Not everyone has been won over by Toshiba's XDE upscaling, but the company has no plans of abandoning its in-house developed tech; at least that's what key folks behind XDE said in an interview with Home Cinema Choice mag. Not surprisingly, there's a lack of specific sales figures or technical detail on how the adaptive processing works -- there's nothing wrong with holding on to the secret sauce, after all -- but the interview definitely shows that Toshiba is feeling pressure from falling Blu-ray player prices. We've got to wonder how the company is going to deliver a model cheaper than the $150 XD-E500, though -- the gap between standard DVD spinners and cheap Blu-ray players is getting awfully thin, even for pixie dust.

Not like we haven't heard about these much anticipated features already, but it's always refreshing to get it straight from the horse's mouth. Or Warner Home Video's mouth, in this case. The Dark Knight marks the studio's very first foray into the controversial world of BD-Live, and what's apt to be the best selling BD of the year will pack quite the interactive punch. Owners with Profile 2.0 players will be able to "host their own Live Community Screenings with friends, record and post user-generated commentaries over the film using My WB Commentary, access more The Dark Knight content exclusive to Warner Bros. BD-Live, get sneak peeks and trailers of upcoming Warner Bros. films, create an online library of Blu-ray movies, manage a wish list for upcoming releases and connect to the WB store." As we've already seen in a number of instances, there's also a hint of a BD-Live-assisted interview with director Christopher Nolan "during a special Live Community Screening." For the full spill, give that read link a gentle tap.

Many may still be scratching their heads at why exactly Blockbuster decided to delve head first into the world of digital downloads this late in the game with such a weak (on paper, anyway) offering. CEO Jim Keyes recently sat down with E-Commerce News to clarify a few things, and here's the skinny. For starters, it's not using a pure "streaming" method on the MediaPoint; instead, it's using a "progressive download" in hopes of improving the quality of the experience for those without a pure, continuous connection. Next, it's solely relying on an à la carte way of delivering films in order to bring new releases to the home faster, and if you've taken a look at Netflix's online availability of those very titles, you'll start to see the difference. Potentially most revealing were his quotes on future endeavors, where he candidly admits that its download services will be coming to undisclosed Blu-ray players "by the first quarter of next year." Whether or not the public will actually view that as a selling point, however, remains to be seen.

[Image courtesy of CEOSmack, thanks Anthony]

As the news networks spend oodles of cash in order to one-up the other with whiz-bang visuals and mind-melting charts, CNN is looking to blow just about everyone else away. As election night officially kicks off in just a few hours, the network's Wolf Blitzer will be conducting interviews with faraway strategists not via the traditional two-pane window, but by hologram. Believe it or not, professionals in Chicago and Phoenix will be beamed live to CNN's New York studios in order to give viewers a look at Wolf and a ghostly counterpart. Granted, this is far from the first holographic / 3D interview we've seen, but it is rather impressive given the scenario. In related news, we're also told that FOX News will be touting a "giant wall with touch-screen technology [that] will provide electoral map results," which hopefully translates in geek speak to "Surface."

[Via Hack-A-Day]

While this wasn't the only live 3D broadcast going on at IBC2008, we couldn't resist passing along a video of this one in action. Net Insight was at the show demonstrating a live 3D telepresence setup using a 1.5Gbps connection. From Stockholm (the show floor is in Amsterdam), a company employee was able to wave and communicate in real-time in stunning 3D. The kicker? No funky goggles were required to see him, and while you needed to stand pretty much directly in front of the display in order to get the full effect, we can't help but be wowed at what went on here. Seriously, check out the video in the read link and imagine watching a movie in this manner in your own home. It's good stuff, we promise.

[Thanks, Tommie]

With HD DVD in its rearview mirror, it seems the only topic of conversation is whether or not Blu-ray will ever overtake DVD as the dominant media format. Count THX's Chief Scientist Laurie Fincham among the skeptics, he derides it for being "yet another spinning format", which is only holding us back from the glorious future of HD movies stored on flash cards. By his reckoning, when Blu-ray hits the mass market, 128GB cards will have obviated the need for 50GB discs, and provide the convenience of carrying several movies around in your pocket combined with the ease of digital distribution. Check the read link for more tidbits from the interview with Home Cinema Choice Magazine and see how all that sounds to you.

[Via Movie Web]

Oh, how the times have changed. Merely months ago we caught Frank Simonis, chairman of the Blu-ray Disc Association, firing off all sorts of vitriol at the red camp, and now that the wheels are falling off of the HD DVD wagon, we're seeing quite the change of heart. According to a recent interview with Tech Radar, Mr. Simonis was quoted as saying that Toshiba and Microsoft, along with any other company, is "more than welcome to join the BDA." He continued by stating that if "Toshiba decides to drop HD DVD, it would extend the hand of friendship to them." Yeah, it's kind of cute to see such lovey-dovey phrases being thrown around, but we've all ideas none of these heartfelt feelings are easing the sting felt by Toshiba right about now.

