CE Daily
March 20, 2006
Warner Won't Comment on ICT
Toshiba Hints at HD DVD Delay to 'Synchronize' Hardware and Software A day after Warner Home Video (WHV) said its first HD DVD movie titles would "street" 3 weeks later than expected, Toshiba hinted Fri. it will push back its anticipated March 28 HD DVD player launch to "synchronize"
hardware and software availability.
Toshiba currently is working with its HD DVD studio and retailer partners "to finalize the sale date of our players," Vp-Mktg. Jodi Sally told Consumer Electronics Daily. "In order to maximize the launch of HD DVD, we intend to synchronize the launch of our players with HD DVD title releases." Sally said Toshiba's 40-city HD DVD road tour continues "to receive substantial positive feedback."
Assuring that consumers "get the best HD experience possible" when buying HD DVDs underlay WHV's decision to launch its first titles April 18, not March 28 as originally targeted, Senior Vp-Mkt. Management Steve Nickerson told us. He insisted no technical flaws in WHV's preferred
VC-1 codec or in authoring or replication were reasons. Cinram is replicating WHV's HD DVD titles at its plant in Olyphant, Pa., and will do likewise for
WHV's Blu-ray movies when they launch in July. WHV won't disclose whether it plans to use the controversial "Image Constraint Token" (ICT) under Advanced Access Content System (AACS) specs on its forthcoming HD DVD or Blu-ray titles, Nickerson told us.
Nickerson, breaking WHV's long silence on ICT -- if only to say it wouldn't discuss it - cited Warner Bros. studio protocol that bars commenting publicly on internal policy matters.
As we have reported, the ICT is an optional bit that a content owner can insert for HD programming played through unprotected analog connections.
When activated, the ICT would provide an image that at 960x540 is almost twice the resolution of the current DVD, but 1/2 the resolution of a full HD picture. Disney, Fox, Paramount and Sony Pictures have gone on record saying they won't use the ICT in their first slates of next-generation movie titles. All but Paramount are supporting only Blu-ray. Paramount is supporting Blu-ray and HD DVD. Lionsgate, Universal -- and until now, Warner -- have been silent on their ICT plans and haven't responded to our requests for comment on the issue.
Lionsgate supports Blu-ray only. Universal supports HD DVD. Warner backs both.
Licensing authority AACS LA has said studios using the ICT must under their AACS licenses disclose the practice to the public through consumer advisory labels affixed to the disc. Retailers who said they had been briefed by WHV told us the studio's first HD DVD titles -- Million Dollar Baby, Phantom of the Opera and The Last Samurai -- won't use the ICT.
With WHV's announcement pushing off street dates on those first titles by 3 weeks, Toshiba seemed to have little choice but to synchronize its hardware launch to avoid debuting HD DVD players with absolutely no software support. Nickerson, a Toshiba executive when the company launched DVD in 1997, said he appreciates the value of synchronizing hardware and software, having worked "on both sides."
He cautioned against reading too much significance into "the initial launch phase" of any new product like HD DVD, and said that applies when Blu-ray hits the streets. Accordingly, as for Toshiba's HD DVD decks launching with no software support, Nickerson said he believes that wouldn't be the end of the world. "It's not as if the machine isn't usable," Nickerson told us. He said Toshiba's HD DVD decks will play standard DVDs in better resolution than a current DVD player, and the promise of many HD DVD titles would be only days or a few weeks away. As of late Fri., sites such as BestBuy.com still listed March 28 availability of the first WHV HD DVD titles. Nickerson said WHV electronically communicated the new April 18 street dates to its accounts Fri. morning.
With WHV's first double-sided HD DVD and DVD hybrid title, Rumor Has It..., bearing a May 9 street date, packaging issues remain a "work in progress," Nickerson said. WHV is still working through the issues of the outside packaging, labeling of the disc itself and "what happens when the consumer puts the disc in the player," he said.
* * * * *
Nickerson said WHV has no plans on the table this year to market titles in BD-9. That's the red-laser-based format extension for short-form videos that Blu-ray inserted into its spec to win WHV's support. HD DVD's BD-9 equivalent is called 3X DVD-ROM. Sony on Fri. said its executives misspoke when they told us at the company's line show in Las Vegas last week that their BDP-S1 player wouldn't support BD-9 playback (CED March 17 p1). It does, as the Blu-ray hardware license requires.
---
Sony's BDP-S1 has analog component outputs yet complies with AACS, so it will recognize the ICT if present. But Vp-Audio-Video Mktg. Phil Abram said Sony was "very pleased to see the 4 studios aren't using ICT. It's good for us and good for them not to disenfranchise good customers."
---
Sony's Vaio operations are working with Sony Pictures Home Entertainment to fashion an "in-box movie bundle" when it ships its first Blu-ray-equipped notebook PC this year, dates and pricing undetermined, said Mike Abary, vp-gen. mgr., Vaio product mktg. He said the title targeted for the bundle is House of Flying Daggers, but plans are "not yet fixed." Abram wouldn't comment whether the BDP-S1 home player also will be bundled with a software title.
---
In Q&A, Abram said Sony wasn't concerned its $999-list BDP-S1 would be at a competitive price disadvantage to Toshiba's $499 HD-A1 HD DVD player. Sony's first DVD player commanded a similar $1,000 price point when it launched in 1997 vs. Toshiba's first deck, which was 1/2 that price. Even so, Sony's outsold Toshiba's when both were the same format, Abram said. "Now we have the better format." -- Paul Gluckman
March 20, 2006
Warner Won't Comment on ICT
Toshiba Hints at HD DVD Delay to 'Synchronize' Hardware and Software A day after Warner Home Video (WHV) said its first HD DVD movie titles would "street" 3 weeks later than expected, Toshiba hinted Fri. it will push back its anticipated March 28 HD DVD player launch to "synchronize"
hardware and software availability.
