Digital World Tokyo

Crazy or crazy smart? Toshiba boss bets house on standard DVD

Wed, 05 Mar 2008 02:01:00 GMT

Anyone familiar with the conservative nature of big Japanese business will tell you that Toshiba's decision to drop HD DVD like a hot brick was almost unseemly in its haste, even though the firm had little choice. Instead of slowly running down production and sales, Toshiba CEO Atsutoshi Nishida went straight for the jugular last month and put the whimpering format out of its misery, but what's next for the hard-man boss after such a high-profile failure? Speaking to the Wall Street Journal, Nishida explained that Toshiba will switch focus to standard DVD players and even suggested that Blu-ray will struggle. He said: "What people don't realize is that Hollywood studios are going to release new titles not just for Blu-ray but for standard DVDs as well, and there are a far greater number of current-generation DVD players out there." That's all very well, but isn't the fact that DVD machines are as cheap as chips a bit of a problem? Apparently not: "If you watch standard DVDs on our players, the images are of very high quality because they include an upconverting feature. And we're going to improve this even more, so that consumers won't be able to tell the difference from HD DVD images." While Nishida clearly has nerves of steel, it's hard to see many people who want to watch high-quality video not actually buying a high-definition machine. It just doesn't make sense. Although he's clearly banking on a price difference in favor of his players, it won't be long before Blu-ray decks hit the price sweet-spot that made DVD a must-buy product a few years ago. (Crossposted to TechRadar)

Panasonic Blu-ray boss says HD DVD death was suicide

Tue, 26 Feb 2008 00:34:01 GMT

One of the marketing bigwigs behind Blu-ray has gone public with an astonishing claim that Toshiba has only itself to blame for the flop that was HD DVD. Masayuki Kozuka, a planner for Panasonic's storage devices, believes it was not technical standards or studio support that handed the format war to Blu-ray, but Toshiba's decision to offer sale prices on HD DVD hardware for a limited period last November. Speaking to Nikkei Publications, Kozuka said: "I guess what sealed Toshiba's fate was its $99 pricing on Black Friday [in the US]. That pricing must have discouraged every manufacturer from entering the HD DVD player market." Explaining the bizarre claim, he added: "I believe Chinese manufacturers' entry to the US market was [the] HD DVD supporters' last hope. Given the market price at $99, however, it became impossible for any other manufacturer but Toshiba to enter the market." He didn't stop there with the strangeness - moving on to look at the predicted rise in movie downloads, Kozuka said: "Movie companies earn income by showing movies at theaters first and then by selling them as home video packages including Blu-ray Disc titles. Only after gaining the majority of their sales through these two business channels do they offer their content to video-on-demand, pay-per-view and TV broadcast services." In other words, legitimate film downloads will come only after rights holders milk every other distribution channel dry. So, when might we get legal content from the studios then? Not anytime soon, according to the Panasonic man: "Our associates in the home video department don't see any reality in the business of 'downloading an entire movie'. I'm not sure - about seven or eight years from now, though." All we can say is to ask Mr Kozuka if he's ever heard of BitTorrent or The Pirate Bay - if he had he might come across as a little bit more credible and less of a suit. (Crossposted to TechRadar)

Shoppers to Toshiba: You shouldn’t have bothered

Mon, 25 Feb 2008 00:29:00 GMT

Even though we've heard of some fantastic customer service for Japanese early adopters of the failed HD DVD format, it seems not everyone's happy with the brave face being put on by Toshiba. In fact, a new survey by Nikkei Publications has found that almost half of respondents think Toshiba should never even have bothered with HD DVD in the first place. Asked, "At what point do you think Toshiba should have decided to withdraw from the HD DVD business?" 43 per cent said it should have done so in 2005 when it was still in talks with the backers of Blu-ray about finding a common high-definition format. The poll of almost 1,000 Japanese geeks offered some small consolation for Toshiba in that just under 30 per cent backed its choice to wait until now to pull the plug. Better yet, just under half of the technology and finance publisher's readers felt that the format war wasn't all bad news. A healthy 47 per cent said that "the format competition accelerated technical progress." (Crossposted to TechRadar)

