CES 2006 - Day 2: Blu-ray/HD-DVD, PureVideo H.264, Viiv, Centrino Duo and a lot more
by Anand Lal Shimpi & Manveer Wasson on January 7, 2006 3:07 AM EST- Posted in
- Trade Shows
DirecTV and Viiv
On our first day in Vegas we got a preview of ATI's OCUR device; as we mentioned in the article, the OCUR will be used to bring CableCard support to PCs with Windows Vista later this year. While at the show, DirecTV announced a relationship with Intel that could potentially result in a very similar capability for DirecTV owners.
The idea is that sometime in the future, DirecTV users will be able to connect their Viiv PC to their DirecTV receiver and share content between the two. The goal is to be able to not only gain access to movies, pictures and music stored on the Viiv PC but also to use the Viiv PC as a HD-DVR for your DirecTV channels.
There are absolutely no details on the implementation or expected availability, all we know is that DirecTV and Intel are working on the solution and that we can expect it sometime in the future. Given Microsoft and ATI's commitment to deliver CableCard support to the PC by the end of this year, we'd estimate that DirecTV would want to be able to promise the same HD/premium content support under Vista to their subscribers as soon as possible as well.
The Viiv PC at the DirecTV booth was yet another Intel reference design, however it was a non-functioning sample.
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Cygni - Monday, January 9, 2006 - link
Each 7800GTX 512 has a fillrate of 8.8 gigapixels. Normal 7800GTX has a 6.8 gigapixels. 4 512's, and full 512 clocks (I dont know if they ARE actually clocked that high, but lets assume), would give a fillrate of 35 gigapixels for 4.Are there many games or displays in the world that can use this power? Hell no! haha
jiulemoigt - Saturday, January 7, 2006 - link
Could I not simply buy a bluray drive and a hddrive and have both formats in my pc? Also R+ and R- had the same probs but they both sit on drives together, so it is just a matter of time for both to play nice. I like that neither is being forced into a compromise that limits the size or quality of the disks.nomagic - Saturday, January 7, 2006 - link
Just wait for 6 months. I am sure there will be bluray + HD-DVD combo drives. Unless one of the format dies, we are just going to repeat the old situation, in which a burner would feature both + and - format. Ah, this sucks.Cygni - Saturday, January 7, 2006 - link
IIRC, the HD laser and Blu Ray laser arent backwards compatabile. However, the HD and normal DVD lasers are. Meaning a combo Blu-ray+Normal DVD drive would need 2 lasers... and a Blu-Ray + HD-DVD + Normal DVD drive would also need 2 lasers.As long as the HD-DVD laser can ramp up fast enough and be cheap enough, HD-DVD could survive by default.
ArneBjarne - Saturday, January 7, 2006 - link
You are wrong, both Blu-ray and HD-DVD use the same blue laser. The difference between the two is in disc structure. That is what HD-DVD shares with normal DVD, while BD has a totally new structure.Both formats need triple lasers to support either CD/DVD/BD or CD/DVD/HD-DVD, and ALL drives that I have seen so far already have triple lasers.
Cygni - Sunday, January 8, 2006 - link
Your right, same 450nm laser. Which brings up the immediate question, why not a Blu Ray + HD-DVD combo drive? It shouldnt physically require another laser, although i doubt either Blu Ray or HD-DVD are super enthused to make products like that.Pete - Saturday, January 7, 2006 - link
"Wide color gamut even lager [...]"Mmmm, colorful beer. *Drool*
hoppa - Saturday, January 7, 2006 - link
1/8" should be thin enough for anyone!Chadder007 - Saturday, January 7, 2006 - link
Thanks for the great write up. I like the OLED display and the Paper displays. Also on the LCD's with the LED Backlight....couldn't they get some of the LEDs to turn off to give a super high contrast ratio on those? Like instead of the backlight LCDs now which the whole backlight is on and the LCD doesn't represent black that well, wouldn't the LED backlight be able to present a perfect black?Clauzii - Saturday, January 7, 2006 - link
Basically that sounds like a good idea to me too.. I think thats one of the Upsides with LED backlight.