What is 8:8:8 processing (1 Viewer)

[Jake T]

I saw this detail on the description on the Toshiba SD5700. Good looking unit and I'm thinking of buying it. Anyone know what this 8:8:8 is?
Thanks

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Jake T
--"The Things You Do In Life Echo In Eternity"

 

[Troy LaMont]

Jake,
8:8:8 processing refers to the level of color (chroma) processing that the video decoder is cable of producing.
I've never heard of 8:8:8 processing, most of the high quality video (even broadcast) is mastered in 4:4:4.
Quick excerpt from Secrets of Home Theater and High Fidelity;

The highest resolution format is 4:4:4, which means that for every 4 samples of Y, there are also 4 samples of 'Cb' and 4 samples of 'Cr'. In other words, the color signal has the same resolution as the black and white signal. This format is generally only used internally within a device to avoid degradation during processing. When the image is recorded to a master tape like D1 or D5, it is reduced to 4:2:2 (see below).
Next highest is 4:2:2, which means for every 4 samples of Y, there are 2 samples of 'Cb' and 2 samples of 'Cr'. There are still the same number of scan lines in the luma and the chroma, but the chroma signal has half as many samples on each scan line. When a 4:2:2 signal is decoded, the "missing" samples are effectively interpolated from the samples on either side.
The lowest resolution format, and the one used for DVD, is 4:2:0. This is a confusing designation, as it suggests that for every 4 Y samples there are 2 'Cb' samples and 0 'Cr' samples, which is not the case at all. What 4:2:0 means is that there are half as many samples of 'Cb' and 'Cr' on each scan line, and half as many scan lines of 'Cb' and 'Cr' as of Y. In other words, the resolution for chroma is half that of luma in both the horizontal and vertical directions. If the full image resolution is 720 x 480, then the chroma information is only stored at 360 x 240. In 4:2:0, not only are missing samples interpolated on each scan line, entire scan lines of chroma must be interpolated from the scan lines above and below.
The tricky problem of 4:2:0 is that the method of interpreting the samples and interpolating new scan lines can be done two different ways. One way is used for interlaced images, and one for progressive images.

You can see the very informative article in it's entirety here; Link Removed
I think there's a misprint on Toshiba's website or it's got a helluva lot of video processing power!
Troy
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:My teacher tells me beauty is on the inside.
:That's just something ugly people say.

 

[John Kotches]

Marketing hype.
All players are capable of doing 8:8:8 processing.
Stacey gives more details on our website...
He asked one year ago who would be the first to advertise 8:8:8, and the winner was Toshiba.
Here's the pointer:
Link Removed
Hope this helps.
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John Kotches
Contributing Writer
Link Removed

 

[Jake T]

Troy,
Maybe it is a misprint on Toshiba's site. The list this on 3 of their DVD players (5700, 4700, 3750).
Anyhow. Thanks for the very informative(and technical) answer.

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Jake T
--"The Things You Do In Life Echo In Eternity"