Originally posted by error5:

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Originally posted by svtstang:

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Toshiba's latest foray into the HD market may be futile, but hey, at least it gives us options.

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Just wondering here. When DVD was the only disc-based format available, were people complaining that they didn't have options?

Originally posted by peac3:

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Now that there is no competition and all people are depending on this format - will the price for BD movies go up or down?

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Similar question here. When DVD was the only option and had no competition - did prices on discs and players go up - or did they go down?

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You had LD,VCD,DVD and VHS, VHS was the main media format for nearly a decade while LD,VCD and DVD were new about mid 90s VCD never caught on LD was to cumbersome and DVD was about the only worth while choice and 5ish year later it sank VHS.


with BR you still got DVD even if HDVD is dead, IMO choices come more form the hardware vendors than the and the variety of features they bring than mindless competition from alternative formats.

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Andrew, personally I have no interest in cracking DRM on movies, since I have a multiregional player that allows me, to play DVDs from different regions, and I'm a legit consumer (more than 1200 legally purchased DVD movies and TV shows on my collection) therefore I'm pointing my issues with DRM, even so I'm part of that small percentage, that actually supports the movie industry when buying their stuff.

We all agree that Regional Coding has been an niusance, and we insisted for years so that manufactures would release multiregional DVD players, so we could adquire and watch freely movies that we got from other regions, yet with Blu-ray players we're facing this same restriction all over again.

Granted there're several Blu-ray titles that are Region Free, but not all of them are, just as it happens with DVD titles. Since DVD's inception they have embedded some form of DRM, but not all has to do with protecting the discs from being copied, when some are intended to control us as well.

What I meant its that they have no right to police what you're doing with the equipment you purchased and own, which is the case of Blu-ray players. If they want to put copy-protect DRM on Blu-ray discs, like they have been doing with DVD discs, that's fine by me, but not when they put DRM restrictions on BD players, which makes them part of the control and monitoring scheme.

On the topic, if upscaling a DVD movie can improve viewing them, regardless that it's artificial and not native, and it may not provide the same results as actually having a HD source, but if it works and looks damn cool, then that's fine by me.

Jim, i completely agree with your impressions while comparing BD against DVD, that's why I'm waiting for the next revolution in home video entertaiment, which BD isn't; also some have to realize that not everybody lives in USA, in order to actually purchase BD movies and players at such prices. The reality is that most of us around the globe, have to pay at least US$600 for a BD player, and US$30 for a BD movie; and even if one should choose to import these stuff from the USA, you end up paying roughly the same that you would had locally, after adding the expenses of S&H and import taxes.

ematrix

copy protection is one thing the net enabled tracking DRM system is completely another thing, something like this dose not need to be put into place, mabye in 20 years when all devices are connected tot eh net through a wireles system and "media crimes" has is own devision in each local police branch....

But Zippy, they have never given up in the intent of releasing a DRM tracking system, like when they had the idea of embedding RID chips on discs for tracking, control and monitoring purposes (we never knew with centanty if they gave up on that) and now BD players, thanks to web connectivity, has the potencial of making it a reality. Also copy protection is not the only form of DRM.

Let's go to the simplest of all DRM, which is Regional Coding, which is part of their price fixing control scheme. If you're a legit consumer, you should have the freedom and right to get products (meaning the movies) from other places, when the ones offered to you locally aren't satisfying, or they have no intent of offering them at all, and certanly it was annoying that your DVD player, which you legally purchased and own, would not accept a disc because it didn't match your region, and now this situation repeats with BD players... just to give an example of my point.

Originally posted by ematrix:

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Let's go to the simplest of all DRM, which is Regional Coding, which is part of their price fixing control scheme.

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Here's a website with info on region-free BluRay discs:

http://bluray.liesinc.net/

It's useful info if you're in the US and want to import from the EU or Asia, or if you're from the EU or Asia and you want to import from ther US. Notice that practically all Warner releases are region-free.

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Quote:

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Originally posted by ematrix:

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Let's go to the simplest of all DRM, which is Regional Coding, which is part of their price fixing control scheme.

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Here's a website with info on region-free BluRay discs:

http://bluray.liesinc.net/

It's useful info if you're in the US and want to import from the EU or Asia, or if you're from the EU or Asia and you want to import from ther US. Notice that practically all Warner releases are region-free.

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lol man seriously who would buy warners garbage..(wanted 2 use other word)

Originally posted by blueroad:

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lol man seriously who would buy warners garbage..(wanted 2 use other word)

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Well for starters the over 12 million people who bought "300" on DVD, and high-def media.

http://www.the-numbers.com/movies/2007/300-DVD.php

Do you need the numbers on the Harry Potter movies too?

