Neil Young to release music video archive on Blu-ray DVDs

SAN FRANCISCO (AFP) - Rocker Neil Young said Tuesday he is teaming up with Sun Microsystems Inc. to release a music video archive on Blu-ray DVDs.

Young unveiled the collaboration at a JavaOne conference in San Francisco, giving a high-profile endorsement Sony's high-definition DVD technology that was recently crowned victor in format wars with Toshiba's HD DVD.

He said the high-definition format allows high quality music reproduction to be blended with rich graphics in a manner that does his works justice.

"It is important for me that the user experience the high resolution music along with the archival visual material," Young said.

"Previous technology required unacceptable quality compromises. The technology had not yet evolved to that capability. I am glad we waited and got it right."

HD DVD's fate was sealed by a series of setbacks, with Hollywood titan Warner Brothers and US retail giant Wal-Mart both throwing their weight behind Blu-ray earlier this year.

Blu-ray and HD DVD both offer cinematic-quality images and multimedia features, but movie studios were eager to see the emergence of just one standard, while many consumers had been reluctant to buy a machine that might become obsolete.

The first Neil Young Archive release will be a ten-disc set, powered by Java technology, released late this year. It will contain his music from 1963 to 1972.

"Sun is thrilled to be working with Neil Young on what will surely be the most innovative release of any artist's material and the start of a new genre of content," said Sun chief executive Jonathan Schwartz.

The Neil Young Archive promises to be a biography of the musician's career showing movies, letters, manuscripts, videos and a chronology of music released and unreleased.

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