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Sony votes in favour of new HD DVD spec
 Yes, OK, I admit it, that's a headline grabber, but technically, it's true, and it's big news. Let me clarify it: The DVD Forum, which includes Sony, since they're a member, have all voted in favour of a new variation of the HD DVD format that's designed to allow Chinese companies to mass-produce HD DVD players, and you can read more in-depth info over at VideoBusiness.com.
The difference between the HD DVD players that we know and love (right? RIGHT? RIGHT?) and the Chinese ones is that the latter will only be required to decode one video format - AVS: Advanced Video System, a Chinese codec. By comparison, HD DVD players as we know them can play back HD video stored as MPEG-2, MPEG-4 AVC, or VC-1 (multiple formats for several reasons, including one that I am not allowed to share). China's version is a refined, cut-down, cheaper version, that saves Chinese companies the patent and licensing fees associated with licensing several [foreign] codecs.
Why does this matter? It means cheap, mass-market players. Furthermore, if a consumer electronics company wants to adapt the China-only version, it should be easy to re-equip the design of the player and manufacture it with a chip that can read the video formats that are more common here, and sell them in bulk at Wal*mart or ASDA, later down the line. Sounds great to me, and with players also coming from "classy" manufacturers Onkyo and Marantz, it looks like I'll finally be able to get my hands on an HD DVD player produced by someone other than Toshiba. No offense Toshiba, but variety is good.
In case you're wondering what China's AVS video codec can do, here's how EETimes.com describes it:
The visual quality of AVS 1.0 for progressive video sequences is marginally inferior to H.264 main profile at the same bitrate.
So in other words, it's going to mean that the worst China-HD DVD discs will look worse than the worst "Normal"-HD DVD. I'm sure that AVS can still give great results in the right hands. Video Business' Paul Sweeting sums it up nicely, I think:
HD DVD just secured the inside track on a potentially vast new market. The economies of scale that could result from China's embrace of HD DVD is likely to have significant impact on retail prices in every market that sources its electronics from China - that is, the rest of the world.
WITH LOW-COST Chinese HD DVD players on the way, Sony has reason to be concerned about Blu-ray prices. Whether that cinches the argument in favor of a format war, however, is a separate question.
 In related news, Korean giant Samsung, who released the first Blu-ray player in the US, has also begun support for the HD DVD format - albeit in a laptop, and not a set top player. AVZombie.com points out that "Korean rival LG has already taken [the format-neutral] route, with its launch of the so-called Super Multi Blue combination HD DVD Blu-ray player".
This IS hotting up, isn't it?
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