Re: Toshiba announces Super Upconversion DVD players due out in 2009

Just to clarify, I meant that Toshiba questionably boasted about “near HD quality” on the upconversion ability of their HD-DVD players.

No problem. Even the Toshiba A3 upstairs had better upconversion than most Blu-Ray players! That is boasting. I am using the XA2 in my theatre, and DVD's look perfect! Toshiba was smart when then pulled in Anchor Bay Technologies to produce their scaling chips! Going with the REON chip in the XA2 was a match made in heaven! SU was always waiting there, but I honestly think Toshiba was waiting for HD DVD to take off. I have not seen the technology in person yet, but myself working in the broadcast industry, we could see some huge benefits from what exists in todays TV world.

OMG Hendrix,
I own every disc format known to man. (save the big pie known as laserdisc) I WANT BLU-RAY TO SUCCEED. But I am also a realist. Digital Downloads are the FUTURE. With FUTURE being the key word here. That could mean tomorrow or 10 years from now. Chill. I know you love your "pies" and don't want blu-ray to be laserdisc part duex. Me neither man. But are YOU impressed with the adoption rate and sales numbers? I'm not. And we are now entering a pretty critical time here. It's about time Joe Blow starts asking...if you know what I mean.

bladerunner... your 'future' when quasi HD-downloading becomes SO popular is a LONG TIME away (if ever), especially for the average Joe Blow. HD discs are much easier to work with - acquire, collect, store, trade, borrow (etc) - and are here NOW, and in 1080p/24 for anyone that wants to buy a player and applicable HDTV. However, HD downloading/streaming is like a newborn infant in quality and popularity, and the industry infrastructure is not being delivered yet so as to keep up (plus what about the cost to consumers for 'access'?).

But...

Blu-ray has got the support now, and everyone is on board, now that the recent battle has ended. I'm looking to see it grow and get adopted, but it will take some time, because of various factors/competitors (DVD), and the economy. But as more people buy a new HDTV, the Blu-ray HD disc will be easier to check out (rental and sales) than trying to work up a download/streaming system, that is still a work in progress, and lacks strong infrastructure support (the hardware and technology that brings the content thru cable/satellite/etc).

> Blu-ray ONGOING DEVELOPMENT

Although the Blu-ray Disc specification has been finalized, engineers continue working to advance the technology. Quad-layer (100 GB) discs have been demonstrated on a drive with modified optics (TDK version) and standard unaltered optics ["Hitachi used a standard drive."]. Hitachi stated that such a disc could be used to store 7 hours of 32 Mbit/s video (HDTV) or 3.5 hours of 64 Mbit/s video (Cinema 4K). Furthermore TDK announced in August 2006 that they have created a working experimental Blu-ray Disc capable of holding 200 GB of data on a single side, using six 33 GB data layers.

Also behind closed doors at CES 2007, Ritek revealed that they had successfully developed a High Definition optical disc process that extends the disc capacity to 10 layers. That increases the capacity of the discs to 250 GB. However, they noted that the major obstacle is that current reader and writer technology does not support the additional layers.

JVC has developed a three-layer technology that allows putting both standard-definition DVD data and HD data on a BD/DVD combo. If successfully commercialized, this would enable the consumer to purchase a disc which could be played on current DVD players, and reveal its HD version when played on a new BD player. This hybrid disc does not appear to be ready for production and no titles have been announced that would utilize this disc structure.

In January 2007, Hitachi showcased a 100 GB Blu-ray Disc, which consists of four layers containing 25 GB each. Unlike TDK and Panasonic's 100 GB discs, they claim this disc is readable on standard Blu-ray Disc drives that are currently in circulation, and it is believed that a firmware update is the only requirement to make it readable to current players and drives.

~ Front of an experimental Blu-ray Disc



~ Some humor (short video clip)...
PS3 Blu-ray Laser Phaser!
_____________
-JIMI McLovin (the Voodoo Child)

[Post edited by Love Hendrix! on May 13, 2008]

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Deadmeat, you know that this is a garbage stat. The 40% drop is January/08 to February/08 and the 5% increase is Quarter 1/07 to Quarter 1/08.

It was the figure given by NPD. Blu-Ray down 40%, DVD upscalers up 5%.

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the sales include all of those $70-$90 upconverting DVD players, which is unlikely to represent the people who are truly considering higher audiovisual quality.

Which represents 95% of shoppers.

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I know you won't reply, because you haven't responded to a single one of my other posts challenging some of the "facts" in your postings

??? Maybe I haven't noticed your posts because they weren't interesting enough?

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Blu-ray has got the support now, and everyone is on board, now that the recent battle has ended.

Well, everyone but the consumers...

Hey Deadmeat -

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"It was the figure given by NPD. Blu-Ray down 40%, DVD upscalers up 5%."

