Toshiba To Ship HD DVD Players in March

By Geoff Duncan Updated January 5, 2006

Toshiba To Ship HD DVD Players in March

Japanese electronics giant Toshiba announced today that it plans to begin selling HD DVD players in North America in March 2006, a full three months ahead of Blu-Ray players to be offered by companies like Sony and Pioneer.

Toshiba’s first HD DVD players dubbed the HD-XA1 and HD-A1 will be priced at $799 and $499. Toshiba says content from major Hollywood studios should be available in HD DVD format by the time the players hit the market. The company claims both models will offer high definition images, crystal clear audio, and enhanced functionality including “iHD” navigation.

Toshiba’s U.S. launch of HD DVD players may be the first in the world: although both Toshiba and the rival Blu-Ray camp had planned to release players in the Japanese market first, neither company has confirmed release dates for the Japanese market.

Yesterday, Microsoft also announced it plans to ship a movie-playing external HD DVD player for its Xbox 360 video game system during 2006.

The mutually-incompatible HD DVD and Blu-Ray next-generation DVD disk formats have been competing for mindshare and industry dominance for years, but the battle has become particularly heated since negotiations to unify the two formats broke down last year and products and studios increasingly pressed for products to come to market. The Blu-Ray camp is led by Sony Corporation, which plans to ship Blu-Ray drives in its forthcoming PlayStation 3 console and plans to start selling Blu-Ray players in the U.S. by mid-year; Blu-Ray is backed by many electronics and manufacturers including Apple Computer, Matsushita, and Pioneer. HD DVD is supported by Intel, Microsoft, and (increasingly) Hewlett-Packard, and is generally favored for its more-transparent scheme for “managed copies” of media, which would seem to enable simpler personal use of D DVD media throughout (say) a home network than would Blu-Ray. Hollywood studios are increasingly straddling the fence, saying the plan to support both Blu-Ray and HD DVD formats, at least until a clear winner emerges.

Former Digital Trends Contributor

Geoff Duncan writes, programs, edits, plays music, and delights in making software misbehave. He's probably the only member…

Audio / Video

How to fix a scratched DVD or CD

physical-compact-discs

While DVDs and CDs are slowly becoming obsolete, many of us still own hard copies of our all-time favorite films and albums. Unfortunately, discs are prone to scratches, chips, and general dirt buildup, often rendering them useless. However, there are workarounds and hacks for getting your damaged hard-copy media working again. Read on to see what disc repair methods we recommend.
What you should know before you begin
It's important to note that the methods outlined below will not work with Blu-rays. Those discs use a harder coating that's more difficult to scratch and damage, which is good, but the downside to this is that once it does scratch, it typically becomes unusable and has to be replaced. Minor damage may be corrected with a microfiber cloth, but the data density and layers prevent any of the options featured here from working particularly well or even being advisable for a Blu-ray. Error-correction features on the best Blu-ray players may help them to ignore scratches, of course.
Five tips before you start
Although we cover different methods for cleaning and resurfacing your discs, it's important to remember a few key rules if you want to save yourself a headache while going through the process.

Wash and dry your hands before handling your discs. It's surprisingly easy to mess with the delicate data imprinted onto a disc's polycarbonate layer, and both grease and oil are known to cause playback issues even if the disc shows no signs of physical damage. Better still, put on a pair of latex gloves, if you happen to keep them around.
The best way to clean your discs is to start at the center and work your way outward in a straight line. This allows for a better grip while cleaning and lets you avoid damaging any of the data printed onto the polycarbonate layer below. The reason for this is that the data runs in a spiral around the disc, as on a vinyl record. Because the disc spins so fast, the reader has to be able to compensate for missing bits of the data as it goes, and when a scratch runs straight out from the center of the disc to the edge, it's a lot easier for the algorithm to catch the error and fix it automatically.
Tray-loading drives may be more likely to read a damaged or scratched disc than slot-loading drives. If possible, it's a good idea to use one of these drives when trying to salvage a disc to lower the number of variables at play.
Given that the layer of data that is encoded onto the polycarbonate surface is so close to the top layer of the disc, scratches and dents on the label can cause read errors in the same way a ding in the reflective surface can. Make sure to store all your discs in cases or on spools, and handle them by the inner ring to avoid damaging the data.
There are all sorts of ways you can damage a disc, but it's important to identify how deep a scratch is or what caused the disc to malfunction before proceeding. The first trick is to confirm that the problem is actually with the disc. This is usually done by trying to play the disc in another device that has a disc drive or inserting another disc into the original drive that gave you issues.

Audio / Video

Samsung Blu-ray players suddenly malfunctioning for unknown reason

samsung blu ray players malfunctioning bd j5700

Samsung Blu-ray players are malfunctioning out of the blue, with most reports claiming that the devices are stuck in endless reboots.

Thousands of owners of Samsung Blu-ray players and home theater systems have gone online to complain about the sudden issues, which seemingly started on June 19, according to ZDNet. While the reports vary, the most common problem appears to be Samsung Blu-ray players that continuously power on and off.

Audio / Video

There’s a rare deal on the Sony WH-1000XM5 headphones today

Sony WH-1000XM5 headphones seen in black.

The massively popular Sony WH-1000XM5 wireless headphones rarely appear in headphone deals, so if you've had your eye on them for quite a while, you're in luck because they're currently $51 off on Walmart. From their original price of $400, you'll only have to pay $349, but only if you hurry because we don't expect stocks to last long. You're going to miss out on the offer if you take too long, so don't hesitate -- add the wireless headphones to your cart and check out as fast as you can.

Why you should buy the Sony WH-1000XM5
The best headphones that you can buy right now are the Sony WH-1000XM5 wireless headphones, and it's not even close. At the heart is their outstanding wireless sound, supported by top-quality active noise cancellation that uses two processors and eight microphones to block all unwanted sound, as well as crystal-clear hands-free calling using four beamforming microphones and advanced audio signal processing. The wireless headphones also offer Bluetooth multipoint connection so that you can quickly switch between different devices, touch controls for functions like adjusting volume and calling your digital assistant, and Speak-to-Chat and Quick Attention features to stop your music and let ambient sound in without having to take them off.