Microsoft just can't stop strutting its stuff.

Recently, Microsoft's Senior Program Manager Kevin Collins, demonstrated the HD-DVD Drive to the attendees of the DVD Forum. According to Mr. Collins, this contraption will be available this holiday season. The MS officer flaunted the HD-DVD drive which is about the same size as that of a usual hardback book, as it played Andrew Lloyd Webber's The Phantom of the Opera. He also showed the menu bar which gives a glimpse of its navigation and interactive features.

Amidst all that, he also mentioned that MS' HD-DVD drive is among the least expensive HD-DVD players around. He also mentions how the Xbox 360 fuels audio and video processing, according to him "all the audio and video processing is done inside the Xbox...An Xbox drive provides them with all the other equipment they need to watch HD DVD movies." Only time could tell if MS' gamble will pay big dividends as it goes head-to-head with PS3's built-in Blu-ray drive. For now, all we mere mortals could do is speculate and speculate some more.

And on this corner, storing 25 gigs, the BBBBBlllluuuu-rrrrrrrrrrrrrayyy Disc!
To my right, storing 15 gigabytes, is the HD-DVDDD!
(applause)
Let's get rrrrreaady to rrrrrummmmbbbbllle!

It seems that the HD-DVD is more than ready to fight, with its VC1 compression better than the Blu-ray's MPEG2/AVC scheme. It boasts of less polarization and posterization of images, but with its single-layer HD-15 disc, will it be able to emerge as the winner?

According to Peter M. Bracke, it seems so. His reviews on the Blu-ray and HD-DVD show that the Blu-ray has a narrower aspect ratio (the images were cropped on the side), darker colors, slower menu access, and as mentioned earlier, has more posterized images and polarized backgrounds. It also makes use of Dolby Digital, which is a step lower than HD-DVD's Dolby Digital Plus. However, the Blu-ray boots faster and has bigger storage capacity than the HD-DVD.

The HD-DVD on the other hand, has a slight brightness shift, also has posterization but not as severe as Blu-ray's, and has better sound quality than the Blu-ray due to the Dolby Digital Plus.

Bracke adds that both have sharp images and vibrant colors. Grainy images aren't a problem for both discs as well. But it seems that Bracke's conclusion tilts more into HD DVD's favor. However, it's just from his point of view. We could expect more improvements on both discs in the future, so this isn't a closed case just yet. Read the entire comparison between the HD-DVD and the Blu-Ray and tell us about your take on this.

We earlier featured an article about the sweet nothings of MS' Richard Teversham for the Nintendo Wii and the Sony PS3. Well, he has more jib-jabs to say to the competition. According to this guy, Microsoft is prepping some harmless spoiler tactics in anticipation for its competitor's console launches.

When asked for specific plans and antics, he said, "I don't want to reveal any plans at the moment because we want to keep a number of surprises up our sleeve...We will ensure we are good value and we'll do that through having a variety of pricing on games, a variety of pricing on console offers." If you're thinking that one of those spoilers would be a price drop, well we're very sorry, but that's not gonna happen as Teversham himself ruled that possibility out too.

But it seems that the marketing manager's statements imply of a revamping of the current Xbox 360 bundles maybe by amping them with additional accessories or games. The HD-DVD drive add-on would definitely go ma-no a ma-no with the Blu-Ray equipped PS3, but until no official details are announced, all we could do is speculate. But certainly, the next-gen console wars may get dirty, and dirty is almost always interesting.

The European Commission has recently launched an unofficial antitrust investigation into the two emerging DVD formats that will be sported by two of the battling next-gen consoles-- the Toshiba-supported HD-DVD on the Xbox 360 corner, and the Sony-backed Blu-Ray on the PS3's side.

