Blu-ray, DVD, HD, Video info and more at WesleyTech.com

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A new Wii modchip website is claiming some very interesting new features and capabilities for the Nintendo game console. Among other things, the mod-chip site claims that with its’ chip installed, the Wii will have the ability to boot any region Wii and Gamecube backups, boot Gamecube and Wii Homebrew, boot DVD movies, boot virtual console games and support mod-chip software upgrades. Here is a quick excerpt from the mod-chip website.

Quicksolder? So the chip is easy to install? - Unfortunately no. The quicksolder points only control the Drive hacks, 4 additional wires need to be soldered into other areas of the console to enable the USB dongle’s functionality.

Looking at this excerpt from their webpage, it looks like installing this mod-chip will be a complicated project. Due to the soldering requirement and multiple points of interaction with the Wii circuit board, most users will probably stay away from this mod-chip hack. But is this even real or is it a hoax? There are multiple discussions flying around the net regarding the claims of this mod-chip site, with many people calling out “Fake!”. There have been no secondary reports of the chip actually delivering the promised capabilities and the chip is not yet available for purchase, so it is all vapor-ware at the current point in time. But even if it is 100% real, the soldering and complicated installation requirements will turn off most Wii owners. I would still like to see the magical chip in action though if it does ever make it out on the market. I’ll be keeping an eye out for any further developments of “Wii XT”.

A user over on the PS3NEWS forums has figured out how to rip, convert and playback Blu-ray movies straight from a PS3 hard drive.

Boot into Linux

The process involves booting into Linux on your PS3, running BackupBluray, using a file splitter and then re-encoding the video/audio to another format that can be played back in the VLC media player.

Not the easiest task

Looking at these steps, it does not appear to be the easiest process in the world. But hey, if you want to avoid using the handy dandy built in PS3 Blu-ray drive, this might be for you! I don’t really see it being a highly sought after function, especially since the PS3 hard drives are limited in size (40GB or 60GB) and the physical Blu-ray disc playback functionality is already available on the console. External hard drives can also be used though, as noted by the author of the guide.

Here’s a video of someone playing back a Blu-ray movie from their PS3 hard drive!

Blu-ray to HD DVD coming soon?

One of the more intriguing parts to this latest “hack” is that there is now a way to convert the Blu-ray video files to a more universal MPEG type format that can be fed into other authoring applications or video conversion utilities. With this type of capability, it should be possible to convert Blu-ray video files to an HD DVD type format. This might be good news for HD DVD adopters who would like to playback some of those exclusive Blu-ray movie titles on their HD DVD players. Then again, an HD DVD burner would be needed and probably dual layer HD DVD-R media too. HD DVD burners are in extremely scarce commodities at the current time and dual layer HD DVD-R is no where to be found. Where art thou HD DVD burners?

AnyDVD HD now fully available
It looks like Slysoft has officially released AnyDVD HD for purchase. The new software is currently listed at $79 on the Slysoft website, and there is a current discount code of “valentine” that takes a few bucks off the full price. We received the following press release from SlySoft this morning.

AnyDVD beats HD-DVD and AACS

After a Beta test-phase of a mere ten days, conducted by a few
chosen scene gurus, SlySoft announced the first official release
of AnyDVD HD.

The change-log, although not so significant at first glance,
abounds in understatement:

- New: added HD DVD and AACS support
(registered users need an upgrade key for HD DVD & AACS support)
- New: added support for new versions of SONY’s Arccos protection
to the option “Remove Protection based on unreadable Sectors”
- Added AnyDVD HD Ripper
- Fixed: Problem with multi-angle titles and Sony Arccos protection
- Some minor fixes and improvements
- Updated languages

At first look, the mention of “Added HD DVD and AACS Support”
appears rather “so-so” but behind this annoucement exists a real
revolution. For the first time, it is possible for the average user
to get around the previously uncrackable AACS copy protection of
the new HD-DVD generation with a few simple clicks of the mouse.

Officially, the film industry and the AACS consortium is, of course,
not very happy about this development. However, behind closed doors,
they are likely pleased to have learned from past experiences with
the CD and DVD that the users are now finally able to make unlimited
use of this new medium HD DVD, i.e to enjoy his “fair-use rights”.
It is expected that a real “boom” will occur with HD-DVDs.

All the same, AnyDVD contains several rather interesting features:

* watch movies over a digital display connection without HDCP-compliant
graphics card and HDCP-compliant display.
* playback those discs on the PC with PowerDVD Ultra which otherwise
would not play or would cause a software crash
* Removes user prohibitions. You can select language and subtitle
tracks without going through the disc’s menu.
* Removes parental restrictions.
* Allows you to remove or skip Studio Logos and warning messages.
* With “magic file replacement ™” you can remaster any commercial
movie disc using simple XML scripts.
* Includes a UDF 2.5 file ripper; no need to install 3rd party
UDF 2.5 filesystem under Windows XP.

AnyDVD HD is indeed a “must have” utility for the serious home
theater enthusiast using a media center or home-theater PC.