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Its amazes me how people on this site actually think there outlook on things reflect the views of millions of people.

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If these players can somehow add an upscaling engine more powerful then the ones in Toshiba's current HD DVD player lineup, the quality should be outstanding and worth looking into.

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playstation 3 offers an upscaling engine. Anyone know how it compares to toshibas?

Well, I think is fair that you should have a taste of what is being discussed here. I found on youtube a video of Toshiba's presentation at CEATEC months ago in regarding this new techonolgy; please take into consideration that this presentation was done much prior to HD-DVD's demise and Toshiba's purchase of the Sony's Cell factory, therefore at the time of this presentation, Super Upconversion or Super Resolution was intended for their laptops and TV sets, and the inclusion of Cell processors wasn't contemplated at that time.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x1qxa1zv5uI

Originally posted by ematrix:

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the inclusion of Cell processors wasn't contemplated at that time.

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Actually, the SpursEngine in the laptops used in the youtube video is based on the Cell processor. It's a scaled down Cell with 4 SPE's instead of 8.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SpursEngine

Originally posted by juankerr:

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Actually, the SpursEngine in the laptops used in the youtube video is based on the Cell processor. It's a scaled down Cell with 4 SPE's instead of 8.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SpursEngine

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Thanks for the aclaration, I thought that the SpursEngine was similar to the Cell processor, but I ignored that actually was based on it.

Originally posted by dblbogey7:

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I guess a Cell-based system could do it but considering the fact that your source is a regular DVD with MPEG2 compression I have my doubts, so to speak.

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Here's something to add to your doubts:

An Intel Sponsored Study on Super Resolution

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Converting DVD into HD DVD

Nestares says that the algorithm is written to scale to the number of cores that it runs on: the more cores available, the more the processing gets divided up. "Different regions [of the video] are assigned to different cores," says Nestares. Using this method, it would take about 150 cores to convert DVD video into HD DVD in real time, he says.

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The Cell processor is a multi-core chip consisting of 8 SPE's and one PPE. The Spurs Engine, which costs 50$ each BTW, is based on the Cell and will have only 4 cores/SPE's.

If it takes 150 cores to convert DVD video to high-def resolution in real-time...well you do the math.

Am I missing something here?

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The ONLY reason Toshiba's HD-DVD failed is because of the Sony pay-off of Warner to ditch Toshiba. It was a lack of software issue. If you can deliver near-HD-DVD from DVD you have the entire DVD library available while Sony has a miniscule Blu Ray library to tout. The lack of software issue instantly turns around.

I doubt that this will give identical to HD results, but if it is significantly closer than current up-converting, which most folks are happy with, in the eyes of Joe Average Consumer, it will be be a real hard kick to the cajones to Sony from which Blu Ray may never recover. Could not happen to nicer guys.

Good luck Toshiba!

Originally posted by SDF_GR:

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Toshiba is on the way to another failure.
They failed with a media as powerful as BD, with players cheaper than DVD's,movies cheap as the DVD's.

Now that the BD hardware is dropping, the FULL HDTV's dropping too, BD having P2.0 and most of the staff that HD-DVD had and BD being still unlocked.....They expect that with an inferior media/format than HD-DVD and more expensive , to beat BD? wtf?

+ HD-DVD was supported by universal, paramount, MS/360. who TF will support this format??

and at the bottom of this....
who will trust them now??? more than one million people saw there money fly away when WB said BD only, are they gonna trust them again?

It looks like a Titan size failure.

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Reality check...this is for existing DVD's. Works with everything Joe Consumer already owns. Don't need to replace any disks. Don't need to bribe any studios to drop the competing format. Don't need to pay ridiculous Blu ray disk prices or replace DVD's you already have.

Can you say "soiled panties over at Sony" IF it is nearly as good as Toshiba says.

Originally posted by atomicxl:

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Well, i'm assuming the video quality looks like what your typical HD torrent looks like: Worse than a Blu-Ray, better than upscaled DVD. I'm also assuming it'll do upscaling thats at least as good as the PS3. I think the players should also play back a wide variety of media formats so that its got value beyond just purchased discs. I think this format only has a chance if it can compete successfully in two ways:

1) Price. It needs to be cheap. I think $200 would even be too much. They basically need to be selling for clearout HD-DVD Player prices of like $99.99-149.99. I think that over $200 will have people just putting the money aside for a Blu-Ray player. Not only that, but the media needs to be cheap. If the DVD sells for $14.99, this needs to be like $17.99 max.

2) Studio support is critical. If none of the big companies are putting out content its pointless to own one.

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I dought if toshiba could pull this off, but it would be nice if they could stick it up sony's hole.

