Now that the HD DVD player for the Xbox 360 is forthcoming in November, let's set up a home theater around that sucka. Here's a 5.1 home theater audio system designed specifically for the Xbox 360, the Pioneer HTP-GS1. It supports DTS, Dolby Digital, NR and Pro II, and even has a special setting for MP3s, making those substandard audio files sound butta-smooth. No release or pricing info was available yet, but we're betting this system will be around the same time that HD DVD peripheral drops. – Charlie White
Pioneer HTP-GS1 home theater for Xbox [Akihabara News]

Warner Brothers have announced several interesting HD DVD titles for October 10th, the long awaited ‘Batman Begins’, ‘Tim Burton’s Corpse Bride’, ‘The Polar Express’, ‘Charlie and the Chocolate Factory’ and the original starring Gene Wilder ‘Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory’. I for one am very happy to see the original Willy Wonka on HD DVD, [...]

Toshiba contest
No purchase necessary
Free HD is good

We're giving away a biggie—the Toshiba HD-A1 HD-DVD Player valued at $499. To win this it is pretty simple, write up a haiku about high-definition video. A haiku is a style of poetry. It is a three-lined poem—the first line containing five syllables, the second line containing seven syllable and the third line containing five syllables. Another shorter style can do three syllables, five syllables, three syllables for the three lines of poetry. Here are some examples:

High-def is so sweet
that I watch it in the nude
because porn is good.
High def porn
Too many pixels
Pimple butts
Note that your high-definition haikus don't have to be about porn, it i

Filed under: HDTV, Home Entertainment
Most studios have already picked a side in the HD DVD / Blu-ray war, but for the few still contemplating a near suicidal attempt at a simultaneous DVD, HD DVD and Blu-ray release, there's help on the way. A pair of

Before anyone jumps for joy (or panics) the additional layer in the 3-layer HD DVD discs announced today, aren?t for Blu-ray, they’re for DVD. This new 3-layer disc from Toshiba and Memory-Tech can be configured as a 30GB HD DVD plus 4.7GB DVD or as an 8.5GB dual-layer DVD with a 15GB HD DVD layer. Applications [...]

Filed under: HDTV, Home Entertainment, Storage

You know we likey our Blu-ray and HD DVD tech 'round here, but we heart hybrid capabilities even more. So today's announcement from Toshiba and Memory Tech of a triple-layer twin format HD DVD / DVD disc has certainly caught our attention. The new disc is capable of either a dual-layer 30GB HD DVD and single-layer 4.7GB configuration

Toshiba has been tinkering with the HD DVD and DVD disc formats, putting together a hybrid format with three layers that contain both formats. The DVD section will be playable on conventional DVD players, and with a firmware update, standard HD DVD players can play both formats.
So it looks like we'll be seeing either a single-layer 4.7GB DVD along with a dual layer 30GB HD DVD, or conversely, a dual-layer 8.5GB DVD and a single-layer 15GB HD DVD, all together on one disc. One more layer, lots more content.
This idea could add more capacity to those already-existing single-layer hybrid discs, where a movie is offered on DVD for use today and also includes a high-def HD DVD copy on the same disc for those who think someday they may be suckered into buying an HD DVD player. However, this is at cross purposes with movie studios, who

Filed under: HDTV, Home Entertainment
If you're still a fence sitter in the HD DVD / Blu-ray war, and you just can't part with that sweet sounding 5.1 audio collection, home theater boutique Cary Audio Design has a new universal player that should fit the bill quite nicely while the high definition blows are being thrown. The DVD 8, debuting at CEDIA, plays nice with DVD, SACD, and DVD Audio, and sports the oh-so-touted 720p / 1080i upscalin

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