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More HD movies hit iTunes' virtual shelves
Apple has added many new HD movie titles to iTunes, according to former TUAWian David Chartier's post for Macworld. David, who is an HD-aficionado, noticed that the iTunes Store just recently stocked both classic and new release HD movies, bringing the HD movie collection to nearly 300 titles. The new HD content is sold at a premium price (typically $20), and as far as we can tell that pricing stands regardless of whether or not the movies offer iTunes Extras. A few titles, mostly items that were already available on iTunes, sell for less -- such as Terminator 2 [iTunes link] for just $13. Until now, Apple has offered some of its HD content as exclusive Apple TV rentals. Items could be rented from Apple TV units that were not available to rent from the normal iTunes Store. It's unclear at this time whether Apple will continue this policy of exclusive Apple TV rentals, or will expand the iTunes store-based rental system to match the Apple TV offerings.
Reggie denies the existence of Wii HD
Though plenty of people -- analyst Michael Pachter chief among them -- are pretty certain that an HD version of the Wii is in the pipeline, you're not going to catch Nintendo's Reggie Fils-Amie copping to it. Speaking with Geoff Keighley on Gametrailers TV, the Regginator said, "Michael continues to be the only one who believes that this is gonna happen. I don't know how forcefully we can say there is no Wii HD." It certainly sounds like a firm refusal, but let's all try to remember that the shelf life of a Nintendo denial is exactly 10 days.
Nintendo might be considering hybrid HD/SD console
In a voluminous response to an investor question about moving to support high-definition output, Nintendo executives laid out their current thoughts on how and when to make such a move in their consoles. Of course, these thoughts shouldn't be taken as a definite indicator of Nintendo's plans, but they might suggest where the company could be headed in the next generation. And if these statements do reflect future events, Nintendo's next console will be HD-capable, but won't require that standard for every game. Genyo Takeda, GM of Nintendo's Integrated Research & Development Division, said that "moving to HD appears to me a natural flow" given the adoption of HD by television programming. "If we can find out the most appropriate medium, between SD and HD, and flexibly move around them depending on the game's contents, it will be good, I think," he suggested. Shigeru Miyamoto agreed, noting that HD wasn't the most important consideration for something like Wii Fit. "Won't HD be better for the games like Pikmin? The developers should choose the most appropriate graphical format depending on the software they make."
China Blue HD crosses over to the UK, third Opium War inevitable
We've given HD DVD's bastard child China Blue HD its due for a good start in its native land, but now that U.K. Importer GBAX has made a few units available it's time for English language buyers to at least consider this Blu-ray alternative. Of course, with a £259.99 ($413.22 U.S.) pricetag for this plain TCL player, AV and HD cables, plus 14 CBHD movies (The Aviator, Blood Diamond, The Invasion, The Island, Flood, Poseidon & 8 Chinese-only flicks) to get you started the barrier to entry is high, but as shown in the unboxing / preview video -- embedded after the break, watch for ninjas -- the experience is very familiar. As Format War Central points out, the 220/240Hz power cord makes things complicated for the U.S. and other places outside Europe, but hardcore HD DVD holdouts are used to a world filled with only Warner and Universal movies already, so why not give the other blue laser flavor a try? [Via Format War Central]
Craig Ferguson's The Late Late Show switches to high definition at the end of August
We ask, and we receive. A few months after Craig Ferguson topped our poll asking who is still watching standard definition television comes word that The Late Late Show is going high definition. CBS plans to flip the HDTV switch August 31, complete with an updated show opener and theme song. There's nothing better that we can think of than seeing that beautiful, beautiful face in HD...wait, we may need to reconsider this.
SteelSeries adds Xai and Kinzu to gaming mouse family
After the extravagant aesthetics of the World of Warcraft-branded mouse, SteelSeries has returned to its roots with a pair of ambidextrous high-definition mice. The laser-powered Xai grabs the major price tag of just under $80, and in exchange offers a 10.8-megapixels per second sensor, up to 5,001 CPI, and a design engineered in accordance with the whims of professional gamers. Most intriguing is the built-in LCD menu system, where you can fully configure the mouse and then store those settings within the peripheral itself, making for a consistent experience across multiple computers. The Kinzu is the slightly smaller, LCD-deprived optical brother of the Xai, and will set you back a more conservative $34.99 when the two mice, alongside a freshly polished new gaming surface, become available in August.