“The way AnyDVD HD addresses and solves the problem doesn’t have much
in common with the discoveries of individual members of the OpenSource
community in reading AACS keys from the USB bus”, says Peer van Heuen,
one of SlySoft’s lead developers. He adds further, “As one can expect
from SlySoft, our solution works fully automatic with all known titles
while the so-called hacker tools require laborious reading out of
memory or the USB bus. This is not to say that their efforts are
completely fruitless; it’s just that ours need to be user-friendly.
It’s just that simple.”

To add icing on the cake, Peer van Heuen takes particular joy in
stating that SlySoft was ready with AnyDVD HD in an incredibly short
period of time. He adds, “We could only begin our development some
weeks ago and we are immensely proud to get this product out to the
users so quickly. This speaks to the commitment to our users: get
good and easy-to-use products out on the market fast!”

Tom Xiang, Marketing Director: “When we considered Blu-Ray, our strategy
was simply to initially support HD-DVD and await further developments
in the marketplace. Already during the beta phase we got many
inquiries about Blu-Ray so we decided to go ahead and also provide
support for this as soon as possible. Blu-Ray employs the same
AACS process as HD-DVD. An implementation was really just a matter
of form. A beta version is planned for availability this quarter.”"

I thought I would try a speedlinking section to highlight some interesting optical storage stories from around the web. If you have an opinion on the speedlinking feature, let me know in the comments section.

A black Xbox 360 HD DVD drive not available to the public.
Adam Sandler jokes about the origins of Blu-ray.
Sharp announces a Blu-ray standalone recorder.
Japanese manufacturer Funai to release budget Blu-ray player.
Plextor announces a new 18x DVD burner, probably a rebadge from LiteOn.
Blu-ray proponents asking for porn?
ESS sells HD DVD and Blu-ray video processing technology to SiS for 13.5 million.

JB HiFi to stock Blu-ray products only
The big news this week from Australia is that one of the countries largest home electronics retailers, JB HiFi, has announced that they will only be stocking high definition movies on the Blu-ray Disc format. No HD DVD movies will be sold at JB HiFi stores. With 72 stores spread through out the continent, JB HiFi has a major retail presence in the region. According to local residents, JB HiFi is a common destination for music and movie lovers in Australia and has been steadily increasing in popularity.

JB HiFi speaks out
A JB HiFi marketing director made the following statements at the Blu-ray launch event in Australia.

“Blu-ray is the only format that has the ability to tell the whole story, with the most comprehensive offering on the market. With seven of Hollywood’s leading studios accounting for the vast majority of 2006’s home video sales, among the 170 plus companies globally that support Blu-ray Disc, it makes sense that content will be king when it comes to Blu-ray.
Indeed this is the reason that we have decided to only stock Blu-ray products at JB Hi-Fi. The range of exciting new film and TV releases as well as the potential back catalogue means that we can deliver everyone’s favourite films on Blu-ray.”

HD DVD options available in Australia
Many publications and websites are claiming Blu-ray victory in Australia after this JB HiFi exclusivity news hit the wire, but we’ve seen this type of premature victory cry many times before from the Blu-ray camp. I try to look at the big picture and the other side of the story most of the time, so let’s look at the HD DVD options that will be available in Australia, even without JB HiFi support. JB HiFi’s prime competitor, Harvey Norman, has not announced any type of format exclusivity and will almost certainly carry HD DVD movies and hardware. Then there are other national chains such as Good Guys, Dick Smith Electronics, Sanity/Virgin or general department stores such as Myer, Target, Kmart and others. All of these stores are expected to carry HD DVD products.

But what about online options?
Australian consumers will still have the option to purchase from EzyDVD (a major online movie retailer) as well as other websites that carry HD DVD. Importing HD DVD’s is another option, especially since HD DVD lacks any region code restrictions.

Looking at all of these alternative stores that could stock HD DVD products, online options and import possibilities, I would be hard pressed to say that Blu-ray has won Australia. Nevertheless, it will be an interesting battle and I will certainly stay tuned to the Australian market news to see if the HD DVD camp responds with any force. More discussion can be found over in the HD DVD and Blu-ray presence in Australia thread at Speedlabs.org, an optical storage forum with mostly Australian members. If you have any comments to share on the Australian battle front, please let me know by replying in the comments section.

Gizmodo on G4TV

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Adam Frucci (Contributing Editor, Gizmodo) and Tom Arnold (Editorial director, Home Entertainment Magazine) appear on “the loop”, a segment of G4TV. The format war between HD DVD and Blu-ray Disc is discussed.

I enjoyed Adam’s comments as he seems to remain neutral in the format war, except for his statement that “Blu-ray is Sony’s biggest disaster”. Adam also believes that on-demand video downloads will eventually make the physical format wars obsolete. Overall, I think Adam did a pretty good job on the show. I’m not so sure about that Tom Arnold guy though. Tom predicts that Blu-ray will win the war, which is fine prediction as Blu-ray has a lot of positive momentum at the moment, but something about him just rubs me the wrong way. Tom also says something about “$50,000″ to master a Blu-ray or HD DVD disc, which sounds extremely exaggerated to me. Sony’s premature “victory cries” are also discussed and a few other topics related to Blu-ray and HD DVD. Check out the video and let me know what you think!