Sony's been pretty big on its HDNA marketing scheme. Even at last year's CEDIA the message was everywhere, asserting that its home theater gear shared some sort of double-helix bond with the root of all high-definition. Now, the outfit is pulling its HD-equipped VAIO machines under the same marketing umbrella in an attempt to convince prospective buyers that these systems are "born out of" other high-def products. In particular, Sony will push the HD OTA tuning and BD playback abilities in its all-in-one PCs and Blu-ray-equipped laptops, though we don't expect any new rigs to emerge as part of the deal. Sure, this is little more than a trivial way to tack "HD" onto yet another product, but we can't harsh too much on anything that gets high-def into the mainstream.

With the 2008 Olympic Games right around the corner, Intel is tag-teaming it with Legend Silicon in order to promote HDTV viewing on portable devices -- laptops, most notably. The pair has seemingly convinced Lenovo, HP, ASUS, Sony, Samsung and Toshiba (among others) to offer up their machines with a DTTB USB dongle in the coming days, enabling Chinese citizens to watch HD on-the-go right out of the box. If you couldn't surmise, DTTB is yet another Chinese broadcast standard, and while we wouldn't bet the farm on it, the nation's government is hoping to offer up multiple high-def programs via DTTB by 2010. Who would've guessed -- the Olympics catapulting HD programming in China?

While many stores are slashing down HD DVD player prices as much as management will allow, it seems that one diehard supporter is casting a blind eye to the whole format war meltdown. Rock -- which tooted its own horn after making HD DVD standard on many of its laptops -- hasn't changed its approach one iota. Even now, the firm is still offering up internal HD DVD drives (and writers) in a plethora of its machines, and curiously enough, there's not even an option to select a Blu-ray or combo player. C'mon Rock, we know you're just trying to clear out inventory, but at least give prospective buyers a choice in the matter, would ya?

Update: Looks like a DVD-RW "downgrade" option is currently available for those that inquire, and Blu-ray options should be added in due time. Thanks, Felix!

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According to a number of new A205 owners, it seems that Toshiba is throwing in an HD DVD demo disc to get users hooked on the format from the moment they fire up their new rig. The unit, simply dubbed 2007 Demo Disc, reportedly includes a "a full 1080p version of the Take the Red Pill HD DVD branding trailer, as well as a series of HD trailers for flicks that are either currently available or headed to HD DVD, including Blades of Glory, Next, Hot Rod, The Bourne Ultimatum, Transformers, Oceans 13 and Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix." Additionally, you'll find trailers for Stardust and The Kingdom, both of which just hit theaters in the not-too-distant past, and a seven-page pamphlet which simply plugs the format a little more. So for those eying a new A205, there's likely to be a nugget of enjoyment bundled in, but we wouldn't go throw down our hard earned dollars on eBay just to pick this up or anything.

We know, cutting edge technology inevitably becomes cheaper as its launch day gradually fades into the past, but a $1,000 HD DVD-equipped laptop is still a milestone we're looking forward to seeing. As the prices of standalone players continue to sink, Toshiba in particular is hoping to get HD DVD drives into laptop computers that the majority of potential consumers would view as affordable. More specifically, Carl Pinto, vice president of product development and product management at Toshiba, stated that before this year concludes, we'll "be able to buy [HD DVD-equipped laptops] at retail stores for under $1,000." Granted, we aren't going to hold our breath or anything, but with certain manufacturers already offering up the technology as standard on their mobile rigs, we suppose the idea isn't all that far fetched.

Just days after announcing it's a part of the pro-Blu-ray campaign, Acer hedged its bets by officially joining the HD DVD Promotional Group as well. No stranger to straddling the line in the high def format war, Acer specifically cited plans to continue supporting HD DVD in its laptops, a place where the HD DVD camp claims a 70% market share advantage over its rival. While the HD slapfight continues indefinitely, Acer's got you covered whether you prefer Transformers or Fantastic Four.

Intel's Santa Rosa mobile platform will get a high definition upgrade in the second half of this year when it integrates dedicated hardware decoding from Broadcom to support HD DVD and Blu-ray playback. The extra processing power will let notebooks keep running their Windows Vista Aero experience -- which currently takes a major hit -- while playing high-def discs without relying on more expensive GPUs from NVIDIA or ATI. We know Toshiba is going all HD DVD in its laptops later this year, and we won't be surprised to see more manufacturers throwing in blue laser options across the line. The manufacturer told Ars Technica that future upgrades to the Santa Rosa chipset should include driver updates later this year, and DirectX10 support in 2008.

The Optiarc mashup between Sony and NEC has spawned a new brood of DVD and Blu-ray Disc drives. For HD DVD lovin' NEC already seen dabbling in dual-format underpinnings, the addition of Blu-ray Disc drives to their product roster is a notable development in the format war and yet another possible sign of Blu-ray's emerging dominance. No less than four new Blu-ray devices for laptops were launched at CeBIT: the BD-5710S, the BD-5600S, the BD-5500S, and the BD-5500A. The BD-5500A (pictured above) writes at 2x to both single- and dual-layer BD-R, 2x BD-RE DL, 4x DVD-R DL and reads BD at 2x. Also notable is the AD-7191A 20x DVD burner which is also capable of 12x DVD-RAM, 8x DVD±R DL/+RW and 6x DVD-RW. With Sony owning 55% of the joint venture, we're not holding our breath for Optiarc HD DVD drives anytime soon. All the drives are expected to hit in the July timeframe.

