Weekend Round-Up ~ May 27

HD DVD News of the past week:

• HD DVDs Arriving This Tuesday (May 22)
• Toshiba (America) Releases v1.6 Firmware Update for 2nd-Gen Players
• 'Le Labyrinthe de Pan' or 'Pan's Labyrinth' on HD DVD... (Updated with full details)
• May 2007 Xbox 360 HD DVD Player Update...
• Some Newly Announced HD DVD Titles...
• Toshiba (Japan) Releases Version 2.2 Firmware Update for HD-XA1
• Full Details of 'Heroes: Season 1' HD DVD
• 'Hot Fuzz' Confirmed on HD DVD in July
• Enjoy 'Viva Las Vegas' & 'Jailhouse Rock' in High Definition with Lossless Audio

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What's Been Updated...

• We've updated the blogpost Toshiba (Europe) Updates Firmware of HD-XE1 & HD-E1 to v1.5, to reflect the weblinks to the French, German, Italian & Spanish versions of Toshiba's firmware update notice.

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Some interesting HD DVD news/rumors/discussions around the web...

• There were some reports about the release schedule and details of upcoming firmware updates for Toshiba HD DVD players (in particular, the HD-XE1). These reports indicate that a 1080p/24 video spec update for the HD DVD players may be made available in September. Some further details of the report via this link (in French) from WorldInHD.com.

• Toshiba's 2 Free HD DVD titles Promo for the UK market, Details here. One could choose the 2 free HD DVD titles out of a selection of 10. The 10 titles includes: Apollo 13, The Bourne Supremacy, Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift, King Kong, Dukes of Hazzard, The Holiday, Constantine, Poseidon, Swordfish & Blazing Saddles.

• For North American market, details of Toshiba's instant product rebates and free HD DVD movies are available here.

• Lastly, it is something serious but at the same time amusing. I read on some forums that another possible workaround for the playback issues on some recent combo discs, is to boil the discs in warm water. Its not something I would try or much less encourage someone else to try, but the replies seem to suggest that this method may just work. Of course, disc replacements or exchanges are much "safer" choices, at least for me.