UK film critic doesn't understand using HDTV to watch old movies, why kids are on his lawn
Another day, another ignorant article about high definition. This time it's Peter Bradshaw, film critic for Guardian.co.uk, claiming Humphrey Bogart would have any cameraman approximating a "high definition" effect thrown off the set. Blatantly ignoring the fact that movies of that era were made on 35mm film with more resolution than even 1080p Blu-ray can display, Bradshaw claims that instead of a HDTV, viewers would be better off with a standard definition projector and DVDs. This is all in response to a recent Sky ad campaign (check out the video with Sir Anthony Hopkins dropping in Rutger Hauer's Blade Runner monologue after the break, plus the original) promoting the broadcaster's new HD transfers, allowing home viewing of many older films in quality that would be impossible unless you'd seen it the first week in theaters, and with sound that likely surpasses anything available at the time. What someone should explain to Mr. Bradshaw and so many others with this misconception is that HDTV allows us to see the movie closer to the way it was meant to be seen when it was originally mastered, with all the detail that was present. Provided a high quality transfer, there's plenty of reasons to catch old flicks in a new format, so spread the word.
World Touring Car Championship is the first FIA racing series in HD
The first FIA World Championship has scheduled its switch to high definition -- unfortunately, it isn't F1. Still, World Touring Car Championship fans can expect sweet sweet HD from track side and RF cameras (on board is still 16:9 SD) on nine of the season's twelve events, starting in the third week from Marrakech. No word on which broadcasters will air the races in HD other than that "several" plan to, but we hope this is just a test run before we get a clearer view from all the Formula One events soon -- c'mon Bernie, you're not going to let NASCAR and Indy stay ahead, are you?[Via F1SA]
Digital foundry's HDScope is the capture device for gamers who serve gamers videos about gaming
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]
Comedy Central HD launches today on Cablevision
Comedy Central HD launches today, and Cablevision iO TV subscribers will be the first to see it. According to Multichannel News we can expect 200 hours or so of native HD programming to start, including about 30 episodes of South Park, The Sarah Silverman Program, plus loads of archived stand up and films. Coming up fresh and new for your HDTV is season 13 of South Park, Reno 911, The Flaming Sward of Fire and Krod Mandoon, while The Daily Show with Jon Stewart,and The Colbert Report will get an HD upgrade at a later date. Besides nabbing the exclusive, Cablevision's trumpeting its numbers showing HD penetration is up to nearly 50 percent of iO TV subs, with 69 HD channels available. Otherwise, DirecTV and Cox will be adding later this month with more launches due later in the year -- hopefully Time Warner worked that into the latest deal with Viacom.[Via Multichannel News]
Miyamoto: We're not 'soft on graphics'
var digg_url = 'http://digg.com/nintendo/Miyamoto_We_re_not_soft_on_graphics_Nintendo_Wii_Fanboy'; During a recent interview, Nintendo's Shigeru Miyamoto was quick to stick up for Nintendo's latest console and its graphical capabilities. It's one of the most criticized points of the console, as you're well aware, but Miyamoto thinks it's more than capable of getting the job done, stating that "When it comes to specific points such as generating high definition graphics we might appear to be rather relaxed and soft on graphics," further adding "the fact of the matter is that Wii is capable enough to cater to the needs of these hardcore gamers in terms of gameplay content as well as the graphical content, so I really don't want people to be concerned about that kind of attitude."When asked about a new version of Wii with HD, Miyamoto wanted everyone to know that Nintendo isn't behind the times. "the fact of the matter is that technology is evolving all the time and in Japan, for example in the year 2010 all the analogue broadcast will be stopped and shifted into the digital broadcasting. So many things are taking place and we are working in terms of the changes of the technologies all the time." So, Nintendo isn't totally out of touch, and we could see a HD version of Wii release, but will we? "I'm afraid we cannot confirm what we are doing today." Of course, Miyamoto.[Via CVG]
Election '08 coming home in HD like never before
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.
A big bag of Blu-Ray hurt for Apple
Just the other day I was wondering on this very site just where Blu-Ray has been on Macs, and yesterday's big Apple event gave us the answer: Blu-Ray, according to Steve Jobs, is just "a big bag of hurt." Apple says they haven't settled on an HD format yet because no one else has either: "the licensing of the tech is so complex, we're waiting until things settle down and Blu-Ray takes off in the marketplace," said Jobs. He might as well have added an "if it does" on the end of there -- Sony, spurned by the Betamax loss, wants to make sure they get credit when Blu-ray gets popular, and for that very reason it may never be.In fact, if Apple has their way, there may not be a physical media of choice for high-definition content -- Phil Schiller pointed out that iTunes has plenty of HD TV and movie options without ever tying Apple down to licensing a specific format.Which is exactly everything we said last week. And I'm drinking the kool-aid, actually -- a while back, I was one who would have said that people need their physical media, but nowadays, I'm not so sure. I haven't bought a DVD, HD or otherwise, in months and months, and yet I've purchased and seen plenty of HD content in iTunes and over my Xbox and cable connection. Blu-Ray may have won the HD disc format wars and claimed the country, but maybe there's nobody living there any more.
