It's enough to make you cry. If physical disc formats really do have some shelf life, then Royal Digital Media's new optical disc format may have some worth, but if it's at the expense of Blu-ray, it's going to play havoc with the consumer.

Technical part first: Royal Digital Media has developed a 100GB-capacity disc which can handle four hours' worth of 1920p HD video -- "the next generation of high definition" according to the company.

The killer part of the equation is that the cost of the discs and players is expected to equal those of traditional DVDs, therefore undercutting Blu-ray.

Sky has announced extended high definition coverage of NFL games, following on from its Monday night coverage announced in August.

Starting on 6th November with the Denver Broncos at the Cleveland Browns, six Thursday night matches will be shown in high definition, plus the three matches being played on Thanksgiving Day (27th November), the wildcard, divisional and conference playoffs, and the Super Bowl XLIII next February.

Here's a full rundown:

• 6th November: Denver Broncos at the Cleveland Browns
• 13th November: New York Jets at New England Patriots
• 20th November: Cincinnati Bengals at Pittsburgh Steelers
• 27th November: Tennessee Titans at Detroit Lions,
• Seattle Seahawks at Dallas Cowboys,
• Arizona Falcons at Philadelphia Eagles
• 4th December: Oakland Raiders at the San Diego Chargers
• 11th December: New Orleans Saints at Chicago Bears
• 18th December: Indianapolis Colts at Jacksonville Jaguars

Wildcard matches begin on the weekend of 3rd January 2009, with divisional matches following the next week, and the Conference Championships a week later.

• 1st February: Super Bowl XLIII - Tampa Bay

(Via Sky Sports News)

Universal Pictures (UK) Ltd and Sony Pictures Home Entertainment have joined forces as UCA to create "POP", a service for shoppers which could make it a lot easier, and cheaper, to buy software and movies, including Blu-ray.

POP is a "vending machine for the 21st Century" and allows the purchase of merchandise through a touchscreen interface. Users just select what they want and then swipe their credit or debit card to complete the purchase. It will also be possible to download content to a variety of PDAs, MP3 players and SD cards.

Over 100 titles will be on offer, with machines available in popular locations such as cinemas, gyms, shopping centres, universities, train stations and airports.

Rachel Wilkinson, Head of POP, said, "“Research suggested that people love the concept of instant purchasing gratification, at their convenience. You can already do this at home via the internet, but POP is the first to offer this service to customers whilst they are out and about. Not only is POP a fun, interactive purchasing experience, but customers can buy DVDs and other entertainment whilst waiting for a train, plane or even a film to start!”"

Financial and performance results are fairly boring affairs, unless you happen to be a significant shareholder or the MD of the company in question, but Sky's latest results are interesting in as much as they show record take-up of the high definition service.

In Sky's first quarter (which runs July to September 2008), the number of subscribers to Sky+ HD grew by 93,000 to 591,000.

Other notable figures include over nine million Sky customers, four million Sky+ homes in total, and nearly 1.8 million broadband subscribers.

Duped twice. That's what you'd be if you'd bought any of the fake Blu-ray discs emanating from China, a huge batch of which were seized by officers from the International Federation Against Copyright Theft - Greater China.

Not only had the pirates ripped off Chinese and Japanese titles including Kung Fu Panda, Star Wars: The Clone Wars, Wall·E and The Women, but they had tried to pass lower quality recordings off as high quality Blu-ray titles.

If you're in line for a new projector or home cinema system, you might want to get yourself to the Stuff Live / What Hi-Fi Show this weekend for some great deals on Epson gear.

Offers only available at the show include £100 off the EMP DM2, now £399.99; £200 off the EMP TW420, now £449.99; and £400 off the EMP TW2000, now £2,599.

There are reports that the latest Blu-ray releases of classic Bond movies are causing problems on a number of players, even those with the latest firmware installed.

Fudzilla has received reports that Panasonic, Pioneer, Samsung, and Sony players are struggling to play the discs.

Some users report that they have the latest firmware, only to discover that the discs still do not work. In this case you will be stuck waiting for the manufacturer to release a new firmware update for your particular player model.

Apparently, most manufacturers are aware of the issues and will be testing their players and releasing firmware updates. Good news, but it's another PR blip (not to mention a frustration for affected customers) in the rocky Blu-ray road map.

(Via Fudzilla)

Depending on which section of the press you look at today, Blu-ray is either set to grow rapidly over the coming year, or is doomed to failure.

Do you trust market research, or the extremely vocal argument of an "industry expert"?

Blu-ray players will slip below $150 during the traditional Black Friday bargain fest in the US, according to the Wall Street Journal.

However, that's not going to save Blu-ray, which will be dead in just 12 months time, according to ZDNet's Robin Harris, who seems to think the whole of Sony and the Blu-ray Disc Association are smoking crack (yeah, nice move Robin).

Pioneer has announced two 50-inch Limited Edition KURO plasma high definition TVs, the KRP-500AW and KRP-500BG.

Available in pure white or beige grisé, the sets are just 64mm slim and once they're gone, they're gone.

Fully HD (1080p) compliant, both feature a separate media receiver (this helps to keep the thinness), home media gallery, PURE AV mode, KURO LINK, analogue and digital TV tuners, four HDMI ports, and optical light sensor which can automatically adjust picture settings according to the ambient light in the room.

Available from November, prices to be confirmed.

The National Trust for Scotland has announced that it is to make a new version of its "Battle of Bannockburn" educational drama currently playing at the Stirling heritage centre.

The original film, made in the 1980s, will be replaced with a high definition version using the latest video techniques, which should offer visitors an "awe-inspiring educational film".

The ten-minute film will combine computer-generated imagery and human actors.

Film director Craig Collinson said, "As a Scottish filmmaker, getting to visually interpret the Battle of Bannockburn on this scale is a rare privilege.

