Digital Playground has become the first adult studio to take a firm stand in the DVD format war. The company said today it will release its next-generation products on Blu-ray Disc instead of rival HD-DVD.
DP co-founder Joone said there are a number of reasons for the decision, which many other studios are delaying until after it becomes clear which next-gen optical media storage format will garner the most consumer acceptance. In Joone’s mind, there’s never been a question which format will win.
“The big thing is that the PlayStation 3 will be out in March or April, and it’s going to support Blu-ray,” Joone said. “Stand-alone players will be out shortly after that. That’s a lot earlier than was projected before, and it shoots a big hole in the six- to eight-month lead on the market HD-DVD was hoping to have.”
Blu-ray, proposed by Sony, is a high-definition DVD format that gets its name from the blue-violet laser used to etch content onto a medium’s surface. Rewritable Blu-ray discs can store up to 27 gigabytes of data on a single-sided, single-layer disc (compared to a traditional DVD’s 4.7GB capacity under red laser). That’s approximately 12 hours of standard video or more than two hours of high-definition video. Supporters extol its superior capacity and content-security features.
In contrast, HD-DVD’s current standard uses the same blue laser but houses only about 15GB of data. Proposed by Sony rivals Toshiba and NEC, HD-DVDs have significantly less capacity than the Blu-ray standard but are claimed to require fewer modifications to existing DVD production equipment, making them less expensive to create and, consequently, more affordable for consumers. In addition, Microsoft is a primary backer of the HD-DVD format, and the HD-DVD standard employs Microsoft-based encoding schema that could make it easier for professionals and consumers to use.
“What I don’t understand is why Microsoft didn’t put HD-DVD players in the Xbox,” Joone mused aloud. “If they really wanted to get a jump on the market, that would have been a good move. As popular as the Xbox is, they could have had tons of consumers already using the format.”
Microsoft’s Xbox 360 gaming system debuted in November to enthusiastic consumer response. At that time, the HD-DVD standard had not been finalized by the HD-DVD Promotion Group, the organization responsible for its creation and promotion. Sony’s PlayStation 3 gaming console's debut lags behind the Xbox by several months, but is equally as hotly anticipated.
It’s not just the announcement last week that the PS3 will hit stores during the first quarter of 2006 that moved Digital Playground to act now, though, according to Joone. His company has been planning for this day for two and one-half years.
“We’ll release Blu-ray product within a couple of days after the players come out,” he said. “We'll probably start with Pirates and Island Fever 3, because those are top sellers and they’re already available in high-def [Windows Media 9 format] for viewing on computers and [Microsoft] media center-connected TVs. We need to have players to test on when we create the original Blu-ray master discs, but we already shoot, edit, title, master and create menus in HD now, so all we have to do is encode for the new format.
“I think we have the largest library of HD content available right now,” Joone continued. “We have 52 or 53 features in HD, and we shoot five new features a month in HD. We haven’t done anything in standard-def in a long time.”
Current-generation Digital Playground products have to be “down-rezzed” for distribution on DVDs, Joone said. Consumers should notice quite a difference when the products appear on Blu-ray Discs in something more like their native format. Although the original footage still is captured on video, the $150,000 professional-grade, high-resolution cameras Digital Playground uses impart extra “oomph” to the finished product.
“It’s more like film,” Joone said. “The full color spectrum and tonality are phenomenal. The colors are richer … it’s just a more intense experience.”
In addition to providing a better viewing experience, Blu-ray’s capacity also allows content producers to include more “extras” on a disc.
“When you think about it, the 15GB HD-DVD offers is not that much more than the 9GB you can cram onto high-capacity discs right now,” Joone said. “But the 25GB offered by Blu-ray, that’s significantly more space – and the technology’s ‘future-proof.’ Blu-ray can be expanded in the future to hold up to 50 layers. I think this may be the last major format revision we’ll see.”
Although Joone said he’s not sure yet just what kinds of extras Digital Playground will include on its new Blu-ray releases, he said the company has quite a bit of as-yet-unreleased footage from almost every feature stashed away for future use, in addition to outtakes, behind-the-scenes pieces and other goodies. Particularly exciting for him is the possibility the company will include “interactive stuff” that incorporates Digital Playground’s virtual sex technology. Consumers might even be able to have sex with Digital Playground stars or place themselves in scenes from the movies.
“The options are just way open,” he said.
