Remember Total HD? No? I’m not surprised. Total HD (THD) was developed by Warner Brothers as their ‘solution’ to the Blu-ray / HD DVD war. It is a hybrid disc – HD DVD on one side, Blu-ray on the other. Warner, being one of the two major studios to support both formats (Paramount is the other), saw THD as a way to release one version of their films so as not to have to stock both BD and HD DVD at retail.

Originally, THD titles were to be on shelves this fall. But now Warner is saying they won’t be out until early 2008. That’s after the holiday season, which many people feel may signal an end to the war – obviating the need for THD at all. With Blockbuster’s recent decision to back Blu-ray, and the momentum of BD as the market leader, perhaps Warner decided to cut their losses and wait it out. If BD dominates after the holiday season, it would be an excuse for them to drop HD DVD completely and reduce their costs.

THD isn’t a perfect solution either. The spec as presented limited the BD side to a single layer – 25GB. So it lost the benefits of BD’s 50GB dual-layer capacity. This is close to HD DVDs 30GB max capacity, so it would be likely that one encoding, designed to fit in 25GB, would be used for both sides. This made the format unpopular with knowledgeable consumers even before it hits the streets.

Via Blu-ray.com.

Now that BD+ Technologies, LLC has completed their licensing program for BD+, it looks like the studios have begun to sign up. Their website shows Fox has signed up as a ‘content participant’. Fox, MGM, and Disney have, in the past, expressed support for the BD+ development, and it is widely believed that they’ve been holding back catalog releases pending the availability of BD+. With it now available, we may see even more Blu-ray releases.

Via Blu-ray.com.

Here’s a great editorial from The Digital Bits on why HD DVD can never win this format war – and the only possibilities are a draw (bad for everyone) or BD winning. If you have any interest at all in this format war, and you probably wouldn’t be reading this if you didn’t, it is worth a read.

And, finally, some more news on the offer of five free BD titles with the purchase of a player that I posted about yesterday. The official press release hit today with more details. You need to purchase a ‘qualifying’ Blu-ray player between July 1 and September 30, 2007. Then you will be able to select five titles from a list of 21 available titles via a mail-in offer. The titles are:Babel, Black Rain, Blazing Saddles, Chicken Little, The Corpse Bride, The Devil’s Rejects, The Guardian, Hart’s War, Invincible, The Italian Job, Kiss of the Dragon, The Last Waltz, The Omen [2006], Pearl Harbor, The Phantom of the Opera, Resident Evil: Apocalypse, Species, Stealth, Stir of Echoes, The Transporter 2 and Underworld: Evolution. The www.bluraysavings.com site will be live July 1st.

The full press release:
Continue reading →