• Welcome to TechPowerUp Forums, Guest! Please check out our forum guidelines for info related to our community.

Amazon.com and Microsoft Team Up to Help HD DVD Format

malware

New Member
Joined
Nov 7, 2004
Messages
5,422 (0.77/day)
Location
Bulgaria
Processor Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 G0 VID: 1.2125
Motherboard GIGABYTE GA-P35-DS3P rev.2.0
Cooling Thermalright Ultra-120 eXtreme + Noctua NF-S12 Fan
Memory 4x1 GB PQI DDR2 PC2-6400
Video Card(s) Colorful iGame Radeon HD 4890 1 GB GDDR5
Storage 2x 500 GB Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 32 MB RAID0
Display(s) BenQ G2400W 24-inch WideScreen LCD
Case Cooler Master COSMOS RC-1000 (sold), Cooler Master HAF-932 (delivered)
Audio Device(s) Creative X-Fi XtremeMusic + Logitech Z-5500 Digital THX
Power Supply Chieftec CFT-1000G-DF 1kW
Software Laptop: Lenovo 3000 N200 C2DT2310/3GB/120GB/GF7300/15.4"/Razer
Amazon.com Inc. and Microsoft Corp. today announced the 1,000 HD DVD Indies Project, designed to lower the barriers to entry for filmmakers to produce and distribute movies in the HD DVD format through the innovative manufacturing-on-demand technology of CustomFlix, a part of an Amazon group of companies. Jointly sponsored by Amazon and Microsoft, the project will provide free authoring and setup services for up to 1,000 selected indie titles.


"This collaboration with Microsoft is a great opportunity for independent filmmakers to reach Amazon customers with their films via the HD DVD format," said Peter Faricy, vice president of music and movies at Amazon.com. "By working together with Microsoft and leveraging the proven CustomFlix DVD on Demand model, we can lower the barriers to entry for independent filmmakers and dramatically increase the selection we offer our customers."

The project will be spearheaded by CustomFlix, which will bring as many as 1,000 feature-length independent films to Amazon customers using the CustomFlix DVD on Demand technology, which produces and ships DVDs only as they are ordered. This model greatly improves the cost structure for independent filmmakers by eliminating the need for costly inventory.

"From a technical standpoint, we found that the HD DVD format fits our business model perfectly," said Dana LoPiccolo-Giles, co-founder and managing director of CustomFlix. "With retail shelf space at a premium, our model eliminates the risk of carrying inventory and immediately expands the number of great HD DVD titles available to consumers."

"Programs like this one from Amazon lower barriers to entry for independent artists and provide audiences with increased access to high-quality, high-definition content," said Christian Vesper, senior vice president of programming, acquisitions and scheduling for Sundance Channel.

Sundance Channel will be reviewing the high-definition features for potential broadcast on the network as well as making its own HD original eco-series, "Big Ideas for a Small Planet," available for purchase through Amazon's HD DVD program.

"Amazon's participation in this project will be a major benefit to independent filmmakers wanting to break into the high-definition market segment," said Amir Majidimehr, corporate vice president for the Consumer Media Technology Group at Microsoft. "The use of Microsoft technology and authoring expertise will ensure that all the HD DVD titles offered by Amazon have impeccable quality, thanks to the VC-1 codec and innovative interactive scenarios with HDi."

Amazon.com offers a broad and growing selection of HD televisions, players and DVDs through its HD DVD store. Filmmakers interested in submitting their HD DVD work for consideration as part of the 1,000 HD DVD Indies Project can go to http://www.customflix.com/hddvdindies.

View at TechPowerUp Main Site
 

russianboy

New Member
Joined
Dec 9, 2005
Messages
1,799 (0.27/day)
Processor AMD 3500+ Venice at stock
Motherboard ECS K8T890-A
Memory 1 Gb Corsair Valueram CAS 3
Video Card(s) Connect3d X800 GTO OC'd to 551.25/551.25
Storage 4 mixed up drives
Display(s) Acer AL2216W 22"LCD
Case Generic noname crap
Audio Device(s) Realtec AC'97
Power Supply 500 watt Ultra PSU
Software Win2k Pro, XP, Ubuntu linux, and Vista
damn, I prefer bluray, so seeing the inferior format get a boost is a tad annoying.

