Toshiba and Microsoft have announced the formation of the Advanced Interactivity Consortium (AIC), an open forum aimed at the promotion of advanced interactivity for a wide range of next-generation consumer devices, digital content and distribution scenarios.

The newly formed organization's mission is “to maximize consumer satisfaction worldwide by accelerating industry-wide adoption of advanced interactivity and interoperability across a broad array of HD DVD products.”

Generically known as Advanced Navigation by the DVD Forum, backer of the HD DVD format, the interactivy and connectivity feature capability was developed by Microsoft. The XML-based HDi development environment creates an interactive layer for HD DVD movies. HDi is currently a mandatory feature of HD DVD. Microsoft introduced last month the HDi logo to helps consumers identify movies with the interactive experiences.

The new organization will also focus attention on ways to bring these advanced scenarios to other services and platforms, including digital downloads to DVD players, PCs, TVs, cell phones, portable media players and game consoles.

"Creating attractive consumer experiences with advanced interactivity is critical to bringing digital home entertainment to the next level," said Hisatsugu Nonaka, corporate executive vice president at Toshiba. "In order to create these ecosystems, we wanted to bring together a group of companies committed to extending these scenarios across a wide variety of platforms. The Advanced Interactivity Consortium will advocate for these platforms as well as help ensure interoperability of HD DVD players and services."

"The Advanced Interactivity Consortium has its roots in the work we've done with HDi and HD DVD, but is open to all companies interested in bringing a broader set of connected experiences to consumers on different platforms," said Robbie Bach, president of the Entertainment and Devices Division at Microsoft.

The Advanced Interactivity Consortium will also include major Hollywood studios DreamWorks Animation SKG, Paramount Pictures, Universal Studios and Warner Bros., which have given their commitment to these advanced scenarios and experience bringing new features to consumers. Each studio currently distributes or will distribute HD DVD titles with HDi-enabled features, from advanced in-movie navigation, bookmarking and picture-in-picture, to Web-enabled communities, content downloads and e-commerce stores.

The AIC founding member companies plan to formalize the organization shortly and to extend additional partner invitations.

For a report on HDi demos at the recent DVD Forum Europe conference in Berlin, click here.

Story filed 08.10.07