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Westinghouse (originally famous for light bulbs and other glass products but Gadgetell-wise known for 1080p LCD TVs) is planning on showing off their line of 2007 HDTVs, computer monitors and digital photo frames at CES next week.

Westinghouse will continue their 1080p trend with a full lineup of LCD TVs in sizes ranging from 42” - 52”. They will also show the world’s first LCD monitor with 3840 x 2160 (greater than 8 megapixel) resolution, a 56” LCD Quad Full HD monitor that we expect to deliver stunning picture reproduction. An integrated LCD TV/DVD player will replace CRT all-in-one units (thought I think it should have been a HD-DVD or Blu-ray drive and a matching 1080p monitor). Finally, for the entry-level consumers, there will be a family of LCD HDTVs in an array of sizes from 19” to 42”.

On the monitor and digital picture frame front Westinghouse will show off a 24” multifunction LCD monitor with beyond 1080p quality (1920 x 1200 resolution) and digital frames with MosaicView technology in 14.1”, 10.2”, 8”, 7” and 5.6”.

Read [Westinghouse]

Finally we are beginning to see a steady stream of HD commercials on our HD channels, so the studios have decided to conquer the next medium, the HD DVD. Up next are HD-DVDs.

Progressive Insurance has created a feature for the HD-DVD release of Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift. When viewers select to see it, a tally of the cost of the damage done to the cars in the film branded by Progressive will appear. This is likely just the first instance of the capacity available on HD-DVD opening up such possibilities. Progressive has created a special micro-site for the promotion.

In this case, viewers have the ability to opt in or out, but I can only imagine where this is going. Soon the disc itself will be sponsored by a company, completely forgetting about the movie. I can see it now, “Gone With The Wind - sponsored by The Georgia Peaches association”.

Sooner or later every medium is capitalized upon.

Read [AdJab]

What The Future Holds, a column written by Adam Berger, that introduces tomorrow’s technology and trends today, is published on Thursdays.

All you hear about the second you turn on your TV is why you should either switch to cable and your local cable provider’s video on demand (VOD) content offering. These PSA commercials also tend to mention 3-in-1 services - phone, internet, and TV - as well as HD channels, and digital DVR set-top boxes. What they neglect to talk about is the one thing that most providers don’t...provide HD content on demand.

Holding things back are the usual problems: capacity and content. Everyone has the ability to receive HD channels but the total number of channels is still very limited. Until MPEG-4 and switched-digital roll out most providers simply don’t have the bandwidth to deliver all their regular programming and more than a few HD VOD offerings (and on Cablevision those are all nature programs). Just image how much less you would go to the movies if you could watch top rated movies in HD from the comfort of your own home. Oh wait, you can? It’s called Blu-ray and HD-DVD? Right I forgot…

The studio’s don’t want to offer their content for VOD HD options because they are investing a ton of money into the next generation disc formats. Once you have the ability to just stream down the HD content from your provider whenever and wherever you want there will be no reason to purchase the HD capable discs or their players (especially because who wants to drop over $1000 on a format that may become obsolete.

However as the bandwidth issues get sorted out, media research company Diffusion Group sees progress made the same way it has for regular HDTV, sports & broadcast networks first just like primetime television and ESPN-HD have led the charge so far. So alas this column is titled What The Future Hold’s so I should finish up with a future oriented statement. I expect that over the next 12 months we will see more and more HD VOD offerings but nowhere near the point of current standard-def on-demand offerings.

Read [HD Beat]

The 599 euro (£400) HD-E1 will be released two days before rival Blu-ray players in Europe, only a slight lead as compared to the two month head-start the format had here in the states. BD will of course also be available in Sony’s upcoming PlayStation 3 which will be out in the not so distant future. A second Toshiba HD-DVD player will be released in December.

Prices for Toshiba’s first wave of HD-DVD machines have been set considerably higher than in the US, where the first HD-DVD machines were released in April, and some retail for a little as $499 (£260, 390 euros). By contrast, Samsung’s first Blu-ray player was priced at $999 (£524, 760 euros) in the US.

Read [Electronics Weekly]

On Monday, Microsoft showed its HD DVD drive built for the Xbox 360 to members of the press.  According to News.com’s Greg Sandoval, the device is about the size of a hardcover book, and is set to hit stores in time for the holiday season.  Due to the limited selection of HD DVD titles, the Microsoft representative pulled up The Phantom of the Opera on the screen and demonstrated the playback and interactive menu features that can be displayed while a movie is still playing.

