NUON enhanced DVDs

[Laurie L]

This is pretty cool and major for the DVD market. This week is the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas that I was supposed to go to but couldn't because of recent family events. However, work has arranged for me to receive all the press announcements that come out and this one is a whopper.

Fox announced the Bedazzled will be the first DVD on the market to feature NUON enhancements. NUON is a type of encoding that can be embedded into a DVD movie in order to provide greater enhancement with virtually all features.

Samsung and Toshiba have unveiled their first NUON players and more companies are expected to fall in line with even more titles hitting the market in the next several months.

NUON features are amazing and because since it takes less memory to encode NUON onto a DVD, a disc can hold almost four times the amount of special features that current DVDs offer.

Here are examples of NUON special features:

1) Bookmarking individual scenes to listen to specific commentary and view any additional extensions of the scene.

2) Unprecidented zoom with text indicating behind-the-scenes info

3) Motion and still photo galleries beyond anything on current DVDs

4) Chapter selections in full motion style along with a text description of the scene.

5) Remote control access to the disc's menu while the film is playing...thus allowing the viewer to change sound and picture formats without starting the film over.

6) Seemless forward and reverse frame features.

7) a Virtual Light Machine system that shows a 'laser light show' type presentation of any CD or music DVD.

8) Access info that has always been encoded as 'DVDROM only' info.

9) Motion cast and crew biographies.

10) Play computer games with use of controllers and remote. Use same controllers to play games encoded alongside movies on a DVD.

11) NUON encoded DVDs will also still have Easter Eggs and they are promised to be a true challenge to find now.

The future of this technology is also amazing. A few months from now NUON will be Internet compatible. You will have access to the Internet, email, and movie sites directly from your DVD player and TV using your current ISP. Access web-only merchandise offers that are linked and encoded on a DVD. Chat with other people while you're all watching the same film.

Every DVD currently on the market will be compatible to a NUON player. Conversely every NUON encoded DVD will be compatible to existing players.

The only drawback to NUON is that you have to buy a completely new DVD player that features NUON. There are no add-ons or system upgrades that can be performed on current players to make them able to access NUON features.

This is a brand new DVD format that has just reached the market in the last 6 months, but it is already considered the wave of the DVD future.

I'm completely excited about this because absolutely anything you can think of to encode and access on a DVD will be possible.

[Laurie L]

Forgot to mention that NUON will soon be featured in car entertainment systems. Also, NUON makes videophoning through your TV possible in the future.

[ryanpaige]

Well, I am against any technology that looks like it might be spelled incorrectly (and NUON just looks like it's spelled wrong for some reason). :)

Just kidding. That sounds mucho cool.

[Zephyrus]

Are you kidding? In-car entertainment systems?? They're having a hell of a hard time keeping car phones from becoming illegal (and you only use your ears for that), let alone something you watch and listen to! Maybe one day when cars drive themselves automatically :)

[Laurie L]

There are already TVs and VCRs in cars, so a DVD player isn't that much of a stretch. If I had kids and I was going from say New York to Colorado, I would thank my lucky stars for a DVD player that would play Disney flicks or DVD-Games to keep them busy.

[Yoda]

The TVs in the car are facing the backseat though, right? I mean, it's intended for the passengers use, rather than the driver's, I'd thought?

Anyway, we'll eventually have *everything* in the car. I think TV will become semi-boring after awhile...

[OG-]

When are these players being sold? I'm about to buy a DVD player so I don't want buy anything I'm not going to use.

[sunfrog]

7) Wha..? Laser light show??

Nah, what you need in your car is a heads up display that projects the movie onto your windshield so you can drive and watch the Star Wars pod racing scene at the same time. :D Also if you build the video game controls right into the steering wheel that would be cool. Also in car surround sound and a force feeedback car seat. :D

I was actually checking out Nuon on the web about a week and a half ago and decided it was just a fad thing like Tivo. But I didn't know it was going to be on all future dvds from now on. With a big push like that it might be more than a fad device. Now I think it might be the way to go. :)

The zoom on Nuon will be motion zoom unlike the zoom I have now on my Toshiba. I can zoom in but the picture frame is stopped. So like if you want to zoom in on the girl across the way in Hollow Man you can, and see her moving around in her apt. For example. ;)

I also heard you can change a movies background music while you're watching it. So if they play part of a song you like, like in Gone in Sixty Seconds and the scene changes to something else you can change the background music back and listen to the rest of the song or whatever.

The article I read made it sound like the seemless forward and reverse were the big enhancements, I like the way Laurie describes it better. :)

[Laurie L]

Toshiba and Samsung already have 2 players on the market, but I'd hold off for awhile. I know Sony is working on modifications that will go beyond what is currently out as well as what is being currently designed by other companies. Also the general electronics rule applies here...the second generation equipment is always better than the first. I'd give them 4-6 months to work out the bugs that may be encountered as more DVDs hit the market. I'd also wait until there are at least 100 NUON titles available. The more product there is, the more people buy which eventually will drive the price lower and in turn encourage manufacturers to produce more titles...basically the same thing that has already happened with the DVD format. Also this may drastically change the home audio market due to improved sound formats being encoded on discs. Current audio equipment may become obsolete a lot quicker than usual. I also want to see what happens to the market when Sony releases the 'mini-DVD'...full length movies on a disc about the size of a half dollar. Everything should be compatible, but NUON discs may not be...it's still being tested.

Sun - The laser show will be shown on the TV for any music DVDs or CDs as well as for the an isolated score on movie DVDs. Also, the background music in a scene will be interchangable since dialogue, score, soundtracks, and language options can all be encoded on separate lines of information.

I've also heard that NUON will allow you to create your own trailer by cutting and editing scenes together as a fun feature. In the future, you may be able to upload a picture of yourself onto the player, put in your favorite DVD and create a printable picture of you sharing a scene with Tom Cruise.

[Zephyrus]

The only temptation that would come out of a Heads Up Display playing the Star Wars pod race scene would be the temptation to drive your car as fast :D

[OG-]

OK, so a NUON enhanced player will play NUON DVDs, and a reg DVD right, but will it be able to play VCDs? I know some players do, so it might just be up to the company.

[Laurie L]

It completely depends on how the laser is assembled in the player. Different manufacturers use different types of scanning lasers, so the incompatibility ratio will increase with VCDs. Plus NUON throws in a twist with encoding issues now also. I'd contact the manufacturer for a complete list of digital formats it is compatible with and also ask for a list of technologies that may have possible firmware upgrades for future use.

Since there are so many different manufacturers of both software and hardware, it's difficult to say for sure if a particular model will be compatible with VCDs. I'll bring it up in one of my meetings this week and see if anyone has anything more that I can pass along to you.

[OG-]

Ok, thanks. I do alot of video editing software on my computer, I work at a TV studio type place so I do it for practice, but every once in a while I'll code my videos in to a VCD and take them places to watch them so I would really like that feature. My friend bought a DVD player off Ebay that plays DVDs, VCDs, MP3s, and a bunch of other things, so if a NUON played could do that, that would be great.

More players should have the MP3 feature for one reason. Alot of consumers who buy a DVD player most likely buy a good sound system, and this way it can double as a pretty nice sound system. I'd get a player with this feature, but since I already have such a sweet sound system hooked up to my computer, I wouldn't need it for much.