In just the past few days, the magazine C'T has gotten hold of some very new hardware that uses the next generation blue laser. They don't get it for long, but while they have it they don't mess around! Earlier, it was reported here and at various sites on the Internet, that C'T also had a first look at a pre-production Blu-ray recording device from Samsung. Now, they have managed to obtain a pre-production HD-DVD unit from NEC for us to read about. Unfortunately, it is only a reader and cannot write, also neither of the blue laser devices were using AACS-but still, we have some very interesting observations and comments in this article. It kind of gives us a sneak peek at what may be coming, especially with this MSI chip mentioned and the combined lens that NEC is developing. Below is a translation from the German magazine Heise:
|  Only two days after testing the first Blu-ray burner, the computer magazine C'T has taken a look at the first HD-DVD drive. Just like the BD-Burner, this one is an engineering sample that still lacks AACS support. NEC wants to offer this device for 400 Euro in Germany. Unlike Samsung's SH-B022 there is no support for writing and CDs, DVDs and HD-DVDs can only be read. The first HD-DVD burner is going to follow in July.
While Samsung uses two lenses for the BD drive (one for CDs and DVDs, one for BD), NEC only uses a single one in their HR-1100A for all three formats. The sample, which is in a development state since last summer, exhibited high access times from 142 ms for CD-R, 370 ms for HD-DVD and even 1057 ms for a DVD-9. NEC promises to reduce these values for the final version.
HD-DVDs are read at 2x, achieving an average transfer rate of 8.7 MB/s. On DVD-9 it reaches 6.2 MB/s, on DVD-R 7.4 MB/s and 3.7 MB/s on a CD-R. Not excellent, but acceptable.
But NEC still has to optimize error correction though, since the HR-1100A neither recognized our Test-DVD-R with high Jitter, nor a baldy pressed DVD-ROM (called horror disc). A hybrid HD-DVD with a DVD and an HD-DVD layer was not supported by the drive at all. However, NEC has promised thet the retail unit will handle these medias when it is released.
While reading a track from an audio CD which had a 1.2 mm wide scratch, the HR-1100A needed more than 20 minutes, giving lots of errors. In a listening test, the drive was able to accept and played tracks with a scratch width of 3 mm without any discernable noise. We could only read 4 out of 8 copy protected audio CDs in the HR-1100A.
Although the HD-DVD-ROM drive does not have a cooler, in two out of three cases it was louder than Samsung's Blu-ray burner. HD-DVDs are read with 3.6 Sone, Video-DVDs with 1.1 Sone and CDs with 5.9 Sone (measured with a 25 cm distance). Compared to current DVD drives this is still silent.
HD DVD will be available in 3 formats later. A HD DVD-ROM will be able to store 15 GB on one and 30 GB on two layers. Recordable HD-DVD-R and rewritable HD-DVD-RW discs will store the same amount of data. Additionally a HD-DVD-RAM is planned which stores date in the track (Groove) as well as on heights in between (Lands). It will have 20 GB with one and 32 GB with two layers.
At about the same time when the HD-DVD-ROM drive is launched, MSI wants to release graphics adapters in the second quarter that support encrypting the DVI signal with HDCP. This will be possible with ATI's X1000 series chips. The adapters have to be protected with a special BIOS chip, containing a protected area for HDCP keys. I will not be possible to add this to graphic adapters without these chip - without HDCP you will only be able to watch HD movies in standard resolution as Hollywood wants to prevent recording of HD-Material from the VGA output.
NEC showed some test movies with 720p and 1080p resolution as examples. H.264/AVC, VC-1, MPEG-2 and Nero Digital codecs were used which could be played back without problems with Nero's software. HD-DVD-ROMs with Hollywood movies are not available yet. Hardware recommendations are about as high as for Blu-ray: A Pentium 4 with 3 GHz (or Athlon 64 3000+) and a graphics adapter with at least 128 MB RAM. Recommended are adapters, which support acceleration of H.264 or VC-1 movie playback.
Conclusion:
Regarding the technical capabilities, the HD-DVD drive is behind the Blu-ray burner. NEC's engineers still have to work on CD- and DVD-support through the combined lens. Samsung has an advantage by the usage of a second lens in the BD burner.
But in retail markets costs are a factor for success too. The introductory price of 400 Euro could go down soon as the HD-DVD burner that will follow in summer is supposed to not be more expensive. In addition HD-DVD recordables will be much cheaper than BD discs NEC assumed: About 10 to 12 Euro for an HD-DVD-R with 15 GB while TDK wants to have 20 Euro for a BD-R with 25 GB.
The HD-DVD-ROM will mainly be offered to OEMs for usage in HD capable PCs. These should be cheaper to get than equivalent PCs with Blu-ray support. NEC wants to achieve higher device sales in retail with the burner in July. Until then VGA manufacturers will also offer cards with HDCP support.
The entire test of NEC's HD-DVD drive will be published in the next issue 04/06 of the computer magazine c't that is available from February 6th.
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For those of you that can read in German and would like to take a look at this great story from Heise at it's source, you may find it by following this link.
Source: Heise
