Weekly Roundup ~ June 30

HD DVD News of the Past Week

• HD DVDs To Be Released Next Tuesday, July 3 (Link)
• New Announcements by Toshiba (America) regarding 1080p/24fps output (Link)
• Some News On the Technical Side of HD DVD... (Link)
• Universal Studios' First Wave of HD DVDs for September (Link)
• 'Underworld 2: Evolution' & 'Mr and Mrs Smith' on HD DVD in Poland (Link)
• Toshiba (Japan) Issues v2.0 Firmware Update for HD-XA2 & HD-XF2 (Link)
• Toshiba (America) Releases v2.0 Firmware Update for 2nd-Gen Players (Link)
• Upcoming HD DVDs with HDi Network Functionality Requires Firmware Update (Link)
• Anime Film 'Appleseed: Ex Machina' on HD DVD in 2008... (Link)
• HD DVD Player Lens Cleaner Introduced in Japan... (Link)

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What's Been Updated...

• The direct links to download the v2.0 firmware update image files are now available in this blogpost.
• Bandai Visual (Japan) has provided preview images to the cover artwork of Royal Space Force—The Wings of Honneamise (HD DVD) and Patlabor The Movie (HD DVD). The preview images are available via this blogpost. Both of which is expected to be available for sale on July 27 in Japan.

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Other News

• Some readers have informed us that v2.0 firmware update is also available for HD-E1 and HD-XE1 released in Europe. Up till now, we've not received official word as to whether the v2.0 firmware update extends to all regions in the European continent where both of the above-mentioned HD DVD players have been sold. But, if you are able to update your HD DVD player's firmware via the ethernet port to version 2.0, then we'd like to add that the v2.0 firmware update focuses mainly on improving the network functionality of the HD DVD players.
• And I've just done a mini-review (looking at a few of the positives)of Paramount's Transformers movie and gave it a 'Highly Recommended' rating. Certainly better than Spider-man 3, Pirates of the Caribbean 3 and Fantastic Four: Rise of Silver Surfer.