Originally posted by nopcbs:

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Reality check...this is for existing DVD's. Works with everything Joe Consumer already owns. Don't need to replace any disks. Don't need to bribe any studios to drop the competing format. Don't need to pay ridiculous Blu ray disk prices or replace DVD's you already have.

Can you say "soiled panties over at Sony" IF it is nearly as good as Toshiba says.

Originally posted by atomicxl:

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Well, i'm assuming the video quality looks like what your typical HD torrent looks like: Worse than a Blu-Ray, better than upscaled DVD. I'm also assuming it'll do upscaling thats at least as good as the PS3. I think the players should also play back a wide variety of media formats so that its got value beyond just purchased discs. I think this format only has a chance if it can compete successfully in two ways:

1) Price. It needs to be cheap. I think $200 would even be too much. They basically need to be selling for clearout HD-DVD Player prices of like $99.99-149.99. I think that over $200 will have people just putting the money aside for a Blu-Ray player. Not only that, but the media needs to be cheap. If the DVD sells for $14.99, this needs to be like $17.99 max.

2) Studio support is critical. If none of the big companies are putting out content its pointless to own one.

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you'll need the dvd players with HD outputs at least.... this means if BR drives become cheap under 150-200 DVD days are umbered which they already are.

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Toshiba's SRT Demo'ed In London: Described As "FANCIABLE NONSENSE"

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Toshiba explained to the assembled press at today's event that their technology would "add resolution", and "fill in the gaps", providing stronger colours and clarity where it was missing. They showed two TVs both displaying the same content, one at standard definition, and one using their upscaling device, and whilst the latter did look more impressive, it would pale in comparison if shown next to a true HD source. Which Toshiba obviously didn't do, as they're no longer endorsing HD DVD and will never support Blu-ray.

After receiving some far from publishable questions and insults from the assembled journalists ("fanciable nonsense" was one of the kinder remarks from a journalist during the Q&A session), the representatives, including Emily Shirley, Head of Product Marketing at Toshiba Europe were obviously getting irate.

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That's very nice. except what really will matter is what not some journalists think, but rather what customers (who are already pretty happy with upconverted DVD, thank you) will think. I look forward to seeing this for myself and care not a bit what some journalist says/thinks. Frankly, don't trust 'em.

- nopcbs

Originally posted by eatsushi:

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Toshiba's SRT Demo'ed In London: Described As "FANCIABLE NONSENSE"

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Toshiba explained to the assembled press at today's event that their technology would "add resolution", and "fill in the gaps", providing stronger colours and clarity where it was missing. They showed two TVs both displaying the same content, one at standard definition, and one using their upscaling device, and whilst the latter did look more impressive, it would pale in comparison if shown next to a true HD source. Which Toshiba obviously didn't do, as they're no longer endorsing HD DVD and will never support Blu-ray.

After receiving some far from publishable questions and insults from the assembled journalists ("fanciable nonsense" was one of the kinder remarks from a journalist during the Q&A session), the representatives, including Emily Shirley, Head of Product Marketing at Toshiba Europe were obviously getting irate.

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Originally posted by eatsushi:

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Toshiba's SRT Demo'ed In London: Described As "FANCIABLE NONSENSE"

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After receiving some far from publishable questions and insults from the assembled journalists ("fanciable nonsense" was one of the kinder remarks from a journalist during the Q&A session), the representatives, including Emily Shirley, Head of Product Marketing at Toshiba Europe were obviously getting irate.

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I would have wanted to read about those "far from publishable questions and insults."

Anyway, it's good to see that these journalists aren't falling for what is obviously a marketing ploy from Toshiba.

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Is this like playing a VHS through a S-VHS system?

Just an update to this news item:

http://www.areadvd.de/news/2008/07/09/if...sor-resolution/

Toshiba officially names this new technology RESOLUTION+.

It will be included in their upcoming Picture Frame line of ZF Regza HDTV's which will have their own Cell based co-processor.

So far no DVD players have been announced with Resolution+.

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How Resolution+ works:

"Resolution +" image processing depends on the image content and consists of three steps.

Firstly, the picture is divided in several areas, according to three picture categories: "highly detailed", "sharp-edged" and "dark and non-detailed".

Secondly, each of these areas is processed. For "highly detailed" areas, a computing algorithm calculates the finer details. "Sharp-edged" areas are smoothed. Dark areas as well as those that have scarce detail undergo no picture processing in order to avoid unnecessary video noise.

Finally, artifacts that the calculation process may have caused are corrected.

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HT to Grubert at highdefdigest.

Seriously, it keeps getting better and better with movies and so forth becoming better and better quality. I can't wait to be able to check it out with my killer surround system and Rusty Truck on the TV doing a concert! Now that's heaven!

@loco

how do you manage to find spam on such old news articles?