Elephants Dream Is The First HD DVD Title In Europe
You may have heard about the new DVD formats that are coming your way. Whether it’s blu-ray or HD DVD, they are capable of storing much larger amounts of information on a disc tha the current DVDs. Because of their large storage capacity you can use them to store HD content. Not many movies have been released on this format, and not a single one of them was of European origin. Until now, that is. Michael Becker from Skywalk Mastering GmbH / Imagion AG has produced an “Elephants Dream” HD DVD.
I am very happy to let you know that we worked very hard over the last weeks to produce an “Elephants Dream” HD DVD. This is the first(!) ever European HD DVD title and it will introduce the start of the next generation format in Europe. As the whole European PC and movie magazines are waiting for a first HD DVD title in Europe this will be a hugh success for your movie and I am sure this will go through the press worldwide.
Today there are worldwide (USA / Japan) only approx. 40 titles available. The HD DVD format was released in April this year in Japan and might be the new HD disc Format for the future. A European start of the format is planned for approx. October 2006. The process to programm and author an HD DVD is very complex this is why no title has been produced in Europe so far (tools are not ready right now).
Not only that Elephants Dream is the first European HD DVD release it is also (as far as I know) the most complex HD DVD title ever release worldwide and the picture quality is really great. The disc includes most of the new HD DVD functionalities such as “on the fly menus”, Picture in Picture features and some HD / SD comparison functions. We expect that the disc will have cult status very soon and promote the Elephants Dream movie.
The discs will be sold for € 14,90 which covers for the production costs. You can find more information on http://www.imagion.de/elephantsdream. Now you’ll just need to get yourself a HD DVD player ;-)
Regardless of how useful this disc is to you NOW, it will be providing Elephants Dream and Blender with a new wave of publicity. Imagion’s website is already mentioned on two large German websites (Heise.de and Mediabiz.de) which crashed their server earlier. They now have a new one in place so I say bring on the BlenderNation, Slashdot and Digg visitors! ;-)
Oh, and before you ask: yes, this is allowed under the Creative Commons license which covers Elephants Dream and yes, I think that people like Michael should be applauded for that they do!
umm… Apple’s Dvd Studio Pro 4 authors hd-dvd content. That beings said, this will be great for Blender’s publicity.
Yes, Standard Content HD DVD’s. But this is a Advanced Content iHD with little pretty functions. I hope this is a good news for blender.
http://bluraysucks.com/ I found this link on fsf.org (The Free Software Foundation)
What a nonsens on that link.
I don’t see why movie companies should not be alowed to protect their content to illegal copies.
A project like this ED HDDVD shows that there is nothing that stands in the way of open content.
And HDDVD or BRD are a cheap way to enjoy HD far better than at the movies.
Even if the content is protected, people will find a way around it.
joeri:hehe you have right. just a funny link, this is great news for Blender!
For dutch users:
http://tweakers.net/nieuws/43941/Eerste-opensourcefilm-ook-eerste-Europese-HD-DVD-release.html
what high energy and insight you people have, becomeing one of the very first if not THE very first adopters of Sony’s new media format over in Europe.
awesome
While I am happy that Elephant’s Dream and thus Blender will be getting mroe publicity, I am not as happy with the medium that they are using. The HDDVD format is the flagship of all of the new DRM technology that forces you to use the video content in the few ways that they will allow you to, not all of the ways that you are legally allowed to. And while I don’t want to start a flame war, I believe that the idology of the companies who are developing DRM technologies is in complete opposition to the open source community.
Anyway, for good or for ill, this is quite a distinction for Blender and the open source community. Does the Blender Foundation get any money from the sales? If so, maybe there will be enough for a sequel:)!
I have put these video’s on Google Video:
Elephants Dream Making Of the HD-DVD: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-8881645241353983501&hl=en
Elephants Dream HD-DVD demo movie: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-841669216809935789&hl=en
You can also download a higher resulution videos from the website.
Soverignnce think of blender as a little open source virus for their ideology =)
people who don’t know about blender will learn about it and say, “hey, that’s cool” – the way I did when I first discovered it months ago.
it might change their view of what is possible in the universe of reality
Yes, HD DVD with AACS has a bad taste but Elephants Dream is created without any restrictions, thats fine :)
hd or not hd that is not the question…
[…]
amen
@joeri the problem is how can I see the content I bought whatever the os/hardware I use. Hardware or not eternal and os/computer too… I would like to continue to see my hddvd even if I decide to use linux rather than osx on my next machine… Or maybe pay for having its own content is not the future. Maybe we should just borrow content ..
Wow… It seems I’m the only here who actually is dissappointed that ED is coming out on HDDVD and not Bluray. I guess thats because I intend on getting a PS3 and not a official HDDVD or Bluray player at all since their both still expensive. To those wondering why I’m getting a PS3 I say this.
CELL processor (8×3.2Ghz processors) + RSX(basically the same speed as a topoftheline GFX card) + PS3’s Linux (with no hardware issues since the Linux version will be designed for PS3) + Blender(which works best on Linux anyway) = VERY FAST RENDER TIMES! (Well at least compared to the computer I’m using right now which is slow and windowsinated to hell, lol)
…and if I get bored I guess I could get a PS3 game, (MGS4 sounds good and GTA is always really good fun so maybe GTA4 too..).
Hey Aussiedude, I couldn’t agree with you more there. Who needs HD content when DiVX supports 4,096 x 4,096 resolutions and Theora-Vorbis has resolutions of up to 1,048,560 x 1,048,560.
I couldn’t hate closed source media more – http://www.xiph.org/about/ – although I hope that ED in the spotlight should shake trees up a bit.
On a more positive note: Well done Blender team, every Open-source victory counts, no matter how small it is. This is a well deserved position!
Great News!
I think Imagion will have it on Blu-ray disc too.. that why they have the “Buy HD DVD/ Blu-ray” button…
[To Aussiedude]
I’m getting a PS3 and I wish to watch “Elephants Dream” in a BRD in my PS3..
but about the PS3 Linux and using Blinder in PS3 Linux, will it be possible?!!
For my 4 and 1 year old I’m getting a wii. Even though that would mean searching for the joy devices all day.
Blinder on PS3 will only be a matter of time.
Hopefully it comes soon. I’m debating a Core 2 Duo system for 700 USD (no monitor) vs. a Japanese PS3. I like the multi-uses of a game system that doubles as a linux workstation. I’m only a blender hobbyist. If the kinks aren’t worked out I’ll just get a PC which I can run on multiple monitors and upgrade parts. PS3 Home does look inviting though. I have been thinking of a virtual world internet for years. Glad to see a major company take the lead even with all the advertising junk that’s going to be involved.