You may have thought stupid format wars were over. You thought wrong! This week brings the first saleable “China Blue” players—a rival to Blu-ray. My guess on the rationale? Players made of heroin.
There is nothing wrong with your computer. Do not attempt to adjust the picture. You have not awaken in a crazy, alternate reality where HD DVD won the format war. But Toshiba has unrolled the firmware 4.0 update for its HD DVD players to improve playback issues like a pause bug. We’d make fun of Toshiba mercilessly for the update, but it’s actually a classy move to support one’s tech even when the market has declared it extinct. Nice work, Toshiba. [Toshiba via CrunchGear]
Netflix has just announced that they will exclusively purchase Blu-ray DVDs instead of HD DVDs for their hi def rental option. While the company had formerly supported both formats, their stock of HD DVDs will be phased out completely by the end of this year. Netflix clearly agrees with everyone else that HD DVD is dead, and disco is happy to finally have some company. [reuters]
Anyone with newer displays has heard about DVI and HDMI connections. That’s because DVI (Digitial Visual Interface) and HDMI (High-Definition Multimedia Interface) both pretty much do the same thing, transmitting digital hi def+ pictures to TVs and monitors. But HDMI, which can carry surround sound audio along with that pretty image in a single cord, appears to have won the battle.
