The Legacy of HD DVD
HD DVD was a next generation disc format developed by Toshiba and NEC to succeed standard definition DVD. While Blu-ray Disc eventually emerged as the consumer and industry format of choice, Both the HD DVD and Blu-ray formats had a lot in common. HD DVD utilized the same audio and video codecs (AVC, VC-1 & MPEG-2) as Blu-ray Disc, and it offered high-resolution menus with advanced interactivity similar to those offered by Blu-ray Disc. There were differences, however, between the two formats. The HD DVD specification, from its inception, required that all players come equipped with a network port to allow for content to be dynamically updated via the internet. HD DVD also allowed, from the start, two simultaneous video streams making picture-in-picture features possible in the earliest of players. Blu-ray Disc, on the other hand, did not offer picture-in-picture and network connectivity features until the introduction of profile 1.1 compliant players. And even now, network connectivity is not a mandatory feature, and will not be until profile 2.0 players are released. This is expected to happen sometime in late 2008.
Certain HD DVD players, such as the Toshiba HD-XA2, also featured an RS-232C controller port, which has yet to be included in any Blu-ray player. Because of this, the Toshiba HD-XA2 stood alone as the ideal player for any exhibit situation where a higher level of control was required.
Unlike Blu-ray Disc’s Java-based interactivity, the advanced programming language for HD DVD was built upon web technology and utilized XML, CSS, SMIL and a scripting language called HDi which was built upon ECMAScript (the family of languages that includes JavaScript). This scripting capability allowed for titles to contain advanced applications that could interact with and appear in-synch on the same screen with any high definition video. Many applications that are possible with Blu-ray Disc and BD-J, such as onscreen pop-up menus, custom playlist builders, picture in picture commentary, and pop-up facts were also possible with HD DVD.
Although HD DVD was a major contender in the beginning, there was a major drawback that created problems when developing for the format. For almost its entire life on the market there were no HD DVD-R burners on the market. This made short-run HD DVD duplication practically impossible. For limited use titles such as tradeshows or demonstrations, Blu-ray Disc emerged as a winning alternative since BD-R was a readily available media even before Blu-ray players hit the shelves.
HD DVD stayed alive in the smaller markets however, in part because even though there were no HD DVD burners, an HD DVD image could have been burned to DVD-R media and played back on any HD DVD set top player. Functionality was identitical to that of HD DVD media, however a major drawback was that the disc could only hold approximately 20-25 minutes of content. This was due to the limited capacity of DVD-Rs. Although this proved to be an acceptable solution for small jobs, such as a short tradeshow loop, it did not allow for short run distribution of long-form projects aiming to harness the true quality of high-definition.
