SONY FILMS TO USE OLD TECHNOLOGY FOR HI-DEF DVD'S

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SONY FILMS TO USE OLD TECHNOLOGY FOR HI-DEF DVD'S
Thursday, December 1 2005

Online techies were expressing surprise Wednesday at Sony's announcement that it will release its first movies on high-definition Blu-ray DVDs using the 11-year-old MPEG-2 system. Commented Nick Farrell of Britain's The Inquirer: "MPEG-2 was the codec which Noah used in the ark to watch old episodes of William Hartnell's Dr. Who during those long 40 days and 40 nights of rain." A writer for News.com observed, "By using either AVC or VC-1 [two other formats that are supported by the Blu-ray system], Sony could have achieved even better picture quality for the movies." But Don Eklund, senior vice president of advanced technology for Sony Pictures, responded: "Advanced formats don't necessarily improve picture quality. ... Our goal is to present the best picture quality for Blu-ray. Right now, and for the foreseeable future, that's with MPEG-2." Some writers saw the decision as inevitably pitting key members of Sony's film division against the parent company's Japanese electronics developers, who had reportedly pushed for employing the more advanced standards for Blu-ray.

NEW STORAGE SYSTEM MAY MAKE ALL DVD'S OBSOLETE
Monday, November 28 2005
Threatening to make both competing high-definition DVD systems, Blu-Ray and HD DVD, quickly obsolete, a holographic storage system that can store up to 300GB on a single disc is expected to hit the market by this time next year, Britain's New Scientist magazine is reporting in its current issue. The magazine noted that the technology behind it could eventually be developed to store up to 1.6 terabytes on a disk, the equivalent of 300 DVDs. (more)

MGM JOINS BLU-RAY CAMP
Thursday, November 10 2005
As expected, MGM has announced its support of Sony's Blu-ray high-definition DVD format against Toshiba's competing HD DVD system. The announcement came on Tuesday, roughly six months after Sony led an investment group in acquiring MGM from Kirk Kerkorian. Analysts had said at the time that one of the reasons for Sony's interest in the deal was MGM's vast library -- more than 4,000 titles -- which it could instantly convert to Blu-ray product. In (more)