"My aim is to capture not only some of the sheer drama of how the battle unfolded - the incredibly intimidating site of Edward's vast army, the jaw dropping duel that took place between Bruce and one of the English knights and the awesome sight of the Scottish spearman advancing."

(Via BBC News)

Medion has announced its AKOYA P6612 16-inch widescreen notebook, a slightly smaller version of its P8610 18.4-incher announced at IFA.

It packs in a 2.0GHz Intel Core 2 Duo P7350 and NVIDIA GeForce 9600M GS DirectX 10 graphics with 256MB GDDR3 memory, comes with 4GB of RAM, 320GB hard drive, 16-inch widescreen HD-ready (1,366 x 768) display, integrated stereo speakers, webcam and microphone, six-channel audio output, and HDMI output. It's also Wi-Fi 802.11n capable and has Bluetooth and a biometric fingerprint reader.

It comes with a decent set of accessories as standard, including a protective carry bag, DVB-T tuner and remote control, and USB optical scroll mouse.

Available in Aldi stores priced at £579.99.

Medion

The big statistic is that US consumers have bought over 200 million TV shows from Apple's iTunes store since it started offering them.

The HD-relevant statistic is that one-million of those have been of high definition programmes, which started selling in the US last month.

It seems that the extra dollar, plus increased download bandwidth that could eventually incur the wrath of broadband providers, is a small price to pay for these HD-esque programmes.

While (as usual) we're not blessed with such a huge array of available programmes in the UK, Apple's continued dealmaking with TV studios will hopefully see more offerings, including HD versions, here.

(Via TV Week)

MTV's European roll out of its high definition channel continues with news that it will launch on France's CanalSatellite service on 6th November, to coincide with the MTV Music Awards taking place that evening.

As far as I'm aware, the channel - which boasts 250 hours of high definition programming including live and Unplugged concerts and special events - doesn't have a UK launch date yet, but hopefully it won't be long now.

(Via Rapid TV News)

Sony talking up Blu-ray is not a new concept, but the company's marketing and public relations manager, Mark Levitan, has said that Blu-ray will be a decisive factor in promoting the PS3 over other games consoles.

"...you have to say to yourself, if you've bought an HDTV, 1080p resolution is important to you so maybe you want a Blu-ray player. If that's something you're considering, then obviously you're going to pick a PS3. You can go to any chain store and pick up a Blu-ray player but for an extra 100 bucks, you can get a PS3," he said.

I'm not sure consumers are obviously going to pick a PS3 over a standard Blu-ray drive, if they even pick a high definition drive at all in this current economic climate, but the PS3 has always been attractive to those wanting both gaming and HD movies.

As we've already briefly mentioned, the Freesat+ service is due to launch in mid-November, offering a DVR service similar to that of Sky+ and Freeview+.

Along with the new service will come Humax's FOXSAT-HDR, containing a 320GB hard drive able to store up to 80 hours of high definition programming (based on Freesat's standards, of course) or 200 hours of standard definition programmes.

If high quality audio and video storage and streaming is your thing, then the Imerge MS1 may be a great (read, expensive) way to do that.

The media server can be twinned with a three or six gigabyte disc array, to then offer 1080p video playback over HDMI, Wolfson Delta-Sigma 24-bit DACs, and advanced graphical user interface. It offers near silent operation, connection to the hard disc storage via either iSCSI or ESATA, and slot-loading optical drive.

It's not cheap, coming in at just over £13,000 for a 3TB version, or £14,000 for 6TB.

Product page (via Tech Digest)

Sony's Vaio TT notebook, which I wrote about last month, now has an approximate UK launch date -- mid-November -- and price -- starting at £1,399.

Sony is still claiming that it's the lightest portable PC containing a high definition optical drive, but that's probably as much to do with its relatively small screen real estate -- 11.1 inches.

LaCie, well-known for its rugged portable hard drives, has just launched a new range: the LaCinema Rugged.

As the name would suggest, these portable hard drives are designed for carrying around your multimedia files -- movies, photos, and music -- and can connect directly to a high definition television via HDMI or composite video port. Standard definition videos can be upscaled to 1080i via HDMI.

Designed to the same high standards as LaCie's other rugged drives, the LaCinema Rugged features a scratch-resistant aluminium shell, internal shock absorbers, and shock-resistant rubber bumper. Thankfully (at least to my taste) it's available with black casing rather than the bright orange of some other models, so won't look quite so out of place sitting next to my TV.

It comes with a remote control unit, and can be loaded up with digital files from a PC or Mac via USB 2.0. It can play most unprotected audio and video file formats and comes in 250GB, 320GB, and 500GB capacities. Pricing starts at £129.

LaCie UK

DOGs (Digital On-Screen Graphics) are highly unpopular channel identities that tend to live on the screen during all programmes except the adverts.

The BBC HD channel is no exception in using DOGs to identify itself, even though all digital set-top boxes can easily identify the channel being watched and provide far more useful information as required.

It's all a matter of branding over consumer satisfaction, probably more useful when consumers are browsing banks of TVs in the local electrical superstore than watching at home.

In a grand-sounding consultation paper entitled "Temporary assignment of UHF analogue interleaved frequencies", Ofcom is considering the possibility of large cities in the UK, including London, gaining access to high definition over Freeview, despite their official digital switchover date being two or more years down the line.

Though the Granada TV region will see analogue switchoff, and hence more spectrum available for Freeview HD, from late 2009, other regions are being phased in gradually until 2012. London and the South East are the two of the last regions to be switched.

The BBC has applied to Ofcom to temporarily use special frequencies for high definition broadcasts until the switchover is completed in 2012. If approved, it would ensure that many more British consumers could access high definition content, including the 2010 World Cup.