Both formats, who are fighting for next-gen audio-visual format dominance, will be probed by the commission because they suspect that the licensing terms both are applying for breach European competition rules. A spokesperson for the commission who wants to maintain his anonymity said that "we sent a letter earlier this month to the makers of HD DVD and Blu-ray to request information about licensing,”

Apparently, Sony had already confirmed that they have received the said letter, but on the other side of the fence, the Toshiba camp has not spoken anything about it. The replies of the companies will be very important since these will help the European Commission determine if they will open a hassling and full-time antitrust probe or if they would just drop it.

nVidia CEO Jen-Hsun Huang was recently interviewed and he gamely talked about the Xbox 360, PS3 and his personal life. But really, do we care about the guys personal life? Maybe, but not as much as we care for what he has to say for two of today's next-gen consoles - the Xbox 360 and the PS3, after all he is the CEO of the leading maker of graphic chips for gamers. But so as not to be unfair, the guy is married with two kids (who whoops his behind when playing video games). He migrated to the U.S. from Taiwan at age nine. So with all those things said, let's get down to the nitty-gritty of things.

When asked if he thinks that his company made the right decision of working with Sony to make the PS3, he reiterates the fact that Nvidia can't build chips for all the game consoles and difference is important. He also believes that the "picking" process takes two - " Sony picked us and Microsoft didn't."

But to ultimately answer the question he said that "I don't think that working with Sony is wrong. There is no way that is going to be wrong. There are many wonderful things that Sony did. I'm excited that they made Blu-ray high-definition storage as a standard part of the PlayStation 3 platform. The first PlayStation had a CD-ROM drive. The PlayStation 2 had DVD. It makes no sense for the PlayStation 3 to use DVDs. To postpone it by a few months so they could include Blu-Ray was a master stroke."

He says that working on consoles was inevitable for them, he confidently adds that "it makes sense that in the long-term we would work on game consoles as well. The others can't keep up with the R&D that we do. That part makes perfect sense to me." He also added that the company has no regrets in their decision to not work on the 360, he said that "if we use our people on a project where the economic return is not good enough, and there are other projects we could be working on, then we're going to lose money." He also predicts that come Christmas 2007, "the  Xbox 360 can't possibly be a DVD-only device."

So, going back to PS3 talk, he confirms that the RSX for Sony is in production for quite some time now and even the Nvidia CEO can't have special privileges - he claims that he doesn't have a PS3 at home. He was also asked if everything about the PS3 is right on track, he dodged the question by saying that "Sony hasn't changed their schedule".

Even with its steep price, the Nvidia CEO believes that Sony's master stroke is the PS3, why? He says that "the moment we put those consoles together it's going to be very clear. If I'm going to buy a next-generation game console, I'm going to buy a console with next-generation media. It's going to last 10 years." He believes that the PS3 has that much staying power.

HD-DVD or Blu-ray has been an on-going battle ever since both players came out. These two have been pitted against each other much like console rivalries (PlayStation vs Xbox, NDS vs PSP, etc.). Since there have been a lot of reports floating around that Xbox 360 will have a taste of HD-DVD technology, be all ears as Major discuss the finer points of HD-DVD versus Blu-ray, along with some interviews with industry experts.

Aside from that, there are also other interviews like Xbox Live Arcade’s "Silver Surfer." Has a reputation of 4 and a half stars, gamerscore of 7920 and toughing it out with the Pros.

If you want to get to hear both interviews and other effects, click on the download link below the article.

Download: [Show #183: The One About HD-DVD]

Billy Talent from our forums has discovered that the local Wal-Mart in Middletown, NY has started selling HD-DVD and Blu-Ray movies. The price tags on these movies are... very interesting and can be a factor in decisions regarding which player to buy.

Although it might be good that these movies are already on sale (take a look at the prices under the titles) - "The Fifth Element" in Blu-Ray format sells for $19.96 while "The Fugitive" in HD-DVD format sells for $24.96 - they're still too costly.

I'm still wondering though what the latest from the war front between HD-DVD and Blu-Ray might be. You might remember that we reported about Pioneer's statement regarding the launch delay of its Blu-Ray players, which Toshiba can take (or perhaps has already taken) advantage of.

