What Is HDVD?

The term HDVD stands for three different ways to distribute high definition video:

  1. High Definition Video Disc
  2. High Definition Video Download
  3. High Definition Video Device

High Definition Video Disc includes:

  1. Blu-ray. This is the optical disc promoted by Sony. It's the only such disc now being sold in the United States and Europe with backing from a major manufacturer. Early in the game, buyers of Blu-ray discs experienced quality problems. But Sony has been working hard to perfect the Blu-ray specifications and kill the bugs.
  2. HD DVD. This is the optical disc formerly promoted by Toshiba. Toshiba pulled out on February 19, 2008. However, there still is a market for HD DVD titles that were made while the "format war" ragued on.
  3. Toshiba super-duper DVD. Why did Toshiba dump HD DVD? Maybe they think that blue laser technology isn't needed at all to produce a high definition video disc! Toshiba apparently believes that better recording methods, software, and hardware will allow red laser DVDs to produce a 1080p picture competitive with that produced by a blue laser device. In the fall of 2008, Toshiba came out with the XDE500 (extended detail) device that "super-upconverts" DVDs to 1080p. Reports indicate this device competes effectively in upscaling with the Sony Playstation 3 and similar players. But this is no threat to Blu-ray. For just a little more money, you can buy an upscaling Blu-ray player and have it all. The next step for Toshiba may be a stripped down version of the advanced and graphics-oriented Cell Processor used in the Sony Playstation. (Yes, Toshiba was a partner with Sony in developing the Cell Processor.) This would do the best job possible with legacy DVDs. New DVDs (with material shot and processed with high definition in mind) might be good enough, with a lower price point, to compete with Sony's Blu-ray.
  4. CBHD. Have you heard of this one? This is China Blue High-definition Disc, the Chinese variation of HD DVD. While Toshiba was the proud papa to HD DVD, nobody paid much attention to the bastard son in China. But CBHD may be up and running in 2009. Would you rather compete with Toshiba or with the Chinese?

High Definition Video Download. If a title is available in high definition, then one day you should be able to get it by downloading it into your media center or a PC either as a streaming program or to local storage on a disc or a flash device. The New York Met has already started on this with their Met Player streaming download service. Now you can download and see HDVDs of 13 operas from the Met. But it's quite a daunting project now to get an Internet bitstream properly intergrated with a typical home theater based on an AV receiver, a big screen, and a 5.1 set of speakers. Many other players are entering this market. Hashing all this out will make the Blu-ray vs. HD DVD format war look like a children's game of Tic-Tac-Toe.

High Definition Video Device. Now we start looking further over the horizon and consider any transportable media (other than magnetic or optical discs) that could be used to make a video. The best example of this would be the read-only flash memory device. Toshiba is one of the leaders in this fast-developing field of technology. If you don't know about this, let me describe it this way: You get in the mail from your seller or rental company a smooth solid-state (no moving parts) object about the size of the handle of a small kitchen knife. You stick the end of this into a small hole on your audio-visual amp or PC. Then you watch Aida on your big high-definition television screen with 7.1 lossless audio.

Some knowledgeable observers believe that Toshiba dumped the HD DVD disc because they became convinced that all optical video discs are now obsolete. Toshiba is making huge investments in flash memory. Could they start promoting high definition flash entertainment media to consumers before Sony can get Blu-ray profitable?

So far, this discussion has been focused on how the video gets to the consumer. Another aspects of this will be the standard in the future for "high definition." Today we think in terms of 720p, 1080i, and 1080p. This will one day be obsolete. The manufacturers are working now on video factors that will have, say, 4096 horizontal lines in the picture. And they say that once you see "4K," you will never be happy with 1080p again. And, Oh! Anybody want to see an opera in 3-D?

At this time, nobody is suggesting that broadcast television will in the forseeable future go to a standard higher than 1080p, which has not yet been implimented generally anywhere in the world. What is suggested, however, is that the standards used in high-definition home theaters one day may be completely divorced from the world of television broadcasting.

Last revised January 3, 2009.