Headlines - Toshiba to combat Blu-ray with...DVD?

[HEXUS]

Toshiba has lost the format war, but it isn't sat around licking its wounds. Reports suggest it's preparing to fight back with new DVD technologies.

Read more.

[SiM]

Don't understand why they are wasting more money on a soon to be obsolete technology

[digit]

I'm not sure I see the point, a good HD TV can upscale very well a DVD or any other SD source. Thus rendering in my opinion a stand alone box a bit redundant. As for trying to rival a native HD technology with upscaling of an SD DVD with downloadable content from the internet, I can't see it competing that well. Also if I want to find more info out about a film i'll hop on my computer / laptop and go on imdb etc. I'm not going to bother going to the download content section of the disc or however else it will work to get at the online content.

[SiM]

What would be smart is if they efficiently encoded 1080p content using h.264 on to standard dual layer DVD (no extras, 1 DTS/DD sound track) and then made players to play them back... Would be very cheap to make these and will have an effect on bluray...

[Jay]

I have a HD DVD / Blueray player at home and to be honest its over rated.

[nichomach]

Originally Posted by digit

I'm not sure I see the point, a good HD TV can upscale very well a DVD or any other SD source. Thus rendering in my opinion a stand alone box a bit redundant.

My bold; that's rather the point, isn't it? There're a lot of less than brilliant HD TVs out there where the panel's OK, but the supporting components (including those used for upscaling) are a bit cack. It's a bit like the situation with TFTs, where some budget screens are awful on analogue but absolutely great on DVI. Perhaps what they're focussing on is that mass market where a good relatively inexpensive upscaling DVD player could turn a mediocre screen into a very good one?

[SiM]

Originally Posted by Jay

I have a HD DVD / Blueray player at home and to be honest its over rated.

Disagree with you completely... HD is a huge step up...
Upscaling is hugely over rated though

[nichomach]

Originally Posted by Jay

I have a HD DVD / Blueray player at home and to be honest its over rated.

I'm in no rush; I use a DVD/VHS upscaling combi unit, and that does absolutely fine for me. I've watched some HD content via BBC HD and also via Movies on Demand (watched Eastern Promises at the weekend, which is awesome). Where I have the option, I'll watch in HD, but upscaled SD is still great.

[digit]

Originally Posted by nichomach

My bold; that's rather the point, isn't it? There're a lot of less than brilliant HD TVs out there where the panel's OK, but the supporting components (including those used for upscaling) are a bit cack. It's a bit like the situation with TFTs, where some budget screens are awful on analogue but absolutely great on DVI. Perhaps what they're focussing on is that mass market where a good relatively inexpensive upscaling DVD player could turn a mediocre screen into a very good one?

A good point you had raised there, I completly forgot all about some of the poor HD displays. I haven't used any of the various HD upscaling dvd players Ebuyer, Dabs and the rest sell but I wonder if based on the ability of those players whether perhaps Toshiba are a bit late to market? Downloadable film content I can't see being a selling point even to movie buffs...

If I go blu ray which eventually I shall do I'll be buying a combo drive so I can enjoy films on either format, just makes much more sense to me.

[Brewster0101]

Originally Posted by SiM

Disagree with you completely... HD is a huge step up...
Upscaling is hugely over rated though

Disagree with you, Blueray - HD DVD are over rated and so dam slow too. Picture quality is good, but nothing special over a good Denon or Pioneer drive with upscaling. Sound improvements are not worth it either.

[SiM]

Originally Posted by Brewster0101

Blueray - HD DVD are over rated and so dam slow too.

erm... its no "slower" than DVD...

Originally Posted by Brewster0101

Picture quality is good, but nothing special over a good Denon or Pioneer drive with upscaling.

No offence, but anyone who says/thinks that has at least one of the following:
1) A SDTV
2) A crap HDTV
3) Bad eyesight
4) Low standards in video quality

Originally Posted by Brewster0101

Sound improvements are not worth it either.

Well sound is something that most people don't appreciate. You do need to have to a good sound system and good hearing to notice the difference. My dad can't tell the difference between the stereo sound on sky and a DTS track on a DVD... but to me there is a huge difference...

[TheBloodyNine]

Im not sure what all the fuss is about with Blu-Ray, sure it looks a little better but everyone has a dvd player. Its like CD and MiniDisk the CD was and still is the accepted format, or MP3 and Atrac3/any other better format MP3 is crap but the accepted format non the less.

Blu-Ray is obsolete before it was released the majority of people wont see a benifit of buying an expensive player to play expensive disks on their cheap 720p LCD HD ready Tesco tele. The DVD will be king for a long time, and I doubt even Digital distrubution will replace it, unless everyone goes mad and decides Apple TV is a good idea

[SiM]

I agree that DVD will be popular amongst the average Joes for a while... but amongst enthusiasts and the slightly rich population bluray will be used imo

[jimborae]

Originally Posted by SiM

erm... its no "slower" than DVD...

No offence, but anyone who says/thinks that has at least one of the following:
1) A SDTV
2) A crap HDTV
3) Bad eyesight
4) Low standards in video quality


Well sound is something that most people don't appreciate. You do need to have to a good sound system and good hearing to notice the difference. My dad can't tell the difference between the stereo sound on sky and a DTS track on a DVD... but to me there is a huge difference...

SIM there's some very sweeping statements there mate. Boot up times on my EP-30 are horrific compared to my DV79, my mates Pioneer Blu-Ray player is no better at least 3 times as long as a standard DVD player.

As for the quality issue I agree with others that it is no a huge leap forward over DVD. I have a fairly high quality set up that has been calibrated (Panny PH9, Arcam DV-79, Tosh EP-30, PS3, Yam RVX-1600) and with some transfers the difference between HD and SD is almost negliable. Serenity springs to mind as one.

My eyesight is 20-20 and I have high standards video quality, my Panny does an excellent job in upscaling but I attribute it mainly to Arcam DVD player doing an excellent job in feeding the panel.

[SiM]

Oh you guys meant slow boot times... I was thinking he meant slow video lol... Well I do it through HTPC so boot is fast if I am in standby, slow otherwise

My TV is only 720p (Pioneer 504HDE - almost 5 years old) and the difference in pic quality is huge! You need to have an eye for detail... staring at the screen as a whole might not look too different, but just look at the features on faces, faces in the background, hairs, bricks on houses, details on leaves and scenery etc... and tell me you don't notice a big difference. I am not saying DVDs are not watchable - they do look terrible on my dell 2407 compared to HD content - but they are generally watchable from distance.

Originally Posted by jimborae

with some transfers the difference between HD and SD is almost negliable.

Agree with you there... if they did a bad job at transferring, you can't blame the technology. The average quality HD-DVD is much better than the best quality DVD. I have seen some terrible DVD transfers too...

[SiM]

Look at these screenshots from an old star wars
1080p (HDTV broadcast, so worse than blu ray)
DVD

Look at the detail on his face, the texture of his skin and his hairs... the difference is even more apparent with newer films... Another:
1080p
DVD