Toshiba currently is working with its HD DVD studio and retailer partners "to finalize the sale date of our players," Vp-Mktg. Jodi Sally told Consumer Electronics Daily. "In order to maximize the launch of HD DVD, we intend to synchronize the launch of our players with HD DVD title releases." Sally said Toshiba's 40-city HD DVD road tour continues "to receive substantial positive feedback."
Assuring that consumers "get the best HD experience possible" when buying HD DVDs underlay WHV's decision to launch its first titles April 18, not March 28 as originally targeted, Senior Vp-Mkt. Management Steve Nickerson told us. He insisted no technical flaws in WHV's preferred
VC-1 codec or in authoring or replication were reasons. Cinram is replicating WHV's HD DVD titles at its plant in Olyphant, Pa., and will do likewise for
WHV's Blu-ray movies when they launch in July. WHV won't disclose whether it plans to use the controversial "Image Constraint Token" (ICT) under Advanced Access Content System (AACS) specs on its forthcoming HD DVD or Blu-ray titles, Nickerson told us.
Nickerson, breaking WHV's long silence on ICT -- if only to say it wouldn't discuss it - cited Warner Bros. studio protocol that bars commenting publicly on internal policy matters.
As we have reported, the ICT is an optional bit that a content owner can insert for HD programming played through unprotected analog connections.
When activated, the ICT would provide an image that at 960x540 is almost twice the resolution of the current DVD, but 1/2 the resolution of a full HD picture. Disney, Fox, Paramount and Sony Pictures have gone on record saying they won't use the ICT in their first slates of next-generation movie titles. All but Paramount are supporting only Blu-ray. Paramount is supporting Blu-ray and HD DVD. Lionsgate, Universal -- and until now, Warner -- have been silent on their ICT plans and haven't responded to our requests for comment on the issue.
Lionsgate supports Blu-ray only. Universal supports HD DVD. Warner backs both.
Licensing authority AACS LA has said studios using the ICT must under their AACS licenses disclose the practice to the public through consumer advisory labels affixed to the disc. Retailers who said they had been briefed by WHV told us the studio's first HD DVD titles -- Million Dollar Baby, Phantom of the Opera and The Last Samurai -- won't use the ICT.
With WHV's announcement pushing off street dates on those first titles by 3 weeks, Toshiba seemed to have little choice but to synchronize its hardware launch to avoid debuting HD DVD players with absolutely no software support. Nickerson, a Toshiba executive when the company launched DVD in 1997, said he appreciates the value of synchronizing hardware and software, having worked "on both sides."
He cautioned against reading too much significance into "the initial launch phase" of any new product like HD DVD, and said that applies when Blu-ray hits the streets. Accordingly, as for Toshiba's HD DVD decks launching with no software support, Nickerson said he believes that wouldn't be the end of the world. "It's not as if the machine isn't usable," Nickerson told us. He said Toshiba's HD DVD decks will play standard DVDs in better resolution than a current DVD player, and the promise of many HD DVD titles would be only days or a few weeks away. As of late Fri., sites such as BestBuy.com still listed March 28 availability of the first WHV HD DVD titles. Nickerson said WHV electronically communicated the new April 18 street dates to its accounts Fri. morning.
With WHV's first double-sided HD DVD and DVD hybrid title, Rumor Has It..., bearing a May 9 street date, packaging issues remain a "work in progress," Nickerson said. WHV is still working through the issues of the outside packaging, labeling of the disc itself and "what happens when the consumer puts the disc in the player," he said.
* * * * *
Nickerson said WHV has no plans on the table this year to market titles in BD-9. That's the red-laser-based format extension for short-form videos that Blu-ray inserted into its spec to win WHV's support. HD DVD's BD-9 equivalent is called 3X DVD-ROM. Sony on Fri. said its executives misspoke when they told us at the company's line show in Las Vegas last week that their BDP-S1 player wouldn't support BD-9 playback (CED March 17 p1). It does, as the Blu-ray hardware license requires.
---
Sony's BDP-S1 has analog component outputs yet complies with AACS, so it will recognize the ICT if present. But Vp-Audio-Video Mktg. Phil Abram said Sony was "very pleased to see the 4 studios aren't using ICT. It's good for us and good for them not to disenfranchise good customers."
---
Sony's Vaio operations are working with Sony Pictures Home Entertainment to fashion an "in-box movie bundle" when it ships its first Blu-ray-equipped notebook PC this year, dates and pricing undetermined, said Mike Abary, vp-gen. mgr., Vaio product mktg. He said the title targeted for the bundle is House of Flying Daggers, but plans are "not yet fixed." Abram wouldn't comment whether the BDP-S1 home player also will be bundled with a software title.
---
In Q&A, Abram said Sony wasn't concerned its $999-list BDP-S1 would be at a competitive price disadvantage to Toshiba's $499 HD-A1 HD DVD player. Sony's first DVD player commanded a similar $1,000 price point when it launched in 1997 vs. Toshiba's first deck, which was 1/2 that price. Even so, Sony's outsold Toshiba's when both were the same format, Abram said. "Now we have the better format." -- Paul Gluckman