For all you HD-DVD fans that think Blu-Ray is a drag well, Toshiba is not ready...

Jstas

...to admit defeat.

Having now had time to recover from the crippling defeat of its HD-DVD format at the hands of Sony’s hi-def Blu-Ray disc standard, Toshiba is planning a fresh charge into the HD market – this time placing upscaling at the centre of the battle, The Wall Street Journal reports.

Details on the technology, which has been produced in association with Sharp, are still sketchy at the moment, but Toshiba has says it intends to release what it calls a ‘super DVD upscaling player’ that will play regular DVDs at definitions close to Blu-Ray and HD-DVD.


The player will, like Blu-Ray, be backwardly compatible with normal DVDs. At present, the market for upscaling DVD players far outweighs the Blu-Ray market.

For those unfamiliar with the technology, upscaling involves taking a standard definition image (typically 480 or 576 pixels wide), reprocessing it and outputting an HD image (either 720 or 1080 pixels wide).

Whilst no technology is able to conjure up more pixels than physically exist in the source image, a good upscaler outputting at an HD resolution can significantly improve image quality on a high definition TV or monitor.

This link got Slashdotted but should be back up soon enough:
http://www.pcauthority.com.au/News/112880,toshiba-unveils-another-bluray-killer-millions-ask-why.aspx

This link seems to be working:
http://www.pcretailmag.com/news/29956/Toshiba-readies-fresh-HD-disc-assault





Yeah, when is enough gonna be enough?

Ricardo

I am just going to say that my Toshiba A35 plays standard DVD's way better than my OPPO, so it seems they have a fresh start already. It will be interesting to see how this plays out.

Gaara

I don't get what it is, is it a new format or just a really good upconverting dvd player? It says that it plays normal dvds at close to Blu-Ray quality, but then says it is backwards compatible? If it is a dvd player what does backwards compatible mean? Confused.

Toshiba has says it intends to release what it calls a ‘super DVD upscaling player’ that will play regular DVDs at definitions close to Blu-Ray and HD-DVD.


The player will, like Blu-Ray, be backwardly compatible with normal DVDs.

fireshoes

Just an upscaler. Article written by a dope. Also was brought up a few months elsewhere.

AndyGwis

I think it's a good idea for them to concentrate on the upconverting market. You still see a lot of upconverting players on shelves, some of them prices around what HD-DVD / BR are at.

bobman1235

fireshoes wrote: »

Just an upscaler. Article written by a dope. Also very old.

Well, it was more likely written by a marketing person, but yeah, the original WSJ story is 3 months old.

shadowofnight

Ricardo wrote: »

I am just going to say that my Toshiba A35 plays standard DVD's way better than my OPPO, so it seems they have a fresh start already. It will be interesting to see how this plays out.

But pricewise you are comparing a mercedes against a toyota....the new oppo smokes the A35 ( I had the A35...a buddy of mine has the A35 and the new oppo ) and still only costs 399.

http://www.oppodigital.com/dv983h/dv983h_review.asp


Even with the latest ( And last...no more support ) firmware , the A35 is PAINFULLY slow to turn on/boot up....and comes nowhere near the 983 in upconverting quality. The A35 reminded me of having time to go get coffee while Win95 booted up.

dkg999

It could be a smart move, as the upscaling market is still wide open and the BR market is still not gaining the share that was predicted. I was amazed at how well the upscaling in my Cambridge Audio 540D v2 works, and how close it was to the BR players I compare it against (not that BR wasn't better, but not enough better to spend a bunch of money on a separate player, and I still don't like the animated look of BR movies). Then there are the persistent rumors in the R&D community that BR is just a step in the direction of a new high-def format and that within the year the next leap will be announced and HDMI will be left behind.

Who knows, and I've developed a "who cares" attitude on high-def DVD. My SD movies look great, sound great, and I'm going to hold for a while on high-def.

AsSiMiLaTeD

I couldn't disagree with the post above more:

A: At the prices for which the A35 can be had (I paid $130 for mine at Best Buy), it's not that much more expensive than alot of the better upconverting players.

B: From the second I turn mine on, it takes right around 30 seconds to boot all the way up. Seriously, do you have that much to do that 30 seconds is that critical? if so, you should probably be doing that instead of watching movies anyway.

C: I disagree on the comparison between the A35 and the Oppo 983. I have the new Oppo, and find the upconverting between the two to be VERY similar, only in very extreme circumstances can you see a difference. If they were both being given to me, and were to be used only as an upconverting player, I honestly don't know which I'd choose, that's how close they are.

I'm a big fan of Oppo, I like their products and their general business model, I just disagree with the comparisons above.

shadowofnight

Be had ? Where can you find a new A35 for 130 dollars right now ???

There is no excuse other then using a slow ( Cheap ) processor for it to take that long to be ready...the oppo ( Like everything else...including the PS3 ) is instant on.

On a 1080P 58" plasma the differences are more then very similar...the oppo is much better.