I want a format that is futureproofed.
 
Joined
Nov 4, 2005
Messages
11,655 (1.73/day)
System Name Compy 386
Processor 7800X3D
Motherboard Asus
Cooling Air for now.....
Memory 64 GB DDR5 6400Mhz
Video Card(s) 7900XTX 310 Merc
Storage Samsung 990 2TB, 2 SP 2TB SSDs and over 10TB spinning
Display(s) 56" Samsung 4K HDR
Audio Device(s) ATI HDMI
Mouse Logitech MX518
Keyboard Razer
Software A lot.
Benchmark Scores Its fast. Enough.
HD-DVD has the same movie capacity as Blu-Ray. And considering that only one company is actually natively using 1080P (Pixar) and all else is 720P it is senseless to have a player that uses something that is not there.


Then again, both discs can handle a full feature 1080P 7.1 24/96K movie? Now you are down to how much extra crap you want to buy when you just want a movie.
 

Benpi

New Member
Joined
Dec 14, 2006
Messages
415 (0.07/day)
Processor AMD X2 4400+
Memory 2G
Video Card(s) 7950 GX2
Storage 2x 74g 10000rpm Raid:0
Display(s) Dell 1920x1200 widescreen
Software 3dmark06 score: 7650
Steevo, I'm sorry, but almost your entire post was incorrect. You must not own HD. I own both formats. If you look at the situation with blu-ray from a business standpoint, Blu-ray ultimately could be the bad choice for filmmakers and consumers.

Sony owns Sony Pictures. So if blu-ray wins, sony could charge all other film studios loads of money to manufact discs. As a result, it would be more expensive to create a movie, and film makers would be forced to join with sony pictures to keep the budget lower.

Toshiba doesn't make movies and wouldn't benifit from being dicks to american movie studios. HD DVD FTW.
 

WarEagleAU

Bird of Prey
Joined
Jul 9, 2006
Messages
10,812 (1.67/day)
Location
Gurley, AL
System Name Pandemic 2020
Processor AMD Ryzen 5 "Gen 2" 2600X
Motherboard AsRock X470 Killer Promontory
Cooling CoolerMaster 240 RGB Master Cooler (Newegg Eggxpert)
Memory 32 GB Geil EVO Portenza DDR4 3200 MHz
Video Card(s) ASUS Radeon RX 580 DirectX 12 DUAL-RX580-O8G 8GB 256-Bit GDDR5 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video C
Storage WD 250 M.2, Corsair P500 M.2, OCZ Trion 500, WD Black 1TB, Assorted others.
Display(s) ASUS MG24UQ Gaming Monitor - 23.6" 4K UHD (3840x2160) , IPS, Adaptive Sync, DisplayWidget
Case Fractal Define R6 C
Audio Device(s) Realtek 5.1 Onboard
Power Supply Corsair RMX 850 Platinum PSU (Newegg Eggxpert)
Mouse Razer Death Adder
Keyboard Corsair K95 Mechanical & Corsair K65 Wired, Wireless, Bluetooth)
Software Windows 10 Pro x64
Benpi actually, your post isnt entirely true. I dont foresee sony charging alot of money just to have discs made on their format. Truth of the matter is, Blu-Ray offers higher resolution than HD-DVD. Down side is, it costs more, for now. Sure, Blu-Ray can hold more information than HD-DVD, but I dont see a movie needing all that space. One good thing about HD-DVD is its built in ethernet port, which easily allows firmware updates, as opposed to Blu_ray.
 

