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Basics of HD DVD Players & HD DVDs

When DVD hit the home video market a decade ago, it changed the whole conception of home entertainment with its superior video and sound quality. The old VHS tape was no match to DVDs which came with high resolution capabilities, superior colour quality and other features like digital sound effects, extra commentary tracks, zooming and movie selection features. The full length movie could be recorded in a single DVD and this was not a small feat that time. DVD’s popularity soon led to the demise of VHS tape and adoption of DVD format by the film industry in the following years.

However, a standard DVD had a major disadvantage. A high density optical disk though it is, a DVD could store only standard definition videos. At best, DVDs can store and display movies with a resolution of 720×480 pixels either in interlaced or progressive scanned formats. This is much lower resolution by the high definition standards. The main reason behind it is its storage capacity which is much less than what is required to record a full high-definition movie.

This setback was soon overcome by the emergence of two high definition formats - HD DVD and Blu ray. These competing formats are also incompatible with each other that led to format war with companies and entertainment industry is quite divided over their support and adoption of these formats.

Just as we compare HD DVD with other high density optical discs and to find out its advantages, it is worthwhile to understand the basics of HD DVD format and HD-DVD discs

What is HD-DVD format?

High-Definition DVD (HD-DVD) is an optical disc just like a DVD, but it comes with better storage capacity so that it can record and playback high definition movies. HD-DVD disc has the same diameter (12 cm) and same thickness (1.2 mm). However, a HD-DVD can hold much more information than a DVD. To make it more clear, a single layered HD-DVD can hold 15GB of data as against 4.7 GB capacity of single layer DVD. In other words, a DVD can store a movie (standard video) of two hours duration while a HD-DVD can store more than twenty such standard videos.

Although both DVD and HD-DVD store data in the form of pits on their surface, there are a lot of differences as to how closely the pits and tracks are arranged and how data is recorded or read etc.

In a HD-DVD the pits are made much smaller and the spiral tracks are more tightly packed. HD-DVDs have less than half of the track pitch of standard DVDs (0.40 micrometers Vs 0.74 micrometers). To store and read data from such minuscule pits, HD-DVD uses blue laser (or violet) of smaller wave length (405 nanometer).

Most HD-DVDs use MPEG-4 video compression standard to store information. This enables HD-DVDs to compress large data into small files using less space on the disc. HD-DVD is also compatible with MPEG-2 compression format which is a standard encoding method for DVDs.

Types of HD-DVDs

There are four types of HD-DVD discs based on their capacities and read-write features:

• HD-DVD ROM
• HD-DVD RW
• HD-DVD R
• HD-DVD RAM

Except HD-DVD RAM, all other types have 15 GB capacity per layer. Thus, a double layered double side HD-DVD will have a capacity of 30 GB.

HD-DVD RAM is a high capacity disc that can hold 20 GB on a single layer and 40 GB on a double layer.

Video and audio formats

For high definition recording, HD-DVDs use various HDTV resolutions and video compression formats.

The range of HDTV resolutions that HD-DVD can support include 720p, 1080i, 1080p while the standard DVD video format (480p) is also supported by most HD-DVDs. Most HD-DVDs are capable of compressing in both MPEG-2 and MPEG-4 formats along with other more efficient formats like VC-1 and AVC.

HD-DVDs can support up to eight sound channels at 24 bit or192KHZ and audio can be decoded using a variety of digital audio formats that include Dolby Digital AC-3, DTS, Dolby TruHD and DTS-HD Master Audio.

HD-DVD Movies

There were about 330 movie titles available in HD-DVD format by the end of 2007. Along with HD-DVD only discs, dual-format discs and hybrid discs have also been used by some of the companies for movie release. In a dual-format disc, there is movie in DVD format (4.7 GB layer) on one side of the disc and HD-DVD version (15 GB layer) on the other side.

Hybrid discs come in two versions: HD-DVD/DVD hybrid disc and HD-DVD/Blu-ray hybrid disc. These discs support two formats and are playable by HD-DVD player and blu-ray disc player.

How does a HD DVD Player Work?