Honest / insane retailer swaps old HD DVD for new Blu-ray gear

Fri, 22 Feb 2008 01:07:00 GMT

Amid the rush to wring the last few pennies out of HD DVD's rancid and yellowing corpse, at least one retailer has had the decency to front up and look after its unfortunate customers. Edion, the owner of several chains of electronics shops there has taken the unusual step of extending the hand of sympathy to anyone who bought an HD DVD player or recorder from it and is offering to exchange the useless machines for new Blu-ray devices [Japanese, PDF]. Throughout March, customers can return any of seven Toshiba HD DVD decks and swap them for a BD unit from Sony, Panasonic or Sharp. If the latter is more expensive, customers need to make up the balance, but if it's cheaper they'll actually get a refund of the difference. Edion's press release was refreshingly forthright about the HD DVD situation, giving as a reason for the exchange program the fact that "[HD DVD] customers can no longer use their purchases properly." Extending the largesse even further, the company also promised to keep selling HD DVD movies and blank disks to anyone who needs them. Now that's the kind of customer service we could do with in the West. (Crossposted to TechRadar)

Olympic high-def disks only for winners

Wed, 20 Feb 2008 23:27:00 GMT

Should you happen to be one of those people who arranges the books on their shelves alphabetically, you'll probably like the new recordable media from Panasonic that allow you to record the summer Olympics on Olympic-branded disks. The official Olympic video media go on sale in Japan in April and versions will be available in other territories around the same time. The choice includes different-sized packs of Blu-ray BD-R, BD-R DL (dual layer), BD-RE (re-recordable), BD-RE DL disks as well as DVD-R and DVD-RAM selections. Alas, for anyone who happened to make a very unfortunate high-definition buying decision in the recent past, there won't be any HD DVD disks. Aw… (Crossposted to TechRadar)

Sharp retail practices surround HD DVD downfall

Wed, 20 Feb 2008 01:53:00 GMT

After yesterday's Toshiba HD DVD pullout there are still a few loose ends that need to be tied up, so we took to the streets of Tokyo to see how electronics retailers are handling the HD DVD wake in Toshiba's hometown. As expected, shops discounted all Toshiba's next-gen machines first thing this morning - typical prices at stores like the Bic Camera electronics chain saw the Vardia RD-A300 going for ¥64,800 ($610), about $95 down from yesterday. Get 'em now! More surprising, however, was what might be construed as a degree of duplicity. The photo of the A300 you can see above was taken in Tokyo this morning and shows a sign explaining that the shop is down to its last ten units at this "Now only!!" price. Now only indeed. Other signs in shops proclaimed that the Toshiba HD DVD drives come hotly recommended - a full hand of five stars from the manager in one case - while HD DVD promotional pamphlets were still available. Onkyo's HD DVD player was still on sale in spite of the firm also withdrawing from making it. All this without the slightest hint that the machines would be obsolete within weeks. Lots of HD DVD movies More disturbingly, of the various shop staff we spoke with only one admitted that it would be foolish to buy an HD DVD player now - the rest didn't even bother to be cagey, even going so far as to claim there would be plenty of HD DVD movies coming out. Away from the retail frontline, Toshiba has promised to ensure that blank HD DVD media are available to customers. On its HD DVD Q&A page (in Japanese) it says "Supplies of HD DVD-R disks can be expected to diminish from now on, but we will make every effort to avoid disruption to customers." Blu-ray rentals Given that the companies currently supplying disks - Mitsubishi Chemical and Hitachi Maxell - have already said they're not sure about continuing media production, Toshiba already faces an uphill struggle. Lastly, the sudden clarity in the high-definition player market means Blu-ray is guaranteed the same boost VHS received from video libraries when Betamax bombed. Leading Japanese rental chain Tsutaya has already said it's to begin renting out Blu-ray movies "as soon as possible." (Crossposted to TechRadar)

Japanese public to Blu-ray, HD DVD - “Who the hell are you?”

