Guys in basements cracked the HD DVD code a few days weeks and now there are preliminary reports suggesting that Blu-ray discs have also been cracked. When I say "preliminary" I really mean it because the only proof that we have is one lonely post on an HDTV blog. Allegedly, three or more people have claimed to find the title/volume keys on Blu-ray discs by using a PS3. Linux, modding and voodoo are involved, apparently. If this turns out to be accurate, it would mean that neither HD DVD nor Blu-ray are as secure as their handlers wanted Hollywood to believe. When pirates are determined to buy their own nation, how do you fight that? Somewhere, an MPAA official is crying (and drawing up lawsuits). – Nicholas Deleon
This just in: Possible Blu-ray title/volume key exploit found on PS3 [HDTV Blogger via PS3Scene]

For a mere $2090 (plus tax), you can use Avocent's HD Emerge MPX1000 HD Multipoint Extender to bring HD-content to any room in your house. The Emerge supports up to 720p, and requires an MPX100T Transmitter ($1095) and an MPX100R Receiver ($995) in order to work.
Cool if you're really keen on watching the same thing in multiple rooms—in HD no less—but for two big ones, you could easily just buy two HD DVD or Blu-ray players and be done with it. – Jason Chen
Press Release [Avocent via Gearlive]

It seems the porn founder interviewed at AVN was full of, well, something. Joone, founder of Digital Playgrounds, said he was forced to use HD DVD because no Blu-ray manufacturer would make his discs.
However, the story's not quite so simple.
Sony, as a company, refuses to "replicate" adult titles on any format. That means Sony won't be using their factories or facilities to make DVDs, UMDs, or Blu-ray discs full of porn. This isn't new. However, the Blu-ray alliance isn't against adult titles. At least in principle.
Marty Gordon, Vice Chair of BDA US Promotions Committee says:
There is not a prohibition against adult content. The BDA is an open organization that welcomes the participation of all companies interested in using and supporting the format, including those that represent the full spectrum of genres in the content industry. Blu-ray's superior capacity has attracted support from virtually every major Hollywood studio and gives content pr...

It's only been a few weeks since Muslix64 bypassed HD DVD's DRM protection and now it appears the first HD DVD movie has made its way onto BitTorrent. The movie of choice is the sci-fi flick Serenity, which weighed in at 19.6GB. The .EVO file is playable on most DVD software packages like PowerDVD, the question is will people be willing to download such a hefty file and how will the Hollywood honchos respond. Either way it looks like it's score 1 for the Pirates, 0 for DRM. – Louis Ramirez
First Pirated HD DVD Movie Hits BitTorrent [Ars Technica]

G30/97A: Toshiba to launch laptop featuring HD DVD-R after Vista OS launch Japanese tech giant Toshiba has said that they would launch the first notebook computer in the market featuring a write-once HD DVD-R optical disc drive. Toshiba’s upcoming G30/97A would essentially be an upgrade of existing models of their Qosmio G30 entertainment laptop. Toshiba is already supplying [...]

With Relentless Enemies, National Geographic has scheduled their first high definition release for March, coming to DVD, HD-DVD and Blu-Ray Disc through Warner Home Video. The great lions of the ...

The animated hit Happy Feet starring a vast variety of celebrity voices will dance to DVD, HD-DVD and Blu-Ray Disc this March. In the great nation of Emperor Penguins, deep in Antarctica, you're ...

Toshiba's closed the gap between HD DVD and Blu-ray releases with the triple-layer 51GB HD DVD disc. That's one more than currently marketed 50GB Blu-ray movies.
One of the main ticks in the comparison sheet between Blu-ray and HD DVD was the higher storage capacity of BD (50GB discs just debuted a few months ago) compared to HD.
Going up to 51GB, the HD camp can finally say they're equal to BD in storage, even though it takes three layers to do it—which in turn amps up the price to make these discs. However, the 51GB disc doesn't exactly level the playing field, seeing as Blu-ray has discs of up to 200GB (8 layers) coming. – Jason Chen
HD-DVD goes beyond 50GB with new disc [DVDTown]

Toshiba's closed the gap between HD DVD and Blu-ray releases with the triple-layer 51GB HD DVD disc. That's one more than currently marketed 50GB Blu-ray movies.
One of the main ticks in the comparison sheet between Blu-ray and HD DVD was the higher storage capacity of BD (50GB discs just debuted a few months ago) compared to HD.
Going up to 51GB, the HD camp can finally say they're equal to BD in storage, even though it takes three layers to do it—which in turn amps up the price to make these discs. However, the 51GB disc doesn't exactly level the playing field, seeing as Blu-ray has discs of up to 200GB (8 layers) coming. – Jason Chen
HD-DVD goes beyond 50GB with new disc [DVDTown]