HD-DVD format up for approval this week in Seattle

June 11, 2004

The DVD Forum will meet in Seattle this week, with the intent of finalizing the first commercial version of the HD-DVD blue-laser based disc format, for high-definition television and movies. For those that don't know, NEC and Toshiba are a couple of the main supporters of this new optical storage system that can hold anywhere from 15 to 30 gigabytes of data. Of course, the high definition content intended for these discs can fill it up in a hurry.

Approval of version 1.0 of the read-only variant of the HD-DVD (High-definition/high density DVD) format is on the agenda at the DVD Forum steering committee, which began on Wednesday, and is expected to pass, said Hiroshi Inada, chief research manager of NEC Corp.'s media and information research laboratories.

A preliminary version of the HD-DVD-ROM format, version 0.9, was approved in November last year. It specifies a storage capacity of 15GB on a single-layer disc. A dual-layer read-only disc will hold 30GB.

Three video codecs are expected to be mandatory: MPEG2 for legacy support of DVDs, MPEG4 AVC (H.264) and Microsoft Corp.'s Windows Media 9 (VC-9).

The format is expected to be approved, said Inada Thursday in Tokyo after unveiling NEC's latest work towards commercial HD-DVD drives.

The article indicates that approval is very likely. If so, the first drives from NEC could become available as early as next year. According to Mac Central, the company plans to sell the drives to OEM manufacturers of computers and also to consumer electronics companies for use in digital video players and recorders.

Those of you waiting on this high definition format, may wish to discuss news or ask questions, in the Satellite, HD-TV, Blu-ray and HD-DVD Forum.

Source: Mac Central