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

Ronald Epstein · 06-03-2008, 04:50 PM

For the past few months I have been hearing about software
technology that Toshiba claims will take an ordinary DVD and
upscale it to the exact standards of a Blu-ray disc.

Now what I just posted above is basically the way it was
described to me. My first thoughts were that with the limited
bandwidth of a standard DVD there is no way you can upscale
it to the point where you will get the sharpness, film-like quality
and (most important) color depth that you get with Blu-ray.

Well, today one of our readers sent me this article which pretty
much resurfaces the rumor that Toshiba is introducing a "Blu-ray killer."

Here's a bit of the article....

Quote:

If you are a little nostalgic for the red versus blue mud-slinging days of the next-gen disc format war then take heart with this news out of Japan - Toshiba is prepping Blu-ray killing tech for launch later this year.

Anytime a company claims something like this it can only mean
another format war...that is, if their claim is true.

Quote:

The company is working on "an extension to the DVD format" which will offer video quality comparable to that produced by Blu-ray and the now defunt HD DVD discs, a Japanese newspaper reports.

The question is, how comparable? It seems that it is being suggested
that video quality will be equal to that of Blu-ray.

Quote:

The new DVD player will be backwards-compatible with ordinary DVDs. No information has been provided on the technology behind these players - Toshiba already offers upscaling DVD products, so its unclear at this stage how this "extension" tech will work.

My thoughts are this....

If Toshiba can do the seemingly impossible and come out with a
cheap player whose software can upconvert a standard DVD to the
precise picture quality of a Blu-ray disc, then I can see this possibly
being a "Blu-ray" killer......except for one important issue....

The one thing this article doesn't talk about is audio specs. Is this hardware
going to provide the type of lossless audio found on Blu-ray discs? Not from
a standard DVD it won't! Will this matter to a general public who seem to prefer
MP3 downloads over CD quality? Perhaps not.

This is something we will be keeping a close eye on.

Michael Reuben · 06-03-2008, 05:12 PM

I give this zero chance of going anywhere, because there are only two possibilities:

It upscales existing DVDs, and there is simply no way to add back resolution that isn't there in the first place.
It uses some new form of disc, and there is no way consumers are going to embrace yet another format at this late date in the game.

Sorry, Tosh, but the ship has sailed -- and sunk.

M.

TravisR · 06-03-2008, 05:39 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Michael Reuben

I give this zero chance of going anywhere, because there are only two possibilities:

It upscales existing DVDs, and there is simply no way to add back resolution that isn't there in the first place.
It uses some new form of disc, and there is no way consumers are going to embrace yet another format at this late date in the game.

Sorry, Tosh, but the ship has sailed -- and sunk.

M.

I completely agree.

Cees Alons · 06-03-2008, 05:51 PM

So do I.

With all that was said.

(1) It's possible to create beautiful images out of some DVD, with a quality previously unheard of, but it's not possible to "find" resolution and colour details that simply aren't there. So a Blu-ray disc can always have more detail than even a cleverly upconverted SDVD (with usual images on it - not just pure black or white surfaces

) can.

(2) The DVD specs don't have room for the new lossless audio tracks.

Even if this news is true, I don't know what that app will kill, but certainly not my appetite for real high-def images as offered by Blu-ray.

Cees

Adam Gregorich · 06-03-2008, 06:36 PM

It will only affect video. It will interesting to check out at CEDIA. As I understand it they will license the technology to other companies. If it really is that good of a chip it would be great to see in TVs and AV receivers.

**HTF Ads**

John Dirk · 06-03-2008, 11:17 PM

I agree with the current concensus. Not only will lossless audio be absent, in most liklihood so will pop-up menus [a feature I have come to really enjoy] and PIP. Not to get political, but Toshiba is starting to resemble Hillary Clinton. There's a time to fight on, and also a time to accept defeat graciously.

John

Ronald Epstein · 06-04-2008, 05:07 AM

John,

The political analogy was not necessary. I understand what you were
trying to say, but I wish you did it without going there.

Listen....

I think this Toshiba player is more dangerous than you may think.

The general public is still not sold on Blu-ray. If you introduce
a player that can produce picture quality that rivals BD, at a
cheaper price, it could be a "Blu-ray killer" of sorts.

The general public is not going to readily embrace Blu-ray if
they can buy a cheaper player that takes the DVDs they already
own and bring it up to new extraordinary quality levels.

Heck, I'll run out and buy Toshiba's player for that purpose. DAY ONE!

The public doesn't care about the audio as much as we do.
As I have mentioned, people are happier downloading 128 bitrate
MP3s rather than buying better quality audio on CD. The audio
that DVDs provide is pretty damn good for the common viewer.

At this point, with Blu-ray being as expensive as it is, the
public isn't looking to replace the large libraries of DVDs in their
homes. They would probably rush to stores if a cheaper
alternative allowed them to further upconvert their libraries
to HD quality.

We already hear the common people say, "Why do I need Blu-ray
when I have a player that upconverts my DVDs?" Can you imagine
what this new player is going to do for those individuals?

On the plus side, this new Toshiba entry will force Blu-ray to
lower their prices on hardware and software which at this point,
they are in no hurry to do.

I really don't blame Toshiba for doing what they are doing. They
have technology that will make standard DVDs look remarkably
comparable to Blu-ray. Why would anyone not want something like
this in their home?

Robert Crawford · 06-04-2008, 05:23 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Michael Reuben

I give this zero chance of going anywhere, because there are only two possibilities:

It upscales existing DVDs, and there is simply no way to add back resolution that isn't there in the first place.
It uses some new form of disc, and there is no way consumers are going to embrace yet another format at this late date in the game.

Sorry, Tosh, but the ship has sailed -- and sunk.

M.

I agree and I won't support this player because it adds confusion to the HT marketplace and will hurt the adoption of HDM.

Crawdaddy

Robert Crawford · 06-04-2008, 05:25 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ronald Epstein

John,

The political analogy was not necessary. I understand what you were
trying to say, but I wish you did it without going there.

Listen....

I think this Toshiba player is more dangerous than you may think.

The general public is still not sold on Blu-ray. If you introduce
a player that can produce picture quality that rivals BD, at a
cheaper price, it could be a "Blu-ray killer" of sorts.

The general public is not going to readily embrace Blu-ray if
they can buy a cheaper player that takes the DVDs they already
own and bring it up to new extraordinary quality levels.

Heck, I'll run out and buy Toshiba's player for that purpose. DAY ONE!

The public doesn't care about the audio as much as we do.
As I have mentioned, people are happier downloading 128 bitrate
MP3s rather than buying better quality audio on CD. The audio
that DVDs provide is pretty damn good for the common viewer.

At this point, with Blu-ray being as expensive as it is, the
public isn't looking to replace the large libraries of DVDs in their
homes. They would probably rush to stores if a cheaper
alternative allowed them to further upconvert their libraries
to HD quality.

We already hear the common people say, "Why do I need Blu-ray
when I have a player that upconverts my DVDs?" Can you imagine
what this new player is going to do for those individuals?

On the plus side, this new Toshiba entry will force Blu-ray to
lower their prices on hardware and software which at this point,
they are in no hurry to do.

I really don't blame Toshiba for doing what they are doing. They
have technology that will make standard DVDs look remarkably
comparable to Blu-ray. Why would anyone not want something like
this in their home?

The general public is just starting to become aware of Blu-ray and I bet a good percentage of them still don't know about Blu-ray because of all the created by the format war and these upconverting dvd players that many novices confused with being HD players.

I do blame Toshiba and they can go to hell.

Crawdaddy