It's fine to disagree, but having both myself as well, the oppo wins for me.....as well as for most others...even on a HD-DVD forum they say the 983 upconverts better then their HD players http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=1008255&page=7

" I just got my Oppo 983 in yesterday and that thing is incredible. On my 50" 768p plasma, it is noticeably better than my A35/A2/XA1. Don't confuse that for a "night and day" difference, but it is a step up, no doubt. Well worth the money if you have a good size SD DVD collection. I'm happy about SD DVD's again. " As does 8/10 of the rest of the members.

danger boy

I hope Toshiba kicks everyone ****!

Have a nice day!

Ron-P

This might be a good way for Toshiba to make back some of it's huge losses from HD-DVD. But, it's only an upscaling player, it's not true hi-def. I've seen good upscaled images and there no where near the quality of a true 1080p image.

Good on Toshiba for pushing forward but this will not affect Blu-ray at all.

MikeC78

Ron-P wrote: »

This might be a good way for Toshiba to make back some of it's huge losses from HD-DVD. But, it's only an upscaling player, it's not true hi-def. I've seen good upscaled images and there no where near the quality of a true 1080p image.

Good on Toshiba for pushing forward but this will not affect Blu-ray at all.

You're right. However, Blu-Ray still has a special niche market and I believe will be tough to be main stream for some time to come. Regular SD DVD will be in many hands for years to come, and to the average J6P that can't notice the difference will not pay the premium price. This could be good for Toshiba if the price is right, and might make others follow suite. We'll see...

PhantomOG

MikeC78 wrote: »

However, Blu-Ray still has a special niche market and I believe will be tough to be main stream for some time to come.

Blu-Ray's adoption rate and price lowering are both faster than that of SD-DVD. Why is everyone so convinced Blu-Ray won't succeed?

People always point to the fact that the PS3 as the #1 player in the market as a bad thing. I don't see how that works. By alot of standards the PS3 is the best Blu-Ray player on the market at the best price. I and alot of other people chose to buy the PS3 as a blu-ray player primarily. I love the fact that it also has so much other functionality as well.

I'm not Sony/BR fanboy but I just don't get all the doom and gloom talk surrounding it. I remember getting into DVD and distinctly remember it being much more slow and painful than what I'm seeing right now with Blu-Ray.

dkg999

However BluRay's market demographics clearly point to niche adoption with the associated limits on market growth in the near future. BR is not being adopted at a high rate across all the demographic segments that SD-DVD was. Maybe once prices come down more the adoption will spread outside of a niche market.

I'm not doom & gloom on BR, just realistic based on analyst reports on where the technology is from a consumer market perspective. I really think there is a next gen of the HD format that is coming soon.

PhantomOG

I'd love to read that. Do you have any links? Its just odd to me that I see so much doom and gloom talk but then I see that its a fact that Blu-Ray's adoption rate is faster compared to SD-DVD and that the prices are also going down faster comparatively as well.

What do you mean by next gen? I'm pretty sure 1080p will be around for quite awhile. Networks are finally starting to come around to current HD standards and I don't think they will consider any more new equipment for years and years to come.

If anything has a chance to kill Blu-Ray IMO, its online/on-demand/downloadable content. I could see a very similar situation to what Itunes/mp3's have done to the music industry to what might happen in the movie industry as well.

SKsolutions

dkg999 wrote: »

I was amazed at how well the upscaling in my Cambridge Audio 540D v2 works, and how close it was to the BR players I compare it against. . .

Who knows, and I've developed a "who cares" attitude on high-def DVD. My SD movies look great, sound great, and I'm going to hold for a while on high-def.

I feel the same way, maybe it's because I also have the 540v2. Stunning.

Early B.

Well, let me ask a fundamental question -- do consumers really care about better quality video enough to pay more for it? It requires buying a big screen TV (no problem), but it also requires going Blu-ray and buying more expensive video discs. Will this be like the SACD/DVD-A fiasco all over again?

I have an HD-DVD player and the video quality is exceptional, but I only bought 2 or 3 HD-DVD movies. Due to the upconversion capabilities, the picture quality is good enough for me. I'm damn sure not going to replace my entire SD DVD collection with high definition DVDs, nor do I plan to buy a Blu-ray player. So I'm just wondering if most consumers think the same way. If so, then Blu-Ray will take a long time before it becomes mainstream. By the time Blu-Ray becomes accepted, video streaming may be far more advanced and a lot less expensive. Who knows?

dkg999

SKsolutions wrote: »

I feel the same way, maybe it's because I also have the 540v2. Stunning.

The CA is an upscaling DVD player more people should consider! Outstanding video and audio reproduction.

ViperZ

This is really old news. Toshiba has been raving about their new 960p upconverter for a while.

A few discussion threads:
http://forums.highdefdigest.com/showthread.php?t=38889

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=1003353

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120450428955606405.html?mod=hps_us_editors_picks

http://www.xbitlabs.com/news/multimedia/display/20080531225807_Toshiba_Intends_to_Sell_Super_Upconversion_DVD_Players.html