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A FREE-FOR-ALL ON THE ROAD TO HD-DVD
Myriad patents, formats, standards, studio interests muddle progress.
By Paul Sweeting 5/30/2003
MAY 30 | High-definition video produces pictures of remarkably clarity, but the pictures might be the only thing clear about the development of an HD-DVD format.
With the introduction of prerecorded HD-DVDs at least three years off, the studios most intimately involved in trying to develop a workable format are pursuing a variety of different agendas, shattering for now any hope of presenting a united front to technology developers and hardware makers to guide the R&D efforts.
The Hollywood Advisory Council, formed by the studios last year to develop a "wish list" of features the studios would like to see in any new format, has not met since its former chairperson, Pat Wyatt, stepped down as president of 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment in December.
Since then, studios have made individual pitches to the DVD Forum, the standards-setting body for all things DVD, or, in the case of Sony Pictures Entertainment, have gone around the Forum to work directly with the Sony Electronics-led consortium of companies developing the Blu-ray standard.
Fueling the free-for-all is the widely varying views among the studios about the optimal timing of any HD introduction, the appropriate degree of compatibility with current DVD technology, costs and format capabilities.
Some studios also have proprietary interests in particular HD formats, either directly or through their parent companies, making consensus in Hollywood difficult.
Columbia presses issue
The studio with the keenest interest in HD-DVD is Columbia, whose Japanese parent company, Sony, is leading the Blu-ray development effort.
Blu-ray is one of two contending systems that rely on short-wavelength blue lasers to pack more data onto high-density discs than current-generation red lasers can. The other, dubbed Advanced Optical Disc, was developed by NEC Corp. and Toshiba Corp.
Having largely lost out in the technology competition behind the current DVD standard--which leans more heavily on the system developed by Toshiba and Warner Home Video than on the contending system championed by Sony and Phillips Electronics--Sony is intent on playing a central role in defining the next generation of DVD technology.
Sony has pointedly avoided submitting specifications to the DVD Forum and instead christened its format Blu-ray.
"DVD" is a trademark owned by the DVD Forum, and to use it, Sony would have to incorporate elements of current DVD technology and pay licensing fees to the patent holders.
They look identical to DVDs, but Blu-ray discs use different materials, based on patents owned by Sony.
With Sony hoping to pre-empt the introduction of any HD-DVD format backed by the Forum, Columbia is gearing up for the introduction of prerecorded Blu-ray product by 2005-06.
"There are already a lot of HD-capable TV sets out there," Columbia TriStar Home Entertainment president Ben Feingold said.
Columbia does not share the concern of some studios that such an early introduction of a high-def format could prematurely shut down the growth of current DVDs.
"We're not worried about the golden goose. We can manage all of that," Feingold said.
Although Columbia took part in early discussions within the Hollywood Advisory Council, Feingold seems in no hurry to revive the dormant group.
"Everything that needs to be communicated to the various electronics companies has been communicated," he said. "They know what our concerns are, and they're working on it."
Another point of blue
The Walt Disney Co. is on a less aggressive timetable.
"I'd say I'm sold on blue-laser technology," said Bob Chapek, president of Disney's Buena Vista Home Entertainment. "Which of the formats is the right one and which will get our support depends on which meets our requirements."
As one of two studios (along with Warner) in the DVD Forum, Disney is hoping for a large say in shaping an HD format. Although Chapek has circulated letters to other studio heads about reviving the Hollywood Advisory Council, Disney recently made its own presentation to the Forum, based on its own wish list of features.
Among Disney's requirements, according to Chapek: robust copy protection; a higher level of interactivity than current DVD technology; the highest quality sound and picture; sufficient capacity to include bonus material; and "smart timing" of any introduction.
Disney chairman Michael Eisner recently told analysts that the studio was targeting mid-2007 for the introduction of prerecorded HD movies, giving it time to release all its animated classics in the current DVD format before launching a new one (VB, 5-5).
"Disney doesn't have to be there the first year," Feingold said.
The slower timetable envisioned by Disney would also allow time for development work on the Advanced Optical Disc format.
AOD gains momentum
According to some studio sources, the unveiling of AOD by Toshiba and NEC was rushed, in part to try to slow the Blu-ray momentum.
Since then, however, AOD developers have made genuine strides in areas that are likely to be important to garnering studio support for any format.
Last month, Toshiba announced that it had developed a high-density disc that could be manufactured on current DVD replication equipment with only minor adjustments.
Since Blu-ray discs are made from different materials and can't be mass produced using the injection-molding process used to manufacture most CDs and DVDs, all current DVD manufacturing and replication equipment would have to be replaced to accommodate Blu-ray, adding considerable cost to the format's introduction.
However, Mike Fidler, senior VP for the Blu-ray disc group of Sony, sees benefits to retrofitting.
"Because we use a different substrate, we can put some controls in at that point within the manufacturing process," Fidler said. "We'll have more controls on replication, which would be an impediment to professional pirates."
Warner has not taken a position on the two competing blue-laser systems, but, like other studios, it's concerned that the relatively low volumes likely with initial HD releases will make either high-density format too costly.
Instead, Warner has proposed including an optional, high-level compression standard in any HD-DVD specifications issued by the Forum, allowing HD movies to be squeezed onto current DVD-9s using red lasers.
As a principal patent holder for the current DVD standard, anything that extended the useful life of the current technology would benefit Warner, which receives patent royalties on all DVDs pressed by the studios.
Squeeze play
Warner has proposed four compression standards to the Forum, all based on MPEG-4, which squeezes video files into smaller packets than the MPEG-2 compression system used for today's DVDs. The leading candidates are reported to be Microsoft's Windows Media 9 system and the H.264 standard developed by MPEG-LA.
Although it would be cheaper to implement, some in Hollywood and Japan argue that the picture quality produced by Warner's approach would fall far below true HD standards.
"We know what can be done in terms of picture and sound with HD," one unaligned studio executive said, referring to JVC's D-VHS format. "There's no reason to settle for anything less than that."
D-VHS, which has drawn support from Artisan Home Entertainment, Fox and DreamWorks Home Entertainment, is the only prerecorded HD format available in the U.S.
Another red-laser wildcard is the system recently proposed by
privately held Pixonics High Definition. That system can also fit an HD movie on a DVD-9, by adding a second data stream to the basic, standard-definition stream.
The advantage of the Pixonics system is that HD-encoded discs could still play on standard DVD players, which would simply ignore the second data stream.
So far, no studio has endorsed the format.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
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