Announced at the 2007 Consumer Electronics Show, Warner's Total HD dual-format discs were thought to be the format war saviour that would finally put the battle between HD DVD and Blu-ray to rest. Unfortunately, it looks like that day will never come.
According to a Warner Entertainment Group executive, Total HD has been pushed back and there is a good chance it will never hit store shelves.
Total HD not the solution consumers need?
"The short answer is, for the moment, [Total HD] is on hold," Warner Home Entertainment Group Senior Vice President Jim Noonan told reporters. "We're the only studio producing content in both formats. If we were to put out Total HD with just our titles, it wouldn't really provide the solution to our retail partners that it was intended to provide."
Along with that, Noonan also indicated that Warner was concerned about shelf space and possibly being lost in the sea of DVD, HD DVD and Blu-ray titles currently competing for customer attention.
That said, Noonan explained that Total HD will never be eliminated from the company's strategy and it could enter the market if more film studios jumped onboard.
Hypothetical Total HD resurgence
"Total HD was something that we offered up to the industry as a solution that would address buyer hesitancy, and the concern a consumer might have about the possible obsolesce of the hardware they were buying.
"We have no proprietary interest in Total HD. There is no patent we're involved in, and there is no monetary reward for us if another studio decides to put out titles on Total HD. It was offered purely as an industry solution - and it is still a good and viable solution that has no expiration date."
Canon to refresh EOS-5D?
Could a second version of the Canon EOS-5D be in the works? According to numerous reports, the high-end camera may have been inadvertently leaked to the public through a listing error that displayed the Canon EOS-5D Mark II as a camera model in an online bug reporting form.
Canon has neither confirmed nor denied this rumour, but a similar leak occurred with the Canon EOS-40D, which was officially announced soon thereafter.
More DS versions on the way
In effort to further increase sales of its DS Lite, Nintendo has announced two new bundles - the Gold and Rose - that come in those colours and include popular DS titles.
The Gold model is themed after the popular Nintendo franchise Zelda and along with a Triforce on its lid, it comes with The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass. The Rose model replaces Phantom Hourglass with the Nintendogs game and ditches the Triforce for a paw print. Each bundle will retail for $130 (£63).