Just about everyone and their respective grandmothers have now gotten a whiff of this whole "BackupHDDVD" thing that's been floating around, as muslix64 was able to break down the HD DVD content protection and allow folks to sidestep the AACS boundaries. The folks over at Slyck sat down to chat with the infamous hacker about his motives, his work, and the obligatory "hopes and dreams," and as we expected, he's simply yet another (albeit intelligent and determined) individual that's frustrated with the limitations that DRM presents. He refers to himself as simply an "upset customer" looking to "enforce fair use," further explaining that he wasn't able to appropriately play back an HD DVD film that he purchased "on a non-HDCP HD monitor." He also said that his success with HD DVD led to his shared efforts while taking down Blu-ray's content protection, and noted that any stronger protection to limit the abilities of purchased media would likely be "too costly to manufacture." Lastly, he showed a bit of humbleness by admitting that he "probably wasn't the first to do this," and suggested that the ones before him probably just kept quiet, but his overriding purpose with all of this is to simply "enforce fair use, not piracy" and to "benefit the consumers." Sure, there are certainly polarized camps when it comes to breaking down content protection, but before jumping to any conclusions, be sure to hit the read link and read the full dialogue.

Sure, we'd expect a legend like Clint Eastwood to stick to his theoretical guns when it comes to manhandling the cameras on the sets of Flags of our Fathers and the forthcoming Iwo Jima, but when HD camcorders almost win out against the tried and true 35mm film approach, we can't help but take notice. Eastwood admits that he, alongside a bevy of experts, ran a series of tests between scenes shot in HD versus film, and while he couldn't quite "reach the black levels" nor "control the atmosphere" as well as he wanted with HD cams, even he admits they came awfully close. He claimed the biggest dig against current HD rigs was their size, citing a need for ultra-fine HD capturing machinery that's uber-small as well before he could shoot an entire film with it. Still, he was able to utilize a series of Sony HVR-Z1U HDV cameras inside "prop 50-caliber machine-gun ammunition cases" after ruling out Panasonic's HVX-200 due to a lack of FireStore availability, and eventually blended a good bit of that content into the feature film. Mr. Eastwood admitted that HD wasn't quite where he needed it to be just yet, but felt very hopeful about its future in the motion picture industry, and if we had to guess, we'd say it won't be too much longer before HD technology will be "making his day."

[Via DVGuru]

We've already seen reports of sporting events in HD gluing Americans to their couches for little reason other than its sheer beauty, but now ABC's Mike Shaw is reinforcing the belief that HDTVs are redefining the way we watch television altogether. Aside from boasting that "content is king" while referring to ABC's smattering of "sports, primetime programming, and daytime dramas," he also referred to HDTVs as "the game changer" in a recent interview. He went so far as to draw a parallel from today's 720p / 1080i broadcasts to making the switch from black and white televisions decades ago. Interestingly, he also noted that HD would "have far more impact" than any of the "new devices like PVRs or DVRs," probably ruffling Steve Jobs' feathers in the process. Nevertheless, it's forecasted that "31 percent of 112 million US households" will sport HD sets by the end of this year, giving national broadcasters even more reason to cheer (and advertise), while giving us all yet another reason to hit that oh-so-tabooed button when catching up on recorded content.

Yes, we are fully ignoring the rest of this interview with Mark Cuban concerning his HD networks and business to focus on the ongoing format war. If you want to read it there is actually quite a bit of other interesting commentary on why HDNet isn't carried on more cable networks, how he plans to use Dan Rather and in the second part posted today, why the Emmys weren't broadcast in HD and what he thinks of the digital TV transition. But we must post about HD DVD and Blu-ray at least twice each day so we'll focus on that. Interestingly, he first says he would rather get a cheap HTPC and run high definition content off of that, but otherwise would choose HD DVD right now and a combo player later. This is a viewpoint seen in more than a few AV forums around the net, is Mark just a part of a niche HD DVD market or is this evidence that even a billionaire who can afford a 103-inch plasma HDTV thinks Blu-ray is way overpriced?

Talk about nerd fiction! Following up on the recent "noisy" spoof featuring the Apple commercial actor, we got tipped that gaming site Aeropause has a fake "interview" with Blu-ray Disc, talking about hanging with Sony execs, "Grandpapa" Betamax, and the feud between himself and HD DVD. Pretty funny, if I do say so myself. While those of you who are absolutely sick to death of this format war can skip another article about it, at least no one can say we don't go all out with our love for next-gen formats. B-ray in the hizz-ouse!

[Thanks Luke]

Intel's new platform that so far has provided more questions than answers is the subject of an interview by the CE Pro Weblog. Installers and resellers are just as interested as everyone else in what Viiv can do, so will this quell the "Viiv is DRM" rumblings?

Not exactly, although they do talk about transcoding, why Viiv is necessary despite DLNA, and Intel Virtualization Technology, so check it out.

*Shrug*, sorry Intel, but no matter how many partners you have, I just don't think I'll be impressed until you show me some muscle to justify wearing the "verified Viiv digital device" yoke. We prefer our high definition content DRM-free, but who knows how possible that will be in the coming year.