Thu, 13 Dec 2007 23:29:00 GMT

We saw recently how Japanese sales figures for high-definition video recorders make worrying reading for the backers of HD DVD, so it's no surprise that the latest data on the market for players and recorders as a whole shows more of the same. What is unexpected, though, is the relatively low level of public awareness about the differences between Blu-ray and HD DVD that comes through in surveys by Japanese research firms NTT Resonant and Impress R&D. Nerds know more The research targeted two different groups - one consisting of tech-savvy readers of the Impress Watch websites and the other a more general group of non-nerds. Among the gadget fans, it's no shock that more than half (57.8 per cent) of respondents knew how Blu-ray and HD DVD differ, but the story in the other group was very different. Of the more 'general' public, only 16.6 per cent grasped the differences. PS3 effect at work As for hardware ownership, 72.5 percent of those respondents across both groups who own next-generation machines do so through the PS3, with standalone Blu-ray recorders accounting for a further 22 per cent of next-gen ownership. Even the still-rare Blu-ray PC burners outranked the most popular HD DVD options - HD DVD players, recorders and the external HD DVD box available for Microsoft's Xbox 360, all of which came in at around 5 per cent. Although it's difficult to draw conclusions at this stage regardless of the fact that Blu-ray is so far ahead of HD DVD on all fronts, companies on both sides of the divide might want to look at convincing the public why their products are worth investing in from a technical point of view. And then, of course, hell will freeze over. (Crossposted to Tech.co.uk; image via SCI Fi)

Digital watermark punishes cinemas, not their evil cam-copying customers

Wed, 05 Dec 2007 22:40:00 GMT

Japan's state broadcaster, NHK, has teamed up with Mitsubishi Electric to create an anti-piracy system that it hopes will put a stop to movie copying from cinemas. The unnamed technology is aimed specifically at 'pirates' who take a camcorder into cinemas to shoot a copy of the film for distribution online. Such 'cams,' as the copies are known in file-sharing circles, are typically of extremely low quality, as they include background noise in the cinema and periodic interruptions from anyone walking in front of the camera. Still, NHK and Mitsubishi consider the cam copier enough of a threat to have proposed the new system, which adds a watermark to films shown from a digital projector. The watermark includes specifics on the name of the cinema and even what time the screening was held. Should a copy of the film turn up online, the system then reveals exactly which cinema it came from, although neither company involved has yet made suggestions about the next step. Quite how the watermark is expected to deter cam copiers is unclear, so perhaps cinemas will be punished by movie distributors in some way, possibly by being excluded from future releases. More likely, it is aimed at stopping the handful of cam copies that are made from the projectionist's booth. Either that, or we'll have to register our personal details when watching a movie so that we can all be hauled in for questioning when some sad individual decides to videotape Spider-Man 7 or whatever masquerades as entertainment whenever this sees the light of day. (Crossposted to Tech.co.uk)

Blu-ray wins 97 percent of Japanese high-def recorder market

Thu, 22 Nov 2007 20:22:00 GMT

It's hard to know what to make of the latest statistics on the battle for supremacy between Blu-ray and HD DVD because of the fact that they're from Japan, home of so many of Blu-ray's biggest backers. Nevertheless, the degree to which HD DVD has fallen behind in Japan in sales of the crucial high-end HD TV recorders is stark. According to the Blu-ray Disc Association, the figures (via Impress Watch) from the week ending November 12 for sales of next-generation machines capable of recording show just 2.8 percent of them were HD DVD units. The remaining 97.2 percent were, of course, Blu-ray devices. Naturally, the availability of Blu-ray machines plays its part - there are more models available in Japan - but the HD DVD Promotion Group will obviously be worried. Both formats still have some work to do in the home-recording market as a whole. Considering the older DVD format as well, the two newcomers account for just 19.8 percent of total recorder sales, with plain-vanilla DVD accounting for over 80 percent. Although less than a quarter of purchases are of next-gen recorders, the corresponding figure was a mere 5 per cent as recently as mid-October, so it can't be long before DVD has to take a back seat, but will HD DVD be joining it? (Crossposted to Tech.co.uk)