If until now you still haven't figured out which of these two next-gen DVD players you would want to get (assuming, of course, you still haven't gotten hold of one), maybe the price of the movies released in Blu-Ray and HD-DVD formats might help you decide. After all, you'd want to invest in something that won't be a pain in the... cause you financial strain in the future.

The Toshiba-Samsung hybrid Blu-ray/HD-DVD player could help see an end to the Blu-ray and HD-DVD format war, but Japanese company Ricoh have come up with an even better solution. Instead of combining two different lens' under one player housing to read Blu-ray and HD-DVDs like the Toshiba-Samsung hybrid player, Ricoh's revolutionary optical component that reads and writes all disk formats—Blu-ray Disc and HD-DVD, as well as older formats such as DVD and CD using just one pickup and objective lens; which has never been achieved before.

Ricoh are scheduled to show off the new technology at the Optoelectronics Exhibition '06 in Tokyo, Japan on July 12-14. The company has plans to sell the component to manufacturers by the end of th year, potentially ending the format war before it even starts. Ricoh's optical reader/writer works by using a new diffraction plate. The diffraction component adjusts the laser beam with its diffraction grating for each format and passes it to the objective lens. The lens then forms a beam spot at the appropriate depth for each disk format.

You have been warned! Don't rush out and get those Blu-ray or HD-DVD players too soon, as there could be something much more worth your while on the market by the end of this year that'll read new HiDef formats as well as your old DVDs. If the Ricoh optical device is this good, filling the space of just 1 lens, we should even see Blu-ray, HD-DVD, DVD, CD and VCR recorders by early 2007. Lets just hope all goes to plan.

Visit: [Ricoh website]

German magazine CT have found a pretty simple, yet effective way to copy both HD-DVD and Blu-ray disc media. Although Blu-ray and HD DVD are supposed to be highly secure, using both AACS and HDCP copy protection in order to ensure that you cannot simply copy media from a disc, the German computer magazine CT found a much easier, crude way to get around the copyright protection. It was so simple it must have been overlooked by Sony, Microsoft and other next-generation DVD manufacturers.

The exploit in the copy protection meant that you could copy media using the print screen function on a computer, copying each frame individually. This may seem too crude to actually work but of course you wouldn't sit there pressing print screen manually, it wouldn't take a genius to create a program that would capture each frame using print screen. However, this flaw in the system will be fixed. CT magazine contacted Toshiba in order to notify them of the problem, and later versions of Toshiba's HD-DCD players will protect against this flaw. And Sony - I guess they'll take the hint!

There have been so many rumours floating about concerning Sega's plans for next generation consoles, its been hard to keep our head screwed on. It seems now, we understand much better what the plans are thanks to Sega's marketing person, Scott Steinberg. GameDaily BIZ interviewed Mr Steinberg, and below we have the findings from the short but informative discussion.

 To start with, Sega have made clear that with the release of the PS3 console both Sonic the Hedgehog and Full Auto 2: Battlelines will be available. After some time, in March '07, Virtua Fighter 5 will be released. Sonic and Full Auto will be PS3 exclusives, but after a certain time they will be spread to the Xbox 360.

With the Wii, Super Monkey Ball: Banana Blitz will be available from launch, and Sonic Wild Fire will follow also in March. Together with this information, Sega announced some intriguing nit-bits. They said that true to common knowledge, Wii titles were cheaper to develop than Xbox and Ps3 titles, however the situation wasn't as bad as many have said it is. Sega also believe that the Wii will be a solid success, putting full confidence behind it, and even thinking about developing second generation titles for it.

When talking about PS3 pricing, they think $499 and $599, is expensive, however, firstly this isn't past what predictions put it at, and secondly it not only caters to gamers, but being a much cheaper Blu-Ray device, it caters for those in the market for home appliances. Also the PS3 is a much powerful device, meaning that price is a match for this performance.

Sega have backed up the argument concerning online capabilities of systems. They say that much isn't known about the PS3 online platform, so therefore they cant cater as well for it, however if they wish to develop for systems such as the Xbox 360, they can do so, because all corners have been revealed and dug into.