AUMMitsu
02-22-2002, 12:46 AM
Have you guys heard of this??
"Four Studios to Release HD Movies on D-VHS
Other Studios Balk at Releasing Films on the Controversial Format
by Denise Turner
Four Hollywood Studios have announced plans to release the first high-definition movies for home viewing in June -- on tape. The four companies will begin offering high-definition movies on videocassette, using the new Digital-VHS (D-VHS) format, developed by JVC. D-VHS is a digital videocassette that will play exclusively on JVC players designed for HDTV sets.
Artisan Entertainment, DreamWorks SKG, Twentieth Century Fox and Universal Studios are supporting D-VHS, and will be releasing movies that take advantage of the high-quality format. Among the first, to be released sometime in 2002, will be Independence Day, Die Hard, X-Men, U-571, and the first two Terminator movies. The companies don't plan a major push into D-VHS, partly because so few D-VHS players are available. Only two manufacturers sell the players in the United States, and only the JVC units support D-Theater. And then, there's the matter of price: The JVC D-Theater player sells for $1,999, and movies are expected to run from $30 to $40 each. Blank media is expected to be in the $10 to $15 range.
JVC introduced the new D-VHS tape at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas in January, and a HDTV set that protects HD content from being copied. They also presented their D-Theater copy-protection system, which is their proprietary security system that ensures the protection of copyrighted digital content. The studios were reluctant to release anything in HD until such a copy protection encryption was developed. D-Theater was created specifically for copyrighted, high value prerecorded content, and it provides a state-of-the-art level of security.
Only HD sets will have the HD copy protection decoder, so, according to its creators, the HDCP system can't be broken. This feature, along with the massive video size, may be the answer to Hollywood's concerns about content protection. Because of the massive file sizes involved with high definition video, trading or copying the content is impractical.
D-VHS and D-Theater software will be recorded in the HS mode at a 28 Mbps data rate, surpassing even the 19 Mbps ATSC standard for HDTV broadcasts. D-VHS's huge 44 Gigabyte capacity per cassette makes it possible for software content providers to fit an entire feature-length HDTV movie on a single cassette.
A D-VHS cassette has the maximum capacity to record and playback 4 hours of HD television or more than 50 hours of standard definition television. JVC's HD recorder also gives consumers the flexibility to record and play back in analog VHS, Super VHS, Super VHS ET, and digital D-VHS formats. (HS, STD and LS3).
Reactions to D-VHS range from "It's a really dumb idea" to "Consumers want this badly." Some say going to VHS is taking a step backward, that the format is obsolete, due to the inherent disadvantages of tape. All the things that have made DVDs so popular with consumers, such as random access, additional languages, and enhanced content will be missing.
Because of this, Warner Home Video does not plan to release movies in D-VHS. Neither does Sony's Columbia TriStar Home Entertainment, or Disney. They feel that due to the huge success of DVD, consumers have a strong preference for a disc-based product. They are skeptical that D-VHS will become popular, and are not willing to risk releasing anything on the D-VHS format. Many companies are holding off until an HD version of DVD is perfected in a few years. At any rate, with only 2 million homes with HDTV sets, the audience is seen as too small to justify a big investment by the studios.
JVC's only TV to support HDCP, the D'Ahlia, will sell for a whopping $6,000, without a digital tuner/decoder, this summer. "
Personally, I think it's a bad idea. Not only would it have less features that a DVD (would have to FF/Rewind, menu's etc...) but its also costly.
"Four Studios to Release HD Movies on D-VHS
Other Studios Balk at Releasing Films on the Controversial Format
by Denise Turner
Four Hollywood Studios have announced plans to release the first high-definition movies for home viewing in June -- on tape. The four companies will begin offering high-definition movies on videocassette, using the new Digital-VHS (D-VHS) format, developed by JVC. D-VHS is a digital videocassette that will play exclusively on JVC players designed for HDTV sets.
Artisan Entertainment, DreamWorks SKG, Twentieth Century Fox and Universal Studios are supporting D-VHS, and will be releasing movies that take advantage of the high-quality format. Among the first, to be released sometime in 2002, will be Independence Day, Die Hard, X-Men, U-571, and the first two Terminator movies. The companies don't plan a major push into D-VHS, partly because so few D-VHS players are available. Only two manufacturers sell the players in the United States, and only the JVC units support D-Theater. And then, there's the matter of price: The JVC D-Theater player sells for $1,999, and movies are expected to run from $30 to $40 each. Blank media is expected to be in the $10 to $15 range.
JVC introduced the new D-VHS tape at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas in January, and a HDTV set that protects HD content from being copied. They also presented their D-Theater copy-protection system, which is their proprietary security system that ensures the protection of copyrighted digital content. The studios were reluctant to release anything in HD until such a copy protection encryption was developed. D-Theater was created specifically for copyrighted, high value prerecorded content, and it provides a state-of-the-art level of security.
Only HD sets will have the HD copy protection decoder, so, according to its creators, the HDCP system can't be broken. This feature, along with the massive video size, may be the answer to Hollywood's concerns about content protection. Because of the massive file sizes involved with high definition video, trading or copying the content is impractical.
D-VHS and D-Theater software will be recorded in the HS mode at a 28 Mbps data rate, surpassing even the 19 Mbps ATSC standard for HDTV broadcasts. D-VHS's huge 44 Gigabyte capacity per cassette makes it possible for software content providers to fit an entire feature-length HDTV movie on a single cassette.
A D-VHS cassette has the maximum capacity to record and playback 4 hours of HD television or more than 50 hours of standard definition television. JVC's HD recorder also gives consumers the flexibility to record and play back in analog VHS, Super VHS, Super VHS ET, and digital D-VHS formats. (HS, STD and LS3).
Reactions to D-VHS range from "It's a really dumb idea" to "Consumers want this badly." Some say going to VHS is taking a step backward, that the format is obsolete, due to the inherent disadvantages of tape. All the things that have made DVDs so popular with consumers, such as random access, additional languages, and enhanced content will be missing.
Because of this, Warner Home Video does not plan to release movies in D-VHS. Neither does Sony's Columbia TriStar Home Entertainment, or Disney. They feel that due to the huge success of DVD, consumers have a strong preference for a disc-based product. They are skeptical that D-VHS will become popular, and are not willing to risk releasing anything on the D-VHS format. Many companies are holding off until an HD version of DVD is perfected in a few years. At any rate, with only 2 million homes with HDTV sets, the audience is seen as too small to justify a big investment by the studios.
JVC's only TV to support HDCP, the D'Ahlia, will sell for a whopping $6,000, without a digital tuner/decoder, this summer. "
Personally, I think it's a bad idea. Not only would it have less features that a DVD (would have to FF/Rewind, menu's etc...) but its also costly.
