Hewlett-Packard goes Hollywood

Hewlett-Packard Co. on Sunday announced partnerships with motion picture studios Warner Bros. and DreamWorks to team up on the digital restoration of classic films and the rendering of computer-produced animated films.

Palo Alto, Calif.-based H-P, the computer and printer maker, said it provided some of the rendering for the film "Shrek 2" due to be released in theaters next month, in what H-P calls its Utility Rendering Service.

Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

It may be the first time a major animation company has gone outside for a large share of the digital rendering process that adds color, lighting and texture to digital animated films, said H-P, which hopes to sell the Utility Rendering Service to other studios.

"It's really the first time something of this magnitude has been done," said Ed Leonard, chief technology officer for DreamWorks, in a telephone interview. He said that about 1 million hours of rendering on "Shrek 2" were performed on H-P's 1,000-processor computer at its headquarters, or about 10 percent of the film's total capacity.

The announcements were made at this year's National Association of Broadcasters convention in Las Vegas, where H-P Chief Executive Carly Fiorina will give the keynote speech on Monday.

H-P and DreamWorks also teamed up on what they call Virtual Studio Conferencing, which is a virtual collaboration center linking producers, directors and animators in different locations throughout the world.

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Using H-P's Remote 3D software and DreamWorks' high-resolution imaging technology, the center links all creative elements, allowing for real-time communication and the exchange of storyboarding, content review, editing, creative consulting and other production information, the companies said.

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H-P said it is looking to sell that service to other industries, such as aerospace, biotechnology, consumer electronics and others.

With Warner Bros, a unit of Time Warner Inc., H-P will develop and roll out new ways to restore the image quality of classic motion pictures and television shows, combining Warner Bros. own software with H-P's image, color and data management technologies, the companies said.

The two will also work together on digital post production and to promote technologies and legislation to aid in secure digital delivery of entertainment content, the companies said.

For H-P, the moves are the latest in its broad push to move further into the consumer and entertainment markets. It recently announced a deal with Nokia, the world's largest mobile phone maker, to roll out Nokia's Visual Radio service and one with Starbucks Corp. Last month, H-P and Starbucks announced a service that lets customers buy custom music CDs at Starbucks coffee shops.