Just in case you don't know (or do know and won't admit it) - that Jan/Fed "Blu-ray down 40" figure above DOES NOT INCLUDE SALES OF THE PS3!!

FYI - Sony's PS3 is, by far, the #1 selling Blu-ray playing unit. But NPD does not include it among Blu-ray "player sales" since it just happens to be a videogame system. But for many of us, it's our Blu-ray player, and because of it's quality and versatility is the reason I purchased it (over more expensive BD players) in May 2007.

_____________
-JIMI McLovin (the Voodoo Child)

Online movie downloads might not be the future at all as the the cable companies already start caping the downloads. It might get really expensive to download more then 10 movies a month.

DVD 2.0 sounds great. The DVD's are much cheaper to buy then the Blu-Ray's. It might bring down the pricing of BD movies.

In the meantime, let's enjoy the crapy HD releases...

This is from a endgadget article from 3/2/08 titled:Why Blu-ray will be the next DVD

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Oh, and Laserdisc. Well, just because your parents didn't have one when you were growing up, doesn't mean it wasn't successful. Laserdisc players were sold in the US for twenty years, and every major studio released content on the format. Although it was never as popular as VHS, it was successful. But Blu-ray has a few big advantages over LD. For starters, LD couldn't play VHS tapes the way a Blu-ray player can play DVDs. Second, LD players were far more expensive than even the current Blu-ray players -- adjust for inflation and you're really talking some money. And despite the expense, enough people bought the players and discs to keep the format around until DVD completely replaced it.

See deadmeat when a HDDVD buyer bought a player he already had something better than SUC, he had true HD and SUC at a reasonable price. TOSHIBA never got the memo from the studios or at least the message behind the WB defection, and that is that true HD is the future. Wheather it be Blu-ray or HD downloaded media. DVD is declining, maybe not enough to end it today but certainly enought to make the studios take a pro-active approach. TOSHIBA never looked at things from a studio perspective and still does not. SONY, owning several studios, had an insider's view of how studios think.

Spoonie G, this one is for you.

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The future without shiny round discs
You'd have a hard time finding someone who wouldn't concede that there will be a day in the future when physical media is no more, but it's hard to find two people who agree on when. The humorous part is that we've been waiting on this since before the World Wide Web was a twinkle in Sir Tim Berners-Lee's eye. We've had data communications in our homes for years before the internet became widespread, and the companies that control the pipes running into our homes have been trying to get a piece of the home media pie before DVD was battling DIVX. The fact is that VOD is far more successful than any internet delivery method and still isn't nearly as successful as many have predicted. You don't have to look very far to find an analyst criticizing the VOD industry for its lackluster growth. The scary part is that VOD will almost always have the advantage over internet delivery, because the cable co's not only own the pipes running into our homes, but some are part of large companies that own the bulk of the content -- like Warner Brothers and Time Warner Cable.

Despite this advantage, the providers who use the internet to deliver its content still have a chance, but none have gotten any traction -- yet. No one seems to be able to figure out a balance between what consumers want and what the studios are willing to give. So we end up with $5 rentals, with 24 hour limits, a measly 100 HD movie selection, and having our content locked on a box that sits on the top of our TV. The mass public is accustomed to the freedoms and security that come with a physical medium, and have a hard time paying what is perceived as more, to get less. The convenience alone of renting from the comfort of our couch, hasn't been enough to overcome the satisfaction of owning little shiny disc.

FINAL QUOTE

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Not sure if anyone could've ever predicted that DVD would be as successful as it has been, and when a format dominates the way DVD has, it's hard to imagine a world without it. People love to point out that Americans are happy with DVD and don't appreciate the marginal improvement of Blu-ray. These people give joe six pack too much credit. We're talking about the same people who buy so many upconverting DVD players, that its nearly impossible to buy a DVD player that doesn't upconvert. This is despite the fact that every HDTV sold has an upconverter built in that works as well -- if not better -- than most of the DVD upconverters on the market. Most flock to LCD TVs despite the fact that they don't compare to plasmas in contrast or color, just because they feature 1080p. The problem of course is that they are viewing their 42-inch 1080p LCD form 10 feet away, which is so far, no human can even perceive the difference in resolution. Do they care that the 1080p TV cost $400 more than the 720p plasma? No, they bought it because they had to have 1080p. Many buy TVs after looking at the fact tag, and never once think to actually look at the TV. The same people that pay $99 for an HDMI cable and throw away the component cable that was in the box. They spend $200 on an HDMI switch so both their upconverting DVD player, over-compressed cable, and Xbox 360 can all be connected via HDMI. Do they ever test out the 3 unused component inputs to see if there is noticeable improvement? No, they don't, 'cause everyone knows digital is always better than analog.

[/url]http://www.engadgethd.com/2008/03/03/why-blu-ray-will-be-the-next-dvd/[/url]