HD-DVD forum rejects Toshiba/NEC Blue Laser format (1 Viewer)

[Sanjay Gupta]

Personally I think DVDs without a caddy was a blunder that I pray is not repeated with Blue-Ray and/or any other HD format. By the way DVDs originally had a caddy which was removed later to keep costs down. What's with this cost issue anyhow, I mean what's a few more cents added to the $20 - $30 approx cost for a pre recorded disc? The rental industry would also I am sure support any new format with a caddy in a big way, and their support I think is very neccesary for the success of any new mass market format.

Also I vote for Blue-Ray over the silly Time/Warner proposed format, which is nothing but the by product of greed rather than an effort to introduce the best format. I sincerely hope that for once the superior product, which in this case is Blu-Ray, will win rather than some cheap and outdated format. The red laser has outlived its utility and the sooner the industry understands that the better off we all will be.

Although the debate about backward compatibility is moot, now that we know Blu-Ray players can play most existing optical consumer formats, I still say, how does it really matter. After all my 3000+ laser discs don't work on my DVD player nor do my 400+ vinyl records and it has not bothered me a bit. I think this whole backward compatibility issue has always been the biggest deterrent in the development of any mass market consumer product. The Windows OS, and its numerous dawbacks due to its backward compatibility, is a perfect example of that. Although I do understand the many benefits of backward compatibility in the case of an OS, but as far as audio/video formats are concerned, I say let the old die to give life to the new. Anyhow what is to stop you from continuying to watch your precious DVDs on your existing player? I do the same with my Laser Discs and Vinyls.

Sanjay
Member since 1997

 

[DaViD Boulet]

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[DaViD Boulet]

My hope is that future HD-DVD players (bluRay whatever) will upsample "standard definition" DVDs to a selectable HD resolution (like 720P or 1080I/P). All-digital scaling can look spectacular (no analog conversions in between). Naturally we need a DVI output to send this to our projector

 

[ChrisA]

Considering that Set top boxes all you do is select an output resolution such as 1080i or 720p... I would imagine that a built in scaler would be standard with any backward compatable player. I'm sure their will be many types of players available and each with their own level of quality of internal scaler...

 

[ChrisA]

Did you notice that the blue ray unit has an HDTV tuner built in as well as a satellite ... THAT IS VERY NICE! That totally eliminate the need for a switch box for me as well as the need to have a separate set top box. However, I saw no rgbhv output...?? It is only the first model... I'm anxious for the first Blu-Ray title to be released... that will be exciting... totally exciting. I don't understand why they would use MPEG-2 though... there has to be a much better video compression method available, which we know there are... Again, we want to use a video compression method that yields the highest TOTAL (possible) video quality, not necessarily the algorithm that is the most efficient. I'm always a bit suspicious of being able to have your cake and eat it too....

As far as an RGBHV output... I wish I could utilize a digital connection, however, I still have a CRT... I am 100% certain that my next projector (which will be as early as 2 years, and as far away as 3 years) will be a digital projector... it will be whatever is the 'best' digital projector at that time. I'm certain that the newest and best digital projector in 2-3 years will finally be at the point where the strengths outweigh the weaknesses in comparison to CRT. So how long until we get a Blu Ray player and some pre-recorded movies? Blu ray offers the highest storage and highest data rate and I'm always going to be for the format that offers the most in those terms, because bandwidth and storage are ALWAYS going to be the ultimate bottleneck in terms of quality capability. You can always change compression algorithms, and add new algorithms for audeo, video, tactile, whatever... but you don't get an opportuniy to RE-TOOL the hardware manufacturing process very often.

Remeber, even the digital MASTER tapes are compressed and STILL utilize around 350-400 Mbit/sec bandwidth! We need all the banwidth we can get as a consumer format. Even Blu-ray isn't all that great, but it is a HUGE difference over the pathetic, royalty driven, overcompressed Warner Brothers rediculous proposal to keep us limited by old technology. Blu-Ray is the best available optical format for consumers at this time and marks the standard for the minimal acceptable proposal for HD Video in terms of bandwidth and storage.