,000. The DreamBee Pro model adds another pair of HDMI ports, along with an external scaler for source management, and is priced at $19,000. Both models are available in colors like midnight, coconut, blue sky, hibiscus, and sunflower. No word on the possibility of a custom "red alien weed" color, or whether the controls are tentacle-friendly.

The HD DVD Promotional Group recently claimed that 74% of the market share for European high-definition DVD players is held by HD DVD, but the Blu-ray Disc Association points out that they conveniently "forgot" to include PS3s and PC drives in their count. Including those puts Blu-ray in the lead instead, with almost 95% of hardware sales. HD DVD lobbyists contend that most who buy game consoles don't even use them for watching high-def movies, while everyone who bought an HD DVD player will do exactly that. The fact that the PS3 is still basically cheaper than many of the standalone high-def players (Blu-ray or HD DVD) means it's not exactly honest to discount them completely either. All we know is that the format war continues, but as long as prices continue to fall, it's tough for the average consumer to complain about that.

European regulators have begun an inquiry into possible antitrust and anticompetitive practices by the Blu-ray Disc Association as it relates to agreements and restrictions on producing content for Blu-ray and its competing high-definition format, HD DVD. At the urging of some in the HD DVD camp, the European Commission has sent letters to many of the Hollywood studios asking them to produce any correspondence relating to their backing of the Blu-ray format. Of the major studios, Sony, Disney, Fox, Lions Gate, and MGM only release titles on Blu-ray, while only Universal is exclusive to HD DVD. Analysts say much is riding on the outcome of which format wins, with sales of content and players as a big incentive for either side. Is this inquiry just a case of sour grapes by HD DVD that sees itself as in trouble while Blu-ray has better agreements with studios? Or is the BDA not playing fair by using those vertical relationships to form a de facto monopoly? Those in the EU aim to find out.

[Thanks, LJKelley]