HDi™: Changing the Way We Make and Watch Movies.
HDi™, Microsoft’s implementation of the HD DVD interactivity layer, offers advanced viewing features not possible on standard definition DVDs. Filmmakers and producers now have an extremely flexible technology to add features that make the movie come to life in new ways. With HDi, you can add enhanced content, navigation, and network connectivity for online experiences.
Examples of some of the compelling features that content creators can enable with HDi™ include:
Dual-Decoder Picture-in-Picture
Show your audience in-line bonus content such as alternate angles, behind-the-scenes footage, director commentaries and actor interviews. Unlike other video formats, HD DVD requires all players to include two video decoders, enabling HDi™ features to be started, stopped, and swapped without ever leaving the movie.
Interactive Menus
Give your viewers access to menu-driven features such as a chapter index or special features and allow them to change scenes or other parameters without interrupting the immersive cinema experience. Standard DVD menus can be accessed only when the movie is stopped.
User Defined Bookmarks
All HD DVD players are required to provide persistent storage, which allows features like custom bookmarks of favorite scenes, user-defined clips, or movie preferences that users can save and retrieve the next time the disc is inserted. With a network connection, these scenes can be uploaded and shared, creating new community building opportunities and word-of-mouth promotion for your video.
Mandatory Network Connection
Networking provides a limitless dimension for filmmakers and viewers to keep discs up-to-date with fresh content. New audio-language tracks can be made available for download as well as streaming-audio commentary, HD trailers, and community-driven features such as movie recommendations, comments, and messaging. Only HD DVD requires all players to have a network connection to take advantage of these features.
Time-Progress Meters
Show your audience the length of the movie and how much time is left while the movie is playing.
Zoom
Create a zoom feature that allows viewers to magnify (up to 16X) any area of a scene during playback, a feature not available in any other format.
Authoring
HDi™ enables authors to easily create unique and compelling interactive features on HD DVDs.
HDi™ is based on widely adopted Web standards including XML, HTML, CSS, SMIL, and ECMAScript (JavaScript). This means minimal ramp-up time is required and a large base of experienced professionals is readily available.
Learn more about HD DVD Authoring.
Learn more about the In-Movie Experience included with Blood Diamond, from Warner Bros.
HDi Case Studies
Bandai Visual USA - FREEDOM Volume 1
Bandai Visual uses HDi interactive technology on HD DVD to provide fans of the FREEDOM anime series with insights into the video creative process and an opportunity for online interactivity.
Learn more. (Case Study | PDF | 354 KB)
Universal Studios Home Entertainment
Pushing the Envelope of HDi™ in HD DVD Making Miami Vice and The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift.
Download: The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift U Control™ Tutorial Video (1920x1080 | WMV | 101 MB)
Download: Miami Vice U Control™ Tutorial Video (1920x1080 | WMV | 173 MB)