While the DVD Forum-anointed HD DVD format is no more in the rest of the world, it is alive in China in a slightly modified version called China Blue High-Definition (CBHD). At its meeting last week in Los Angeles, the DVD Forum took stock of the latest developments in its evolving work programme.

Forum director Mark Waring, from Sanyo, pointed out HD DVD has now “morphed into a Chinese-led effort. The licensing has been started and the wheels are certainly rolling.” Aware of the perceived dimishing importance of the DVD Forum without HD DVD, Waring reminded delegates that the organization still have 120 active companies, that 96% of media sales are DVD, and there are 1.5 billion DVD playback devices in use.

Because each studio generally handles digital copying of movies in a different way, the DVD Forum is working toward finding an industry standard for copying, which content owners beyond the studios have started to include on DVDs.

As regards its entry into 3D technology, the DVD Forum had been asking for proposals related to the 3D movie technology, and will then decide whether such technology should be incorporated into the DVD Format Specifications. The Forum may also consider whether measures to achieve compatibility with existing DVD-Video would also need to be implemented in the event 3D movie technology is incorporated into the DVD Format Specifications.

Download-to-burn and manufacture-on-demand are high on the Forum agenda in view of the growing interest in retail kiosks, forthcoming independent standalone at-home MOD DVD burner, not to mention the availability to order a newly burned DVD via Amazon.com.

Under DVD Forum regulations, until now, recordings of CSS-encrypted content were prohibited on DVD recordable media by the Recordable Media Playback Control rule (CSS compliance rule). Therefore conventional DVD playback devices were so far designed not to play CSS-encrypted video contents on current DVD-R discs.

Recently, the CSS compliance rule has been changed to permit the "CSS Recordable DVD" (DVD-Download disc). In order to achieve high playback compatibility, it was necessary to change the DVD-R physical specifications related to disc identification. The DVD Forum is awaiting answers to some technical questions it put to the DVD Copy Control Association.

Story filed 03.11.08