More information coming to light regarding Toshiba's new "Blu-ray killer"

Ronald Epstein · 08-18-2008, 04:36 AM

First, I need to apologize for the subject title.

About a year ago, there was much speculation regarding a
DVD player that Toshiba had been working on. Early word was
that this player would be able to take standard DVD to a level
of high definition. These rumors were so rampant that even
the press dubbed this player a "Blu-ray killer."

It has been very difficult to get any information out of Toshiba
regarding this new player. We are planning to see this player
in another two weeks while out at CEDIA. In the meantime, I
found an article which more or less calms the waters regarding
speculation on what this new DVD player is all about.

Click Here For Article

Please read the above article before moving on to my comments....

For me, the most interesting passage in the entire article is
as follows...

Quote:

Toshiba didn't demonstrate the XDE against a Blu-ray or HD DVD player, and Louis Masses, director of product
planning for the audio and video group at Toshiba America Consumer Products, was careful to stress that it's not
meant to compete with or replace Blu-ray.

This pretty much says it all. The fact that Toshiba would not
demonstrate this technology side-by-side with a Blu-ray picture
shows that the company doesn't feel the upconversion is even
comparable.

I will say that I am very excited about any technology that improves
upon DVD and has the ability to do better upconverting than current
players. It's sort of hard to imagine how much better you can make
upconverted DVD look (I think it looks fantastic already), and for that
reason I am very excited about being one of the first to see a demo
of the new Toshiba player. Will have more to report on this in our
CEDIA coverage.

Joseph Bolus · 08-18-2008, 08:07 AM

Ron,

Thanks for the info and the link!

A lot of us just wish that Toshiba would build a Blu-ray player with this technology built-in. And perhaps they will some day. In the meantime, it's at least somewhat gratifying that they're not even trying to position the player as a substitute for Blu-ray.

Here's a link to another article that makes that very clear:

Toshiba Debuts ‘Near-HD’ DVD - 8/18/2008 4:01:00 AM - TWICE

Scott-S · 08-18-2008, 10:26 AM

I had to laugh this morning at this quote in an article on CrunchGear about what Toshiba is saying about the new picture quality improvement over current upconverting.

Quote:

“Subtle but noticeable” isn’t exactly a ringing endorsement, it must be said. Frankly, they sound like weasel words.

And another interesting quote in the link that Ron posted is this:

Quote:

Blu-ray players have six times the image detail of a DVD, and upscaling players, even those using XDE technology, can't overcome that. But they can sharpen edges to overcome the blurriness of a DVD when displayed on a large screen.

Sounds like edge enhancement to me. LOL

Bob_L · 08-18-2008, 12:12 PM

Here's another intriguing quote from the TWICE article:

Quote:

Consumers turn on each mode individually, but only a maximum of two modes can run simultaneously: sharp and color, or sharp and contrast.

So whatever chip they've popped into this player doesn't even have enough processing power to run all three of these new algorithms simultaneously.

This sounds like Toshiba marketing went to engineering and requested something new that they could use to generate a little buzz about SD DVD players. And this is what they came up with

PattyFraser · 08-18-2008, 12:26 PM

What I'd like to see is a demonstration of a standard def movie upconverted in the player versus, for example, that same disc upconverted in the new Sony S350. I want to compare upconversion to upconversion, not to Blu Ray quality. The less- than -enthusiastic view of the S350's treatment of standard def (of which, like most of us, I have a large library) is what is holding me back from this new Blu-Ray player.

**HTF Ads**

Stephen_J_H · 08-18-2008, 01:18 PM

This gives me flashbacks to the HQ chip developed for VHS VCRs back in the mid-80s to prevent SuperBeta from gaining market share (as if that was ever a possibility....).

DavidJ · 08-18-2008, 01:30 PM

Read about this in the newspaper this morning. I don't mind that it is just a subtle improvement because that is generally all you see when comparing different upscaling players to each other. It is all a matter of degrees. To me the problem is that most general consumers don't often notice those differences . It is the enthusiast that sees the differences and they will most likely have or will be planning to get Blu-ray. I'll probably just stick to my XA2 (or PS3) for upconversion. I am still curious to hear what you think of it Ron when you get to see it in action.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Stephen_J_H

This gives me flashbacks to the HQ chip developed for VHS VCRs back in the mid-80s to prevent SuperBeta from gaining market share (as if that was ever a possibility....).

It worked!

Jari K · 08-18-2008, 04:26 PM

**"Louis Masses (director of product planning for the audio and video group at Toshiba America Consumer Products) was careful to stress that it's not meant to compete with or replace Blu-ray."**

Wise words. Let´s hope, that the discussion now begins to steer from the "near HD quality" to "quality upscaling". The latter just might be true.

Brian D H · 08-18-2008, 05:01 PM

Assuming for the moment that this is the best upconverting player ever made; the correct strategy would still be to release a second player that incorporates these features AND plays BluRay. This second player, that plays both, should be around MSRP $300.

Why invent "the best upconversion technology" and only put it into a stand-alone player that can't do BluRay? If you can sell everyone on the idea that you have unique unconversion technology you can convince everyone to choose your brand of BluRay player. What BluRay adopter is going to by this Toshiba player in addition to a BluRay player already upconverts pretty well?

Stephen_J_H · 08-18-2008, 05:32 PM

Depends how big your grudge is.

[J6P]I gots a 3-car grudge.[/J6P]

Seriously, Toshi is playing its cards pretty close to its chest with this "revised" announcement. It'll be interesting to see if Toshi is willing to eat crow and introduce a BD player.