Universal Pictures Australasia to release 'at least' 20 HD DVD titles in 2008

Alex Zaharov-Reutt
Monday, 04 February 2008 08:55

Opinion and Analysis

The example given for interactive features is for the upcoming release of “The American Gangster HD DVD”, which delivers “amazing features using Microsoft's HDi technology”.  We’re told that “you can navigate through the movie, bonus features and settings as the movie plays, and instantly turn U-Control on or off.  Your American Gangster HD DVD puts you in control of a new multi-dimensional, high-definition movie experience”.

The press release goes on to say that: “The HD DVD will include U-Control picture-in-picture, taking you behind the scenes with Denzel Washington and Russell Crowe, director Ridley Scott, producer Brian Grazer and key cast and crew members for exclusive interviews and revealing footage about the scene you’re watching”. 

The press release ends by saying that: “The My Scenes feature lets you create your own personal collection of favourite American Gangster scenes.  Bookmark the ones you want and all will appear as a visual timeline of the movie.  Select any clip and you are instantly transported to that moment.  Your HD DVD player will store your scenes until you delete them, so you can enjoy your own personal version of the film whenever you like”.

So, finally there is some good news for existing owners of HD DVD players, or those wanting to pick up one of the newly discounted HD DVD players on the cheap, already set to be bundled with a stack of free HD DVD movies.

With new movies on the way, HD DVD isn’t dead yet. But at the same time it sounds like a last hurrah for the HD DVD format.

Toshiba – is it that hard to make a cheap HD DVD recorder, both with and without an internal hard drive?

I still think that giving people the power to record in high def – and easily store those high-def recordings on cheap, blank HD DVD discs – is your only hope to bring back the Happy Days of the ‘high def digital versatile disc’.