SNK considering Metal Slug HD makeover
SNK may soon be trading in its "rocket lawncher" for a high-def upgrade, as IGN reports that the company is considering bringing an HD version of Metal Slug to consoles. If true, the move would echo recent efforts by the company, such as with the forthcoming The King of Fighters XII, to abandon stale sprites for delicious eye candy.Nothing else is known of SNK's future plans for the franchise, and considering that the company merely looks forward to announcing something "someday soon," we are not holding our breath just yet. However, fans itching for a retro fix can pick up Metal Slug 7 when it rolls on to the DS in November.
Study: 18% of consumers bought HDTV for console use
A new study by Frank N. Magid Associates shows that 18% of HDTV purchasers in the last year bought one because of their Xbox 360 or PS3. GameDaily reports the study found that 5.5 million households purchased an HDTV for the first time in the last year and that 25% of households now have at least one HDTV set in the home.Sony could come out a big winner if this trend continues, with the high-def movie format war locked up and the only console with HD movie playback built-in. Then again, we can only imagine the continuing Nintendo profit madness if there ever ended up being a Wii: Blu-ray edition.
Apple TV 'T2' HD video is pretty good, says iLounge
There's been some controversy about the HD video quality on the Apple TV, which we've covered before. Now that Take Two has dropped, iLounge has done the legwork to put together an excellent visual comparison. They compared four versions of Live Free and Die Hard: Blu-ray, Apple TV HD, Cable HD, and DVD. The results were quite good for the Apple TV; while Blu-ray was the clear and expected winner, the Apple TV version outpaced the Cable HD version on several of the tests, particularly those testing compression artifacts. The upshot: "Because of its cleaner motion and audio, we felt that the Apple experience was better in both overall audio and video quality than the HD cable experience, and for most users, superior to renting a standard DVD as well." Check out their full article for many more comparison shots.
Sony intros the makeup-inducing PCS-XG80 1080i video conferencing system
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.
When is HD not HD?
ZDNet's George Ou doesn't exactly have a great record when it comes to Apple related analysis, but even the stopped clock is right twice a day, and he's got an interesting article up about the forthcoming HD movies that Apple is planning to offer with Apple TV Take Two. His central point is this: high definition video is about more than resolution (whether 720p or 1080i/p); it also matters significantly how much the video is compressed. So his complaint is that the HD download services (both Xbox Live and the forthcoming Apple TV) offer video compressed so highly that even if it has the requisite number of pixels it "is simply not HD by any respectable definition." He's got another post illustrating the point.Having become a bit of a HD video buff myself, I think his central claim is true. The highly-compressed video from the download services does not hold a candle to Blu-ray or HD DVD on a large 1080p display. If you think about the files' relative sizes, how could it possibly? By the same token, however, it's not entirely clear that this is what matters most to consumers. The obvious comparison is to audio; 128kb AAC files sound significantly worse than CDs with complex music and yet Apple has sold literally billions of them. So it may turn out that the convenience of the HD downloads ends up trumping video quality except for the videophiles. However, if that's so it's nonetheless true that average consumers make up the fat part of the curve where the real money is to be made. So even if Ou is right about the technical issues, it's not entirely clear that it'll matter in the long run. What do you think?[via Engadget HD]
Japan <3s Blu-ray
We've been hearing a lot about various Blu-ray vs HD DVD sales figures from the US and Europe over the last year or so, but Japan has been strangely quiet when it comes picking their favorite format for adoption. Until now, that is. At the end of 2007 sales for High-Definition discs and players skyrocketed in the region and, in particular, for Blu-ray.High definition players made up 35% of the total value of DVD player sales during the three month period. Of that, 90% of HD player sales were Blu-ray. Keep in mind that this doesn't factor in PS3 sales and took place before Warner's big bombshell earlier this month. The Japanese have been voting with their wallets and it seems they're backing Blu.
WirelessHD version 1.0 is complete
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.