Sony video-sharing site goes high def with set-top box

Tue, 20 Nov 2007 23:21:00 GMT

We recently speculated that YouTube might one day soon be delivering high-definition online video instead of the grainy clips that proliferate now, but Sony Japan's eyeVio video-sharing site has beaten the Google company to the punch by starting an HD TV service yesterday. EyeVio HD sounds suspiciously like an alpha, rather than even a beta, service to us but it does offer a few 1280 x 720 high-def flicks in combination with Sony's new BRX-NT1 network set-top box, which sells for ¥27,800 ($245). The idea is that the smattering of HD TV content now on the eyeVio site can be streamed from the site through the BRX-NT1 to a suitable Bravia television set, rather than watched on a PC. So far, only a dozen or so animated titles are available and all are, of course, in Japanese, although they are free to view. Come next spring, eyeVio users will be able to upload their own high-definition content for on-site sharing, which should make for an interesting window on what's ahead for the rest of the video-sharing world outside high-bandwidth Japan. (Crossposted to Tech.co.uk)

Terabit-class fat pipe delivers online movies in an instant

Thu, 15 Nov 2007 23:35:01 GMT

When it comes to internet speeds, we've long-since consigned the humble kilobit-class connection to the dustbin, so a mathematics-based breakthrough has us wondering if megabit- and even gigabit-level connections will one day sound as quaintly archaic. Researchers at Japan's Tohoku University have tweaked existing protocols to enable standard fiber-optic cables to carry data at hundreds of terabits per second [Subscription link]. At that speed, full VOD movies could be downloaded almost instantaneously in their hundreds. At the heart of the development is a technique already used in some digital TV tuners and wireless data connections called quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM). One glance at the Wikipedia explanation shows that it's no easy science, but the basics of QAM in this scenario require a stable wavelength for data transmission. As the radio spectrum provides this, QAM-based methods work fine for some wireless protocols, however the nature of the optical spectrum means this has not been the case for fiber-optic cables … until now. The university team has solved the stability problem using a special laser that makes it feasible to pipe data down a glass fiber using the QAM method at blistering speeds. Although we shouldn't expect to be choosing from internet connections rated in Tbps anytime soon, the development could one day make us look back on ADSL as fondly as we now do our 56K modems. (Crossposted to Tech.co.uk)

KDDI to deliver domestic 4x high-definition video on demand

Wed, 14 Nov 2007 22:18:00 GMT

KDDI, the company that recently started an online service delivering DVD-quality movies to domestic customers has upped the ante to send quad-HD films down the same pipe. Although the unnamed technology is still in the labs, KDDI R&D claims it can fit video of the same quality as the Digital Cinema Initiative (DCI) requires into a typical ADSL or fiber-optic internet connection. To maintain a resolution four times that of standard high definition, DCI video consumes bandwidth at 250Mbps - KDDI's new version does the same thing at just 20Mbps. Although that may still be beyond most domestic ADSL subscribers in the West, broadband in Japan is typically anywhere between 50Mbps and 100Mbps, making the new delivery system eminently possible. The H-264-compliant method relies on working out which parts of an image change most from frame to frame, looking at the colors and movement therein, and then applying the most appropriate compression algorithm. Although the current prototype uses eight processors to handle the calculations, KDDI is confident such onerous requirements can soon be done away with. (Crossposted to Tech.co.uk)

World’s first quad-port HDMI chip from Fujitsu

Mon, 12 Nov 2007 00:42:00 GMT

With the increasing number of audio-visual gadgets in our living rooms that require HDMI to be seen to best effect, Fujitsu Japan has announced a hardware solution to help keep costs down. The company's new chip is the first in the world to handle four HDMI ports simultaneously using only one chunk of memory. Although the technical details are a little obscure, the end result will be TV sets that can accommodate more HDMI-connected devices at lower cost. Current HDMI ports each require their own dedicated memory, which makes their manufacture more expensive than Fujitsu's package. Naturally, keeping the cost of HDMI- ready TV sets down leaves a little over to buy more game consoles, Blu-ray recorders and the like, so everybody wins in the end, eh? (Crossposted to Tech.co.uk)