Easy Rhino

Linux Advocate
Staff member
Joined
Nov 13, 2006
Messages
15,436 (2.43/day)
Location
Mid-Atlantic
System Name Desktop
Processor i5 13600KF
Motherboard AsRock B760M Steel Legend Wifi
Cooling Noctua NH-U9S
Memory 4x 16 Gb Gskill S5 DDR5 @6000
Video Card(s) Gigabyte Gaming OC 6750 XT 12GB
Storage WD_BLACK 4TB SN850x
Display(s) Gigabye M32U
Case Corsair Carbide 400C
Audio Device(s) On Board
Power Supply EVGA Supernova 650 P2
Mouse MX Master 3s
Keyboard Logitech G915 Wireless Clicky
Software The Matrix
the story title is a bit misleading. they are teaming up to help indie filmmakers. the fact that it will no doubt benefit HD DVD is an after thought.
 

jocksteeluk

New Member
Joined
Jan 23, 2006
Messages
1,455 (0.22/day)
Location
The 13th room on the 13th floor of the 13th buildi
Processor custom dupont risk chip cpu prototype
Motherboard custom ibm x5 solid state carbon mainboard
Cooling industrial technologies prototype dupont custom heat transfer unit
Memory 6x 2gig prototype ecc hnc ddr4
Video Card(s) prototype low energy version nvidia 9 series unnumberd card
Storage 1tb solid state hdd
Display(s) 44 inch samsung plasma screen tv/monitor
Case custom ibm mobile home server case
Audio Device(s) custom Yamaha sound processing processor in spm format
Power Supply 1200watt deli cord custom made dupont type psu
Software sun unix/windows type v
damn, I prefer bluray, so seeing the inferior format get a boost is a tad annoying.

I want a format that is futureproofed.

Hd-dvd has no majority format patent holder unlike Blu-ray so if you want future proof backing the horse that anyone can ride is a far better option for the consumer and developer alike otherwise you may end up with DVD ram (which was sony) while everyone else is using DVD rom.
 
Joined
Nov 4, 2005
Messages
11,655 (1.73/day)
System Name Compy 386
Processor 7800X3D
Motherboard Asus
Cooling Air for now.....
Memory 64 GB DDR5 6400Mhz
Video Card(s) 7900XTX 310 Merc
Storage Samsung 990 2TB, 2 SP 2TB SSDs and over 10TB spinning
Display(s) 56" Samsung 4K HDR
Audio Device(s) ATI HDMI
Mouse Logitech MX518
Keyboard Razer
Software A lot.
Benchmark Scores Its fast. Enough.
So a 90 minute long feature at 1080P with 71 @ 24/96K is too much for the HD-DVD, umm, no.



Perhaps a long film like LOTR or the like would need it to be dual sided (something that Blu-ray isn't doing) but who sits non stop through a movie of almost four hours? No one.



So in all reality it has as much useable non bullshit space as does Blew-ray. Unless again sitting for 5 hours to get every last blooper and outtake of Star Wars is important to you. Plus a much more user friendly format, no reigions, no extra DRM crap, etc...
 

Wile E

Power User
Joined
Oct 1, 2006
Messages
24,318 (3.81/day)
System Name The ClusterF**k
Processor 980X @ 4Ghz
Motherboard Gigabyte GA-EX58-UD5 BIOS F12
Cooling MCR-320, DDC-1 pump w/Bitspower res top (1/2" fittings), Koolance CPU-360
Memory 3x2GB Mushkin Redlines 1600Mhz 6-8-6-24 1T
Video Card(s) Evga GTX 580
Storage Corsair Neutron GTX 240GB, 2xSeagate 320GB RAID0; 2xSeagate 3TB; 2xSamsung 2TB; Samsung 1.5TB
Display(s) HP LP2475w 24" 1920x1200 IPS
Case Technofront Bench Station
Audio Device(s) Auzentech X-Fi Forte into Onkyo SR606 and Polk TSi200's + RM6750
Power Supply ENERMAX Galaxy EVO EGX1250EWT 1250W
Software Win7 Ultimate N x64, OSX 10.8.4
I agree with one of Steevo's points. There is no discernible difference in movie quality between Blu-Ray and HD-DVD. Blu-Ray has more storage available, but no current movies even require the full amount, using the current compressions, anyway. The only way it's filled, is with extras. (And honestly, I can't remember the last time I watched extras or listened to director's commentary on a DVD, let alone an hd disk.)

I disagree on the 720p comment. Not a single one of my BD or HD-DVD movies are 720p, and none of them are Pixar, either.

HD-DVD also has drm restrictions, tho admittedly not as bad as BluRay.

Either way, I see this as a good thing for indie filmakers and consumers alike.
 
Top