HD-DVD is Alive

The battle between the HD-DVD supporters and the Blu-ray ones may have ended with Sony’s victory, but that doesn’t mean Toshiba is out of business for good. Not at all. The rivalry is too big to give everything up. Toshiba seems to be doing just fine, without embracing the Blu-reay format. Now, how exactly are they doing this? Simple, they enhance the good ol’ DVD format.

Ever since Blu-ray was proclaimed the HD format of choice, Toshiba has been hard at work on cheaper DVD players that will feature enhanced image scaling capabilities. TGDaily informs that Toshiba might be planning to release DVD players based on the company’s SpursEngine 1000 processor, a trimmed-down version of the Cell BE CPU, in order to deliver higher quality video scaling than what is offered in DVD players today.

Apparently, Toshiba is not solely concentrating on improved image quality. During the most recent DVD Steering Committee meeting held on June 11 in Los Angeles, the authority approved a new format which is presently known as DVD Download/DL, speculated to describe Internet connectivity to extend content stored on a DVD.

Furthermore, The DVD Steering Committee also approved an updated specs sheet for the Chinese HD-DVD format (C-HD-DVD) and the authority doesn’t seem to acknowledge the death of the HD-DVD format as of yet. As proof, the Committee also approved the HD DVD-Video Product Requirement & Guideline Version 1.2 in the June 11 meeting.