3X DVD Launched: Kinda HD, But Not
- February 20th, 2007
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- 1 Comment
3X DVD is a red-laser DVD standard that works on HD DVD players but uses standard DVD discs rather than the more expensive HD DVD disks. The discs, which are now available, offer AACS copy protection but transcode video to VC-1 or AVC and lower the resolution to 720p, not bad, but definitely not great.
This sounds sort of like the VCD standard — popular with pirates but not with anyone else. It still technically offers HD content — albeit considerably downgraded — and the discs and burners are currently prohibitively expensive for the average user. I predict this will be an “also ran” standard that appears only occasionally and in the shadier corners of the media ecosystem.
Release [DCA via ArsTechnica]
Hocuspokus (Who am I?)
1 year ago
720p is HD (and the disc is capable of 1080p anyways).
The point here is that small and med-sized niche publishers will be able to provide high def content to market when they might not have been able to afford to do so by other means.
Specialist video outlets for instance (for instance like the UK’s ‘Duke Video’ motor-sports outlet).
If this is also part of the HD-DVD PC burners due very shortly then the capability to burn 30mbit/sec on DVD9 is going to be incredibly useful; the HTPC guys will love this.
It all adds up to a complimentary branch of HD-DVD at a lower cost to producers and consumers.
More HD-DVD content = a good thing in my book.
Maybe the BD side will get a move on and do something with their own theoretical ability (thanks to Warner’s insistence) to do BD9?