HD DVD player is designed to playback HD DVDs and most of them can also play DVDs and CDs. There are also HD DVD recorders which come with recording capabilities in all the formats. Both HD DVD player and DVD player use the same basic technology - laser beam for reading & recording data on a high density optical disc. However, HD DVD is improvised and upgraded version of standard DVD as it uses advanced laser technology and more efficient video compression techniques.

In this article, let’s know all the basics of a HD DVD player and how they are able to store & playback high definition contents with high fidelity.

How does HD DVD player work?

HD DVD player is made up of components that amazingly resemble a standard DVD player. There is an image sensor that emits laser beam which strikes the bumps on the HD DVD and gets reflected just as it happens inside a DVD player unit. Both have motor assembly that spins the disc so that the laser head can read and write information on the pits which are arranged in spiral tracks on the discs.

However, the use of short wave length blue laser (405 nm) instead of red laser (650 nm) is the major difference in HD DVD player. The blue laser is so efficient and much more precise, when it comes to making pits much smaller and reducing the track pitches on HD DVDs.

Another component that allows HD-DVD to have high density storage is the use of more efficient MPEG-4 codec rather than MPEG-2, the standard video compression used by DVD players. Most HD DVD players can use MPEG-2 along with MPEG-4, so you can still play DVDs using HD DVD players. HD DVD players also support the latest video codecs like VC-1 that can save more space on disc as well render excellent picture quality. All the HD DVD version of movies are encoded using VC-1 compression method.

Most HD DVD players come with USB port so that you can connect USB pen drives and view images, photos or playback music tracks.

Finally, HD DVD has High Definition Multimedia Interface (HDMI) that can output signals at 720p or 1080i resolution. The HDMI can also do upscaling of the standard DVDs to 720p or 1080i resolution so the video quality is enhanced on large screen TVs, especially, LCD TV or Plasma TV sets.

Drive speed

The latest HD DVDs come with much higher drive speeds that they can transfer data more than three times faster than a DVD player. HD DVD player of 1X drive speed can send information to the video outputs at a rate of 36 Mbits/s and will take 90 minutes to write on a double layered HD DVD disc.

A 2X HDVD drive is much faster with data rate of 72 Mbits/s and can write on the same disc within less than one hour.

Backward Compatibility

Backward compatibility is the ability of HD DVD players to read multiple video formats like HD DVD, DVD and CDs. Most HD DVD players come with backward compatibility with DVD so you can still use the popular DVD titles, however, a few of them may not play CDs.

Along with it, there is also twin format HD DVD disc where the same movie is recorded in DVD format and HD DVD format on either side. Typically, most HD DVD players come with both red and blue laser light and use it alternatively depending on the format while reading.

Blu-ray/HD DVD Combo players

Due to the unending format war between HD DVD and blu-ray , many customers are still undecided, when it comes to choosing between the two. As such, a few combo players come with recording & play back capabilities in both the formats. However, they are rather expensive and their video quality is not as good as a stand-alone HD DVD player or a blu-ray disc player. Consequently, some computers come with this type of combo drives to playback both the formats.

Other applications

HD DVD drives can be used in computers and the most OS like Windows XP, Windows Vista, Mac and Linux provide software that can play HD DVDs using an add-on drive.

In 2006, Microsoft introduced HD DVD drive with its popular game console, Xbox 360 that allowed the game console customers to playback HD DVD movies. However, Microsoft discontinued the HD DVD version of Xbox 360 followed by dwindling support to HD DVD format by the entertainment industry.

DVD vs HD DVD Players - Comparison

Although, DVD renders standard video with better colour and detail, neither does it have the capacity to store so large information as required for recording high definition video nor does it work well with HDTVs. Standard DVD produces excellent results when it outputs video on a screen size less than 40″. However, on larger screens, DVD picture had the tendency to show more scan lines thus affecting the over-all picture quality.

True high definition recording and playback needed a new format that can successfully handle these problems. As a result, two high definition formats were introduced in home entertainment market - HD DVD and blu-ray. They are competing technologies and have been trying to succeed DVD as the future video format.

There are both similarities and differences between DVD and HD-DVD. Both formats use the optical disc of same size(12 cm diameter). They were developed on the common principles of high density storage using laser technology. DVDs come with double layered and double sided capacities. So do HD-DVDs. So, what are the differences between HD-DVD and DVD lie and what are the additional features of HD DVD that make it a high definition format?

