High-definition discs will improve on DVDs

[Gregg Lengling]

By Mike Snider / USA TODAY

June DVD release offers future peek


Want a glimpse of HD-DVD? When "Terminator 2: The Extreme DVD" ($29.98) arrives June 3 it will have two discs -- one standard, one high-definition.

There is a catch.

The high-definition disc, which comes courtesy of Microsoft and uses its proprietary Windows Media format, will be viewable only on souped-up PCs running Microsoft's Windows XP and Media Player 9. Microsoft says the video quality, without requiring new hardware, is three times that of current DVDs and better than HDTV broadcasts.

Still, you're not likely to appreciate the full effect unless you own one of the few PCs with a high-definition display or one that can hook up to the latest digital TVs via special connections.

-- Mike Snider


Even as the public's love affair with the DVD blossoms, the tech world is hard at work in the lab creating the next generation high-definition disc.

With 56.5 million DVD players sold since 1997, it's not too early for engineers to work on a successor. It took about three years to develop DVD and new players and prerecorded discs probably won't arrive in final form for at least three years.

Don't panic; any future player also will handle the discs you buy today. But just as DVDs are of higher quality than TV, digital TV and high-definition programming have leapfrogged the quality of DVD. And as sales of digital TV sets, capable of displaying video two to three times better than that of DVD, increase, the industry is wrangling over ways to keep up.

"The good news is, Hollywood is not trying to cheat consumers. The studios, artists and directors really want to get the home theater experience as good as possible," says Richard Doherty of consulting firm The Envisioneering Group.

Beyond better video, HD-DVD discs may hold seven-channel soundtracks and more interactive bonuses, such as automatic software that, through a Net-linked home entertainment server, could connect online for additional language soundtracks and live chats with filmmakers and actors. "Those are the kinds of areas we're working on in defining the format," says Erin Sullivan, with Panasonic.

Most companies involved are skittish about discussing next-generation discs for fear of confusing consumers and derailing DVD. But about two years into the discussions, several systems are competing to become the standard:

¥ The Blu-ray Disc, supported by nine major makers including Sony, Panasonic, Philips, and Pioneer, could store up to 50 gigabytes of data (more than six times the data capacity of today's DVD) by using a blue laser beam instead of the current red laser.

¥ Advanced Optical Disc, a second blue-laser system proposed by NEC and Toshiba, brings disc capacity to 20GB.

¥ HD-DVD-9, based on the current DVD format, uses improved software compression to pack 135 minutes of HD video onto a disc. It was developed by Warner Bros.

A format decision is expected by the end of the year. That hasn't kept the technology from peeking out early: Sony last month released a $3,800 Blu-ray recorder in Japan, where HDTV is more prevalent.