“All the audio and video processing is done inside the Xbox,” said Collins, who noted that research has shown that a majority of Xbox owners already own high-definition displays. An Xbox drive provides them with all the other equipment they need to watch HD DVD movies, he said.

Although pricing has not yet been released for the HD DVD drive, it is sure to be the cheapest on the market.  The Sony PlayStation 3 is expected to ship with a built-in Blu-ray drive.  Ready… Set… Let the gaming format war begin.

Check out News.com’s gallery from the event.

Read [News.com]

Back in March there was a rumor that Mickey and friends would be switching over from HD-DVD to Blu-ray. Now, exactly four months later it has happened. I don’t know if it was Minnie or Pluto’s doing but Disney has announced nine titles to be released, starting in the fall, on the Blu-ray disc, next generation high definition DVD format.

Beginning Sept. 19, Buena Vista Home Entertainment will release “Dinosaur” and “Eight Below,” while Miramax Films’ “Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back” and “The Great Raid” also will be released. A second wave of movies will be available on Oct. 17, including Walt Disney Pictures’ “Glory Road” and “Haunted Mansion,” Touchstone Pictures’ “Dark Water” and “Gone in Sixty Seconds” and Dimension Films’ “The Brothers Grimm.” Most of the films will be available for $34.99.

Sony must have wished really, really hard on that star!

Read [E-commerce Times]

If you are looking for a way to make your DVDs and other video inputs look as great as HDTV broadcasts, but don’t want to spend a grand or even a half a grand on a HD-DVD or Blu-ray player, check out the Helios HVD2085. It plays DVD/SVCD/VCD/Audio-CD/HDCD/ MP3/WMA/Photo-CD and upscales standard DVD titles into high-definition resolution (720P, 1080I, AND 1080P). The player has both HDMI and component interfaces as well as a VGA and DVI interfaces.

Best of all, the HVD2085 not sells for a measly $169, about $100 more than a standard DVD player but all the clarity of HD.

Product Page [Helios]

Reports came out last Tuesday that Toshiba would still like to develop a unified format for next generation optical discs even though the two competing formats, HD-DVD and Blu-ray, have already hit the market. Toshiba released the first HD-DVD model near the beginning or June while Hitachi just rolled out their model. The Blu-ray camp, led by Sony and Matsushita (Panasonic), has experienced delays but the Samsung player and Sony VAIO AR are currently available.

“We have not given up on a unified format. We would like to seek ways for unifying the standards if opportunities arise,” Toshiba President Atsutoshi Nishida told an annual shareholders’ meeting.

This is either a call for help from Toshiba, as they may fear that the HD-DVD format is already doomed or pure marketing. Reasons for the downfall can be the $200 or greater loss, the manufacturing company takes on each unit, lack of Hollywood titles, limited storage size compared to BD, or others. Rather I believe Toshiba is using their marketing gurus to try and convince the public that they are the good guys not wanting to recreate a costly VHS-Betamax war .

After all this time, and reports of talks upon talks between the camps over the past 2-3 years I highly doubt we will see a combined format, nor would you hear any complaints from me if one evolved. Lets just say you should hold hold your breath, because you may turn blu.

Read [Reuters]

Many of the other blogs out there have been typing away about a potential hybrid Blu-ray HD-DVD player from Samsung. This would solve the problem of committing to Blu-ray in case HD-DVD wins the war. Though a nice prospect I expect that it would cost Samsung a lot to begin producing HD-DVD players, besides reducing their potential gain from a BD win. Regardless, Samsung just issued this statement affirming their commitment to the Blu-ray camp:

“Samsung Electronics is fully committed to the Blu-ray format and currently only has plans to introduce a Blu-ray player to the market. Samsung is looking forward to a very successful launch of the BD-P1000 which will be available on retail shelves, June 25th for a $999 MAP price in the United States.”

The war continues…

Read [HDBlog]

Verbatim will begin shipping 2X speed Blu-ray write-once (BD-R) and rewriteable (BD-RE) media in July. Verbatim’s new BD media products are produced in the same familiar bare disc form as a standard DVD disc. With capacity of 25GB on a single layer. Verbatim is also prepareing for the launch of higher speed and Dual Layer (DL) 50GB Blu-ray media in the near future. To protect the cartridge-free BD media from scratches, fingerprints and dust particles which can cause recording and playback errors, Verbatim BD discs have the added protection of a proprietary hard-coat finish.

Retailers in Japan will receive shipments of the industry’s first 15GB HD DVD-R media early in July. Production of 30GB dual layer HD DVD-R media will begin in June. Shipments to other parts of the world will begin when hardware products supporting these recordable formats become available.