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

I certainly won't be buying this either. Toshiba already left a pretty sour taste in my mouth. And I dont really even care if it was Sony's fault. I'm Blu-ray now. Now give me the movies I want!

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Now give me the movies I want!

That's where SUC would come in. Blu-ray will only offer a small fraction of the content available on DVD. One can choose to limit oneself to a limited selection of HD or a full range of only DVD, but real movie lovers would avail themselves to both.

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I'm going to buy the LG BH 200 or maybe the BH300 if it will come out.

I purchased the LG BH200 and it works like a charm. Love it, love it, love it!!! That machine will play anything I put in it! I even put a slice of bread in it and it toasted it perfectly!

The thing is also, like mentioned above, in order to take full advantage of blu-ray, you need a 1080p HDTV, however, the cheapest in price are the 720s, and most people don't know anything about 720 vs. 1080...

So in the end, upconversion onto their 720p sets sounds like the best option, specially for the price (and let's not get into the audio part of it).

No. Lets do get into the audio part of it because the new codecs destroy DVD. Here is where you will find a HUGE difference between the two. That is if you can decode them...And let's not forget the "special feature" aspects. I feel that this is blu-rays Trump card, if they decide to use it and make it different than DVD. And i'm not just talking about the features being in high def...it needs to do all the wonderful things that DVD promised along time ago, and more.

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One can choose to limit oneself to a limited selection of HD or a full range of only DVD, but real movie lovers would avail themselves to both.

True, I still rent standard DVDs that aren't on Blu-ray. But I'm not going to actually buy one.

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So in the end, upconversion onto their 720p sets sounds like the best option

For you perhaps. But speak for yourself and retract the "their".

Funny though, a few months back and you thought HD DVD was the best option for any HD set. Now you're saying standard DVD is? Why the sudden switch?

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No. Lets do get into the audio part of it because the new codecs destroy DVD. Here is where you will find a HUGE difference between the two. That is if you can decode them...And let's not forget the "special feature" aspects. I feel that this is blu-rays Trump card, if they decide to use it and make it different than DVD. And i'm not just talking about the features being in high def...it needs to do all the wonderful things that DVD promised along time ago, and more.

You had to go ruin it all by pulling the audio card. I guess Toshiba can't do any voodoo on the DVD audio, can't they? A lot of movies though are talkie dramas or comedies which aren't as reliant on heavy audio sonics to create an impression. Furthermore, those that will be 'content' with SUC are less likely to have HT audio connected (or connected properly) and may be using the TV speakers.

BruceAmes, FYI "SUC" is a more of a commercial jingle than a real technology. If we could magically convert 480i material into 1080p or whatever even if it took 2 weeks to process, the first market and most lucrative would be those standard def content owners who have their content broadcasted on HD cable and other mediums. If there was magic, studios and content owners would literally pay billions just to use such a technology - again - even if the processing took weeks to do its work.

Since no algorithm has been published that can do it in weeks, do you really think Toshiba has some magic that can do it instantly in real-time as the movie plays? Think about this carefully.

It should be self-evident that you cannot derive more information from a source than what is provided. Extra erroneous information is in fact known as an "artifact" in upconversion and that is a BAD thing. Motion compensation algorithms already take many frames into account in order to detect which deinterlacing method they should selectively use for selective image portions (movement). We've been doing this for a few years now.

The best we can hope for ever, is to have upconversion technology that makes your standard DVDs not look like crap - and as good as they look on a 26" CRT. Tha't the ultimate goal. Unfortunately, native upscaling tends to bring out the flaws in any DVD transfer, so any technology that makes DVDs not look like total crap on HDTV is going to be a big winner.

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And thanks for that linked report on OIL from Bloomberg, xplaytendo... now I'm REALLY getting depressed about the future! Wow, what will the economy resemble day-to-day with $200+ oil!! It's much to ponder.

Sh!t, I really need to find a better job that I can ride my bike to.

Preferably Downhill, BOTH WAYS