Partnership Breathes Life into HD DVD

Microsoft and Toshiba will attempt to further interactivity on HD DVD discs with a new organization aimed at promoting it.

HD DVD is far from dead. Despite early calls predicting its demise in the Hi-Def format wars, the battle is still rages on. Toshiba and Microsoft attempted to tip the odds in HD DVD’s favor on Friday with the creation of the Advanced Interactivity Consortium, a forum that will promote enhanced interactivity for the discs.

Features the organization hopes to push include advanced in-movie navigation, bookmarking on discs, picture-in-picture, Web-enabled communities, content downloads and more.

“Creating attractive consumer experiences with advanced interactivity is critical to bringing digital home entertainment to the next level,” said Hisatsugu Nonaka, corporate executive vice president at Toshiba, in a statement. “In order to create these ecosystems, we wanted to bring together a group of companies committed to extending these scenarios across a wide variety of platforms.”

Besides its tech-based founding fathers, the AIC will also get support from major movie studios, including DreamWorks Animation SKG, Paramount Pictures, Universal Studios and Warner Bros.