Comparing availability of HD DVD and DVD

Currently, DVD enjoys the support of all Hollywood studios and has the largest number of movie titles to its credit. There are more than 50,000 movie titles available in DVD format by the end of 2007.

HD-DVD version of movies are available in the home video market but the number is dwindling as many studios had switched to its rival format, blu-ray. There were around 340 movie titles HD-DVD format by the end of 2007.

HD-DVD players have backward compatibility with DVD. This means you can still use your DVD library on HD DVD player. HD-DVD players are available with high end models adding newer features. They are also much cheaper when compared with blu-ray players costing just one-third of the price of blu-ray player.

Storage Capacity

HD-DVD can hold more than three times as much information as DVD. Double layer, double side discs are available in both formats.

Video Resolution

Standard DVD supports EDTV resolution of 720×480 pixels either in interlaced scan or progressive scan format. However, the HDTV can support both lower resolutions like SDTV, EDTV as well as higher resolutions of HDTV(720p, 1080i and 1080p).

Some DVD players use upscaling method where HDMI connections are used to enhance the video quality of standard DVD, however, the results are much better only on HDTV enabled TV sets.

Video Compression methods

Standard DVD uses MPEG-2 to encode the information on the disc. While this technology lacks compression capabilities to encode high definition contents, HD-DVD need to use more efficient video codecs like MPEG-4, VC-1 or AVC. VC-1 is so far the best compression method and most movie titles in HD-DVD version have used this codec.

HD-DVD is also compatible with MPEG-2 thus making DVD playable on a HD DVD player.

Audio standards

Both HD-DVD and DVD support digital sound surround features. Standard DVD supports both DTS and Dolby sound systems, but still audio experience lacks in fidelity when compared with HD-DVD.

Sound tracks in HD-DVD are encoded in higher bandwidth (24 bit/192Khz) and support a variety of sound tracks that include Dolby TrueHD, Dolby Digital Plus, DTS-HD, DTS, Dolby Digital etc. There are as many as eight sound channels that can be encoded on HD-DVD. This is how HD-DVD movies are able to provide amazing audio experience in a hometheater setup.

Data transfer speed

HD-DVD players come with high speed drives that can transfer information at a rate of 36 Mbits/s. This speed is ideal, when it comes to recording or playback of high definition contents. This speed is also nearly three times faster than a standard DVD player.

There is also 2X drive that has twice this speed (72 Mbits/s) and can write on a double layered HD-DVD disc in less than an hour.

Input and Output connections

Typically, standard DVD player comes with connection options like S-video, composite and component video outputs and analog stereo, digital coaxial and digital optical audio connections.

HD DVD players do have the same connections plus HDMI output to send high definition contents to HDTV. To use HD DVD player with your existing TV, it should have composite video input as a minimum requirement. However, if you want to play high definition video, your TV should be enabled with either component or HDMI connection.

Region coding

DVDs and DVD players come with region coding while HD DVDs do not. However, this is about to change, as HD DVDs and players will come with region coding in near future. This means, you will have to buy movie titles with region code according to your geographical location.

Price factor

Currently, the price factor is in favour of DVD players and DVDs. Ever since DVD first hit the market in 1997, the prices have been falling making it so competitive in home video market.

HD-DVDs are still expensive and need a few more years for the prices to come down. HD-DVD player cost almost double the price of a standard DVD player while HD-DVD version of a movie title cost as much four times as DVD movie.

However, there is a big advantage with HD-DVD player, as DVD is still playable on it. Along with it, you can also play high definition videos.

Toshiba HD-XE1 HD DVD Player

HD DVD player redefines your entertainment experience combining high definition sound and video. The exceptional level of clarity, vibrant colours and detailed vision makes HD DVD players the most advanced and interactive device ever for watching movies. Toshiba HD-XE1 HD DVD Player takes high definition viewing to a new level with its plethora of supportive technological features.

In the Box

Toshiba HD-XE1, HDMI Cable, Composite Cables and Remote Control

Design

Toshiba HD-XE1 HD DVD Player with HDMI is a sleek machine with power switch, LED display and an eject button, There is an array of controls and two USB ports hidden under the flap. There is a Mode switch, which can be changed between 1 and 2, that is either to standard definition viewing or high definition viewing. It comes with a blue light shining at the bottom and can be turned-off with the remote control. The unit is flexible with a LED display, which can be switched off if you feel it disturbing.

