A member of Blu-ray Disc Associaton’s (www.blu-raydisc.com) Board of Directors, Twentieth Century Fox will release content on the new high-definition Blu-ray Disc format through its subsidiary, Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment LLC. According to Mike Dunn, president worldwide of Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment, “The advanced functionality, picture quality and data capacity [25 GB of data for single-layer; 50 GB for dual-layer] at a competitive manufacturing cost fully realizes the promise of a next-generation format.”
In related news, the AP reported that Toshiba and Sony (a Blu-ray member) have ended negotiations over the next-generation digital media format. Toshiba claims that manufacturing costs for HD DVD are lower, while Sony says that Blu-ray’s higher storage capacity is a more important issue. Toshiba has delayed plans to bring HD DVD players to market, while Blu-ray will be featured on the PlayStation 3 (launched early next year).
At AES, on October 7 and 8, from 3:30 p.m. to 5 p.m., two Dolby-sponsored sessions, entitled “The Next Generation of Consumer Disc Formats: HD DVD and Blu-ray Disc,” will teach attendees about each format’s structure, authoring tools, disc replication and the impact on music, game and video markets. Panelists include Mark Waring (director, Sanyo Technology Center USA), Gateway Mastering’s Bob Ludwig, David Anthony (co-founder of Giant Interactive) and Randy Hudson, president of Broadness LLC, as well as Dolby Labs’ Steve Venezia and DTS’ Lorr Kramer. Sessions are open to all attendees for free; room assignments will be announced at the show.
