Is the format war about to resurface? Does Toshiba have the Blu-ray killer? - Page 5

Jari K · 06-10-2008, 08:08 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hanson Yoo

It probably doesn't need to mimic more than 680p to look like HD..

Oh boy..

Jerome Grate · 06-10-2008, 10:47 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Paul Rossen

Also, why don't they build a killer BluRay machine? At least when Sony lost the Beta-VHS war they ultimately made VHS machines

That same thought came across my mind as well. To me it would seem logical to build a good cheap BD player to kind of nudge Sony into lower prices for BD. I guess it's that agony of defeat thing that's remains a bitter taste in your mouth.

We shall see when the tech arrives. Eventhough it seems like a plausible approach for Toshiba, what price range will this be in. I think if it's over 150.00 it's difficult to sell (I have to admit) "scaled to HD" in comparison to selling HD.

But if does a really good job scaling video to look close to HD and incorporate those interactive menus seen on HD-DVD and BD, well it might be hard to pass up. I have to admit if BD came down in price significantly let's say below 200.00 it would be hard to sell to us anyway. The masses however is a different story.

Gimmicks and gadgets can capture the attention of the mass consumers and if cheap enought and marketed well meaning "now enjoy you current collection in HD quality" it can do well.

Dion C · 06-10-2008, 12:39 PM

Quick question for current Blu-ray player owners:

How IS the upscaling of SDVDs with your BD player?

I am waiting for the new Sony to make my first BD player purchase -- the handful of as-yet-unplayed BD titles I have already purchased mock me on a daily basis until then -- but I recall hearing how impressively the Toshiba HD-DVD player upscaled standard discs. Was curious how Blu players stacked up in that department.

If Blu-ray players only do a so-so upscaling job on standard discs AND Toshiba actually does the seemingly impossible with this allegedly new upscaling technology, then I would have both a BD player AND a Toshiba upscaler in my HT.

FrancisP · 06-10-2008, 12:46 PM

Toshiba is not aiming this at bluray owners. This is clearly aimed at the average person that has not bought into bluray. As to whether it can be done maybe we should wait and see. Again competition is never unhealthy.

Jari K · 06-10-2008, 12:54 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dion C

How IS the upscaling of SDVDs with your BD player?

You probably find more info from some other thread, but at least PS3 has very good upscaling. But of course, even the best upscaling looks "like SD DVD" at the end of the day..

Hanson Yoo · 06-10-2008, 01:04 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jari K

Oh boy..

Is there any point to this response?

If you disagree, then go ahead and make an argument.

Quote:

Gimmicks and gadgets can capture the attention of the mass consumers and if cheap enought and marketed well

Like 1080p?

Jari K · 06-10-2008, 01:42 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hanson Yoo

Is there any point to this response?

If you disagree, then go ahead and make an argument.

Mr. Yoo, we kinda "argued", "debated" and "discussed" on these similar issues ("HD will be a niche market", "SD DVD still rulez", "Upscaled DVD is good enough", "downloading will be the future", "Joe 6-pack won´t buy HD", etc etc etc) during the format war and soon after that in the "doomsday"-threads.. I have done too many "arguments" already. You probably missed those 100 threads back in the days?

This thing seems to go in cycles. I guess now when the HD DVD is gone, we still need to go through the "super-upscaling Toshiba" vs Blu-ray (or was it "SD DVD is good enough vs Blu-ray", I got confused).

No matter, Blu-ray will prevail. As always.

jhinesjr · 06-10-2008, 02:01 PM

It's hard to believe that in the 21st century some people are trying to champion up-scaled dvd.

Edwin-S · 06-10-2008, 02:05 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by FrancisP

Toshiba is not aiming this at bluray owners. This is clearly aimed at the average person that has not bought into bluray. As to whether it can be done maybe we should wait and see. Again competition is never unhealthy.

As to whether what can be done? Make a DVD look as good as HD content on BD? AFAIAC, it can't be done. Toshiba's claim to be able to do so is horse shit, pure and simple. They should be ashamed to be even hinting that it is possible.

There is more to a high definition picture than the number of lines that can be displayed. The biggest issue is bandwidth. DVD doesn't have the bandwidth needed to carry the amounts of data required to reach the kind of picture detail on your average HD movie. Toshiba knows that. If they didn't they wouldn't have tried to market their own HD DVD system in the first place.

If Toshiba actually believed that SD DVD was capable of equalling the quality of BD, they wouldn't have bothered pouring hundreds of millions of research and advertising dollars into developing their own HD system. For them to now claim that they can make SD DVD look like HD is just so much false advertising, and nothing but a cheap stunt to try to derail the adoption of true HD media on disc.

Toshiba's interpolation chip has to do more than upscale the picture in order to match the PQ of BD. Their chip would have to either create or extract detail from the DVD. If it creates detail then that detail is only an approximation of the detail that would be available on a true HD master. It would be adding detail that wasn't in the original master. It would be nothing but DNR in reverse. Maybe they could call it DNI: Digital Noise Injection.

If it extracts detail then Toshiba's claims are bull shit, because the detail required to achieve a true BD/HD DVD quality picture is non-existent on a standard DVD.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hanson Yoo

Quote:

Gimmicks and gadgets can capture the attention of the mass consumers and if cheap enought and marketed well

Like 1080p?

I'm curious. Do you actually own a high definition player of any kind?

Scott-S · 06-10-2008, 02:06 PM

I am still waiting for a VHS upscaler. I have some VHS movies I want to watch in 1080P.