Samsung's M55 laptop has already been tricked out with Blu-ray and HD DVD players, but the company doesn't seem to have run out of HD goodies just yet, now adding an HD DVD burner to its lineup of portable high def offerings. Apart from that notable addition, the laptop also comes loaded with a Core 2 Duo T7200 processor in place of the earlier model's T2500, along with 2GB of RAM, a 120GB hard drive, a GeForce 7600 graphics card with 256MB of VRAM and, of course, that same big 1920x1200 17-inch display. As you can no doubt guess, all that largess comes at quite a cost, with the laptop setting you back the local equivalent of $3,200. Competing for those HD dollars is Toshiba's recently announced HD DVD burner-equipped Qosmio G30 laptop, which PC World reports went on sale in Japan over the weekend, demanding an equally pricey $3,085.

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Although these miniscule USB TV tuners have long been available overseas, we're thrilled to see Diamond Multimedia bringing the tiny OTA tuning love here to the States. The firm's HDTV100 sports an attractively small thumb drive-like enclosure, is powered entirely by USB, and features both ATSC and analog tuners within. Aside from supporting EPG, allowing you to schedule recordings and simultaneously playback a stored show while capturing another, it also comes with a "video capture dongle" to grab content from sources other than your trusty TV antenna. Best of all, Diamond's wee gem can be snapped up for just $99, which should give American travelers yearning for a little TV action while on the go little to frown upon.

Now that Dell's riding high on the Blu-ray bandwagon, what more could you ask for when picking up that now-BD-equipped M1710? How about a free flick from Mark Cuban? While we can hear the groaning in the back, ole Mark has decided to plug his very own HDNet by partnering with Dell and tossing in a free Blu-ray title -- "HDNet World Report Special: Shuttle Discovery's Historic Mission" -- with each XPS M1710 notebook. Although further details on the deal weren't readily available, it was implied that future Blu-ray equipped machines would also grace buyers with free BD titles of Cuban's choosing, and while you might not agree with Mark's antics, you can't really complain with free.

We all know the story, HP went from being a "strong" Blu-ray supporter (like Samsung and LG) to pushing for changes in the Blu-ray spec, hinting at pulling out of the Blu-ray Disc Association altogether, to deciding to remain neutral in the next generation disc format wars by supporting both Blu-ray and HD DVD in their products. While the managed copy feature central to those debates is still completely absent from both formats, HP is rolling out several HD DVD-based products for the 2006 holiday season. Pictured above is the hd100 external HD DVD drive, connecting via USB 2.0, it's a 2x HD DVD reader plus DVD and CD playback. Cyberlink's PowerDVD HD DVD Edition software is included for HD DVD playback, as long as you meet the hefty system recommendations. If you're looking to buy a whole new system -- which you'll probably need -- the HP Pavilion m7600n Series PC includes Windows XP Media Center Edition, Intel Viiv technology, HD DVD drive, built-in NTSC tuner and 7.1 surround sound capabilities. For HD on the go, there's always the Pavilion dv9000t laptop with an optional HD DVD and DVD burning drive, 17-inch 1440x900 LCD, HDMI out, 2.16GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor and NVIDIA GeForce Go 7600 GPU. No mention of Blu-ray products yet, but one must wonder why HP's HD DVD drive says "BD" under the access light on the lower left corner. All should be available "soon", prices for the PCs depend on the configuration, no price yet for the hd100 drive, but we know another USB 2.0 HD DVD drive that recently got a pricetag.

[Via Engadget]

Like Acer and fellow "strong" Blu-ray supporter LG, Samsung is showing the hi-def crowd how to mix it up by opening their Blu-ray love affair to the HD DVD camp. Here we have their M55 -- formerly billed as the "world's thinnest and lightest 17-inch widescreen" at 30.5 ~ 34.4-mm thick and 2.99-kg -- only now packing some swank HD DVD action along with an apparent pixel increase to 1920x1200. Just to run down the rest of the specs on this: you get a glossy 17-inch display, 256MB GeForce 7600 Go graphics, up to 120GB of SATA disk, 802.11a/b/g WiFi, Bluetooth 2.0 with EDR, a wide range of in and outs including HDMI and S/PDIF, and suite of SRS audio features all powered by an Intel T2500 Core Duo proc. No drop date but they should pull about €3,000/$3,810 -- yeah, we know. And yes, gentle readers, there is a woman in that photo, now please try to comment on the laptop, mkay? We don't want to get rough, see.

Toshiba may still actually make both HD DVD standalone players available, but they no longer have the laptop market to themselves and "firm Blu-ray supporters" LG (thanks for the reminder Zach). (. Acer's Aspire 9800 laptop started shipping today, coming with a 20.1-inch screen, Core Duo processor, NVIDIA GeForce Go-powered graphics and of course the HD DVD drive (no recording here yet). If the 1680x1050 resolution laptop screen isn't enough there is an HDMI output, future-proofing against ICT-enabled discs of the future. All this starts at $2799 and isn't bad, but our most pressing question is if print screen still works.

[Via laptoping]

Go grab your Circuit City flier from Sunday's paper and turn to page 17. What do you see? We see Circuit City trying hard to educate their would-be customers about the different ways to get a high-def signal. Good for them, but the only problem is that 1/4 of that page is dedicated to Blu-ray. Yes, a person can easily acquire and view high-def content via that medium but what about HD DVD? Circuit City does have more HD DVD titles then Blu-ray but yet they failed to mention them on this page.

Circuit City's love with Blu-ray doesn't stop there. if you search for 'HD-DVD' or "HD DVD" on their home page you get sent to general product categories where if you search for Blu-ray, you get an info page comparing them. The part for Blu-ray clearly indicates more points for that format and our favorite is the one that indicates that Blu-ray has drives for computers already. Do that search for HD DVD again but add Toshiba too. Do you see the same Toshiba laptop with HD DVD as we do? Good. We thought were going crazy here.

So it looks like the Blu-ray Association has Circuit City in their pocket.

[via Digg]