"The Look and Sound of Perfect"

Ron-P

http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=104&STORY=/www/story/07-11-2006/0004394690&EDATE=

HD DVD Turns Up the Heat With 'The Look and Sound of Perfect' Marketing Campaign


Leading Content, Consumer Electronics and Information Technology Companies
Unveil New HD DVD Marketing Organization and Multi-Million Dollar
Advertising and Publicity Campaign; Hollywood Studios Showcase Upcoming HD
DVD Titles

LAS VEGAS, July 11 /PRNewswire/ -- Universal Studios Home
Entertainment, Warner Home Video, Paramount Home Entertainment, HP, Intel,
Microsoft and Toshiba today announced the formation of a new trade
organization, the North American HD DVD Promotional Group, Inc., at the
Video Software Dealers Association 2006 conference. The non-profit group
will promote the companies' common interests in the success of HD DVD and
to educate consumers on the quality and value of HD DVD.
A new advertising and marketing campaign, also unveiled today,
showcases HD DVD as "The Look and Sound of Perfect(TM)". The campaign will
be the cornerstone of efforts to be undertaken by the group. The group and
its member companies plan to back the campaign with an anticipated $150M in
trade and consumer marketing, advertising and promotion through the 2006
Holiday season and into 2007. The campaign will promote the format across
all major consumer media outlets -- television, print, online, and outdoor
-- co-marketing HD DVD hardware with hundreds of HD DVD titles expected on
store shelves by year-end 2006.
"Following this spring's market introduction, we're now adding
advertising and marketing muscle to HD DVD to demonstrate our full
commitment to bring consumers the best in high definition entertainment,"
said Craig Kornblau, President of Universal Studios Home Entertainment.
"Surveys are showing that HD DVD is already the #1 recognized brand name
for high definition packaged media. In addition, the continued support from
Hollywood, CE and IT industries will make HD DVD a true win for consumers
this Holiday season."
In the shadow of a huge 18-wheeler called the HD DVD Mobile Experience,
the group also announced a nationwide publicity campaign that will hit the
road this summer. The HD DVD Mobile Experience will be equipped with the
latest in high definition home theater technology, PCs, laptops and the
Xbox 360, enabling audiences throughout the country to experience
first-hand "The Look and Sound of Perfect".
"I welcome the formation of the North American HD DVD Promotional
Group," said Yoshihide Fujii, Chairman of the HD DVD Promotion Group. "More
and more consumers are buying large-screen high definition TVs, and their
expectations for better, more realistic picture quality is increasing. The
wide-ranging activities of the new group will take HD DVD into the homes of
people across North America, and make it crystal clear that HD DVD is the
future in movies, home entertainment, computing and gaming."
The award-winning advertising agency Goodby, Silverstein & Partners
will work for the North American HD DVD Promotional Group, Inc. in planning
and executing its marketing campaign. The agency, based in San Francisco,
is widely recognized for its "Got Milk?" campaign, and as one of the
world's leading advertising and marketing communications agencies, has a
long tradition of offering integrated services and creative campaigns for
clients such as HP, Saturn, Comcast, Motorola, Netflix, and Starbucks.
About HD DVD
The DVD Forum develops and defines DVD formats. Its more than 200
strong membership brings together leaders in movies and entertainment,
computing, consumer electronics and software. In November 2003, the DVD
Forum adopted the HD DVD format as the next-generation, post-DVD standard
for high capacity, high definition optical discs.
The North American HD DVD Promotional Group, Inc. is an organization
established to promote the HD DVD format and educate consumers in North
America.
For more information and a complete listing of HD DVD launch titles
please visit http://www.thelookandsoundofperfect.com.
For more information, press only:
Wayne Hickey, Weber Shandwick (425) 452-5481, whickey@webershandwick.com
Heather Bott, Weber Shandwick (425) 452-5485, hbott@webershandwick.com
Questions about each company's plans may be individually addressed to
each company.

Very cool!

Ron-P

Oh yeah, and this is also pretty cool. Check out #14
http://www.pcworld.com/reviews/article/0,aid,125706,pg,13,00.asp#


And just for a laugh...
Best companies of the year.
http://www.pcworld.com/reviews/article/0,aid,125706,pg,12,00.asp

Worst Company of the Year

We get the feeling that Sony doesn't trust people. Many of its ills over the past year involve copy protection: First was the fiasco with its music CDs, which installed rootkits on PCs to hide digital rights management spyware, thereby exposing the computers to viruses. Then came delays in the delivery of Blu-ray drives due to difficulties implementing a second copy protection scheme. And as a result of the Blu-ray problems, Sony had to push back its PlayStation 3 console to November. All this from the company that virtually pioneered copying with the Betamax.

Ron-P

What the hell, for sheets and giggles...

The August issue of Home Theater Magazine has an indepth review of the Toshiba XA-1.

Here's an overview...


1. Build Quality: 92
"The HD XA-1 is built like a tank"

2. Value: 90
"It packs a lot of performance"

3. Features: 95
"Potential interactive functions and internet connectivity"

4. Performance: 98
"A new level of HD picture quality"

5. Ergonomics: 85
"Remote is slow and balky"

OVERALL RATING: 93
"Sets the bar for future HD DVD Players (and Blu-Ray)"



There is no question that Toshiba hit a home run with their HD-DVD format and player. Sony's got their work cut out for them to play catch-up. Hopefully they do, I'd love Blu-ray in the house but they've got a long way to go.

wingnut4772

I saw Blu-Ray at Best Buy here in Miami and it looked pretty darn good to me. After reading the AVS forum I expected garbage but it was really nice.