HD DVD

HD DVD (short for High Definition/Density Digital Versatile/Video Disc) is a discontinued high-density optical disc format for storing data and high-definition video. Supported principally by Toshiba, HD DVD was envisioned to be the successor to the standard DVD format.

On 19 February 2008, after a protracted format war with rival Blu-ray, Toshiba abandoned the format, announcing it would no longer develop or manufacture HD DVD players and drives. The HD DVD Promotion Group was dissolved on March 28, 2008.

The HD DVD physical disc specifications (but not the codecs) were still in use as the basis for the China Blue High-definition Disc (CBHD) formerly called CH-DVD.

Because all variants except 3× DVD and HD REC employed a blue laser with a shorter wavelength, HD DVD stored about 3.2 times as much data per layer as its predecessor (maximum capacity: 15 GB per layer compared to 4.7 GB per layer).

History

In the mid 1990s, commercial HDTV sets started to enter a larger market, but there was no inexpensive way to record or play back HD content. JVC's D-VHS and Sony's HDCAM formats could store that amount of data, but were neither popular nor well-known. It was well known that using lasers with shorter wavelengths would yield optical storage with higher density. Shuji Nakamura invented practical blue laser diodes, but a lengthy patent lawsuit delayed commercial introduction.

Thriller

Thriller may refer to:

Art, entertainment, and media

Comics

Film

Literature

Music

Albums

Michael Jackson

Michael Joseph Jackson (August 29, 1958 – June 25, 2009) was an American singer, songwriter, record producer, dancer, and actor. Called the King of Pop, his contributions to music and dance, along with his publicized personal life, made him a global figure in popular culture for over four decades.

The eighth child of the Jackson family, he debuted on the professional music scene along with his elder brothers Jackie, Tito, Jermaine, and Marlon as a member of the Jackson 5 in 1964, and began his solo career in 1971. In the early 1980s, Jackson became a dominant figure in popular music. The music videos for his songs, including those of "Beat It", "Billie Jean", and "Thriller" from his 1982 album Thriller, were credited with breaking down racial barriers and with transforming the medium into an art form and promotional tool. The popularity of these videos helped to bring the then-relatively-new television channel MTV to fame. His 1987 album Bad spawned the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 number-one singles "I Just Can't Stop Loving You", "Bad", "The Way You Make Me Feel", "Man in the Mirror", and "Dirty Diana", becoming the first album to have five number-one singles on the Billboard Hot 100. With videos such as "Black or White" and "Scream", he continued to innovate the medium throughout the 1990s, as well as forging a reputation as a touring solo artist. Through stage and video performances, Jackson popularized a number of complicated dance techniques, such as the robot and the moonwalk, to which he gave the name. His distinctive sound and style has influenced numerous artists of various music genres.

Dallas Roberts

Dallas Mark Roberts (born May 10, 1970) is an American actor. He most recently played Milton Mamet in season three of AMC's The Walking Dead (2012–2013). He was a regular on Seasons 2 and 3 of Unforgettable as Eliot Delson, and has a recurring role as Owen Cavanaugh on The Good Wife since Season 2.

Early life and education

Roberts was born and raised in Houston, Texas, where he attended Paul Revere Middle School and Robert E. Lee High School. He moved to Sarasota, Florida, where he graduated from Sarasota High School in 1988 and attended Manatee Community College. In 1990, Roberts was accepted to the Juilliard School in New York City, where he graduated in 1994 as a member of the Drama Division's Group 23.

Career

Roberts is primarily based in New York City, where he regularly appears in theatrical productions. Off-Broadway he has appeared in a revival of Lanford Wilson's Burn This, opposite Edward Norton and Catherine Keener; in Adam Rapp's Nocturne, for which he was nominated for a Drama Desk Award; and in Caryl Churchill's A Number, opposite Sam Shepard and later Arliss Howard, among others. He was slated to make his Broadway debut as Tom Wingfield in a revival of Tennessee Williams' The Glass Menagerie opposite Jessica Lange, Sarah Paulson and Josh Lucas, but was replaced by Christian Slater during rehearsals.

Shadow person

A shadow person (also known as a shadow figure, shadow being or black mass) is the perception of a patch of shadow as a living, humanoid figure, particularly as interpreted by believers in the paranormal or supernatural as the presence of a spirit or other entity. Many methamphetamine addicts report hallucinations of "shadow people", as a result of sleep deprivation.

History and folklore

A number of religions, legends, and belief systems describe shadowy spiritual beings or supernatural entities such as shades of the underworld, and various shadowy creatures have long been a staple of folklore and ghost stories.

The Coast to Coast AM late night radio talk show helped popularize modern beliefs in shadow people. The first time the topic of shadow people was discussed at length on the show was April 12, 2001 when host Art Bell interviewed Native American elder Thunder Strikes, who is also known as Harley "SwiftDeer" Reagan. During the show, listeners were encouraged to submit drawings of shadow people that they had seen and a large number of these drawings were immediately shared publicly on the website. In October that year, Heidi Hollis published her first book on the topic of shadow people, and later became a regular guest on Coast to Coast. Hollis describes shadow people as dark silhouettes with human shapes and profiles that flicker in and out of peripheral vision, and claims that people have reported the figures attempting to "jump on their chest and choke them". She believes the figures to be negative, alien beings that can be repelled by various means, including invoking "the Name of Jesus".