Start Up

Unlike Toshiba HD-A1 that takes a long time to startup, this Toshiba HD-XE1 HD DVD Player just takes less than 40 sec. However the HD quality video delivered proves that it’s definitely worth the wait.

Features

Toshiba HD-XE1 HD DVD Player can output the high end resolution of 1080p and this player also features 720p and 1080i, 576p/576i and 480p/480i. It supports version 1.3 of the HDMI cable standard promising improved colour.

Compatibility

This player is compatible to CD, CD-DA, CD-RW, CD-R, DVD-R, DVD-RW, DVD ROM, DVD Video, MPEG4 and HD DVD.

Picture in Picture Mode

This HD DVD player allows you to enjoy two programmes simultaneously with the help of its picture-in-picture feature.

Connectivity

The back of the unit features different connector options including Component Video and HDMI for HD output in addition to the S-video and component video connectors for displaying pictures in standard definition. Along with standard two channel audio output, you have 5.1 audio to connect it directly to a surround sound amp without using a decoder. There are Co-ax and optical digital audio output connectors available for using your surround decoder. There is an Ethernet port and the discs can use the internet connection optionally to access additional features and the player can access firmware updates.

Remote Control

Toshiba HD-XE1 HD DVD Player comes with a sturdy remote control, which is finished in brushed black metal effect. It features logical button placement and simple controls. It takes four AAA batteries. You can access the power and volume just by punching the code in the manual. The drawback of the remote control is that it is difficult to read in low light conditions.

Verdict

Though this player comes with issues such as start up time and slow responsiveness of menus, these minor issues cannot overrule the success of it. With appealing features and impressive looks, this player is definitely worth the money spent when compared to the standalone blu-ray rivals.

Philips DVP5960 HD DVD Player

Step into the next generation home entertainment with the latest Philips DVP5960 HD DVD player. It has cutting edge features including HDMI digital Video and audio connection and USB connectivity to access music and JPEG files from digital storage devices. If you have a new flat screen TV and looking to improve the quality of standard DVDs, then this DVD player is perfect for you.

Design

Philips DVP5960 HD Multi-region DVD Player looks ultra slim and can fit even through a letter box. It is metal encased and finished with glossy black front panel and disc drawer in silver. The front controls have the basic playback functions and an upscaling select button. The USB port in the right hand side helps accessing music and photofiles from PMP (portable media player) or digital storage device.

Connectivity

It has a complete range of connectivity options in the rear such as a single HDMI output, which supports high-definition quality images. HDMI delivers incomparable image and sound quality in a single cable. The component video outputs support progressive scan and gives pictures in detail. Since the component outputs transmit only video signals, you have to use separate connectors for sound. The standard stereo phonos and coaxial output decodes surround sound by transmitting multi-channel Dolby Digital signals to Home Cinema Receiver. There is a single RGB enabled Scart terminal for traditional users. It also comes with a low quality composite output.

Features

The defining feature of this player is the upscaling. You can up convert standard definition DVDs to HD quality 720p and 1080i formats. You can have an enhanced view of your JPEG images or digital photos with up to 2 mega pixel resolution. If you have stored your photos in a CD with MP3 music, you can set a slideshow with music. The compatible disc includes standard CD and DVD formats encoded with JPEG files, WMA and MP3. This player is also compatible to compressed video formats with DivX Ultra, which comes with multiple options such as subtitles, menus and alternative tracks. If you are using the player for listening to music, you can up sample CDs up to 4x normal rate to enhance sound quality.

Philips DVP5960 HD DVD Player with HDMI has an easy to use menu system and the settings come with more picture and sound options. Picture options are used for controlling pictures and the sound options include music modes, dedicated movies and virtual surround setting are used to control sound.

Performance

Images are delivered with high quality using HDMI. The images using 720p and 1080i differ slightly, but they assure detailed and fluid images without black levels.

When a large screen is used, you can come across occasional shadow gradation and grains. However, this is an affordable DVD player with good sound and picture performance.

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