Sharp targets your bedroom with 22in 1080p LCD TV

Sun, 28 Oct 2007 22:19:00 GMT

Next time you go shopping for a second television set for the spare room or bedroom, chances are it might be one of a new breed of smaller full high-definition TVs, such as the new models introduced today by Sharp. The latest Aquos LCDs from the Japanese company will go on sale at the end of November and include the world's smallest full HD TV, which has a diagonal screen measurement of just 22in; far smaller than the 40in-plus displays common in the HD marketplace now. Two other sets - 26 and 32in models - were also announced, with all three of the 1920 x 1080 TVs sporting dual HDMI ports and capable of displaying full 1080p video. Aside from size, the main difference between the sets is the contrast ratio dropping from 2,000:1 on the 32-inch model to 1,200:1 on the smallest Aquos. Sharp has also made all three televisions suitable for hooking up to a PC by including a range of analog and digital connectors and a keyboard-stowage area on the base of the stand. Although the prices - ¥180,000 ($1,540) for the 22in, ¥200,000 ($1,700) for the 26in and ¥240,000 ($2,050) for the 32in - are still in the realm of what most people would spend for a main TV set, competition in the small HD TV market is sure to drive them down quickly and hasten the high-definition spread. (Crossposted to Tech.co.uk)

Panasonic’s 1080p TVs suck up video on demand right out of the box

Wed, 08 Aug 2007 22:00:01 GMT

Although today's Panasonic Japan launch of seven new 1080p high-definition televisions introduced the world to plenty of quality new hardware, one of the more intriguing announcements was buried well below the headline. Of the new Viera sets, the four most-expensive plasma models will - when they arrive on 1 September - be the world's first TV sets equipped to receive programming from a new Japanese video-on-demand (VoD) service. The four high-end (42, 50, 58 and 65in) PZ750 series plasmas are the first that can access the new acTVila (pronounced 'Acto-vila') VoD portal, from where they can download movies and television shows in high definition. The acTVila service - run by Panasonic, Sharp, Sony, So-net, Toshiba and Hitachi under the 'TV Portal Service Corporation' umbrella - offers MPEG4-AVC/H.264 pay-per-view video over an internet connection in full HD. Aside from the usual claims of best this, that and the other, an eye-catching feature of the four heavy hitters is the ability to hook up with a Panasonic video intercom to show whoever is at the door right over the top of your favourite TV show. Incidentally, they also are the first sets to incorporate the Nano Bass Exciter technology for richer bass that we looked at recently. The other three, non-VoD sets, are two entry-level plasmas (42 and 50in) and a 37in LCD. Pricing ranges from ¥300,000 ($2,480) for the LCD to ¥990,000 ($8,200) for the 65-inch plasma model. (Crossposted to Tech.co.uk)

Hitachi springs world's first Blu-ray camcorders ahead of schedule

Wed, 01 Aug 2007 23:01:00 GMT

Just two weeks after we caught whiff of a rumor that Hitachi would be releasing a Blu-ray camcorder in the fall, the Japanese company has announced that the portable high-definition technology is, in fact, ready now. Moreover, for once in the world of cutting-edge gadgets, a company has surprised us by coming up with the goods for sale early - the world's first BD video camera will go on sale in Japan on August 30. Overseas sales will start in October. In fact, there are two camcorders due out - the DZ-BD70 and DZ-BD7H. The former costs ¥160,000 ($1,300) and records only to 8cm Blu-ray discs, while the latter is ¥190,000 (£1,600) and also includes a 30GB hard drive. The HDD version is more likely to succeed, as it can hold four hours of 1920 x 1080i high-definition video, whereas the 7.5GB single-layer BD-R/RE discs manage just a quarter of that. A lower resolution of 1440 x 1080i is available, which pushes those times up to eight hours and two hours respectively. Software in the cameras allows for scene selection that approximates to a rough kind of editing and for dubbing the results to the hard drive in the case of the BD7H. However, dubbing is only 2x, so an hour of HD TV takes 30 minutes to copy. Otherwise, the specs are pretty much what we already knew - both models have a 5.3-megapixel sensor that delivers the equivalent of 2.07 megapixels for video and 4.32 megapixels for still shots, have a 10x optical zoom lens and a 2.7-inch fold-out LCD monitor. Both cameras have similar battery expectancies, with the BD7H's 100 minutes just beating the 90 minutes of the BD70. The hard drive model is also slightly heavier at 630g, compared to 575g. Given the inevitably that other manufacturers will produce both Blu-ray and HD DVD camcorders soon, we can safely expect these two groundbreakers to be the first of many. The question remains, however, of what will happen to AVCHD? (Crossposted to Tech.co.uk)